I started with AxeFX II XL _ MFC-101, then migrated to Ax8. CPU frustration is real. Do you want quality reverb or a drive block? Can't have both if you also want a pitch block detune to fatten up the sound and a few other things like Delay, Tremolo, Phaser, Rotary (for different scenes). Just too many compromises for me. The low quality reverb with only 2 reflections sounds weak to me- ok for a cheap spring reverb sound but it loses the lushness for richer sounds (in my perception which may have any number of biases and inaccuracies). If you have bare-bones patches and focus on separate Presets more than Scenes, you will probably be fine with Ax8.
Tomorrow I will receive at Strymon BigSky I bought specifically to offload Reverb from Ax8 to make more room to use drive blocks. Even then, I will miss the ability to blend a clean amp and dirty amp tone... but I can probably get creative with using parallel rows or the mix parameter on drive blocks to achieve something similar. I would have gladly directed that money to Fractal if they had a product with Ax8 form factor and more CPU. My goal is to end up with kitchen-sink patches and old-fashioned stomp box method of changing sounds, with physical knobs for minor deep parameter editing (as would be done directly on the stomp pedals). I'm not in a rigid or disciplined environment or dedicating enough time to get my patches 100% dialed before rehearsals or shows. I need to be able to converge on it over time, and have a dead-simple way of tweaking stuff in 2-4 seconds during rehearsals or shows. I can see how the more pro you are, the more your sound setup becomes deterministic, but I'll never be there.
Going forward, I hope they have an Ax8 next-gen with an over-abundance of CPU and fully-assignable endless rotary knobs. In the mean time, I am going to try to hack my own.
