After all...I’m enjoying the new gear system (now that repairs don’t require bronze)
I finally had some time to test the new gear system (after bronze was removed as a repair requirement), and I’m actually enjoying it now.
The big change is that upgrading gear no longer requires bronze, and at least for me, that’s a huge improvement for progression. Before, I was spending millions of bronze just to get a couple of decent items. Another important change is the amount of experience you get from crafting, which is now equivalent to the previous “insane" crafting rates (basically divided by 100).
Now, let’s talk about the parts that might feel like a downgrade. The bronze requirement for repairs was a terrible idea, so removing it already makes the system more logical.
To repair gear, you now need scraps, which you can only get from other gear. Gear is needed for battles, and battles usually provide a good amount of gear items. From this perspective, the balance between F2P and VIP players is still intact: the more you fight, the more gear you need, but also the more gear you get from chests. Since it scales like this, F2P players aren’t really penalized by this system.
The main issue is that the scrapping process is time-consuming and a bit boring. This could easily be improved by adding an auto-scrap feature that dismantles items based on player-defined settings (for example: all level 1 items, or level 1 fire-type items).
I also feel like many people overlook the fact that you can get gear cheaply by opening chests, and everyone can open one chest per minute regardless of VIP status. So if you fight some mobs, get unlucky, and don’t receive any gear, and your equipment gets broken, you can just spend a bit of time opening chests to get the scraps you need and keep going.
It’s not as smooth as before, but this system connects multiple game features, making the overall experience more varied and engaging. Even if the old system felt more rewarding (mainly because it was faster), it wasn’t exactly interactive, you were just repeating the same actions all day.
The system isn’t perfect, and chests definitely need some improvements, which could also enhance the overall gameplay.
That said, we did end up with bronze-free gear upgrades, and that’s a big win. Plus, you can still get the gear needed for upgrades fairly easily through chests. So the more you grind, the more you progress.
All things considered, I think I enjoy the game more than before.