Yes, it’s fair to say that the in-game communication tools on offer in GoW fall a long way short of useful.
Conversely, though, have you never used a website like Wikia to research, or contribute to the knowledge sharing amongst other players of a game you really like? I see discord as the replacement for the GoW wiki because there are now many established channels that cater for various aspects of this game that no player, new or old, should really be without.
Whilst I do like a large variety of things to rotate amongst in the game, here is what I have to say about progressing as a new player, from someone who has been around for less than 2 years:
I found it extremely frustrating not to be able to compete at lower levels. Like I could not even complete a pet rescue. Just one skull would knock you out. So I spent a ton of time and money to try and catch up…but I still have not fully caught up and still need to spend resources and time on mythics, delves, basic weapons, leveling classes and things that endgamers no longer care about. In the mean time the new dragons and dragonite arrived, and endgamers spend all their time and resources on them, and play super fast in PVP with these teams…whilst my speed is slow because I do not have them…so again I am behind. I would not advise anyone to start playing this game today, unless you are very relaxed and do not care to compete.
Plus we will never catch up, because by the time I reach 5 years of play others will reach 15…
So newer players will never reach end-gamer status…
And content will triple.
And really I could never have caught up as much as FTP…you need to spend tons if you want to attempt to catch up.
Also I am tired of people saying “You do not need money to play this game” or “All you need is Tesla/Rowanne.” Yes at higher levels you do not need money BUT if you want to catch up at all you will have to spend. You will also not be getting 25 gems per hour. And Rowanne honestly? Will YOU be happy with just Tesla or Rowanne??? Do not kid me I know what teams people play with in PVP - Teams with both Diamantina and Stellarix…
Plus I must add that I played a lot - I do not watch TV - BUT I am not a full-time retired old man that plays 24/7…so for other working young people this is indeed a very time-consuming game.
I have a question - what do you all mean exactly by “catching up”? And how long, in your opinion, that should take, in a game that celebrated its 9th birthday last November?
I started an alt account in April 2022, so it will hit 2 years in 3 months. Compared to my main account (4.5 years old) I still miss many mythics (39), but really, the only place this alt fails is probably high-bracket GW. As I moved guilds for that account recently, to a guild that is in a much higher bracket than it ever was, the next GW will be a test 
I consider it caught-up, because the missing troops don’t destroy the enjoyment of the game, I have solutions for most situations, I have enough resources to guarantee getting new monthly mythics as they come out, I’ve got a decent stash of seals and gems, and I’m far into class levelling - not 100%, but likely before 2nd birthday I’ll be done. And it’s been caught-up for at least half a year now. It’s not exactly end-game yet (but, with the new underspire sentinels, even players that have been with the game from the start, can’t be fully called end-game if they have 0 of the 6, can they?), but it’s close enough that playing the game on that account is fun. And that’s all that matters, doesn’t it? Gaming is to be fun, otherwise there’s no point.
Oh, and I haven’t paid a ton of money to get here. Not exactly F2P, but definitely not “a ton of money”. I used “being a good guild” and “Vault weekends” as the main catch-up mechanisms - and these worked wonderfully. My main problem is that the game doesn’t really tell you that when you start - that this is the thing to do.
You can say it’s easier to develop 2nd account than the 1st one - yes, because you don’t make stupid rookie mistakes, and have the benefit of knowing people who will get your account into a good guild. But both of these things can be remedied by looking for game guides and talking to people on global, maybe discord, maybe YouTube, maybe Steam guides from other players, maybe some other resources (I find it sad that the GoW official guides are so poorly written - they explain the rules, but they offer no real guidance). And no - because you know, you’ve seen it first hand, what is possible and not being able to do it is frustrating 
Okay no need to be so smug about it. My circumstances are different. I did not start out with any knowledge of the game. I simply found the game in Google play and started playing.
