We need to talk about Columbine

DrNukenstein · February 28

Below is a screenshot from Tamriel trade center. Pages and pages of Columbine going for upwards of 3500 per, with many going for over 4500

Just the columbine for a stack of 100 tristat potions costs an average of 100k. 1000 gold+ per potion, and they are a staple of PvP community play patterns. At this point it's completely impossible to sustain tristat pot consumption with the rewards from content, PvE or PvP.

Something's gotta give on these, and I'm not here to say @zos this is for sure a problem and needs to be fixed in your game that you say you own/run. But it's kind of a problem with this game that you own/run. While I know I will never be asked by an employee of ZOS how to fix this problem, here are some ideas on how to fix this problem:

-Give Columbine in rewards for the worthy, everyday and all year.
-Add one or several other reagents that can be used instead of Columbine
-Create more options for mag+stam pots that don't use Columbine or other current huge money reagents. The health restore is nice but is the least useful thing of these very useful potions
-price control through buying with AP. This is probably less than ideal though, since the biggest users are printing AP like mad men and getting the price right without killing off the buying and selling of herbs would be trickier than "fixing" cross healing.

Last idea: Just get rid of them. I love them, I love using them. But let's be real here, in the hybrid era these are like a top 5 enabler for do it all builds and drawn out fights, and no other potion option (except the rightfully even more expensive stam/mag/heroism) is close to being as universally useful.

Tallon_IV · February 28

I took a short break from the game, and was surprised to see how much the prices for everything changed in a seemingly short amount of time. Columbine from ~500 to 3.5k or more, dreugh wax 4k to over 40k. Not a problem for me since I do writs, but surprising still.

Necrotech_Master · February 28

this is why i sell all of my columbine lol

kiheikat · February 28

As a tank main, columbine and perfect roe are an issue right now

CoronHR · February 28

farm it, right?

SpacemanSpiff1 · February 28

heck yea. sell that stuff

LokiPagan · February 28

I mean, yeah, this is important, but Zenimax is busy dealing with super important issues like nerfing sets that three people use in a way they don't like. They have no time for boring stuff like fixing the economy or making sure players have fun.

sarahthes · February 28

A solution that would put some downward pressure on columbine would be AP tripots.

freespirit · February 28

Some other sources besides farming....

Waxed Apothicary Sacks, 500 Tel Var(pretty good drop rate)
Alchemy Surveys(reset until at least one Columbine is showing)
Daily Chest in Dragonguard Sanctuary(frequently drops 3 columbine, drops rheum and dragon blood too, sell and buy columbine)
ToT reward coffers(I see a fair amount in the green NPC daily rewards)
Alchemy Daily rewards(make sure you use less expensive mats to make the potions for these dailies)

🙂

DrNukenstein · February 28

freespirit wrote: »

Some other sources besides farming....

ToT reward coffers(I see a fair amount in the green NPC daily rewards)

🙂

The absolute irony of making Columbine a ToT reward.

Jaraal · February 28

DrNukenstein wrote: »

Just the columbine for a stack of 100 tristat potions costs an average of 100k. 1000 gold+ per potion, and they are a staple of PvP community play patterns. At this point it's completely impossible to sustain tristat pot consumption with the rewards from content, PvE or PvP.

A lot of us also eat Bewitched Sugar Skulls (and other foods) all day, which use columbine as well. But fortunately, we have the ability to go pick our own if we don't want to pay for it. Or do like I usually do, and go find items that sell for millions of gold, and then buy what you need to support your play style.

Ugrak · February 28

What if there was something like a transmute station for crafting components?

For example turn one resource into another by consuming a third type.

SkaraMinoc · February 28

Columbine is now the price of what Dragon's Blood used to be a few years back.

Brakkish · February 28

The prices on PS aren't that bad (comparatively). Which I find crazy, since when you're farming on console you don't have nifty addons making life a whole lot easier.

Prices for tri-pots on PS NA is ~190g per pot.

If I'm understanding this right, then I certainly feel your pain PC people; as at the rate I go through pots and sugar skulls I'd be hurting for gold - for sure.

I easily go through 80-100 pots per day, and several stacks on weekends.

CrashTest · February 29

Nothing needs to be done because this isn't a problem. Columbine is plentiful all over Tamriel and drops from various activities or just sell what you have and use that gold to buy it.

If you don't like the Columbine price, then farm it yourself. If you don't have the time or hate farming, then you're going to have to trade with those who use their time to farm.

mzprx · February 29

freespirit wrote: »

...Alchemy Surveys(reset until at least one Columbine is showing)...

just one (maybe a silly) question - how does one reset an Alchemy Survey?

Ugrak · February 29

mzprx wrote: »

freespirit wrote: »

...Alchemy Surveys(reset until at least one Columbine is showing)...

just one (maybe a silly) question - how does one reset an Alchemy Survey?

Walk away some distance, then return. The plants will have respawned and do so in a random way so you might get lucky.

Same process as when picking stacked survey maps to get them to respawn.

HowlKimchi · February 29

a stack of tripots is around 15k telvar (Prismatic armor glyphs) / 300k AP (dawn prisms). It's really really sustainable.

