From Charlie:
This chart is Etze's math on why buying emeralds, and then opening chests is a better value than buying the skin for real money directly. I'll let him describe it;
Described by Etze:
I probably have to explain a little bit - this is web by the way. First column is the total amount of emeralds spent for one color of skin stones. Second column is the amount of skin stones you can get, third column is the amount of outland coins you can get. In the fourth column I summed those values up with a 50/50 rate of skin stones and outland coins and converted 5 outland coins to 1 skin stone. The next three columns are for all three skin stone colors simultaneously so nothing new there. Next next column is the ratio of emeralds spent to skin stones gained: column A divided by column D (or E divided by H for that matter) The last column shows how much skin stone you get per cash. I factored in VIP 13 (my level) and a 4x event. So for higher or lower VIP levels this changes. Then I compared this to buying a skin directly which equates to 5000 skin stones for the skin and another 3500 skin stones from the package. As I am playing in Europe the costs are in EUR and might differ for you. Bonuses for buying emeralds, opening chests or spending emeralds during events are not yet factored in.
It is clear though that the ratios are in favor of buying emeralds and buying chests. Do you agree?
I do not completely agree with the math. For example (2nd row): If I go for 90/90/free, I'll get 100 skin stones at a chance of 50% = 50. Or I'll get 200 skin stone chests at a chance of 50% = 100. These chests can be exchanged at 5:1 to specific skin stones. 100 : 5 = 20. And last I'll get 70 skin stones for free. In total I should expect 50 + 20 + 70 = 140 skin stones for 180 emeralds.
The table would be even more interesting if it continued with 10 or so more rows for buying more chests. (The part of the table that repeats with factor 3 was not that interesting to me.)