What p2w elements are in the game?

Tempted to start playing again, originally quit shortly after KA because of Ascendancy spell upgrades among other things. Is it any better?

If live/retail is bad; would I be able to avoid most of it on Kaladim?

Kaladim would be the cheaper option as it does not require purchasing the latest expansion.

lol if you thought it was p2w in KA, do not return. brain-trust upstairs looked at the bean numbers and, as if vindicated, exclaimed, "See?! Told you it'll work. Full steam ahead to Eldorado!". meanwhile entirely missing the point that noone doubted it'll work as a short-term finance-sheet bandaid, but longterm being the death knell of EQ2's soul.

frankly it was still reasonably fine in KA. it was annoying to see that membrane pierced, but it was still an experiment and they did a B- job of trying to keep it in their pants. couple of tiers of ascensions had to be researched, but it was fairly reasonable to get grandmastered by end of xpac via playing the game. it was obviously disingenuous to withhold couple of ascension tiers to stimulate the p2w-to-have-now temptation, but research could get their at least.

it is absolutely not fine now. if some auto-playing game on your phone is a 10 of 10 p2w, then you quit over a 2. it's at about 7 now.

I haven't played since KA but I've heard it's a lot worse now as far as pay to win goes. You'll avoid most of it on Kaladim but Kaladim does still have xp potions and LoN loot boxes.

Researching spells.
Cobalt crates.
Some of the better mount gear.
Buying old adornments from Isle and transfering them to servers with players.
Expansion preorder items. Illusions and ancient/celestial spell scrolls.
Buying krono for platium. Everything is hugely inflated due to multiple plat dupe bugs through out the games lifespan. There is no way a legitimate player can earn enough platium through questing to afford anything at level 120. Alternative is to gather stuff for hours and hours.

Ill start by saying that if you just want to do quests and solo, you dont even have to pay a subscription. With that out of the way, lets go through it.

The game is extremely p2w if you want to dps. There is just no way around spending money on something or you will be at such a huge disadvantage unless you have played an insane amount of hours to get scraps and even putting in insane hours, you will never top parse unless ur raid squad doesnt know what they are doing.

Tanks are in the middle here. If you p2w it will obviously be a much smoother experience for you, especially HP mount gear is huge.

Chanters, bards, healers can get away not spending much or anything at all, except krono for platium, but will be at a huge disadvantage.

What a bummer.

Thanks for the info.

This.

If you are a solo player, nothing of this will matter or has mattered over the years.

Want to group/raid and be carried by others then it will not apply to you.

Want to group/raid and be competitve and feel useful in your role. You will have to spend money.

I totally forgot about the preorder mounts which is a huge pay to win element too.

Do stat mounts drops in BoL (i.e. Titan of Chaos, Colossus of Chaos from CD)?

Meh. Not required to enjoy the game. Min-max optional thing.

Many players bought the Cobalt Crate because they like the look of the Cobalt appearance items (armor, weapons).

Most-all BiS mount gear dropped or TS'd during Dragon Attack.

Isn't the expansion perk only providing for 1 ancient and/or celestial scroll as a cute bonus? You can't buy multiple expansions for the same account.

Pre-order bonuses are offered every year.

Meh. People have told me that it's very easy to make millions of pp on EQ2. Krono is high but someone paid $17.99 so it makes sense that it remains high.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Microtransactions (or "P2W") isn't too crazy on EQ2 (it's definitely not Eve Online or Star Citizen). I think EQ2's problems stem more from Resolve/Potency requirements (which does not exist on EQ1). I think microtransactions may be slightly justifiable if the internal numbers reflects a low number of subscribers. Everyone can get by simply by purchasing an expansion on EQ2 whereas many players on EQ1 subscribe for 1-6 accounts (depending on boxes) on top of paying for the latest EQ1 expansion (for each account).

I dont understand why you have to troll every thread on this forum Benito. Of course you can play this game without paying a dime. This is a question about how enjoyable the game is and how useful you as a player are when you dont spend money on it.

Do you want to dps and hit the enemy with wet noodles or do you want to help your raid group? Do you want to tank stuff and not be a viability every pull? Do you want to provide buffs or do you want to be a helpless gnome sitting in the back doing nothing?

When I answer a post like this I always figure that the player asking wants to:

A) Enjoy the endgame. This includes heroic grouping and 24 man raiding
B) Dont want to be a liability and dont want to be carried.
C) Play his character even remotely optimal and not hit enemies with wet noodles.

With all three points in mind, this game is extremely p2w, but some classes are hit harder than others.

The devs want to expansion to last 366 days so they require time sinks and grinds.

A lot of the concerns you've highlighted can be addressed by lowering Resolve & Potency requirements or readjusting/recalculating the dps formulas.

The main P2W concern comes from the mounts. People want the mounts for Potency and Resolve. If BoL is not dropping BiS mounts like those from CD (Titan of Chaos, Colossus of Chaos), then that's a fair issue to bring up.

I also forgot to list "Goliath of Chaos" mount from Chaos Descending.

Are BiS mounts not obtainable in BoL like they were in CD?

Ok, let's take this step by step.

If all the player wants to do is the 3 hour signature questline and the same 12 solo zones every day, then fine, upgrading spells is not required. If the player wants to contribute to heroic groups or even raids, then upgrading spells most certainly is required. No group is going to take a player who is known to have apprentice-only spells, unless they are powerful enough that it literally does not matter whether they take a gimped player or just empty space. I have seen this over and over.