I am a working person so I did not have time to watch videos about the game (in fact I did not even know those videos existed, and still have no time to watch them). I did not join a guild in the beginning because I was under the impression if you joined a guild you would have to do competitive PVP and I was not ready for that. So I only joined a guild months after starting.
Once you join a guild though, if you want to be in a good one, you need to spend gems to do guild events.
I also had no idea one is supposed to level up classes - so I played with one/two classes for a very long time.
But other than that I made some smart choices on my own, and figured things out. But I am sure you can make super fast progress if you know exactly what you are doing from the start, and you are an experienced player.
You need to spend a LOT of gems in the game though.
Now remember when I joined we did not have pet orbs like now - so if you wanted to get pets fast you had to spend gems for extra copies. We also did not have vault weekends regularly like now, plus once again I had no idea what a Gnome-a-Palooza was until like 6 months after I started.
Not everyone is a full-time gamer okay?
So anyway yes I wanted a large collection of mythics because playing with one team only is boring and also you cannot easily do guild and world events etc if you do not have mythics…and for mythics you need diamonds and chests. You will not get enough of these resources, even if you are in a guild, if you do not spend money.
If you want to Power up Kingdoms you need large collections too - you need at least one mythic in each Kingdom, you need 8 weapons – all costing diamonds, or cash weapon offers.
If you want Zuul or Ctharrasque etc you need orbs - okay now it is easier with the regular Vault events, but when I started playing they were not regular and like I said, had no idea what a Gnome-a-Palooza was.
You need deeds for leveling Kingdoms - you will never get enough of these for free in Adventure Boards or from Guilds…you will have to spend gems.
If you want to take part in Delve events you need gems…
A Ton of money can also have different meanings for different people - what is a ton for me might not be so for you.
This thread asked for opinions on how new players find the game. I gave mine. There will be different perspectives. And maybe many will not post here because I know the forum is full of older end-level players who talk down to newer players and make their concerns seem unimportant.
I said how I experienced the game. And yes I knew a ton of people would jump in with “You do not need money,” “you should easily get enough troops to play” etc. So FGS do not repeat that again. In my experience that was not the case.
Okay so let me ask you - in a game that is 9 years old - so how long before a new player should be able to become an end-level player? Will they ever become that?
Oh wait - all the old end-gamers with their new alt-accounts right? Those people who know exactly how to play from the start…
I made every single mistake you’re talking about my first time round. And possibly more, like crafting things for diamonds that really were not worth the cost at the time, at the progression level I was then. And I went F2P for the first year on that first account.
I never ever bought gems from the shop, on either account. I never bought Ring of Power, or these offers where you have a legendary or mythic troop guaranteed. I got Deathknight armor after 1.5 years into the game for the first account, after the price reduction to $20. I only bought kingdom passes and campaign passes, and sometimes a flash offer or two - mostly key weapons I was missing. That’s it.
I am a working person, and I don’t live and breathe GoW either.
You still haven’t answered my question: what does it mean to “catch up”? Without that, I can’t really say how long it should take, can I? I told you when I felt “caught-up” with the alt account (even though it’s not end-game, meaning “I have everything”, far from it). For a person who doesn’t know the game, that time will likely be extended, but by how much - depends on how much effort you put in into looking for information and guidance.
Where you can comfortably do Level E12 Explores with any class and any team, at fast speed. (For a very very long time I could not do that - team score was too low, had to use only Elementalist and Zuul or I would lose).
Where you can do a pet rescue in 5 minutes.
Where you can do any guild event or world event or Underspire because you have enough good troops and mythics for each Kingdom and troop type. And you do not have to feel utterly frustrated.
Where you can actually compete for a top position in a League Board because you can do PVP super fast, or at least as fast as the top player.
Where you can actually level up any - even useless - Classes in PVP (had to play with only select few good classes for long because once again I did not have the troops and teams score to level up useless classes in PVP).
