To be honest, if it's not for this post, the community would not have kicked up a big fuss. We understand that as champs get higher rank, death matches or matches with much higher PI will naturally happen. But not at this frequent level where u are basically facing much higher PI Opponents all the time after 15 streaks.
In future, just post, u will get much more death squads instead of less likely. Consumers are not dumb. They want something that is as per what was advertised. If u give something much different, it's natural that people complain. Just my 2 cents.
Didn't read through all the comments but it does favour the lower ranked champions on being paired up with one another. 5*R4s/6*R1s matching up against 6*R3s is quite a stretch though.
Would agree that having at least 7 days of this new matching system will tell us more than the past 24h, but what metrics won't tell you is the effort it takes to grind now. From mindless grinding to more concentration needed per fight - this is what's frustrating. The average points per player in X arena will definitely be higher, seeing that the points given are much higher for this iteration of the arena, so measuring anything related to points won't do you guys any good. Perhaps compare before and afters for:
• Number of fights that ended with 1/3 or 2/3 victories • Time taken to complete a set of 3 fights • Number of lost streaks above x
And I lost this one. I haven't lost an arena series in years. They would not use a special attack. Spent minutes baiting specials and nothing. Get clipped once by a hit and a combo kills you because all these guys are running suicides. I'll be done with this stupid ass game if you don't fix arena.
To the guy who decided those matchmaking changes would be a good idea :
Thanks for demonstrating us how damaged your brain is. I guess you're the one who designed the mysterio acid wash fight, right ?
I didn't think it was possible. You took the worst game mode and managed to make it even more miserable while advertising changes people would enjoy. And even worse, I'm sure you really mean it which shows how out of touch you are.
I'm over 586K victories in arena today so I know what I'm talking about. All my 5* are rank 3 or above and a full 5* run used to take around 2 hours (this was before the game app crashes every hour on average). Yesterday it took 2h45. Thanks for wasting an extra 45 minutes of my life per run. Did I enjoy the grind ? I already did not before, but for the first time you managed to convince me to let down not play another run.
Let's face it. Arena has been the last shelter for players who realize how crazy overpriced the unit store is, and how the crystal algorithm is meant to screw players. By the way, how is the patent to skew drop rates depending on players past spending behavior doing ? Oh yeah that's true, you spent thousands of dollars in research to develop it but you don't use it so everything is fine.
So now you are in good way to definitely disgust people of the arena. I should be thankful after all. Maybe thanks to you I'll finally reach the no return point and delete this game forever like I should have done a long time ago.
Feel free to delete this post. Since no one will be able to read it after you can always claim it breaks the forum rules right ? What rules ? I don't know man, you'll easily invent one. We know you change the game rules at your convenience, I mean everytime you have a spine in your foot right ?
5* Featured - Definitely seeing much harder match ups once past round 15. You used to get one team roughly the same PI as yours and a couple of harder ones. Now pretty much every opposing team is 1.5 to 2x the PI of yours. This is not making the Arena more accessible and it is not what Kabam described. So either the description was misleading or Kabam has messed it up and they don’t want to admit it. Personally I think you should get one Easy (similar PI), one medium (1.5x PI) and one hard (2x PI) offered in each round and then players can either choose to play safer to keep their streak or go harder to build more points more quickly. Sometimes I’ve had a few beers and I’m watching tv while i play and I don’t want to have to concentrate intently on the game. Now I’m having to 100% focus on every fight so it’s a quality of life of issue for me. I don’t mind doing more rounds and getting more gold and battle chips as I reach my target as I only really play the one Arena usually.
To the guy who decided those matchmaking changes would be a good idea :
Thanks for demonstrating us how damaged your brain is. I guess you're the one who designed the mysterio acid wash fight, right ?
I didn't think it was possible. You took the worst game mode and managed to make it even more miserable while advertising changes people would enjoy. And even worse, I'm sure you really mean it which shows how out of touch you are.
I'm over 586K victories in arena today so I know what I'm talking about. All my 5* are rank 3 or above and a full 5* run used to take around 2 hours (this was before the game app crashes every hour on average). Yesterday it took 2h45. Thanks for wasting an extra 45 minutes of my life per run. Did I enjoy the grind ? I already did not before, but for the first time you managed to convince me to let down not play another run.
Let's face it. Arena has been the last shelter for players who realize how crazy overpriced the unit store is, and how the crystal algorithm is meant to screw players. By the way, how is the patent to skew drop rates depending on players past spending behavior doing ? Oh yeah that's true, you spent thousands of dollars in research to develop it but you don't use it so everything is fine.
So now you are in good way to definitely disgust people of the arena. I should be thankful after all. Maybe thanks to you I'll finally reach the no return point and delete this game forever like I should have done a long time ago.
