What To Do Before And After March Update

For today, let’s think about how to get some profit from the future March update, since we already have patch notes #1, patch notes #2, patch notes #3, patch notes #4, and patch notes #5. There are things to do, and things you shouldn’t hurry with.

What To Do Before Update

Most guides say that since the number of materials required to craft Elite Arena Tuning Orbs has been reduced, their price will go lower. They will require 3 Runestones down from 5, and 3 of the orb-specific materials (Firefox, Fancy Shell, or Glowing Swamp Moss) down from 5:

Also, a low-chance drop rate of Arena Tuning Orbs from Elite AI enemies in Malevolence, Forecastle Drift, Spires of Melpomene, and Eternal Pool will be added.

But there are two factors that make me think the price for materials will go up: successfully completing a boss arena now rewards 50 Umbral Shards; a new dungeon, the Tempest’s Heart, will appear. Tempest’s Heart Tuning Orb requires the same materials as the Mutated Orbs, and, of course, has crossings with materials used for crafting Arena Orbs:

Daily faction mission token rewards have been increased by 5x. And that’s a lot. So make sure you’ve spent your Faction tokens before the update, since prices for things like Asmodeum Chisel, Chunk of Consecrated Iron, Runes of Holding may drop in price:

Alkahest now properly gains bonus items when crafted, not sure how the prices for Hyssops will change, more likely it will be different for every server depending on how many players will speculate on its price. Or you can try to sell Water, lots of people will need it after the update. If you need an Arcana Guide, we have one:

Infinite ammo was added instead of Flint ammo; now you can shoot for free even if you’re out of ammo. The prices for Ammo may go lower, but on most servers, they’re already low enough.

As for the most hyped thing of the update, the Blunderbuss, it will be crafted at the Workshop, so it’s time to improve your Engineering skills and spare some materials. Craft modes might also go high in price:

Engineering trophies also might increase in price, but on high populated servers, they cost a lot anyway:

Regenerating food will not be mandatory for PvE with a new regenerating system, which can decrease its price. When you’re out of combat, your health regenerates automatically:

Gems protective perks against specific kinds of damage will be buffed, so players will stack Cut Pristine Aquamarine to protect from Ice Gauntlets, Cut Pristine Emerald to protect from Musket users, Cut Pristine Moonstone against Great Axe users, and Cut Pristine Jasper against War Hammer users:

Abyssal Ward: Adjusted damage absorption provided by this perk from 2.5%/3.5%/5%/6% → 3%/4%/5%/6% (Only tier 1 and tier 2 absorption was changed);

Thrust/Slash/Strike Ward: Increased damage absorption from 2%/2.5%/3%/3.75% → 2%/3%/4%/5%;

Arcane/Ice/Fire/Nature/Lightning Ward: Increased damage absorption from 2%/2.5%/3%/3.75% → 3%/4%/5%/6%.

What To Do After Update

If you’re going to buy a house, wait until the update. Tier 4 houses were added to Reekwater and Ebonscale Reach settlements. 

Besides, players will get back 1/2 the original purchase cost when abandoning a house. The storage bonus for all tiers of Storage Chests has been doubled, all the storages will be linked, all Trading Posts were linked long ago, so nothing will prevent you from choosing the house you want.

By the way, this may decrease the prices for the Storage Chests.

Don’t try hard to get lots of Umbral Shards, because in the March Update Rafflebones, the Loot Collector, will be added. He awards level 60 players with 500 Umbral Shards. First he was announced in patch notes #1, and I mentioned him in the Digest #14. This is how it works on PTR:

It has no daily cooldowns for the drop, so you can earn thousands of shards every day.

Also you shouldn’t grind weapon XP now, when the update goes live, there will be an event with double XP reward, which was mentioned in the March Team Update.

Do not open your War Spoils and Invasion Caches before the update. For now they reward with only one piece of armor. After the March update both the quantity and quality of rewards will be increased:

Even more, I’d suggest waiting a bit before their workingness as intended will be confirmed. We all remember what happened to T3 Smelter Aptitude Crates after the February update.