Skydancer

As Yivenz said.

Anyway, 99% of the times the "best defense" option is not worth it and it's much better to buy traps for gold and save your own base.

Retrieve chance does not depend on thrones / gem defence / whatever other modifier.

It's always 30% for 3 stars, 15% for 2 stars and 5% for 1 star.

Level 1072? I feel I may be guilty here .

On a serious note, the level 50+ pool is open to everyone. It's quite bad for fresh level 50 players who can get raided by everyone, but remember also that you have access to bigger rituals to raid compared to the lower levels.

The thrones unfortunately were changed in a recent update, now they are a slightly better than before but they also cost a lot more. I suggest you to use this event to rack up some purple dust, the recipe offered by Shady Joe is pretty cheap and it gives you 3 dust. And for the rest... always run rituals with crap gems to gather ingredients, and always upgrade your traps if you can.

I don't understand why you would say that orbs are more needed now that at the time the guide was written.

Or, to say it in a better way, what would you use the orbs for at lower levels?

It's been a while since I purchased my slots, so it's just an honest question I have.

It's a mystery to everyone. Personally I like the fun of opening boxes with random stuff in it.

Regarding the ingredients / pots / tears, the quantities should be fixed but I don't know anyone who spent materials on those recipes yet.