There are two cohorts Plarium targets, whales and new players, the rest of us (who stick around) realise that it's a game for them and because we have realised it's pointless to spend, or maybe just get a cheap energy offer occasionally are discounted by Plarium, we aren't going to spend £28 on a sacred because we realise buying two is the same as buying a good Xbox game that actually gives us something tangible, whereas the OP pointed out you'll probably get two useless epics and feel really bad but Plarium have your money, when you stop paying you are useless to Plarium, so don't spend and play the game as ftp or spend like a whale

My kingdom for some paragraphs

@forrestleigh - I couldn't agree more and I've just had time to catch-up on some CC vids in which HH and Ash are saying exactly the same thing. The new update will empower the Whales even more and with the cap on Plat Arena, more will be forced down into Gold Tier forcing the rest of us down to Silver and Bronze which basically ensures that our GH's will NEVER be close to complete. This in-turn makes the second round of Missions (complete THREE GH bonus to Level 10) virtually unachievable. I have two FW teams with 5 maxed champs but I'm unable to pass Level 19 because one team lacks a healer/reviver and the other team lacks a nuker. It's just one ROADBLOCK after another after another...

I just achieved the unachievable three GH bonus to level 10 mission as (almost) f2p* during this CvC. I could have achieved it even earlier, but I made some mistakes and spread my arena tokens instead of focussing on accuracy at the start.

Maybe the problem is, that you think you would need Rae as nuker for faction wars - in a faction that has Foli, Ghostborn, Queen Eva, Ruel and Kael.

Of course there are roadblocks. The game is about to find solutions to go around this roadblocks. I don't think the devs had the rare Dwarf Masterbutcher in mind when they created the DT-boss Bommal. But players knew the game better than the devs and found that this champ can be a solution to Bommal. Thanks to the content creators, that share strategies like this with us, we don't even have to think as deep like this about the game.

* I've bought 2 packs for a total of ~ 20 € at the start of my Raid career, a year ago.

I am also winding down and will quit at some point soon, but its just time with me (clunky mechanics and dailies take too long)

I think as ftp (i am ftp) you can make progress, you just have to play A LOT and use your resources effectively, never do champ training outside an event, or spider, or dragon etc..  save resources for when they are most useful too. Pick your fusions carefully.

Im just under a year in, i have 5 level ten great hall stats and a bunch to six, i get top unm, nm, brutal chest most days, working my way through doom tower hard (on floor 82 right now)

I have two factions left to get lydia.

So ...while not late game im pretty close.

But i had to play the game to death to do so (which is why i am quitting i guess)...and thats maybe what ftp find a roadblock?

Yes a lot of features are designed for whales, i agree- at the end of the day plarium want people to spend, and yes i would agree that the gap between whales and ftp is growing.

But- im not sure the whales in plat really affect us? 

I've been playing way to long as well, probably near 3 years, sigh, and I log on do the dailies etc but haven't really got any burning goal to achieve, I mainly agree with your post apart from the last - TAG is already pretty much blocked from S4 to G1 - a progress mission - it's blocked due to the player numbers that can be in each tier and that those players are generally whales and mega whales

The empowerment and new OP gear sets will imo only reinforce this block and non whales will be stuck at this mission.

It's made even more of a block with the ridiculous once a week maybe you will move up/maybe you won't system

This could also impact on classic arena progress missions which are already a big issue with new players

Thats a fair point, i hover between S2 and S3 in tag but the teams are just too strong for me to progress further than S4 even if i push- and without certain key champs i cant see that changing.

Dupe system stinks, my clan is a revolving door and it's getting harder to convince people to stay.

The power level seems to be about 2 mil before the people that stick around generally quit.

I'll either end up joining a bigger clan to ride the gravy train (2x UNM / NM clan boss bonuses) or join the RAID alumni. 

I completely agree with the poster.

So , pretty sure the MOST SUCCESSFUL MMO on the market and company who owns the greatest game ever created (based  on statistics  only) Has a handle on their game and  its development as well as direction

But hey, thanks for the useless  insight to video game success