The topic of buying and selling carries in ESO has been a widely debated one. In the following video, I explain what exactly a carry is, as well as how a player can go about purchasing a carry for gold or getting into a position where they can participate in carry-runs to earn gold for themselves!
Selling Carries For Gold: The Most Controversial Gold-Making Method In ESO?
In the latter portion of this video, I read out a handful of opinions from the ESO community concerning this heated topic. You can view all of the submitted, unedited responses below.
I also interviewed a carry seller from the PC EU server for a separate article. They provided some really insightful comments regarding some of the most common criticisms that players have concerning this controversial topic.
Buying And Selling ESO Carries:
The Community’s Opinions
Have you ever bought a carry before? If so, what for? And how was your experience?
Johnnybojan
No. Also no. Do you participate in carry runs as a means to make gold? How has your experience been? Yes. Also yes. In all seriousness though, the first carries surprised me up to the point that I recorded the run because I thought it was a scam. It was so much gold for not a lot of work, but the requirements were really high. If you’re committed and if you have a lot of free time, you can make lots of money and assure good spots in the most profitable carry runs. The requirements are very high though (usually trifecta and very clean logs or 95-100k dps for dds) and if you screw up, you’re being frowned upon, even if it’s a simple wipe. The runs need to be very clean, even if rng isn’t on your side.
Why do you think there is a lot of controversy surrounding buying and selling carries?
There’s lots of money involved and no mechanism to tell whether the person selling a carry is legit or not. It is mostly the fear of the unknown, but from what I’ve seen, the people that buy carries are never disappointed. One issue I see personally is the curated loot system – carry players usually have the essential items collected and that makes them drop less valuable pieces. Unless if they have all of them. Or if they’re filthy server transfers like me
What is your opinion on the notion of buying/selling carries in ESO?
JayAstrophel
Cool if people want to, I can see the appeal on both sides – it’s a great gold making opportunity and can get skins and the like for those who wouldn’t otherwise be able to.
Have you ever bought a carry before? If so, what for? And how was your experience?
No, I personally stay far away from it.
Do you participate in carry runs as a means to make gold? How has your experience been?
Never have
Why do you think there is a lot of controversy surrounding buying and selling carries?
While I’m cool with people buying carries if they wish, I try to stay away from it myself. I’m in quite a few trial focused discord servers and they often have a tag system to show which vet trials, HMs, and so on people have done, which aside from the bragging rights helps show one’s level of trial experience when signing up for groups. I feel that if I ever were to buy a carry I would lose standing in these groups – suddenly whatever run I bought wouldn’t be a ‘real’ clear, and I’d have to jump through more hoops to prove whatever runs I wanted tags for in the future weren’t ones I bought. This isn’t really an issue for someone who doesn’t plan to get into running these trials consistently, but with my being in these kinds of groups and seeing the meaning these trial tags have, I understand why some might have disdain for those who buy carries. It’s just two different mindsets, imo – one group cares immensely about clearing each thing on your own merit, and each clear being a badge of honor, almost, while the other doesn’t care at all and just wants the cool dro-m’athra skin, or whatever else. And those mindsets end up clashing
I think it’s a good way to earn gold, it’s difficult to do it well but if you are investing a lot of time to do end game content why don’t sell this carries? I never bought it because I want to do this things with my friends or muy guilds and I like to watch my progression with my character. I never participate in this kind of business because my laptop it’s a potato but if I could have a better pc definitely I would try to sell this carries. Maybe it’s because most people can’t understand all the work this carries represent and people thing it’s expensive but this is another way to earn gold. Another thing it’s there are some carry groups that abuse a lot increasing prices a lot so this kind of people ruin the reputation of carry sellers.
dreypanicfall
(a) I think provided someone is GOOD at carrying, I see no ethical issues with buying and selling carries; and I think there are plenty of people who either don’t make many friends or who don’t want to impose on friends to carry them for free. Time is money in everything, so if you’ve got two parties willing to participate in a paid carry, I see no issue.
UltiNight
(b) I have. In another guild, I did 1 hour of nBRP. My experience was quite unusual because I actually did it as part of an experiment to compare different exp farming methods, so I did it with suboptimal gear (blue training pieces and a 50% exp potion). My personal experience was great, perhaps because it was with a guild member. We jumped into discord, he spent a few rounds explaining to me what he wanted me to do, and then blitzed through it. I messed up a couple of times and he had no problem with that. Great overall experience.
