[Can the P2W/RNG Upgrades chill out?]

1 hour ago, Sudhri said:

I'll share my limited experience so far. I've been playing for about four weeks, give or take a few days. I started f2p, at level 1, and made it to lvl 60 hm 15 by the time I finished the absolutely horrible story line in four days. My ap was around 1400/1500 at that point. I came across some good players in a clan that helped to show me the ropes and explain a great amount of the systems and how some things worked and now sit at hm 21, nearly 22, with 2300/2400 ap and do an average of 6-8 mil dps (Obviously not enough for end game). I farmed ebon for my first weapon gems, I famed prime for pet gems. I upgraded and got gear via going through dungeons except for my bracelet. I can attest that you can join the 'whales' depending on the time you put in and the amount of farming you are willing to do. 
As for the new content, I am a long ways away from it. I can't even do sc or steel breaker yet (not from a lack of trying), but I can solo the vast majority of daily dungeons hm 16 and below and some of the raids hm 10 and below. I also have a good clan which helps me now. 
I spent a good amount of money on trove, and I can most certainly promise you that there was nothing pay to win about it, as after 2700+ keys not a single super awesome 3 star item made an appearance. 

Now, on a side note, every single mmo out there has a cash shop with useful items. Otherwise they have pay walls with subscriptions so that the company can make money to profit and keep servers up. The cost of running servers for a game like this are absolutely massive. As are the costs for coders, graphic designers, and other staff which keep the game going. Cash shops for games like this are honestly a necessity for them to survive unless you want something like f2p locked to lvl 55 with a sub requirement to play higher levels. Wow does that, and there is a reason for it. 

Does buying stuff from the cash shop make things slightly faster? Yes. There are materials, resets, etc. They don't guarantee you the best or end gear however. 
Does the economy in game with npc merchant need to be fixed to ease the issue of gold for upgrades, yes, most certainly.

But so far, there is absolutely nothing in the cash shop that I have seen that gives anyone a super advantage dependent on the amount of money they spend.
You could spend $20 a month and get a marvelous boost on materials, or you could spend $200 and waste it all on cosmetics. 

If you don't have the money to spend on the game after bills, then you shouldn't spend it. That's called being intelligent and responsible. 

Now, other than the few unity rocks I received from trove, every single stone that I have which has been improved to legendary/awakened was a long, tedious, grind. Gold could be gained easily by farming hard mode dungeons, as could unity stones. Spending several hours for a few days doing that has gained nearly all awakened and some of the higher unity stones after combining them. Yes, it literally took hundreds. 

So far as the end game gear, grind it out. Everyone has to.

I'm sorry, but this story to me doesn't make any sense. In just a month you're already scraping HM 22, reached 2400ap, acquired the INSANE AMOUNT OF GOLD AND MATS TO REACH THAT POWER? You must've found some insanely generous whales who carried you thru literally everything and let you have everything. You also spent 2700 keys (+$1300) on trove as soon as it rolled out? Jesus.

Even if this is true, this is unrealistic for the average player to achieve. You just got super lucky.

[Moon Refuge suggestions]

Somehow I feel like Panda Village mobs were supposed to drop actual gold bricks you can sell to npc (like the ones we get from dailies) given how all the enemies are carrying a backpack obviously filled with gold, they use gold to attack you and there's gold laying around everywhere but it was a last minute decision to change it and now it drops the ever-so-disappointing and boring peculiar chests.

Raw gold would definitely be something worth fighting for, but these chests? Nah bro.

[Thanks]

Tried stage 4 yesterday for myself with and without the event weapon, I tried 3 times without weapon and max dps I was able to achieve was 1.11m dps. With weapon it was 1.09m dps and i tried twice. No I could not clear it, my gear is in my sig in case you're wondering. This even is a joke. Those who are able to clear this have no need for the GC soul shields 1-3 or the basic Octa gems you can buy this this currency, it's retarded.

[Information regarding the future of Mystic/Soul Badges, Accessories and new Tower of Infinity Badges]

Regarding the legendary soul badges, do they have to be awakened to exchange them?

They can't just be Eon Soul Badge or Limitless Soul Badge? You need it to be awakened to exchange them?