Where you have enough weapons / mythics / pets to get all Kingdoms to Power Lvl 20 so that you can get the aforementioned Team score so that you can play fast.
I have now accomplished most of this - but it did take regular diamond and gem purchases, as well a weapon purchases. I am still lacking the PVP compete thing because of not having the dragons though, largely due to the so-called RNG system.
So…
looking at your standards - my 4.5-year-old account still isn’t end-game I can’t win E12 with ease with any class and any team… I can win with specific teams designed to beat E12, yes. But not with any team.
Okay we can adjust that to the “a large variety of teams so you do not have to play with your one and only powerful team repeatedly until death by boredom”.
Remember too I started BEFORE the game had Tesla, Ruby Macaque and Ctharrasque and the overpowered loop Journey troops we now have. Maybe those things make it easier for newer players now?
How old is your account, then? Because Tesla has been in the game when I started my first, main account, 4.5 years ago.
Ah - okay - then it is once again something I missed entirely…
Then I stand by what I said, judging by my experience and when I felt comfortable - with the alt, I still couldn’t win everything and in all situations, but I ditched the first “one team to use everywhere” after about 2 months, and I had a medium-range variety of troops and teams available after about 6 months; and I could participate in all guild events very comfortably after about a year. I just didn’t jump at the most difficult content on week 1 - I paced myself and went up as I progressed.
It took way, way longer with my first account, but that was because I joined a non-dead guild only after 7 months with the game, and I started to experiment more (and I haven’t touched Rowanne or goblins in these 7 months, to the surprise of many more experienced players at the time, but I was like you then - I never read any guides except what was in the game before the 7-month mark, and just experimented with what I managed to pull from chests). So, 7 months + another half a year to start feeling comfortable. But the game was different then. No gem dragons, no starry dragons. No Enraged Kurandara. It took me a year to finally get Divinia (a legendary!). I got my first mythic after about 8 months of playing…
My new account spent 3 Vault weekends and got Zuul. Another 2-3 and I got Ctharrasque. My main account gathered orbs for Zuul for a year…
Mmm you knew exactly what events and teams and troops to focus on though - doubt most new players - like real new players, not old players with new accounts - will know this.
But perhaps players can make faster progress if they start now - provided they actually know what to do and are focused on progress from the start…but that was not how it was for me when I started…and eversince I actually became more conscious of progress and how to do it a bunch of new content and modes were added, which means I am still behind.
I also have somewhat of an aversion to studying guides and charts for a game - because then it feels like a job.
I still maintain though that even now you will need to spend quite and amount of money if you really want to progress.
GAPs didn’t exist back when I started out my first account - they made a huge difference. Back then, you played like a mad person and got maybe 20-25 vault keys from the entire weekend of crazy playing; now, even with a non-optimal team (no Ironhawk, not to mention 2 or three) I get 100-150 vault keys from 5-6 GAPs, every Vault weekend, without spending crazy hours in PvP and explore. Before GAPs, it could take you months to get that one last blue orb for Zuul. Now - all you need to do is wait for Vault and play a bit more. Orbs drop like candy from vault keys. Before - you had to hope that your guild finishes all weekly events AND pray for that blue ball to drop out of the… what, maybe 4-5 small orbs you got per week. GAPs made a HUGE difference. Not to mention the diamonds, the gems, and other resources that can drop from vault keys.
But I agree with you in general - the game itself does VERY LITTLE to help new players, to actually guide them through the many troops, currencies, events, etc. You have to go outside the game for such information.
From my alt experience, and I’ve heard that the new player experience has been reworked again since then - I have to say that it’s been worse in the past but “better than it was” doesn’t mean “well”.
As an endgame player, I have no idea.
My knowledge of the game would make it hard for me to start from scratch, but someone has multiple new account play throughs, and it seems way better than when I first started.
Honestly? No. Neither for new players nor for long term players it’s very attractive after everything that happened since last summer. But in comparison it’s more attractive for new players I must admit …