A Concern for Younger Shards (The Unbeatable Race)
Many of the forum goers and people who suggest improvements for the game are veteran players from when the game started. Lets look at a couple things that have happened since April/May:
Raids/Raid Gear
Scoundrel Event
Mods
Probably some other stuff Im Forgetting
All of these things increase the game ceiling. They are places to put resources in order to gain benefits/rewards. That by itself isn't a bad thing, its game
content. But take a look at all those things and you'll see that they are all things easily expedited and largely only able to be worked on if youre a whale. If youre on a younger shard, and youre F2P, youve probably been working on your Arena team not scoundrels. If youre F2P youre going to have to carefully manage your credits/ dont have the freedom to level/star and fully mod your teams.
At this point, Im still not exactly unhappy. P2P should get benefits, and previously, theyve had poor value for their money. But you start to get problems when you combine an increased game ceiling easily expedited by money with..... Arena.
Arena is a race, if you're competitive like most of us are. You want to get to the top as fast as you can because it will allow to hold it longer. Its kinda like a monopoly. If you get the top now you have 500 crystals, up to 300 more than your competitors, to put towards keeping your spot.
Now add this all up and what do you get? An unbeatable arena for a F2P or even small P2P in a younger shard. Old shards don't have this problem very much because even F2P hit the caps/ceilings before these changes rolled out. New shards haven't had a chance to hit the caps before, giving intense P2P an extreme credit, raid gear, and mod advantage that is simply insurmountable for a very long time. Plus the Arena crystals! And on top of this the level cap might increase on new shards at any minute!
TL;DR
The game ceiling has increased while catering to P2P in a way that makes Arena impossible for a new F2P or light P2P, unlike before.
Yes, F2P can still hit top 200 or 100. But I'm a decent player who's kept an eye on the meta and spent some
money . I cant beat anyone in the top 10 and foreseeably wont any time soon. Almost everyone in my shards' top 10 have gear 9-10 characters while 99.9% of my shard are still at 8. It doesnt seem like old times, when a F2P can easily hit number 1 as many vets like to point out.
P.S.
I would even venture to say on a side note that the level cap being at 80 is already a slight problem for young shards. Whales hit 80 before many people in my shard hit 70! Thats an extreme advantage to give to P2P when they get to hold the crown of Arena for months, making their lead even more intense.
Raids/Raid Gear
Scoundrel Event
Mods
Probably some other stuff Im Forgetting
All of these things increase the game ceiling. They are places to put resources in order to gain benefits/rewards. That by itself isn't a bad thing, its game
content. But take a look at all those things and you'll see that they are all things easily expedited and largely only able to be worked on if youre a whale. If youre on a younger shard, and youre F2P, youve probably been working on your Arena team not scoundrels. If youre F2P youre going to have to carefully manage your credits/ dont have the freedom to level/star and fully mod your teams.
At this point, Im still not exactly unhappy. P2P should get benefits, and previously, theyve had poor value for their money. But you start to get problems when you combine an increased game ceiling easily expedited by money with..... Arena.
Arena is a race, if you're competitive like most of us are. You want to get to the top as fast as you can because it will allow to hold it longer. Its kinda like a monopoly. If you get the top now you have 500 crystals, up to 300 more than your competitors, to put towards keeping your spot.
Now add this all up and what do you get? An unbeatable arena for a F2P or even small P2P in a younger shard. Old shards don't have this problem very much because even F2P hit the caps/ceilings before these changes rolled out. New shards haven't had a chance to hit the caps before, giving intense P2P an extreme credit, raid gear, and mod advantage that is simply insurmountable for a very long time. Plus the Arena crystals! And on top of this the level cap might increase on new shards at any minute!
TL;DR
The game ceiling has increased while catering to P2P in a way that makes Arena impossible for a new F2P or light P2P, unlike before.
Yes, F2P can still hit top 200 or 100. But I'm a decent player who's kept an eye on the meta and spent some
money . I cant beat anyone in the top 10 and foreseeably wont any time soon. Almost everyone in my shards' top 10 have gear 9-10 characters while 99.9% of my shard are still at 8. It doesnt seem like old times, when a F2P can easily hit number 1 as many vets like to point out.
P.S.
I would even venture to say on a side note that the level cap being at 80 is already a slight problem for young shards. Whales hit 80 before many people in my shard hit 70! Thats an extreme advantage to give to P2P when they get to hold the crown of Arena for months, making their lead even more intense.