(c) I would, but I’d be paranoid about demanding money upfront and then sucking at doing the carry; or requesting the money only at the end and getting shafted by the person I’m carrying.
(d) I think, same with perhaps buying and selling crowns, there is always going to be distrust in any financial transaction on a video game where there is payment for a service rather than a good, as there are few means to ensure that the other party will perform their part. A secondary factor may be that, a lot of the time, it’s going to be difficult to know whether the ‘service’ will be good (ie if the person carrying is any good or if they suck) until after it’s happened.
What is your opinion on the notion of buying/selling carries in ESO?
MusCle420
I think it is a service that benefits both players. Some people cant or wont find a group to prog harder content and find the only means to getting this done is by buying a carry.
Have you ever bought a carry before? If so, what for? And how was your experience?
No
Do you participate in carry runs as a means to make gold? How has your experience been?
Yes, we only had one bad apple during my time with my PS4 guild. Only one person tried to scam us. We had rules – no videos of carry runs, and to be polite to the payer. We would also try to accomodate special requests like people who wanted titles on specific toons, or if they wanted to participate in a meaningful way during the carry.
Why do you think there is a lot of controversy surrounding buying and selling carries?
Some people will fight for the sake of fighting. Some probably cant afford it and there is always going to be that one group who sells carries (looking at you, facebook group) that will screw the payer over.
I’ve never paid for a carry, even though my friends on PS4 who sold them (years ago) offered me a free VMA death free run, and another a very cheap vMol skin carry. I personally wouldn’t want the achievement/skin/gear if I didn’t earn it. That said, I don’t begrudge people for selling carries. They worked very hard to master end game content, and running trials is an expensive hobby between spell/weapon pots, high end food, and constantly keeping the latest meta sets golded out. Now that I’ve started over on PC, work a whole lot more than I used to, and have degenerative Multiple Sclerosis that effects my brain to hand signals/coordination, I better understand people who pay for carries as well. I’ll never be able to get GodSlayer or Stormproof on my own with my disabilities. I still won’t pay for them as a point of pride, but I get it. All that said, there is one instance of paid for carries that really irks me, and that is Emperor carries/pvp AP boosting. I don’t understand all the intricacies of how that is done, but from what I’ve heard it’s shady and can involve paying allies in other alliances to participate. In that case, I consider it flat out cheating. Pve carries don’t give you an unfair advantage of other players (though I’m sure many would argue it does via the gear you can get), but it doesn’t lock out other players from getting the same achievement.
RockWhisperer42
What is your opinion on the notion of buying/selling carries in ESO?
alpha_synuclein
I don’t want one, but I think it is ok they are there. Some dungeons and trials are quite difficult, especially on HM’s, and I get that there are people that might want something from the place, but don’t have the time to do progressions or are just not having fun doing endgame or playing in a group. Personally, my favourite thing to do in ESO are dungeons and trials HMs, so I have no interest in paying someone to do them for me. Also, I’m rather poor (at least in comaprison to my more trading-oriented friends), so I wouldn’t be able to afford a carry anyway.
Have you ever bought a carry before? If so, what for? And how was your experience?
I haven’t.
Do you participate in carry runs as a means to make gold? How has your experience been?
I don’t atm, but I would like at some point. The idea of making gold while doing something that I enjoy and would be doing anyway is very appealing. Currently I get most of my gold from selling motifs form dungeons and trials, but these are not crazy earnings. While dungeon motifs are selling quite nicely, trial ones not so much (except Dro M’Athra, but these are not a guaranteed drop, so no way of farming them reliably). Trials are not really profitable by itself, at least when you consider the effort vs reward. The motifs are relatively cheap, the plunder barely (if at all) covers the cost of potions etc. (I’m referring to PC EU prices). So to get gold I do a bunch of stuff that are not very fun to me. Having an opportunity to get a good amount of gold passively would be sooo nice.
Why do you think there is a lot of controversy surrounding buying and selling carries?
