Just exactly how are merchants useless now
I'd say about right now is the BEST time to be merchant (if you aim for buying
an eqset) since there's this panicced cattle style mass movement going on and
eq is sold for practically nothing.
Once people realize that with all this wear and tear tune, your eqset will
still last longer than it used to when crash recovery was crap and passing out
and missing boot was final, eq prices will climb back again. and if you're
wondering what do i mean by 'lasst longer than ..', well..

Let's just assume an average eq will completely disintegrate after being out
of chest for, say, 365 days (A figure i personally think is closer to truth
than this OMG IT'S PRACTICALLY GONE ALREADY). now, if you play for 4 hours a
day, that's 6 rl years you have to replace that eq with another 3 month
merchant reinc or raping drawbridge or *gasp* even doing your own named
pieces. 6 years duration for an item in a game where half the players haven't
even played that long. think about that for a second before you throw your
hands in air and start screaming (the 9834989th time) how everyone's going to
quit playing because the wizzes are dumbasses and the game suddenly turned to
shit.
and the other part of my comparison, well in 365d of playing time, just few
years back, well, you probably lost your complete set atleast once, often
multiple times. and that's not even counting the times you passed out with eq
on and overslept the boot.

-l