The other face of clash of clans that you dont know
First let me introduce myself, I'm a clash of clans player for around 1 year and 2 months.
I started playing this game after a friends recommendation, and I am a strategy game fan that grew up in the era of Command and Conquer game "Red Alert". When i started clash of clans, i was impressed by the graphics, the chat, and great features inside specially the idea of clans and raiding other real players through a mobile device.
It didn't took me a lot of time to realize that the key to max your village faster is by having 5 builders, so 5 or 6 days after starting, i decided to buy all of the builders at once.
After having my 5 builders working, i couldn't stop raiding and gathering resources, and walls was the only place to spend the extra amounts that remained.
2 months after, it was Christmas 2013, and SC offered the 1 gem boost for everything (seemed nice) so i grabbed a bag of gems for $10 knowing that loot will be much better and it was the holidays time so free time = more time to play. I can still remember that day where my th8 upgrade was done, and i had the mission of finishing skull walls (FYI: I maxed th7 before upgrading). I started playing around 12 to 16 hours daily on boost ( I always kept a free builder for walls)
7 days after, i completed skull walls and by new years eve, my storage was full, and loot was going really crazy, so i decided to upgrade to th9 so i can keep doing walls. So i decided now to get a box of gems, and i gemed my th9 instantaneously and kept farming Lego walls. ( i was really enjoying the game in that time )
few days later, the 1 gem boost was over, I was a th9 with a maxed th7 defense, finished skull walls and had few Lego walls. Sadly, after the 1 gem boost was over, i started feeling that this game is slow, and loot wasn't as good as it was, so i kept boosting my barracks all the time and i wasn't able to play without boosting after that.
Boosting is not for free in this game, but i kept playing for 10 hours daily on boost, and i farmed Lego walls in 1 months, and done my lava walls in 3 months and i decided to go th10 (By that time my defense was getting stronger )
Now that I was th 10, loot was getting really bad, the walls cost was heavy, the defense cost was very high, and i needed to play for 8 hours on boost to fill my storage ( average 1 Million per hour of each)
I kept pumping gems for boosting and rarely when i filled my DE storage and my heroes was both upgrading, i gemed the time remaining for a hero ( 1 or 2 days maximum )
It took me 6 months (in Th 10) playing 6 days a week 8 hours a day on average to reach this.
Now i have maxed my heroes, and i have 39 walls left to zap, i payed around a 1000$ for boosting (Btw: i don't regret any penny i spent because i enjoyed my time for a year and a 1000$ for that time of enjoyment is considered very low )
In my late th10 stages, i started making friends with high cups players, trying to make some friends in the top players list, and it was easy since i had a great profile, and i was almost online all the time, but the deeper i got to know those guys, the more i was surprised to know how it is up there and how much money is involved.
Being an active player for more than a year and spending a 1000$ was not enough to get me anywhere.
After M1 league, winning a defense is almost impossible no matter how maxed your village is and the only way for you to reach the top global list is by going offense and forgetting about defense ( more than 1 year upgrading your village gone for nothing )
When i say offense, its not barching or Baming or giants and goblins, I'm talking heavy troops and class A formations ( Gowiwi, Gowipe, Gowiwipe, LavaLoonions with 5 maxed spells and both heroes up )
The minimum time normally needed for any of the formations above is more than 3 hours for a single raid so you must boost your barracks, spell factory, heroes and you must gem your spells always because heroes and troops are ready way before your spells are done. By using gems, you will be able to lower the time required for each raid for around 40 minutes (on boost)
After you are done with paying for troops comes the matchmaking and the trophies system. the higher you get, the lower the trophies you can win and the higher the cups you lose for losing. and the current system is way unfair where starting from 3400 and above you almost get 1 cup for winning and you lose 39 for losing. so imagine it like this all the way up to 4500 cup !
This will change the concept of the game from (the better wins) to (You get as much as you pay).
When I'm talking about paying in champs league, I'm saying a minimum of 200$ weekly without losing any single raid. And those numbers are from top players in this game. but how many can afford this amount on a weekly basis and living under the pressure in every raid where losing a raid will cost you a month of playing and a thousand dollars to get back.
I think that Ive been playing this game for a long time and it took me a lot of time and money (And i don't regret it) to realize this ugly truth. and i wanted to share my experience with you specially the new players here that keeps opening the top players list and saying that one day i will be there.
This is the other face of clash of clans that most of you here don't know :)
Edit: I liked to add this link to project the future of your progress by giving you some important info about the time remaining and the amount you can pay to do it.
http://clashofclans.wikia.com/wiki/Cumulative_Costs
