For those that say that PVE win is not for sale, I am curious : What exactly do you have as PVE objectives? Only titles require you to really play right now and some Ores for the ascended too, maybe exploration for the legendary. The rest? Some gold and you have it.
“Some gold and you have it” – have what? The objective in PvE is kill X boss, finish X dungeon, do X JP. I get what you’re saying that you could buy gold and I guess purchase BiS (or the materials to start making BiS), but what does that have to do with completing PvE content? I’ve done every dungeon, every path, every boss, every JP, all in Exotic or less, no purchases necessary. Especially in PvE, there is absolutely nothing you can’t do in Rare gear. And if you want to start getting into the Ascended gear needed for FoTM30+ argument: people have completed up through FoTM50 already even before being fully decked in Ascended armor. Exotic armor and Ascended accessories got them through just fine, and you CANNOT purchase Ascended accessories/jewelry with money.
You can’t buy laurels, you can’t buy fractal relics, you can’t buy guild commendations. Full exotic armor and weapon can be purchased for under 10g, especially if you utilize karma and dungeon armor its potentially free (no gold cost). That makes it accessible to everyone equally. Therefore it isn’t P2W.
If players want to cut down the time to acquire Ascended armor to complete PvE content that is already easily completed with non-Ascended armor, that’s their prerogative, and doesn’t help them “win” anything. What, do you think they win more now because they completed the same dungeons and bosses everyone else can in Exotic armor while wearing Ascended armor?
It’s like playing a game of rock, paper, scissors. But there’s a special purchase you can make that will let you play the super-rock instead of a regular rock. It still loses to paper, but when you play it against scissors you crush it even harder and can yell “SUPER ROCK”! Did that person pay to win? No, he paid to have a better rock that does not accomplish anything more than what the regular standard rock does.
It’s a medical condition, they say its terminal….