To many times I see someone post "this event is a money grab, you only can get the ... with spending gems, its only for p2p or p2w players".
Then I always think lets look at the event. Most events need gems to finish but using gems can be done by saving gems, you dont have to buy them.
Is it really so strange that you have to use gems to get a new legendary monster?
I dont play to many other games so i cant really compare but I believe that every game that uses an in-game currency that's harder to get uses this to get the better items.
There always 2 ways get this currency the easy way (and all companies wants you to use that one because they want to make a profit)buy it with real money or do tasks to get it and save up till you have enough.
So back to the events, as long time player there was a time you could get all without using gems but I understand that they have changed that, dont get me wrong I like getting all without spending gems ;). Because I went from f2p to p2p and back to f2p again I take a good look at every event and if its worth spending my gems on and some are and some aren't. so for example the Ingenica event, I think its a nice event a worth spending my saved gems on i will try to get her. The other event: Dr Victor's Patrons Is this worth spending gems? in my opinion not, I will probably reach the second node because I have enough gold to buy all rares and I will buy some cells of legendaries I want anyway.

My Conclusion, take a good look at every event make up your mind if its worth your gems, but as long if as you can finish the event with gems it its not p2p.

Yes i do agree monster legends is never a f2p thing and ik its unfair for some players but there are quite a lot of good monsters nemesis are really good but when we take a deep Analysis on all the monsters that cost gems they can compete too

@Sadduo I dont think you understand what I mean thats maybe because of English is not my first language but I mean that if you have to spend gems on an event then that doesnt mean that you have to buy gems you also can use the gems you get by doing dungeons, watching mw, compete in challenges and save till you have enough to use them.

Yeah i do understand and some players are complaining that they needs a lot of money to get gems but the topic im saying also has a connection since some ppl are saying not fair to spend a lot of gems when nemesis are stronger etc

@Sadduo and for the gems needs money thing its totally true gems doesnt always cost money

@Marianne-van-Es I agree about using gems you get through dungeons etc but reality is that you only get enough gems for half an event so I find it difficult to know when to use precious gems. I would like Ingenica but if I dont have enough gems then np. I only stay in the game now for my team. No more pvp...no gems there now.

If you play smartly and work on your island economy, you can work your way up into the top 5000 and eventually top 500 for the timed challenges. You don't need to be P2P to get there. If you have enough gold, you can always grow enough food to feed your monsters for Growth Spurt. Heck, if you are dedicated enough you can eventually even get into the top 500 for Gold Fever. I just made it! Took me about a year and a half from when I first made it into the top 5000. So you definitely won't get there in a hurry. You can as a F2P work yourself up to a point where you can even compete with spenders, except for the heavy spenders of course....

...so yes, we F2P spend gems on events, monsters, runes, etc. But we invest strategically. That's why I hate this gambling system of the chests. Happy to fork out 300 or more gems for a vitality banner, but I won't spend that much on a chest in hope that I might find something useful!!!

(Note: I have spent a little bit here and there but overall probably less than $200 in 2.5 years)

i also have to say that i find events to be very useful for ftp - i've almost always gotten one legendary out of progressive islands and mazes - i'm little more than half a year in the game (maybe almost 3/4), didn't pay a penny and got(if i remember correctly): ragnael, keithor, oikawa, malair, blob, white pandalf, tephra, oghma (plus estriel to breed arch knight), drekk, octex, ultrabot and monthauk.
the races gave me krampus, erebus, griffin and plymouth.
next to that i managed to buy voltaik(2*), timerion, cavenfish, frostbite, gregorz of lyria(from cells with a little help from my firends ;), hackster and galante with gems and war coins were good for thetys, ingavar, darmith bodyguard + 2.5k remaining.
plus all breedable legends, some ranked.
i find that a pretty decent deck to choose from for the time i'm in.
as david says, ftp is all about patience, and spending your gems wisely on stuff and monsters that are worth it.
...ALWAYS DO THE GEM DUNGEONS!

@David-ML said in Misconception about f2p and using gems:

. Heck, if you are dedicated enough you can eventually even get into the top 500 for Gold Fever. I just made it! Took me about a year and a half from when I first made it into the top 5000.

Congrats David

I know the feeling

Thanks @Haka-Taka only barely, though, with Rune Guardian activated, tight collection schedule and just scraping in at around 470th with just over 373 M gold collected. So I guess the 500th place threshold is probably around 370 M in case someone else is aiming for that