With the increase in level cap in Sentinel's Fate, I thought it might be worthwhile to purchase a tradeskill XP potion from the Station Marketplace. I wanted to rush my main, a Sage, from 80 to 90 as quickly as possible.
There are a few potion "strengths" available for purchase, differing in the amount of time each one lasts as well as the percentage bonus given when you consume it. The one I went with gave me a 55% XP bonus for 2 hours, and it cost 2500 Station Cash — the equivalent of $25.00.
Spending so much on a potion made me not want to waste a single drop of it. As long as my main was logged in, she was going to be chained to that crafting station! This sounds like exactly what I was hoping for, except for one thing: Vitality.
At those levels, 100% vitality will only last a couple of levels. With my vitality bonus and the XP potion, I burned through them within about 30 minutes. Oh hey, look! I have this, which will refill my vitality once a week! That's another couple of levels down, woohoo! Wow, I still have a whole HOUR left on my potion!
…But the vitality is gone, with no way to refill it except to not play that character for a few days. Continuing to try and level with no vitality — XP potion or no — isn't exactly my idea of a good time.
And that's how I spent the last few weeks. I spent almost the entire time on my secondary characters (a Tailor and a Carpenter), running the daily tradeskill missions for fun and profit.
Here comes the best part:
Not only have those two alts gained just as many tradeskill levels as my main, but they've earned a boatload of plat AND earned max faction with their respective crafting groups. Buying that potion and doing my best to take full advantage of its benefits has left my main WEEKS behind in faction and coin — not to mention $25.00 lighter.
My advice? Don't purchase the Marketplace potions unless you have money — and time — to burn.
I personally think that vitality is an outdated mechanic whose time has come. The bonus for having it is so great that it feels like a huge waste of time to ever do anything without it. The problem is only exacerbated on scholars because they have so many first pristines – you end up feeling like vitality + grinding first pristines is the default rate of advancement and anything less feels glacial. Meanwhile, level gain is sufficiently rapid these days that you're not going to catch up with your friend who spends more time online than you do, even with vitality (and that's what mentoring is for anyway).
Lyriana has spent weeks on the shelf on more than once occasion while I waited for her vitality to recover. This is fine because I have other games that I play (ironically, I think I'm at or very close to the point where I won't run out again between now and 90 Jeweler), but it's a bad design. They should just scrap vitality and boost exp 20% across the board or somesuch to compensate.
Good word — "glacial." That's exactly what it feels like! I think I have enough characters to choose from that I always have an alternative when someone's vitality runs out (so vitality itself is still a huge boon to me), but I wanted to hit cap *so bad* with Ria that the inability to play her for fear of wasting this potion was especially painful.