Umm... I don’t consider using crystals for toons FTP. Maybe I’m just old now and that’s not how we used to do ftp in the olden days lol.
Hoarding crystals is super smart. And the benefits are obviously there for the players that do it.
But I just don’t see using crystals as FTP way to get toons. I also wouldn’t like this ideology to invade how ftp should operate in the devs POV.
I live hand to mouth in the game -my choice because this is a game not my real life- so of course hoarding crystals isn’t something I want to do lol
Again hoarding anything is absolutely the smartest way to play this game I just don’t like to see events like Jedi Revans normalized on that’s what everyone should do to succeed. The vets were bad requirements for multiple reasons but since revan we would wish Darth Revan was set up this way. To me it’s a big turn off.
Agreed, I don't want this mindset to become norm either. Constant hoarding mode makes game way less enjoyable...for me at least.
Ehh, it depends on how you view it. I hoard my crystals prepping for legendary events. Does it stink that I really want to finish my imperial troopers or scoundrels or whatever and have the crystals to do it but don’t finish them? Yeah, it does. I’ve got so many half finished squads it’s super annoying. But always having the latest and greatest character does make the game more enjoyable too.
I dont think carth and juhani will be used to get darth revan, they are light side characters. There has never been a legendary event/hero's journey that requires both light and dark side toons. It's either or.
Imo, the key to FTP getting to the top of arena is patience. I spent 9 months hoarding gear waiting for a meta shift that I had the characters for. I got into my shard chat even when I was outside the top 100. Once the meta changed I dropped my gear stash and flew to the top. Now I have the crystal income that I can repeat the same cycle, but it takes a lot less time to hoard the gear. It also helped me get going in fleet arena. It's definitely doable for any FTP, you just have to have a plan and maintain a long term focus.
Ahh to be on a newer server. I am on one or the day one servers. 15 of the top 20 squad arena spots are occupied by team instinct players. 45 of the top 50 spots are occupied by whales. Meta shifts are meaningless on my server. it takes about four hours for the top fifty to have the new maxed out meta.
if I can pitch in my $0.10. This whole discussion is based on when you get in game if you're late to the party then you will never catch up. You will be playing behind The Meta for the better part of the games Life. You can be free to play and succeed you just have to work 10 times it's hard to get ahead of the current meta, problem is that's relatively difficult to do. For instance, I was too iterations lates on CLS I still haven't gotten jtr and I just finished up my Revan Farm. I'm not making excuses all I'm saying is I happen to be on a shard full of pay-to-win
The biggest benefit is the length of time you've been playing.
At the start, it was quite an easy going pace and there where clearly defined markers as to the direction of travel the game was going in which has given players like me a strong base to work on. Now it's quite overwhelming and I can imagine anyone late to the party struggles to focus resources and be competitive.
I can assure you tho, that the majority of people who got JTR first time and had to farm the vets as f2p or minimum pay to play, will get Revan. Especially if they missed LS Revan first time.
I always gotta laugh at how everyone on this forum seems to finish first in arena every single day. On my shard we got 98% Revans in the top 200. A few of them have godmods, but most of them can beat each other.
If I finish top 10 one day I will be on place 160+ the next day.. so no, 2-3 refreshes wouldnt be enough to get to the top spots regularly.
All this talk about f2p (which Im not) hoarding crystals cause they finish top in both arenas is a joke - sure, some shards might allow it or some veteran players gonna succeed, but this is in no way a norm for the larger playerbase.
i do however agree that there's zero chance of f2p players getting the new character en masse. I'm willing to wager that most spenders won't even get the new character.
thats interesting. Why dont you think P2P's will get it?
Because they're unwilling to pay obviously
Are you taking the pi ****?
No, i'm not.
Most p2p players didn't get JKRevan when he was first released. I don't know how many JKRevans there were on your shard, but i'm sure the amount of p2p players on your shard is atleast double the amount of JKRevan owners at the time.
