Best Of

That's right, I'm back again to yap about ascension. Why? Well, because I've gone insane (and also I think ascension is the worst addition that's ever been introduced to this game). However, don't let my insanity fool you, because while a few of my marbles may be loose, my cognitive functions are still capable enough to allow me to do basic math. Basic math which I will use as a defense for why ascension FRICKING sucks!

Now for a moment, let's set aside every other issue with ascension and let's just focus on one thing. Ascension acquisition. Currently, we have ascension level 1 and ascension level 2 available to us. Although, for a vast majority of players, ascension level 2 is a pipe dream. Because acquiring ascension resources is incredibly LUCK based. Actually scratch that, its not just incredibly luck based. It's ENTIRELY luck based.

Let's look at the base ascension pool. Thirty champions, available to everyone. That's a large pool of characters and as I think most of us have experienced by now, that large pool makes it really difficult to pull the champ you want. Let's say your favorite character is Sandman. You have him at rank five, awakened and sig 200. You want him ascended, just ascension level one for now. What are your chances of actually pulling him? Well that's easy, he's one of thirty champs in the pool so the natural thought would be 1 in 30.

WRONG!

That's where they get you, because that's not how probability works. Probability has no memory. In reality it's impossible to guarantee that you get a Sandman pull. However, you can improve your chances by opening crystals so then the question is just how many crystals are needed? Since a guarantee is not possible let's go to the next best thing, how many crystals do you need to open to have a 99.9% chance of pulling your sandman.

Well to calculate that number, we have to do something somewhat counterintuitive. Rather than using the chance to pull that sandman, we will look at the chance for you to pull any of the other characters. That chance is 29/30.

So that means if you open 1 crystal you have a 1 - (29/30) percent chance of pulling sandman. We can use this as a basis for the following formula.

Y(Chance of Pulling Sandman) = 1 - (29/30)^N where N is the number of crystals. This is the formula that will give us the chance of pulling sandman based on number of crystals opened.

So plugging in our values, 99.9% = 1 - (29/30)^N and solving for N we get a value of approximately 205.

That means that for you to "guarantee" an ascension for a champion you want. You would have to open 205 Greater Empowered Crystals. Not 30. 205! And that's only for ascension level 1! To get your character to Ascension Level 2, you need to pull that champion and then pull them 2 more times to get the necessary materials. Or you could just spend money and get yourself an ascension level 2 Knull.

The whole point of this is to show how absurdly out of the player's control it is to be able to ascend the champion they want. Upgrading the characters we want to play is at the core of MCOC and its insane that we aren't even allowed to do that anymore. Ascension is entirely luck based. That 205 number, sure you could pull the character before that, but you could also just never pull them. It doesn't matter how much content you complete, how skilled you are, how many hours you put in. It's entirely OUT OF YOUR CONTROL.

Now something you might say is, well that's how the game has always been. Pulling champions has always been luck based. However, ascension isn't about acquiring champions its about upgrading them which has never been entirely luck based. In fact ascension was advertised as an alternative to eight stars, a way for Kabam to introduce progression while making the roster's we've built still be meaningful.

But let me ask you this, how is ascension any different from 8 stars?

The basic game loop is completely the same. For a higher star level it would be

Pull new champ --> Upgrade Them to higher Level

With ascension its

Pull new ascension --> Upgrade them to higher level

For all intents and purposes, ascension is the same as a new rarity. You still have to pull this new character to have them at this new higher power level. It's the same thing wrapped in different packaging. Opening an empowered grace crystal is no different to opening an eight star.

ONLY ASCENSION IS WORSE! Because let's say we did get eight stars, at least then you would know that you only need to pull that character once. You pull Sandman as an eight star and its done. You can acquire rankup materials and get him up. Awakening gems and sig stones are a thing, so over time its within your control to upgrade that champion and make them stronger. With ascension its not like that at all! You pull sandman once, if you want to keep upgrading him, YOU NEED TO PULL HIM AGAIN! MULTIPLE TIMES! There's no alternative, no guarantee for you to keep progressing the character you love.

I swear I'm actually going insane, like how is this in any way better than 8 stars? Make no mistake I am not endorsing eight stars, I'm just pointing out that we got an unnecessary, rushed and worse alternative! If it were eight stars at least we could pull new champs at that higher power level. If it were eight stars at least we would have some more agency over our accounts. Like I don't know what else to say, Ascension is such a blatant money grab and an absolute cancer to the game.

Kabam isn't even hiding anymore. You know why we got ascension so early? Money. Why can't we get new characters ascended without spending thousands of dollars? Money. Why is ascensions entirely luck based. Money. It's all just dollar signs to Kabam.

They said they needed time to see how ascension fits into the game. That was a lie. They need time to milk as much money from players as they can.

Just make the game good please! Remove all the current ascension materials. Add Tier 3 primordial dust, have that be the only resource for ascension. Make max sig dupes drop Tier 3 Dust, make max sig dupes from titans drop even more Tier 3 dust and add Tier 3 dust to content. And you can keep selling Tier 3 dust to make more money than you could ever need. Everyone wins.

I still love MCOC, but I think that's why ascension frustrates me so much. Because I want this game to succeed. I want it to last another ten years, but its hard to enjoy other aspects of the game when something like ascension is not only in the game but the main focus.

I don't know what else to say. I'll probably be back in a few months to keep venting about ascension.