Drammanoth · February 29

Isn't it greed-driven inflation?

Aren't you doing it to yourselves?

Dunno, just a thought...

HowlKimchi · February 29

Drammanoth wrote: »

Isn't it greed-driven inflation?

Aren't you doing it to yourselves?

Dunno, just a thought...

The thing is, it's not just columbine that got more expensive over time. Everything did. So if you're gold making methods involve selling to other people, then you are also making more gold.

So it's basically the same thing, just more gold moving around per transaction.

Kavreiss · February 29

i assume this is pc na? because they so crazy, thats how i know and so i play pc eu we they not so crazy.

VisitHammerfell · February 29

freespirit wrote: »

Some other sources besides farming....

Waxed Apothicary Sacks, 500 Tel Var(pretty good drop rate)
Alchemy Surveys(reset until at least one Columbine is showing)
Daily Chest in Dragonguard Sanctuary(frequently drops 3 columbine, drops rheum and dragon blood too, sell and buy columbine)
ToT reward coffers(I see a fair amount in the green NPC daily rewards)
Alchemy Daily rewards(make sure you use less expensive mats to make the potions for these dailies)

🙂

Also the alchemy satchets from the Archive! I do wish we would have an alchemy hireling though. (And jewelry, and for housing mats to be included in each pool)

mzprx wrote: »

freespirit wrote: »

...Alchemy Surveys(reset until at least one Columbine is showing)...

just one (maybe a silly) question - how does one reset an Alchemy Survey?

Besides the above mentioned running away and coming back, you can also teleport to a house you don't own and then exit, as some surveys require quite the distance to reset (Rivenspire clothier....)

Kavreiss · February 29

And see people who want cross play seriously need to read this post and sober up. be grateful you are shielding from the kookie pc na server madness,

ArchMikem · February 29

It's because of this that I resort to buying Alliance War Pots instead, however I don't buy the Health one because for SOME reason one of its traits is Invisibility. Why? I just want a basic Tri Pot for some of my characters.

Amottica · February 29

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

this is why i sell all of my columbine lol

about to sell mine

Dax_Draconis · February 29

CrashTest wrote: »

Nothing needs to be done because this isn't a problem. Columbine is plentiful all over Tamriel and drops from various activities or just sell what you have and use that gold to buy it.

If you don't like the Columbine price, then farm it yourself. If you don't have the time or hate farming, then you're going to have to trade with those who use their time to farm.

How can something so plentiful be so expensive then? It seems ZOS needs to flood the market with these "plentiful" items to drive down the price of them.

I understand rare items being expensive, but as you said, it is plentiful, so why are they so expensive?

spartaxoxo · February 29

Dax_Draconis wrote: »

I understand rare items being expensive, but as you said, it is plentiful, so why are they so expensive?

It is used in the making of consumables. And those consumables are being used up fast, resulting in a supply that can't keep up with the demand.

Amottica · February 29

Dax_Draconis wrote: »

CrashTest wrote: »

Nothing needs to be done because this isn't a problem. Columbine is plentiful all over Tamriel and drops from various activities or just sell what you have and use that gold to buy it.

If you don't like the Columbine price, then farm it yourself. If you don't have the time or hate farming, then you're going to have to trade with those who use their time to farm.

How can something so plentiful be so expensive then? It seems ZOS needs to flood the market with these "plentiful" items to drive down the price of them.

I understand rare items being expensive, but as you said, it is plentiful, so why are they so expensive?

It comes down to people more willing to spend the gold than to take the time to farm it.

Pelanora · February 29

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Dax_Draconis wrote: »

I understand rare items being expensive, but as you said, it is plentiful, so why are they so expensive?

It is used in the making of consumables. And those consumables are being used up fast, resulting in a supply that can't keep up with the demand.

So not, by definition, plentiful.

Just change the recipe to be any one of a number of plants. Easy.

DenverRalphy · February 29

It's not a supply issue. There's an infinite amount of Columbine out there. Always just sitting right there, ripe for the picking.

The real issue is that too many players are too impatient, and gradually over time pay a little bit more, then a little more, then a little more. Until >BLAM!< the buyers finally hit a wall with prices they're unwilling to pay. But they do it anyway, cuz hey, you can't miss any time can you?

The fix is simple.. Don't pay those prices. EZ enuff. Take a break from those activities that require such an obscene consumption of pots and wait for the sellers to look at their piles of product doing absolutely nothing for them. There actually are other activities in game that don't require so many pots. Might not be your first choice, or even second or third. But hey, :shrug: it's either that or pay the prices. Eventually the sellers will come around. Or more likely, new younger sellers will come in and take over the buisness.

Why expect the game developers to fix a player made problem?

spartaxoxo · February 29

Pelanora wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Dax_Draconis wrote: »

I understand rare items being expensive, but as you said, it is plentiful, so why are they so expensive?

It is used in the making of consumables. And those consumables are being used up fast, resulting in a supply that can't keep up with the demand.

So not, by definition, plentiful.

Just change the recipe to be any one of a number of plants. Easy.

If you're not using the pots in question and have ESO+, you're probably sitting on loads of Columbine, because it's pretty easy to get. There's a lot on the servers.