Elixirs and the End Game
As I was yesterday lvling up my Foxie with my eye on the lvl 76 fancy dancy elite vanity helm, I just realized something.
I have been a pro-elixir ever since Nuri. I've loved to do things quickly, as I do not have required patience or time to devote my life for reaching Elite caps without elixirs. But now, I just can't understand how I was so blinded (yes, it's another whiney thread about elixirs).
Nuri was the beginning of elixirs and a new era was born. The enemies were so hard, that even the ones I always counted as "pros" were using elixirs just to stay alive. Vinnie's daily juice + heightened hardeness of regular enemies made elixirs a standard. Fang came along, the same thing. Humania is a bit easier campaign, but exp-wise simply horrible. At Humania came the Magic Castle/Forbidden Crypts era.
I have now lvled my main, Ninja, for lvls 66-76 in Forbidden Crypts. It felt good back then to do things so quickly. I understand that elixirs are the main source of funds to STS, but it's simply horrible to play a free game as a p2p, as "pro" end game requires elixirs. Unelixered group of random players lvl 70-75 can't even finish the first boss. Sure, it's good that game requires skill, but how on earth are players going to gain skill as they get accustomed to Vinnie's juice shop and blessings as early as from Forest Haven? Yeah fine, this arguing is worthless as pro end gamers do buy elixirs no matter of my whining. Have u taken a look at "Sunsets and Happy trails" section lately? So many of the veterans are quitting or switching to AL. Huge population of end gamers are just quitting. What happens when we reach a point in which the p2p players start to vanish and the campaigns are designed to require elixirs? The f2p players will start vanishing as well, as they can't even freaking clear the first map of the campaign. What then? The real issue is the gap between "pros" and "noobs". Heck, I saw 2 Scatterbears and 2 Mages on random pug. Both bears were scattering as much as possible, either of mages weren't healing, other mage didnt know his class combo and other mage didnt know how to revive. IN BLACKSMOKE. Heck, back in the AO3 days I got booted as a bird as I didn't time my thorn wall right in pug game. And now I get booted before boss to prevent me from stealing host's pink. We have hit rock bottom.
This is going so in wrong direction. The Elite cap was a nice idea, and the ones who got CoP are in my eyes the true elite. Most of them didn't use elixirs at all. Now we have all "Reach the new elite cap in 3 days and u get something exclusive". As a PvPer of freaking course I went to lvl 76 Eggie as it was clearly an advantage. I was going for the Elite new classes vanity as well, but I just realized how pointless and hollow the achievement IMHO was. The ones who have went for Elite Caps have an advantage, Elite Rings. The ones who do it even faster, have even bigger advantage. In end game, this game is p2p. U just cannot compete against others if u haven't been "elite" enough. I have not even heard that anyone would have gone to lvl 76 without using elixirs.
And now it seems trendy that only Elite lvl capped people get access to new heroic dungeons, elite items and so on. Yet again, if u r not elite enough, u won't get exclusive items at elite campaign quests. This is some twisted form of p2p, as if u aren't capped, u won't be able to play and capping requires platinum.
Please remove the Elite Cap, balance the baddies so they can be killed effectively without elixirs,make maps enough good for exp-wise and remove elixirs from daily blessings or at least nerf 3x blessings away. That way would be the best way for the continuity of this game. As elixir spenders and non spenders would be equal, the gap between "pros" and "noobs" would shrink down and we all would be happier. We customers would be satisfied as we didn't have to spend immense amount of money just to be equal, and non spenders could enjoy the game as well instead of not being able to finish the very first map of campaign.
I am sorry, I am not a good critisizer as I don't have more improving suggestions. It's hard for me to accept the fact that the whole end game is screwed up, and therefore for me the whole game. I love PL and I love u STS. U have been giving me so much enjoyment for over 2 years now. But I do not know what to do now. I understand that u r a business and u have made these games to get urself money, but ur style is screwing us all over eventually. I have paid now over 1000 dollars on a mobile game. How much more do I have to pay if I want to be in equal position with others? I don't want to find out. No one has infinite funds to spend on a mobile games, casual players won't enjoy a game in which they cannot complete anything and u can't continue on if u don't have platinum buyers funding u.
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