I dont have any S3 5* heroe. I still have lots of fun with the game and my war results are better and better. Its true that I dont have to face always top tier heroes, but I have a lot of fun anyways. Maybe you should stop trying to compete so hard, dunno, but you need you adjust your expectations to have fun again with the game.
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While I may agree with some of your sentiments, I canāt agree with all of them.
Until yesterday, I had exactly 1 S3 legendary - Norns - who is still at 3^70 because I chose C. Justice instead. Think about that for a minute. Yesterday, I pulled Heimdall, which Iām obviously thrilled about, but considering I wonāt be able to use him for months until heās leveled, heās irrelevant to my assessment today. What are the new mechanics for S3 heroes? Overheal and tile enhancement. Those are the two I can think of. Overheal is great, but you donāt have to have legendaries for that. Guillinbursti (who I also got yesterday) and C. Kasshrek (who I use basically every war) also do this, and both are four-star. Tile enhancement Iāll give you as pretty unique, but also not required to fight properly, unless Iām fighting improperly, because I have no heroes with that ability.
As pointed out by @Tess_01 , C. Gormek works better for this than a lot of other options. In fact, I commend the devs for giving minion munching and overheal to S1 heroes through costumes. More of this, please.
Also, Freya and Bera are still vulnerable to yellow stacks, just like any other purple hero. Less viable strategy in war, yes, but thatās just one aspect of the game. I doubt most people have six Skadis to deal with them in war either.
Ninja Tower is my least favorite new development. I will admit that I do not use all my flags, nor do I enjoy this event. Hit top 500,000, take my 10 emblems, and go to the house. My one ninja coin pull was Dawa. 
I personally still find Telly a pretty intimidating tank to face. I do not have her on my roster. What they did to my Vela because of Telly still hacks me off, but I recently saw something that showed her as maybe number 8 on the most used defense heroes, making her the only hero on my roster to crack the top 10 (until yesterday).
Is it disappointing not to have the shiny new toys to play with? Sometimes. Can you still hold diamond, win wars, kill titans, finish events, etc. without them? Yep. I just finished S3 on hard with my little FTP roster that is dotted with 1 S2 legendary (Poseidon), 2 S3 legendaries (Norns and unleveled Heimdall, as noted), a few HotM (maxed only Onatel and Zulag), and one (admittedly beastly) seasonal legendary (Krampus, who is not yet fully maxed).
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I get that Vela isnāt what she was but sheās still a staple in my Blue stack. Next to Glenda she hits harder and the water damage still chips away. Plus a good attack of 810 adds to the mix.
Iād take her to 20 but Iām contemplating taking a 2nd Gullibursti to 20 and I have around 500 emblems left 
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Guys, you must understand that to be on top (and stay there) you must keep spending.
Every possible combination of heroes ot tanks in a specific moment will be replaced by something else in the future.
That is for granted.
Thereās no such a goal to build your dream team and enjoy it in this game.
Not anymore and not for too long.
Thatās how this game is.
So, if you want to make a name for yourself, you must understand that or you do it once and hope it last at least a couple of months, or your spending (and i mean high spending) must never ends.
Do not even start dreaming on glory if you donāt want to accept this reality.
Spend strong, always, or accept to fade away.
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After stopped playing for a year I have already faded into the background. 
I scored a Bertila on pull one and a mean Ninja troop on pull 4 or 5 with just tokens.
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Just pulled Fenrir, so I guess Iām not allowed to complain any more. (2 S2, 2 S3, 1 Seasonal, 1 Event 5*).
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How is c gormek better than gobbler? I thought they were pretty comparable?
No idea, but Gormek will take hits in a way that Gobbler just cannot match. My Gormek#1 has around 1466HP and that is no costume.
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Stats and costume bonus aside, Gormek does an extra 10% damageā¦
So, heās a totally OP wrecking ball
Health regained is identical.
Play fair Bard you mischievous scamp!
C.Gormek looks 46.5% cooler than Gobbler as well. Which we all know is a factor on the boards we get so you canāt discount that.
