ERA and spending feedback

Dear CG:

Thanks for putting out the details for Hate Fueled Maul. While, I wish this would have been at the start of the ERA, now is far better than later.  Now that we are about 5 weeks into the ERA here is my feedback.

About Me: I've been a spender for sometime, a lot of LSB bloat on my account. I have moved into end game and I've been buying the $30 and $75 packs for new characters to unlock right away. I appreciate the benefits of getting them into my roster promptly.  

ERA isolation: I appreciate your position that you want everyone to enjoy the new characters right away. It sounded like a great idea.  However, in practice this just doesn't really work. I realize part of that is because this first 3 month ERA is a hodge podge of units for other teams with no synergy and so this doesn't show in coliseum at all.  I get the pay to win mechanic seems like an important revenue generator and to facilitate faster access to R10, it seems an ok mechanic.

ERA Challenges: I preferred the old GC format, there was thought and challenge in them to figure out how to use your roster to solve.  While many old GCs were outside my roster at times, at least it stimulated strategy and Theorycraft which was fun.  Current format for Era challenges doesn't do any of that and when limited to ERA units will always be subpar experience as you will only be figuring out a limited amount of mechanics.

Relic Delta: I get the need for this, overall I think it was done reasonably well. I'm concerned about how fast relic levels come on board given the sheer volume of characters in the game. Hopefully, I'm not relic delta out of the game, my guess is over time I'll just have to settle into a lower level of Kyber because R11/12 will be too expensive to keep up with. Though frankly I suspect I'll just fall further behind the real end game players.

Whaling Experience: I'm no Kracken, but, you are about to kill the amount I spend on this game. Spending to get R10 mats is a reasonably concept.  It certainly makes sense that you get faster R10 mats if spending and there are a couple of ways you facilitate that, none of which I have an issue with.  What has killed it, it's either Kracken level spending or no spending on ERAs in my opinion.  Here's why.

1. To get 7 star maul (need for a R7 which is the only function relic level at my point in the game) means I have to take 6 characters to Era lv 85.  This is going to require more spending than the past release methodology where I'd spend more reasonably on relic mats and farm them as I went.  If I don't get him in the Era I'm in for some unclear amount of wait time.
2. If I'm not going to get the journey character with the Era, then (more so in cases where the journey character goes with Era characters) I don't need to exit the era with 7-star marque characters. I have time to farm.  
3. If I don't need 7 star marques, I don't need to buy those marque packs anymore.
4. Now I'm sure you'll find a way to delay farming to try to force me back to getting marques at 7. Here's the think, I didn't mind whaling at $250 a month on a game.  But, if to keep the same cadence I did before (unlocking Legendary journey guide characters to R7 within the first week) I now have to spend $1,000 a month average - not going to happen. The additional R10 mats don't justify the additional level of spending.  
5. Not sure where your going with this, but, it looks like you are creating a huge cap between Krackens and everyone else.  At the same time, the gap between Whales and dolphins is shrinking, as is the gap between dolphins and FTP.  This path looks more and more like the game will no longer be worth spending as a whale or dolphin and I'm not going full on Kracken.
6. While you made a number of relic materials easier to obtain, no improvement to relic pack pricing. No additional materials added to packs and no pricing decreases and so the value of what you get out of relic packs as dropped notably further discouraging the use of real $.

Since I made the mistaken of buying some Era material packs already, not sure what I'll do to finish off this ERA. I'll at least get the 7 star maul since I was halfway there by the time the rest of the picture came to light. Not sure, I'll spend to get to era 95, probably not.

In summary, feels like all the "justification" we heard for the ERA system was designed to force more Kracken level spending than creating an amazing player experience.  I wish you luck with that methodology, my spending will drop after this era if not sooner.  In fact, if I can't keep up with the cadence I had before I struggle to find a reason to spend at all.