Feel free to delete this post. Since no one will be able to read it after you can always claim it breaks the forum rules right ? What rules ? I don't know man, you'll easily invent one. We know you change the game rules at your convenience, I mean everytime you have a spine in your foot right ?
Arena is where I get my units. Now teams of R4's and 6* R1's are useless. I have no need to R4 anyone now and I have 40 6* that are now literally useless. Arena is way harder and takes more time?!?! This is how I get units. If this continues past this arena I will quit after this current AQ cycle is over. I have already told my alliance too.
In the 4* featured, 3/45s aren't "safe". it's not r3 six stars, bit you do have r5 5* and r2 6*. And they weren't really more aggressive for me, even when building the streak
This makes me irate to be honest. All you had to do to "fix" arena was give it normal AI. That's it! This just looks like you're screwing over guys who use arena to farm units. Fix it or I quit, it's really that simple.
Just to give some context to what these changes are, and why there has been an impact on the Infinite Streak:
Previously, when. you got higher in your streak, the Arena was trying to match you with a team that was at 4x your team's PI. Once you cross a certain threshold, there aren't any teams that high, so the system defaults to a fake team/something very low. To be very clear, this was an unintentional bug, and we've told players that in the past. We left it in-game for a long time because it's something that players are very used to.
What we changed is that the max PI of the opposite team should only be 2x. It definitely killed the formula players have known, and we understand that. We're looking at what else we can do to alleviate this situation.
It may not mean a total revert, but we're still open to that after we see more data and information from more players. There are other solutions, and we're going to look into it. Please keep your responses and opinions constructive in this thread.
So basically the opponents we are facing are 2x stronger than before. That´s alright, just double all of the rewards then and we´re even... /s You can´t tell me that something that has been part of the game now for 5 years was "an unintentional bug". Sorry...
This is frustrating. Twice the time for 10-20% more points per fight is not acceptable. Sometimes it takes even longer because the AI is not always aggressive enough to throw specials, but you have no choice but to try and bait them out. If you don't, it's a guaranteed 1-shot on an SP3 because AI already has some unrealistic boost on their SP3 and when they're twice your size that's already a problem.
You say these changes were made for newer players, yet completely missed the fact that 4* and 5* featured arenas are not for newer players. It is a great idea to make more champs viable to fight in these arenas, but in doing so you have made things more frustrating for the players you have spent the last 6 months trying to keep from quitting the game. If these arenas are too difficult for new players, then they need to put the same time and energy into the game to expand their rosters the way the rest of us did.
You have made great changes for both new and old players over the months, but this is the first one that has completely alienated the very players you've been trying to keep invested into playing the game and grinding.
It is true that it is more expensive to acquire new customers than to retain old customers, and that should be the reality if these changes aren't reversed or at least corrected to welcome new players into the ebb and flow that veterans have enjoyed for years.
I, like many players, am a F2P hybrid. I don't regularly spend money on the game, but I enjoy taking advantage of the deals that fall on July 4th and Cyber Weekend. In arenas alone, I grind roughly 1k units per week and I was hoping to grind another 6-8k units between now and Cyber Weekend so I have a good pile of units on top of the unit bundle offers I usually purchase. These changes are so incredibly frustrating and so incredibly time consuming that it is going to cut into my unit grinding significantly. It's honestly so frustrating that it makes me not want to run arenas at all. I am not going to buy into this terrible money grab and make up the difference for units I am going to lose out on. And frankly, if these changes aren't reverted, then I will have no plans to spend any money on Cyber Weekend, and I ask other players to take the same stand. Arenas have been butchered and they are changes made just to get us to supplement the lost units with our wallets. I am not asking for anything new or extra, I'm asking that those that have invested their time into learning the inner workings of the game and have expanded their rosters to take advantage of that knowledge not have our primary source of regular units taken away from us for the sake of players that are not invested with their time or money in the same way.
Just to give some context to what these changes are, and why there has been an impact on the Infinite Streak:
Previously, when. you got higher in your streak, the Arena was trying to match you with a team that was at 4x your team's PI. Once you cross a certain threshold, there aren't any teams that high, so the system defaults to a fake team/something very low. To be very clear, this was an unintentional bug, and we've told players that in the past. We left it in-game for a long time because it's something that players are very used to.
What we changed is that the max PI of the opposite team should only be 2x. It definitely killed the formula players have known, and we understand that. We're looking at what else we can do to alleviate this situation.
It may not mean a total revert, but we're still open to that after we see more data and information from more players. There are other solutions, and we're going to look into it. Please keep your responses and opinions constructive in this thread.
I read a lot of posts, and most people are annoyed with the possibility of losing a streak and the extra time it takes to complete matches. And so i ask - why x2? Why not make the limit x1.3? It will be manageable, slightly harder than before, acceptable to both old grinders and new players.
a team of full r4 vs full r5? Doable. Full r3 maxed 6 stars that need counters and specific play styles? Not fun.
