There is obviously a disconnect between how long Anet expects dungeons to take and how long they actually take. As others have already said, the 1-time reward of gold at the end of the path, in addition to the DR effecting the 26 silver at the end, discourages doing the same path more than once per day. However, that does not prevent us farmers from making terrific cash.
Let’s look at the following dungeons I do every night, and their daily gold chests:
AC 1: 1.5g – AC 2: 1.5g – AC 3: 1.5g – CoF 1: 1g – CoF 2: 1g – CM 1: 1g – CM 3: 1g – TA up: 1g – TA fwd: 1g – SE 1: 1g – SE 3: 1g – HotW 1: 1g – CoE 1: 1g – CoE 2: 1g – CoE 3: 1g – Arah 2: 3g – Arah 3: 1.5g
That’s 17 paths, and a total of 21g from chests. Then your additional 26s * 17 = 4.42g. So you’re making 25.42g just from end-dungeon rewards. But that’s not all! I seem to be making 30-35g in cash each night, so where’s that coming from? Oh, right, there are those blue satchels that give you money bags, plus additional silver/copper from bosses/mobs.
Then you’re also getting a bunch of materials and blue/green/rare/exotic armor/weapons. I salvage the blues and greens with the infinite Copper Salvage-o-Matic, and the rares with a Mystic Salvage Kit. The exotics I either sell or salvage with a Black Lion kit, depending on the current broker price for them. My net cost of salvage kits is very close to zero, since it only costs 3c per blue/green, and because I get Mystic Forge Stones/BL kits from dailies/AP reward chests faster than I use them. Selling all the mats I get each day from drops/salvages is another 15-20g.
Then on top of all that, I happen to have half a dozen dungeon recipes. So that’s another 8g per day, just from making exotic jewelry from my daily tokens, minus 3g for the Orichalcum and listing fees, netting 5g.
In total, how much money is all this? 50-60g per daily dungeon tour.
Doing those 17 paths I listed takes about 4 hours with the guild each night, starting at reset. So I’m making 12.5 – 15g per hour, without path-selling or exploiting (unless you’re one of those “FGS is exploit!” morons), just by speedrunning. Did Anet intend this? I have no idea. All I know is that, if I were to pug these same dungeons, it would take me 8-10 hours instead, meaning I’d only be making 5 – 7.5g per hour.
Now I’ll compare this to various types of legit Arah path-selling.
You can speedrun Arah p4 is 30 mins, and sell 4 slots for 15g each, plus the 3.26g the opener gets (63.26g total). You then split that 5 ways, so 12.6g per person. However, it usually takes 15-30 mins to get 4x buyers in the party, so you’re still only making 12.6 – 16.8g per hour, only slightly higher than I make doing my nightly dungeon tour. And you can only do this once per day (maybe DnT or rT have enough buyers to do it twice or 3 times per day, but I don’t).
You used to be able to solo Arah p2 in 50 mins, but since the update, I’ve always had to call for backup at Alphard (I’m probably just a noob for not being able to solo him). Let’s assume that A) you can still solo in 50 mins, or B) whoever you call in to help at Alphard (and sometimes Lupi) doesn’t charge you. You can sell 4x slots for 6g each at the end, plus your own 3.26g (27.26g total). p2 fills faster than p4, so it’s usually full within 10-20 mins. That means 23.3 – 27.26g per hour. You can usually do this 2-3 times per day (once again, DnT or rT can probably do it a lot more each day, since they have more buyers). This is where the real money is. Did Anet intend this? Once again, I have no idea. I’d guess not. All I know is that I’d be very, very angry if they somehow prevented solo’ing by introducing something akin to the gate in CoF p1.
