The FTP Rebellion. Who wants to join? (Part 1)

@Noble_Weasel Yang Mai is almost maxed. Been using her on the world map. She’s great, I really enjoy playing with her - the stack is noticeable now even with tile damage, and icing on the cake in the latest biome (all Reds get increased crit hit chance). With fast mana and multiple hits she can easily get to +10 stack by the boss wave

Synergizes well with all Reds, Fast or Slow.

Quite happy with her. She’ll get emblems ahead of Rana and Aeron.

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Great to hear. Mine is at 4^20-something and rising, with a pile of emblems waiting. Can’t wait!

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While I kind of eluded to in @SamMe 's thread of Limit Breakers, I also gave a quick run down on how these kind of new implementations are not going to stop and just going to keep coming and how they might affect me and how I would play down the road.

Now, about this Limit Breaker thingamajig. This is what I am going to do next, here is a preview what I would do for the first set of available Ice Aethers that can be used to break a 5* Ice Hero and likely reactions from the majority of the community.

Warning - Not for the faint hearted

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Nice @Shohoku79. :grin:

I was just writing this about limit breakers when I saw your reply and it made me smile. Finally put 1 and 1 and 1 together. Or maybe this was just obvious? From the about limit breakers thread:

This. This is what it is. Meets this:

Meets this:

Someone in the about limit breakers thread that was in beta already mentioned they believe they will eventually - perhaps sooner, rather than later - do just this.

The ‘target audience’ for limit breakers (and the never ending stream of new 5s) are the incredibly big spenders that, simply put, have nothing else to spend money on. they already have all the heroes, troops, and emblems their money could buy. SG needed to give this particular group of people something else that would open their wallets. Again. and again and again and again.

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@Gartenerbsen Excellent point about the July HOTM’s dispel ability. I may use up all my saved EHTs during SE. I sort of want Arman, and of course I’d welcome any SE 5*/HOTM.

I have Gafar, Jabbar, and Hisan from SE.

If I intended to continue playing, I’d probably try to save my EHT for Halloween, to try again for Frank and Jack. Unfortunately, seeing the continued direction of the game with costumes for non-S1, limit breakers, and my overall dissatisfaction with the Q&A with game designers, I have no plan whatsoever. @sleepyhead @Noble_Weasel @Muchacho @Shohoku79 @Sarah2 @Quinn3 @amrath @akionna @Igmuhota

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You’re welcome @sleepyhead!

So, are you telling me that you want a Guardian Bat? :sweat_smile: It was my first Guardian.

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I see. Thanks for your reply @Sorvina, and hope you enjoy him a lot.

These constant kick in the groin type of releases does take a toll don’t they? Looking at some of your screenshots posted, you seemed to be involved with some high end Titan hitting often and that means in high leveled alliances where things are usually tight scheduled and highly coordinated, anything less probably means you aren’t trying enough or not up to your gaming standards (apologies if I am wrong).

While I understand the reason on why there are players left after emblems, costumes, emblems for purchase, NT, and now Limit Breakers, I am not sure it will be the straw that broke the camel’s back for me, simply because of the way I play and my handle given by JB. I just play for the Pretty Pictures and not even worry about what heroes I might or might not get, who raids me, or even if I get enough loots. Could you stay playing this game if you were to go casual? Or just won’t let the lack of PvP bother you (as it doesn’t for me)? Not having to worry about Raids and Wars frees up a lot of my time and frustrations.

Are there heroes I still want? But I’ve always treated those as “Would like to have, but won’t go for broke for.” Sure, skimming through the Q&A thread and @sleepyhead’s more “What I said was, but what I really meant to say was” Summary, I would pretty much going to end up having to say good bye to G. Falcon, or hopes to complete my S2 4* collection, or any other challenge events only heroes because not only will they be less likely to be drawn, and I sure as heck am not going to farm Challenge Coins just for more feeders (or one more entry in the PoV summons challenge? pfffft).

The reason I summon is to collect unique heroes, which you already know. There is no use in feeling bad over something you don’t actually own. If that E&P halt in Vietnam thread is any indication, if it happened to your home country because of local laws, or if the company goes belly up, how much do you think you are going to get in compensation? I think you know as well as I do, we are users, we don’t own anything on this game, all we have are placeholders that if we get a hero, one of those little lights light up. We are not shareholders in Zynga / SGG, so why would they give us any compensation? Best to just take a deep breath, and not having to worry about spending or trying to play catch up.

