The only thing I don't quite understand is the CE increase. I'm not angry like most of the people in this thread.

I understand capping off the four star and five star gear, making it harder to trade things once bound. I think people who would craft stuff over and over just to get a UV really made getting UV's worthless. I think this way people will enjoy getting UV's, it will make it more of a rare thing and more appreciated thing to have on your gear. Now it seems like EVERYONE had one because people would sit at the alchemy stations crafting an item over and over just to get a UV.

I know this change is very sudden and has hit us all like a brick. People are angry because of all the stuff they've already crafted to sell and now they are stuck with it. Well, I didn't craft stuff over and over for people and sell them to make crowns or CE. I like that you can't do this anymore.

The only thing I don't like is the sudden and drastic spike in crafting costs. I think they should have kept the costs the same because the binding of stuff that have already been bound after leveling them will change the market enough as it is. I definitely think three rings should re-consider the CE prices and lower them back down, maybe not all the way but definitely further down than what they are.

All this freaking out about four and five star items permanently bound will stop after a few months.

Practical Suggestion:
- I note We still have way too many mats in the system. The production of mats was always greater than the demand. Now you've increased the CE costs for manufacturing (meaning that people will have to grind more to get the CE for the gear they want - more mats generated for the same mat consumption) and made it harder for people to jump to recipes and bosses (again, increasing the mat production/mat consumption ratio) and, by at least one report, reduced the number of boss token drops per run (if so, that reduces the number of pieces of gear made per run, again cranking up the number of mats)

- I will assume for the moment that the sudden boost in CE price for crafting was more about slowing people down than dragging in more money. I'd propose giving a choice of cranking up the mats and crown costs on 3*-5* crafting for a CE discount. Keep the current prices as an option, but also have an option to pour in, say, twice as many mats and a fair chunk more crowns and save yourself a few hundred CE. (save something like 50-100 on 3*, 100-150 or so on 4*, and 300 or so on 5*)

Effects:
- It's a mat sink. This is good, because mats are fun. Picking them up, reading the blurb, and then being able to get something worthwhile for them is fun. Lets us keep the current level of mat production, while cutting down on the "glutting the market" effect to a degree.
- It's a crown sink. This is probably good. Having crown sinks in the game increases the value of crowns as compared to CE, which means that more people can afford to permaplay, which is a significant drain of CE out of the game. Obviously we don't want to let the conversion rate get too low, or else people won't be as motivated to spend money, but it currently looks like CE prices are increasing slowly but inevitably, and that's not good either.
- It reduces the CE sink of crafting. This may be an issue economically for OOO (and, indeed, if these changes were driven by a need for more revenue, then this probably *isn't* the answer) but at the same time, it makes it emotionally more manageable. the psychological difference between "we've more than doubled the CE cost of crafting 5*" and "We've cranked up the 5* crafting price from 300 to 500, and bulked up the crown and mat prices a bit too - oh, and if you want to save crowns and mats, you can spend more CE" is not insignificant.

On the flip side, if it *is* about the money, might I suggest a tweak to elevator construction? Take the base price per mineral down to 3cr or 2cr or so, and make the cost of pumping one type a manageable and static cost in CE. (say, something like 500CE or so to crank one type up one point on one floor - low enough that high-level players can do it when they want to, high enough that it's not entirely trivial)

Effects:
- You overall get a few less crowns in the game (again, the crown sink thing) but not in a way that feels painful
- The people who want to muck around with the types of levels finally can again, in a meaningful way.
- Shouldn't be too hard to implement.
- CE sink that doesn't cause hard feelings (and, indeed, would make people happier)

I do not like this update I had fun with friends and family on this game but with this update we can no longer share items or craft good items for each other it depleted the multilayer experience for us and the energy crafting prices are insane. All the stupid changes, I have had enough I am finished this game and unless 3 rings pulls their head of of their ass and fixes it, I'm finished.

Making 4 and 5* items soulbound crashed the market for high level mats as well as made weapons. A staggering blow to the in-game marketing system, as well as trading. It also came as a nasty surprise to people who had crafted said items for the explicit purpose of selling them (as I had).

Raising the CE cost per crafting isn't really fun. It already feels like I hemorrhage CE anytime I do something other than a JK run.

The other problem is that this slows down progression even more for free players (or even for paying players if they don't shell out more $$). Why is this an issue? Because players want to play with friends--there's nothing fun about always seeing your friends/guildies in T3 and not being able to join them, or for a new player going up to T2 and having to bail when the others continue.

