New player gem spending?

[Wind Ark]

I'll have over 500 when I end my current campaign, should I buy the 500 gold chest after or 8 basic chests to help boost my current campaign/gear up more. I have a few scrolls to boost equipment levels if it changes anything really.

[markulous]

Buy silvers until everyone has all their equipment slots filled. Once all of your non-event characters have every piece of equipment, then start going after golds.

[Wind Ark]

Alright thanks :)

[Recrusive Thoughts]

Once you switch to golds, keep buying golds until your active characters have purples in their non-ultimate slots, then switch back to silvers for quick gear score upgrading.

[Soul Reaver]

That's a bit too simple :) Yes, you can go for silver at start to do basic gear up, then for gold for the purple gear. That's the basics. But you have to keep in mind how else you can use chests:

Silver:
- gold drop - that's the reason to open them when you are at your wall, i.e. you can't progress further, because you earn not enough money, to upgrade your champions. That works especially at the beginning. Later - I see no use for opening silvers for gold (money) drop.
- higher equipment level ratio - if you get the same equipment again, your equipment levels up giving you more of what it was giving you. silver chests actually give you more levels, about 50% more, yet max rarity is Rare (blue).
- this is source of other potions or contracts that you can use in your game

Golden:
- only (free) source of Epic equipment
- only source for bounty contracts, which provide you something similar to gold drop from silver chests (golden chests do not drop gold directly), but also you can use those to get event tokens which is most usefull - you will understand in time :) if you don't want to pay for golden epic items, then this is the only way to have well equiped event characters as fast as possible (waiting for time gates is pointless, really)
- as above, source of other potions and contracts, just with higher rarity

As for those potions etc, you will need potions from both kinds of chests - when you want to push much further, you will use gold gain potions or potions increasing damage (or both). if you use same kind of potion, you only extend time but if you use different size (rarity) of a potion, you get separate, stackable bonus

One more thing - if you've just started, then opening Silver chests at your wall will help you a bit in every campaign, but for later game, as I've already wrote, their raison d'etre are equipment levels. As you will get those no matter when you open the chests, many people would tell you not to open them right away and stack them for the moment, when event comes (just like now we have an Ishi's event - main, easiest way to get new champions and gear them up). During events you can get special type of favor, that is converted to one of other 3 types of favor at the end of the event. To tell the truth, event are the only way for most of us, to increase our favor in other campaigns. OK, 3rd campaign is relatively new, so this can still grow the normal way, but in the end, it will be the same for every campaign. So, if you see that Silver chests don't help grow your campaign favor anymore, keep them for events and use them then. If you reach 1e10 event favor, you get +100% bonus to your campaign favor (one of them).

And another - last point - you get MANY Silver chests for free as a boss drop. Golden chests drop as well, but this can be somewhere about 1 Golden per 10 (or even more) Silver. I've never tried to find that rati, so can't tell you exact numbers. My point is - if you get Silver chests for free, why should you buy them? :D At the beginning, as written above, yes, go for it, but later, I don't think there is any good reason for that (even the 1.5 equipment level ratio is not enough for me).

[Tarsis]

I think buying silver chests comes into play again later after you have all epics on your non-event characters because you can buy many more silver than gold, and the shiny drop rate seems to be about the same between them.

I have gotten 3 shinys in the last 150 silver chests I have opened, (and only 2 in all the golds that were not paid for shinys) and that is reason enough for me to buy some when my epics are filled.

[LostSoul]

Given how important well-geared event champions end up being, I think the arguments in favor of silver chests later on somewhat lacking. Passing up gold chests dramatically reduces your total event currencies to spend. In the two weeks between each event, you can easily farm the equivalent of two or three days worth of additional event tokens from the bounty contracts you'd otherwise get from gold chests. First, that's several additional runs at the freeplay, which is several more chests (at least one gold) to better gear your event champion, but it's also likely to be a sizable boost to favor conversions as well, which, at the point where 'silver chests' might be more valuable, can easily be more significant than the favor lost by farming all those gems in the first place. To my thinking, even when silver chests 'come out ahead' the margin is pretty small to be subjectively 'better.' Especially now that the level cap has been raised. More favor is even more valuable.