I always gotta laugh at how everyone on this forum seems to finish first in arena every single day. On my shard we got 98% Revans in the top 200. A few of them have godmods, but most of them can beat each other.
If I finish top 10 one day I will be on place 160+ the next day.. so no, 2-3 refreshes wouldnt be enough to get to the top spots regularly.
All this talk about f2p (which Im not) hoarding crystals cause they finish top in both arenas is a joke - sure, some shards might allow it or some veteran players gonna succeed, but this is in no way a norm for the larger playerbase.
Norm amongst what? Since a shard has 20k accounts (was that the number?) it's statistically impossible for most to be the daily top PO. If we assume top 10 is good income and players are able to perfectly align on each hour's PO only 240 players would be benefiting from the high-end rewards. But due to blocks and better mods at the top there's much less with good crystal income.
The question is if spending grade is the most prominent factor amongst those daily top players. If it was shard chats should have reflected that, f2p would be less likely to exist in them. And my observation is f2p/low spenders is the majority in them.
Also many high spenders won't be able to make it to the top. One would think buying Revan is a free ticket to the top the first round. Yet that didn't happen either. In my shard only 2 players managed to stick in top 20 after Revan. They may have been able to climb to top 50 instead of top 500. But that makes little difference in terms of crystal income.
I dont think carth and juhani will be used to get darth revan, they are light side characters. There has never been a legendary event/hero's journey that requires both light and dark side toons. It's either or.
None of the other legendary or journey characters flipped from light to dark to light in their journey.
The reason Jedi Revan was such a cash grab, is because NOBODY SAW IT COMING. That's it! We had solo marquee and we had OR marquee characters drop about the same time. Most were still working on Solo toons expecting a SOLO legendary/journey and so the OR characters were widely ignored, because Revan was still expected to be far far away. Go back and watch the youtube vids of people figuring out the puzzle. Nobody expected it. So the only ones that got Revan f2p were those who loved OR enough to start farming them day 1.
Now that the cat is out of the bag and there has been SOOO much speculation about a Darth Revan, he is being more widely farmed and there will be a much larger percentage who get him first time around. Likely closer to the number that got CLS or JTR first time around.
I think a lot of people are overthinking it feeling like there has been too much time to farm, but let's get some perspective.
These new OR characters are in 1 node each. 1st round had 2 nodes for Bastilla, Jolee, and Zaalbar, and Cantina nodes (no attempt limit) for mission/T3.
There really hasn't been too much time to farm if you consider half the available farming per day and increased farming costs.
The biggest benefit is the length of time you've been playing.
At the start, it was quite an easy going pace and there where clearly defined markers as to the direction of travel the game was going in which has given players like me a strong base to work on. Now it's quite overwhelming and I can imagine anyone late to the party struggles to focus resources and be competitive.
I can assure you tho, that the majority of people who got JTR first time and had to farm the vets as f2p or minimum pay to play, will get Revan. Especially if they missed LS Revan first time.
you know everyone starting out is at the same point, right? you can't be "behind" anyone who's not on your starting shard. it's possible you started with someone who then whale's out, but that's it. And anyone starting now and reads forums/watches youtube etc is way better off than those of us who started and just winged it, so anyone "late to the party" actually has a much bigger advantage due to the resources available to find the right way to "manage resources." The "phoenix to emp to thrawn" or whatever the cadence is wasn't a thing when I started. mainly bc neither was phoenix. or thrawn.
LS Revan was a huge paywall. But some F2P were ready. I can yell by last Mobilegamer video I am way ahead of him on my farming as a F2P, yet he bought LS Revan so he didn't struggle like I did to get top arena before Revan's second release. Your shard is extremely rough if you get 160+th overnight after hitting top 10. Don't say it represents the majority because it doesn't. Most player I speak with say between 40-80th overnight. That's 2 refreshes. This is the results of the vast majority of players I speak with. Maybe your shard is much older than mine or the one I speak with.
