Well, I finally can't resist having a good moan on this topic! I agree that the incidence of Spire Mystery Chests is unbalanced not only on a player-to-player basis, but also in terms of the type of Chest which spawns, if any do at all (I've had a few zero-Chest weeks). I once actually kept records of my Spire results, for around six months, and over 90% of the Chests were Blue, with even those appearing during that time occurring at the average rate of fewer than three per Spire (and nothing's noticeably changed since I grew bored with the record-keeping endeavour and gave it up).
Also, according to Forum Spire wisdom, I must be due up the world's longest and best lucky streak in the Spire.
Since it was introduced, I have won:
- A TOTAL of eight Dwarven Armourers (which I need only for - you guessed it - the Spire, since I can manage the Tournament alone without them);
- A TOTAL of five Genies (which return about as many Diamonds as I spend on winning them - too many Diplomacy re-tries are too Resource-costly);
- Uncounted (but at least a dozen) Trading Stations, which I don't use and immediately Disenchant because even looking at them annoys me;
- A TOTAL of four Magic Residences;
- A total of ZERO Magic Workshops;
- A total of ONE actually useful (to me) Artifact (but up to SIX of those types I actively don't want - although 1-3 of each type is my overall average);
- Not enough Fragments even to fully support my Crafting (yes, I know, this is mathematically probable/inevitable, but still, it's annoying);
- About as many Time Boosters as I spend, mostly on Crafting (50/50 for utility reasons / in order to gain more chances at the Mystery Object) and on rushing the Spire itself (yes, the irony is there) to make it align with my (also below-average in number) 5-day Combat Boosters and limited online time, as well as speeding up Troops and Goods manufacture - often, and just as ironically, in order to recoup Spire-caused losses of same;
- Many Portal Profits, which I rarely use because I prefer to play slowly, so I now have a large stockpile (the PPs from Bosses are
hateful!); and
- A giant pile of Coin Rains (my least-valuable Resource) and Supply Instants (at least those help to pay for the Troops lost in winning them... grrr).
When the Spire Chests, including the Blue type, used to contain parts of the Moonstone Set, I did win enough Moonstone Set pieces, in particular, to make it true - for me - that the Spire
as a whole was
just about worth the effort I put in, which has been consistently to complete two floors per week, with the odd week of completing all three floors in support of Fellowship 'Gold Spire push weeks' (maybe once per 5-6 weeks). NB : In advance of the predictable objection that therein lies my problem/mistake (i.e. not completing all three floors every week), may I just mention that I find this to be unsustainable because most full completions of the Spire cost me more Troops than I can replace in a week and/or more Goods/Resources than I can replace in
over a week (plus : not a single 'best' [in my opinion] prize yet from Floor 3 Boss). However, now that Blue Chests contain [at best, IMO] 3 x Combining Catalysts, my overall Spire rewards are without doubt heavily outweighed by the cost and effort of earning them.
I do own one Magic Workshop and more than four Magic Residences, but those extras have been bought using Diamonds won from the Crafting Mystery Object. My average performance on this front was formerly near enough exactly on the mathematical average (and I Craft a lot, so I've stockpiled a few thousand Diamonds that way), although I'm naturally going to add to the general bonhomie and good cheer of this post by also bringing up the recent overall 45% nerf to the future chances of my continuing to win decent amounts of Diamonds in this way... oh, happy days!
/s
On top of all this, I find Combat in Elvenar to be exceedingly dull (and that's being polite), so I don't even enjoy the actual process of Spire attempts.
@Aisling1 : I share your view on the very high cost of the Spire. I'm also personally a little weary of hearing, both here and in-game, about (a) other players' lucky Spire wins (saintly, I'm not) - and/or (b) how I only need to wait for my own 'lucky streak' to make up for my apparently (?) permanent run of what must surely be, if this Forum is an accurate reflection of the average player's Spire RNG experience
*, truly legendary
bad abysmal luck.
* ... which I doubt; I'd say most average (i.e. non-Fourm-visiting) players lack the knowledge, time, Combat skill, and/or Resources to do much Spire at all.
I'm currently in early Halflings, so perhaps I will find the Spire more feasible - and thus more rewarding - when I finally acquire the full range of 3* Troops and/or when I have played for so long that I manage to accrue the kind of Goods stockpiles (in the multi-millions) of which many late-game Spire aficionados speak. But until then, I must say that I absolutely hate the Spire - and back on-topic, if I see one more Blue Chest, I will probably scream (if anyone's still reading this, I see a Gold or Purple Chest maybe once every two weeks - and of those, the majority give me yet another PP).
All in all : from my own 'Bah, Humbug!' perspective, and notwithstanding the consequent loss of Time Boosters and Fragments (and a few Diamonds) which would result, the Spire's welcome to immediately disappear back to FoE - and stay there, this time!