**Mastery Loadouts**
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Act 6 Focus Group Feedback
Rockypantherx
Posts: 3,900 ★★★★★
Alright, so the proverbial cat is out of the proverbial bag. The final Act 6 nerfs are going live. I was lucky enough to be part of the focus group that gave feedback on the pain points to Act 6. So, in an effort for full transparency and accountability, here is my feedback in its entirety. I must warn you, it's very, very long. If you've seen any of my other posts before, the sum of these 2 documents dwarf them
Boss Fights:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TrIhwMVULhx5w2QITqxv822dZNb4-sIKL0lY-wlMDmc/edit?usp=sharing
Path Fights:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RwpdGCytFReCg5iY3DgDM5fVMSQnxMGc4K02j8_hlk8/edit?usp=sharing
Overall, the changes they've made are...alright. As you'll see in my feedback, I don't think they went far enough, not even close, but I was being very liberal with which fights I included, simply because I would rather mention a fight and it not get changed, than miss a fight that needed changing and nothing happened to it. 2 clear examples to me are the fact that Strength in Numbers still exists at all, and the continued existence of Buffed Up, Pilfer Sym Supreme.
I would invite any other focus group members to share their feedback here if they want, or can do. No obligation. I just thought it might be interesting for the rest of the community to see what kind of feedback was given.
Best of luck in Act 6 to all of you who haven't done it yet, and to those who have, congrats!
Boss Fights:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TrIhwMVULhx5w2QITqxv822dZNb4-sIKL0lY-wlMDmc/edit?usp=sharing
Path Fights:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RwpdGCytFReCg5iY3DgDM5fVMSQnxMGc4K02j8_hlk8/edit?usp=sharing
Overall, the changes they've made are...alright. As you'll see in my feedback, I don't think they went far enough, not even close, but I was being very liberal with which fights I included, simply because I would rather mention a fight and it not get changed, than miss a fight that needed changing and nothing happened to it. 2 clear examples to me are the fact that Strength in Numbers still exists at all, and the continued existence of Buffed Up, Pilfer Sym Supreme.
I would invite any other focus group members to share their feedback here if they want, or can do. No obligation. I just thought it might be interesting for the rest of the community to see what kind of feedback was given.
Best of luck in Act 6 to all of you who haven't done it yet, and to those who have, congrats!
17
Comments
I don't think Havok was the right substitute though
Act 6 Revamp Notes
6.1-6.2.4: I don’t really have anything issues with any nodes or paths that won’t be alleviated by the attack value nerf.
6.2.5: General for this quest: Remove all stun/debuff immune and limber nodes. The global node makes the fights hard enough as it is, there’s no need to make the fights even more ridiculous.
Punisher: Either remove the Energize or Aspect of Evolution, the amount of power he gets is absurd mostly because there is a ton of block damage from it. This might be alleviated by the attack value reduction, so it might be fine to leave.
Venom: Caustic Temper and Regeneration. This combination in and of itself isn’t too bad. Take it with Captain Sparkles with some points in despair and you’ll be able to overpower it. The issue is that this path is full of very niche fights (Micro Reflect Ant-Man, Bane/Spite/Debuff Immune Rogue, Korg) and consider that Mordo also requires a niche counter, it makes the path very difficult to properly counter. If you remove either one of the nodes, it makes the fight a lot better while still being difficult. Given that the node also has Breakthrough, I’d recommend removing Caustic Temper. This makes it so the Regen offsets the extra damage from Breakthrough until you can overpower it. To keep it from being too easy by reversing the healing with Void (who people often bring in to counter Mordo), I recommend adding either Lionheart or Indomitable (I believe that’s the one that prevents healing from being reversed).
6.2.5: Alternative Solution: So, I never understood why 6.2.5 is so radically different from every other quest in 6.2. There are no path identities and it makes 6.2.5 such a different experience than the rest of 6.2 (and not in a good way, 6.2.5 is probably the worst quest in all of Act 6, rivaled only by 6.3.4 which has the same issue). What I recommend is removing these individual nodes altogether and creating path identities for each one, like how it is in all other quests.