Not sure if playing casually, not spending, or not doing any PvP elements in this game but simply just PvE and train your heroes up in little increments will still bring you any enjoyment, but at least it shouldn’t bring you elevated frustrations right? It is an acquired taste, but that’s how I avoided a great portion of the aforementioned frustrations.

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Thanks for your view on Almur @Gartenerbsen! I don’t have an Eve or a Fogg either, so I was happy to get Almur.

I have Buddy too, and nowadays I mostly use him only for Ninja Tower. I do find it a little sad that he is mostly benched.

I still remember how I got him. I was feeling downbeat after a poor war performance. So I decided to use an EHT, and Buddy’s appearance cheered me right up. :smile:

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I largely agree with @Shohoku79 for impact and perspective. While we play the game different from each other, the two of us are still different from most players. @Ruskin505 and I mentioned it earlier too, which is this:

I have found a way to enjoy the game for killing time. I am not competitive with the top. I took myself out of the running long ago. Not to say I don’t try hard at what I do play or care if I lose when I play, etc. I usually take it well (that war two weekends ago aside :laughing:). I tell people in my alliance it’s a rule not to beat my titan score. This rule is largely disregarded somehow…

What that means as I think of the latest change in limit breakers is it doesn’t matter. I rarely fight those guys and if they make a mechanism to increase that gap from the tip top from the rest, I will see them even less. Whether that is something above diamond or I drop to platinum. In general I won’t see them so it won’t effect me. I raid, when I do, for competitive fights and to fill chests. The top players I don’t fight anyway getting better has no impact on that. Even seeing an occasional limit broken enemy in war won’t alter everything for me either. Heck I can limit break some I bet myself eventually with whatever this quest is.

I get this varies by each persons personal expectations, but if you truly are okay not competing up there and enjoying the game within the competition range you’re in this doesn’t matter. I fully understand some don’t want to play to NOT be the best and this will ruin it for them. While it was an initial adjustment I will attest to there being an enjoyable E&P life after “the chase”.

I hope you can find that @SamMe. I personally had to step away from an alliance I started and wasn’t in another for nearly a year. If you’re in the type of high end alliance @Shohoku79 described maybe try a new environment not at that level if you feel that’s warranted. While I would say my doors are always open at my alliance (literally, we’re not private and broke the doors during a kegger. Long story….) there are plenty of others. Now I don’t mean this as a recruitment pitch in any sense.

You should stick around because you owe me a good costume too :wink:.

This isn’t to say things aren’t disappointing. My primary beef is their disregard to create more 4’s or make paywall 4’s more accessible after a while. In a lot of ways, given the 5* pool dilution, chasing a specific 4* in a paywall portal is almost harder than trying to a nonspecific 5*. If I want Gafar as a missing SE 4* but have no SE 5’s so any are welcome.

For the record SE hates me and has given me no SE heroes in 3 years.

Anyways, hope it helps and you find joy in the game or can recognize you don’t and be done. You have a home in my alliance temporarily or otherwise if you want.

I am hungry (unrelated).

:beers:

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That is great. The way I read it you would get a chance at one if the hero you put in had one. Your way is MUCH better :wink:.

:sleepy:. He’s my boy still. I love the guy. He’s definitely weird in a kind of creepy way, but my boy none the less.

He was a long time tank for me too. I guess in formation that is my hack to finally have someone on my roster to get everyone a minion. :laughing:

I am going for yellow too although I do think the current one would be a great upgrade for me. Finally have a dispel in yellow would be amazing.

:beers:

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@Muchacho
Believe regardless of whether the one you put in has a costume already (since you don’t throw in the costumed version), you get the % of pulling a costume for a resulting hero that has a costume. Otherwise, they should really just make costumes re-trainable.

The HA10 results reporting thread had someone post up a graphic of the updated “i button” under a HA10 session that shows this costume chance. Believe that list will grow once Sands Empire starts.

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More sad news… :sob:
It’s the friend’s I’ve met in my E&P journey that keep me playing the game.

