Is it still possible to gear as a F2P player?

[SSVK]

Ok so i dont know what im doing wrong if im not gearing properly, but it seems so much of a power creep ever since the 95 cap. Things are way too expensive, people seem to want something just to carry someone else, and most people that can gear usually have money to shell. I have at least 95 gear (3 Medea, 4 Neris), semi up to date plates and talis, and still can only manage 2.09 mil hp, 210k atk, and 20% ice conversion for a LK. I look around and see most people already this early have geared either full Medea or Calapyso gear, while i just look and think "how am i supposed to afford this on my budget?" Plus, i see a lot of people with epic grade costumes as well, while im just sitting with a lot of old stuff from the past just getting lucky years ago. Even so, most are at least 2.5mil hp and 350k dmg in town and will good stuff on their characters. I don't even know if doing dailies is enough on what i can anymore, due to it being so unbalanced unless you have something to give to the game. I understand the game needs money to keep going, but most like myself cant afford the stuff on a daily or weekly basis without costing something in the real world. I was considering switching to gear my AW, but is that even enough? Im hoping things might get better and there are great patches up ahead of the next few months, but will it be too late for some of us? If thats the case, then it might as well be a premium pay to play game that will benefit a lot of people in the end. I enjoyed this game since beta, but seems more of a chore to lvl and grind for gear that will be soon outdated about a couple months after you finally get decent.

[AjiBuster499]

1. My observation is that this game's economy is going through hyperinflation right now (looking at you jelly prices). As such things are very expensive for a lot of people with an actual life.
2. Those people with +20 Calypso probably checked out one of the Asian servers or the translated patch notes whose author I can never seem to remember ;_; and had the necessary mats ready to convert and +20 looooong before calypso came to NA.
3. This is probably a subjective list, but I gear in this order:

1. [*=1]Armor & Weapons [*=1]Dragon Gems [*=1]Accessories [*=1]Skill Crests [*=1]Stat Crests [*=1]Talismans [*=1]Max Enhance Dragon Gems (or U/L-Grade 95 Gems) [*=1]Max Enhance Weapons and Armor (Main,Off,Chest,Legs,Head,Gloves&Boots) [*=1]3rd Stat Crests [*=1]2nd Stat Talismans [*=1]Epic Costumes

So, as you can see, I put the Costumes and Really Fancy Stuff at the very very bottom of the list. They're very expensive, and, while their huge stat boosts, are very negligible when you're a fresh 95 with no gear other than a jumble of Rare gear you found while grinding.
1a. Back to the Inflation issue with this game's economy, I think I can pinpoint it to two things, one of which was most likely an indirect effect of the other.

Bots. Bots. Bots Bots. They're the primary cause of inflation in this game. Some geek goes and makes 200000000000etc accounts, and sends characters on a script out to farm dungeons over and over and over and etc over again. They do this a few hundred times, and there's a pile of gold rolling in. They can then sell that gold to other players on websites, and the other players will buy it, thereby injecting the gold directly into the economy. Note: If nobody buys the gold, the bots aren't affecting the economy because it's just sitting on the bot accounts, unless the geek sends it all to their main account.
The effect of this (which is now obsolete) was apple farming. Honest players who couldn't keep up with insane prices due to a large gold injection from gold selling began to make armies of alts to log on once every 5 days, to plant a golden apple on each of their 1-∞ level 24 characters, which they'd then sell and give the gold to their main. With the placement of the seeds behind nest points, it became pointless to do this (why grind a chunk of 95s just to farm apples o.o). As such, the gold supply is slowly decreasing now thanks to the effective extinction of apple farming, but a) the effects are still being felt, and b) the main cause (bots) are still out and about.

and to make you feel better, 2 of my 3 95s have 150k PATK, and my Reaper (3rd 95) only has 180k

[fargone]

The gold sellers and questionable customer support take much of the fun out of this game. I (chat) block nearly a dozen gold spammers a day. Armys of bots can be seen and counted (~100's of them), at most any of the portals zoning in and out. The bots also cheat, i see them teleport around in ways no normal player is possible.

[ceruulean]

Ppl want to clear things fast
power creep is pretty stupid I’ll agree

if some person can clear nests faster cause they have better gear why should you care? Do you want to do RudnHC or clear vn hell easily? Does that sound fun to you?

curbstomping vn hell isnt really as fun as it sounds

if you feel useless because of your lack of gear then I’ll be happy to share the opposite, where you have gear and still feel useless! I think this is the most pressing concern that people have: feeling useless

[Zengeroff]

Honestly, it isn't THAT hard to get gold in DN anymore.

Firstly, your priority (in my opinion of course) should be looking to future gear now in the way of prioritizing Slayer Mode. (More on that later.)

What I currently do is run 5 Slayer Training Grounds at the Heart of Merca and then go get 3 likes to get 300 more FTG. After that, take the dailies and do them and turn them in. Doing these 2 things you should get the daily task of running 10 dungeons in Heart of Merca, get the shards to trade for Slayer Mode tickets and get the daily task(s) there and be close to getting 7 daily tasks done.

After that, go like 5 people (might do this while getting your 3 likes for yourself), then send a Merc on a mission for that task, then go run a random nest. Even a super easy nest run will get the task done.

Once you do all that, you either have all 7 daily tasks done you need to do, if not you're close so just do the Slayer Mode tasks.

Opening the stone pouch from the 7 daily tasks task can net a lot of weapon stones, if so, sell them if you don't need them. Right now they go between 55-60g each and I've gotten one with 35 in it once (I think) and that right there is close to 2k gold. Also, don't be so quick to pull the trigger on purchasing and selling. Playing MP can be sort of a game itself.

As a solo character without a guild I manage to pull 10k gold a week or more. Also, don't neglect getting mercenaries and sending them on runs as often as you can. The unique and epic boxes can drop lv 95 plates and other nice things like cubes you can save for Genesis accessories or just sell.

Also, the daredevil faire is SUPER important now. It can net you some killer stat crests and even if you get a terrible one you can sell it for at least 10g. So do the daily there too.

As a fellow LK, I used to know the struggle but I began to prioritize things and it got way easier. I'm currently working on a Genesis ring (something I thought I'd never be able to afford as a completely solo character) and have gotten well past 350k mdmg in town with 60% element converted.

It's possible. You just have to set small goals and keep going. I'm still no where near where I want to be but every single day I get a little bit closer to my goal.

If you ever wanna chat I'm available hang in there man (or lady), it gets better!

[Nogarde]

One other side note I'd like to point out to you that is not instantly obvious to newer players

you say atm you've got 210k in town damage and comparing yourself to some people who are around the 350k mark. Now if you're comparing to other LKs alone I can understand as some of them are super geared with it being the most popular class. but on the other hand some classes eg: dancers getting to 350k in town is much easier. aside from the difference in raw stats on gear, near every class has some ability netting them a 50% boost in there main stat. for LKs its 1% int per stack built from tornados. As you can imagine your damage is a lot higher at 50 stacks than 0 (like when in town) Dancers however are one of quite a few classes that simply get a class mastery saying "increase STR +50%" which is active all the time, even in town. so if you're comparing to classes such as this compare to them when you're in field and build up 50 stacks first, you'll find you're not quite as far away as you think ^-^