[Psylisa]

Originally posted by LostSoul:

To my thinking, even when silver chests 'come out ahead' the margin is pretty small to be subjectively 'better.' Especially now that the level cap has been raised. More favor is even more valuable.

The magin is actually quite large. If you're after either item levels or shiny gear, Silvers are the way to go. Silvers will net you ~50% more item levels per gem spent than Golds. Which is rather significant. They also have 10x the rate of shiny items per gem spent - also very significant.

If you're after contracts, Golds are better, but you have to weigh the item levels/shinies vs the value of contracts. Silvers also drop contracts (although it's slightly more rare due to how their loot works).

Starting out, I recommend Silvers to gain gold and fill in item gaps. Usually about 5-10 per run so you can accelerate your favor gain. When Silvers start to drop off in efficiency, (they start to leave 3x or less than a mob kill), switch to Golds. Open Golds until you get all epics. Then switch back to Silvers for item levels and shinies.

[PowerSworder]

I'd second Zoot's comments about just buying gold chests as soon as you've filled up your empty slots. Those contracts make a big difference, letting you get a ton of tokens for freeplay runs, which is the only way to gear up event characters.

Also, you end up with lots more blacksmithing scrolls from gold chests, so you can use those on Strix to really crank up your dps.

[LostSoul]

Originally posted by PowerSworder:

I'd second Zoot's comments about just buying gold chests as soon as you've filled up your empty slots. Those contracts make a big difference, letting you get a ton of tokens for freeplay runs, which is the only way to gear up event characters.

Also, you end up with lots more blacksmithing scrolls from gold chests, so you can use those on Strix to really crank up your dps.

If it's purely item levels amounts, silvers will award more. BUT - and it's a big but - you don't have any control over WHO gets those level bonuses from silver chests (nor will those bonuses be given to event champions). With smithing contracts, you can control who gets those item levels AND use them on event champions. Like I said, the differences between the two seem ... subjective at best.

[Tarsis]

The subjectiveness becomes less so when oftentimes the event champions are... of questionable value overall, or in a slot of an already extremely well rounded and likely well geared champion. Or when the value of an event champion is "adjusted down" shortly after release .

The gear gains of event champions post event are just too sporadic and random to put odds on, with a 1 in 3 chance of a useless Ultimate gear upgrade, or worse yet, MOAR POTIONZ!!1! (I've still got expired fire breath potions O.o) and only a slight chance of getting the right one back in the time gate every now and then.

You can save some gems for gold chest contract buys for events if you feel the need, while spending for silvers, but really, I've just been saving up the 47,500/50k for the 6th familiar, and getting plenty of silver chests from drops, and really not short on contracts anyway. I've got 4 gear slots and 6 gold chests for the new Kobold while I open all the silvers that drop during the event so far.

(By the way, they are right, saving for this familiar without all epics is dumb, don't be me).

[LostSoul]

Questionable? Like...Deekin? Barrowin? Strix? Birdsong? Should I continue? There's nothing questionable about multiple event champions. They are, in fact, in many cases, absolutely critical to completing multiple challenges and missions. Since they cannot be geared up by silver chests, and often comprise a significant portion of group performance (easily upwards of 50% in many cases), the fact that silver chests offer 50% better item upgrades than gold chests is almost entirely irrelevant because they don't offer ANY upgrades to those critical event champions.

But gear upgrades with blacksmithing contracts? You pick the champion for the upgrades AND they can be used on event champions. Gear upgrades for event champions is only sporadic if you funnel all your gems into silver chests. Stick with gold chests, and the upgrades are a whole lot less sporadic. Granted, it's still a 1-in-3 chance of getting ult upgrades for nearly all champions, regardless. But what can you do about that?

(and yes...that 50k gem familiar is...the last thing you spend gems on)

[PowerSworder]

Originally posted by LostSoul:

Questionable? Like...Deekin? Barrowin? Strix? Birdsong?

Exactly.
As long as there are any event champions that are best in slot, you can't afford not to gear each one up to the very best of your ability while the event is running. You'll spend a YEAR kicking yourself if you don't get full epic equipment on one of the critical champions. Doing that means Gold chests... you can't get Bounty Contracts out of silver chests.

