Today i first met Finley in Sacrament, and i was all hyped for the “prestigious” deals i could possibly make with my golds.
Sad truth tho, as soon as he spawned, i asked to trade only to find that his market is filled with complete garbage items.
70% whites, 20% blues and only a couple of purples.
More important, Rares and Uniques don’t even have 4 traits, but they are completely random. So what i found there was far, far worse than what i found during my daily routine in the open world. Not even counting that a single white weapon costs 4 to 5 silver, when the Blacksmith sells a very solid white T1 for less than 1 silver.
For a unique NPC which spawns for 4 hours per week and deals in “prestige” items, this is absolutely flawed and Finley is completely pointless to the game. If you want him to be prestigious, you should at least make him sell Uniques and Rares with all 4 traits, and in a way higher rateo than whites. Actually, he shouldn’t even sell whites at all, and just focus on Rares and Uniques only.
Also, i noticed that his spawning time is misleading, as it states “8-12 AM” when it’s on London time, hence it’s “9-13 AM” for me at least. you should fix that to match our local time.
He spawns right below the upper plaza. From the northern campfire, head downstairs and you should find him sit on a bench on the eastern edge of the alley
I would agree with you, if it wasn’t for the point that you can still get those whites on both the open world and Cerim Crucible. And since the Crucible is the endgame content, you get plenty of them.
I can understand the Whites from Finley if they weren’t single purchase, so that i could effectively try some enchanting spins, but since it’s a one-time purchase, the RNG locks them off from being solid. Not on an NPC spawning for 4 hours per week.
For me T2 gear does not drop from the Cerim Crucible only T3 gear. So I disagree with you that you get plenty T2 gear, you do get plenty T3 gear though.
As for the second point I 100% agree, I was hoping for some enchanting rolls as well. I wanna complete the game in gear that matches my roleplay fantasy not look like a walking fashion disaster but with perfect affixes.
If enchanting changes, and weapon/gear availability is increased I’ll be fairly happy.
Edit: lower tier gear can drop, but at a significantly lower drop rate.
Here are a few suggestions for improving QOL/the overall experience interacting the rare merchant Finley.
Finley should have 1 designated unique (yellow) item weekly, or carry some of the end game item upgrade items such as bear paws.
The current assortment of gear is fair, but if players are to wait a calendar week to see the trader, having a unique item prevents the trader’s offerings from being equal to or less then what most players have & rewards continuing players by increasing their odds of acquiring unique items. With the item pool in the game already large & growing, this means players will still have to work to acquire unique items, but helps compensate for players who are having poor luck with RNG.
Additionally, to combat the possibility of Finley having items that are too significant of an improvement for the current player (discouraging natural progression in the game), perhaps Finley’s offerings could scale as the game progresses similar to how enemies in previous grow stronger the further into the story the current realm is.
As a final suggestion, perhaps Finley’s offerings could scale levels 1-3 similar to the other vendors, but have this increased by completing a short questline. I.e; “My storage shack was broken into and bandits stole all of my unique goods! Track them down in the sewers and I’ll reward you with an item,” and after the quest Finley is “level 2” etc.
Note: I’m not sure if confirmed, but I understand if this vendor is tied to the computer/client clock this could be abused & subsequently make it illogical to add unique items to Finley’s stock. Could a solution to this come in the form of the trader appearing at 9:00-12:00 GMT for all players, or for the entirety of Saturdays to appease all time zones without the ability to “reset” the trader & therefore exploit his offerings?
Just a few ideas that could go a long way, the attention to detail and involvement with vendors thus far is awesome! With a few minor tweaks, I think Finley could be even more appreciated/enjoyed by the players.
Tying into his own story, where he is “roaming in search of rare items”, he could be found in the wild instead of a set timer on a Saturday. He could even be tied to the Bounty system that already exists, as a Weekly Bounty, in the form of a rare mob, that can be found in any area. You would find that mob, kill it and then Finley would appear to investigate the loot, since that’s what does. Upon going away from the area he could disappear then. This keep him as once-in-a-week vendor but you don’t have to do it on a time you might not be able to find him(Set as Saturday Morning). You could do it on your own time.
Secondly, he could sell rare upgrade materials for big QoL improvements for Sacrament which means he would be “necessary” and people would actively try to find him.
Finally, he could also sell a wide array of upgrade materials for rerolling stats and/or affixes on items.
I like this, as an extension of the “ALIVE” system, you can find him in various points of the map, and each time he may be in a precarious situation you need to save him from
Yes, anything along these lines to reinforce the idea that he is actively outside looking for rare things, which is exactly what he says when you meet him.
Given the quest, and that he only shows up on Saturdays, I thought he was going to be a better Grinnich, but Ive never seen a single good thing from him. Grinnich is that guy, and my favorite vendor because he always has something good on hand thats rare, even if they are expensive and limited. I thought Finley was going to be even better considering he only appears once a week, but so far Ive never seen anything worth buying from him. Weapons and armor, but Ive farmed so much just playing the game and with how randomized every single stat is in this game I dont find any purpose in buying armor or weapons from almost anyone.
I mean, I guess buying gear from vendors means the stats are more fixed than the drops, but in most cases, especially with Finley, the gear on sell isnt even really worth looking at. Im wondering if maybe his rotation has something worthwhile that I just havent seen yet, but in the 3 weeks and 3 appearances Ive seen him, Ive never once bought anything from him.
I’ve bought various base items off him to toss out for enchants. Legendary stuff in his inventory is often pointless due to RNG. They should expand him to carry a mix of everything, instead of just weapons and armor.
The wares he has are in quantity and quality uninteresting.
The way to his key is not adequately visible ingame. Infact I thought he is not yet acessible until i read that he exists elsewhere. (Immersion breaker). Maybe… place some item on the first cage… that would be a breadcrume enough to realize that you can jump on the cages.
I think, simply using him as magic item provider is boring… that should be something the regular merchants do. Maybe make him an “item delivery service” where you can send him on a mission to get “some item with enchantment X”, or some resource Y.
The realtime schedule is really bad… it entirely blocks players who have fixed dates on saturdays!!!
The realtime schedule is really bad… it entirely blocks players who have fixed dates on saturdays!!!
The realtime schedule is really bad… it entirely blocks players who have fixed dates on saturdays!!!
I sometimes can find a well rolled base for future builds/alts from time to time. Sadly the new compare system has made this very difficult to do with weapons. Can find a particular rune as well. It definitely helps having multiple Realms to shop in.
I would love to send him on missions. Like pay 1 gold to make him search for spears. he is away the whole week anyway, so why not bribe him to increase the chance to get 2-3 spears when he returns?
Really? I mean yeah, I get the RNG thing. I feel like that for most of the stuff in this game. I get its an ARPG, but the RNG here feels a bit especially egregious right now, but Im shocked. I havent seen him carry anything like that. Must just have been bad luck on my end the past 3 weeks.
Honestly, I haven’t seen him in the Holy City despite playing for so long (I’ve already rescued him), mainly because his appearance time doesn’t match my schedule. On weekends, I might like to sleep in or do something else before entering the game, and by then I’ve already missed him.
Although I could adjust my local time to make him appear, I feel like this interferes with the game’s timeline, so I haven’t done it. As a result, I still haven’t encountered him.
Perhaps the developers think that the game world should have its own timeline to make it feel more alive. But the reality is that I always end up missing Finley.
