What? The level expedition 130 boss? How do I make 30k armour and 900 damage if I don't have any materials to forge Sebastianus?
It's a catch-22! I have gotten the majority of red items from the previous area boss Cassi. I win about 80% of the time against Callirius so I attack him whenever I have quests for him but most of the time am still hitting the Bank of the Thames boss.
Have you tried offering to pay other players on your server for the resources you need?
Red Gaias and Porcius' are the best non-UW only items to smelt for Sebastianus resources, at least for me at level 135. Keep in mind Porcius doesn't give soul essence. Your lack of resources could be due to your level. If you're below level 130 you probably don't get enough of those higher level items to smelt.
In my experience which comes from playing only the .US servers, the times I get a massive raid off another player due to his packs expiring is extremely low. Only once this year that I can remember. For the most part, anyone who packs his gold to hide it from others does a good job of it, at least well enough that your decently-active players such as myself can't take advantage of his failures. The vast majority of my big raids come from people who don't even bother hiding their gold, and always on speed servers. There, you can earn so much so fast it apparently becomes too much of a bother to hide it. So making it easier on those who care wouldn't affect my raiding at all.
Again, that is only my personal experience which comes from playing a non-speed .US server in the 130s level range. Your experiences may vary, viewer discretion advised.
To Poppa's original point, I don't see stacking gold packs as that much of an improvement. You can already sort by gold and dragging each individual one doesn't take much time. To the contrary position, again, because it means the amount of time the gold is sitting in one's inventory goes to 10 seconds from what, 20-30, I don't see how having that feature would disable the big raids, because I don't see this feature as having any affect on it. The gold isn't exposed for that much longer and if someone forgets to pack his gold he could forget it with or without the feature.
One thing I think could be useful is the higher level the guild bank, the less the packing fees are. Perhaps cutting them as much as 50%, which could stack with the pact, making fees cost nothing. That would be useful for saving up for those training events and wouldn't affect package expiration, meaning raids are still possible.
A little late to the discussion.
From my calculations, it is not entirely stat-based. The defender gets a slight boost in win chance. I've noticed it time and again both as the attacker and the defender.
Can't speak for everyone but when I wear the Hard suit from the UW, I will hit the same guys cross server over and over because the winner's reward is so good. But I am a nice guy and usually try to find the inactive players since it doesn't make a difference to me. :p
Of Gloom was one of the first Underworld scrolls I got, and I still haven't used it for forging because of the intelligence subtraction. I assume people would use it on a mercenary?
At my level range (early 130s) I just used of the Dragon, since it's only two levels less and still does seven damage, just no extra stat percentages or armor, but I max the stats using other gear. Plus, of Gloom requires Hellstones which I have a nearly impossible time obtaining as orange or red.
Wow Skars, that is a really good web site. Learned a few things from the smelting page!
The comparison Shegorath is making is correct; two players, one on a slow server and the other on a speed server, at the same level and similar training, will compete fairly against each other. I don't think anyone is arguing against that.
But, that is where the comparison ends. The fact that speed server players level faster is an advantage in the arena, because it means they will have access to better mercs, higher stats, and higher level gear while the slower server players, while still doing everything else right (maxed stats, red gear) will still be inferior due to the lower level.
There are many instances of that being an issue and I have had some personal experiences. It is tough because there is nothing a slower server player can do but watch the speed server opponents out-level them and beat them with higher stats and gear until of course they level high enough they no longer appear in the cross server arena or turma.