6.2.6: If you have been watching KT1, chances are you know exactly what fight/path I’m gonna talk about
Do You Bleed?: First off. Do You Bleed? Rogue. Not fun. Now, to start. So Do You Bleed? itself is a tolerable node, it’s not preferable in Act 6 given the health pools but it’s tolerable. Having the path be full of pseudo-Bleed immune champs is not okay. I can’t speak for everyone, but I didn’t even use Bleed champs to get past it. In fact, I never use Bleed champs to get past Do You Bleed?, I use a ramped up Ægon and beat into their block. It’s faster and funnier than trying to Bleed Emma Frost, Killmonger with the Fearless node, Ghost, or Rogue. Truthfully, even if this path had champs like Falcon, Hulk, Gwenpool, and Wolverine instead, I’d still use a ramped up Ægon because it’s faster than playing along with Do You Bleed?
How I think this should be fixed: Do You Bleed? should always be accompanied by Bleed Vulnerability. Additionally, it should behave like Acid Wash where you can’t deal real damage until you have the debuff on the opponent. If this isn’t going to be the case, I recommend swapping out all the current defenders for literally any other champion that isn’t Bleed immune or pseudo-Bleed immune.
6.3: This will be a long one mostly because I really disapprove of the boost system.
6.3.1:
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: This is another one of the nodes that I don’t think should exist in the game. It offers no reward for playing with the desired champs. I got through this path by ramping up Ægon to a 750 combo. It was cheaper and better than wasting resources on Juggs or trying to get through it with Thing. The best solution I have is to remove CSWS and replace it with a better node. The other solution I have is to rework CSWS so that it gives a large attack bonus while unstoppable.
Mesmerize/Pilfer: No. Just no. Look, I get that the point of this combo is to have people use the boost, but what it really does is have people rank up and use Quake. Now, I hate using Quake so I actually tried it using the boost. It was not fun. The best way to fix this path is to remove the Pilfer node and replace it Buffet. My reasoning behind this is that it still prevents Venom from being used effectively, which I think was the partial purpose of Pilfer since there are three Spider champions, but allows for more counterplay (using Fury with Heimdall/Angela, Night Trasher [granted he doesn’t need the change to work], Ghost [can be used more effectively], Iceman [more effective], and other True Strike Buff champion).
Footloose/No Retreat: Honestly, I think this one is fine. The boost here is pretty useless, but most mystics deal with this just fine and a Slow champ for Thing. I got through this path by using Sym Supreme, Doom, Sunspot, and two other champs I can’t remember.
Long-Distance Relationship Void: Yeah. This one sucks. I just ramped up Ægon to deal with it. Just remove LDR from it and it’ll be fine.
6.3.2: Mostly this one is fun.
Inevitably: So, I get it. This node is meant to force you use the boost for the path, I just don’t think it’s necessary. Between Encroaching Stun and Biohazard, you’re pretty much just going to be using Sentinel/Warlock/G2099 to get through it but you shouldn’t be punished for using someone from another class. This is also indicative of my dislike of the soft class gates that the boosts force.
6.3.3: You already know what I’m gonna say so I’ll keep it short: Acid Wash Mysterio. Get rid of Acid Wash.
6.3.4: My man issue with 6.3.4 is that each fight is more or less individually noded instead of having path identities.
Improved Power Gain/All or Nothing Havok: Just why. Get rid of All or Nothing, if you don’t have Vision, this fight is absurd.
Stun Immune/Improved Power Gain/Aspect of Evolution Magik: Way way too much power gain, remove one of them and it’ll be a lot better.
Do Not Go Gentle/Buffet Korg: I still have not emotionally recovered from this fight. Oh man, it is such a bad bad bad fight. Just remove Buffet and it’ll be fine. Horrible but doable.
6.3.5: I have three chief issues
Power Shield Thing: Thing should not be on a Power Shield node. Now, I recently found out that launching an SP3 when the protection isn’t active bypasses it but I don’t know if is this a bug or not. Either way, I just don’t think Thing should ever be on a Power Shield node since he massively reduces special damage.
Long Distance Relationship/Cramping: Ok, I have made a forum post about this before and I just don’t understand the purpose of this lane as the boost associated with it doesn’t do anything unless you’re using Mordo, but Mordo doesn’t even counter 10% of the fights on the path. I got through this using Ægon with the debuff immune boost. Other than him with that boost, you can use a max sig Namor, Quake, or Elsa Bloodstone (Kinda, she’s not great for it). You can also use any skill with the Live Intel boost. To fix this path, I recommend to just remove Cramping.
Safeguard/Corned/Clapback: So one of these needs to be removed. I recommend removing cornered. As it is, there is just too much working against you unless you’re using Quake.
