Can forging be profitable? (An in-depth look...) (in General)

Recently I been musing over the forging requests/offers and various percentages at which forging is being done. I have done a little analysis and would like to share it for newbies and oldbies alike.

One of my last forge jobs was to forge a Morgul Hammer for MegaManV. I use this as an example only, any of my forge jobs would be sufficient to show but this data is recent so I am using it.

The starting networth of the Morgul Hammer was: $586,580

The ending networth of the Morgul Hammer was: $1,243,154

The forge deal was to add as much as I could during the loan for 70% of the Blacksmith cost. (Most forging deals are similar to this one.)

So, the networth change was: $656,574, which resulted in a forging fee of: $459,602. This was paid and the deal was completed.

I then looked back at the forging costs along the way that I paid while forging and added them up. It cost me $131,308 in forging costs.

So, if you take my payment of $459,602 and subtract the forging costs of $131,308, I ended up making only $328,294 or 50% rather than the 70%.

I could list more examples of past forging jobs, but I think you get my drift from the above example.

The summation of this thread is the following: It is much more profitable to fight battles for cash then to forge. The only way I think you could break out of this cycle would be to have a new user bonus and a 100K+ MPR character to forge with.

Glory,

I think to make your point even more, the total amount of BA you used in total forging would be very helpful as well as the average $ you make per fight.

Also, even if the money is slightly better with forging, you have to factor in the loss of MPR that you would have gotten if you fought and the increased rewards you get from having that increased MPR/PR.

Thanks for the help in illustrating my point Ranger.

At the time I was using about 500 to 600 BA per day in forging. My average take per battle was roughly 200 cb2, so I could make about 120Kish per day for fighting, more during crazy money times. So, over three days I would have made 360K minimum for fighting while netting only 328K from forging.

And, like Ranger said, there was no MPR growth on my character during the forging time.

That's why the old CB1 rule of thumb was anything less than 75% forge fees is not profitable, since you can earn as much by fighting.

I came to this conclusion about a month ago =P Kind of why I quit forging.

purchased BA will definitely affect your final balance...I actually lost money on last forge job....because of the need to purchase BA.....

some things:

the old 75% rule was before the BA change and the increased forging efficiency on CB1

you need to calculate the exact amount of BA that you used as well as knowing the average money gain per ba fought to make up if its profitable or not.

Shade is perfectly right, you need to provide the amount of BA you used and how much you make on average per fight before you can tell us all that forging is not profitable.
On CB1 I make more forging than I do fighting by around 200$ per ba, I profit about 500$/ba on fighting while I make on average 600$-700$/ba (including deduction for BS fees) on forging

Not Not Fugawz...what cb1 are you playing? at 80k mpr, i was pulling in over $1k per battle on average...why are you only getting $500?

I am not conflicting the fighting over forging $ but you also need to take into account the following.

Archers will have to deduct the cost of arrows, usually 4-6 per ba.

Do you win 100% of your battles? (forging mistakes are also a factor but I usually get the dwarf 3 times a week?).

Every battle also includes a heal before attack that costs $ are you subtracting this from your winnings?

What cost is needed for equipment upgrades to continue winning/maintaining the reward level to beat characters at higher and higher score? (forging will be a fairly constant reward with no increase in mpr)

I honestly play cb2 for the enjoyment/interaction. I dont care if my strategy is the best because in 2 weeks its going to be different anyway ;) I fight a few weeks, forge a few weeks and probably suck at both.

A good forger 'should' be able to get 75% which is 55% profit ($130/ba minimum)

Yohan: ammo cost is quite small. but could be taken into account.

as for the forging mistakes and losses from fighting, those even themselves up.

but now the tricky part, item upgrades. what do you think you're doing when you are forging (if not for yourself then ok but still, while forging you dont need to upgrade items)
that cost is purely self choice, if you need to upgrade your items then you also need to do it when not fighting, simple.

soul, he is talking about after cb2 started i think.

I like forging because I get the money in lump sums. Stops me from saying "this 100k... I could up my bow a single X, or save up and eventually get some DB's or somethin......... TO THE BLACKSMITH!"

I was about to make the same thread like this, because few weeks ago, I bought my CoI, thinking to forge it from +9 to +10. The cost was 160 k at blacksmith, then I started to forge it up to about 25 % and I realized that it would took me around 500 BA to complete that, 500 BA for fighting is equal to around 100 k (Plus the experience) because I can get an overall of $200 per fight, and then I have to pay the 20 % forging fees, which is another 32 k.

Basically, even forging for myself is a waste of time. I know that I only tried on CoI but I don't think other items will make much difference. This was done by using a 270-280 k MPR character.