I think there should be an intermediate difficulty for variant

Zakrw_317

Nevermind

Das_gi

To be fair man but besides variant 1 the other ones are all pretty easy

GinjabredMonsta

It is also considered endgame content, so an intermediate offer isn't needed

DOKTOROKTOPUS

it's called act 5

Timone147

Truth is there is no need for an intermediate level. The intermediate level is Act V and Monthly EQ.

Variant is intended to be closer to cavalier level content. The whole intent is to show evolution of the game from then to now. Display the growth of the game. That is why the difficulty is where it is and gauged toward endgame type players.

Let’s not make the developers slow down content creation by adding something here that isn’t intended to be there on the first place.

Drake2078

I agree

Secret_Gamer

Zakrw_317 said:

Nevermind

When do people get it...

Mid-tier players have got ENOUGH to do.

Zakrw_317

Secret_Gamer said:

Zakrw_317 said:

Nevermind

When do people get it...

Mid-tier players have got ENOUGH to do.

Cool👍

DarthPhal

I think they should remove the original difficulty to eliminate the illusion of the missing middle.

DNA3000

DarthPhal said:

I think they should remove the original difficulty to eliminate the illusion of the missing middle.

That's not going to work, because almost no one looks at Variant and thinks what's missing is the middle. They look at Variant and think what's missing is it wasn't designed specifically for me. That's not going to go away if the beginner difficulty goes away. The complaint will just semantically change from "there's no middle" to "the devs only care about the whales: there's nothing lower."

TheTalents

Outside of the first Variant, if you have a roster that is good enough to be Cavalier the remaining 3 Variants can be done without any item usage and skill.

DNA3000

TheTalents said:

Outside of the first Variant, if you have a roster that is good enough to be Cavalier the remaining 3 Variants can be done without any item usage and skill.

I don't know exactly why, but I found 6.1 to be easier for me personally than the Variants were, in terms of item usage. Sometimes content is just like that: some things you can do much better than average, some things just seem to mess you up more than it does others.

Panchulon21

Post number 32 about this.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

RagamugginGunner

There is, it's called Act 5.

Dshu

I think they need to install an "I'm entitled " mode to the game where you get free rewards for just logging in. Something like a login calendar........ oh never mind

DNA3000

Dshu said:

I think they need to install an "I'm entitled " mode to the game where you get free rewards for just logging in. Something like a login calendar........ oh never mind

For the people who can't log in every day perhaps there should be an intermediate difficulty calendar.

PsyLife

I don’t want to sound entitled, but I think @Zakrw_317 has a point. What’s missing is not mid tier content. It’s mid tier content with a special challenge. Make the PIs at 10,000, make the nodes a little less, and just have it their for mid tier players to progress. Because eventually, Mid tier players will stop looking forward to the new updates with variants. There’s no challenge to them, without them being possible.

Dshu

PsyLife said:

I don’t want to sound entitled, but I think @Zakrw_317 has a point. What’s missing is not mid tier content. It’s mid tier content with a special challenge. Make the PIs at 10,000, make the nodes a little less, and just have it their for mid tier players to progress. Because eventually, Mid tier players will stop looking forward to the new updates with variants. There’s no challenge to them, without them being possible.

Or eventually mid tier players will progress in skill to the level of current end game players and feel a sense of achievement when they beat the variant content which is permanent.
Asking for a mid tier level for permanent content is like asking for a mid tier content of act 6 with lower pi and reduced nodes. Permanent content is going no where and when your account and skills are ready you will clear it. It's not a race and there is no first place. It's a game build your skills and team and conquer it when you are ready.

PsyLife

Dshu said:

PsyLife said:

I don’t want to sound entitled, but I think @Zakrw_317 has a point. What’s missing is not mid tier content. It’s mid tier content with a special challenge. Make the PIs at 10,000, make the nodes a little less, and just have it their for mid tier players to progress. Because eventually, Mid tier players will stop looking forward to the new updates with variants. There’s no challenge to them, without them being possible.

Or eventually mid tier players will progress in skill to the level of current end game players and feel a sense of achievement when they beat the variant content which is permanent.
Asking for a mid tier level for permanent content is like asking for a mid tier content of act 6 with lower pi and reduced nodes. Permanent content is going no where and when your account and skills are ready you will clear it. It's not a race and there is no first place. It's a game build your skills and team and conquer it when you are ready.

I don’t think you get the point of what I’m saying. I’m saying that some players don’t have the skill to do other content, and act 5 is the only passage way to endgame content. The whole idea of a mid tier variant is to help players get the skill to do it. Think of it as like master difficulty, while variant is like cavalier difficulty. It would have less nodes, but still have similar ideas to encourage roster improvement. Variant 4 might be 3 stars to 1 stars instead.

DNA3000

PsyLife said:

Dshu said:

PsyLife said:

I don’t want to sound entitled, but I think @Zakrw_317 has a point. What’s missing is not mid tier content. It’s mid tier content with a special challenge. Make the PIs at 10,000, make the nodes a little less, and just have it their for mid tier players to progress. Because eventually, Mid tier players will stop looking forward to the new updates with variants. There’s no challenge to them, without them being possible.

Or eventually mid tier players will progress in skill to the level of current end game players and feel a sense of achievement when they beat the variant content which is permanent.
Asking for a mid tier level for permanent content is like asking for a mid tier content of act 6 with lower pi and reduced nodes. Permanent content is going no where and when your account and skills are ready you will clear it. It's not a race and there is no first place. It's a game build your skills and team and conquer it when you are ready.