I don’t think there is any difference in getting to the streak. It wasn’t any harder for me as I use my 5r5 and 6* in rounds 9-15 and I can handle the match ups there. I think I saw less Kang/Thanos teams but that’s all. Same for fights where you are using your top champs for the rest of your run. The problem as I see it (and other people here seem to be finding the same) is that once you get further into your roster and you are using your 5r4 and 5r3 champs you are still being matched with 6r3 teams that are close to or more than 2x your team. This is surely not what Kabam intended and needs to be fixed. I agree with the posts above saying that only the AI really needed changing and a rollback to the matchmaking is required. I would like some consideration given to the idea of giving an Easy/Medium/Hard enemy team in each round though as I think it would be much more inclusive. The ability to get higher scores would be purely dependent on the skill and roster of the player and the risks they are willing to take. You could get rid of the whole death squad nonsense completely and make it even more inclusive. I would also gladly see the function removed of refreshing your champs with units rather than waiting for their stamina to recharge as I think this would level the playing field further, but I doubt Kabam would entertain that!
Arena should be made easier to entice people to actually play it. I was a grinder for about 3 years but haven't touched it in like 6months as the game is incredibly boring. Making matcher harder or require more thought is not going to get me back.
The "Infinite Streak" is not a feature of the game, but rather the result of the requirements/calculations for finding matches. It is always changing and will continue to do so as more and more players have access to higher ranked Champions.
This change is not made only for those that are "in the know" about the Infinite Streak. We promised to lower the number of deathmatches, and we've done just that. This is a major improvement for all players, especially those that are new to the Arena.
That is absolutely not what happened. I’m into the 30’s in my streak using teams of 6*s team rating 24-27k and getting hit every single match with 60k teams. I don’t know who told you that this is better but they lied to you, which is obvious by how many people are disagreeing with you here. This is embarrassing. Completely ruined arena.
and I don't really understand the original system that you described, where it searches for matches 4x your pi, and the normal matches was a "bug". so we're the death matches the intended result? was every series supposed to be a death match? or is that something made up
i think we might be reacted too early than intended. this new improved arena update is just step 1 of it's roadmap. the next step is auto help request and a cache filter that we can prepare ahead of any star rarity champion to save more time with grinding. i think it's only takes that long to finish a fight because the other arena update haven't been implemented yet.
Making arenas more annoying for the same rewards is not a good way to push forward, Kabam. Makes a miserable game mode more annoying, and makes people shy away from grinding your game even more.
After almost 18hrs post arena update. Here are some thoughts.
The new Arena's AI change is a net positive overall as opponents SP's can be baited. However, that's where the positives end.
There are some fundamental design flaws with the arena with the matchmaking. Some of it will likely encourage less spending from players by design - and that's not due to ppl quitting! The discussion below pertains on the 4* Featured and 5* Featured primarily.
So here is what everyone is facing:
In the old system, post-20 rounds, we reach an "infinite streak" where once the players champions are above a certain PI, in effect, they are matched up against teams that are similar PI or less. KABAM Miike (two "i"s) mentioned something about the code being officially 4x, but since there's no teams with PI's that high, it defaults to the state we have. KABAM Miike mentioned that may have been an intended design.
In the new system, every after 20 no longer places importance of a PI cutoff. The teams that you are faced up against are approximately 2x PI. We see the following match-ups.
(1) Rank 2 5* teams face Rank 4/55 5* teams or Rank 1/25 6* teams (2) Rank 3 5* teams face Rank 5/65 5* Teams or Rank 2/35 6* Teams (3) Maxed 5* teams face Rank 3/45 6* Teams (4) Rank 1 5* Teams face Rank 3/45 5* Teams
Out of the mix, the best match-ups are actually scenario (4). Why? Too many people follow common tier lists posted online and level up the same champs to as high as possible. When casually grinding arena, I don't want to constantly face teams comprised of Doom / G2099 / Domino / Nick Fury / CAIW / Void / etc. Those fights are winnable, but it requires high attention where one twitch mistake will mean death and likely means the end of your streak.
Do we run into those teams when playing Rank 1 5*s? Absolutely, but less often than when running Rank 2s or Rank 3s. I recall running into the same Doom / Domino / Nick Fury team 4 times in a row - all 5/65. This is not fun.
There's a huge pool of god-tier (Seatin's term, not mine) champs already ranked up in Arena to discourage ranking up 5*s for Arena. In effect, through the changes, Kabam has unintentionally discouraged players from making arena rank ups. It's far better to keep champs at rank 1 5*s and pray on the rank 3 pool, which is usually easier.
Guess where Kabam offers have been leaning the last 2yrs? Rank up materials. This means that player base would be less likely to spend from this change.
