User:Tennessee Ernie Ford/Shortcuts/Treasure runs

I compared four strategies for minimizing effort/maximizing gains from hunting treasure. The amount of cash is decent, but the time required is substantial: assuming it takes you 10 minutes/treasure (including transit times etc), you have to invest 2 hours each month for about 10k if you visit all the treasures.

Since all Treasure decays in value each time you visit, the most efficient method is to farm only the high-value treasures of The Desolation and The Realm of Torment: you earn nearly half the overall value, but take 5-6x less total time and (perhaps more importantly), you reduce the impact that decay has on your loot. After you have opened a lot of treasures, you can assume that the treasures are nearing their minimum values and can return to farming all of them (if you are so inclined).

The advantage of other types of farming using 7H or 8 players:
 * Progressing other titles (Lucky, Treasure, etc).
 * Better chances of other types of items.

The biggest advantage of monthly treasure running is: it's sort of fun.

Methodology

 * Assumptions
 * 1) The first treasure opens yields 100% max value and the 24th yields 50% value
 * 2) * This was modeled by using exponential decay (100&rarr;97&rarr;...50%)
 * 3) * This isn't exactly what Joe Kimmes said, but relatively close and easier to explain.
 * 4) It always makes sense to start in Torment and work way south (lesser treasures).
 * 5) It takes about 10 minutes to visit each treasure (setting up team + mapping + navigating + fighting), &rarr; 6 visits = 1 hour elapsed time.
 * 6) FoW NM runs should yield an average of 3 shards (worth at least 3 each) plus another 2-3 in cash plus merchantable items.

The strategies compared are:
 * Strategies compared
 * 1) All: Open all treasures every month.
 * 2) Max: Open only Tormented.
 * 3) Value: Open only Tormented and Desolation.
 * 4) Easy: Open only Kourna & Vabbi (representing the idea of sticking to the treasures that can be easily run or are on the way to something else)...5 minutes per treasure instead of 10.