I don’t think you get the point of what I’m saying. I’m saying that some players don’t have the skill to do other content, and act 5 is the only passage way to endgame content. The whole idea of a mid tier variant is to help players get the skill to do it. Think of it as like master difficulty, while variant is like cavalier difficulty. It would have less nodes, but still have similar ideas to encourage roster improvement. Variant 4 might be 3 stars to 1 stars instead.

I have no idea what you mean by "passage way." The permanent "Act" missions are the primary progression ladder, but they aren't the exclusive progression content. It is more correct to say that the Acts are the milestones on the progression ladder, and the rest of progression is filled in by the monthly events. When you say "Act 5 is the only passage way to endgame content" that sounds like you're saying if you finish Act 4 and can't do Act 5 you're just stuck. But that's not true at all. You're going to be doing Heroic or Master monthly missions to continue to hone your skills and build your roster. You're going to work your way up to Act 5. Specifically, 5.1. And then 5.2, and finally 5.2.6 and the Collector. Gaining Uncollected status would be the next progressional milestone, unlocking Uncollected difficulty, uncollected crystals, and the next step up.

The road to Variant goes through this path, and there's no roadblock anywhere on that path that would require a player to get some alternate means of progress to reach a point where they could do the Variant difficulty missions.

Separate from that, "mid-tier Variant" partially defeats the purpose of the Variant difficulties, which is to test high tier or end game players. If there were training wheel versions of those missions then the actual Variant difficulties wouldn't be as difficult or challenging; players would have had practice with weaker versions of the maps. They would be in a sense inoculated against the difficulty, like weakened virus is sometimes used to create vaccines. That would make them less special in content, and no longer serve the primary reason they exist.

To put it another way, end game content is generally like a final exam: it is there to test to see if you've learned the class, as end game content tests to see if players are strong enough at their point of progression to complete it. Asking for an easier way to do the end game content with weaker end game content because it is too hard to progress normally in the game is like asking for a bunch of practice exams that will teach you how to pass the final exam without actually having to take the class, because learning the class is too difficult and there should be an easier way to learn how to just pass the final exam directly.

KDoggg2017

Why is it impossible for players to look at content and realize they aren't ready for it yet? That they need to come back when they have an increased skill level?
I do it.
All. The. Time. 😏

PsyLife

DNA3000 said:

PsyLife said:

Dshu said:

PsyLife said:

I don’t want to sound entitled, but I think @Zakrw_317 has a point. What’s missing is not mid tier content. It’s mid tier content with a special challenge. Make the PIs at 10,000, make the nodes a little less, and just have it their for mid tier players to progress. Because eventually, Mid tier players will stop looking forward to the new updates with variants. There’s no challenge to them, without them being possible.

Or eventually mid tier players will progress in skill to the level of current end game players and feel a sense of achievement when they beat the variant content which is permanent.
Asking for a mid tier level for permanent content is like asking for a mid tier content of act 6 with lower pi and reduced nodes. Permanent content is going no where and when your account and skills are ready you will clear it. It's not a race and there is no first place. It's a game build your skills and team and conquer it when you are ready.

I don’t think you get the point of what I’m saying. I’m saying that some players don’t have the skill to do other content, and act 5 is the only passage way to endgame content. The whole idea of a mid tier variant is to help players get the skill to do it. Think of it as like master difficulty, while variant is like cavalier difficulty. It would have less nodes, but still have similar ideas to encourage roster improvement. Variant 4 might be 3 stars to 1 stars instead.

I have no idea what you mean by "passage way." The permanent "Act" missions are the primary progression ladder, but they aren't the exclusive progression content. It is more correct to say that the Acts are the milestones on the progression ladder, and the rest of progression is filled in by the monthly events. When you say "Act 5 is the only passage way to endgame content" that sounds like you're saying if you finish Act 4 and can't do Act 5 you're just stuck. But that's not true at all. You're going to be doing Heroic or Master monthly missions to continue to hone your skills and build your roster. You're going to work your way up to Act 5. Specifically, 5.1. And then 5.2, and finally 5.2.6 and the Collector. Gaining Uncollected status would be the next progressional milestone, unlocking Uncollected difficulty, uncollected crystals, and the next step up.

The road to Variant goes through this path, and there's no roadblock anywhere on that path that would require a player to get some alternate means of progress to reach a point where they could do the Variant difficulty missions.

Separate from that, "mid-tier Variant" partially defeats the purpose of the Variant difficulties, which is to test high tier or end game players. If there were training wheel versions of those missions then the actual Variant difficulties wouldn't be as difficult or challenging; players would have had practice with weaker versions of the maps. They would be in a sense inoculated against the difficulty, like weakened virus is sometimes used to create vaccines. That would make them less special in content, and no longer serve the primary reason they exist.

To put it another way, end game content is generally like a final exam: it is there to test to see if you've learned the class, as end game content tests to see if players are strong enough at their point of progression to complete it. Asking for an easier way to do the end game content with weaker end game content because it is too hard to progress normally in the game is like asking for a bunch of practice exams that will teach you how to pass the final exam without actually having to take the class, because learning the class is too difficult and there should be an easier way to learn how to just pass the final exam directly.

I see what you mean, but the analogy is kinda flawed, because many teachers still give practice tests for a reason.

2nd_slingshot

The practice needed is to go in. Die. Go out. Go back in and try again. There was a time when master mode was hell to me. Now I just don't because of the units it gives that uncollected doesn't. Also LOL, I can't count how many times I fought red hulk just for practice. I had enough practice and then I got aegon. I cleared LOL first path after playing for 3yrs. I had the skill to do it way before. Brush up on your skill, wait for the better roster and while waiting. Keep practising how to die to them nodes.