LOL I was actually sort of including myself in that lot, even though I’m far from being “top echelon”… I meant “end game” as in, I have maxed farms and houses and TCs and such that can pump out feeders at a rapid pace. Which is why I no longer worry about a hero not reaching max special… easy enough for someone in my position to fix.
Major pain in the butt, however, for a newer starting off player who can’t really afford to throw away 10 perfectly good feeders.
Well, that link of yours was a successor to this post by the mighty @ScndStar in Feeding Heroes: One at a Time vs. Ten at Once.
Early in my game here, I was an avid 10 same colored feeders feeding. For over a year now, I have switched to single feeding on-colored 1* or 2*. Works fine for me, though it is not food efficient. But for players who have been in the game long enough, that little food cost is somewhat negligible. I have experienced a couple of times feeding 10 1* or 2* heroes one at time consecutively have net me a max of 3 skills leveled up. 3 SKILLS LEVELED UP WILL NEVER HAPPEN IF YOU FEED 10 FEEDERS AT THE SAME TIME.
I’ve pretty much always stuck to a single on-color feeding strategy for most heroes, until they reach special 8/8. And yes, I have had my special skill actually level up 3 times in a row using that strategy.
Once you’ve reached max special on a hero, that hero can eat anything in any quantity.
Currently my strategy is 1-3x 1* feeder on-color at a times, until skill 8/8 max, then whatever quantity and sometimes off-color, similiar as @TGW said.
Reason in order:
Drawback:
That probability of reaching max skill at max level: 65% (1) vs 68% (10) already include this possibility. So 10 at once is still better in the end.
However, since the new system of 5x probability when hero reach max level, I simply don’t care about feeding method. What is the need of reaching 8/8 before maxing when I can just level the skill with 100% success probability once it maxed?
I put every colors not concerned about quantity towards my recently acquired Bauchan. He is probably going to be 4/8 once maxed but I can finish it with 100% success rate afterwards.
The thing with probability is that in theory, feeding 10 feeders at the same time may have the highest chances of leveling the skills of the hero better than feeding feeders one at a time. But then again, I am not alone experiencing that feeding 10 feeders one at a time consecutively may have the odds of the skills leveling up more than once vs feeding 10 feeders at the same time, which may level a hero’s skill only once. But how many times have we experienced feeding 2* feeders, ten of them, all at once does not really give us a guarantee that the hero’s skills will go up one notch. While I agree that feeding 10 at a time is more food, time and effort efficient and has far better odds leveling the skill, feeding one at a time also has its advantages as mentioned by the highly-esteemed @jinbatsu. The drawbacks mentioned are too trivial since food is not much an issue for experienced players and that the animation can be cut short by tapping it fervently 
, but who can afford continuously buying the ever expensive cost of hero cap from the in-game Shop (of course we know: moneyed players willing to spend it in the game) and that I don’t mind some players or most of them overtake me in maxing a certain hero. It’s not like this is a speed game where the quick and the fast win the game. We’re in for the long run until you get tired of everything in it.
For rare heroes, leveling it is not an issue. Leveling the skills is where the problem lies not because it is a bug. These heroes have fewer levels to reach its max tier and only has 3 tiers for the hero to be at max level. It is just natural that the skill will not be maxed by then, some of the time, or most of the time. You are not alone in this experience and this annoyance you are currently having. The costume of 3* heroes? Now that is a lot more depressing since not only they have the quirks of the original version, i.e. few levels per tier and only 3 total tiers, but they require lesser experience points leveling. How many times have I processed maxing the skill of the costumed version of the hero because they level up quick by feeding them 10 1* hero of the same color, or 5 2* hero of the same color, or feeding its dupe costume just to get its skills leveled up when it is already maxed. This is by game design and not due to some glitch or bug in the system.
It is normal that you are not alone, afterall there is only 3% difference between 65% vs 68% so that is negligible.
It’s RNG. Yes, it sucks. I finally decided to max Renfeld when I pulled his costume. Not only was his special 3/8 when maxed, so was his costume. Double whammy. And I very carefully fed only on-colour 1*.
I’ve had quite a few 3* max out at 4/8.
And loads of extra resources is a bit of an exaggeration, when compared to the resources needed to max a 5*.
OTOH every 5* and the vast majority of my 4* reached 8/8 special by 3/70 or 3/60.
This is how not to waste resource, fill it till 100%:
How long have you been playing? Were you around at January 2019?
This issue have been brought up in the forum and has been resolved.
Before January 2019, even after reaching 3/50, the probability to raise special skill is still low as before, 2% for same color 1*, 4% for same color 2*.
However, since January 2019, SG has addresed this issue and make improvement. Nowadays, at max level, same color 1* give 10% while same color 2* give 20%.
In short, SG have implemented improvement in January 2019, the improvement is: after reaching max ascension/level, the probability of raising special skill level is 5 times bigger than before.
I go with dribs and drabs and then hit them with 30%+ of on colour level up. Just my superstition. 
@Chodaboy : LoL 
… for you it might be just food - feeders… maybe you r one of the old player with all levelled up…
But
For me, it’s wasted resources… as I can almost level up another 3* with what I used extra on the hero & costume… to level up to 8
I started playing 28 dec 2019… so haven’t see that sg message…
From your write up it seems, this issue was much worse before… no wonder many fellows seem to have accepted this aspect of not reaching level 8 by 3/50 … I m surprised…
My reason for posting this is to highlight the massive inconsistencies that some 3*s reach level 8 before 2/40 & some r stuck at level 3 onwards while reaching 3/50…
Since I m relatively newer than many, for me this is wastage… maybe after a year, I will not look at it…
Indeed, it was much worse… imagine having your 3* reach 3/50 but the skill stuck at 3/8… and you don’t have a guaranteed method to raise the skill level unless you have 4 duplicates (duplicate have 25% chance)…
Indeed a “feature”, not a bug, but a very annoying feature for 4* costumes, 3* and especially 3* costumes. chance to increase special should be upped (doubled?), as it serves no usefull purpose except to annoy and maybe use a bit more feeders.
Look, this is simply not true. If you’re telling yourself that, then quit it.
Worst case you get zero increases and are at 3/8. That means you have to feed, worst case, 50 1 star heroes to max.
50 1stars won’t even take you from 1/1 to 1/30 on a 3.
This is not a bug. This is expected probability. Move on.
You’ve been playing for almost a year and you are having difficulty leveling 3*?
After almost 2 of years of play and that costume chamber (how many months?) it remains insanely annoying. The only good thing is while you might have to throw 20 more on colour 2 star feeders at the thing, it still only takes a few days.
Well, it took me just around 12 hours to bring my Bauchan from 4 to 8.
I was trying to keep it realistic for a lower level player. People like you and I rarely have resource issues. 
It’s definitely a lot harder for a lower level player. I can pump out hundreds of feeders in less than an hour if I want to.
Not exaggerating - I have 4 TC20s, HA, and maxed houses
But for a newer player… yeah, absolutely, this is a pain. They might only have 5 adventurer packs and 20 practice swords in their entire inventory… low level farms, low level training camps, can only hold maybe 100 recruits at a time… having to feed an additional 5-10 feeders to a 3* hero after it is already supposed to be “done” can be a huge ‘waste’ of resources for them.
Probably still worth it in many cases, as special skills can be game changers, but I know this isn’t an easy pill to swallow for the lower levels. Unfortunately it’s just part of the game, and they should probably get used to spending a lot of time waiting for things, because that is 90% of this game.
