Okay. Regarding farming: My main GoW account that I’m playing is on console. With the update there, I found I’d already spent enough to be VIP Level 3 and I’ve just purchased another bundle yesterday, because I want to invest in this game and support it. But after examining the traitstone mechanics in the PC/mobile version, I’m not sure I’m happy with where we’re ultimately heading.
The PC/Mobile Gems game has Hero Classes implemented, which is a natural and logical extension to Troop type categories. I like the concept a lot. What I don’t like --whatsoever-- is having to deliberately stat farm in specific Cities for specific Arcane Traitstones in large numbers.
For ex, every player who wants to use, say, the Priest class actually needs TWELVE arcane Summer Traitstones simply to apply the 2nd class trait. The only place to get Arcane Summer is in Whitehelm. The drop rate for Arcane stones is less than 2% (we are talking drop frequencies similar to Legendary cards here!). Correct me if I’m mistaken, but doesn’t that mean a player will have to run 500 to 600 battles in Whitehelm alone just to gather those 12 Arcane Summers.
What is the point of forcing players to stat farm like this? How could this possibly be viewed as a “fun” way to increase the challenge of obtaining a required 2nd Trait (which in THIS case turns out to simply be “Gain bonus Yellow mana”) in order to progress to the 3rd Trait. Seriously, if I were forced to grind for 500 battles in one place, it would be only for some rarefied bonus like “Resurrect one dead troop if 3 allies are already dead”. I would NOT grind for just the Air Link trait.
And if the response to this complaint is that beta team testers were easily able to pick up all three Hero traits on a Class after just 3 days of gaming, my answer is that the vast majority of casual players aren’t going to hardcore anything for 4-6 hours straight at a time. For me to get that 2nd Air Link Trait, I’m guesstimating 7-8 months if most of my time is prioritized to stuff like PvP.
As I’ve said before: there’s a need for a certain amount of stat farming in most games. It increases the challenge of character customization, and can provide a sense of lasting accomplishment upon completion. But stat farming, be it for gold or souls or traits, needs to be part of the natural mechanics of the game, part of the natural progression and joyful flow of play. Forcing people to grind repetitively just for a single resource (“Traitstone farm 500x in Whitehelm”) is not just boring and evil, it’s downright insanity for the long term health of any game community.
As I reach higher XP levels I’m encountering more and more fully-traited teams which can drag out gameplay into slow torture. I built a real Alchemist-Valkyrie-Banshee team for the first time, and I’ve had to use it for PvP on console. At what point will I fall behind the curve so much so that I’ll no longer want to play?