To Cube or not to Cube?

I know it has a lot to do with luck but I had some questions about your cubing experiences.

I'm trying to attain 12-15%(really only want 15% on czh) STR on a cape, smg, vss, earrings and czh.

On average is 12% attainable from say 30-35 cubes?

basically I just want to know some of SP's experiences cubing

In my experience, it takes (on average) twice that just to get 9%.

Took me approximately 80 cubes on average once unique to get 15%.
Some are different; my branch nose took 5 cubes once unique to get 14%. My old rex earrings took 220 ish cubes to get unique. Good luck though :3

One way to look at this could be based on current market values. Lets look at the Czhelm as an example:

Last time I checked, in Windia a Czhelm with 15% STR is around 1.5 billion. With an NX exchange rate of about 1:15, 1.5 bil is equal to about 100,000 NX. 100,000 NX = 83 Cubes.

If you believe in the market value of things, it will take you an average of 83 cubes to get 15% str on a Czhelm.

One way to look at this could be based on current market values. Lets look at the Czhelm as an example:

Last time I checked, in Windia a Czhelm with 15% STR is around 1.5 billion. With an NX exchange rate of about 1:15, 1.5 bil is equal to about 100,000 NX. 100,000 NX = 83 Cubes.

If you believe in the market value of things, it will take you an average of 83 cubes to get 15% str on a Czhelm.

Ya this is exactly what I was thinking. I just know I'll be 83 cubes in though and have an Epic czh still aha. I'm getting close to having enough saved up to make a decision but from what it looks like there isn't much 12% gear in the FM. I'm assuming because once your revealing 12%s you have either a) invested so much its worth it to cube onwards or b) its unqiue and its worth it to cube onwards.

I think I'm just going to settle for 9% gear excluding helm. Cheaper and easier to find and still a huge boost in w.att for myself.

Took me approximately 80 cubes on average once unique to get 15%.
Some are different; my branch nose took 5 cubes once unique to get 14%. My old rex earrings took 220 ish cubes to get unique. Good luck though :3

^what I don't wanta do, 220ish cubes I used to check the scroll lock section just to see how many fragments you had xD. Thanks for the input

One way to look at this could be based on current market values. Lets look at the Czhelm as an example:

Last time I checked, in Windia a Czhelm with 15% STR is around 1.5 billion. With an NX exchange rate of about 1:15, 1.5 bil is equal to about 100,000 NX. 100,000 NX = 83 Cubes.

If you believe in the market value of things, it will take you an average of 83 cubes to get 15% str on a Czhelm.

It would be nice if that was actually the way to determine the average cubes needed to used for unique gear with desirable potential. From what a lot of my friends mention, it's an average of 20 cubes to epic and another 20 to unique. That would suggest that unique items would have a base cost of 600m given a 1:15 nx rate which they sadly don't. If you don't get what I mean, look at 10 atk work gloves. As of current, they cost 170m average on Windia. This doesn't mean each gfa costs 34m does it? The same thing applies to cubing.

The only thing the 1.5b represents is the cost the majority of players are willing to spend on items of such caliber.

Another thing to keep in mind is that 1.5b should cover enough cubes to get...
- 9% str 6% str
- 9% dex 6% dex
- 9% int 6% int
- 9% luk 6% luk
- 6% all 6% str 3% all
- ...
- anything more valuable than 15% of a stat (+2 skills 12%, 18%, 21%, etc.)
If you need it to be in a particular stat, you're basically cutting the odds by 75% - so it'll take 4 times as many cubes. Most people sell the item when it gets any of those stats, and then buy one with the stats they do want.

Say it takes 40 cubes to unique (total), then 40 more to get any of those stats. That means 160 to get useful stats.

It would be nice if that was actually the way to determine the average cubes needed to used for unique gear with desirable potential. From what a lot of my friends mention, it's an average of 20 cubes to epic and another 20 to unique. That would suggest that unique items would have a base cost of 600m given a 1:15 nx rate which they sadly don't. If you don't get what I mean, look at 10 atk work gloves. As of current, they cost 170m average on Windia. This doesn't mean each gfa costs 34m does it? The same thing applies to cubing.

The only thing the 1.5b represents is the cost the majority of players are willing to spend on items of such caliber.

Just for the sake of a friendly argument...... Your work glove example is not valid. In the case of scrolling items, you are paying for the scroll as well as the fact that the scroll passed. With each successive scroll passing, the value of passing scroll will go up exponentially. With cubing, there is no risk of destroying the item or wasting slots on an item, so each cube carries the same cost.

With all that being said, please note that for the most part I agree with you. I do not believe that ANY market is "perfect" much less the Maplestory FM. If you were only to consider the massive amounts of meso exploits that can distort prices at any time, it is enough to throw my market analysis out the door.

Just for the sake of a friendly argument...... Your work glove example is not valid. In the case of scrolling items, you are paying for the scroll as well as the fact that the scroll passed. With each successive scroll passing, the value of passing scroll will go up exponentially. With cubing, there is no risk of destroying the item or wasting slots on an item, so each cube carries the same cost.

