Barbaric matter - Dark council Quest - keep the item or return it to complete the quest?

[Sinkler]

Item: "Mask of Influence"
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Pros:

- has a similar effect as "Broze council medalion" ,
in the sense that you often get better prices on buying some random merchandise types.

- a unique effect - it can give a merchandise type a sell value equal to it`s buy value - which is almost always great if u got it on you, and can double your cash in 1 trip (how i got that achievement).

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So i restarted the game for fun, and got to this quest again. last time i just gave it back & completed the quest for a small gold prize. but this time around i noticed the item "Mask of Influence" is totally overpowered and gets you awesome deals every second city or so and allow for good deals even during winter when i sometimes find it hard to make a profit.
so i try to keep it and then i get banned from the dark council.

so my question is - is it worth it?
does the dark council quest line give you better benefits late game or is it better to give up on that content to keep this great item?
[Edit: question no longer relevant. i answered myself below. so here is tip for you.]
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BEGINNER`s TIP:
this quest is not time bound so you can benefit from this item as much as u want - get great deals, and only return it when you wanna progress with the council quest line.

[Sinkler]

wow this item does really break the game. it feels like cheating. xD
just got my first 1mil gold achievement... :P
i don't even think i still need it, now that i got money up the wazzo and a 100 lvl3 carts fleet.
I can continue the quest now, np, and the question is now irrelevant. just max profits with the item for a year or so till u get over 1mil and then return the item and continue the quest line. cheers

[Michal]

It should not be like this, we will nerf it's influence.

[grimwit]

Sinkler, no!
What have you done?!

[Sinkler]

sorry Grimwit, but this item is REALLY overpowered and does break the game.

dev, plz dont be hasty nerfing this item, it is much needed at the time you receive it, and nerfing a good thing is well known as the "Diablo 3 bad way of balancing items" - it hurt your game and makes it less fun.

powerful items ARE fun! xD
it is your job to keep it fun while balancing your game not to break.

Consider this other easy solution - just limit the quest duration by adding a time limit of lets say ~10-30 days as you do in other quests & secondary quests. it`s a mechanic i don't usually like and try to avoid time-limited quests when i can, but in this case i would forgive it`s use ;)

[Michal]

Well, it's not supposed to be that way. The only effects of the mask are these:

+5% sell price / -5% buy price with 20% probability
+5% chance of preventing a negative event with inteligent creatures

[Sinkler]

lol :) then its a very nasty bug indeed if that's what you intended.