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My dear friend, in life this quote is very much true. But this quote does not apply here and I will tell you why.
The hard earned part are the coins and the ascension mats at the end of the season. So you grind the levels. You use all the tools in your stable to accomplish the goal at hand. And when you take what you have earned into the portal and get 22- 3* and another 3 of the S1 4* then the hard work and effort was just a mirage. The value of the accomplishment has now become essentially worthless to most. The task accomplished has now become a great disappointment. And the frustration of gaining nothing of value leads to many throwing their hands up and saying to themselves the rip off is not worth it. And they would be absolutely correct in this line of thought.
I do not blame the player base for being disconnected now. In this relationship, the developers are the abusive part of the relationship. The developers are the take take take part of the relationship. Then they say they will do better, they say they will give back, but then another punch comes and another take take take comes. Time to walk away.
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I quit smoking, and earned some QoL!
Some people just need a little time to recognize:
ALL S1 heroes can be compared unfavorably to costumes and/or new releases by stats, skill strength and speed (sometimesā¦all 3 combinedā¦)
This mental connection point is important for several reasons:
- S2 is nextā¦ and so on! A careful analysis can already find lacking S2 heroes. Which means the money you spend today becomes less impactful tomorrow. The only way to avoid this nerf on your entire roster is to continue spending money!
- Those who donāt continuously spend money, notice this nerf on their entire roster in greater numbers. Mostly due to the obviousness of it. The stat climb is blatant.
- New players notice thisā¦paywallā¦at earlier stages of the game. Even when it was just S2 it was being noticed, the differential wasnāt so overwhelming. The gradual nerf was less apparent.
Once S3 rolled out, then costumes,
became necessary. - Probably most importantly, is some older players who were spending money, No longer are, after connecting the dots.
So as old fish retire. And new fish run into Tyr and think he is OP.
(Which for themā¦ he may very well be: Because they are still working 4s)
there is an outcome where the old wealthy circle jerk gets smaller and smaller. Especially after the next saturation occurs!
As some wealthy players who have all day everyday to play, may try and deceive folks that power creeps arenāt real by pointing at costumes. Reality and the Gacha ladder continues onā¦regardless
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It is ALL about perception.
If you come into this game expecting to be at the top then you must be willing to make sacrifices. Both in time and in money. And it doesnāt end. You keep sacrificing or you slip down the ladder. That is what the game is. If you are good with that then go for it.
If you are expecting to compete at the top without making the sacrifices you will be frustrated. Period. When that happens human nature is to blame someone else ā in this case the developers.
Yes, the developers take our money. This game is really a glorified store. Do you expect to go into Walmart and get anything without paying? At least in the game you can get something. But I have also seen a vast amount of ātake take takeā attitude from the players here as well.
Decide what your budget is, decide where that lands you in relation to the game, enjoy playing or donāt. After three years I have exactly six non-S1 5* and five are HOTM (with one, maybe two considered good). For me the enjoyment is how well I can do without spending. Iāll never be top 100, Iām rarely top 1000. But I do enjoy thrashing an occasional 4700+ opponent.
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I played a game for over eight years . About three months in I had a choice to remain F2 P or become a P2W and get to be a top player . Eight years later after playing in every top alliance, being in the top three individually ten times, and building two of the most dominant alliances in the game I faced the same decision as you . Keep spending to remain at the top or at least in the top ten players where I resided for 7 of those eight years or just quit . What keeps me sadly playing at a lower level after I quit feeding the beast ( estimate 25k over 8 years ) is two things . Friends I made and the money I spent . Itās not enjoyable to fight as a top 100 player when I lived in the top ten for most of my existence .
Coming here and spending a moderate amount( about 800) I realized the same game dynamic . The incessant release of items . Incessant power creeps and all easily overcome with more money . I stopped . I am not feeding another beast . Let others do it . I have relegated myself to 1) learn the fine details of the game to maximize my roster 2) have fun playing above my expectations and realize I will never be a relevant player .
