5* Awakening - worthy or wait?

Hi all

i have a 5* Generic Awakening Gem burning a hole in my pocket. Question is should I use it or wait for something special/else?

Currently have Cap IW at R4 and Hyperion and Ghost and R3

Any advice is appreciated

Comments

The_Boss9

Well, he’s not Elder’s Bane. I’m honestly just curious where the gem is from. I’m surely missing something.

That’s what I was wondering lol.

LeNoirFaineant

Very few champs are worth a generic. Medusa, Archangel, Void, Omega Red, Blade, Darkhawk, Night Thrasher, Dr. Voodoo, Ghost, and Aegon are worth it.
I think the criteria for using a 5* generic are:

1. The champion must be among the strongest champions in the game. Opinions differ on which these are.

2. The champion must be way better awakened than unawakened. Champions like Archangel, Void, Blade, and Omega Red fall into this category (but not everyone would agree they all fall in the first category).

3. You intend to use that champion RIGHT NOW to do content you either can't do, or would be too expensive to do, that will immediately improve your resource earning potential. For example, you're trying to become Uncollected, fully explore Act 5, become Cavalier, or you're gearing up for LoL. Or you're trying to improve your performance in war, and your alliance focuses (to some degree) on war. Or you spend more potions than you want in AQ, and you think awakening this champ will reduce your potion burn substantially (one of the reasons Blade gets awakened a lot, and a good reason to do so).

It is usually #3 that people don't consider as much as the first two. Never awaken something with a generic or even a class gem unless you plan on using that champ immediately. If you do it just because "they are worth it" but you have no use for the champ right now, then the almighty RNGesus is going to hand you a natural dup with a crystal and make you cry. If you awaken Blade or Omega Red and become Cavalier, and a month later you pull a natural dup, you can still be happy you got all the benefits of doing that content earlier than later. It is the natural dup after awakening before the champ even got out of the garage that tends to sting.
This is solid advice. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received in this game was from Brian Grant, who said never use resources unless you need to.

So, that’s what I try to do. For example, I HAD 4/55 unawakened Medusa and Hype for months. I now have a 3/45 unawakened Corvus too, but I digress. I’ve also had a 5* cosmic awakening gem since thanksgiving.

Why haven’t I used it on one of these champs that clearly deserve it? Two reasons.

1) Medusa is better for Variant ch.3 unawakened.
2) I’ve never needed to.

The upside to this philosophy is that a week ago I naturally awakened my Hype. One down!

And I still have the gem.

I agree with this in theory. In practice, I used a mutant gem on Emma even though she doesn't need it and I used a generic on CAIW because I had 2 and was sick of holding them forever lol. I guess I try to balance the idea of not using resources unless you need to with the fact that they don't benefit you in your inventory and the desired champ may never come.

DNA3000

Very few champs are worth a generic. Medusa, Archangel, Void, Omega Red, Blade, Darkhawk, Night Thrasher, Dr. Voodoo, Ghost, and Aegon are worth it.
I think the criteria for using a 5* generic are:

1. The champion must be among the strongest champions in the game. Opinions differ on which these are.

2. The champion must be way better awakened than unawakened. Champions like Archangel, Void, Blade, and Omega Red fall into this category (but not everyone would agree they all fall in the first category).

3. You intend to use that champion RIGHT NOW to do content you either can't do, or would be too expensive to do, that will immediately improve your resource earning potential. For example, you're trying to become Uncollected, fully explore Act 5, become Cavalier, or you're gearing up for LoL. Or you're trying to improve your performance in war, and your alliance focuses (to some degree) on war. Or you spend more potions than you want in AQ, and you think awakening this champ will reduce your potion burn substantially (one of the reasons Blade gets awakened a lot, and a good reason to do so).

