So Guys,
left the game for quite some time now. A few years in fact. Was wondering if i should return to the game now. How long does it take to be “good” now and now easy is it to farm stones to upgrade your troops? Currently lvl 246+ ish. Has the game gone pay to win? How balanced are teams now?
Farming has been made easier.
There’s a meta, but there will always be a meta.
It’s gone very pay to win recently with each new update.
There’s still fun to be had despite these things.
I a very loose sense has the game always been ‘pay to win’ or better said ‘pay to increase chances’ with more keys to buy from the store.
The only thing which they added, what could be considered as P2W, is a few new game modes with leaderboards that award high-level resources. Though these mostly grant earlier access to a useless troop.
The aforementioned new modes are fun and diverse the monotony from guild wars by quite a bit. They rotate as guild wars, raids, invasion with some others running on Wednesday, Thursday and over the weekend.
Raid (guild activity) - face a boss with 3 support troops in increasingly difficult battles, while having to rely on troops from a set kingdom (and/or your hero) per week
Invasion (guild activity) - face up to 4 towers (essentially bosses as well) in increasingly difficult battles, while having to rely on troops from a set race (and/or your hero) per week
Pet Rescue (Wednesday, no guild required) - play up to 8 battles of increasing difficulty to gain access to a pet with passive abilities to aid your teams
Class Event (Thursday, no guild required) - fight against 5 sets of troops in increasing difficulty to gain additional XP towards a set hero class
Bounty (weekend, no guild required) - fight battles of increasing difficulty while using up to 4 special bounty troops in your team to maximize points
Gnome Event (weekend, no guild required) - treasure gnomes will appear more frequently in PVP and explore battles, while randomly replacing any card on the opposing team. Upon win you’ll get additional rewards from the gnome including a possible vault key for even more rewards
Since gems are easy to acquire for free with normal gameplay i disagree.
There is, in fact, a huge timely advantage for buying gems instead of “farming” them collecting tributes and finishing guild/daily tasks for days, but compared to other F2P out there GoW is the most generous game of its genre.
Every F2P has to has some additional income made from revenue, not like triple AAA games that sell crap loot boxes. cough EA
I totally agree. In fact, this game is probably the most generous with its premium currency (gems AND diamonds) compared to the rest out there. AND you can craft any Mythics you wanted as along as you are patient enough.
I really think majority of the players are just too impatient and want instant gratification to say “look ma! How awesome I am with this deck that kills all the time” and then “Nerf this mythic because I cannot be bothered to switch away from my main deck!!” 
There’s a lot of complaining about how people want the F2P factors tweaked, but this still feels like one of the most “honest” F2P games out there. The best way to spend money is to spend $50 on Deathknight armor roughly around the level you are, then peck your way towards VIP 5 via $5 diamond purchases on Sunday (limit 1/week). After that, any perks you get from spending money are so diminished I think anyone who really wants a P2W game would avoid this one.
You are at about the point where I think someone who plays 2-3 months today can reach pretty easily depending on how casual you are, especially with a guild. I think it still takes about a year to be “endgame”.
Balance is… not really there. The endgame meta has effectively 3 variants of the same team. “Having better luck” is the counter. Players look at it two ways:
Both are valid, but GoW is siding more towards “fast and brainless” in the modes you can play an infinite number of times. There are sigil-based weekly modes with scaling difficulty that require more thought, but the balance swings between “there are no good teams” to “there is one obviously good team”.
The main thing to consider when you return is, “Do I have time?” I feel like I"m making the most progress if I can spend 2-3 hours per day on the game.
I do get what your are saying and don’t disagree that the mix of it does vary things, but still like to point out that i use more different troops in a single week of Guild Wars than in months of Raids and Invasions where at least two troops are almost always locked in(hero+event troop).
You’re absolutely right, but in guild wars you have the choice of 500+ troops throughout the week, yet the other modes restrict your choices. Which is fun to think about new support troops that I would’ve most likely never touched.
And even if I watch @Tacet’s videos, I sure can’t remember every troops spell or trait or whatever. Using them in a certain team makes it so I will remember them and purposely trait and level them, otherwise I have no urge to do so.
You can now play at 4 x speed (seems supersonic when you first play it 
) so that should get you where you want to go quicker 
It is the best time to return that there ever has been. The game has the most content that it ever has, the largest player base, the most options, and they fixed chat.
It is in no way P2W. People who disagree just don’t understand the definition. You can accomplish anything in game as a F2P player.
As a F2P player, the only thing you won’t have is the knowledge that you are employing and sustaining the people who entertain you. Sadly, few people care about that.
I would definitely recommend coming back to this game. While there have some disappointments (like the UI change in my opinion 
) the game is still pretty solid. I’ve been playing for about a year, and I have seen a fare share of the metas. The good news is that you’re probably not going to run into the meta anytime soon. I can definitely say this isn’t a P2W game, as I personally haven’t spent a dime but I’m doing fine. If someone were to ask me for recommendation for a game, it would probably be Gems of War because it is still a good game.
Please come back! Have a look around and then decide if you want to return. Also, if you need help recovering your account please contact our support and we can get it sorted for you as quickly as possible. 
I could never imagine going back to 1x speed. Saying that, I’m sure my missus still plays on something close to it, it’s painful to watch. Then again, 0.25x is beyond a snoozefest