It seems your clan enjoyed great benefit from initial spending but almost EVERY games F2P model is the exact same . It is an illusion . There are a minuscule amount of business models that will cater to free customers the same as paying customers . Business is built on generating revenue and profit . You know this as your post is articulate . It is no different here . The people who are whaling now will post the same thing when season seven is released . SGG/Zynga have to evolve or the game gets stale and people leave . The old whales are replaced by new ones . It is a crappy place to be but itās not unique . Iām sorry the alliance ended up there but it is a simple choice . 
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Iām caddy and can attest I have no s3 5stars and atomos posiden and mokarr are my s2s so yeah I make it work
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It really didnāt have an impact on me. Iām not that ambitious and Iām a basic mainly 4* player. Ranking? Usually 350,000 to 500,000. 
For me the reason i no longer enjoy playing is that the game i originally pumped money into is NOT the game we have today. Its always been a pay to win game, but has gotten so much more so gradually over the last year or so. Now we do not go a day without an event we are offered to spend money on in order to summon and compete, no thanks.
In business school we were taught games like this are in end phase of its lifecycle, and the main goal for the product owners is to milk the cash cow as much as possible till it reaches end of life.
So long and thanks for all the fish!
Jinx
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I have to agreeā¦ S3 and the latest developements ruined the game for me and most likely for the majority of the f2p players. For me itās about raiding. Donāt care much about the other aspects of the game, but raiding was always my thing. Thing is, up until a few month ago, my limited roster, formed mostly of S1 5* with no costumes (except for Elena), a few HOTM and even less S2 and event 5*, alowed me to win a great deal of my offensive raids against top shelf defenses. At the same time, my defense was taking constant beatings, successful defense being an almost unexisting page in my book. Since S3 defense heroes took over diamond league and formations changed everything we knew about raiding, things turned around 180 degrees for me. Now, my defense is allmost unbelivably successful while my attack success rate against top shelf defenses has dramatically droppedā¦ Overall, my cup count went up a bit, my natural score used to be a bit below 2600 cups, now I usually wake up above 2600. As always, I take all my revenge runs, win or loose, but now, as my successful defense rate went up, the revenge hits count went down, so I always have available flags to go free raiding. The problem is, that, whenever I do that, I pick on targets way above my station, 4700+ defenses, against whom I managed to mount a decent amount of successful attacks. Now it feels like fighting a brick wall. There are now a few heroes (Bera, Frigg, Odin, Freia, Krampus, BK, blue and purple ninjas, c.Kadilen) that, mixed with lvl 30 mana troops and new formations make raiding them almost pointless for me. So, bottom line, for me, defense went up, attack went down, which is a very bad outcome, given the fact that I couldnāt care less about successful defense. Used to be all about attack, now it lost the spark, that rush of adrenaline resulting from taking out the high and mightyā¦ as my attack capabilities went down, so did my interest towards the game. If the devs donāt find some way to re-ballance the game for f2p players (and I donāt think that will happen) I think there soon will be a decline in the free playerās activity gamewideā¦ Iām not beaching about it, donāt really care anymore, just pointing out the obvious.
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All things have a life cycle. We live in a consumer society now. White goods are designed to have a 5 year life and break so we buy new ones. Cars, computers, TVās, phones etc etc. The list goes on and on. Everyone is trying to get your money before the product becomes obsolete.
This game is the same as the one I started in March 2019. It was obvious to me then what it was and itās not suddenly changed. It was a Wolf then and itās a Wolf now. Itās never had sheepās clothing on in the time Iāve played it. Your choices were just whether you wanted to play it slowly at whatever level it let you or start to play at an accelerated rate by spending money. Always choices, nothing is forced.
The issue is a need to ācompeteā. Compete for what?? More pixels? That feeling of being good at something? What actual difference would it make to your life if you achieve Global rank 1? Would the town you live in give you a parade? The Key to the City? Would you make the local paper?
No. No you wouldnāt. If it did anything it would stroke your ego a little. People like to brag after all I guess but often have nothing to brag about.
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