I'm fine with that to be honest. I guess I'll be giving this a shot sometime soon then!
Just to add to this. Yes, you
can buy value packs, pets and costumes with in-game silver, but it is exceedingly difficult, less so for costumes, which are still rare. When the micro-transaction items (pearl items) are put up for auction, every player at the market place can choose to bid on the item, and the game randomly chooses one player out of everyone that bid to give the option to confirm purchase.
I've not once gotten a value pack, or a pet, off the auction house. I've been playing a little over 2 months. Costumes are a bit more manageable, and I've gotten around 10 of those.
Not to say that this is terrible, it's just the way it is, and technically you can get them with in-game currency.
The main value in Value Packs, in my opinion, is the boost in income you receive when selling items on the market place. It turns a 35% tax into a ~15% tax. The rest of the stuff is give or take with me, though the permanent armor dye and character customization is really nice.
I went up to the mid 50s without pets. I never want to do that again. You are constantly bending over to loot enemies if you don't have pets. Yes, they're expensive for what they are, but if you know what it's like without them, and then get them, you'll realize they're worth it.
I'll break down the Explorer's Pack.
2x 30 day Value Packs - $30. Helpful, but not very necessary early game. Bonus inventory does help at an early level, reduced auction house tax at high level.
10x Ellion's Blessing - $4.50. A waste to use these early game. More useful at end-game as they restore lost experience points when you die, which can translate to hours of time.
1x Tier 5 horse - ~500k silver. Very nice to have in the beginning, but really not a reason to buy the pack, as 500k silver is about 3 days of House Fame income alone, which you get automatically each day, and is really a minimal amount even at a low level. Though, you'll still have to nab the horse on the market.
x1 pet of choice - $9-$11. Pets are one of the best quality-of-life purchases in the game. They pick up loot for you, so you don't have to bend over after every enemy you kill. That said, x1 of them isn't going to be that great, but that does mean you only need 3 more.
2x character slots - $12. Not quite that important, but having more characters is an advantage, as characters have a limited resource called energy which you can spend doing various things such as gathering. Nice to have, but low on the priority list.
1x +16 inventory - $14.50. Useful early game, but you do gain inventory space fairly quickly if you do the main quest, which is very easy until high level.
1x Horse Flute - $15. I have one of these and I've never bothered to use it. I assume it can helpful, but considering I've leveled multiple characters to 56+ and I don't feel the need to use it, I'll say it's not that important.
5x Housing Decorations - ~$19. The most useful thing this gives is being able to get a bed early, which allows you to regenerate energy more quickly if you rest at it. Really not that important, and not worth buying the pack for.
1x Life Clothes - 300-600k silver. While useful, not worth paying real money for and easily obtainable in game.
So for $50, you end up with a mixed bag of ~$100 and 1mil. silver worth of in-game stuff, some useful, some really not-so-useful. And then you'll probably want to spend another $33 (actually $40 because there's only increments of $10) to get 3 more pets.
But, if you wait until this goes on sale it becomes much more attractive at $30.
There is an in-game promo pack offer for ~$55 after 20% off coupon ($60, because of $10 increments). It includes a 30 day value pack, 3 pets, +16 inventory, a costume, and a weight discount coupon, which after you buy that will come to around $64 ($70).
Phew, sorry for the large post that was probably covered much better somewhere else.
I dont see it very profitable if you need some money. Gotta take a look at processing, the extra procs are more noticable there.
