Well played Kabam! Act 4 seems like it's the game's best cash-grab.
Hector_1475
Member Posts: 1,794 ★★★★★
Just to provide context, I am currently at level 52, having completed up to Act 4.3 (hoping to complete full Act 4 by next week) and I have fully explored 4.1.
Difficuly is certainly not a problem with completing / exploring Act 4. For completing 4.4 I will use my A-team (now that War season is over) and I have been exploring with a mix team of 4* 3/30 & 4/40, without using any revives / potions / boosts (just the way I like it!). But, by exploring through Act 4 you have to face the following:
1) the extremely long routes. Some of them need 2 refills of energy to complete. Needless to say, that you will not only use all and any energy refills you have, but you will blow all your units to buy new ones.
2) The bonus side is that you get massive experience points, that lead you naturally to level up in game progression. Especially if you use experience boosts, the progress is sky-rocketting. Great thing, right? Yeah it is, and for each level up you get of course precious Mastery points. Hold that thought.
3) By fully exploring each Chapter of the 4, you also get additional Mastery points. Yeah! Now, of course since you do own these great Mastery points, you will want to invest them in the "good stuff" provided that you have your basics covered. So the "good stuff" being here Deep Wounds, Assasin, Recovery etc. Each level to unlock in these nice Masteries require (550 + 2x135) 820 units! 820 units for each level! The 5 levels of Deep Wounds for reference require 4,100 units just to unlock them all!
5) So, ultimatelly you WILL find yourself short of units, no matter if you play all the other parts of the game daily as I do (Arena, Alliance events, monthly EQ, you name it). And that will be short of LOTS of units.
So, the options here are that either you will take your time and do the exploration in months, having in the meantime un-invested Mastery points since you cannot unlcock them immediately (what a waste that is, right...?) or you WILL eventually be forced to buy units with actual cash.
Let me clear that this is NOT a complain post. I do realise and appreciate that Kabam is (naturally) in this to make money. And money they make. Nothing wrong with that. I am just pointing out the brilliant design of this game. That's all.
Thanks for reading this far. Feel free to discuss and / or offer any ideas.
Difficuly is certainly not a problem with completing / exploring Act 4. For completing 4.4 I will use my A-team (now that War season is over) and I have been exploring with a mix team of 4* 3/30 & 4/40, without using any revives / potions / boosts (just the way I like it!). But, by exploring through Act 4 you have to face the following:
1) the extremely long routes. Some of them need 2 refills of energy to complete. Needless to say, that you will not only use all and any energy refills you have, but you will blow all your units to buy new ones.
2) The bonus side is that you get massive experience points, that lead you naturally to level up in game progression. Especially if you use experience boosts, the progress is sky-rocketting. Great thing, right? Yeah it is, and for each level up you get of course precious Mastery points. Hold that thought.
3) By fully exploring each Chapter of the 4, you also get additional Mastery points. Yeah! Now, of course since you do own these great Mastery points, you will want to invest them in the "good stuff" provided that you have your basics covered. So the "good stuff" being here Deep Wounds, Assasin, Recovery etc. Each level to unlock in these nice Masteries require (550 + 2x135) 820 units! 820 units for each level! The 5 levels of Deep Wounds for reference require 4,100 units just to unlock them all!
5) So, ultimatelly you WILL find yourself short of units, no matter if you play all the other parts of the game daily as I do (Arena, Alliance events, monthly EQ, you name it). And that will be short of LOTS of units.
So, the options here are that either you will take your time and do the exploration in months, having in the meantime un-invested Mastery points since you cannot unlcock them immediately (what a waste that is, right...?) or you WILL eventually be forced to buy units with actual cash.
Let me clear that this is NOT a complain post. I do realise and appreciate that Kabam is (naturally) in this to make money. And money they make. Nothing wrong with that. I am just pointing out the brilliant design of this game. That's all.
Thanks for reading this far. Feel free to discuss and / or offer any ideas.
19
Comments
Or wait and see if they lower energy cost for their anniversary
They usually do so during appreciation week if i recall
No, I am saying that the whole desing of Act 4 is to force players to spend money for units. You will be forced to do so, in order to have the progress gained by completing Act 4.
valid points and yes the paths are long but unlike eq this is permanent content your investment to complete is I think more worth while than eq that comes and goes in a month. I'm on my second account and I'm currently on 4.3.2 I have been completing 100%. I have used a few units and revives but I'm waiting for reduced energy cost it made it much easier on my main account 2 per tile but save up your resources and units do a path not so bad if you keep chipping away.
Not at all. All these games are either progress for free at a certain rate, or spend an progress faster. You must be new to games then ?
