The root of my issue with the event is the fundamental design of it and the general direction of this game.
Anything that restricts players from playing, yet continues to reward the big spenders pushes me that much closer to stepping away. I am a moderate plat spender, and even though I burned about 600 plat and 1m gold in energy, reroll and combo, I walked away thoroughly disgusted by the whole event.
So, in a nutshell, what did this event do besides decimating elite loot and elite activity in general while at the same time alienating every player without gold/plat for energy? Not a thing - all it did was reinforce the feeling that STS continues to favor the rich (in plat and/or gold) and the broad "middle-class" of Arlor was largely ignored. Portal guarding, setting up the map with a twink and entering with a capped toon and all the other things that were known and subsequently corrected during the Tarlok event were somehow overlooked. Even the mid-event patch which put a portal in town only serviced the plat/gold spenders and did nothing for the mainstream player. How many times did the average player spawn a portal but didn't have the energy, nor energy kit/plat to enter it?
Then, on top of the event, STS designs and announces a new Locked Crate, which, almost immediately, erodes the value of the "old" Locked by 20%. So, where can this "middle-class" go to generate some reasonable in-game revenue when elite loot isn't moving, Locked are losing value and you have an event system which throws up a pay wall and only grants free entrance once every 8 hours?
Each and every step being made lately has obviously turned this into a P2W game, and with each passing season, I long for a return back to seasons 1 and 2, where skill was rewarded, plat gave just a small advantage and it didn't take tens (or hundreds) of millions in gear/pets to be an elite player. Now, you can only realistically loot Elite Legendaries with combo/reroll plus a Lep, and even if you do get lucky, most Elite Legendary gear is effectively worthless; compare this to season 1 and 2 Elite Legendaries, where even the worst drops held substantial value. Any version of a Vorpal, Juggernaut, Beserker, Ranger, Lifethief, etc., all were desirable.
It's just difficult to stay motivated to farm elites when the loot isn't moving. I don't run normal maps, I don't farm locked, and I don't have 20 different toons all farming story tokens. I play the main spine of the game, yet it isn't all that challenging and not very profitable right now, so where should nubs like me turn to?
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