Because there is a lot of controversy around endgame itself. When I started playing I was mainly questing and hanging around in very casual guilds and the opinion that the whole endgame is toxic was very popular one. Also, a lot of people tend to believe that endgame players deliberately gatekeep them from content, just so they can make tons of gold from carries. Only when I started to dig into this content myself was when I realized that at some point carries are just a way to make gold. And a pleasant one 🙂 But people really add to it a lot based on their assumptions. My partner is a member of few carry discords and he’s doing carries in dungeons and BRP. It works as a simple gold for a service exchange, all parties seems to be ok with it at the end.
What is your opinion on the notion of buying/selling carries in ESO?
I think it’s just fine. Have fun however you want. In either of your cases, if everyone acts like adults, why not? If you think it’s wrong/ cheating/ too expensive to buy or sell carries, just don’t do it.
Have you ever bought a carry before? If so, what for? And how was your experience?
No, but I wanted to. I had a chance at an NRG run back when it had double loot drops. Guaranteed to get one of everything. But they wanted 6 million gold for it, and I didn’t have that much.
Do you participate in carry runs as a means to make gold? How has your experience been?
Yes, I’ve run non-guildies through Skyreach Catacombs for gold, a couple of times. It was easy gold, but I didn’t make much, since I didn’t want to gouge anyone.
Why do you think there is a lot of controversy surrounding buying and selling carries?
Too many people have chunks of their self esteem tied up in this game, so they view carries as a form of cheating.As long as you’re not trying to tell people you’re teh G0d of the Sweat Vets, who cares!? For example, I got a free VSS carry from the big guns in one guild. But I don’t try to pass myself off as an expert on that, either. I just flex the title and skin, and leave it at that. In one of my guilds, the super sweaty core team is thinking of using top end vet carries to generate gold for the guild trader.
AmericanHussar1
I feel like carries devalue the achievements. Since you can convert IRL currency into gold via crowns. It basically becomes, how much money is this achievement worth? And it kinda sucks that someone can pay like 20 dollars for a carry and get something you spent weeks or months working with a team to get. And eventually, some can start thinking stuff like: “Why would I work hard for this in game if I can just buy it if I skip 2-3 meals?”
Nomma
In short: Fuck carries.
I personally do not see an issue with it seeing as ESO is a free market where players get to decide the value of things and titles/skins/markings, etc. are valuable so it only makes sense that players that are able to sell those things will capitalize on it.
courtjester1474
I personally paid for my no death in vFL because I was getting frustrated pugging it with groups that didn’t know you can’t stand in the big red circles. I sometimes have trouble finding people to group up with for certain things so having the option to just buy a group is nice. However, because I purchased that run I will never advertise myself as someone that can help someone else accomplish their no death in vFL until I can actually get it myself in an unpaid run.
While I was in that run I spoke a little with the group that was carrying me and they said that a lot of their customers are people that moved to PC from console and are just trying to get back to where they were on console.
As far as I’m concerned, there is really nothing “wrong” with buying a carry. The act of buying it does not hurt anyone else. If a player has enough gold, then go for it. I somewhat understand the argument on the other side too. Some people don’t like the idea because it negates the need for the person buying the carry to truly earn the achievement through hard work and progression or what have you. While I understand that point, I still feel it’s ok to buy one.
Master.Jedi
The controversy surrounding this topic is understandable. It comes from the idea that the titles/skins/achievements should be earned through the work of learning and executing mechanics and grinding your way to victory. This is a valid point. However, my arguments supporting the people that buy carries are these: 1) Not everyone has the kind of time that I do. I can play eso 30 hours a week if I want to. Some people may only be able to play 30 hours a month, or less. If I were one of those people, I would be looking to buy a carry myself. Time is a big constraint in mmo’s in general. It takes a lot of dedication to get through some of the things people are buying. 2) There is a market for it that allows players that offer the “service” to make some gold by doing content that they have mastered. It helps both the person buying the carry, and the person selling the carry
At the end of the day, the ones that earned those achievements the hard way can walk proud and tall , and know inside themselves that they did it the hard way. Someone else that buys a carry is not going to negate that. Like I said, I see both sides, but I feel that buying it is relatively harmless overall.
What is your opinion on the notion of buying/selling carries in ESO?
NegativeKDpls
For cosmetics and titles I don’t see much wrong with it, lots of other games do it. However it can mean plebs can lie their way into Vet content.
