Did someone say they were bad? They're not as good as something like a phantom tower which you'd build for other stats and get the defense for "no extra space". But if you want defense *now* and managed to have them (which we can't yet - at least 2 more weeks to go before some people have *1*), sure they're just fine - and better than an equivalent pile of watchfires and tactician towers.You’re missing my point. My point is, the greater flames are better than they first seemed to be. Due to their efficiency. Comparing them to comparable GB’s. Which are the best to compare to. On the long term eventually greater flames will stack. For those reasons imo their pretty good. Offering a greater flexibility with their 2x1 size and no roads requirement and high efficiency. Only surpassed by very high levels of specifically defence GB’s. Further reinforcing my view on them.
My point wasn’t that the GB’s and greater ritual flames are mutually exclusive. In other words not being able to have both. Choosing the one over the other. To me the appeal of them is greater than the GB’s.
But the primary problem with them (and the chain elements, and the divine sky watch) is by the time you actually get any significant number of them you may *no longer* want them. These buildings, unlike the forgotten temple and serpent head, seem balanced to be "just good enough now". But still come in at a rate of 1 a month. 12 months from now will you want greater ritual flames? Hard to say. And yet you'll only have a handful of them by then *if* you've already been doing GE5 anyways.
That said, yes I took your post out of context - I thought you were trying to say the GBs were bad (which there is a case to be made for that), not that greater ritual flames were good