Your insightful and encouraging posts will be missed! Virtual hugs from my corner of the globe to yours. :kissing_heart::smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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hey all, thanks for the thoughts and insights @Muchacho @Shohoku79 @SamMe

first off, @SamMe I would be super sad to see you go, I would miss you. As @Sarah2 said, you are insightful and encouraging, and it breaks my heart to see such enthusiastic, eager, willing-to-learn and optimistic players - and genuinely nice, kind peope!!! - as yourself and @Gwniver becoming all discouraged. But I get it, I am quite in the same boat. If I look at my posts these past few days, my mood has definitely changed. When I pulled Zila Lei in Underwild… normally I would be excited. Oh, a non S1 4*! But I was just… meh… had trouble getting excited.

As @Muchacho said, I try to have reasonable expectations about this game. example:

  • Challenge events: top 10k / top 5k / top 10k only.
  • Ninja Tower: top 25k
  • Raids: hover around 2500 cups and open my chests in Diamond
  • Raid tournaments: top 5% or higher only in 3* and 4* ones (especially 4*, because I also have highly emblemed 4* and enough costumes/non S1 ones to make it! 3s are a struggle because of all the +20 monster defenses out there, while my 3s are only up to +9 or +11)

etc. etc.

What scares me about the recent Q&A is that even these seemingly attainable, reasonable heights might slowly slip away.

  1. Ascension mats and Emblems can be bought. i would not be surprised if limit breakers can also later be bought.
  2. Loot will be horrible. Valhalla Forever coin drops will not get better. Future seasons likely will not either.
  3. But more and more heroes and events will be released… yet the attainability of heroes will not improve. Summon odds won’t go up. Each season has its own coin, forcing us to hoard gems and choose which portal to pull in. 3* and 4* will never be added to Hero Academy.
  4. big spenders will continue to summon heavily, buy ascension mat offers, buy emblems, blah blah blah…

so even the heights to which i have climbed, might slip away.

I’ve grinded and worked hard to get here. and like @Shohoku79 I like getting new heroes (within reasonable expectations, I expect to get many 3s out there, some 4s, and very few of the 5*s). but seeing the expanding collection of heroes I will likely never get anyway… and watching others waltz around with those heroes and compete more easily in arenas I also play in…

I mean, it’s getting harder and harder to raid as it is. I’m ok with it as long as I hang in Diamond, But will the day come that I get pushed down to Platinum because all the defenses out there are so strong… :frowning:

I don’t know if reorienting myself to become more casual will help. I really don’t.

Titans shouldn’t change. Wars maybe won’t, but I’ve seen enough bad match-ups to know some can slip through. The World Map won’t change, but it’s boring… I grind it mostly for summons, but summons odds suck.

and if things like Challenge Events, Raid Tournaments, Ninja Tower become even more soul-crushing…

yeah :frowning:

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Where I used to live as a teenager, the yearly town festivities included a pig race too. Each contestant was to take their pig to the finish through an obstacle and mud race, no matter how: run with the pig, carry the pig, ride the pig (just kidding, I never saw anyone actually doing that :grin:), just don’t lose the pig. From the amount of squealing, I’d say the pigs didn’t enjoy it so much. I don’t know if they still do it.

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I hate the Ninja Tower, I play it to level 20, force myself to, strictly for the loot. Same with mythic titan. I have heroes I want to level, heroes I waited for and was excited to pull, but will they mean much when they finally are maxed out? The evolution of the game is so disheartening.

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I feel the same. I remember a couple years back, how excited I was pulling Joon, pulling Marjana.

But with power creep continuing… even with costumes and emblems, how can they compete in the Starfall event with a Starfall hero that has better stats, passive ability, gets a stat boost in the event and can bypass the stupid color reflect…

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Chin up to all F2P players out there. :hugs: (I cannot call myself F2P, I got PoV and VIP, but still)

Times of change is always up hill, especially when it means one is getting pushed down. It will become the new normal to be in Platinum instead of Diamond. To be in top 25% instead of top 1%.

I would be saddened to see so many of you go. But the frustration is real, when money plays such a factor, and it’s a distasteful business model. It’s here to stay no matter what we do.

Unite and know you are not alone in the position you are in. Extra steps on the ladder has been added, but we climb it together.

Not to reach the top, but to reach a comfortable position, being ok, given how much you have accomplished, while also feeling good about your financial choice.

:hugs:

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@Gwniver youu are such a ray of sunshine, and with tempered and realistic optimism too! you are a gem :slight_smile:

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the Q&A has bothered me more than I thought. so to cope, I turn to creative pursuits… I bring you
song lyrics: I dreamed a dream

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