Have you ever bought a carry before? If so, what for? And how was your experience?
I bought a VCR3 because I had a kid and no more time to tick it off my list. Was one of my last HM’s needed before rockgrove came out
Do you participate in carry runs as a means to make gold? How has your experience been?
I have once and it was quick and pro. I used One More Carry from One More Pull server
Why do you think there is a lot of controversy surrounding buying and selling carries?
I haven’t heard much tbh. I feel it is a reward for being elite at the game, the carriers put hours into getting good so its a nice way they can be rewarded imo
I recommend vet trial carries for gold to get the skins and furnishings that come from completing vet trials. The VCR purple skin is crispy. The normal nss door furnishing is nice and one could just do a pug in crag for that.
deadpoolx23117
What is your opinion on the notion of buying/selling carries in ESO?
Dan Hensley
I’m perfectly fine with it. Good way for guilds to make money, and it helps casual players get better gear. It might be less necessary if they added a trial or arena finder in the game, but right now it’s hard to find groups for certain content you might need to run for the gear.
Have you ever bought a carry before? If so, what for? And how was your experience?
Yes, once. Nobody in my guilds or zone chat was willing to run vet Fang Lair with me and I needed the monster helm. So I gave in a paid for a run. It was quick and easy and the runners were super nice.
Do you participate in carry runs as a means to make gold? How has your experience been?
I do not. But like stated before, I think its a good gold making tactic for those that do. And plenty of people appreciate the help, whether they are willing to admit it or not.
Why do you think there is a lot of controversy surrounding buying and selling carries?
Certain players think that being carried doesn’t mean “earning” the gear for yourself. And because of how crowns work, you can technically buy gold that is used for these runs to get gear. Some might see it as “pay-to-win” but I think that’s a stretch. Also, I know a LOT of people who have bought carries and I think it’s common. I just think too many people are ashamed to admit it. I’m not.
Love the idea for your next vid, thought I would give you a new comer’s (6 months) perspective on carries. I personally don’t have an issue with it and have seen it other games as well, in particular those that don’t have match making (Destiny raids). This can be for a variety of reasons. Gatekeeping is one I am aware of where groups will not let you in a raid because you don’t have the right gear – the catch is that the gear they want you to have is from doing raids. Other groups only want people who are experienced so they will not want to go through the time it takes being a sherpa for new players. Perhaps the person wanting to pay for the carry also may feel better doing a run in that manner since they wont feel pressured to perform well and face toxic people in the raid group if they mess up causing wipes. That being said I have found that the ESO community members I have encountered and guilds I have joined are really friendly peeps and outnumber the less desirable members of the ESO player base. I feel if someone puts themselves out there and joins some groups then they shouldn’t have any trouble getting some good folks to do some end game activities with them.
LMiranic
So, I think selling/buying a carry could be a decent way to make gold for the guild (and the guild only) but nowadays the prices are awful. For example, the other day, I saw VCR+3 for 12 million gold. I mean, on ESO you can run a trial over and over again if you want to, I don’t think selling my house for a trial that takes less than 2 hours to complete is worth it. In ESO, I’ve never been a part of a guild that sells runs. I did it on another MMO and honestly, I just felt bad doing it. To me, this is player exploitation, in a way. It kinda sucks to see more and more of them. There are so many other ways to make gold in ESO. This type of stuff doesn’t encourage people to create a guild and try to be better. It’s bad. That being said, it’s your gold, you do what you want with it, it’s simply my opinion, I don’t have to tell you how to spend what you earned.
Ealezem
What is your opinion on the notion of buying/selling carries in ESO?
Eloah.Israfel
It’s okay IF the seller brings a good service and the buyer know what is buying. (A run for X time that may bring more or less xp; and that the carrier is doing a job according to cost) I mean, know it may sound crazy to buy something you may get for free if you have fiends or close guildies, or even doing xp runs when u can just power level with master writs and questing zones, but, also is a service is tradeable, and a player can decide if he need to hire the service, if the expense is profitable in time and so.
Have you ever bought a carry before? If so, what for? And how was your experience?