You said you will be forced to spend money on units which is just blatantly not true
Go through Act 4 once and leave it. Move onto Act 5.
Unlocking Masteries are expensive but thats the way it is. Get the essentials and work towards unlocking the others. this game is also about strategy and really thinking about your next decision.
Consider what Act 4 was like upon its release. There were no 5* champs and most summoners didn't have any 5/50 champs. Act 4 was completed largely with 4/40 4* champs upon release. Lines like the arc overload path were considered very challenging to most, especially considering the lack of heal blocking/reversal champs at the time. Newer players encountering Act 4 for the first time will likely have a much stronger roster than those who did it initially.
Also keep in mind that this was pre-nerf for a few of the key fights. Back then, Venom had a poison node, which disqualified the community favorite Scarlet Witch from the fight. Juggernaut was a nightmare due to slashed tires. Every time you backed up in the fight, you took massive direct damage. Back up 3 times and you're dead.
Finally, keep in mind that energy refills that are now given out in a lot of milestones were not near as plentiful as they are now and units, in general, were harder to farm.
I don't disagree that the paths are long and the energy cost is steep. All I'm saying is that, relatively speaking, it used to be MUCH harder/more expensive. Considering that many here have cleared the content long ago during this more difficult/expensive time, you're bound to find little sympathy here.
Good luck finishing next week. Once you have Maestro's L1 timing down, he's cake.
All I was stating is that the energy requirements, especially combined with the experience points and the mastery points awarded (and their very high cost to unlock) ultimatelly lead players to spend cash on the game. Unless of course they choose the road of the (very) slow progression in it.... Which is again, respected by me.
As I said Kabam is in it for the money and they should be. And they have designed, on all aspects, a great game. That was actually the jist of what I was trying to say.
I played through Act 4 when it was released. I eventually started a new account from scratch and thus went through it again. Act 4 was agonizing. Due to my previous experience, the difficulty was easy even though my roster wasn't huge. But it cost a LOT of energy refills and took a LONG time. I think I binged something on Netflix for most of it. So I get where you're coming from.
The light at the end of the tunnel is that Act 4 seems to be an old design style. I think Kabam's logic back then was that super-long routes was the way to pad game time. Act 5 is much different. The routes are shorter and the nodes are harder. It's more engaging this way.
So push through. The rewards at that stage are worth it. I found Act 5 far more enjoyable and I hope you do too.
So you know that you can earn units from lower difficulties in the EQ's right? Use those to buy energy refills. You can a free energy refill from the alliance events as well. You can grind BC from arena and get units from there.
Sounds like you just want to call it a cash grab as click bait. If you aren't taking advantage of the other ways to get units, you cant come here and complain.
As I mentioned in my OP, I do ALL those things as well. Thanks for your time.
No you don't. No where in your OP do you mention you are doing other things to earn units. Besides, tons of people out there have completed it without buying units. Just because you cant complete it in the time frame you want, doesn't make it a cash grab.
See again above point 5. Please and thank you.
Loooots of free to play players have explored act 4 100%., With how easy it is for mid game players to get champions nowadays you don't even have to rush to explore act 4 in order to progress
Oh, they read it. Have a look at Road To The Labyrinth. When you're done with that, have a look at LOL. You seem to think that you can fly through this content like binge-watching 10 seasons of Friends on netflix in an afternoon. You look around and see accounts YEARS in the making and think I SHOULD BE THERE AFTER A MONTH WHY KABAM WHY IT'S A CASH GRAB TELL THE PEOPLE. There certainly are cash grabs, but act 4 certainly is not. Think of it as a mine, where once in a while you go back and dig for isos or gold when you need some, or have finished all the other event content and have time to kill.
I see it now. I missed that but even still, you can 300+ units from beginner and Normal. That's 10 refills. Act 4 isnt meant to be done in a day and theres no reason to push hard to get through it. You want cash grab? Wait till the Collector or 5.6 Ultron boss. Also, all of act 5 is 3 per step. You really have nothing to complain about.
Everyone else, I understand that this isn't the "biggest" cash grab but in a way for certain people who are impatient, yes it could make Kabam a good amount of money. Only cause you weren't easy enough to fall for it, doesn't mean the OP doesn't have some sort of point. So much hostility.
That Ultron boss was annoying. Used a 3/30 Loki to beat him. Took me so long and so many units to get everything right and beat him the first time. After that though it became easier each time. Still have to complete Chapter 3 100% though. I hate that chapter.
Just because you don't agree that it's anything to complain about doesn't make him wrong. There's so much hostility in this Forum.