My opinion on shard drop rates

[Zeus]

Hehe not sure what u mean by "if u are me". With the right amount of plat one could get maxed in am hour . That is the purpose of using plat after all.

The average player runs elite wilds in 7-10 minutes, which at the moment would give him a bar in 20 hours. Minus expenses that will net him 2.2 m maybe. If the average player plays healthy 2 hours a day ( the average player plays less) she/he will need 50 days of farming teeth with double odds to get an arcane ring and nekro at current prices. I can't comment on average players doing arena, but farming locked will be about the same as the bar. So lets be at least somewhat realistic here.

The time a new player would need to Max out if he would start today and plays 2 hours a day is 3-4 months at best (unless right amount of plat).

It is easy to make gold for some. You, I and some others could run arena in 3 rogue parties with a nekro, maridos, singe combo and 30% damage lix and finish runs in under 2:45 minutes regardless of the bosses/environments they get, thus making 0.5-1 m every 2-3 hours the average player can't. So pls lets be realistic . The maxed minority has expanded, but it is nowhere near becoming a majority yet and the road between average and max is still quite long, unless u have the right amount of plat.

I've done it, it's difficult but possible. Platinum did not really get me anywhere until I was already beyond wealthy. There's actually a traceable timeline on it and that's when the game was significantly more expensive.

Farming is a good way to get started gold, but if you use it as sole method of income, then of course you will not fair too well. All you really need to get started and earn gold is a few million (obtained by farming) and the rest goes into merchanting.