I don’t mind a slow progression. I am still within my first two weeks, and am delighted when I get new covers and enjoy my non-pay naturalist progression. (Not to say that I don’t support D3, I’ve bought a bunch of their games. But free games stay free in my world, or else I’d go broke fast). My biggest frustration is when my phone actually goes into rest mode because the enemy has been chaining attacks for so long. I usually with retreat from that fight, because that kind of BS will just continue throughout the match, and it’s not fun. It’s fun when I do it, but it is so rare, even when I sit and study the tiles and how they’ll drop… not enough to make me quit… but, after it happens a few times I am pretty much done for a while. Unless I am fighting Moonstone, then I’ll watch the pictures of her beating me up and then take a break.
Some people may have missed the OP’s true complaint. He’s not complaining he only has a few 3*'s, he’s complaining how he can never see maxing those 3s. This is a viable complaint. Think of how many 3’s there are, and how you really can’t use any of them until you get a substantial number of covers. I can see as a new player thinking, “Why bother?” I think this is an argument for a new currency, the return of 3* tokens.
this quote sums up his problem. this isn’t a sprint. it is a marathon. and you will be nowhere close to getting all their covers in the next 2-3 months. but you might be getting close to others which might be just as good or almost as good, so it can’t be only about one or 2 characters out there. heck, there’s 40is ***s and depending on how events run and tokens drop, you never know who will end up useful on your roster.
if the game isn’t fun enough to play along the journey for ~6months +, then its probably not the game for you. I’m 150 days in, spent ~100 so far (spent more but all hp isn’t spent yet) and have 1 maxed ***, one at 140, enough covers to max another (but choosing to spend iso elsewhere), completing dpd daily, finish t100 in pvps and t150 or t50 in pves. yes, I spend a lot of time in the game but that’s because I enjoy it. if you don’t enjoy it that much find something you enjoy and do that - life is too short.
Have fun with whatever you end up at! If you’re on Line and wanna check out Final Fantasy Record Keeper, a few of us are hanging out in a room and helping each other out. Drop me a message. :]
actually i think it highlights the problem and shows what a time suck this game is and will be a barrier for new people to stay playing as it doesn’t seem to give reasonable progress for the amount of effort. For some one in for the long haul, 2 months to max a 3* seems way too quick 3-4 months seems more about right unless you pay or are blessed by the RNG. The quickest I got a hero maxed has been luke cage 3 months, events(5), token pulls(3) and 900+ pvp (1), DDQ(2) and HP(2) lucky i didn’t need to respec.
Great decision, this game design is based on ‘the more you play the more you’re punished’ progressively. So just look fur fun where it actually is present.
DDQ did much to reduce frustration for me.
Yeah I think this Ultron event has been depressing.
I initially liked it but the weak rewards… the pressure to do well, the 2 star pack pulls, the meager ISO, the unreliable nature of the game…
I think I’m going to quit, too. My heart has been broken so I’m kind of over getting characters now.
I think I am quitting too.
The final blow was whittling ultron down to 7 clears needed for prime 7 and the event ending.
To put in all that work and have the timer run out that close to opening it is just pissing me off right now.
I dont want to feel this way about anything but i feel this way about the app so quit it is.
35 days in I still thought the game was just the Prologue… Haha.
I’m constantly telling friends who ask about this game; A) it’s addictive, B) it’s potentially time consuming on a biblical level, C) if you’re not having fun in the first month then this game simply isn’t for you - there’s a million other things to do with your time, and finally D) if you enjoy the game, there’s a world of maddening fun to be had. You just have to be willing to work for your rewards. Ultimately, you get out of it what you put into it.
Don’t pay attention to everyone talking about “that’s not long enough.” They’re just sunk because they’ve already put too much time into the game to give up now. 
What’s amazing is that your original summary is nearly an exact duplicate of my own gaming experience, except I’m on day 200-something. There’s absolutely no reason to think that - outside of spending literally hundreds of dollars - you will be anywhere different at day 200 as you are now at day 35. That’s the problem with this game, in a nutshell: the progression is absolutely wrong. For those old-timers who haven’t played the beginning in a year, you don’t know: this game is lightning fast and super fun - until about the first month is over. Then you hit the WALL of progression, where it’s just a long, slow, painful, glitchy slog to try to get enough 3* characters good enough, so that you can get… I don’t even know anymore. DDQ is a great example of how even something that amazing - a new 3* cover every day - isn’t nearly enough to solve their progression problem. We don’t need more 3* covers! We need a real sense of pacing!
Anyway, good on you, OP, for getting out before you feel like you have sunk too much time to leave. You are one of the lucky ones.
Wow, beginners manage a whole month of lighthearted fun before finding the progression wall these days? Thanks for reporting, you are right, we haven’t played the beginning of the game in a year… and you didn’t play the beginning of the game a year ago! Indeed we didn’t have DDQ… but apparently neither did we have a problem? Because 500 days on, we’re still playing. The truth is that the game is not for everybody and OP does indeed well by bowing out if it’s not his/her cup of tea. I’m the same way with MMOs and it baffles me that lots of people sink hundreds and thousands of hours in them. shrug different tastes, more than a progression issue.