And for what? The sake of farming and re-farming the same strata for crowns, to make into CE, to make into weapons, at what is now a much slower rate. The game is already grindy enough. If I wanted to play the same levels over and over killing the same mobs over and over, I'd be playing Maplestory.

That points to another issue. Strata crown/heat yield really needs to be balanced. JK and other levels are much more profitable than others, which makes the others feel like a "waste" of CE. With materials decreasing in value, this is only made more evident.

The unlearned recipe thing is okay, but a slap in the face to people who learned those recipes. Just sayin'.

What 3R should've done to both increase revenue in terms of energy purchases while still keeping F2P players happy is to increase the crown costs of crafting and recipes rather than decreasing recipes prices and increase energy costs. By doing this, you can create a need to buy more energy and still allow F2P players to progress and convert their mist energy into crowns, by doing runs each day.

Let's break down what I said just now in more details:

Why does increasing crown costs beneficial to 3R when energy is their income but make F2P players happy?

The answer is that while a person can buy as much energy as they want, there is a theoretical ceiling to the amount of crowns a person can get given a certain amount of energy. All the floors have a set amount of crowns that can drop from killing mobs to destroying bushes, which can even be further controlled by 3R if needed. Now, since crafting and recipes requires more crowns, this causes players who want to skip the wait and the grind (the reason why people buy energy in the first place). The nice thing about this system is that it will make crowns more valuable, something that F2P players can get each day with their mist energy. So overtime, if a F2P player saves up his crowns, they can make their items at a predetermined pace based on skill (how much they die) and play time (whether they will play each day or not) without having to deal with increasing energy cost.

Now, you may ask how does this benefit 3R? Let's first review the reasons why people buy energy: to play more and to skip the grind. 3 rings obviously do not want people to pay more to skip the grind since they implemented the craft your own 4* and 5* items (which requires people to play and heat up their own items). This leaves us with the play more option. However, since crowns are in limited supply and is in high demand, people will attempt to use their energy to buy crowns. This causes energy sellers to under cut each other and players with stored up energy will have to sell theirs also. As a result, a F2P player can either choose the first option where they can save the crowns earned each day until they have enough to craft their item or use the crowns earned to get more energy to play more.

This creates a self sustaining system where a F2P player can continue to play as he earns crowns. However, since energy is limited by the amount that have been bought, it will run out eventually if there are too many F2P players and not enough P2P players. This will result in a rise of energy costs again and creates a self balancing energy-crown market. Meanwhile, mist energy and energy converted to crowns will be consumed by item creations and deplete on its own.

With the new system, you are basically saying buy our energy or you can't progress, period, since the only way to get energy is to buy it. If people do not buy energy, no one will be able to craft any items. On the other hand, if you use crowns to craft items, mist energy will allow a F2P player to eventually craft an item, although at a slow rate.

TLDR Version:
3R should make people buy energy if they choose to spend more time playing the game not making people buy energy to craft gear (the main reason why people play this game).

Uh, since I posted this in a troll thread before I'll repost it here, let me tell you that I'm calmed down now.

"Imagining you working hard for something you really like, with passion and anything and it's something you want to share with everyone, still following me? Good.

You are finished with your project and you are showing it to everybody and they just tell you how much it sucks. Doesn't feel good does it?
We are all forgetting that the Devs are still humans just like you, but you say to yourself they're something more because of the "control", but that's not the case.

Just think about it that all these people working for this game are humans.

Greetings, a calmed down Riodaisho."

@Cheeserito - One need only run the entire boss stratum (from the terminal through the boss), not the entire tier, to qualify for the max tokens. Presumably if you invited a friend to join you halfway through the Royal Jelly Palace you'd have received more tokens than he.

I assume it's still a max of 5, and a minimum of 3 for people who run the whole stratum. I haven't gone with anyone who joined partway through the stratum, but I would assume those people may get only 1 or 2 tokens.

If the permabinding hadn't come with the auction house, I think the prices of 4-5 star gear would have dropped WAY down over time. The pre-patch market prices of more than 2000ce had a huge markup that was propped up by the difficulty in buying materials and selling the finished product. This would mean that players who "pay for progress" would end up paying a lot less CE to boost themselves up to 4-5 stars.

