Skill level of players reducing?

MrTicTac19992008

This is just my opinion of what I feel I have noticed since I have been playing the game. I started playing in November 2017 so I would be stilled classed as a relatively new player. Currently in the process of 100% Act 5.

I feel that with the ability to get 4* and even a 5* so quickly and early when you start the game now is causing players skill to be reduced as they can just steamroll all the early content and don't learn the basics of the game. I see it especially in AW when players with strong champs in their team are dying to enemies that are easy to fight or to enemies in the early part of the map. This is not in the top level either, I am in an alliance which floats between Silver 1 and Gold 3 so pretty much bang in the middle or slightly below.

I see players with 200k+ rosters and some top champs struggling to beat Act 4 or the monthly events in master mode.

Do others feel the same that skill levels are reducing or is it just common among games? I know not everyone will be good at the game. Not everyone would be good at every game.

Comments

xNig

It’s common. I mentioned it in a previous post just minutes ago.

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/115795/feels-like-kabam-is-setting-things-up-for-act-rank-3-six-stars#latest

Colinwhitworth69

And?

Primmer79

Stronger champs and more content is available, which makes rank up materials more common. Failing with a crappy champion was accepted because there was no other choice. But now you're seeing people with good champions ranked not able to beat content.

Difficulty has also increased over the last year/two years.

MrTicTac19992008

@xNig That is very interesting and well put. I agree that players are getting champs so quickly now and rank up materials so fast that it when they do reach an enemy that is moderately strong they struggle although I am happy for myself that we get these materials and champs at a faster rate now.

@Primmer79 Difficulty of recent events has increased: Variant, The Maze, Champions Clash and the current Trails of the Elements with Epic but the Story Mode has not, The monthly event is a bit of both, new champs are stronger and more complex and the nodes are getting harder but we also have more counters to champs than ever before.

Primmer79

@MrTicTac19992008 I think you hit the nail on the head as to why the skill level has appeared to diminish. A lot of this game has turned into a puzzle. Who to use, how to use them, how to fight. I know a lot of people who conceptually can't figure out how to change their playstyle.

Some that come to mind on attack are quake and wasp.

Some that come to mind on defense are sentinel, and the node on og vision a few EQ ago.

Not to mention compare the descriptions of hawkeye, vs any newer champion and the knowledge needed to figure out a counter.

I am a fan of all of this, but it explains some of the people I see/have dealt with. "What do you mean I have to do that? I don't like that. I longer I fight the more I mess up so I am just going to hit them as many times as possible quickly"

Blubfish_666

You can’t stereotype the player base as a whole, but I do agree many summoners did not spend time having to try to fight their best because of the ease of access to newly introduced resources.

The_One

Just introduce a level at which players can open certain crystals.
Can't open a 4* until level 20, can't open a 5* till level 40, can't open a 6* till level 50.
There's requirements for getting grand master crystal with being uncollected.

You could still collect shards from content rewards but you can't open them until you reach the required level.
Force new players to do at least act 3 with 3* champs

Also bin the beginner bracket in 4* arena

RunamokUSA

I would have to agree as from the opposite perspective I am one of those players whose roster is better than my skill. I am still fairly new to the contest and am constantly trying to improve my fighting skills everyday. It of course is a challenge for me as I watch guys with worse rosters than me take out content that I can’t seem to manage yet. I watch videos online and constantly try to fight content that is above my level with a desire to improve.

Not sure what the solution is but just know that on the other side of the coin are players who get embarrassed that they can’t clear the same content our alliance teammates have or can. I watch dorky Dave, seatin, Brian grant, etc...and try to constantly analyze and learn. If anyone has other suggestions I am open to them?

Primmer79

RunamokUSA wrote: »

I would have to agree as from the opposite perspective I am one of those players whose roster is better than my skill. I am still fairly new to the contest and am constantly trying to improve my fighting skills everyday. It of course is a challenge for me as I watch guys with worse rosters than me take out content that I can’t seem to manage yet. I watch videos online and constantly try to fight content that is above my level with a desire to improve.

Not sure what the solution is but just know that on the other side of the coin are players who get embarrassed that they can’t clear the same content our alliance teammates have or can. I watch dorky Dave, seatin, Brian grant, etc...and try to constantly analyze and learn. If anyone has other suggestions I am open to them?

Honestly it depends what you're having trouble with. Red cyc was in the game for a long time, and I never learned to evade his sp1 for at least a year and a half of playing. Only way I learned was basically sacrificing myself against him over and over until I could do it and beat him.

