Guild Wars 2

The prize of those have been constantly on the rise- in the last month they have started at 4.72 and now the prize is over 6 silver apiece.
The only recipe I am aware of that uses them are runes.
The rune combining lottery is like the name says a lottery and with the constant rise it would be even more dangerous/unrewarding.
So I am wondering if I have missed anything and there is a new recipe that uses them?

Also the rise happened before any bot ban waves, so those bans could have been a factor but surely not the only one?

Speculators.

It’s probably more based on the situation with Piles of Putrid Essence (the next tier up from vile). Piles of Putrid Essence are technically comparable to lodestones in all ways (same tier and drop rarity per kill) except the enemy type they drop off is easily farmed and they are not used for anything useful outside of a few superior runes (relatively unpopular ones).

All it would take is Anet to introduce a single desirable recipe that makes use of Putrid Essence in reasonable quantities and the price will skyrocket from the 50 copper to 1 silver it’s been floating at since launch (even 50-100 for an infusion would do it).

The best corrupted essence (as I call them), Putrid, is used to make superior runes of undead, etc. which are not bad runes for many builds. They make you tougher and add condition damage (good for eles/mes/theif/engi).

Unspecified.9142:

All it would take is Anet to introduce a single desirable recipe that makes use of Putrid Essence in reasonable quantities and the price will skyrocket from the 50 copper to 1 silver it’s been floating at since launch (even 50-100 for an infusion would do it).

Let ANet introduce a “desirable recipe that makes use of Putrid Essence in reasonable quantities” and you’ll see prices going way over 1s.

They’ll spike very nicely since the supply replenishes so slowly. Then they’ll eventually be lodestone value and my avatar will be able to afford some very nice pixels ^^