"From Pay to Win to Play to Win" Changes?

[Nox Tenebris]

I heard Elsword's devs were trying to tackle the "pay to win" issues with the game. Are they actually going to make a difference or do people think this is just lip service?

[Magic Tofu Cat]

aye now you can buy some cash shop items with ingame ed..
those devs

[GM Rush]

There are multiple quality of life changes that have occurred and will continue to make the game more enjoyable :D

-> The ED Shop, in particular, was massive (especially for me) that added the Transcendence Skill Slot Change Item which enables you to get the T-Slot without spending K-Ching/Real Money on.

-> There is a noticeable increase in difficulty coming from Elysion/Elrianode -- But now players have access to a +9 Heroic Weapon to help you get through that through a past Quality of Life Change;

But for the most part, Elsword is definitely a game you have to play to get things. A lot of the endgame stuff -- especially the Apocalypse Void Weapon and Flames of Judgement Raid Weapon (the 2 strongest weapons) aren't purchasable.

[Nox Tenebris]

Originally posted by GM Rush:

There are multiple quality of life changes that have occurred and will continue to make the game more enjoyable :D

-> The ED Shop, in particular, was massive (especially for me) that added the Transcendence Skill Slot Change Item which enables you to get the T-Slot without spending K-Ching/Real Money on.

-> There is a noticeable increase in difficulty coming from Elysion/Elrianode -- But now players have access to a +9 Heroic Weapon to help you get through that through a past Quality of Life Change;

But for the most part, Elsword is definitely a game you have to play to get things. A lot of the endgame stuff -- especially the Apocalypse Void Weapon and Flames of Judgement Raid Weapon (the 2 strongest weapons) aren't purchasable.

Thanks for the response. How about PVP? Is that still very pay to win? PVP would be my main draw to this game.

[Lapinoire]

Skill is only part of it. You either play a meta class with +10 or higher Elrianode Armor matching your character's abilities, and a +10 or higher Void Weapon, or get destroyed in seconds by anyone with gear that is equal or higher than what I mentioned.

There was a time when skill determined your victories 90% of the time, and now skill only makes up for 40-50% of it.

I can abuse a person with 200-300 hits and still not kill them, and they can look at me and delete me in 10-20 hits, maybe 30 if I make a mistake.

That's more or less how Elsword is these days... but let's be real, it always has been this way, but back then it wasn't anywhere near as blatant as it is today.
(Unless we're talking about season 1 PVP, where any 200 or 300 MP skill was a one-shot).

[Raymond]

They will need to find a new way to do business with players. Let's be real, devs want money, we want fun. I rather them being blunt about what they want than just implement new secret cash wall. Specifically, they need to go back to selling costume and cosmetic, bring back the anual costume design contest for each servers. I am very disappointed that there has not been any good costume lately that are good looking and not just plain clothing with some color on it.

Florite Ore need to be a farmable item if they actually want this game somewhere near, make them drop from dismantle weapons. Trading cash shop item on the board wont fix the problem at all, price are depended on the playerbase and it's number. Older players who already done building their gears will stop buying and selling florite ore, which make it harder and more expensive to obtain for newer players who may not be as eager on spend money on gears as older players who took this game more seriously. Resulting playerbase contuning to shrink as newer players gave up upon seeing the massive cashwall right behind the equally large grind wall.

[Mugen]

Originally posted by YariMurai:

They will need to find a new way to do business with players. Let's be real, devs want money, we want fun. I rather them being blunt about what they want than just implement new secret cash wall. Specifically, they need to go back to selling costume and cosmetic, bring back the anual costume design contest for each servers. I am very disappointed that there has not been any good costume lately that are good looking and not just plain clothing with some color on it.

Florite Ore need to be a farmable item if they actually want this game somewhere near, make them drop from dismantle weapons. Trading cash shop item on the board wont fix the problem at all, price are depended on the playerbase and it's number. Older players who already done building their gears will stop buying and selling florite ore, which make it harder and more expensive to obtain for newer players who may not be as eager on spend money on gears as older players who took this game more seriously. Resulting playerbase contuning to shrink as newer players gave up upon seeing the massive cashwall right behind the equally large grind wall.

What's noticeable about a few of the more popular MMORPGs is that the costumes are the focus of moneymaking and they give no additional stats (which makes P2W nonexistent).

But, adding stats and making money off the RNG from players attempting to collect the individual costume pieces (that have these OP stats) is what contributes to Elsword's P2W nature.

Not to mention that some enhancements aren't possible unless you pour in over 100 dollars for just that one equipment (unless you have the favor of RNGesus). And all of these high end items are so overpriced (200 dollars or so for really good endgame weaps).

But yeah, unless you are wealthy in game or IRL, becoming a top player in PvE or PvP is going to be a near impossible (since many top players have +11s/+12s). Even doing the endgame dungeons to get the strongest weapons aren't possible if you don't have the best enhancements.

Imo, they are making changes but they are baby steps. If they want drastic change to make things less P2W, then they need to normalize stats and enhancements in PvP to have every player on the same level. Plus, they should take away all stats and OP effects from IBs and have them only be bought for cosmetics.