Nope, my friends help me with this and a lot of pve content (love and gratitude to them and to my kind guildies), or, I just go solo to skyreach and (sometimes) join to other random players there (have done some friends in that way indeed). But (having enough gold), I’d buy carries from friends or guildies if necessary (if I need the XP run and/or they need the gold or so)
Do you participate in carry runs as a means to make gold? How has your experience been?
Nope, at least for now just free help to my friends and guildies, because I don’t believe myself a good carrier, (unless the team leader tell me otherwise but that is in group content and not in carries) I just review my items, mechanics, stats, and then start attacking everything before me lol
Why do you think there is a lot of controversy surrounding buying and selling carries?
’cause could be some uninformed (willingly or not) players selling or buying more or less that the other ppl expect. And there could be some ppl selling smoke (like some weeks ago when I saw a person selling in-game gold for irl money; and selling things that you only get by doing some quests and so lol). Also, ppl like drama (I suppose)
When I have been part of progression groups, the main goal was to improve team cohesion and achieve something as a group. Something like a skin at the end of a difficult trial was awesome, but mostly a bonus to the sense of accomplishment. I am unbelievably proud of my first progression group finally finishing vAS +2. It was a gueling 10 weeks that involved creating and leveling another character to help increase our chances. I rock that skin on my Argonian tank and love it, but I get more joy in conveying the experience to friends and guildies. Not everyone has the time or energy to spend weeks or months growing with a group. Cosmetics or gear shouldn’t be gated from someone more willing to spend gold for help than time and energy they don’t have. Carries are a great resource provided by the community.
popcatholic
I sell skyreach carries to make gold. I used to make 200k gold within an hour just selling skyreach runs now a days I don’t really see much people online tho so its going down. But if I can find a good customer 200k within hour easily. People usually pay 10k per run but some also pay 20k just gota convince them for that. In my opinion selling carries makes a lot of gold and buying skyreach carries is a really good way to power level your character. BRP has more exp but skyreach is fun for me to do.
Uzair492
What is your opinion on the notion of buying/selling carries in ESO?
Soulbug/Soulfaye
Completely fine, it’s your own choice whether or not you participate in such act. People react like it’s committing a crime meanwhile it’s pretty much the same as selling crowns for ingame gold. You’re speeding up a process for convenience sake. You as carrier are giving players that either aren’t as skilled as yourself or just don’t have the time commitment to achieve something in the game and would rather open their wallets to achieve it.
Have you ever bought a carry before? If so, what for? And how was your experience?
Yes, for an achievement/skin, why? because I’m not that good pvm at all. I’m more of a pvper/market type of player than a hardcore pvmer, and skins are completely cosmetic. Which by the way lets remind everyone, fashion is endgame..
Do you participate in carry runs as a means to make gold? How has your experience been?
Sort of, I’ve carried a couple players to Emperor which was a some sort of carry, takes some dedication and planning but it’s the same story as for me with PvM. Those players absolutely despise or ”suck” at PvP but still wish to have the cosmetic rewards of becoming an Emperor which is fair, we all can help eachother achieve something.
Why do you think there is a lot of controversy surrounding buying and selling carries?
Achievements etc have a sense of accomplishment and when you pay for a carry, you get rid of those bragging rights. Sadly enough there are some people that purchase those carries and start bragging/lying about the achievement etc. Meanwhile they haven’t done anything special for it but empty their wallets for it, it diminishes the accomplishment/value of said achievement in some way.
Opinion on Buying/Selling Carry’s: I don’t like the idea of a carry, but I can’t say it’s wrong, it just leaves a bad vibe. I have never bought a carry. Never participated in a carry run. Controversy exists primarily due to the bad apples of this practice. The people who want the bragging rights with none of the work. I do feel it’s different in ESO vs say, Apex Legends. People pay in Apex Legends for someone to carry them (boost them) to a rank of play they are not so they can have the badges and bragging rights that come with it. ESO can have that depending on what you are being carried in. If, in ESO, you know you don’t have the right gear yet, but really want to run something, I don’t necessarily see anything wrong with paying someone with Gold to help you (carry you) through that content. Especially if you are a completionist or trying to get some rare items. I do feel it should be less controversial in ESO, but more than likely there are a lot of bad apples ruining the experience, or perhaps just the perception, of the issue at hand.
