There's a pay-incline, not a pay-wall, and it's omnipresent. I've play this game since early closed beta testing, which means more than half a decade. I have 8 thousand hours in it documented by Steam and some probably 2-3 thousand through the original launcher. I can confidently say it's been addictive but I still hate the game. Every couple of months the greed of the devs/publishers seem to become more apparent with micro-seasons that cost a lot and things so overpowered in packs and proper seasons (which cost money to access) that not buying it means you'll most likely lose to those that have the stuff. Premium subscription gives double of the most valuable non-trade farming in the game and you won't get anything out of that unless you're in a good clan with good gear that would take at least a year and a half of non-stop grinding to get without investing money in the game. New players won't become the best without investing money or their very souls and old players are incentivized to continue spending monye on new packs, seasons and yearly new year's sale on prenium subscription to stay ahead in the upgraded relic curve. The only saving grace is that old relics aren't bad compared to new ones for too long, since the developers are smart enough to hold on to players with relics. My other issue is the progress of the game, almost no modes or stuff to do has been added since OBT release, I can count the significant core modes on one hand.

There's a pay-incline, not a pay-wall, and it's omnipresent. I've play this game since early closed beta testing, which means more than half a decade. I have 8 thousand hours in it documented by Steam and some probably 2-3 thousand through the original launcher. I can confidently say it's been addictive but I still hate the game. Every couple of months the greed of the devs/publishers seem to become more apparent with micro-seasons that cost a lot and things so overpowered in packs and proper seasons (which cost money to access) that not buying it means you'll most likely lose to those that have the stuff. Premium subscription gives double of the most valuable non-trade farming in the game and you won't get anything out of that unless you're in a good clan with good gear that would take at least a year and a half of non-stop grinding to get without investing money in the game. New players won't become the best without investing money or their very souls and old players are incentivized to continue spending monye on new packs, seasons and yearly new year's sale on prenium subscription to stay ahead in the upgraded relic curve. The only saving grace is that old relics aren't bad compared to new ones for too long, since the developers are smart enough to hold on to players with relics. My other issue is the progress of the game, almost no modes or stuff to do has been added since OBT release, I can count the significant core modes on one hand.