Yes I sunk some time and money into their very addictive game "Spellstone" but gave up after a few weeks due to this and the clear pay-2-win model. Was fun while it lasted.
I've set up a guild called Cascade (MBU) as part of prep for my review of the title for My Boxed Universe - members very welcome! So far this game is wonderful on all fronts.
I'm not sure what everyone is complaining about. I play this about an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. In the evening, I spend the time before bed clearing out any energy I have left. So if 3+ hrs of gametime a day is not enough, what exactly are you looking to do? You get 120+ energy (5 min/en recharge) for doing missions. (99+ player level) Missions take 10-30 energy so far (only made it to map 2 castle 2 so far). Then you get PvP token up to 10 (40 min/ticket). THEN you get "Gauntlet" tokens up to 10 (40 min/token). And LATER you get Raids. Just curious how long each of you think you should be allowed to play the game? Constantly? And do what with? I'm sure some bot somewhere will just beat you down. This way, I started a few days ago, I'm level 28. I have some decent gear (epic weapon and chest) and spent some gems (perhaps unwisely) to get an epic monster follower. (boss monster, I wanted gurantee'd drop) Yes, the drop/attach rates of monsters is terrible, but nothing so bad that I quit over it. You win some, you lose some. 15 Familiars so far. 1 Epic, 6 rare, the rest greens. That doesn't seem too terrible for a weeks worth of work. And lightyears above where I'm at in Injustice 2 in the same amount of time (spending the same money). The one thing I particularly like is the ad chest. Watch an ad, get a much better weapon in a chest. Nice. I will caviat and say I asked some nice questions and 2 people friended me in the 100's. That has made castle grinding a bit easier. I wish I knew some max levels as I've almost outgrown my guild.. but what can ya do.
Alright, I've spent a ton of time with this game (as much as possible anyways) since it's iOS release, I'm a few levels shy of 40 and here is what I think so far. This game does SO many things right, but it's not flawless. It really does narrow down that "light MMO" feel very well. Even though it's honestly not much different than your typical Social RPG (Like Final Fantasy: Record Keeper, Fire Emblem: Heroes, etc) when it comes to interactions, but the "main town" hub makes all the difference in my opinion. You can do everything you need such as crafting and combining from the UI or you can walk over to the specific person in the main town. I do like that little touch. Coupled with seeing others walking around and getting to check out their gear and such. It gives it that unique MMORPG feel that I've seen little of on iOS. I can't think of too many con's in this part; all pro's. The combat is fun, typical turn-based RPG. What I do like is that they didn't necessarily opt to limiting you to a specific "class", rather your weapons dictate your abilities and what kind of "skills" you can use. I have my opinions about this, but the fact that you can literally switch gear on the fly, even while in dungeons, is pretty cool. And you can mix and match for the stats you desire. Right now I'm rocking a Paladin-type guy that's tanky, but I am using a staff for heals AND damage. It makes him really hard to get through. There are con's here, though. I hope for more variety in the skills. Even the higher tier weapons have the same skills as its lower-tier iterations, just with another skill on top. I WANT ICE MAGIC PLS. Speaking of equipment, I dig the rarity system that's as common as ever in your typical MMRPG. I LOVE that everything has an aesthetic look, and I love even more that you can customize the look of anything with anything you've obtained. Mega points for that. Upgrading them hasn't been a priority of mine, as if MMORPG's have taught me anything over the years, it's that my rage is very real when I spend resources on upgrading something only for it to be later ousted by a better item. But I've racked up quite a bit of dusts and stuff from breaking down vendor trash. The dungeons are short but sweet, the grind is very real. And that is not a complaint. It hits the nail on the head perfectly. If you're not into grinding out games to get your desired stuff, this is NOT for you at all. The fact that they added auto-modes to even battle makes me able to grind out dungeons while I am writing this. It's brilliant, though on iOS I have had a few hangups and freezes I'm willing to forgive as it's only happened a couple times now. The familiar grabs are hard to get, yes, but like the above comments say, you win some you lose some. I have 2 epics, a handful of rares and a dozen of greens. I've found myself largely sticking with dungeons though, where I get to use other players as my familiars. And FORTUNATELY some dude let me add him who is 100+ with 200+/100+/200+ stats. It has helped me /immensely/ but doesn't mean I can straight auto Heroic bosses on the second area dungeons (Frost area/swap so far). But again, it helps a ton. Hoping he doesn't delete me anytime soon. I guess my biggest complaint, a complaint that has made it really hard to debating continuing playing the game... is indeed the stamina bar. I play Final Fantasy: Record Keeper and Fire Emblem: Heroes quite a bit, but you know what I like about their stamina system? It takes 1 premium currency (Mithril/Orb respectively) to fill it back up. Then you can play again. And again. Run out? Spend another Mithril. Spend another Orb. Lord knows you just got 2-3 more while you played with the 1 you spent. I love this, it's perfect. This game however.... there's nothing like that. I am at about 132 stamina, and the closest to "filling it" would be a 400 gem drop to give me almost 192 something. 