What I know is that there are a ton or people who didn't get Revan on the second pass while most, if not all, f2p players should have gotten it. Reason is some players don't plan and don't work towards reaching goals and are simply not competitive enough to reach top arena. It doesn't mean all f2p players are like that.
I have a guy in my guild, very huge roster, good PvP skills, should've a big stash of crystals but doesn't have ****, is late in his farming and frankly has already gave up on getting it on the first pass. Some people dont manage. Some f2p will boost their Geo's, their Farmboy, etc... If you dont invest at the right place at the right pace you won't reach impressive goals. And it's really easy not to do so. Holding on to 500 carbentis with a 5* threepio before DS Revan gets released is gonna be hard, but my OR are G1 lvl1 and my goal is not a 7* threepio. Gotta make choices.
You do make some very good points. And I aggree that everyone shouldve gotten revan the second time around. Hell, some guys in my guild got Revan before JTR or even CLS (newer players).
The main discussion however is about hoarding crystals to get those meta-defining characters the first time around, and I just dont see many f2p players get there (certainly all the first-time Revans on my shard were paid, and we had a good 35 of them).
Then again on this board there are only 2 kinds of extremes. 1 side is saying no f2p can ever reach this and the other side says all f2p can and should reach it.
As for my shard, its not that old either I think I started in spring 2017. Dunno why ppl are so crazy in arena, at least in ship arena I'm one of only 4-5 guys who owns a 7* Falcon (tho a 5* Falcon can take 1st place as well just fine).
In regular arena I just dont have the time for 3 x 5 x 5min Revan mirror matches.
Umm... I don’t consider using crystals for toons FTP. Maybe I’m just old now and that’s not how we used to do ftp in the olden days lol.
Hoarding crystals is super smart. And the benefits are obviously there for the players that do it.
But I just don’t see using crystals as FTP way to get toons. I also wouldn’t like this ideology to invade how ftp should operate in the devs POV.
That you "don't consider it" FTP is irrelevant to whether it is or it isn't. FTP means not spending actual money on the game. If something can be acquired without spending actual money, it's available to FTP. How difficult it is to achieve without spending money determines how FTP friendly it is, but your subjective considerations don't change the literal definition of FTP.
I do not believe in generalizations. I understand that someone who started playing from the very first beta is likely to have had the chance to farm everything, get very good mods and thus be able to counter heavy spenders with a good strategy, because even if at the end of the first month he was behind the top spender with something like 20 less toons on G12+, 20 less zetas, he would have the time to eventually catch up due to slower speed of new content introduction vs. progress through grinding.
Now, if you have on average 1 new toon introduced every 2 months that is a must have for ranking above 100 in PVP, and that toon requires doing at least 3 toons from scratch to G12+ and spending on at least 3 zetas, it is simply the case of grinding it out being 5 to 6 times slower than needed to "keep up" rather than closing the distance.
Still, if by spending $20-50 per month I can "stay" 20% stronger than a zero-cash player, I may well be tempted to do so. If it requires $10,000 per month to get an "extra" 10% advantage I would consider it a waste of money (whether I can actually afford it or not does not matter), but I would hardly begrudge someone who can and does afford it. And I would understand that those $10,000 go towards keeping the game alive, since if nobody was spending, there would be no money for the developers and they would have to discontinue the game based on common sense (zero revenue and non-zero costs = get the hell out of this dumb situation).
I would not be happy to hear how someone who is FTP manages to get geared from zero to G12+ and from 0 zetas to 50 zetas per month, since that would imply there is some secret way to get ten times the rewards for first place in everything just by logging into the game from a given IP. I would also be surprised to hear how someone who started at the same time as me 6 months ago now has 75 gear 12+ toons and 40 zetas without spending a cent, and has a hundred 6E mods with speeds north of 20, since even with very heavy spending that would be nigh impossible.
