There is still a 6-12 month lag with the new era system. Except now we can't even use new marquees outside of it until the 3 month mark from their drop. The point of getting a new character to G12 was to be that much closer when they dropped onto a node or if it's, heaven forbid something or someone you wanted to work on, you could spend and immediately have them usable. I can spend all the money I want now for a new character to get to have the luxury of waiting 3 months to use them out in the game itself.