True, if you buy them every time. But there are only 5 in stock each time, and the odds on the 4* mats are familiar from HOTM Summons:
So best case you’ve got 15 rolls with chances on par with getting a HOTM.
So looks like under an 18% chance of getting at least 1 if you buy all 5 packs and get 3 rolls on each:
Not exactly a quick way to acquire 6 of the 4* mats.
Agreed - but faster than waiting for the rare quests…
Thx you understood me well
U have 18 % for a darts or other colored Ama
And 00000000% for a d blade
I accept the risk to buy some Time the 5 rolls and i m sure to be not Alone 
Actually it s like d blade and tome are 5* Ama a different class with other 4*
Sorry but so funny answer
What did u imagine? Most Time buyer of that pack are peeps who need one of these mats ( like golum with is precious ring)
If i read u right i imagine a Man who woke up and see that ascension pack and think okay today i take one looool no way
So I think your point is that they ought to offer the same random-chance ascension packs in the Shop for Damascus Blades and Times of Tactics that they do now for the color-specific mats.
That seems reasonable as a general idea.
As @General_Confusion said, since you need far fewer of those, having them be more available for purchase would potentially let big spenders advance too quickly. So that’s probably why they’re not currently offered that way.
That could maybe be offset with lower chances, or fewer of the packs available, though.
In a way, they do that now by periodically having very infrequent offers that include a Damascus Blade or Tome of Tactics.
I think you’re just wishing they offered them in the Shop packs in particular, right?
I have take all recharge pack who give at least one d blade and After one year 11 of thème only fall in my bag
For sure i just would like to see them in ascend pack with red mats blue mats etc After all u have all what u could need even thé farmable mats except these 2( tome and blade)
If in a Green pack i could have a tonic or a d blade or nothing i try my 18% Luck five Times for the cost they fix
U said u need few that s not so Real for a rainbow team need 5d blade 5 tomes 6 ring tonic tabard …
5 of them for 6 of thé rest that s really short difference…
Exactly, it’s always the same names in the top ten 
I hope they plan on keeping the base expanding. I just think if you had to make it to one level like stronghold20 that’s it forever would be so boring. The other changes your creating are nice! Though to see the base expandin with other features added would keep me happy because I’ve feared the omg max everything boredom. Is this in sight? I get somewhat above but not necessarily this & the long term outlook
I do understand expanding few buildings. So sorry if I’m confused. But a few is vague and will there be more and that’s when asking longterm wanting to know
Tim : There is no hidden “fail safe” which is how you can get players who have some weird streak, some unbelievable run, but we decided from the beginning not to go that route. There are a lot of issues trying to make such a system good for everyone, so if you get a 4* mat you just get whatever random mat comes up [without reference to what you need or have in inventory]. So players get some really interesting [runs].
I find this interesting. We have a discussion on this where we found a very reasonable way to add a “fail safe” for bad hero pulls, with no downside. I hope that SG will consider it. It actually would make things more fair for everyone.
I personally have had good luck on pulls, but I know people who haven’t and have gone six month or more with no 5 star pulls from TC20 or summons gate despite doing monthly pulls. Those people will eventually leave the game, and I don’t blame them.
It took me about 4 months to get my first 5* hero. At first I was doing Epic Hero pulls to try and get some 4 star heroes. My first 4* hero was Melendor, followed by Scarlett and Tiburtus. Not having a 5* hero in the beginning actually helped me out in the long run. Most people do not think about how limited resources are in the beginning and trying to feed a 5* hero at a low level is next to impossible. I made an alternate account for my son a while back and with 300 gems pulled Evelyn… I was furious at first because I couldn’t get her on my main account. Evelyn is still fairly weak because there was no way to feed her enough heroes to advance her, as the low level account couldn’t keep up the supply… Not having a 5* on my main account made me toy around with a few different heroes and built up my base that I didn’t realize I would need for war for a long time.
My first 5* was Magni. I got him like 6 months ago or something. (Only been playing less than a year) I finally got enough Ascension Materials to get him to max tier. I know that may seem ridiculous. But I didn’t have the team strength for a long time to build up ascension items. So, I had to pick a team that could strategically defeat levels, players, and titans, instead of relying on a host of super strong heroes. My team may not seem like much but, Tiburtus, Boldtusk, Magni, Scarlett, and Melendor (3554 tp) have taken out 38-3900tp teams with ease… Not always. But It took me a while to find the balance. i think it is better to have 5* heroes be a rarety.
We don’t really know yet how the Alchemy Lab and Hero Academy will work.
They might be new freestanding buildings, or they might be like the Barracks, and “convert” an existing building.
Tim also talked about possibly adding on new options with training camps. And he said they may have some other “Stronghold upgrades” in the future that they’ve considered.
So we know things will come…we just don’t yet know a lot of detail or when.
My impression is that they prefer the Alchemy Lab, Hero Academy, possible changes to training camps, and adding more sources of ascension mats as ways to address issues of randomness most immediately — but it’s always possible they’ll consider other options too.
I just think those ways will be “first.”
QFT.
This was my experience too — not getting my first 5* until 5-6 months into playing was actually beneficial in many ways.
Did I miss where you could trade up rarity levels? I thought they were discussing same rarity only…
The trading hero for hero idea is super early and undefined. So there’s no direct answer to that.
But Tim also talked about the possibility of being able to train past HOTM — maybe:
Tim did not rule this out but he did not embrace it either.
Tim said it would require lots of Development Cycles to fix RNG paywalls so they wanted a quick improvement now while they work out a better solution more carefully:
Having said that, according to the AMA the “better” solution has not even been discussed let alone designed or coded.
Well, he kind of said that wasn’t in their philosophy and we have heard similar comments before. But hopefully they will see the light. BTW it isn’t that much effort to code it - I suspect a person week at most.