But back to Darth Revan, I would appreciate a really challenging event here, but one that requires also startegy not just a Chewie even replica, so something in the range of G10-G12 gear, requiring 1-2 zetas but equally wise usage of skills.
people that stash 30-40k crystals aren't f2p. maybe they aren't buying those crystals but other than maybe 1 or at most 2 people per shard, you don't finish top 3 every day if you've never spent money unless you are in some wacky timezone.
Yes they can be. But they are not new players. Veterans know how to finish top 3 everyday. It's quite easy, but long, to stash that many crystals while still spending 400-500/day.
Both arena top places yield a total of 900, plus daily quests yield between 50 to 100, individual events like galactic bounties yield 100 and guilded events like territory battles can easily yield over 500 each.
Let's say you only get an average of 750/day from arena and spend 450/day, you accumulate a minimum of 350/day. After a month that's over 10000. Racks up pretty quickly.
I don't know what shards you're in but there is no way I'm finishing anywhere near the top of mine if I had remained f2p. I'll give the benefit of the doubt on fleet arena and say it's possible in theory but squad arena...no way. Honestly, it cracks me up when I read these posts.
Ouch, it must hurt that other players can get top3 daily in squad arena while being f2p, but you can't. Better to think they're lying and laugh
I never said anyone was lying about anything so way to quote setting that was not there. Anyway, in some shards, good teams/players can absolutely attain top ranks, I don't dispute that. What I do dispute is the example is the extreme minority. This would not fly in my shard(and many others) for a variety of reasons, most notably the shard chat. Just trying to plow through the shard chat mafia will cost at least 4 refreshes to get to the top and maintain. They let you get in the top 20 but if you get within striking distance of top 10 they are on your **** immediately. Snipe them once and you won't see top 20 guaranteed. I've seen them do it and they've been hammering the same player for months.
You said in fleet arena it’s possible in theory but not in squad so that certainly sounded like you were calling people liars (which has been done explicitly in this thread even if not by you). You realize it’s possible for f2p to be in shard chats too right? I don’t think shards unlike what you describe are the “extreme minority.”
I specifically said wouldn't fly in mine. As for the rest, we're simply splitting hairs since neither of us can prove or disprove what the minority is.
It might not fly for you specifically since you aren’t in the chat, but that doesn’t mean nobody in your shard who is f2p is in the chat and thus able to place at the top just fine.
So what exactly is your point? I clearly stated that if I weren't to have stayed f2p I wouldn't have been able to compete in my shard. Good luck to any f2p player in that shard, not in shard chat, making and hording the crystals necessary to farm the OR toons.
My point is that your post *sounded like* you were saying that it was impossible for other people besides just you personally. If all you meant was that you personally couldn’t do it, then ok, but the general tenor of this thread and this forum is that people who say that they are doing this are lying.
The reason Jedi Revan was such a cash grab, is because NOBODY SAW IT COMING. That's it! We had solo marquee and we had OR marquee characters drop about the same time. Most were still working on Solo toons expecting a SOLO legendary/journey and so the OR characters were widely ignored, because Revan was still expected to be far far away. Go back and watch the youtube vids of people figuring out the puzzle. Nobody expected it. So the only ones that got Revan f2p were those who loved OR enough to start farming them day 1.
That’s news to me. I don’t care about OR in the slightest and I saw it coming as did several people in my guild. I highly doubt we were the only ones.
Umm... I don’t consider using crystals for toons FTP. Maybe I’m just old now and that’s not how we used to do ftp in the olden days lol.
Hoarding crystals is super smart. And the benefits are obviously there for the players that do it.
But I just don’t see using crystals as FTP way to get toons. I also wouldn’t like this ideology to invade how ftp should operate in the devs POV.
