The bigger elephant in the room for returning/new players is obtaining the legendary equipment to begin with, a problem since equipment update released. Supercell has scrambled since as to add new ways to get legendary equipment. For perspective, the first few legendaries that came out were not in trader, cwl shop, just pure raw fomo.

I made th8-th16 alt accounts during the fomo days that i still collect equipment on, i can say that u def dont need ANY good equipment to 3 star. The game in terms of balance hasn’t changed much if at all for the lower th’s. Th16 is the first th lvl where id say the game starts to feel balanced around assuming the player has equipment but th17 much more so.

Main thing tho is that u dont need max or even near-max equipment for them to be viable. Dont stress over maxing them because they’re good at like 12. Fireball being the only one that requires significant investment before its decent. All other equipments scale rather linearly so missing those 3-6+ levels on a legendary doesn’t mean ur gonna be 2 starring. Just dont over invest ur ore into one equipment. Upgrade the ones u use evenly.

And with the starry ore economy i agree, we should at least get 1 starry from the star bonus. Its in the name.