But was permabinding really the correct answer to this? The "pay for progress" mindset would rather play a different game instead of buying CE so they can farm the jelly king palace.

But they shared the cake with you for free! You could pay them to get your pieces of cake faster though, but they didn't force you with a kitchen knife, didn't they? Just to continue it ;)

It seems the firestorm is dying down, either everyone has ragequit or is calming down. I've had sometime to think about it as well. I'll start with the obvious and oft stated points because I'm still trying to work all this out in my head and how it will affect me.

The CE price is the biggest factor in this dance between F2P/P2P vs. Devs. Everyone is worried that the CE prices will spike and crowns will no longer be enough to get by therefore being forced to pay for a game that is advertised as a free to play game. The binding parts are secondary (because it was the means to get CE without paying.) If the CE prices stay low the biggest fear will be averted. With the new Auction House serving as a large Crown sink the spike may not happen, although it did in the first hours after the patch but has come back down. The patch caused a panic buy on CE but now it has come back down because either A) Everyone has stopped playing or B) Everyone has calmed down and is just trying to go on with life.

As long as the CE is low the reduction in recipe prices will offset the increase in Crafting costs but what is the point of being able to make the same weapon over and over again if we can't sell them? The chance for a UV does not in my mind justify this recipe set up. To get my UV I'll need a significantly higher amount of CE and even more crowns to get the CE AND pay for the crafting/mats which means days and days of grinding through extremely repetitive dungeons. Nobody likes more grinding.

This all was done in the name of keeping people from buying their way to end game but instead has alienated the crafters and guilds who took pleasure in providing services for those willing to pay for them.

This "patch" has only successfully stalled the end game and dragged the process down to a crawl especially for F2P. Where Three Rings could have added in desperately needed content and final bindings at only 5* (making crafters happy and making people actually play the game for awhile before end game) they instead stretch the already thin game play to a dangerous level that will bore veterans who achieved end game started playing just to craft.

The Auction House I have not used but have heard it is less than what we wanted but what is to be expected? It is a brand new system to a relatively new game which will be constantly tweaked till a balance is found but watching Three Rings ignore all the other balance problems doesn't make me feel confidant in that happening anytime soon.

I don't like what Three Rings has done and even more so how they did it. We were given a 30 minute warning before having the entire game world turned on it's head without any explanation so far. Talk about a culture shock and here I thought this game might be one where the community had a say in things!

I think the lesson here is just running down the list completely nerfing everything is a terrible solution. It is the the cowards way out of the problems at hand, many of which have been solved in reasonable ways by a very involved and passionate community.

I am very interested in how this will all play out. I hope Three Rings will realize that the firestorm response was because we all love this game and will learn to listen to it's loyal fans.

To the newly appointed Eurydice, I do not envy you on your first days as a Moderator but you seem to be continuing on in fine fashion. You're attitude has given me a bit of hope that a compromise can and will be reached.

Thank you.

Captain Delicious.

Debunking the stages of grief.

Money quote-quote:

“no study has ever established that stages of grief actually exist, and what are defined as such can’t be called stages. Grief is the normal and natural emotional response to loss.... No matter how much people want to create simple, bullet-point guidelines for the human emotions of grief, there are no stages of grief that fit any two people or relationships.”

Well, it was amusing, but I like to debunk the stages of grief in general. A party pooper is me.

We'll I'm hoping the Bargaining stage isn't just "seeking in vain" but rather a way to compromise at the very least. I'm not happy and have only logged onto the game to discuss matters with friends and see how things are holding up. I do not plan to play any more until the patch is replaced by a more reasonable system

The anger may be fading but the disappointment is bitter and will remain.

omg i love this patch!

instead of adding content, which this game desperately needs, let's build an auction house we don't need.

oh while we're at it, let's make this game a solo grind fest and kill off the economy.

I'm pretty sure this game is beyond savable at this point, but its not like there was more than two weeks of dungeon content to being with.. so we're not losing out.

Poor guy, I know the feeling.

Please remove the no item trading after certain level of item binding

Just saw the newest announcement and I am cautiously optimistic. The 4*/5* binding was, as I said earlier, my only big concern. For everything else, I'll just have to wait and see how it turns out.

Here's hoping the unbinding system is implemented soonish, and that it once again allows non-UV crafting to be a viable source of income.