I live hand to mouth in the game -my choice because this is a game not my real life- so of course hoarding crystals isn’t something I want to do lol
Again hoarding anything is absolutely the smartest way to play this game I just don’t like to see events like Jedi Revans normalized on that’s what everyone should do to succeed. The vets were bad requirements for multiple reasons but since revan we would wish Darth Revan was set up this way. To me it’s a big turn off.
Why wouldn't you consider using crystals for character shards FTP? That makes no sense whatsoever unless I buy the crystals. If I hoard them (and I do), and use them for shards instead of gear/energy there's no difference in terms of FTP strategies.
Unless I missed something somewhere you're just wrong. Crystals come free.
You're right on saying "hoarding" is smart though. Kept me free to play until JTR showed up. Then I bought that $50 pack for the Vets. After that I haven't missed a big Marquee/Legendary/Journey event character because I refined my hoarding strategy.
Gotta be real though and say I'm more of a small dolphin now though. I buy those $10 boosters on toons I like.
CLONE HELMETS!! Now let's get Sabine her epic helmet.
Umm... I don’t consider using crystals for toons FTP. Maybe I’m just old now and that’s not how we used to do ftp in the olden days lol.
Hoarding crystals is super smart. And the benefits are obviously there for the players that do it.
But I just don’t see using crystals as FTP way to get toons. I also wouldn’t like this ideology to invade how ftp should operate in the devs POV.
I live hand to mouth in the game -my choice because this is a game not my real life- so of course hoarding crystals isn’t something I want to do lol
Again hoarding anything is absolutely the smartest way to play this game I just don’t like to see events like Jedi Revans normalized on that’s what everyone should do to succeed. The vets were bad requirements for multiple reasons but since revan we would wish Darth Revan was set up this way. To me it’s a big turn off.
Agreed, I don't want this mindset to become norm either. Constant hoarding mode makes game way less enjoyable...for me at least.
Ehh, it depends on how you view it. I hoard my crystals prepping for legendary events. Does it stink that I really want to finish my imperial troopers or scoundrels or whatever and have the crystals to do it but don’t finish them? Yeah, it does. I’ve got so many half finished squads it’s super annoying. But always having the latest and greatest character does make the game more enjoyable too.
Same. Best way to play, especially considering how this game is going now with Powercreep.
CLONE HELMETS!! Now let's get Sabine her epic helmet.
Umm... I don’t consider using crystals for toons FTP. Maybe I’m just old now and that’s not how we used to do ftp in the olden days lol.
Hoarding crystals is super smart. And the benefits are obviously there for the players that do it.
But I just don’t see using crystals as FTP way to get toons. I also wouldn’t like this ideology to invade how ftp should operate in the devs POV.
That you "don't consider it" FTP is irrelevant to whether it is or it isn't. FTP means not spending actual money on the game. If something can be acquired without spending actual money, it's available to FTP. How difficult it is to achieve without spending money determines how FTP friendly it is, but your subjective considerations don't change the literal definition of FTP.
This. +10000
CLONE HELMETS!! Now let's get Sabine her epic helmet.
The reason Jedi Revan was such a cash grab, is because NOBODY SAW IT COMING. That's it! We had solo marquee and we had OR marquee characters drop about the same time. Most were still working on Solo toons expecting a SOLO legendary/journey and so the OR characters were widely ignored, because Revan was still expected to be far far away. Go back and watch the youtube vids of people figuring out the puzzle. Nobody expected it. So the only ones that got Revan f2p were those who loved OR enough to start farming them day 1.
That’s news to me. I don’t care about OR in the slightest and I saw it coming as did several people in my guild. I highly doubt we were the only ones.
Agreed.
If you saw the KOTOR toons get announced and THE KOTOR toon wasn't announced you should've known better.
I was sorta lucky because I had already hoarded 50k in crystals waiting for Jango to finally show up (which I begrudgingly passed on. Still mad at CG for doing that) but the point is I saw the KOTOR toon announcement and knew Revan was coming.
