I made an account just to comment on this. I think the removal of dogface and mandrake (and gammond to an extent) as cheap and easy frag source is unhealthy for two reasons:
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These are crucial heroes for just getting through the campaign, as well as playing mid-level pvp, since it’s an absolute mess with flatline/ifrit combos autoing through them. It’s very alienating to players who havent got the money to buy these heroes via crates or buy enough stamina to keep up. It costs something like 16 stamina to farm one mandrake frag, and that’s pretty hefty. This just means that now there’s going to be a larger gap between paying and free players, which is inherently bad for the overall health of the game. As paying players leave, you wont have enough player count to support development fees. I think the placement of the two heroes in their respective shops are absolutely critical for the longevity of the game.
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disruption to resource farming is a very healthy change often times, but i think this will have a negative impact on spending patterns of already paying players. Ever since caine’s release and the extremely short amount of time we received from new hero to bounty event, I actually started spending LESS because the events were starting to feel more like money grabs rather than something that was intended to enhance player experience. I will spend money if I enjoy the game and I feel good about supporting the developers, but I will not spend money for the sake of just spending money. I think you will create spending fatigue with the mid-level paying player base, which I assume is about 30-40% of your bottom line. You’re gambling a huge portion of your profit in the hope that players who used to farm heronium with those champions are going to spend gold to farm the same amount - the alternative is that they will stop spending, which is a serious consequence for such a delicate business model of mobile gaming. I’m guessing about 1-2% of total player base make up the 90% of income (it’s an educated guess from general mobile gaming stats), so this seems risky to me.
I’m vip14, so yes I consider myself a big spender, but this may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for a significant playerbase. When the mid-level spenders stop spending, content quality and competitive events will soon deteriorate. If i was really desperate for heronium, i’ll probably just focus on one elemental frag instead of buying crates if I see that this is the direction the game continues to take. I really want to see this game grow, so I’m going to also put in a request that dogface and mandrake and gammond all stat exactly where they are. I hope I didnt sound too critical of the decision, but at the same time I hope I made it absolutely clear why I think this change needs to be looked over again.