I used to think that way. Ended up maxing some unnecessary dupes of dupes.
Now I’m usually waiting for my next project (any worthwhile new 4*/5*). Feeders from farming are fed both on and off colour; I save feeders from my tcs especially for any hero I want to level up quickly.
usually you give 300 gems for Dawa Bane etc, i think you can buy roster space for these gems
Would you like to see my account screenshot? roster space now costs 250 gems for me, and I have 1000. Those roster slots get progressively more expensive, soon I’ll be paying 300 gems for slots.
Now, if I collected all the feeders of a certain color until I got a project of that color, soon I’d be paying 600 gems for 5 slots while fitting in feeder # 2912…
I’m at 350 gems for spots and have a shade under 1000 gems. But I’ve cleared out a bit and really, I have room to do on-color feeding. I could free up a few more spots I guess, but a lot of my multiple 4* heroes are kind of placeholders for war depth. If I get better ones I can start replacing. Kind of like how I finally fed away my 3rd Buddy and 3rd Brynhild (unleveled) when I got another Hansel and Tettukh. I may consider feeding away my 3rd Chao (who is ascended), now that I have a pair of Gretels. I have been starting to get more unique heroes, so time to start getting rid of my 3rd, 4th, or 5th hero. Dumped my 5th Rigard as cSabina is starting to get more use as denying buffs is getting more important than cleanse. But still keeping my 5 cGormeks unless the undead horde war rule gets replaced.
Thank you for sharing @everyone 
@Noble_Weasel - It´s Elena and Reuben I have at 3/70. My other 5* Fire heroes are Noor and Marjana - those are both maxed.
You are so right, it´s more fun to play with what we have than wait. It´s just, these ascension materials are so rare for me. Damascus Blades in particular. I have a total of two. But 12 Rings now.
@Muchacho 16 slots for feeders sure are not many! I tried once to aim to have 50 - 10 for each element 
Thank you for explaining your method 
@sleepyhead Ah yes, but not save the 2* feeder training heroes then, right or?
@SamMe I was pondering that too - it of course depends on which duplicate I might get. But I find new heroes a lot more fun, of course.
@Quinn Gosh, 350 gems is not cheap! I wish we could just get unlimited space, eh.
I hope this month´s costume chamber might be kind to me, so I can use those Fire feeders in the most optimal way 
Thank you again all for sharing
In my experience
in color feeding is only necessary for 3* heroes and 3*/4* costumes.
I never had a 4* or 5* hero who did not got his special maxed before he reached 4/70. Of color feeding costs more ham per experience, but ham grows in farms. Gems dont grow in farms, they must be earned in small numbers or buyed. I buy roster space sometimes, but not to optimize feeding.
Happy gaming
Not necessary, but still more xp efficient with extra 20% bonus. When I’m done with a color, I’ll feed a 5* that I’m working with. Usually I’m working with one hero of each color.
Edit: I should clarify that I start feeding off-color heroes to the color that I have the largest backlog. In my case, I completed my second Magni (normal and costume), so I have no more blues to work on (just fed away my second Triton). My biggest backlog is yellow with Gretel, Drake Fong, and Rekhetre, so all my blues are now going to level my yellow heroes.
Eh, I get it then. I think Elena is worth a max. Really high attack, and her special is a right pain if you can get it to go off before she dies. But with only two blades, I can see going off-color until the situation improves. Presumably, you have heroes in other colors that you are more excited about.
At this point, I couldn’t use all my blades and tomes if I tried. I will never have that many unique unmaxed fives, and if I did, I wouldn’t have nearly enough elemental mats for them. I do good if I have enough for one hero of each color in reserve. Darts is my perpetual shortage, but it’s due to having so many good yellow heroes, so I shouldn’t complain.
@Gwniver
My diabolical and masochistic way of avoiding feeder issues and roster space issues. As you already know that I don’t raid or war.
I am not endorsing nor am I promoting my style of playing, which already irked some people in the past as boring, sadistic, tiring, no fun, atrocious, etc. But that’s how I managed to stay playing.