I am not against any of the other modifications. I actually love the AH and the Binding objects part seems reasonable when one takes into consideration your "rare items" reasoning. Even the not being able to just teleport to basil stuff is understandable since you need to make people spend some money.

But the energy cost of crafting is just a direct insult to your players. I have spent money on the game buying ce but i have done it because it means i will get some playing time in return and some chance to use what i purchase. But if all my RL money goes to crafting( because i am not ritch and cant spend much more). Then i wont get any playing time will all of it going to improving my character's looks( since i wont be able to use any of the equipment in game cause i wont have energy) and for that i can go to the miriad of stupid 2d rpg in facebook or some other moronic stuff like that.

Please consider using the auction house to make money off of your materials that you find dungeoning, it actually makes playing for free easier since there is another (large) source of revenue available to players - selling their materials reasonably now.

This will allow you to generate crowns to buy CE to upgrade items.

The CE increase of crafting is also (mostly) offset by the recipe costs decreasing.

It was never easy for free players, but required a lot of waiting for mist energy to recharge, and the game is most playable if you just drop 10$ in the beginning. This isn't just with the new patch, this was always true.

Stop overreacting.

@Abhorsen55

1) using the auction house to generate crowns is a risk b/c of the high listing fees. what happens when nobody buys your mats and you lose those crowns?
2) there's been speculation that the value of mats will decrease b/c the crafting economy is gone... we'll see how true this is, but if so, then selling mats at the AH is even less viable.
3) there's also speculation that the CE:crowns will increase, making it more difficult to buy CE and again, less viable to continue playing without paying into the system more.
4) the increased CE cost for crafting is NOT offset by the decrease in crowns for the recipe. what if you want to craft an item more than once?

Wow. This WAS a pretty prompt attempt to smooth things over. Thank you! I know you didn't warn us because you didn't want eveyone mass-crafting unbound items in time to beat the new craft-binding, but I still feel you pulled the rug out from under people. But at least you're picking people up and dusting them off, now :) Accolades!

Few issues:

*I memorised the two 4* recipes I brought right before the patch, for an inflated cost, and now can't get my money back. I don't think refunding unlearned recipes is enough. Many of us memorise recipes we want as soon as we buy them. Why wouldn't we, if we didn't know this was coming?

*I had an antigua I was going to make into a silversix to sell. Now it's bound. If I'd done it a day earlier, it would've been unbound. Now it will be bound. Is this something I can report via the ticket?

*In general, please talk to the community before making huge, dramatic changes. I've read the reasoning for why you want 4* and 5* items to be trickier to acquire; it's perfectly reasonable! If you'd given us a quick heads-up, though, us crafters could've made sure everyone had settled their orders.

The less I thought having the high fees is a bad idea, because it really helps to lower the CE:crown conversion rate! We need to take more crowns out, and, while I agree something cosmetic for crowns would be nice, it's hard to do that again and again without fail. So a smaller listing fee wouldn't be an awful idea.

I hated it at first, so I almost sound hypocritical now, but I really don't think it's an awful idea anymore. Especially since I've been playing the AH relentlessly and been making a GREAT profit (I love the thing!)

And to the guy who asked about the ticket: Look at the announcement forum. They're doing a one-time unbinding dealy for people, until sunday or something.

I would reply more but I've had this discussion too many times already :/. Basically I think they could have done worse things, and the biggest thing we need is a better material sink, since selling mats is a little broken right now.

I won't cite the fact that I have doubts about your expertise in economics, but this was hardly the worst thing they could have done, and I really do think it ends up working out, most of the time.

Someone pointed out that they modeled it after e-bay, but it could use a little help. Check out the auction house thread that's separate from this one.

New player here (been playing for about a week or so, I think), chugging through Tier 2 with the aim of getting enough crowns and materials to upgrade my gear for an assault on Tier 3. Overall this update looks pretty positive to me - new features are nice, and tweaks to in-game pricing are to be expected as OOO works on finding a good balance between player happiness and company revenue.

The Auction House looks useful, though the 10% sales charge might be a little steep. Ultimately, though, it'll probably balance as vendors pass on that cost to buyers, and it's as good a crown-sink as any. Short-term spazzing out, stability once the market finds its equilibrium. Not getting your listing fee back if your item doesn't sell... eh, I can see arguments for and against. On the one hand it encourages people to list things at a fairly reasonable near-market price; on the other hand it could be that you just get undersold by someone looking to dump a bunch of unwanted mats or items.

