Biggest detractor I see so far is the fact that you have to spend real money to get the best stuff.  But the real purpose of making games is to make money so I guess that follows.

True that.  However, the cool thing about some of the latest freebies and login champs since I joined is there is a lot of utility.

For example:

- DT Hard climb team has four, free champs...Alice, Scyl, Mikey, and Mithrala. Mikey is in there because, very surprisingly, he survives better than both Staltus and Baron due to his passive.

- Leminisi allowed me to finally clear Sylvan 21.

- Loki and Adelyn are still used in content to include those faction 21 crypts.

- Ninja remains my best boss dps and anchors Shadowkin 21.

- Ogryn just crushed the final four crypts last night, and Gruush is in that Ogryn 21 roster.

- I just earned my last Embrys frags this morning, so he'll be coming online soon for KR 21.

So, peeps like me who can't get the über-shinies just have to keep working who we can get.  They are definitely not crap! 😁

(I do want to get at least one more turtle, though...🐢🐢)

Awesome! Who've you got left in the way of Lydia?

KR, Undead, Dwarves, Orcs, Dark Elves, Demonspawn.

Demonspawn still don't have a viable healer or reviver. Hot mess sammidge...

KR and Dark Elves are probably next two, just gotta gear and master some of each.  I've got the toons at lvl 60.

Came up a bit short in DT at Bommal 90 hard...just barely missed a sacred last rotation.

Also made it into Soulcross last rotation, and got my first clear path to Amius normal this AM...that first attempt was cute (so precious 😜).  Also one Siege away from Mamalama.  Once I get some of these end game pieces up to speed, I'll take Amius more seriously.  

Back to my original point, these advances are in part fueled by free champs.  I've seen a lot of people disparage free champs, but they do have their uses.

I don't see anyone on this forum disparaging free champs.  Many of the free/reward toons are amazing.  

If you know for sure that you want to do masteries on a champ, don't waste the resources to level them to 60 first.  You can get all the XP you need by leveling them in Minotaur while you master them.        

True, sometimes I'm dumb that way with leveling.  Though, to be fair, I leveled most of my champs to get them into FW and other content faster while running 12:3 for more chickens and silver for the next 6*, mostly during CvC. In fact, I've averaged an estimated 1.4 promotions to 6 stars/lvl 60 for each week I've been in the game, so it's been a crazy pace.  Ascension, booking, gear, and mastering come as the overall acct needs dictate.  So it's definitely not wasted energy, it just looks haphazard.

Nice.

PSA: I would guess that the Awakening Boost that starts tomorrow in conjunction with the Deck of Fate is a trap to drain resources before a DoF or Path requiring Soulstones to get a Turtle.  

Very enticing trap, but still a trap.

Definitely time to hold onto resources.