Star wars galaxy of heroes: gear drop rate

So Nils... according to you if I spend enough energy/crystals/money to get any of the "random" drops the game provides, eventually I would have a whoop of stuff dropping by... right? So.. if you don't mind, would you give us a clue as where that turnover point is? Are we talking millions... trillions? Shall we put it on a parsec scale? If I where spending at a  lightspeed rate... how many lives would I need to seat through?

I just spend 188 energy (both cantina and battle) to get ONE shard for the Jedi consular. And that's supposedly one of the "common" characters...

my Imperial guard is still a two stars character because I just got fed up trying to upgrade...

....what about those gear pieces you need 20 of each to craft... and you need four of those to craft the part you need to fill the gear slot... and when you get at it, after 24 missions (I used my sim chips) (never mind if it where 6, 8, 10 or 12 energy) I got two.... TWO.....? So that means I'll need how many missions to get 18 more? For the one.... and then repeat three more times? 

And what about the data cards? I've making the daily 5k coins on rewards plus whatever else mission drops.. that's a minimum of 20 bronze cards a day.. I did notice that the more you get in one go, the more "generous" the system gets.. so I usually do it only every two or three days (tried the once a week thing.. that was like an hour of just taping the "buy card" button...) so... after all that "drop rate improvement" guess how many full characters I got out of that?.. you're right, just ONE. Ashoka. Which made me happy at the time, only till I actually tried to level her up and put it with the big dogs... an ewok with one less star and a gear tier has more power... and Ashoka has four levels more... so much for that..

what of those pieces of gear that I got 30+, 40+ (there's one I got 63 pieces).... what's that about? Is that what you mean by who's of stuff?

....and I know it's the wrong thread for this one.. but if you have the answer for any of the above you may as well know this one....

what about the "challenging" factor....??? How on earth I'm supposed to beat with an average party level 52, blue and purple gear, 3/4 stars.. a full on level 70 minimum 5stars all purple gear party...? My best party didn't even make it pass the first round of beating... nevermind the rest of the cannon fodder that will never make it pass 2stars (and not because I didn't tried)

So, Neil... or whoever is there.... any help?

or you're just there to make sure no one post dirty Ashoka pictures?

may the force be with you.