Elephant in the room.

[Zugzwang]

The Valentines sac event is a broken infinite loop of “get as many skill shards as you could ever want.”

It has a limited number of different toons at least but there is norhing to limit skill shards or vortex fills. Gold is usually the limiting factor with these events but gold idols are being dropped at a rate that keeps the gold from getting any lower. In theory if I played a couple hours a day until the 20th I could gain about 500-600 skill shards and never run out of gold. Imagine if I played 6 hours a day? This may sound great but there’s a fine balance before it’s no longer any fun. This slipped over that razor’s edge and shouldn’t have happened. I mean once all your toons are fully sharded, how many more skill shards would one want to stockpile? It makes it too easy.

[Amarthir]

Well considering the games history of having events like these, it's not the first time we as a community have been spoiled by the devs. It would only be a problem if it happens all the time. But I've been here since before Sacrifice was a thing and I can only remember two other times we've had events this profitable. The gold and souls event and the Halloween event. That's it.

[Zugzwang]

I get profitable. But how long until it’s no longer any fun? You can now have every character fully skill sharded that you want and stockpile for future characters. You just have to play a lot and it gets boring. So tedious in fact that you’ll come to a point where you ask yourself what am I playing for? I always wanted more skill shards but now that I have hundreds I don’t need I no longer want them. I guess that’s how it works. I’ll be back for Isle of Avalon and see what the game looks like then I guess.nothing to play for at the moment. I guess it happens in every game though.

[Nekroliun]

This event made skillshards, alot, less valuable.

[Rory]

I think it depends on what you started with. I had a couple of stacks of 99 normal souls, and a few characters for sacrifice (a couple duplicate 5* and so on), and about 4M gold.

I ended up at one point with 20 heart souls that I didn't have the gold to claim. A lot of skill shards though yeah. Filled the vortex twice.

Possibly this event is one that isn't quite aimed at the really top-end players who have a lot of things they can put into the sacrifices, and a big enough reserve of gold that they can keep going long enough to get a lot of magnificent gold idols to sell.

[Esquatcho]

Yeah, dont worry there will be characters to buy and then shard in the next event....

Plus, as you said, sanity levels are the key limiting factor here. Well that and time having to run through the roster for the current event (and the one next week).

But yeah, to max out all my chars, Im going to need much more than the skill shards I'll get from this event. So I say bring them on once a year or so!

[Nekroliun]

Yeah, dont worry there will be characters to buy and then shard in the next event....

Plus, as you said, sanity levels are the key limiting factor here. Well that and time having to run through the roster for the current event (and the one next week).

But yeah, to max out all my chars, Im going to need much more than the skill shards I'll get from this event. So I say bring them on once a year or so!

I mean considering someone like me, who doesnt have much to sac, nor souls to open, and relies mainly on grand sac and luck eith 4 stars to continue on, got 120 skill shards on the first day. And with the days coming, someone with stacks of souls (i swear how does one get so many damn) can probably easily get a thousand skill shards.

So yea, id say thats enough for every single char ever released, unless every single char released becomes a rainmaker ofcourse

[MetalKing]

I dont know where you guys have gotten this massive amount of souls to sacrifice, I play daily and had a vortex almost ready. I had 4 vortexes and an ultimate in the event. The skill shards I acquired added to what I had already only equals about 80 shards.

[bort]

I guess I was doing something wrong, because it cost me about 6mil, didnt get any gold idols (where are you getting those from?), and didn't get many skillshards, let alone infinite.

[Liu]

I guess I was doing something wrong, because it cost me about 6mil, didnt get any gold idols (where are you getting those from?), and didn't get many skillshards, let alone infinite.

I think the proper approach is not to go for ultimate and exalted sacrifices, but rather aim for grand sacrifices. If your gold and precious soul returns are too low, convert epic soul frags into precious souls, else redeem the frags. This way I was able to achieve several vortices (I lost track how many, but a lot), and there is still no end in sight.
Generally I think the rewards are worse than they have been before the rework. However, due to the event souls and gold/precious soul return there is no limiting factor other than time. If your RNG-luck isn't too bad you should be able to sacrifice infinitely. Frankly I can't see the devs setting up an event this way again. Maybe they didn't anticipate it'd be possible to keep sacrificing infinitely. I'd assume next time when there is a sacrifice event with with event exclusive souls that contain high sac value toons, they'll reduce the event soul return.

[Fudjo]

I guess I was doing something wrong, because it cost me about 6mil, didnt get any gold idols (where are you getting those from?), and didn't get many skillshards, let alone infinite.

Having spent several hours in a sacrifice bender, I've seen that one can go for long stretches without seeing skill shards, ironite, precious souls, or any given specific item. They definitely show up over time, but sometimes there are large gaps.

I completely agree with Liu that Tier V sacrifices are the way to go. I don't believe there's truly an infinite loop, but the hearts do keep coming and coming.

[Fudjo]

I dont know where you guys have gotten this massive amount of souls to sacrifice, I play daily and had a vortex almost ready. I had 4 vortexes and an ultimate in the event. The skill shards I acquired added to what I had already only equals about 80 shards.