If the player derives enjoyment from being able to contribute to the group/raid, then they most certainly need to upgrade spells. This is not an optional thing. Now, in the context of pay to win, perhaps there is an argument to be made that profession spell upgrades can be bought, crafted, or earned in game. And there's a kernel of truth to this, but for a new/returning player, they are not going to have millions of pp laying around for these upgrades unless they ... buy a krono and sell it.

Are you seriously arguing that the loot boxes sell because of a handful of appearance items? They sell because when Daybreak/Darkpaw released the loot boxes, they locked literally the best mount in the game within them. Raiders are not buying these boxes by the hundreds for appearance items, Benito.

The dragonsoul mount gear was best in slot for a very limited period of time - the end of the expac, when the 15th anniversary celebration was live, until the new expac, when basic mount rewards went live and are significantly better. So, yes, Daybreak/Darkpaw has shown a tendency to release major boosted items late into expansions. If the player wants to play between February and November, that isn't much help.

Well, the premium edition of the expansion has claimables that offer one ancient upgrade and one celestial upgrade. Since most classes have only a handful of keystone abilities this is a huge boost out of the gate. It also offers a mount that cannot be obtained any other way, and which is easily upgradable so that there is a gulf between players who have the upgraded mount + the "free" ancient and celestial spell scrolls and those who don't. The premium edition, by the way, costs $140, and there is no way for players who don't pay the money to acquire these items through adventuring. This is the literal definition of pay to win.

And for Blood of Luclin, they took this into overdrive, because now you can get a second celestial upgrade! For the bargain price of $250!.

This doesn't make it any less pay to win.

It is most definitely not easy to make millions of pp in EQ2. If it is then please share what you are doing. There are a handful of uber rich players, primarily raid guilds who send stuff over to IoR to sell it. Everyone else gets occasionally lucky with sellable drops or craftable items that sell well, but this does not equate to easily making millions of pp.

The game is without a doubt pay to win, or at the least pay to compete, at this point.

It depends on your play style really and what you want to do. There are ways in the game to get the things to make you better without spending a dime. Just because some people have to be top of the line a week or 2 after the expansion comes out, so they spend money, does NOT make it p2w it makes it pay if you want 2 so you can show off to all of your friends. If I wanted to I could pay to upgrade alot of stuff but instead I work hard in game to get it. Sigdrifa has posted numerous times on how to optain things without paying. You guys just want to drive people away with your negativity and p2w garbage talk.

I would love to see someone stream a fresh character on twitch. Level from 1 to 120 and then get ready to even heroic group in less than 2 weeks. Or a month. Or be raid ready in two months.

I will bet you, even if someone played 8 hours a day for 2 months he would not be anywhere near ready to raid any raid mob and contribute to that raid team and if he played a T1 dps he would be do less damage than a chanter who payed to win.

This isnt about chasing players away. This is about telling people who come to the forum the truth so they dont expect a better result when they play the game. Lying to people does more harm.

The statements are contradictory. The new/returning player who doesn't have pp to upgrade also wouldn't care for end-game tiers of spells. As long as the game offers in-game modes of attainability, then it's hard to say its P2W.

You'd be pleasantly surprised. I know of many players who were chasing the Blue Cloth Kilt. LOL. I even told players not to bother with the Cobalt Crate for the mount with BoL dropped mounts or expansion bonus.

So mount gear isn't P2W and dirgenoobforreal mischaracterized that aspect. He probably meant the mount itself.

Honestly, is it really that large of a boost or is this speculation (1-3 spells in the context of a complete spellbook)?

It's a bonus and it's not repeatable (you can't purchase multiple expansions to buy power).

Edit: Most end-game players would have max leveled their keystone abilities at this point in this game.

1. Pre-order bonuses are offered for the basic expansion.

2. Millions of pp can be easily earned by harvesting radiant pomes and lantern hogfish according to Sigrfrida and Zynt.

You have to consider that he/she does not play EQ2 since CD so really has no valid input on the state of the game..but trolling to get threads locked, yea he/she does this quite a bit.

better to hit ignore than to listen to the drivel

I have BoL but I am busy on EQ1's ToV.

Some posters here have not played EQ2 since Kunark Ascending. I have never demeaned their opinion based on the last expansion they've played.

And, honestly, the major difference now is whether BoL is dropping BiS mounts like CD. If you can't obtain a good mount in-game then that's a valid concern.

More than likely not but you shouldn't start with a fresh character anyhow, that's why I don't really care for all the boost, but some do come with half way decent gear to get started and do the beginning quest. But no a fresh character you couldn't do it you would have to work through quest lines to get better gear, just like all of the rest of us do when a new expansion comes out. And actually this expansion gives a lot better gear than the last expansion did once you complete all the drop quest and achievements you are almost ready.

Expansions are supposed to last a year so I would say wait and see where everything is at in 6 months, do you really want to be ready in 2 months and then spend the other 10 months with absolutely nothing else to do because you already have everything. No some of you would rather pay money and be top notch a month after the expansion comes out, and then come here to the forums and complain because you had to spend money to get there, and this expansion is boring there is nothing to do.

And you do chase people away and you are not telling them the whole truth from both sides you are just telling them 1/2 truths from your view point and not the rest of the truth, where if they want to work hard and do certain things they don't have to spend money.