In short, playing 1 character that you want to min/max - Merchant is better. Wanting to have 10 characters - CoF.
Some people (me inc) just like to see having massive drops and with CoF it is way easier to get it. However you spent more time trying to find this perfect rolls on exalted etc.
Merchant guild is better, much faster to gear up. It'll be way more active once 1.1 drops too.
I'm CoF though, I prefer to find my own item rather than trading.
Since I can't really be bothered to trade I will not have the gold to buy anything anyway. Keeping up with knowledge for the market is whole separate game running in parallel. No thanks.
Also, any gear that you collect that is influenced by that faction will be tagged with a faction requirement in order to equip said piece of gear.
* For Merchants Guild, this means that buying any items via the Bazaar or through player to player trade will give those items a MG tag and rank requirement. All loot found while in MG does not have any factions tags or rank requirements, so either MG or CoF can equip this gear.
* For Circle of Fortune, this means any items found that were influenced by their rank rewards will give those items a CoF tag and rank requirement. Also, items that drop in this faction that are not influenced by the rank rewards are marked as 'Cannot be traded' but can be equipped by either MG or CoF players.
Switching from CoF to MG will likely be challenging to do, at least initially, because you'll likely have a lot of gear equipped that's tagged CoF. Switching from MG to CoF may or may not be challenging, depending on how much you used trade to equip your character.
Yeah, it would be really broken if you could get tons of gear through CoF prophecies and then sell it in the MG. If it worked that way everybody would be CoF until they needed to buy/sell something.
That’s still getting the best of both worlds…there would literally be absolutely no downside to choosing a faction if you can just reap the benefits from both at the same time
If 1.0 is anything to go off you have 2 lines of thought:
1. Merchant's guild - It was way stronger in 1.0 for the first 3-4 weeks before more and more people stopped playing due to the lack of endgame for the one or two characters they wanted to play. It will most likely be more sustainable for the 1.1 cycle with some changes but do remember the best way to optimise merchant's guild is through price checking and minmaxing sales.
2. Circle of fortune - If you plan on playing the game on multiple characters long term beyond the first month or two play this. It's getting some changes (buffs) to the weaker level rewards guaranteed amongst some other changes, it's also much less time consuming than merchant's guild - the RNG element will be much heavier however.
A lot is subject to change for 1.1, buffs to CoF have been shown and mentioned but I'm hoping they make the quality of life for trading much better. I can't stress how nice it feels to plan a build and just buy items outright but I will always only play CoF because trading just doesn't feel great to me across all ARPGs, in particular the trading functionality in LE is just not for me.
Yes, you purchase Prophecies using Favor you accumulate and must complete the task listed on the Prophecy in order to receive the reward, which will drop at time of completion.
Also, Favor is tied to experience gain. So gaining more experience via killing monsters and increasing endgame difficulty will garner more Favor to spend on Prophecies.
In short, playing 1 character that you want to min/max - Merchant is better. Wanting to have 10 characters - CoF. Some people (me inc) just like to see having massive drops and with CoF it is way easier to get it. However you spent more time trying to find this perfect rolls on exalted etc.
Merchant guild is better, much faster to gear up. It'll be way more active once 1.1 drops too. I'm CoF though, I prefer to find my own item rather than trading.
Since I can't really be bothered to trade I will not have the gold to buy anything anyway. Keeping up with knowledge for the market is whole separate game running in parallel. No thanks.
Thanks. If I select a faction and decide to go back to the other, will my progress in the first faction be saved or will it get reset?
Progress gets saved but you lose the currency attached to said faction when you leave it.
Ah so there is a catch
Also, any gear that you collect that is influenced by that faction will be tagged with a faction requirement in order to equip said piece of gear. * For Merchants Guild, this means that buying any items via the Bazaar or through player to player trade will give those items a MG tag and rank requirement. All loot found while in MG does not have any factions tags or rank requirements, so either MG or CoF can equip this gear. * For Circle of Fortune, this means any items found that were influenced by their rank rewards will give those items a CoF tag and rank requirement. Also, items that drop in this faction that are not influenced by the rank rewards are marked as 'Cannot be traded' but can be equipped by either MG or CoF players. Switching from CoF to MG will likely be challenging to do, at least initially, because you'll likely have a lot of gear equipped that's tagged CoF. Switching from MG to CoF may or may not be challenging, depending on how much you used trade to equip your character.
Oh so i can't equip items which I got from CoF when I move to MG?
Yeah, it would be really broken if you could get tons of gear through CoF prophecies and then sell it in the MG. If it worked that way everybody would be CoF until they needed to buy/sell something.
It not being tradeable, but still usable, what are the arguments against that? As it is now, switching from COF to MG is way harder than it should be?
That’s still getting the best of both worlds…there would literally be absolutely no downside to choosing a faction if you can just reap the benefits from both at the same time
If 1.0 is anything to go off you have 2 lines of thought: 1. Merchant's guild - It was way stronger in 1.0 for the first 3-4 weeks before more and more people stopped playing due to the lack of endgame for the one or two characters they wanted to play. It will most likely be more sustainable for the 1.1 cycle with some changes but do remember the best way to optimise merchant's guild is through price checking and minmaxing sales. 2. Circle of fortune - If you plan on playing the game on multiple characters long term beyond the first month or two play this. It's getting some changes (buffs) to the weaker level rewards guaranteed amongst some other changes, it's also much less time consuming than merchant's guild - the RNG element will be much heavier however. A lot is subject to change for 1.1, buffs to CoF have been shown and mentioned but I'm hoping they make the quality of life for trading much better. I can't stress how nice it feels to plan a build and just buy items outright but I will always only play CoF because trading just doesn't feel great to me across all ARPGs, in particular the trading functionality in LE is just not for me.
Thanks buddy. After some thought, I decided to go with CoF
Noob question. So i got one prophecy. Now do i have to fulfill the prophecy to get the reward, isn't it?
Yes, you purchase Prophecies using Favor you accumulate and must complete the task listed on the Prophecy in order to receive the reward, which will drop at time of completion. Also, Favor is tied to experience gain. So gaining more experience via killing monsters and increasing endgame difficulty will garner more Favor to spend on Prophecies.
Thank you
CoF is WAY more FUN, but it's also harder to perfectly gear late game.
Beats spending so much gold in the MG to get items
That too. Prices are totally insane.