We’ve been discussing a lot about the Bard class in DDO recently, but we wanted to drive home a point: Haggle is awesome.  The skill Haggle is based around a character’s Charisma, and the main classes that focus on Charisma are Bards and Sorcerers.  While haggle won’t make you the strongest character in the game, it’ll defiantly help your wallet, and help you buy some nice gear.

DDO’s Compendium simply states that Haggle: “Allows you to negotiate better prices with vendors.”  While this statement sums up the skill nicely, it does a large injustice to the skills true power.  Haggle allows the player to sell his items for a higher price, and to purchase from vendors at a lower price.  This seems simplistic, but at the higher levels of Haggle, you’ll be seeing such large gains in profit that you’ll think of changing your character’s name to Scrooge McDuck, because you’ll be swimming in coin.

To provide a better idea of Haggle, here is the actual math equation used for buying and selling items with Haggle at your side:

Selling = Base SELL percentage + (.25% * Haggle).
Buying = [1 - (.005 * Haggle)] * Markup. (Markup varies depending on Vendor/level of Broker)

It is important to note that Vendors buy and sell based on your reputation, so reputation quests should be completed along with improving your Haggle skill; thus, a player will see the greatest possible gains from these stats and skills.

Ddowiki.com has a great table showing exactly what to expect from Haggle, and a list of reputation quests for easy access: http://ddowiki.com/page/Haggle

Good hunting in DDO, and better yet, good business!