There are a handful of ways to convert the AP that you earn from zerging down AD – I mean – from participating in humble and wholesome small-scale pvp into gold. Truth be told, whenever I have taken a gander at some of the “Convert AP to Gold” guides out there I have always been disappointed. I’m tired of pvp streamers telling me to spend 100,000 AP to buy something worth only 18k on the traders. That never seemed like a good AP to Gold ratio to me.
And it really isn’t. With just a bit of market knowledge, a dash of meta expertise, and even the occasional prayer to the RNG gods, you can really get the most bang for your buck.
Turn Your AP Into Gold
Watch the accompanying video to this post!
The Ideal Ratio
When reading this article and trying to determine what to buy with AP, what to sell your newly acquired items for, or when coming up with trade secrets of your own, it is recommended to try to attain a 1:1 Gold to AP ratio. Any less than that and you are really not getting your AP’s worth. This ratio is completely attainable, you just have to know what to do!
Buying Jewelry From The Golden Vendor
This method requires the most patience (and inventory space). From Friday-Sunday every week, The Golden Vendor appears at one of your alliance gates in Cyrodiil. Each week they bring a new selection of golden jewelry that can be purchased for gold, or AP!
If you understand the meta and if you know what is currently in demand, or soon to be in demand, or what has always been in demand, you can make some smart purchases at the Golden Vendor. Non-bound jewelry pieces go for 300k a piece. The best strategy regarding the Golden Vendor would be to purchase however many jewels you would like and then hold off on selling them until no one else is selling them, so that you have little to no competition.
Example: I purchased a large amount of gold Mother’s Sorrow rings for 300k AP each, and then sold them for 350k each approximately one year later. I also bought quite a few for less than 150k gold (the gold price at the golden vendor) from guild stores knowing full well that their price would increase.
As mentioned in my example, it is also not a bad idea to buy the gold jewelry from the golden vendor from guild traders at reduced prices to then flip later on in the year. Often times you can find jewelry pieces for under 100k that are worth 300k in a few months.
I would highly recommend checking out The Real Godzilla’s YouTube channel, specifically, his “Golden Vendor Smash or Pass” video series, to help you make some well-informed purchases when it comes to buying jewels from the golden vendor.
Try Your RNG With Gear Coffers
Towns in Cyrodiil
There are 3 towns in Cyrodiil: Bruma, Vlastarus, and Cropsford. Upon capturing the town, you (as well as your alliance) have the option to purchase coffers from siegemasters in the town for 12k AP that reward you with a random item from a specific gear set. Each town offers different sets. These different sets can be viewed by clicking the respective links for each town above.
It is important to keep up with what gear is popular in the current meta so that you can make some educated purchases.
Example: For the longest time, “Deadly Strikes” gear was immensely popular, because the ESO meta favored Damage-over-Time builds. Therefore, purchasing Deadly Strikes coffers from Bruma was a worthwhile endeavor as it proved to be very financially rewarding.
Elite Gear
You can also buy elite gear coffers from the <Elite Gear Vendor> at one of your alliance gates. Much like all other gear in the game, elite gear stats are very much subject to change with every patch. Be sure to keep up to date with the meta and any new changes to gear to know which sets are going to be the most in demand.
People often tend to neglect these coffers, so you can often find yourself being one of the few sellers of any one of the sets offered below. I have made quite a lot of gold myself from selling Vicious Death pieces in Divines that I have gathered from Unidentified Elite Light Armor coffers.
Things to Consider
When looking to buy gear coffers, do some quick mental math and think about the likelihood of whether or not you will get an expensive piece of gear. Here are some things to consider:
- What traits of this set are valuable? The more traits that are valuable (impen, divines, sturdy etc), the more likely you are going to get a piece worth selling for a nice amount of gold. Aim to buy coffers where multiple traits are sought after. A good way to know this is to ask yourself questions such as “is this set used in PvP and PvE?”, and “what roles (tank, healer dps) can use this set?”
- How flooded is the market right now? Have a majority of the players caught on that this is a valuable and likewise expensive set right now? Flooded markets welcome lots of competition and decreasing prices, so it is best to stay away from these kinds of gear coffers.
Trading AP:Gold With A Trusted Individual
You can offer guildies, friends, or even players in zone chat the option to trade AP to gold. Some individuals prefer to stay away from pvp, and because of this, often have no choice but to purchase items that they need from guild stores. However, sometimes the item that they are looking for is not for sale, or there is a monopoly on a specific item and it’s being sold at a ludicrous price. These people then turn to trusted folk that can offer them an AP:Gold trade.
Much like crown selling, the AP “buyer” pays the AP “seller” a set amount of gold so that the seller can purchase the AP equivalent amount of coffers for the buyer.
Example: Someone is looking for a Vicious Death belt, but there are only 3 for sale in the entire game and they are listed at 800k each. Instead of paying 800k, a buyer pays an AP seller 300k and asks them to buy them 15 Elite Light Armor Coffers instead.
As previously stated, the standard AP:Gold ratio that is accepted is 1:1, and this is the going rate that you will often see AP buyers and sellers refer to.
Buying Alliance Spell Draughts To Sell For Gold
Alliance spell draughts can be purchased with AP and then subsequently sold for a decent amount of gold. On PC NA, each potion goes for around 250g, thus, a stack costs about 50k gold. A stack of 200 costs 144k AP to buy, so while your ratio is not exactly 1:1, this method is still a great way to quickly convert your AP into gold because of how often these potions are purchased.
These spell draughts provide the same buffs that are in the essence of spell power potions, which are absolutely necessary for magdps in pve. This explains why both variants are always flying off of the shelves.
Alliance spell draughts can be purchased from any general merchant in Cyrodiil!
Tamriel Trade Secrets 