I save and save and save. I cashed in 5 stacks of 99 rare G/A souls from a stockpile I've been saving since last summer.

https://forum.ironmaidenlegacy.com/showthread.php?10854-Fudjo-s-Guide-to-Asset-Management

[DanielRacy]

How to get the most skill shards? Vortex?

[Fudjo]

How to get the most skill shards? Vortex?

No matter what sacrifice plan you use, there's still the problem that you can go a long time without seeing a certain sacrifice reward item no matter what. I think the best plan is to stick to Tier V sacrifices, level up the 3-star hearts to 60, and keep sacrificing.

[DanielRacy]

No matter what sacrifice plan you use, there's still the problem that you can go a long time without seeing a certain sacrifice reward item no matter what. I think the best plan is to stick to Tier V sacrifices, level up the 3-star hearts to 60, and keep sacrificing.

Thanks man.

[rags-6094]

If there has to be a meaning to sacrificing, then I guess that's up to the individual. There is no wrong or right approach, but Fudjo is right on the money, tier 5 Grand Sacrifice is the way to go. It takes 5 x regular four star characters or four G/A with an Eddie thrown in, or 9 x 3 star hearts un levelled to do a grand sacrifice.
I know it backwards thanks to this event.

Since the event began I've been chasing every outstanding character 4 star and above I don't have, there was 2 x 4* & 2 x 5* characters for me that were attainable, I got three of them in the first few hours, but Madam.... she just would not drop.

I finally nabbed her after I collected my 6th Alchemist from vortex's... yes that was a shitload of vortex's, I burnt through half my gold resources including powering those characters up and placing talisman in them which is rather expensive..

As a result of so much sacrificing I have managed to fully skill shard about 90% of my 202 character collection, I have also collected at least 1 of every possible mythical soul except heroic which I have three of and the standard one which a have 2.

I have thrown in multiple 99 stacks of heroic souls, not for the heroic souls but for the Cyborg Eddie that 50 will give you, and yes you guessed it I threw them in too... not always but most of the time 99 heroics will deliver you at least one 5*

I had 4 x Allied General and two Clansman Ed over those sacrifices, I save up all the extra 5 star charaters and drop them in one big ultimate sacrifice. Ocassionally you need to level up one or two to push the ultimate but I still managed 5 or 6 ultimate sacrifices..
Gold is the key, if you don't have a fair stack to start with its hard but if you have even a few million it can self perpetuate itself kind of...
precious souls drop from random sacrifices 5 tier and above and vortex fills, sell whatever gold idols you get and it will keep your gold not quite level...
What I'm about to tell you will make some people cringe but Frontier coins can help. Some of the longer term players will have already achieved everything Frontier coins can bring you, I guess the smart thing to do with that useless FC then is to save it for future characters... If I struggle for a sacrifice starter, spend 300 and buy a warlord, He's the cheapest and just as much essence as any other G/A 5* soul short of an Eddie... Now sacrifice that Warlord along with whatever souls you don't want, this will give you enough of everything you need to keep a sacrificing loop going for a while on this current event...

[Zugzwang]

I had recently sold almost all duplicate sets of my maxed talismans including rare ones and ended up with about 127 million gold. That amount causes an infinite loop because I’ve never gotten below 123 million before I get a million for idols and a vortex fill. So anyone with what, 4 million should have the same loop.
I actually think they may have made a change overnight bough because today the gold is depleting as it should so there’s that. I don’t intend to keep doing it anymore because it’s boring. But sanity was never my limiting factor. ;)

[Fudjo]

If there has to be a meaning to sacrificing, then I guess that's up to the individual. There is no wrong or right approach, but Fudjo is right on the money, tier 5 Grand Sacrifice is the way to go. It takes 5 x regular four star characters or four G/A with an Eddie thrown in, or 9 x 3 star hearts un levelled to do a grand sacrifice.
I know it backwards thanks to this event.

5 regular 4-star toons to get 1 x Tier V
10 regular 4-star toons to get 2 x Tier V
9 G/A 4-star toons to get 2 x Tier V
6 x lvl 60 3-star hearts to get 1 x Tier V


I have thrown in multiple 99 stacks of heroic souls, not for the heroic souls but for the Cyborg Eddie that 50 will give you, and yes you guessed it I threw them in too... not always but most of the time 99 heroics will deliver you at least one 5*

If I wanted to completely kill my weekend, I now have a stack of 99 legendary souls. :)

[rags-6094]

Yeah Fudjo your right but in my case it was worth it, now that the job is done I can return to my weekend!
I don't think I quite follow you on the 10 regular 4* toons = 2 x Tier 5 sacrifices.... well of course that's just doubled what you said on the first line...? What do you mean?

[Nekroliun]

This information couldve been useful when i had gold and chars to sacrifice, shit.

[Fudjo]

Yeah Fudjo your right but in my case it was worth it, now that the job is done I can return to my weekend!
I don't think I quite follow you on the 10 regular 4* toons = 2 x Tier 5 sacrifices.... well of course that's just doubled what you said on the first line...? What do you mean?

I think it means I'm a dummy and that I should have realized that before I posted it. :)

[Zugzwang]

I never thought I’d be glad an event was over.
I used to beg for more skill shards but I got about 500 from this event and didn’t start having my gold total go down until day 3 or 4.
You think you want something until you get it....