The Advanced Training Hall is useful for experimenting with combat stuff, though I'm not sure about the "Advanced" part. Maybe it'll get expanded on later, possible with instanced Boss Rooms so players can practice their team tactics against more challenging foes?

The auto-binding of 4* and 5* items doesn't really affect me much at present. I wasn't sure whether I'd end up crafting my own high-level stuff or asking a friend who's been playing for longer to do it, so this update settles that uncertainty for me. I can see how it's annoying for players who wanted to make an in-game business out of crafting high-level items for sale, but the proposed plan to allow high-level items to be unbound for a fee seems like a decent way to let them do this. The reduced CR cost of recipes is most welcome, in any case.

The increased CE cost for Alchemy is more of a sticking-point for me. Previously the amount of stuff you could get for your CE seemed pretty good value, which made me as a player happier to throw some micropayments towards buying CE and using it for elevators, or maybe splurging a hundred or two CE on upgrading my stuff every so often. It felt like 1600 CE could last me a fair while if I was sensible with it.

The 400 and 800 CE costs for the higher-level items are a pretty big whack, though. They feel spendy, and that disinclines me from going for them. I might spend just as much on resurrections or elevators in the Clockworks, but that's a bit at a time rather than in one big meaty lump so I don't notice it as much.

As an alternative approach, I've seen it suggested elsewhere (I forget by who) that instead of bumping up the CE costs of 4* and 5* items, make 3* and 4* items require a bunch more Heat to level up. Players would have to do more Clockworks runs for the Heat to get their items to a high enough level to upgrade; more Clockworks runs mean more energy expenditure in the form of elevator and resurrection fees, and if they want their upgrades sooner than their daily 100 ME permits they'll need to buy CE. Done right, it could end up costing the players just as much energy to upgrade their items, but through a more indirect route than just raising the Alchemy CE costs - which is thus less likely to spark the kind of reflexive outrage that the recent update has received.

Firstly - Auction House is a pain in the ass. Search for item, place item on for sale, so you don't lose CR/get an idea of the average price, then pray it sells. And then there's the mass mail. Can't we have a simple single box where all our profits are stored? I'd rather have player vending, that way we can set up a shop and get the money upfront. Shop search feature similar to AH would've been a fine idea/nice touch to said vending idea, too.

Now, to the meat of the matters.
The recent announcement still makes it pomegranate. Since it's still a part of this patch...breaking it down in a manner that isn't full of rage.

CE and CR aren't really too much of an issue, if you think about all the factors. Time played, Mist Energy, CE Price, The ability to buy CR using CE, selling materials, etc.
300 to 800 is still too large of a hike. While it does pan out, the CE prices aren't set in stone. If someone was quitting and had thousands of CE, they can buy crowns, buy CE, buy crowns, and buy CE. Effectively raising the price. It can change just like that. Pushes 5* away even further. And for cash users, don't bring in buying CE with cash. You can, if you want to let money talk for you. Face the fact, not all of us can get any, regardless of how cheap it is.

In fact, the buy CE option isn't that great. All the options do is let people make CR. Find a recipe, but don't have the cash? Buy CR. Super patient? Sell CE. Otherwise, we can buy CE for less than the selling price. If you toy with that properly, you can make a fine profit, while keeping prices steady.
As well as, CE's current price is the way it is because of the energy hikes. We can't just buy 1 or 2 sets and make an item. For high end items, it'll cost a lot. Cheaper? Maybe. Harder? Definitely. Now we need to make the CR to buy the CE, instead of make the CR to buy the recipe. Maybe people just gave up? Maybe because it'll take a while to get 200/400/800 CE now. It is cheaper, in terms of crowns. But, hardly cheaper. 5k Energy, 45k Recipe. 300 Energy, 70k. 25k recipe, 800 energy. 65k. Difference of 5k. Big whoop. It's actually now more costly. Now we have to spend time gathering CR to gather CE. And some already use some CE to do some runs. The main issue is time.
Yes, it would be a way for 3O to make money, but as of now, it seems like it's going to hold the opposite effect. Might as well make it a cheap subscription based game, $5~$7 per month, with an equivalent monthly allowance and the option to buy more/extra CE at a discounted price.

CE just has too many other uses, like reviving and elevators. CR, on the other hand, is pretty simple.

