So, one of the things I’ve noticed since putting together a farm team has become a large part of the game for me: I no longer visit the Arena. At all. It used to be a primary source of Gold and Souls, and I had a bit of fun trying out troops I didn’t own, all at level 10. But now, it’s far more efficient to just play anything revolving around Alchemist and Valkyrie in PVP. I get more Gold, more Souls, and Glory at the same time. And the thing is, I’m probably not the only one.
So, I see the Arena as an Opportunity. There’s nothing wrong with it per se, but there are just far better uses of time.
So, this game has another Opportunity as well: the Trait Stone system is a brilliant idea, and I really think it adds depth to all the existing characters, and gives people a reason to keep playing after they have a 4-monster team at level 15 they like. The Opportunity I see here, is that the Trait Stones drop as loot at a rate that is prohibitively slow, simply due to there being so many types. If there were only six, one for each element, it would be too fast, so I can see why that decision was made, but some of them seem to only drop from paid chests (which yes, I get that this is a business and you guys like money from mirotransactions, but not all of us have disposable scratch to drop).
So I think a fair solution would be to smash these two opportunities together. Allow people to compete in the Arena for Trait Stones. Since there are five levels of stones, we start at the top of the list, someone who gets through all eight levels of Arena deserves their pick of Trait Stone, all the way up to Celestial. Getting knocked out after 7 wins earns you a single Arcane of your choice, 6 wins gets your choice of Runic, 5 gets you Major, and getting halfway through the Arena lets you pick a Minor. Any level of victory you achieve, you can also use to pick up a stone of a lower level if you wish.
This way, since the costs of giving your troops Traits is still multiple stones of multiple colors and qualities, people will still probably not hit the Arena exclusively for their stone resource (although it’s sure possible it will happen). This is more intended for that one stone that has eluded your best efforts for a few weeks that you need to finish a key piece of your army, whether you need a Celestial to cry havoc, or if you just can’t pull a Major Arcane to save your bacon.
Let’s save both the Arena and our collective sanity at the same time.
