Tribute

Don Woods

2008-11-25 03:33:21 UTC

Won't bother quoting Lance's post, just wanted to add some bits about
Tribute. (I've got a long-standing note that I should put together a
section in the FAQ about Tribute, but the Q hasn't been all that FA. :-)

First off, I believe tribute counts as a "worn" effect, so if you have
(say) an Extended Enhancement focus item, the tribute EE won't add.
(You presumably get the max, just as with multiple items.) So I've
mostly used tribute for stuff where all items add up (like regen), or
for stuff I can't get from items (like Second Chance -- note that it's
better than "insta-rez on death" since you never actually die; e.g. you
keep your buffs and have no rez effects; you also get a short-term
invul, just like when Divine Intervention fires).

The way tribute worked when the feature was first added was indeed
cumbersome. You had to go back to the Tribute Master in your home city
any time you wanted to turn it on or off, which meant you'd be wasting
tribute points during the travel time while it was running. Soon after,
they changed it so you only have to visit the TM to change which benefits
you want, or to hand in more items for tribute credit. So now I collect
items in the bank for a while, and when my tribute starts to get low I
use Return Home, hand in some items, and off I go again.

The way it works now is, you hand in items (or plat) to build up favor
points, and preset what buffs you want by talking to your TM. Later,
wherever you are, you can open the tribute window to turn tribute on or
off. Turning it on charges you the amount of favor shown, and buys you
the buffs for 10 minutes. You'll get charged again every 10 minutes.
If you turn it off, you lose the rest of the current 10 minute interval
but can turn it on again at any time, charging afresh and starting the
timer again at 10 minutes. I typically turn it on for raids or if I'm
doing a tough camp, and turn it off if there's a med break or other
extended downtime (basically if the timer in the tribute window says
I'll be charged again before I expect to resume fighting).

Alas, there's no indication outside the tribute window to tell you if
it's on or off. I wish tribute were like the new mercenaries, which
announce in chat each time you get charged. That way I could set up an
audio trigger to warn me if I've left it running after a raid, for
instance. Even better would be a chat warning 30 seconds before the
current 10 minute interval expires, so I have time to turn it off before
I get hit by another charge. These ideas and others have been on the
forums for years. :-(

As Lance discovered, many Old World items have excellent tribute values.
The tribute values were originally set by surveying bazaar prices at the
time the feature was developed, so items that were in high demand around
2005 are often worth lots of tribute. Over time I've built up a list of
several dozen items that I can regularly find in the bazaar for less than
5% of their tribute value (i.e., over 1000 tribute for under 50pp), so I
check occasionally and keep a supply of them banked. Tribute on my main
costs about 2K favor per hour, which is steep, but 100pp per hour I can
handle, especially since I can turn it off during extended downtime in a
raid.

One good way to find cheap tribute item in the bazaar is to look for what
used to be the uber drops from the current hotzones. E.g., when Grieg's
End was a hotzone, I could find things like Pantaloons of Derangement (1334
tribute) and Earring of Madness (1652) for as little as 25pp each.

If you're a tradeskiller (and you did mention alchemy), and you're making
old school junk items for skillups, it can pay to check the tribute value
before deciding what to make. For example, when my tailor was making
Acrylia Reinforced armor (skill 242), I chose to make Cloaks instead of
Masks. Each uses only one Flawless Rockhopper Hide, but the Cloaks need
an extra Acrylia Boning. The hides were hard enough to farm that I didn't
want to use more per combine, but acrylia was easy to get. And in return
for the extra boning, the cloaks were worth 804 tribute apiece compared to
12 for the masks! I'm guessing that's precisely *because* the masks are
slightly easier to make and therefore lots more got made for tradeskill
practice, so the bazaar price on masks was junk while other acrylia armor
was actually worth something (in 2005). I tributed 78 of those cloaks for
over 62K tribute.

Oh, and it doesn't sound like you'll be hitting it any time soon, but
there's a 200K cap on unspent tribute. I think that's to avoid disasters
where a common item gets an obscene tribute value; i.e. people can't bank
a godzillion tribute before the nerf bat hits. There were some fun tales
when tribute was new, where some common drops went for a million tribute.
Presumably that was because some bazaar traders list common items asking
for a million plat. (I've always suspected those are people who buy plat
for cash, and the plat-sellers transfer the plat by buying those items,
but that's neither here nor there.)

-- Don.

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