Hoarding it the best way to stay FTP or close to FTP. Especially with powercreep.
CLONE HELMETS!! Now let's get Sabine her epic helmet.
The problem as ftp in this game is if you get behind, you are always behind. I missed out in the new Falcon first time around. If I drop everything to try to get Darth Revan/Malak the first time, which I may not be able to farm in time, then I am probably looking at best getting a 6* Falcon when it returns. However, if I just farm each node once a day, I can farm the three BH ships that I still need to finish, plus all the newer KOTOR toons at the same time and probably be ready for 7* for both the Falcon and the new KOTOR toon on their second time around. Fortunately I am down to only 5 cantina toons left, and one is NS spirit with 20 shards to go. Two Saxon and Imp Super Commando, which show up in the events. Last two are Sith Marauder who I am currently farming and Aurra Sing who will be up next. Once I finish off the BH ships, then I can focus on extra runs for the KOTOR toons.
The only hope for ftp really is a lack of marquee events. The fewer toons that are added at 3*, the better for us, so we can finish off other toons. I am down to 20 toons left to 7*. I would say half of them are probably not must have or useful toons. I also still have 8 ships to finish, with 6 that can be farmed. 3 of the 6 are BH ships and the other 3 are the two newer Sith ships and Anakin's ship so I would say they are all needed except maybe Anakin.
It is just a whole lot of farming for ftp, especially if you can't get top arena slots, which I certainly can't, even with 4.3 million GP.
The problem as ftp in this game is if you get behind, you are always behind. I missed out in the new Falcon first time around. If I drop everything to try to get Darth Revan/Malak the first time, which I may not be able to farm in time, then I am probably looking at best getting a 6* Falcon when it returns. However, if I just farm each node once a day, I can farm the three BH ships that I still need to finish, plus all the newer KOTOR toons at the same time and probably be ready for 7* for both the Falcon and the new KOTOR toon on their second time around. Fortunately I am down to only 5 cantina toons left, and one is NS spirit with 20 shards to go. Two Saxon and Imp Super Commando, which show up in the events. Last two are Sith Marauder who I am currently farming and Aurra Sing who will be up next. Once I finish off the BH ships, then I can focus on extra runs for the KOTOR toons.
The only hope for ftp really is a lack of marquee events. The fewer toons that are added at 3*, the better for us, so we can finish off other toons. I am down to 20 toons left to 7*. I would say half of them are probably not must have or useful toons. I also still have 8 ships to finish, with 6 that can be farmed. 3 of the 6 are BH ships and the other 3 are the two newer Sith ships and Anakin's ship so I would say they are all needed except maybe Anakin.
It is just a whole lot of farming for ftp, especially if you can't get top arena slots, which I certainly can't, even with 4.3 million GP.
Doesn't really surprise me looking at your mods...
Work on your mods (currently looking really really lackluster) and you can climb higher.
We'll see. Jedi Revan was obtainable f2p the first time (with a big enough hoarded crystal stash), so I dont see why Darth Revan wouldnt be.
Dont confuse F2p with everyone. According to my calculations (may be off), it takes about 30-35k crystals to get Jedi or Darth Revan, which can be gathered f2p over time, but not quickly nor easily.
I don't personally think it should be necessary to spend crystals at all to get a toon on the first try. If you start farming immediately after a toon becomes available to farm, it should be paced so that you will be ready (unless you have terrible drop luck).
people that stash 30-40k crystals aren't f2p. maybe they aren't buying those crystals but other than maybe 1 or at most 2 people per shard, you don't finish top 3 every day if you've never spent money unless you are in some wacky timezone.
Replies
Ehh, it depends on how you view it. I hoard my crystals prepping for legendary events. Does it stink that I really want to finish my imperial troopers or scoundrels or whatever and have the crystals to do it but don’t finish them? Yeah, it does. I’ve got so many half finished squads it’s super annoying. But always having the latest and greatest character does make the game more enjoyable too.
