I've played Lost Ark without Pheon.

I know a lot of you hate Pheon system. Even if the accessories are super cheap, you have to pay a lot more because of Pheon. And some people think that it just exists for the company's benefit.

But when I played Lost Ark season 1 in KR without pheon, it was a lot worse. Let me tell you why.

First, there was no system at all. You just list it, and buy it. But soon, some people actually bought every single accessories with same engravings and just sell it for x20 more expensive. There are some engravings that are essential for some classes, and some people needs them. So it became a huge problem that you cannot buy an accessories for a reasonable price and only who exploits the system got a huge benefit.

Then, SG implemented 'sealing'. This is somewhat familiar to KR mmo players at that time. In order to sell an accessory, you have to seal it and put it in the AH. So basically the person who sells it pays. The problem of this system was that you never know when or whether a mediocre accessory will be purchased. So people just listed very top tier accessories only and a lot of people could not find the appropriate accessories for their build. And it was very expensive. More than current price + pheon.

And now SG implemented Pheon system. The buyer who needs that specific accessory pays the price. Well, I understand that really cheap accessories sometimes dont feel like its not worth pheon, but if you need it then you get it. 3/3 accessories are just as useful as 3/6 accessories for the people who have good stones, and so on. So it kinda solved the listing problem.

The accessory-engraving system is hard. You have to have all 6 (including stone) to actually use it, and it is not a 'gradual upgrade'. If you lack 1, other 5 are useless. So the value of an accessory varies a lot for each person. So I think a buyer paying for pheon instead of seller makes sense.

If SG removes pheon at this environment, it will be very easy to exploit the system. A person with 1m gold or so can buy entire accessory in the market easily and just sell it x10 more expensive. And there will be people who suffer. Again, this happened in KR and it was not fun.

If you hate pheon system, let me hear what would be a good substitute. I dont like pheon either.