From the guy that won season 1. The only thing hardcore about it is what it does to your bank account

STORE-BOUGHT ITEMS
- If you can spring for them, the following store-bought items really help:
- Supreme tomes
- XP pots (these were NOT needed for farming favor, but helpful for RXP)
- Sovereign healing pots
- Augments (fill up whatever empty slots you have)
- SP pots

WHAT I DID AND WHY
I bought a +8 supreme tome early on. I used gold rolls to level up to level 5 before running any quests. I ran most quests at 4 levels over. I used XP pots to level as quickly as I could knowing I did not care about 5000 favor and that getting to 1750 would happen just from leveling to 30.

goldgolem wrote on Nov 25^th, 2019 at 8:05am:


Are you going to continue to play the toon with the +8 supreme on live or are you done with it, besides as a mule?

Truly the Special Olympics of DDO

I for one am appreciative he spent all that money and still sucks at DDO. He's contributing more to the game than I am 

Man those claims by goop about the vaginal eggs sound like Steelstar's discord defense of Inquisitive.

acidpickachu wrote on Nov 25^th, 2019 at 5:50pm:

LMAO, "Also goes great in the mouth" I spit coffee on my keyboard, you bastard 

Shinyshoes wrote on Nov 26^th, 2019 at 1:17am:

They're both backed by similar levels of science, but experimenting with the eggs is harmless, and suckers who buy them experience less discomfort

wot didya expect ?

Slick Stick wrote on Nov 26^th, 2019 at 5:04pm:


OK Boomer.  It was Pay2Win like pro sports are pay2win.   The highest salary in baseball last year was the Boston Red Sox.  Didn't make the playoffs.    The previous year, they had the highest salary and won the world series.  Previous 5 years to that, the Yankees and the Dodgers had the highest salaries every year.  Neither won the series.  But the Dodgers did make 2 World Series appearances.  None for Yankees.

Same thing with NBA.  Cas went to 4 straight finals earlier this decade.   Had the highest payroll pretty much every year.   But only won one title.  Last year, GS vs. Toronto was 2nd highest vs. 4th highest.   4th highest won. 

In all the sports spending more money gives you a better chance of success but it is not a guarantee.   You still have to perform.   

This guy admits that his first two toons he bought +8 supremes on died early.   So, what got him the RXP?  Was it the spend or was it his perfected strategy from the lessons learned in failure?

It was more Pay2Advantage than Pay2Win

Yes, the XP Pots were a massive advantage.   But I think his gap was large enough that even without running any pot at all, he still has 1st place.   So it's hard to say they were a major factor for him specifically.

Here is the thing, everyone had equal access to the store.   If you didn't want to spend for advantages you didn't have to.   But if you wanted to you could.  You had to know what get to be effective.   it wasn't like an ottoss box existed that allowed you to gain the RXP or favor without playing.  That would have been Pay2Win. 

I know plenty of players that got to 20 and one or both favor rewards without spending more than $10 on the HC.   I didn't spend much and got the rewards I wanted.   If you think people only earned rewards or made the leader boards by spending cash then you either did not play on HC or played very poorly on HC. 
          

Asheras wrote on Nov 26^th, 2019 at 11:22pm:



Boomer? You fucking high man? My fucking parents were Boomers.

BTW, no one was actually talking to or about you. It is fun that when I yelled out for a douche, you came running though.

Asheras wrote on Nov 26^th, 2019 at 11:22pm:

LOL, that's not what we meant by a level playing field!

I think it's fair to say most people call the ability to purchase a competitive advantage, even if it does not guarantee victory, Pay to Win. You can argue if P2W is good or bad for the game, but this is definitely P2W by common usage.

Synchrono wrote on Nov 26^th, 2019 at 12:54pm:

500$ isn't much, considering the amounts I've seen spent on other MMOs.

That would buy you maybe 1/5th of a decent gearset on L2.

Slick Stick wrote on Nov 27^th, 2019 at 6:04pm:


3 months of fun ( 30 hours per week for 13 weeks is $1.20 an hour for fun times)
AND bank toon,
AND some cosmetics
AND being No 1 on the first hardcore event forever.

pretty good all in all.

Slick Stick wrote on Nov 27^th, 2019 at 6:04pm:

Was referring to the "whale" part mostly.