Quote Originally Posted by Theodric View Post
It isn't really 'pay to win'. I tried it out a month after launch, didn't spend a single bit of money on the store and still managed to catch up easily enough between the items I gained naturally and the generous rewards offered through the login bonuses/special events.

With Square Enix flirting with NFT's and selling dolls of comfort characters for £1000 I also find it strange to bash one game for optional purchases but ignore the other. Even if you want to go 'well it's just cosmetics' and ignore stuff like emotes and minions being tied to merchandise, to get extra inventory space in FFXIV you need to pay extra each month.
It is sorta P2W if you want to do the highest level raid content on day 1. It's like having a Savage difficulty raid and an Ultimate difficulty raid and most F2P players would only be able to get to Savage naturally, do Savage for a month then move on to Ultimate. For example Valtan normal (1415) vs Valtan hard (1445). Most players would be able to get to 1415 naturally but 1445 is HC F2P / moderate whale ($300) territory if you want to do it on day 1.

Same goes for Abrelshud. Phase 1-2 (1490) will be available to most people easily on release, but Phase 5-6 (1530 if I'm not wrong) will require whaling to get to on day 1, but people should be able to get there within a month.

In that sense FF14 is a superior raiding game if you care about doing content fast. I have paid $13 in FF14 to be able to do DSR on day 1. To do the equivalent in Lost Ark would require $300 or $1000 or something like that.

Another thing I dislike about Lost Ark: the playerbase is obsessed with using ilvl or roster lv as a status symbol. People look down on those who have lower ilvl or roster lv. But both of those things either mean you no-lifed the game or that you whaled. Neither indicate skill. People might not like it but at least FF14 Ultimates allow you to actually prove your skill to randos. Hell mode (which is actual equalized raiding content) isn't coming out in Lost Ark for a long time so everything in Lost Ark right now can be cleared by just whaling. I do not like how so many people in Lost Ark trash on other people's ilvl or engravings as if that means they're a worse player. Hopefully hell mode comes out soon so that people can start comparing their epeens with something that requires skill.