6.3.6: Nothing really to address here. The only issue I have is the Special Chaos Inversion but that’s a personal issue as I absolutely suck with inverted controls, especially when it’s only during specials.
6.4: I don’t have much to address here as I thought it was really well balanced (other than the massive attack values, but that’s being addressed already)
6.4.1:
Spectre/Gimme VtD: just get rid of Spectre, it’s directly counterproductive to the Gimme node.
Tyranny/Unblockable Finale/Tunnel Vision/Biohazard/Nano-Plague Green Goblin: Way too much going on here. Just remove Unblockable Finale and it’ll be fine. Currently the best counter is Colossus (actually he’s the only counter I know of, but I’m most likely missing someone obvious).
Stun Vulnerability/One-Eye Open Luke Cage: Not actually an issue with the fight, just confusion. Why have Stun Vulnerability on him if you also have One-Eye Open? It just doesn’t make any sense.
6.4.2: Two path issues
Special Connoisseur: My issue with Special Connoisseur is simple enough: it requires you play with a very small group of champs, punishes you heavily for not using them, but does not reward you for using the required champs. I addressed this earlier, so I’ll keep it short: there needs to be increased damage on our specials if we have a prowess effect (more than the prowess effect already gives us). Additionally, remove Thing from this path as it’s just cruel to have a Thing where you can only deal damage through specials.
Special Connoisseur/Encroaching Stun Man-Thing: There‘a just not a good counter for this fight other than... you guessed it, Quake. Remove Encroaching Stun and it’ll be way better.
Tunnel Vision/Crit Me With Your Best Shot Annihilus: Man, there is nothing good about this fight. There is no good counter to this champion and node combo. I used Fury and revives. Many many revives. Just straight up swap Annihilus for another defender.
Terminal Velocity/Crit Me With Your Best Shot Taskmaster: Again, this is a node combo that directly contradicts the other’s required playstyle. This shouldn’t be something that happens. Toss on Tunnel Vision and that fight is a beast. Remove Terminal Velocity to fairly balance this fight.
6.4.4: One path issue
Stun Immune/Spite: So with the reduction to attack values, I think this path will be balanced. In its current form, it’s really difficult. Additionally, trying to beat the Spidergwen is a nightmare.
6.4.4: No issues to address here. I suck at inverted controls, that’s my only comment.
6.4.5: A lot.
Vivified/Masochism: Yeah so Vivified itself is the issue. It’s an unbalanced node, replace it with Energize 200% for a similar effect but making it counterable
Actually, that’s the only issue I have with 6.4.5. I just really really hated Vivified. The best counter is Ghost with Hood.
6.4.6: Not much really
Lifecycle/Rage/Limber: I’d recommend swapping Rage for Protection, but it’s not that big of a deal.
Mesmerize/Pilfer/Redoubled Determination: This was a really difficult path but I don’t really have any suggestions on how to make it better while still keeping it around the same level of difficulty, so if anyone else does, that’d be great. If not, this path is doable with Quake and Ghost.
Also, the 6.3.6 Cap IW change. I won't even call it a nerf. Why did they have to change that node? It was easily Ronan cheesable and now it's just harder for the player. They should've removed surging vengeance instead.
I’m going to be honest, the more I look at these changes, the more superficial they feel. We saw the feedback, and I’m not sure how much was actually listened to. Obviously some were made, I like the acid wash Mysterio change
OML has 95% bleed resistance. Now this path will become a lot more difficult. I am glad that I have already explored it 100%
now it’s poison, dang it.
The invitation did not arrive in time for me to participate. Kabam sent me an email with about 48 hours notice that group would be live, and it was open for approximately 72 hours over a weekend. I discovered the message the following Monday, and by the time I joined the servers, the conversations were closed. I think more lead-up time would allow people the opportunity to participate, which would increase feedback quality.
Additionally, there was no discussion or back-and-forth with Kabam on the observations, it was just a data dump. I was able to read the entirety of the focus group's discussion even though I missed the participation window, and it was all coming from players. If Kabam joined the discussion, there could have been additional information gathered that could help them with the adjustments.
Neither of these points are groundbreaking, and the idea of the focus group was awesome. I would love for Kabam to do this again/make it more permanent so they can gather feedback from different players at different levels in the game. If they do, I hope they consider these two changes.
Hell, Acid Wash hulkbuster in map 7 was worse