800 gems to give me 400 Stamina. That's almost $5 and $10 to keep playing the f'in game. That's retarded. NORMALLY with a system like that, I would quit. And have debated it. As I am doing Heroic dungeons at 30 energy a pop, I get to do 4-5 of them and then I have to be done for hours. I am not that kind of gamer when it comes to these grindy games. I will grind /forever/ if it allowed me to. I get the purpose as with most F2P games. I am supposed to walk away or pay to keep playing. But again, FF:RK and FE:H in mind, I have never had to drop a dime on the games (though I have because I love them) to simply keep playing if I want. I can't encourage this system at all. Because this game does SO MANY THINGS RIGHT, I have been able to try my best to ignore the bar but it yells at me when I am totally drained and not even close to getting my fix. That's my problem. To the above poster curious about how long we think we should be able to play? As long as we want. Within reason, of course, but make the "premium currency" a little easier to obtain OR simply DRASTICALLY lower the amount of gems it takes to fill up your bar. I am not going to pay $5-10 to play for another 30 mins-hour. There's other games out there that have bars that allow you to gain more experience and items until it's depleted, and then when it's out, you can keep playing, but your rewards and exp are decreased by 50-75%. I would be entirely okay with this. As it still allows us to play, they can still get their money from people who want to pay the garbage amount and get their full benefits. At this point, I will not spend money on this game. I don't mind doing so, but I can't encourage the current stamina situation. My suggestion? Just make a two-tier subscription-based system. Like $5 a month for a stamina bar that regenerates 4 times as fast. and a $15 dollar script would give you unlimited stamina, and even a small (thinking even 10%) boost to gold, exp, and item gain. They make money, they make people happy. I would easily pay a $15 script for something similar, as again... this game is truly great in so many ways. It just sucks that the biggest one is the element of freemium games I despise /the most/. TL;DR version: The game is great. Super fun. F--- that stamina bar. Give me a script.
I basically agree with everything you've said. I don't think people can just play all day. Honestly, I'm damned tired after my first round in the morning (which is consolidated to about 45 minutes now if I'm just XP grinding heroics), another round around lunch, and the final round before bed. The one snazzy thing I REALLY liked... you get all those items. Even when you recycle them, they're unlocked for you cosmetically. So say you like the really crappy pirate hat. But you want to equip super awesome sword of legendary uberness.. you just slap the pirate skin onto the sword on a whim. LOVE that. One thing that bugs me... people just begging for higher level help. Sometimes, yes it's needed. But in our guild I've seen so many people just.... poof. That's taking up a needed space. And from what I gather these 100+ people are harassed constantly. Shame. I need a couple of super highs as right now I'm grinding my way in Zone3 (map 3 basically) which is needed to reach R1 (Raid 1) or where the first Legendaries start to drop.
I think my 3 star rating is fairly solid. But I have played this game quite a bit more than even some 4 star games. It's kept my interest, despite its flaws.
You don't sell it. It took you through this during the tutorial but you go: Craft (left hand, 3rd down) -> Exchange -> (select All or what you want to exchange) -> Hit the Exchange button It turns it to blue, green, or red stuff to upgrade your equipment. Save this. Don't upgrade your z1/2 rares (like me). Bonehead move and waste of resources.
Like this game but gems need to be more plentiful and Epic Familiars stronger. It costs 1k gems to recruit one and rare familiars are more powerful.
Is the Leader of the Guild TouchArcade (ToAr) still around, named "Kahllan" ? The guild would like to appoint officers and full members, but the leader has been MIA for over a week. I like this game for now. I have spent 0,00$ on it because I feel it's entirely optional and everything you purchase is basically a drop in a bucket. 5$ for 500 gems gets you almost nothing tangible. Even at the very start of the game it might not be worth it but beyond lvl 30 it especially isn't. It's a fun game nonetheless, though I hope they are going to add more content and gameplay to the game to remain entertaining, hoping some interesting IAP are going to be offered at a point.
Well last week was the MAJOR update of adding GvG battles (I guess, 2 Fridays ago). One week of GvG, one week cooldown. Next one starts up again Friday. They also released a new line of Accys. Those are mostly pay for but you can earn the gems in game to get them for free. But it's one of those patience games where the gems could better be used elsewhere. Next update should be R3. But that's for MUCH MUCH higher lvls. One thing I am seeing is a lot of people rush to R1 and then want immediate gratification for legendaries. I don't think they realize that the legendaries ARE the grind because they are very rare. You can up your chances but if RNGesus doesn't like you, there's not much you can do but grind away. I like the game. I think I've put 20 bucks into it IRL money, level 100. 15 of those bucks were cause I wanted a couple of swings at a legendary accy. The other 5 bucks was the starter pack I bought and wish I could return. P.S. To the person above.. You DON'T spend your gems on Epics. They pop way often and often while you're grinding out for schematics. You DO spend your gems on Legendaries (1600 needed). Don't spend your gems on the salesman. Don't spend your gems on those 750 reds offered in dungeons. Do spend your first 1000 gems on Def Pet (healing) then pick off/def for your next thousand. THEN SAVE them. Don't USE your keys before R1. You're wasting good keys on rubbish. If you feel like starting, google Bob's Guide Bit Heroes for help. It's a 5 minute read that explains your near and far goals.
Rumor has it that the next big content release will be TOMORROW! And to echo Phuncz, we really need "Kahllan" to log in and appoint an active player as the leader of our in-game guild. My IGN is Horath.