As I typed that I had something dawn on me. A lot of the skill here is acquired over time. From fighting champions again and again until you know their abilities and how to avoid them. Newer players progress quicker, giving the appearance that they can't do the same things that others do, who have been there longer. I know there are exceptions to this, but it could be a factor

MMCskippy

When they reworked the Acts, I was thinking they were going to put restrictions on champs you're allowed to use in the different Acts. For Acts 1 through 3, you can only use 3*s or less, Act 4 is 4*s or less, and Act 5 is 5*s or less.

If you have the right R3 5*s, Act 4 would be a lot easier to complete. When there were no 5* champs, finishing Act 4 was a decent skill accomplishment. Completing RoL with only 3* & 4* champs took skill.

DTMelodicMetal

This hypothetical tactic could be good for business. Players relying on in-game items more than skill increases revenue. Not saying this approach is intentional or is actually being utilized, only that I see how such an approach could benefit Kabam.

Philly3974

RunamokUSA wrote: »

I would have to agree as from the opposite perspective I am one of those players whose roster is better than my skill. I am still fairly new to the contest and am constantly trying to improve my fighting skills everyday. It of course is a challenge for me as I watch guys with worse rosters than me take out content that I can’t seem to manage yet. I watch videos online and constantly try to fight content that is above my level with a desire to improve.

Not sure what the solution is but just know that on the other side of the coin are players who get embarrassed that they can’t clear the same content our alliance teammates have or can. I watch dorky Dave, seatin, Brian grant, etc...and try to constantly analyze and learn. If anyone has other suggestions I am open to them?

The easiest way to improve your fighting skill is to remove all your masteries, keep maybe 1 or 2 points in dexterity so you can learn to evade certain specials of champs. Most of the higher rated player base learned their fighting skills before masteries were ever introduced. Without masteries, it would be the easiest (yet frustrating) way to learn to intercept, evade, bait specials, etc. Practice in the 1v1 arena or in story mode. Just an idea...

Orangie

Masteries been around for 4 years...

krauserhunt

@MrTicTac19992008
I think the game has changed a lot over the past couple of years. The difficulty has been ramped up considerably and all animations are sped up. A special that can be dodged at expert, can easily clip you on Epic.

I agree with the fact that longer fights mean more chances of messing up, but it also depends on a bunch of factors, biggest one being whether you are on Android or iOS. Even the best of android phones are repeatedly struggling with lag and Kabam's code changes have done NOTHING to improve the performance. There's actual performance degradation as you keep playing the game and within a couple of months your new android device becomes a lagfest, it could be memory leaks, cache issues or anything.

Besides those technical aspects and increase in difficulty, there is no proof that skill levels have diminished. Expectations of new players may be misplaced as we see some ranting about unfair champs/nodes etc, but really they are not ready for the hard content (neither am I for things like Maze). I've been playing since Nov 2017 as well and sometimes I just choose not to waste resources on a content ie The Maze.

Unless Kabam creates a level playing field and fixes out the issues, it will be a bit hard to quantify the skill level of players. Ofcourse that does not stop us from accusing our team mate who just died to SpiderGwen on Unblockable SP1 node.

DNA3000

MrTicTac19992008 wrote: »

Do others feel the same that skill levels are reducing or is it just common among games? I know not everyone will be good at the game. Not everyone would be good at every game.

I don't think skill levels are decreasing, in the sense that players are on average not improving by as much over time as before. If anything I think that effect is small. I think rosters are increasing much faster than they used to which means a player's PI rating is increasing faster than their skill or other progress in the game used to. In other words, I think a 6 month player has similar skills today as a 6 month player in the past at least in broad terms. But a 6 month player today has vastly higher PI rating today than in the past because they can accumulate and rank up their roster much quicker.

Basically, I think a 200k PI player today probably seems less skilled in large part because a 200k player today has played for a lot less time than a 200k player did a few years ago.

Blax4ever

A lot of good long time players quit the game, what you are seeing now is the players who replaced them.

No they aren’t as good as the players who left they will get better in time but these newer champs in the hands of the good players who stuck around are more the result of power creep than anything else. Someone good at the game finishing an LOL fight in less than 200 hits was unheard of 18 months ago. They would have been accused of hacking or modding.

Times Change

krauserhunt

Blax4ever wrote: »

A lot of good long time players quit the game, what you are seeing now is the players who replaced them.

No they aren’t as good as the players who left they will get better in time but these newer champs in the hands of the good players who stuck around are more the result of power creep than anything else. Someone good at the game finishing an LOL fight in less than 200 hits was unheard of 18 months ago. They would have been accused of hacking or modding.

Times Change

What?

Hamin

You can have a 200K rating without a single 4*. Rating never will mean anything.

The 200K rosters are equivalent to the <50K rosters a few years back.

I'm not so sure it's the skill that's decreasing but the inflation of rosters increasing.