"Over the next month, we plan to implement a new store that will allow players to "unbind" items. There will be a fee for doing so, roughly equal to the cumulative cost of crafting that item." So, now I'll have to pay twice as much just to get my friend some stuff? Neat. I feel worse for those who craft for more than 1 person. 'tis a month's wait, too.

"a) how can we retain the excitement of owning a relatively unique item that was a challenge to make and craft while;"
Nothing's really unique when everything's in the form of a recipe and only gained by buying them from vendors or players.
Unique Variant is the only way to get a special item, and even then, the rates suck. Also, the bonuses on said items SUCK. Why give a graviton bomb the ability to gain damage against undead? Etc.
Here's an idea. 300 CE per try for a new unique variant, 500 to apply a random UV on an item.

"Items and crafting are a core part of the game. Achievement in the game is tied to finding and exploring the unique items it is possible to make. For that achievement to be meaningful, some of those items, the most interesting and satisfying to own, need to retain some level of rarity."
Artifacts would've been an interesting place for achievements. If we actually had a variety of items, then, sure. But. EVERYTHING is listed on the WIKI. I met a noob using it and had no idea what Tiers were, but knew what items he wanted.

"After launch, it became increasingly clear that several items that we thought pretty exciting to play with and which we expected to be rare in the game were becoming common. As a result, their value to players was diminished. It was hard for us not to think that this diminished the game."
Did these items ever have value? Now they have even less value. N0 value. Don't forget the ridiculous prices of items from NPC vendors. 35k for a 3*? If we're talking value, then the starting point should be from beginning to end, not end only. Everything should be taken into account, not just 4* and 5* items.

If everyone is endgame, then what can rare possibly be? What can we possibly achieve? It's hard to be unique, especially when there's not a very big item set. If people really thought it was that big of a problem, then they need a reality check. We can buy crowns with Energy. If we're not paying energy for items, then we can simply buy crowns to pay for the items and all that. It's a moot argument, and will only go in circles. Regardless, the point still stands. Items can still be bought with CE/money.

And to end it, there are really no premium goods. Rose Regalia = Premium. Leviathan blade = Not premium. Sealed sword tree = not premium. Etc.
Unique variants are already a pain to get. If we're talking premium, add more to the energy shop. If it's energy sinks you want, then we need more of those. We need more 'premium'-esque items. Trinket and Weapon slots count as premium, as they lead to nice bonuses, and an option of a bigger arsenal. Make recipes that can only be bought with CE. Energy runs the game, either way.

And if we're talking premiums, more token equipment would be a quickfix, as they take time to get. Token recipes, too.

If it's rare items we're talking about. http://img696.imageshack.us/g/spiral20110517005717.png/
Nothing a little skin swapping couldn't fix. Customizing SK was what brought me back, was on the verge of quitting. Now thinking of it again.

Other thoughts;
Since my first screenshot in the closed preview, to now. 2 months, still no T2, at a moderate play pace. The pace : the usual 1 full run. Now at the current rate, It'll take me more than another month. And then there's helping my friend, and the unbinding cost. Recipes are now worthless. Unless I manage to get money to get CE somehow, I'm screwed. It's hard enough to pass up on 'rare' recipes, especially when you go to a terminal only to find recipes you either already have, or have a bunch of things you don't want or need. Saw some recipes once. Never saw them again..
Since I already have all the recipes, while my friend doesn't, there's no point in him getting any at this point. It's gameover. Either path that gets taken gets the same result. Get him recipes, or get him equipment. Price is the same.

Endgame's no achievement, it's a chore. Jelly King is a bit of a joke now, where as I had a lot of trouble before the 'nerf'. This applies to many others, too. And, before someone mentions the profits. The general value of T2/JK is 5k~9k. Not sure about 10k. The average value, really doesn't make a difference or lead to profit. Heat becomes meaningless once you lose the ability to make things. It's really a matter of luck (CR drops), CE prices, selling materials, and how often you play.
There's also a lot of tedious walking in some maps. It'd be nice if we had less party switches and more 'let's split up' moments.
Before the patch, I was nearing T3, I kept planning and discussing it with my friend. After patch, destroyed all hopes.
SK's still a decent casual game, but it's not worth the time investment anymore. I know people have made it to T3 pretty fast, but everyone is different. There are too many variables to lump everyone in the same boat, and it's impossible to grade people as 'better' players when the factors are accounted for.

It's like Tetris. The blocks keep piling up, and "we" keep getting the 'wrong' pieces.