So before I get into this I want to point out how much fun this game is, (I really do like it a lot) etc etc, sucking up.

Hoookay, I'm kind of sort of a bit tired of things that are of the "roll the dice for a really low chance of success" format. I understand why this might be a good business idea, and if y'all have the numbers and know that it is, then more power to you. I'm not against anybody making a buck. (Personally, I make money by working on software that is used to make offshore oil rigs AND cargo container ships AND canadian tar sands oil extraction facilities AND we're trying to move into the nuclear market, (each day before work we all thrust our fists towards the heavens and recite the company motto: "You'll pay for this! Captain Planet!")). So I'm not trying to be judgmental, and I hope this won't come off that way. I just don't think you are going to make any money from ME with low chance of success random stuff. And my particular focus at the moment is the Unique Variant system.

The only thing anybody wants on a flourish/barb line sword is ASI. The only thing anybody wants on a Shivermist is CTR. I just feel like MMO players in general (i.e. me and exactly one person I know IRL) enjoy the gradual, grinding, certain horribleness of working things up more than they enjoy random chance stuff. I mean I know I personally am a Volvo driving, online backup having, anxiety prone, risk-o-phobe who has family members with doctorates in probability.

This may/should immediately make my opinion far less relevant from a business perspective than that of a person who is willing to take risks. This is also totally fair, however I will point out that I have paid cash into this game on two occasions when I knew exactly what I was paying for and what it would cost. I made a list of what I was after and how much energy that would require, and I had the money to pay, which I did. For the record, the two things that I paid money to do were:

1. Move my character up in gear + first rose regalia promotion (I'm not above hats, but the probability there "looked" 50/50 (this could have been very wrong, I knew that, but I also wanted the energy), plus I guessed (correctly) that I could get somebody who wanted a full matching outfit to trade me a hat for a body piece if I didn't mind what color I got. I didn't have that feeling about the sniped hats, in fact I think the fact that I looked into it and saw "Chance of FAILURE! RUN!" actually overrode any feeling I had about the deal I might get on X amount of energy for Y amount of cash).

2. Refit my character when lockdown was introduced, and I wanted a couple of new pieces at once to play a bit better.

How about a leveling up method for Unique Variants? By all means, make it cost enough to recoup the lottery profits (if this is impossible, then hey, I understand. Stick with what works). Make it cost over 1000 CE + mats for the Low bonus, and require the low bonus to get the medium bonus, and make the cost exponential. But let me choose what bonus I'm working on. Make it cost a new currency/token that can only be acquired by paying money directly, no trading possible, even that would be superior. If you don't want most end game players to have a full set with strong UVs, then OK, fair enough, but I don't exactly understand why.

I know the obvious answer is that the AH system provides an outlet for people like me, but that thing isn't reliable. I don't know that it is there to be worked on every day, I don't know exactly what it would cost, and even if I did save up the crazy amount of crown for the one time cost of a BTB type weapon + ASI, I'd have to make a decision whether or not to settle for something with a "High" bonus, and I couldn't level it up into the "Max" bonus without risking what it currently is, which I just ain't gonna do. Plus, I've been searching UVed "Bristling Buckler" on AH for a solid month looking for a good UV candidate, and about the best thing I've seen is "Elemental Def Medium".

So I've kind of hit a wall in the game. I really like this game. I really like how the energy system encourages you guys to keep the game challenging, which is a change of pace from some subscription MMOs where it seems the idea is to pander to such a low denominator that you can't have self respect and play. (There was a puzzle in WOW that asked me what sound dogs make, and that's when I knew that love story was over). But at the moment I'm searching for things to work on. I'm not necessarily after speedier content delivery, I don't know how much good that would do you guys anyway.

And there's this thing I want to work on! But I can't figure out how. Working up the crown to buy a max ASI barb/flourish weapon would take so long, that it would deprive me of those wonderful little "you've progressed one step towards your goal!" addictive nudges that I like so much from MMOs. Are you sure that this "addictiveness" isn't the polar opposite of gambling's "addictiveness", instead of its companion?

At this point I'm about to craft myself a Venom Veiler for the theoretical purpose of running rooms with healers a bit faster, but honestly it is hard to imagine that I'd not have some other weapon that I'd rather equip. And there is no hurry/need on that thing, I can use FSC profits to totally fund that at whatever rate I want.

Also I don't get why the innate bonuses on the Shadow Lair gear weren't a step above Medium. I still like running Shadow Lairs for the challenge, but I felt no pressure to get into that gear set, or to buy energy to complete it faster. I don't think you should retrofit this, it would be dumb to give away mudflation, it just seemed like a bizarre choice both from a player and a business perspective.

If you read this far, thanks, I like your game, I hope you all are successful, and if my suggestions would bankrupt you and ruin the dreams of people everywhere, feel free to ignore the heck out of them.