I'm just playing to 60. AD doesn't restrict the "single player" campaign by any means, so playing from map to map is totally legit and so far it has been satisfying.. But yes, it seems for the most part much of the game is locked away by AD which is further locked away by time, all that can be circumvented with some cash..
The "developer" AD prices are so off though that I wouldn't really bother trying to "earn" them.. If you want em that bad, just drop a few bucks in.. 10K AD for a "commonly" dropped rank 2 enchantment??? No thanks..
I'm not a big hater of the game, but there are possibly two things that can be considered "pay to win" in this game:
1. Fused shards > runes at endgame, for armor/weapon enchants. These are literally locked behind a paywall. Yes, you can convert AD to Zen, but farming 3 million AD for one enchant (you'll be needing 3-4 of these) makes it prohibitively stupid to do so. You NEED the $10 ward; otherwise, you're losing loads of mats. And before some fanboi points out that there is a ward available for "free" for praying, that's a 1% increase of a 1% chance - available possibly once per week. These gems are not available in any other method through content that I've seen, just grinding shard drops and combining. Doing the math, it takes $120 at max level to cap out enchants in tiered gear. And you do not want to know how long you have to grind AD (at 24K/day) to get that paid for via AD > Zen. It makes my 5-year stint in WOW raiding look like Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
2. Companion training, which makes your companions actually viable at higher levels (right now, max level from free companions is level 20) has not been shown. If it's 3 million like mount training is, or more, I'll consider it P2W, just on the basis of it takes a retarded amount of time to farm that many AD for a basic feature in the game - companions are needed at every phase of PvE, and without them, you're performing quite a bit less effectively than someone who does have one. The enhancement companions are a perfect example of this. This can be a 15-20% increase in DPS using a level 30 companion. Again, this remains to be seen.
Bag space, flashy mounts, gear dye, name changes, even respecs... these are all things I consider "fluff". I can use a R1 mount, I can keep my bags emptied. But if it requires over 5 months of grinding AD to get something from the pay shop, which is not available in-game, then I begin thinking P2W, especially in a competitive raiding situation. And especially since a gear rating is needed to enter the top content.
Comments
I'm just playing to 60. AD doesn't restrict the "single player" campaign by any means, so playing from map to map is totally legit and so far it has been satisfying.. But yes, it seems for the most part much of the game is locked away by AD which is further locked away by time, all that can be circumvented with some cash..
The "developer" AD prices are so off though that I wouldn't really bother trying to "earn" them.. If you want em that bad, just drop a few bucks in.. 10K AD for a "commonly" dropped rank 2 enchantment??? No thanks..
You can play regular quests and reach lvl 60.
Have simple mount and default companion.
Your bags will be to small and you will not be able to upgrade equipment.
Making you sub-par to any paying player in group.
Its still better than SWTOR F2P
I'm not a big hater of the game, but there are possibly two things that can be considered "pay to win" in this game:
1. Fused shards > runes at endgame, for armor/weapon enchants. These are literally locked behind a paywall. Yes, you can convert AD to Zen, but farming 3 million AD for one enchant (you'll be needing 3-4 of these) makes it prohibitively stupid to do so. You NEED the $10 ward; otherwise, you're losing loads of mats. And before some fanboi points out that there is a ward available for "free" for praying, that's a 1% increase of a 1% chance - available possibly once per week. These gems are not available in any other method through content that I've seen, just grinding shard drops and combining. Doing the math, it takes $120 at max level to cap out enchants in tiered gear. And you do not want to know how long you have to grind AD (at 24K/day) to get that paid for via AD > Zen. It makes my 5-year stint in WOW raiding look like Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
2. Companion training, which makes your companions actually viable at higher levels (right now, max level from free companions is level 20) has not been shown. If it's 3 million like mount training is, or more, I'll consider it P2W, just on the basis of it takes a retarded amount of time to farm that many AD for a basic feature in the game - companions are needed at every phase of PvE, and without them, you're performing quite a bit less effectively than someone who does have one. The enhancement companions are a perfect example of this. This can be a 15-20% increase in DPS using a level 30 companion. Again, this remains to be seen.
Bag space, flashy mounts, gear dye, name changes, even respecs... these are all things I consider "fluff". I can use a R1 mount, I can keep my bags emptied. But if it requires over 5 months of grinding AD to get something from the pay shop, which is not available in-game, then I begin thinking P2W, especially in a competitive raiding situation. And especially since a gear rating is needed to enter the top content.