Gambling

[Crystalion]

and if the ilvl is too low, the item will be rare (triple durability?  Not actually sure here, I only ever gamble amulets and rings :) but I would assume so)
So a level 1 char cannot gamble a Gull ever.

Normal Andy (in classic) recently dropped four rares and a magic item, so, vaguely recalling a recent Ruvanal post ("vaguely recalling" is going to be my new watch phrase here, LOL) I looked at the magic item and, sure enough, it was a hidurare, a double durability Trident iirc (aka a failed set).

Checking through the rares I noticed a 3x hidurare Falchion (failed unique, because norm Andy didn't meet the qlvl for Gleamscythe).

As to clvl 1 Gamblers (gone are the golden days when you could gamble ammys at that clvl, sigh)... it would be nice to have a master calculator, that would quickly tell us the figure for the (low) millions of gold a clvl 11 (probably optimal?) gambler would need to go through, on average, to get a Gull (etc.). Afaik this is one of the "easier" unique gambles (and should be easier in Classic, timewise, as slightly fewer low level base items show up to crowd out daggers).

I am not really aware of what hack programs are out there, but it wouldn't surprise me if there were shop and gamble bots.

Certainly Gold Find builds seem like an interesting bot tactic (since I have heard that auto-pickup of drops is an available cheat).

The "mule" in Dungeon Siege was kinda cool, but what I'd really like to see in EQ/D2 genre games is programmable sidekicks (i.e. extending the rpg "party" under control of one player concept by letting you develop characters and having the game then "automagically" run them somewhat as you've shown/indicated--not that far beyond the Shadow Warrior/Master copycat AI, really).

In such a game, of course, you'd be free to make buying/selling "character" bots. People would no doubt "hire out" character they'd raised/trained as mercs (and, of course, you'd potentially have trained chars guarding your estate... only, perhaps, to return online to find it looted and razed?)

A pity that market dynamics (i.e. high costs, limited "slice of consumer pie" available) has sharply limited innovation.