The Silence
1. When I first joined I definitely found it a bit weird that people “sold” carries. It seemed like it exploited new players.
After playing for a while my opinion changed alot. It became normal but it took a second. I think it was just like understanding how the game works more since I was one of those level 20s who grinded Skyreach to cp160 in a few days. (Not the best answer but it could help ig)
2. I have bought carries before for Skyreach. Everyone I bought from was extremely nice, I made sure to tip as well and some of them even declined the tip. I Found people practicing for carries and giving me free runs while they were perfecting their run to give the best experience to the people who would be paying them. I really didn’t feel like they were just trying to get money out of me. Before I bought them I really did thing it was weird/exploitative, but I realized its all just part of the game tbh and people are extremely nice about it. I’ve been given discounts before too by some. (Not sure if carries includes like skyreach or brp runs but ye, just tryna help) In terms of Trial/Dung carries as a new player (CP265) who hasn’t even begun doing Vet DLC dungeons or any trials, I think that paying for carries for actual gear isn’t a problem for the game, however I think it might even cause player burn out. If you play a game, and have nothing to grind for and don’t know how to do hard content, what are you going to do with the gear you get? Cosmetics are obviously endgame, and if you dont get them yourself, and know u have an easy way to get them by just paying what’s the point? I have no problems with paying to get a boost, I exchanged some crowns for gold when I played first for some spending money. It’s just my viewpoint that paying for content that is difficult to get/grind for, could make the game feel stale alot quicker and increase burnout.
AlexRyyan
Im “completely” against carry run. To introduce my reason i need to specify that i was “part” of a group that sell carry run like 2y ago. I only accept to do 1 carry at this time. Honnesly, that pay well, like 800k by member + a part for the commission and a part for the guild. And 800k 2y ago was a lot… But sometime after the raid i notice the same guy flexing whit his zmaja shadow skin, looking down on people telling them he was on of the greatest nightblade blablabla… Seeing that completely block me from keeping making carry, and after rethinking about the carry concept i realise that i don t help people by playing for them. -it ruins the game. i knows, having everything in a game i a thing now, but i think time/work is a part of the fun about archieving something. Beating a hard game (like dark souls) give you a different feeling that just beating you little cousin at mario kart. i want people to experience how i feel when i get dro-mathra destroyer after 2 months. -you are potentially creating a toxic player like the guy i describe before -you are potentialy ruining some pick up group (imagine you pick people to clear CR because they got archivement but they can t even do 20k dps…) it can be nice to get a archivement you want but its also ok if you haven t. I have never ear somebody flamming someone because he doesn t have GS
grovex_fr
i have bought skyreach carries multiple times to lvl characters and most of the time the person that whispered back was really nice, even that i ended up tipping them extra and 1 even became my friend. only once was someone asking too much gold and i didnt get along with him
norman
To answer your question about carries: 1. In my opinion, carries are fine. They help inexperienced or incapable players (by getting the clear, loot), reward skilled players (by getting paid), and don’t affect everyone else (they usually don’t make the leaderboards lol) 2. I’ve never bought a carry 3. I do not (currently) participate in carries to make gold. 4. I think the main reason it’s controversial is some players feel they “earned” their clears/gear/titles/skins etc themselves, while others can simply pay to be brought through the content. But honestly, I don’t know too many people against it. Most of my friends and guild mates don’t care what you spend your money on.
OnThaLoose
My experience with buying/selling carries comes from “buying” a skin run on Xbox. I put that in quotations because I didn’t actually buy this skin run myself. My good friend on Xbox had always mentioned she wanted to help me get a trial skin of my choosing, and she was willing to buy it for me since she knew I had trouble saving up my gold at the time. My skin of choice was Sunspire; on Xbox, that was 1.2 Mil when I ran for it. She gave me the gold and then set up a day to run it with her guild buddies, who I guess were a dedicated bunch who ran these trials pretty often. They were people I knew. The guy leading the run – he was someone I’d had a falling out with of my own making, but he still was willing to run me through for the skin. He didn’t even take the gold up front like I assume most of them do; he waited until we had finished the run before getting the gold. That meant he still trusted me, even after the past we had together. I didn’t know how to feel, other than grateful. They didn’t ask much of me. They had dedicated people to run the important mechanics, and all I had to do was follow direction where needed. I made sure to help with damage; because regardless if I was paying, I knew I wanted to help. They told me I’d done a good job after we finished. That is still the only trial skin I ever got on my Xbox account.
