Tokens of Spite: Do they actually work?

[Cowboy Gaming]

Having 99 of the things means I try inviting an invader to my world every now and again, but no one ever seems to turn up when I do. I've gotten way more invasions just by dawdling around with my equipment between my own invasions than by using a Token of Spite.

Also, where are all the arbiter spirits? I remember getting invaded a lot by blues when I played on console a few years back, and I've seen a grand total of 4. And they're all cowards that'll run away to heal ;p

[JellyPuff]

They do, but they just put you higher up on the matchmaking queue. Use Dried Fingers or equip Delicate String to also reset the invasion cooldown timer.
But the game just isn't all that active anymore, which is even more of a problem in DS2, considering how spread out the areas are in terms of SM-ranges. Also keep in mind, that you can only get invaded by people with equal or more SM, than you. You really gotta stick to chokepoints now, like Forest of Fallen Giants at 39k-110k SM or Drangleic Castle at around 1M SM.

BS invasions have even more limited matchmaking requirements and were never that active to begin with, at least at higher SM tiers (3M+) and from the perspective of the invader. I'm surprised you even got 4.