Ahh to be on a newer server. I am on one or the day one servers. 15 of the top 20 squad arena spots are occupied by team instinct players. 45 of the top 50 spots are occupied by whales. Meta shifts are meaningless on my server. it takes about four hours for the top fifty to have the new maxed out meta.
At the start, it was quite an easy going pace and there where clearly defined markers as to the direction of travel the game was going in which has given players like me a strong base to work on. Now it's quite overwhelming and I can imagine anyone late to the party struggles to focus resources and be competitive.
I can assure you tho, that the majority of people who got JTR first time and had to farm the vets as f2p or minimum pay to play, will get Revan. Especially if they missed LS Revan first time.
If I finish top 10 one day I will be on place 160+ the next day.. so no, 2-3 refreshes wouldnt be enough to get to the top spots regularly.
All this talk about f2p (which Im not) hoarding crystals cause they finish top in both arenas is a joke - sure, some shards might allow it or some veteran players gonna succeed, but this is in no way a norm for the larger playerbase.
No, i'm not.
Most p2p players didn't get JKRevan when he was first released. I don't know how many JKRevans there were on your shard, but i'm sure the amount of p2p players on your shard is atleast double the amount of JKRevan owners at the time.
Norm amongst what? Since a shard has 20k accounts (was that the number?) it's statistically impossible for most to be the daily top PO. If we assume top 10 is good income and players are able to perfectly align on each hour's PO only 240 players would be benefiting from the high-end rewards. But due to blocks and better mods at the top there's much less with good crystal income.
The question is if spending grade is the most prominent factor amongst those daily top players. If it was shard chats should have reflected that, f2p would be less likely to exist in them. And my observation is f2p/low spenders is the majority in them.
Also many high spenders won't be able to make it to the top. One would think buying Revan is a free ticket to the top the first round. Yet that didn't happen either. In my shard only 2 players managed to stick in top 20 after Revan. They may have been able to climb to top 50 instead of top 500. But that makes little difference in terms of crystal income.
None of the other legendary or journey characters flipped from light to dark to light in their journey.
Now that the cat is out of the bag and there has been SOOO much speculation about a Darth Revan, he is being more widely farmed and there will be a much larger percentage who get him first time around. Likely closer to the number that got CLS or JTR first time around.
I think a lot of people are overthinking it feeling like there has been too much time to farm, but let's get some perspective.
These new OR characters are in 1 node each. 1st round had 2 nodes for Bastilla, Jolee, and Zaalbar, and Cantina nodes (no attempt limit) for mission/T3.
There really hasn't been too much time to farm if you consider half the available farming per day and increased farming costs.
you know everyone starting out is at the same point, right? you can't be "behind" anyone who's not on your starting shard. it's possible you started with someone who then whale's out, but that's it. And anyone starting now and reads forums/watches youtube etc is way better off than those of us who started and just winged it, so anyone "late to the party" actually has a much bigger advantage due to the resources available to find the right way to "manage resources." The "phoenix to emp to thrawn" or whatever the cadence is wasn't a thing when I started. mainly bc neither was phoenix. or thrawn.
tldr: no one starts behind.
You do make some very good points. And I aggree that everyone shouldve gotten revan the second time around. Hell, some guys in my guild got Revan before JTR or even CLS (newer players).
The main discussion however is about hoarding crystals to get those meta-defining characters the first time around, and I just dont see many f2p players get there (certainly all the first-time Revans on my shard were paid, and we had a good 35 of them).
Then again on this board there are only 2 kinds of extremes. 1 side is saying no f2p can ever reach this and the other side says all f2p can and should reach it.
As for my shard, its not that old either
In regular arena I just dont have the time for 3 x 5 x 5min Revan mirror matches.
That you "don't consider it" FTP is irrelevant to whether it is or it isn't. FTP means not spending actual money on the game. If something can be acquired without spending actual money, it's available to FTP. How difficult it is to achieve without spending money determines how FTP friendly it is, but your subjective considerations don't change the literal definition of FTP.