Strix is my best dps by a staggeringly wide margin. She was naturally much better than any other character, but I've used every single blacksmithing contract on her since I got her. The only exception is when there are armoured enemies to take down, then it's Birdsong or now possibly Ishi... two more event champions.

You might get 50% more item levels using silver chests, but remember that they're also being wasted on total losers like Jarlaxle, Delina, Drizzt, and Arkhan (a third of your champions). Deekin also now replaces Bruenor, which means yet another champion sucking up gear that is needed on meta champions.

[Soul Reaver]

Originally posted by Tarsis:

I think buying silver chests comes into play again later after you have all epics on your non-event characters because you can buy many more silver than gold, and the shiny drop rate seems to be about the same between them.

I have gotten 3 shinys in the last 150 silver chests I have opened, (and only 2 in all the golds that were not paid for shinys) and that is reason enough for me to buy some when my epics are filled.

3 shinys per 150 chests ... you were damn lucky
recently, I've started keeping track of what I am receiving from chests, so let me tell you my ratios:
1900 Silver chests : 1 Shiny item
700 Gold chests : 0 Shinies
I've opened many more than those numbers, but I wasn't keeping track of those earlier. So I've got only a single free Shiny item. with your luck it would be like 40 Shinies ... would be great.

Originally posted by PowerSworder:

Strix is my best dps by a staggeringly wide margin. She was naturally much better than any other character, but I've used every single blacksmithing contract on her since I got her. The only exception is when there are armoured enemies to take down, then it's Birdsong or now possibly Ishi... two more event champions.

Wait what? Ishi is so powerfull? I didn't even consider her as main DPS :) I have to check her stats after the event (geared up as much as possible). To me she was only money grabber (but my gold grabbing item is still only rare :( ).

Originally posted by PowerSworder:

You might get 50% more item levels using silver chests, but remember that they're also being wasted on total losers like Jarlaxle, Delina, Drizzt, and Arkhan (a third of your champions). Deekin also now replaces Bruenor, which means yet another champion sucking up gear that is needed on meta champions.

I wrote earlier that those 50% are not good enough reason for me as well. They might be if you think that achievements are going to help you (the equipment level one is pretty hard to reach ...).

[PowerSworder]

Originally posted by Soul Reaver:

Wait what? Ishi is so powerfull? I didn't even consider her as main DPS :) I have to check her stats after the event (geared up as much as possible). To me she was only money grabber (but my gold grabbing item is still only rare :( ).

I've got 5/6 epics on my Ishi, the gold cape, and shinies for her rapier (damage) and IOU ("Let's find some treasure" ability.

My Birdsong has all epic damage items plus the two golden epics (+all damage, and song of battle).

At the moment, the two of them do basically identical damage and they both have very similar attacks as well (attacking three opponents when levelled up). I think Birdsong's base damage is slightly better, but I've got the shiny rapier on Ishi which balances that. I've only got a blue item for Ishi's "Monsters are people too" ability, so when I upgrade that to the epic item, Ishi will definitely push ahead on damage.

Against armoured enemies, they're both very nice champions and better than Strix, who attacks slowly and only takes out one damage bar. With Calliope in a Kelemvor formation, Ishi is a maniac, who attacks every 2.95 seconds! I'm actually farming Kelemvor at the moment, so I tend to use Strix as my primary dps, then Ishi as secondary right in the middle of the formation (to maximise her gold find.)

TLDR: Strix is still best dps, but Ishi makes a nice secondary (does about the same damage as Birdsong).

[Tarsis]

Sorry, Deekin wasn't likely to replace a shiny Bruenor, Regis doesn't replace a shiny Celeste, Gromma AND Binwin doesn't replace Nayeli, KROND?!?!, Cattie-Brie, Nrakk vs Hitch.

Barrowin is good, but Tyril is quite good as well, and Strix is good, but Jamilah is still no slouch in that position if they are heavily geared. Those two are cherry picks that I'd rather have the option to go with the event champ if I could, but seriously, there is a lot of losers in that event character pool.

Maybe it's because Birdsong is my only serious DPS, but all the other event characters are just... third wheels.