As a older player I havent done the rank missions. This leaves me with a few concerns.
1) Will there come a time I am reliant on someone else to do anything other then run the clockworks alone? (other then sifting thru 30 T1 gate1 and 5 T2 partys before finding anything in T3 thanks to the lolranking system in partyfinder).
2) Are these new coveted "danger missions" going to be selectively available on some such similar bias as to what my lolrank and or whatever prestige is?
Above and beyond that does anyone feel that we will never see a core or a T4, instead we will see an ever evolving clusterbleep of missions for our missions? Its really beginning to feel as though the current message being sent out is to forsake the clockworks and adapt to the almighty mission or become obsolete and this saddens me.
~Luke
I'm pretty sure you retain higher tier access if your character existed before missions were introduced. Otherwise the only reason you "need" to do missions is for the tier access.
Otherwise, the Clockworks still offer the same modes of gameplay they always have. The party finder gives suggestions for open parties but you can still go the the gates in the Arcade (or the Arcade panel in the Missions Interface) and join/start a party in the tier of your choice. Many players prefer the mission versions of boss strata to bypass the lower stratum within each boss tier but, so far, the gate construction process is still placing boss strata into their appropriate gates. You may run into a narrower selection of knights, but the overall Clockwork experience has not changed much due to Missions.
According to the Danger Missions testing instructions, they are accessed through the Prestige panel in the Missions Interface but that is subject to change. You only need to be rank 3 to access Prestige Missions. If I remember correctly, this only requires doing two 2-level missions and crafting some 1* things for a total investment of 40 energy.
It's likely that the Core will be one or more missions due to how much :plot: will be involved. I don't think it makes sense as extended Clockwork levels in the same way OCH would not fit in the standard Clockwork framework.