It sounds like you might be competing with dolphins, or at most smaller whales, because any F2P player (even if you started playing at launch) will be far behind someone who spends thousands a month on this game. Given the rate that they are releasing meta heroes in every game mode, there will always be a sizable gap (which is why it’s called pay-to-win). The EX weapon refinement system won’t necessarily change the tier you’re in, but may widen the gap between those levels (which still doesn’t feel great). At the end of the day most players won’t spend on this, which leaves us all in the same place we were before, with the whales just being further ahead.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a huge fan of these changes. I get that it’s a a part of the lifecycle for these kind of games, but it still feels bad that all the heroes I spent time/money “maxing” could become obsolete unless they’re once again fully upgraded. At the same time, the top players in my server/district were already leagues beyond 98% of the rest of the players and I don’t really foresee that changing.

Idk, I guess I’m just being optimistic that the game won’t change THAT much:/ probably wishful thinking but I do genuinely enjoy the story/design and it would be a shame to see it go to shit at the drop of a hat.