[Skullcatrons]

On grinding:

Thread 1: here  (since this thread we at least got extra mob spawns in the 1-60 dungeons and dark amplifier but that introduced problems of its own that I addressed in thread 2)
Thread 2: here

Shard
Thread 1: here (request for a crystal terminal upgrade to allow players to view their shard count per zone to make collecting them far easier, as they'll know which areas to look in)
Thread 2: here (request to allow players to toggle visibility of already gathered shards so party leaders can help party members who haven't gathered all shards)

I like this. It's better to have crystal upgrade tracker that tells you what shards you're missing in a zone rather than having to memorize them. 

I'd also like to point out that while purchasing Legend Inks and Shards hold no direct benefit, we still have an item that gives a direct[/ii] advantage over non paying players.

The Science Kit.

The dismantling the Science Kit provides is a direct advantage over free to play players, since normally you can only go to a very specific part of the map, only at specific hours to do so. Otherwise? You need the Science Kit.

If that's fine, I fail to see how purchasing Legend Inks and the Shards are such a massive, overwhelming advantage.
We could also simply just put "limitations" on both of them.

You can only use the Gain All Shards item if you have a character with all shards collected on the same key.
You can only purchase Legend Inks if you have already obtained every stat increasing Legend Extension upgrade.

Now you're not getting any stats by purchasing. Any better?

I also don't like this because it only encourages bad faith. We're deceiving ourselves into thinking that this is okay. Which you realize it's not really correct, because Professor Gremlin is available pretty much 24/7. You just have to go to him. Talk to him. Wiggle your brows at him, and call him cute names. This was the same case back on Great Six. Where you have to go to Law's End.

Sure, with enough roleplay development, and map requests. You could get some more item salvagers in other part of Korvara other than Professor Gremlin. He doesn't needs to be the only one.

But yeah. We have this restriction for few reasons: To encourage people to grind. Doing so, new players will get the help they accidentally receive because without those helps. They are going to get screwed over trying to do new game, struggle playing the game because they don't understand and die multiple time fighting 2-3 level 3-5 mobs because they don't have the capability to survive a fight. 

Sawrock is right.

We need grinds. So veteran players always end up having to play with new players.