Does this include all the souls you recycle? Wouldnt that make the whole process a bit quicker? 

And so, to the extreme, if you sell everything you summon in order to do the one legendary you want to do, how much faster would this be then?

It doesn't. The math on that is much trickier to include, because it's hard to know what value to place on the summons.

I'm obliged to say that any reports of any unpublished, under the hood data is stated by Plarium to not be accurate.

Also, 4 months is WAY LESS than some of the videos and claims... they were screaming how it would be well over a year to get a single champ awakened. :)

I admit I've not watched any of the cc vids.  But based on what I've heard here and there, and just looking at the presented info, am I safe in concluding it's pretty much always better to spend on stones rather than essence, whatever flavor of coin?  At least that's the conclusion I've drawn this far.

There are arguments that this is the better route, especially if you're working to collect those resources in tourneys.

Something like "Pull for your 3-4 star souls, then start saving to split soul up from there if you see them in the market"

Well - other than Eternal Essence. By the point that you're needing it, you're basically best off spending all your Eternal Soul Coins on Eternal Essence, since Eternal Soulstones don't give you Eternal Essence.

Thanks guys this is very helpful after reading everything 10 times in the last week.  The worst part about this is the terminology

immortal soulstone

etermal soulessence

mortal soul coins

pwerfect/imperfect soul

soul mate

soul food

souel korea

sole of my shoe

Too many different curriencies introduced at once, and only some of them interact with others.

Basically for f2p, only way to get high level is a lucky pull from stones? Is that the takeaway?  

What about the improved Hydra drops, someone mentioned in my clan chat but no details?  Is this stones or essence or both?

This would make sense to me, since the new currency is like shards/books 2.0

Improved Hydra drops means that Soulstones won't REPLACE a drop slot anymore. They are now their own slot.

And I think as F2P we are looking at needing to be very cognizant of what we upgrade, as you are right, this new currency is a combined books/shards system. I know that doesn't say much, but I think I will be opening for a solid foundation of a few 3-4 star stuff, and hording for the split souls there, and not buying many 1 star souls.

So 1 ethernal soul stone every 5.5 years if you only run the dungeons.

Nice i cant wait to see those 1000 procent value deals xd

To clarify my position, I am not complaining. I don't expect to awaken every champ to the max in the 1st week.  I am fine with it taking a while, just trying to understand it for now... lol.

I think this (shards 2.0) is great for late game f2p, id much prefer to tweak the champs I have instead of pulling new ones.  Less books needed, less gear spread too thin.... I will skip sacred 2x this week and resume shard hoarding.

I also am contemplating a complete 360 (yes, I know its a 180) from NOT WASTING 150 gems a day on this to possibly prioritizing it for gem usage... thoughts from other late game f2p on this?

That's ... not at all what I said. If you read the last line in my picture, I estimated it at about 4 months to *fully* awaken one champ. That means, going from zero stars all the way to six.

I don't think so at all. I think I walked into this *expecting* that to be the case but, even if you don't sell any of your summons, you'll still get a fully awakened champ every four months. And if you add in selling of the souls you summon but don't need, it becomes *much* faster.

Hmm, I think I will stop buying 1star for now. I couldn't pass up buying mith, ramantu and Lydia though. 3 days in a row of 2good to pass up... lol

I am passing on brogni today 

Yeah, I got that you weren't :)

As far as what I am doing, I spent gems the first few days to open it as fast as possible, but think I may be saving gems instead of continuing to do so. Souls don't fully stop the need to farm gear, and get the fusions, and maybe more than anything else, hit Hydra as much and as powefully as possible.

I don't think that's a mistake. The wider your pool, the more easily you'll be able to actually complete individual ones. Yes, you are correct that if you divide your shards up, it'll take you longer to actually max one. But remember, the ones you see in the shop are random - so, the more you have, the more likely you'll see one you need.

The way I see it is - and these are made up numbers - if you go wide, it might take you six months to fully awaken one champ, but a year to fully awaken four. Whereas, if you go tall, it might only take you five months to fully awaken one champ, but it might take you two years to fully awaken four.

So, ultimately, it depends on just how much value you put into those fully awakened champs. And, for sure, that top-level awakening bonus absolutely supercedes everything else. Crushing Rend, for example, is almost completely useless until fully awakened - at which point it becomes *amazing*.

Will Mr 18k gems be buying refills, at least on Sundays for void?

Nope. Not enough value :)

i

Just a little short on essence... don't think an extra 6 runs in fortress today would help :)