@Gwniver i wouldn’t bother keeping 2* feeders until you get an on-Color project. You will get a lot of them, so many that you will run out of roster slots
I also think Elena is worth maxing. Here she is, built for attack:
She hits hard. But you sneeze, she dies. Still I enjoy her, especially on rush wars.
I usually have at least one legendary and one rare hero to work on.
I feed on color for the rare hero, until the special is maxed. Then it’s a free for all.
I try to save the 2-star feeders and above for the legendary.
You will get more Damascus blades as you get more experience. I remember I used to run out of compasses. Now I have too many.
And, as if on cue, darts emerge from an elemental chest this evening. That’s eight, with Shiloh and Sand Empire still to come this month. I think I’m gonna go ahead and ascend Norns after Gan Ju’s costume. Should get two more darts (besides the aforementioned) before Kara or another yellow from somewhere would need them anyway. And if I got Kara plus another good yellow… well, that’d be a good problem to have, now wouldn’t it?
Congratulations on the darts @Noble_Weasel. But first, what does Norns do?
In other news … is that a rare seadragon?
Actually check out the minions. So many, many birds! Like 1500+ …
Wait, my goal is to have so many buffs, you can’t see the face anymore, ha.
At level 73 I have 263 roster space…that could tell you how much I value buying roster space. The advantages are great:
Allows you to keep heroes you are uncertain about (in my case multiple dupes as well) until you decide whether you want to ascend them or eat them (in case of getting a better version for example which makes the old hero obsolete like my example with Kara and the six Shrubbears)
Saves you a ton of food - by having a lot of feeder space room, you can afford to save them until you can make best and most food-efficient use of those feeders, like for example feeding 1* to only costumes or 3* .
Gives you a ton of flexibility for tournaments and events, allowing you to keep a certain number of very narrow-oriented heroes which are useful only in very specific situations - examples are Bauchan, Friar Tuck, Li Xiu.
Quality heroes you can get from anywhere for free tokens or even Soul Exchange these days. Roster space on the other hand is only available for gems…
I had the same issue multiple times with multiple colors in which (at the time) I had no worthy projects. And I gave all my feeders of that color to an off-color hero whom I had prioritized. Even high level trainers went to off-color limit broken heroes to help them get there faster and cheaper food-wise.
I agree with @Saros that roster space is worth to buy. I am now at 265. This allows me to have many little perks that add up nicely.
I can still keep to on-colour feeding, whenever I have one project in each colour (I used to have one until very recently). It’s not just that 20% gain, although, if you think about it, it’s six levelled hero instead of 5 over the same time. But also, feeding them in larger bunches means even more saving on food. I am at a stage where with AL and HA constantly running, and with expensive 5* lb-ing and embleming, I always on the border of famine…
Of course, Soul Exchange. I could buy Chameleon last time, and probably will have again enough for another exchange this month.
Flexibility in my teams. I remember the times when I had a small set of useful heroes for war, and struggled to fill all needed roles. No more cleanser, no more dispeller, ugh, where have I used up all my snipers? It’s good to have a sufficient quantity of everything, and to be able to stand my ground against 4800+ teams in wars (well, mostly 
). But again, a far more important thing is the pleasure of experimenting with all those combinations!
they look like face tattoos
my bottleneck material now is Tonics. I’ve just received so few of them compared to Darts, Rings…
Gloves also used to be scarce, now I have too many. could use more Tomes though!
Recently, I was down to 2 D blades 
. Started to scratch my head, who out of my three ongoing 5* project should get it…
Ah yes, I can see what you mean. I´ll shower Elena with some love perhaps sometime in the future
Thank you for your indepth response. Same here, I also find duplicates dull.
I completely respect your way of playing - it´s sad to read that others have judged it with such harsh words. Each to their own in this game, and I can relate to what you describe.
Unrelated question and a wondering: Are you able to completely PoV without War attacks? I really struggle. Both with the summoning criteria and the Diamond raids.