BriZBrat22
I’ve never been a part of one of these carry teams myself. I assume they expect a certain damage output from you, and I just never had the confidence in my DPS to try joining; not to mention I never really stuck around in a guild long enough to even be considered for something like that. I imagine it’s a pretty decent way to make gold, but I feel like I make a decent chunk of gold doing the boring stuff that I do already, and I’m content with that. As far as my opinion on these buying and selling of carries: I think they’ll be around regardless of whether people agree with it or not. If there’s a way to make money off of other people, then it’ll exist, just like it does in real life. It’s sad to think about, but… Yeah. I don’t judge anyone who sells these runs, or buys them, either. My advice to people buying it: if you can, make sure to run it with people you know, or maybe even try to get acquainted with the team who’s planning to carry you. But please, never feel pressured to buy those carries. Yes, the content on ESO is difficult and it is easy to want to pay for it and get it over with, but I believe everyone can get to a point where they can run those trials and challenges without having to pay them. DPS doesn’t usually matter in these cases, although it helps; for things like this, it’s all about mechanics. Take the time to learn them, run them with people who are willing to have patience with you, and then take those mechanics at your own speed, and you’ll do as good as any high-ranking CP person out there.
What is your opinion on the notion of buying/selling carries in ESO?
Anonymous
When it comes down to “how do I go about making the most gold”, which is something a lot of people find themselves asking at some point, the best methods will always be 1) Selling Carries and 2) Flipping. I’ve met Flippers who make more than Carriers, and vice versa. The amount of time a player is able to spend doing Carries obviously means alot as well. On the other side of the coin we have buying carries. Buying a carry can be a great option for a variety of reasons. I think the main reason, in my personal experience, is the group requirements. A player may be able to hit XXk DPS needed for a run. Finding a suitable group of 3-11 other players who are also able to clear the run can be more challenging and time consuming. So a simple option is to buy a carry. Other players may be after fashion items (i.e. Skins, Titles, Dyes, Mounts, etc). Personal opinion, a player who cant pull 80k DPS shouldnt be left wanting for Trial rewards. Making gold can be easier for some than parsing 80k. So they can simply buy a carry.
Have you ever bought a carry before? If so, what for? And how was your experience?
Yes, I’ve personally spent upwards of 100M on carries, for myself, friends, and a couple times as a way to do Twitch Giveaways for Skins (in which I would setup and pay the cost of the carry for the skin selected by the winner) The runs I purchase for myself have all been for Skins or Personalities. My experience with carries has always been pleasant. I attribute this primarily to my choice in Carry Guilds. There’s a ton out there and people can be seen posting in Zone chat all the time. I’ve strictly only ever bought from one Guild. They’ve always provided the absolute best service, overall prices, and the people there are super friendly.
Do you participate in carry runs as a means to make gold? How has your experience been?
I’ve joined some carry runs. Simply as a fill, and my experiences have been wholesome. I’ve never been one to consistently sell carries for gold. My brain simply could not handle that type of monotony in terms of running PvE content.
Why do you think there is a lot of controversy surrounding buying and selling carries?
The real meat and potatoes, as it were. I would personally say there’s more controversy surrounding the Buying of carries, more so than the Selling of them. In the end, everyone loves to make the gold. But when it comes to how other players spend their gold, judgement tends to get passed very frequently. I’ve personally seen a lot of toxicity in non-carry Trial servers when someone mentions buying a carry. People can say some nasty things about someone buying a carry. It gets worse when you see the outright hypocrisy of some players who themselves Sell carries saying things like “I would never respect someone who Buys a carry.” Well, then why are you facilitating the trade? line of reasoning I’ve heard before is that Buying a carry for the purpose of cosmetics or titles, devalues the effort others have put into running a prog of that content. I earned my Skin the right way, You paid for yours type mentality.
