Okies, here's my $2.50 (two cents is obviously not enough).
I have been avoiding RoM Welten and looking at the new Chaos Vortex stuff, because I have a sad sinking feeling some of that stuff is not going to be implemented in game, like the level 65 Moas. Where's my Legendary Hell at, huh? But Paz and Yoman have been talking about it, and I've absorbed some knowledge from them against my will.
Assuming the "rental" function is ever implemented, *BOOM* there you go, a way to get the weapons that doesn't involve farming them. Rent them to get the one you want to keep. This is such an alien concept for RoM that it makes me even more skeptical that it'll ever be implemented.
Seriously, I hope I am wrong, but this looks like Moa's all over again, and the Moas have failed every single time they've been implemented. By the time the original Moa's were able to be made, they were decorative. The second Moa's still aren't available- if they actually put in HoTO and DoD hard mode with this expansion, guess what? They'll be decorative again.
Runewaker seems to dream up these fantasy weapons, then realize just how OP they are, and make sure we can't get them til they're glorified but glorious aggs.
So, I dunno. Don't hold your breath. I'll believe them when I see someone get one, and not until then.
As to the idea of weapons being made available outside of instance drops- they already do this. Mementos will get you a weapon that you can use to do the instance prior to the highest one, which will get you the instance weapon, which will get you into the highest one. Sardo weapon for mems helps you do GCH, GCH weapon helps you do ToSH, for example.
As to endgame being a status that is next to unobtainable without overuse of the cash shop: ughhhhhh. Too much truth in there to deny it, but with unlimited time it can be done. How easily it can be done depends on which server you're on and what guild you're in. After experiencing the Sardo to GCH, GCH to ToSH push of this chapter, with undergeared people (mages mostly, in the beginning, who had crap-statted DL gear and RT dia staves, since all Noto's OP scouts quit)... it can be done, but it took forever. We're just finally farming ToSH now. It cost us all a lot of cash shop resources to get there, too. Some of my peeps are FtP, but a lot of us overspend.
We did it, but we were insanely driven, and we had each other. If you can find like-minded people, and if you're on a server where you can buy weapons on the AH- it'd be easier. But then the temptation is to buy most of your stuff on the AH and some of the drive disappears. We were driven cause if we weren't gonna do it, no one else was. If we wanted a Puppet Queen or a Shackles staff, we were gonna have to break the instance, cause no one was gonna do it for us. That gives you a lot of drive, and it makes finding those like-minded people easier. It also makes chain-wiping for hours and hours in the middle of the night a lot more palatable. If we could have said to each other, "F this, I'm gonna farm dogs til I can buy one from Noteworthy"... we might have given up.
If you're Joe Shmo on Reni, one of the teeming millions, it might actually be a lot harder to find people willing to make that crazy middle of the night trip through death's gates.
Sascori, what I can tell you for sure, is that regardless of what server you're on, regardless of whether you buy a weapon from a guild that's already farming, or buy one with mems- whether you farm mems for stats or farm ToSH normal for them- if you have sufficient drive, you can get to endgame. Whether you use shell gear and the mem sets, or use all OD ToSH hm gears and VN accesories, whether you have lots of money or just lots of time and ambition- you can do it.
The most important ingredient is drive. If you want it bad enough, and you can convince a tank, three healers and some dps to go with you, you will get to endgame, no matter how bad your gear is, how poor you are, or how dumb your group is. After dying a million times on the same boss, people smarten up. They learn. And all that dying just makes you want it more.
If you don't have a guild that's already doing it, or can't get into the ones that are, or you are in one and they won't take you seriously, make one yourself. If you don't have a tank or enough healers, recruit them or reroll. Anyone can do it- you just have to want to bad enough.
Having a good weapon helps, but it doesn't solve the problem. I know plenty of people who have amazing weapons and aren't close to endgame. The weapon doesn't make the player. I also know plenty of people who overspend and aren't endgame. I also know free to play people who managed to claw their way kicking and screaming to endgame, out of sheer and desperate ambition. And none of them could have done it on their own. They had to find at least 11 other people as ambitious and crazy as they were. You get that and no matter how disadvantaged you are, you'll make it.
That's the secret, guys. It really is. Yes, there's a lot of other ducks you need to get in rows, videos you need to watch, gear and stats you need to farm, gold for dias and potions and instruments and party buffs and food you need to track down, friends who know strats you need to make, etc etc etc- but if you want it bad enough you'll find all those things. Making friends who know the strats is the easiest part- the RoM community is amazingly supportive. People fell all over each other trying to help us. I like to pay that forward, so if you need strat help, PM me.
If you want it bad enough, if you're willing to work hard enough, you too can become an endgamer in RoM.
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Okay on the other note, the lvl65 moa-mats are in the databases attached to the actual BossIDs that drop the same old stuff like all the time, still the mats never showed up anywhere ;-)
Quoted from "YomanROM;533271"
The world battlefields only suck because the rewards suck. 2-3k points per clear while needing >300,000 points per equipment piece of those PvP parts you could get is just not worth the hassle. Did them once for titles and thats it