Now, if you have on average 1 new toon introduced every 2 months that is a must have for ranking above 100 in PVP, and that toon requires doing at least 3 toons from scratch to G12+ and spending on at least 3 zetas, it is simply the case of grinding it out being 5 to 6 times slower than needed to "keep up" rather than closing the distance.
Still, if by spending $20-50 per month I can "stay" 20% stronger than a zero-cash player, I may well be tempted to do so. If it requires $10,000 per month to get an "extra" 10% advantage I would consider it a waste of money (whether I can actually afford it or not does not matter), but I would hardly begrudge someone who can and does afford it. And I would understand that those $10,000 go towards keeping the game alive, since if nobody was spending, there would be no money for the developers and they would have to discontinue the game based on common sense (zero revenue and non-zero costs = get the hell out of this dumb situation).
I would not be happy to hear how someone who is FTP manages to get geared from zero to G12+ and from 0 zetas to 50 zetas per month, since that would imply there is some secret way to get ten times the rewards for first place in everything just by logging into the game from a given IP. I would also be surprised to hear how someone who started at the same time as me 6 months ago now has 75 gear 12+ toons and 40 zetas without spending a cent, and has a hundred 6E mods with speeds north of 20, since even with very heavy spending that would be nigh impossible.
But back to Darth Revan, I would appreciate a really challenging event here, but one that requires also startegy not just a Chewie even replica, so something in the range of G10-G12 gear, requiring 1-2 zetas but equally wise usage of skills.
My point is that your post *sounded like* you were saying that it was impossible for other people besides just you personally. If all you meant was that you personally couldn’t do it, then ok, but the general tenor of this thread and this forum is that people who say that they are doing this are lying.
That’s news to me. I don’t care about OR in the slightest and I saw it coming as did several people in my guild. I highly doubt we were the only ones.
Why wouldn't you consider using crystals for character shards FTP? That makes no sense whatsoever unless I buy the crystals. If I hoard them (and I do), and use them for shards instead of gear/energy there's no difference in terms of FTP strategies.
Unless I missed something somewhere you're just wrong. Crystals come free.
You're right on saying "hoarding" is smart though. Kept me free to play until JTR showed up. Then I bought that $50 pack for the Vets. After that I haven't missed a big Marquee/Legendary/Journey event character because I refined my hoarding strategy.
Gotta be real though and say I'm more of a small dolphin now though. I buy those $10 boosters on toons I like.
Same. Best way to play, especially considering how this game is going now with Powercreep.
This. +10000
Agreed.
If you saw the KOTOR toons get announced and THE KOTOR toon wasn't announced you should've known better.
I was sorta lucky because I had already hoarded 50k in crystals waiting for Jango to finally show up (which I begrudgingly passed on. Still mad at CG for doing that) but the point is I saw the KOTOR toon announcement and knew Revan was coming.
Hoarding it the best way to stay FTP or close to FTP. Especially with powercreep.
The only hope for ftp really is a lack of marquee events. The fewer toons that are added at 3*, the better for us, so we can finish off other toons. I am down to 20 toons left to 7*. I would say half of them are probably not must have or useful toons. I also still have 8 ships to finish, with 6 that can be farmed. 3 of the 6 are BH ships and the other 3 are the two newer Sith ships and Anakin's ship so I would say they are all needed except maybe Anakin.
It is just a whole lot of farming for ftp, especially if you can't get top arena slots, which I certainly can't, even with 4.3 million GP.
Doesn't really surprise me looking at your mods...
Work on your mods (currently looking really really lackluster) and you can climb higher.
I don't personally think it should be necessary to spend crystals at all to get a toon on the first try. If you start farming immediately after a toon becomes available to farm, it should be paced so that you will be ready (unless you have terrible drop luck).