Well the initial roll is important as that should be the God that allows you to reach end game. Once there, just use the free stones to brute force the descends that matter, then use the stones exclusively on stamina refresh to grind mats and level up. It has never been easier now that we have 5 mins stamina, Super Kings twice a day during events, Star Vault and Tamadra Retreat.
Athena can be cleared with a farmable team with starter dragon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRiXWPdN-iQ
Pretty sure with Leilan at worst you would just spend a couple stones.
I would've done this had I known Athena would become double prong goodness after prongs got buffed. I agree that it is possible to definitely get most end game content by acquiring farmable subs now, and then using those subs to get descend bosses but at the time when my box was so pathetic I couldn't even imagine doing it because of my lack of skill. It was simply daunting to me and as I assume to other players who just started as well.
How often were you pulling the REM during godfests? Surely, you managed to pick up some other great stuff during one year of play? Unless you were playing back when there were just fewer gods in general?
I personally think the "1.5x or 2x boxspaces per rank" rule of thumb is overstated and one can get by with 1x or less boxspace. Fewer stones on box space, continues, friend lists means more REM rolls!
I just checked, only pulled during god fests with the exception of the YOLO roll that got me an evolved Leilan. Starting roll was Ra who I honestly tried to play but I could never activate him. Second pull was D. Valk and this was before her second uevo plus the fact that there aren't many dark healers I never focused on her. People on GAF told me she was kinda useless at the time.
Then I pulled Hatsume, Misato, Leilan, and then Isis! Her 3x multiplier was kinda useless because Mistato gave me recovery, and Leilan had a 3.5x, so tried to uevo her into her B/L form. But this game has only given me two angelits total from PEM to this very day, one of which was used to uevo Leilan. And I was never able to run Friday dungeon so I couldn't do it (uevo Isis I mean).
After that it was just Perseus, but I never had that many good wood subs at the time (only had Mari & Eva who's active is absolutely useless and Dragon knight) also all the builds at the time were semi-luxury. After this there was a long long dry spell, 7 rolls from saved up stones from PC Godfest. Only gold was Hades...I was planning on quitting after this.
Then I got Red Guan Yu and Kirin after I IAP'd roughly 8 months into the game. I could've been more patient, but I wasn't. More my fault than anything, but I couldn't beat KoG and tackling most descends was incredibly hard. Maybe I just suck cause I never stuck to Ra, but I still have gotten hundreds of hours of enjoyment out of the game and I don't regret most of my choices IAP'ing lol.
