I'm having a related but opposite end of the scale issue. As a new player, only one month in, I was happily working my way through the progression missions and quests until I hit the "Get to Silver I" mission. WTF??? Looking at the missions that come after, I've completed most of those, but how am I supposed to get into Silver I when Bronze III is stacked with 100K+ opponents and Bronze IV is worse?!?!?!
I've given up. Damn shame, because I was loving the game until I hit this brick wall. I presume I'm facing a lot of "dead" opponents, old accounts of players that have fallen down the ranks through inactivity? Whatever the reason, it's taken much of the fun out of the game for me.
Of course, the other reason could be that Plarium want me to drop £100s on the game to progress.
It's definitely felt like I've hit a brick wall in terms of progress after the first month. :-(
Green Hermit said:
I'm having a related but opposite end of the scale issue. As a new player, only one month in, I was happily working my way through the progression missions and quests until I hit the "Get to Silver I" mission. WTF??? Looking at the missions that come after, I've completed most of those, but how am I supposed to get into Silver I when Bronze III is stacked with 100K+ opponents and Bronze IV is worse?!?!?!
I've given up. Damn shame, because I was loving the game until I hit this brick wall. I presume I'm facing a lot of "dead" opponents, old accounts of players that have fallen down the ranks through inactivity? Whatever the reason, it's taken much of the fun out of the game for me.
Of course, the other reason could be that Plarium want me to drop £100s on the game to progress.
It's definitely felt like I've hit a brick wall in terms of progress after the first month. :-(
"Pay up, sucka!"
-Plarium
Seriously...part of me thinks it may be intentional, as you suggest. The other part of me realizes that it's just because Plarium coders aren't smart enough to write a few lines of code that says:
"arena tier: inactive;"
"if last login > 30 days, arena tier == inactive;"
Unfortunately it is a combination of many issues, none of which Plarium is likely to address in a timely fashion if it all. So yes, as a new F2P you are basically screwed. Silver is possible, gold no chance. The problems:
1. Aging Player base: Gold 4 is now all player level 65+, many 70+, some 80+. The trickle down affect pushes everyone down. Solution: Make Gold & Silver brackets bigger
2. Inflation (correlated with Aging): I'd guess 75%-90% started pre BP1. These accounts all have Stag Knight, months of farming better gear, and all the free stuff in BP. Plus anyone 6+ months (yes there are tons) now has Scyl as well. I see more and more in Silver & Gold arena. Yes also, all 60s ascended probably with Masteries. Again Silver is now almost entirely Player 60+ or close to it. This was not silver 6 months ago, and it will get worse every day.
3. Alot of players pay to play, we can't complain about that as this is not entirely F2P. It is an uphill battle that gets steeper.