NEOPIA CENTRAL - The Battledome is a place filled with many strange, terrible
and wonderful things. Mostly it's filled with weapons and the pets using them.
Some of these weapons are new and coveted, some are old and worthless, and most
are somewhere in-between. It seems there are always weapons that suddenly rise
above the rest to abide in the arsenals of almost all of the Battledome goers.
Most of you are familiar with two of these weapons - the Hand Painted Scarab
and the Honey Potion. You might be wondering why these weapons popularity sprang
up overnight with no warning. It's not the first time this has happened. Weapons
have suddenly appeared before and quickly found their way into everyone's want
list. The Wand of the Air Faerie was once coveted by all - it seemed as if everyone
wanted one. Many people bought one and sometimes two for 180 to 200 thousand
each. Now they're worth 55,000 or less on the shop wizard. And they're still
dropping. How did they become worth only one fourth of their original price?
Did something change to make them less powerful and less desirable? No, they're
just as good as they always were. What happened was this: A new trend.
In the Battledome, everyone's looking for that ultimate weapon--something to
grant him or her eternal victory. Suddenly, they hear of a weapon that's new
and powerful. It seems like everyone wants one. They rush to buy it, hoping
to finally achieve supremacy. The price just keeps rising and players keep on
buying. The weapon peaks at its highest price, in the centre of demand. Then
slowly, the price winds back down, as players realise it's not the fulfilment
of their quest for supremacy. Now there's something better. In fact, everyone
starts to realise this weapon isn't as good as a newer one. People start to
forget about the one they had recently purchased. It eventually drops back to
the price it once was when no one cared about it. Now people are chasing that
new weapon. The ultimate weapon. The one that will grant them eternal victory.
What happened to the users that bought it at its peak price? They lost lots
and lots of NP. Some users sell it at its lowest price and move on to the next
"great" weapon. This is the opposite of what you should do. In fact, it's best
not to buy the item until no one remembers it. Even that sometimes isn't the
best idea. Often times, the weapon isn't even very good. Take the Attack Fork.
It was rumoured to be a very useful weapon; everyone wanted one for their pet's
arsenal. People paid ridiculous amounts of NP to obtain one. They thought they
were giving their pet a new advantage that would wreak havoc on all they fought.
They were wrong. Now it's worth a mere 5,000 NP and probably will drop even
further. Trust me, I bought one for a large sum of Neopoints too. It's not even
worth the 5,000.
But there are other factors involved in the price of an item, like rarity.
If a weapon is very rare it can be very expensive. That doesn't always mean
it's good. Just keep that in mind when shopping for weapons.
I'm not saying the Hand painted scarab and the Honey potion aren't good. I
am saying that in two months you'll find them to be much less expensive. But
then again, in two months we'll all be chasing a new item or two. Those new
items that we are so sure will hold the key to Battledome supremacy.
There's another situation trendy weapons cause. Once more than half of the
pets in the Battledome have the same weapon, other pets start to defend against
it; after all, when the weapon becomes that common it's a good idea to defend
from it. Then you have to deal with the fact that people are blocking the weapon
you spent so much on. However, everyone was also blocking the trendy weapon
before the current one came along. No one does now because there aren't enough
pets using it to make it matter. This is another reason to use previous trend
weapons that have faded out of popularity. Now no one defends against them,
unlike the very popular weapons.
By now, you're probably wondering how you know if it's a trend weapon or not.
After all, the Hypno Helmet's been popular for as long as anyone can remember.
It's actually fairly easy to spot a trend, and there are several methods of
doing so.
First, make sure you know how long the weapon has been around. If it's been
around for less than a month and just recently skyrocketed, chances are it's
a trend weapon. If it's been slowly rising for a month, that's different. Chances
are this is a much more solid weapon, not so trendy. Now find out how fast this
items price is rising. There are a lot of options for doing this. One of the
best ways is to check the trading post regularly. If the price keeps going higher
and higher, rapidly increasing in price each day, then you can guess it's probably
a trend item. Remember, if it keeps rising that's one thing. If it skyrockets
that's another. Skyrocketing items are the trends; plenty of other items rise
steadily.
Another way to test it is to ask around. You can ask on the chatboards, though
you'll have to decrypt the chatspeak language they use there. Just ask if anyone
owns it - how many icons it does; how much they paid; when they got it, etc.
Get a general feeling for how good this item really is. Don't interrogate them;
just ask a few friendly questions. You can also use Neomail. Find people who
have it in trades, shops or anywhere else you see fit. Ask them similar questions.
Just remember always be very courteous. They'll be responding out of kindness.
It's no loss for them not to respond.
Another way is fighting in the QuickFight arena, though it doesn't always yield
accurate results. If you fight enough pets, and you keep encountering the same
weapon, then it's probably pretty trendy. Remember that this only applies to
weapons that have existed a month or less. If it doesn't come up at all, that
could mean you just didn't fight the right pets or it could mean that the weapon
isn't extremely popular yet. Using QuickFight really isn't the most accurate
way to test it. It's more of a last resort.
I hope this article was helpful to you, or at least was enjoyable. If you'd
like, to send me a Neomail,
feel free. It's okay if some of you some of you disagree with me. Just drop me
a line and we can discuss it. | 