With all that being said, please note that for the most part I agree with you. I do not believe that ANY market is "perfect" much less the Maplestory FM. If you were only to consider the massive amounts of meso exploits that can distort prices at any time, it is enough to throw my market analysis out the door.

I agree that the value of each passing scroll causes the value of the item to go up exponentially. However, in a surreal hacked Khaini, assuming you have infinite White Scrolls that cost 0 mesos (therefore having zero consequence of an item losing value if you were to fail a slot), constantly throwing GFAs on them would burden them the same cost property of inflating the item exponentially. The price regarding pre-cubed items exists the same manner and do not carry the same value. Rare items, no matter how many times you cube them, will carry similar low tier costs. Epic items, be they cubed three times or 40+ times, will carry an exponentially higher cost than their rare counterparts. Unique items have the same price property and will carry an even more exponential value than their rare and epic counterparts. Since you're talking about the Windian market, let's do some price comparisons with say 3 lined earrings just so we can have a ballpark figure we both can understand given familiar market grounds.

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3L clean generic Rare Earrings - 15m on average. 30-50m with good stats tops. 0 to maybe 5 cubes to get good stats. This is 75m value regarding cubes using a 1:15 NX to meso ratio on 5 cubes used at most. No matter what you do here, it's a loss if you decided to cube. Can be comparable with scrolling 2,4, 6 attack WGs and losing profit.

3L clean generic Epic Earrings - 250m on average. 300-400m with good stats tops. On average, 20 cubes used to acquire. This is an even 300m value using the 1:15 NX to meso ratio on 20 cubes used at most. So far, things look like they match. However, when we get to Unique, that's where things inflate drastically. Can be comparable with scrolling 8 attack WGs and almost breaking even.

3L clean generic Unique Earrings - 1b even with craptastical stats. 1.5b with good stats tops. On average, 40 cubes to get to unique. This is a 600m value using the same 1:15 NX to meso ratio on 40 cubes. This is at minimum a 400m difference for simply having unique and at least a 900m difference of having good stats alongside unique. Can be comparable to scrolling 10 attack WGs and profiting.

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The price "inflation" from epic to unique isn't a consistent property where each cube carries the same cost. The reason behind this cost inflation is the difficulty factor in fighting that initial 5% (unconfirmed) to raise rarity rank as opposed to a promised and predictable outcome.

The price "inflation" from epic to unique isn't a consistent property where each cube carries the same cost. The reason behind this cost inflation is the difficulty factor in fighting that initial 5% (unconfirmed) to raise rarity rank as opposed to a promised and predictable outcome.

That was basically my issue when I started to familiarize myself with the potential system, I couldn't wrap my head around why x% would cost y meso. I think I'm going to try and find 9% epics equips with the ability, meaning 3L, to upgrade with some luck to unique(at a later day)

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On a side note you really made me realize how illogical wg pricing is. 8 -> 10 is more than a 120m. I know 10 atts are the standard "mts for NX" item but still.

That was basically my issue when I started to familiarize myself with the potential system, I couldn't wrap my head around why x% would cost y meso. I think I'm going to try and find 9% epics equips with the ability, meaning 3L, to upgrade with some luck to unique(at a later day)

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On a side note you really made me realize how illogical wg pricing is. 8 -> 10 is more than a 120m. I know 10 atts are the standard "mts for NX" item but still.

In my experience, I found it better to just splurge. Go all out or don't do anything at all. There's remote difficulty in reselling epic items and it can take a toll on your subconsciousness in the event a unique item appears with a cheap affordable cost. However, if you buy epic items to cube later on (which I'm assuming you're going to do based on what you said), you might want to take Stereo's advice and just cube it to 15% something. After which, sell the 15% dex/int/luk or trade for your desired 15% str. While I can't speak for Broa (I don't merch there), I see plenty of smegas daily asking for 15% trades at the other servers I merch in.

In my experience, I found it better to just splurge. Go all out or don't do anything at all. There's remote difficulty in reselling epic items and it can take a toll on your subconsciousness in the event a unique item appears with a cheap affordable cost. However, if you buy epic items to cube later on (which I'm assuming you're going to do based on what you said), you might want to take Stereo's advice and just cube it to 15% something. After which, sell the 15% dex/int/luk or trade for your desired 15% str. While I can't speak for Broa (I don't merch there), I see plenty of smegas daily asking for 15% trades at the other servers I merch in.

Yup same sorta stuff happens in Broa. And yup that was the new plan, hopefully it pans out. thanks for all your input!

On a side note you really made me realize how illogical wg pricing is. 8 -> 10 is more than a 120m. I know 10 atts are the standard "mts for NX" item but still.

There will always be way more 8 atk WGs than 10 atk ones. They're just a lot easier to get.

Say you scroll a WG straight with 5 60%s:
10 atk: 7.8%
8 atk: 25.9%
6 atk: 34.6%
4 atk: 17.9%
2 atk: 12.8%
0 atk: 1.02%

You're 3 times more likely to end up with an 8 atk WG - so there are plenty more of them.

Of course, you can save some scrolls in the process of making them, by stopping scrolling if the first or second scroll fails - and if all you want is 10 atk, 70%s have a 17% chance of working out for you. But that still takes 25~ scrolls, more than the cost of the WG itself.