So I’m new (on Switch) and jumping in as much as I can … but I want to be clear on things …
There’s no way I’m ever going to get anywhere with any special game mode or event rewards (class events, pet rescue, rift boss, etc.) until I’m like level 200 with several dozen high level, heavily synchronized teams from each kingdom, right? LOL
I just want to make sure that I’m not wasting my time. 
Because right now any time I try those game modes, I never … get … anywhere.
Yes, you’re mostly right, though the rabbit hole’s deeper than you estimated, haha. I’m not trying to scare you away, but GoW is a game that wants players who play for years, not months. So some long-term goals take more than 6 months!
Levels 400, 800, and 1000 are probably the points at which you’re most likely to see “big” progress in events. That’s not as scary as it sounds, though!
Part of it is because leveling is relatively fast until you hit 1000. The XP it takes me to move from level 1261 to 1262 is probably enough to move you from level 50 to 300 or further. But we’re more or less getting the same XP! I can’t remember exactly but I think I was gaining more than 3-5 levels per day when I first started playing.
The other part of it is past about level 200 these things happen:
These things mean your troops start getting as strong than your hero. The more troops you pull, the more likely you have good ones. Between 200 and 400 is when most people tend to get their first pretty good team. Between 400 and 800 is when most people finish off their first “really good” team. By 1000, they’re starting to focus on precisely what they’re missing. This is probably even faster now. When I climbed that ladder, we didn’t have Soulforge so you couldn’t craft a mythic or legendary at all.
So that’s my last thing to keep in mind: getting troops in this game is almost entirely based on luck. That means I can’t tell you exactly when you’ll be “strong”. I can name the teams that are strong, and you can do some minor things that increase your chances of getting to some of those teams, but for the most part “early game” is waiting on the chests to give you a powerful troop.
For some people that’s really cool. They stick around for years. Other people get really grouchy about it. If that’s you, cut your losses now and find a game that makes you smile. For the people who get grouchy about luck, GoW is a grouch factory haha.
For right now, seek out how to get the hero weapon Mang. I forget the exact numbers, but you get it for reaching a certain gem mastery level (the color boosts you pick every hero level). Mang is one of a set of weapons that is always good in events. It’s one of the worst in the set, but I still consider it almost every week! Why is it so good?
It destroys the enemy’s armor and adds how much it destroys to your hero’s attack. By “destroys” I mean that armor goes to 0, end of story. It doesn’t care if they have barrier. Hard events have opponents with armor way above 100, that means one hit with Mang adds more than 100 attack to your hero! When you combine this with things like Hunter’s Mark, your hero can be hitting for 300 or more damage per skull hit. So that’s the funny thing about Mang: the stronger the enemies are, the stronger it gets.
Keep your eye out every event for other weapons with “destroy an enemy’s armor”. We haven’t had one in a while, but they tend to be the most powerful weapons because most events scale enemy stats. It’s not so good for PvP, but then that’s not what you were asking about!
That’s some great advice, Slyp! Thanks!
I don’t mind long haul games. I get them and I know that they take some time. I just got a little frustrated when there are all these events coming at me from every direction, but I can’t actually get anywhere with them. 
Maybe I should just focus on finishing kingdoms and PVP and pretty much leave the rest of the stuff alone for now.
Just approaching level 70.
Focus on getting into a good guild, too!
The difference between no guild (or one with only a few people) and a 30-person active guild that meets all goals is literally hundreds of keys and gems per week. It’s also the difference between “it took me a year to…” and “it took me six weeks to…”.
I feel like I’ve got a pretty good one. I don’t really have anything to compare it to though. LOL
We’ve got 26 members now, and that’s gone up quite a bit from when I started. We’ve hit Chest level 5(?) this week … whatever the level just below the highest is.
They’ve been pretty handy with getting extra stuff.
One thing, for me at least, in games like GoW that is essential is setting myself small goals. Something that I can work towards that is in reach so I never feel like I’m floundering.
At the start a good goal is to unlock all Kingdoms. Then do each Kingdom’s quest line (this also unlocks all the hero classes). And get them all leveled up (this takes a good bit of gold, so you’ll need to do PVP). Then work through all the “challenges” which opens up explore. Head to the underworld and unlock all the Factions and do their quests. Use your shards at a faction until you get at least one of each troop.
Level and trait troops you want to use. If you like your team and not sure where to use your souls/traitstones, you can look at getting the Kingdom power levels up (requirements: Kingdom Power Requirements (Now Up to 20 Stars))
Incremental progression is everything. Even at level 1172 I’m still setting goals for myself. Next for me is getting all hero classes to Champion Level 40 to unlock 5 of 7 traits while also converting all my ingots to Ultra-Rare to level up blue weapons.
I hear that @Rasper. I started out doing pretty much just that.
I’ve got a team that’s been working for me … Crude Club, Cockatrice (for Mana Drain), Dwarf Lord, and Boar Rider … all leveled to max and two of them with all traits unlocked (Rider is ascended once too). Recently I switched the Dwarf Lord out for a Wight so that I can earn some extra souls.
The hiccup comes in that each week seems to bring new events and game modes, etc. all with their own special prizes and such. I fear that if I don’t try to get them while they’re here, I might miss out something I’ll wish I had later. But the more I try, the more I realize that I don’t have a shot in anything to ever actually GET any of the prizes from those things.
So I guess I’ll just focus on the smaller stuff and PVP for now, and let the other stuff come as it will.
Exactly so. Do what you can as you can (daily delves, daily dungeons, pet rescues when they pop up) and don’t sweat the stuff you can’t do yet. And, above all, enjoy your time. If it ever starts feeling like work or a grind or stressful that you can’t do xyz, take a step back.
That’s the kind of stuff I’m frustrated with though. I can’t do ANY of these things, even at level 65.
Like Pet Rescues … every time I try one, I can barely finish one battle, let alone the 10 (or whatever) that it wants me to.
Same goes with Dungeons.
Am I supposed to be able to do these? If not, at what level should I reasonably have a shot at them?
Honestly, I’m not sure what the lower bound is. They were all introduced to the game way after I was strong enough to blitz through them. Getting all Kingdoms to level 10 (this takes over 100k gold per kingdom I think) will give you a boost to stats. Beyond that, just keep leveling up, spending your keys, etc. Give the events a try now and again to test, but don’t let it discourage you if you can’t do it yet. You’ll get there.
work on getting the thief class wepaon, the skeleton key. then you will be able to blow through some content pretty easily and quickly. like daily dungeons, pet battles and pvp
The classes have different weapons now too?! lol
yeah, you get them by getting 250 wins with the respective class equipped