On the surface, this is somewhat understandable, if egotistical. My response to this has always been, What’s stopping the player Buying this carry, from running a prog themselves in the future? There are so many reasons why a person/player does anything in life. Everyone doesn’t have the time in life to prog Trifectas, +3s, +2s, etc. Why should they be denied access to the nice cosmetics awarded from that content? On the other hand, some players are more casual. Should the casual players be denied nice skins because they aren’t committed to farming the gear and parsing enough to be end game content capable? Personally, finding other players to prog with has always been my challenge. So I bought runs. Eventually, I found 3 other players to prog Trifectas. But the game had already begun to rot by then and we all ended up leaving for a time. We may pick up again in the near future, who knows…
I have lots of thoughts about carries! on the one hand, i certainly don’t begrudge people who SELL carries. i have lots of friends who do this, though i have never done it myself. everyone needs gold for different reasons and has different skills/interests to help them make gold. i love doing dark brotherhood dailies. i would do them even if i didn’t get motifs to sell! & it’s nice to earn gold from doing something i enjoy. some people love doing really hard content and spend their time getting really good at it. if they want to sell that service, then they should! everyone should be able to make gold from doing content they enjoy. i don’t really think, from the seller’s perspective, that this is any different from someone spending a lot of time and energy on research and leveling up crafting so they can sell crafted gear. on the other hand, there are the buyers. there are lots of buyers who just aren’t interested in vet trials or dlc dungeons — they are more interested in rp or housing or fishing or questing or whatever. especially the rp people, i can see them wanting specific skins or personalities that are perfect for their character, but are unattainable. maybe there’s something similar in the crown store, but now that involves spending real life money. and carries aren’t cheap! if someone has earned enough gold through farming and fishing and crafting and housing to buy a carry so their character can have the prettiest pony, then i don’t see any issue with that either. if you’re just not into trials and dungeons, it sucks that so many of the best dyes and skins and cosmetics are locked behind content you have no interest in progressing towards. and it gives you a different goal — raise enough gold through activities you do enjoy to pay for the carry! because, like i said, carries aren’t cheap! so this is all my pro-carry stance. but i do think it gets complicated in two ways.
Anonymous
1) not everyone earns gold through in game means. i know one person who spends an amount of money i literally cannot fathom on buying crowns, which he then sells for gold. he has an insane amount of gold — and he’s had an insane amount basically since the second he started playing. if people like that buy carries, then they are paying human money for carries, which seems… squicky to me. like, if you are going to spend human money on it, just buy crown store stuff. i feel like that’s what cheapens it for me, the knowledge that people like this guy are out there, just throwing real human money at stuff that would normally be a serious grind in game. 2) people who are interested in harder content, but pay for carries so they can have titles or other status symbols that they haven’t actually earned. because most carries are extremely protective of buyer identity, there’s no way of knowing if someone earned their title or was carried. i have met plenty of big ego people in the trial community. a guy i was in a prog with got kicked when he got caught photoshopping the combat metrics for his parse. when so many groups require clears to join, i can easily see people paying for carries so they can show off their pithkas and get a spot. honestly, knowing that carries exist makes me so wary of people i haven’t run content with — it makes me feel like a title means nothing, because anyone could have paid for that title if they had enough gold.
And then when you combine those two…. the guy i mentioned, the one who bought so many crowns and has been a bazillionaire since before he hit cp, he’s also really into trials and titles and skins and mounts and status symbols. it makes me not believe he earned any of it, even though maybe he did! just knowing it’s possible that he bought those titles makes me doubt him and that makes me feel like a bad person, not trusting that a friend really did earn their clears. blech. anyway! the CONCEPT of carries makes total sense to me, from both a buyer or a seller standpoint. i totally get why they exist and i don’t begrudge the role players who just want a glowy skin or the elite groups who need to pay for their potions. but the fact that they exist casts an unfortunate shadow over all actual accomplishments in the game. in the end though, i guess, the only person who really matters is yourself. i get titles and achievements for me, not for showing off to other people. some of the hardest achievements i’ve completed don’t even have any tangible reward! i spend forever progging on this one stupid 5-point dungeon achievement just because i didn’t have it. literally no one will ever know that i completed it, there’s no way of showing it off — but i felt SO accomplished when my group finally pulled it off! & so i just have to try to remember that achievements are for me — and other people buying titles that i worked hard for doesn’t cheapen what i accomplished, because that’s not the point.
Tamriel Trade Secrets 