Don't underestimate Gurptuk. He has three specific, and fairly valuable uses.

1. If you aren't already running Spider 20 in sub-20 seconds, he makes that much easier to do. Essentially he gives your whole team a 32% damage boost, which basically means you get another nuker without having to gear one up.
2. If you haven't already done FK21, he's great there too - the A1 heal is super useful for keeping people alive.
3. If you don't have anyone with block buffs, he can be useful in arena on a Cardinal team, to deal with Leorius / Skullcrown.

And excellent for hydra. 

I got Mordecai who took me quite easily to auto spider 25 

FK I have a decent team that does that

I have Uugo for block buffs

Hydra - I usually get the top chest on the normal if I can be bothered lol

I just think a Legendary should be better than epics and in truth that's the disappointing aspect of pulling a less than average Legendary

The cost of Sacred Shards is massive compared to the value of the Leggo's we get.

I am 22 Sacred Shards into Mercy with zero Leggo's!!!!!!!! They really need to do something with the percentages on pulls.... 2 more shards and I will be in DOUBLE MERCY!!!! 

Strange thing about this 'mercy system' there were third party apps that could tell you where you were with this - which Plarium didn't like and stopped.

Thing is, obviously the information is there, it can't be hard to find and show if third party apps could do it

Why won't Plarium share this information?

I imagine it's a marketing/sales thing.  Most people imagine they have opened more shards than they actually have.  They 'feel' that they must be close to mercy and only need a few more shards.  But say in reality you are 50 shards away, but you think if I just spend on 11 or 17 shards I'll get a leggo.  More people will buy these packs 'hoping' they are close, rather than if they new it was still just out of reach.  The result is they make more money if players do not track their own shards and do not have that information readily available otherwise.  From this persepective, why whould they provide information that 1) you can easily track for yourself, and 2) reduces their take?  I personally don't blame them.  It's good business.

It's a bit of a pain to record every shard you open when you open 120 shards you've been saving a month or two.  But it's interesting and helpful in many ways so I do it.  It really doesn't take that much time.

On your 22nd shard, the chances of pulling a leggo are still only 26%.  So your results are not out of the norm.  You don't reach 100% chance until the 59th shard.  

I agree on the cost of shards.  Shards are most likely the WORST purchase in the game.  On one hand, they have the highest potential.  That's why they sale.  Buy a shard you might get Dutchess, or which ever you want most. Sounds like the best deal ever.  But on the other hand, you have a very minimal chance of pulling any leggo, much less the one you want.  Highest potential, worst actual return.  Compare that to a leggo book.  Not nearly the potential of a shard, but I can put it on the champ I choose.

12 shards = most likely 12 epics; 12 books = fully booked leggo of my choice.

One little thing I do in tournys and events is see if I can open a shard to get a book.  If I need 500 points for that next milestone (a book) in a shard event.  Then the way I see it, I can open the shard and still get the full potential (even if it's not 2x) and either way pick up the book.   Just a way to maximize my resources and potential outcomes.

The dupe system in my honest opinion should have made specific legendaries more accessible to keep players interested in pulling shards. 

Unfortunately the super whales quit and sell their account for a small fraction of what they spent to get the characters in the first place.

This leaves new players with a very high ceiling that they cannot reach and quitting, or people buying into accounts instead of buying packs.

Ultimately this will lead to a net loss for Plarium as they have failed to address core issues with the growing hero rosters, that is, watered down the pool of desirable legendaries with ones that have very little playability. I keep going back to the failure of the dupe system, if they implemented this properly and provided a method for players to get legendaries they don't already own, it would have assisted immensely in player retention.

As it stands now, Plarium can do the following to resolve the issue:

1. Increase the base chance of getting legendaries from shards.
2. Revamp the dupe system to provide players a way to mitigate the chances of duplicate heroes
3. Reduce the cost of Legendaries for Soul Coins and have the roster rotate regularly (eg 1000 for non void, 2000 for void). 

Failure to incorporate a dupe system that caters to general players will result in net in app purchase slumps with accounts being bought and sold rather than players buying off Plarium. 

Lego books only?