How hard is it really to make DE at th7?

Hello, still new but slightly further along today. I started TH7 on saturday night, after a 8hr raiding marathon that actually started as a "wall upgrade push". I have been wondering about how the best way to go about getting the DE needed for things like minions lvl2, and BK up to lvl5.



I have read alot of guides here and such, but Im worried I lack the skill to be able to even put a scratch onto a th9-10's outside perimeter.



All the guides say to hunt DE in gold. I have to stay in silver right now as th6, as an attack on even a TH7 results in either an epic fail, or an intense revenge that I just cant defend against. I dont see how one th upgrade is gonna make me competitive against th9-10. Seriously its like ants picking on a fortress, my troops all die with one th9-10 mortar round. Id never break into the core of those bases where the DE storages and drills are usually at!!!!



Unless th7 gives me some really tide-turning army units, Ill break down and just buy the BK. I WILL NOT lightning anybody's DE storages (UNLESS I am lightning'd 1st, then where I am on 12hrs nightly w/only a personal break once, Ill watch and I will wear the revenge button out for a couple of hours a night until until I catch whoever did it offline and unshielded when they have almost enough DE for an upgrade, and Ill blow it all to pieces with 3 lvl4 lightnings just to let them know how it feels). I have some TH9's in my clan I see replays from, and I myself think its a chicken-♥♥♥♥ way of getting it. Id rather buy the DE than resort to lightning. I am very patient and seriously diligent with my revenges, Im very good at catching ppl online and revenging them the instant they log off for anything, so much that I actually expect a few hate replys due to all the people I have done it to. :mad:



Anyways, the only real thing I can think of that may help, is the "rage" spell (if i even get that at th7). Hopefully it helps tons more than lvl4 troops, I still dont ever see me being able to take a th9 or th10, its IMPOSSIBLE lol!!!

I am omitting minions, due to the fact they arent possible if I cant effectively raid DE lol. In alot of ways, I am almost where I would rather wait until TH8 to even build a DE storage, but ill have to have it to get a BK. I guess I can put it outside unprotected once i dont need it anymore so ppl can just take it and leave me alone.

Ill report back once I find out if this is just alot of scare tactics (ive had a bunch of very high league people tell me to cancel my th7 now while I can, or to "just give up because you are really bad", "yea you already too far to fix", but im not gonna give up just yet, I still have a few things I want to try before throwing in the towel for good! Like I say, If I get myself into a helpless spot with loot, I can afford a few chest of gems to help me out ;)


My progress since jan4 (not bought a gem yet; only ones Ive used were the free ones):

http://i59.tinypic.com/2ujmtcw.png

Farm!
http://i57.tinypic.com/j0jseu.png


*This has been a good design for me as I have it leveled, I recommend it to anyone in need of a decent TH6 base! Im gonna try to get the 3mil gold tonight to finish maxing my walls to lvl6 before TH7 is done upgrading.

honestly it isn't that hard, but u will need lvl 4 troops. id say have all lvl 4 spells, lvl 4 archers,barbs, and wall breakers and lvl 2 drags and ur good to go. I got my BK to lvl 5 and hogs and minions to lvl 2 at TH7 and I didn't lightning (I only lightninged for BK lvl 1, but nvr lightninged after that). what I did was go to gold 1 and use barch (80 barbs, 104 archers, 8 WB) and went for any rather-exposed DE storages that offered at least 1K DE or drills that offered like at least 500 DE. this worked pretty well, threw in a couple mass drag raids for fun and I got my BK lvl2-5 and lvl 2 minions and hogs in a month (focusing only on DE, maxed TH7 def (and attack), no CC troops, king). its quite simple, just time consuming. since ur patient, it should be a piece of cake. I also played about 2-3 hours a day. weekends were chopped up, weekdays were in-a-row.

Rage + dragons can pretty easily take DE from TH8s and even TH9s. Early in any TH is tough, give it some time.

So rage works on air troops too? Sounds nice! Should I wait until I am almost ready to go th8 before going full-on DE hunting? The reason I dont really like the idea of the DE storage at early th7, is where its pretty much a "lightning-rod one-troop target", I can imagine all the 6 second defenses Ill get from people only lightning my storage flat, along with constantly getting pushed up in trophys until im at a point a real strong TH comes along and crushes me for fun.

I know that I might make a little DE while farming the gold and elixir ill need to max my base/troops, but is it worth having a DE storage built before I am really focusing on DE? If building one creates enough extra havoc to impact my normal elixir and gold raiding, Ill wait lol. I get along good using the th outside method, rarely does a strong th get the chance to raid me before a sniper gets my th and shields me. I won't like it if everyone starts going after my core as well just because DE is there.

I am used to raiding only TH's below me; A lot of times I avoid other th6's, just because they have healing methods at their disposal. I learned early on not to mess with th7+ if you are below them. I will likely use the same tactic as th7, to max my base so DE probably wont even be a factor until I start aggressively raiding for it. Its just the base I have picked out, has a chambered spot for a DE storage and a BK lol, I guess ill just put a couple of gold mines there until I get them :p