In Paladins, a new system has been introduced that players do not like. The community is upset about the prices of essences and legendary cards. Here you can learn more.
Recently, patch OB 44 went live in Paladins. It came earlier than expected. Hi-Rez stated that this was due to technical problems with the PTR. Actually, OB 44 was supposed to be tested on that for a few more days.
The patch brought a long list of bugs that made playing nearly impossible. However, the bugs are not the problem that is currently upsetting the community.
Rather, it is about the new system, which introduced legendary cards and essence. In Paladins, players can upgrade their champions using cards and customize abilities. Hi-Rez aimed to achieve even more strategy and individualization of the playing style with legendary cards.

The old system was considered fair
Before patch OB 44, players unlocked all cards with gold gained from chests and rewards. The chests could be earned or unlocked with crystals. Crystals are Paladins’ real money currency. Even if one did not use crystals to obtain the cards, the additional time invested was still manageable and fair. Once a card appeared that the player already owned, they received gold for the duplicate.
The recent changes introduced a third currency, essence. Since OB 44, essence is needed to unlock cards. Players now receive essence for duplicate cards from the chests. Chests are now unlockable for 2,500 gold.
Essence is needed for both regular cards and legendary cards.

The new card system is too expensive for players
Legendary cards are significantly stronger than regular ones and equip heroes with powerful attributes. However, legendary cards cost so much essence that it takes a long time to unlock all of them.
The calculation looks as follows:
Even if one has already unlocked all regular cards per champion, one still needs 36,000 essence to obtain all legendary ones. This means a total of 756,000 essence for all champions. A single legendary card costs 18,000 essence. For duplicate cards, there are 60 essence.
Especially new players find it more difficult to get into the game. Old players often have already unlocked all regular cards or a large portion of them. But even they will have to invest a lot of time to obtain the legendaries. Many players were originally excited about the new system with the legendary cards. Players are not upset about the system itself, but about the prices.
Paladins lead designer “Drybear” recently tweeted: “We have heard your feedback and will bring some updates.”
What happens with the player feedback now remains to be seen.
Update 19:35: Hi-Rez has now responded.
Paladins OB 44: Hi-Rez apologizes, responds to feedback
For all further information about patch OB 44, you can find it in our overview: Paladins Patch OB 44 Highlights
Free2play: To the official Paladins website and play for free.