This kind of topic is like a coin, PC/Mobile is Heads (The ones to think up the ideas and set them in motion), and the Consoles are Tails (The ones to follow behind but not always stick to the same straight path).
You can pick either side to be the winner, but it’s a personal choice and there’s no real right answer.
So I say, pick your side, flip the coin, and hope you come out on top!
Thank you for clarifications! I understand your points, no probs. Well if I would have preferred that pvp farming traitstone would be possible, its simply because while im doing challenges, I dont earn trophies for my guild. lol but again, your points are fine…and its your game after all. A very nice game that i enjoy a lot i can add.
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?
I’m going to have to correct you here. I have been grinding almost exclusively for trait stones for over 100 levels, and 3 class weapons. That’s at least 750 fights. I’ve earned MAYBE 6 arcane traitstones. The grind is far far worse than you make it out. Keep in mind that yes is a 2ish % chance, but it’s a 2ish % chance each game! There is no cumulative effect.
The only reason I have all the troops I have and all the mythic troops is because I’m in a guild that earns so many keys that I have literally spent over 10,000 since 1.09.
The grind for souls is hard enough, yet manageable, the grind for traits feels impossible.
The thing about grinding in these types of games is it’s just an extension of patience. Any game where it’s designed to be played for at least a year requires patience. The fact that society has made itself collectively ADD is why P2W games exist, to take advantage of people’s impatience.
I like the slower pace these games provide, but with that being said, the Arcane stone drop rate COULD be increased and it won’t harm the game. You can probably double it and people will still not have everything Traited for a long time.
I agree as much as is humanly possible.
Since we dont use majors as much, its too bad that majors+ match the use needed. 
Although I don’t have a solution to share with you, I’ll say that on the development side we ABSOLUTELY understand this problem. When dealing with in-game economies, the general way to implement things is to introduce things such that you assume players won’t reasonably be able to reach the upper echelons - and then tune things down when those assumptions are validated.
On my personal account - I have VERY FEW troops with 3 traits. I have about 40 troops with 1, about 15 with 2 and about 5 troops with 3 traits - and most of those are Rares. I encourage folks to be selective about their traits - only get traits that really matter. For example, I’m playing with a new “Beast” team, where all 4 beasts on the team has “Beast Bond” as their first trait.
As time moves forward, the economy will become softer - treasure maps on PC/mobile now give a random traitstone for ever 15 moves you make - so that’s another fun source. Don’t look at the current numbers and assume that the rates won’t change - we’re absolutely softening things over time, as we work the kinks out of the system.
Infinity Plus Two is taking the lead on tackling these issues - the console side trails behind by a couple months. But there is a LOT of content for you to work through before you need to start thinking about being a trait completionist.
I absolutely agree. I have several Teams and Troops I use almost exclusively. Those Troops get priority over every other Troop for Traits.
Arcane Traitstones are really rare, you HAVE to be careful and not use them on anything you won’t be using a lot. Otherwise, you essentially wasted them.
Even on troops I use a ton… I often just skip the traits.
I like that Epic characters have become much stronger in general - but their traits are often too expensive for me to consider. On the other hand, a lot of Rare and Ultra-Rare characters can be given 3 traits pretty quickly, which makes them much more attractive.
So at the end of the day, I have more cards that seem worthwhile to put into my teams. That’s a win.
My Goblin Team is a good example to use;
Boar Rider
Goblin Rocket*
Goblin Shaman**
Goblin***
Goblin Rocket’s first Trait is Fire Link, great to get him charged fast. His other two Traits are Fireproof and Ablaze, ones I will not be getting for a long time since they don’t really play into how I use him.
Boar Rider on the other hand, I want nothing to do with his Traits (for now). None of them are compatible with how I use him currently.
Goblin’s third Trait, Nature Link was a high priority for me. I spent my only Arcane Stealth Stone as soon as I got it.
Well his second trait ups his defense a bit which would help somewhat since you have him in the lead position, but it isn’t urgent.
I agree, maybe in the future, but not now.
I have the whole Team ascended to Legendary and leveled to 19, so the +3 Armor is quite negligible at the moment and not worth the Traitstones it would cost when I have other urgent Green and/or Purple Troops to upgrade.
Agreed.
My problem is that I’ve always liked creating and playing many different 3/4 legendary teams, so it’s hard for me to choose which legendaries to focus on.
I got lucky. My Main Team pre-Patch was 4 Legendaries and I was able to Mythic 3 of them. It’s been even more powerful since the Update (something I never thought was possible) and they get my first priority until either my Team becomes ineffective or I get bored.
Lv. 20 Celestasia** (NEED that third Trait sooooooo bad)
Lv. 20 Gorgotha
Lv. 20 Bone Dragon**
Lv. 19 Sheggra*
using the Khaziel banner because once you charge Gorgotha, it’s game over.
Suggest switching goblin and boar rider around. Allow green mana overflows to fill boar rider while goblin quickly targets the enemy’s biggest threat.
I’ve done that now that I have them leveled to 19. At 15 Goblin was a little too squishy
Anyone else having trouble keeping their Minors up?
I have TONS of Majors, those aren’t a problem. However, I struggle to keep Minor numbers up, they are always very comparable to Runics.
In order of frequency, I see Stones drop;
I see that list go the exact same way! Even more annoying than the major/minor thing to me is the celestial/arcane thing!
I may have the problem, do you open many gold chests?
I don’t, all my Gold goes to leveling Kingdoms with a little bit going to my Guild. I’m opening 2-3x more Glory/Gem chests than Gold. Would explain all the Majors and Runics compared to Minors.