Shard Slumps

I have been experiencing far more frequent and longer shard slumps then ever before. I am literally getting 0-1 shard per day for the characters I'm farming and that's just not cool. For example: I've been farming Jolee Bindo for over 2 months now and I just barely got him to 4*. It will take me (based on averages) almost an entire calendar year to get him to 7*. That's ridiculous. Among the frustration of shard slumps, Grand Arena matchups have been impossible for me as a collector style player. Every opponent I'm matched up with has had at least 50 g12 toons. I have 3. It seems that me wanting to progress my characters has negatively impacted my Grand Arena abilities which is also frustrating. This game is becoming more and more difficult to keep playing. I'm not spending any credit's anymore in fear of getting too high of GP, I'm not getting the shards needed to make a viable stand in this game, well at least not in an semi-acceptable timeframe. I just feel like my style of playing is being punished and repramanded just for loving the game itself. I imagine I won't be playing it much longer if this trend of shard stinginess continues. Something has to give or I'm outta here.