It is usually #3 that people don't consider as much as the first two. Never awaken something with a generic or even a class gem unless you plan on using that champ immediately. If you do it just because "they are worth it" but you have no use for the champ right now, then the almighty RNGesus is going to hand you a natural dup with a crystal and make you cry. If you awaken Blade or Omega Red and become Cavalier, and a month later you pull a natural dup, you can still be happy you got all the benefits of doing that content earlier than later. It is the natural dup after awakening before the champ even got out of the garage that tends to sting.
This is solid advice. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received in this game was from Brian Grant, who said never use resources unless you need to.

So, that’s what I try to do. For example, I HAD 4/55 unawakened Medusa and Hype for months. I now have a 3/45 unawakened Corvus too, but I digress. I’ve also had a 5* cosmic awakening gem since thanksgiving.

Why haven’t I used it on one of these champs that clearly deserve it? Two reasons.

1) Medusa is better for Variant ch.3 unawakened.
2) I’ve never needed to.

The upside to this philosophy is that a week ago I naturally awakened my Hype. One down!

And I still have the gem.
I agree with this in theory. In practice, I used a mutant gem on Emma even though she doesn't need it and I used a generic on CAIW because I had 2 and was sick of holding them forever lol. I guess I try to balance the idea of not using resources unless you need to with the fact that they don't benefit you in your inventory and the desired champ may never come.

There is this middle ground when it comes to managing rank up resources that occurs when you have at least twice as much of a resource as you need to do a particular rank up, but not overflowing yet. For example, let's say you have two (or three) T5B. If you spend those on a rank up, you will be in a position where you cannot do another such rank up for a potentially long time, because you need to save up those resources again. Conversely, if you somehow have T5B in overflow, you *have* to spend those resources because they are too valuable to simply let expire (I'm simplifying here, I know there are always exceptions to any situation).

But if you have, say, six T5B, you're in this position where you can choose to sit on those indefinitely because they aren't going anywhere, but you could also spend some on a rank 5 (or rank 2) rank up, knowing that even if you pull a fantastic champion tomorrow you still have enough to do another rank up: you haven't completely lost that opportunity. This is where things get interesting, and I think it is when you're in this situation that even if you're someone that plays obsessively efficiently, there's lots of room to do things "just for fun" without any noticeable loss in resource management efficiency.

Spending one awakening gem when you have two might be one of those situations where the awakening gem is more valuable to spend for the fun of spending it than its utility value as something that might sit in the cupboard forever gathering dust.

I must admit that it is when I'm in this no-man's land of resource management that I get the most twitchy about whether to rank something up or not.

Woody141082

Depends how many Sig stones you have, if you have plenty, do cap IW. If not do hype, he doesn't need high sig

Endarkened

No offense or anything but where’d you get a generic?

No offence taken, generic came from an in store offer. Had been away from the game for about 6 months, came back and that was an offer in store, couldn’t say no.

Again thanks for all the advice guys.

ZEN

Very few champs are worth a generic. Medusa, Archangel, Void, Omega Red, Blade, Darkhawk, Night Thrasher, Dr. Voodoo, Ghost, and Aegon are worth it.

Why haven’t I used it on one of these champs that clearly deserve it? Two reasons.

1) Medusa is better for Variant ch.3 unawakened.
2) I’ve never needed to.

The upside to this philosophy is that a week ago I naturally awakened my Hype. One down!

And I still have the gem.
Why Medusa is better unawakened for Variant ch. 3? I just R4 her and she's still unawakened and been holding my cosmic gem for almost a year now...lol Would probably start Variant Ch 3.

The_Boss9

No offense or anything but where’d you get a generic?
No offence taken, generic came from an in store offer. Had been away from the game for about 6 months, came back and that was an offer in store, couldn’t say no.

Again thanks for all the advice guys.

Got it. Well I’d throw it to omega red all day if I were you.

Endarkened

No offense or anything but where’d you get a generic?
No offence taken, generic came from an in store offer. Had been away from the game for about 6 months, came back and that was an offer in store, couldn’t say no.

Again thanks for all the advice guys.
Got it. Well I’d throw it to omega red all day if I were you.

Cheers, well i've awakened OR, and definitely pleased with the result. Just waiting on Item use event before i sink all my sig stones in