Short Term Suggested Solution: - Keep AI (obviously) - Bring back KANG / THANOs teams - this provided a predictable set of matches for players looking to push streaks. - Revert to old matchmaking in the next Arena temporarily
Longer Term Solution: Some suggestions from the forum suggests changing the 2x multiplier to 1.5x. I'm not sure if that's ideal either. I suspect this would still shrink the diversity of match-ups - let's call it what it is...increase undesirable matchups.
Equal team PI matchups provide diversity of team when grinding 100+ rounds. It's not fun facing the same teams when everyone levels up the same champs. I suspect this would result higher rage-quit rate - was that Kabam's intent? to trim the F2P basein Arena ? If so, I guess go for it...
I remember that BS roadmap you released 3 monthes ago...
"We have heard you. We have taken your feedback into consideration. We are gonna make life quality improvements"
What did you do ? You screwed even more a game mode that was already a piece of trash. And now you're trying to hide between a so called "5 years long bug fix" ? Go to hell.
A lot of changes can happen in this game but one thing will remain forever : they will always consider players as idiots.
This is frustrating. Twice the time for 10-20% more points per fight is not acceptable. Sometimes it takes even longer because the AI is not always aggressive enough to throw specials, but you have no choice but to try and bait them out. If you don't, it's a guaranteed 1-shot on an SP3 because AI already has some unrealistic boost on their SP3 and when they're twice your size that's already a problem.
You say these changes were made for newer players, yet completely missed the fact that 4* and 5* featured arenas are not for newer players. It is a great idea to make more champs viable to fight in these arenas, but in doing so you have made things more frustrating for the players you have spent the last 6 months trying to keep from quitting the game. If these arenas are too difficult for new players, then they need to put the same time and energy into the game to expand their rosters the way the rest of us did.
You have made great changes for both new and old players over the months, but this is the first one that has completely alienated the very players you've been trying to keep invested into playing the game and grinding.
It is true that it is more expensive to acquire new customers than to retain old customers, and that should be the reality if these changes aren't reversed or at least corrected to welcome new players into the ebb and flow that veterans have enjoyed for years.
I, like many players, am a F2P hybrid. I don't regularly spend money on the game, but I enjoy taking advantage of the deals that fall on July 4th and Cyber Weekend. In arenas alone, I grind roughly 1k units per week and I was hoping to grind another 6-8k units between now and Cyber Weekend so I have a good pile of units on top of the unit bundle offers I usually purchase. These changes are so incredibly frustrating and so incredibly time consuming that it is going to cut into my unit grinding significantly. It's honestly so frustrating that it makes me not want to run arenas at all. I am not going to buy into this terrible money grab and make up the difference for units I am going to lose out on. And frankly, if these changes aren't reverted, then I will have no plans to spend any money on Cyber Weekend, and I ask other players to take the same stand. Arenas have been butchered and they are changes made just to get us to supplement the lost units with our wallets. I am not asking for anything new or extra, I'm asking that those that have invested their time into learning the inner workings of the game and have expanded their rosters to take advantage of that knowledge not have our primary source of regular units taken away from us for the sake of players that are not invested with their time or money in the same way.
This is frustrating. Twice the time for 10-20% more points per fight is not acceptable. Sometimes it takes even longer because the AI is not always aggressive enough to throw specials, but you have no choice but to try and bait them out. If you don't, it's a guaranteed 1-shot on an SP3 because AI already has some unrealistic boost on their SP3 and when they're twice your size that's already a problem.
You say these changes were made for newer players, yet completely missed the fact that 4* and 5* featured arenas are not for newer players. It is a great idea to make more champs viable to fight in these arenas, but in doing so you have made things more frustrating for the players you have spent the last 6 months trying to keep from quitting the game. If these arenas are too difficult for new players, then they need to put the same time and energy into the game to expand their rosters the way the rest of us did.
You have made great changes for both new and old players over the months, but this is the first one that has completely alienated the very players you've been trying to keep invested into playing the game and grinding.
It is true that it is more expensive to acquire new customers than to retain old customers, and that should be the reality if these changes aren't reversed or at least corrected to welcome new players into the ebb and flow that veterans have enjoyed for years.
I, like many players, am a F2P hybrid. I don't regularly spend money on the game, but I enjoy taking advantage of the deals that fall on July 4th and Cyber Weekend. In arenas alone, I grind roughly 1k units per week and I was hoping to grind another 6-8k units between now and Cyber Weekend so I have a good pile of units on top of the unit bundle offers I usually purchase. These changes are so incredibly frustrating and so incredibly time consuming that it is going to cut into my unit grinding significantly. It's honestly so frustrating that it makes me not want to run arenas at all. I am not going to buy into this terrible money grab and make up the difference for units I am going to lose out on. And frankly, if these changes aren't reverted, then I will have no plans to spend any money on Cyber Weekend, and I ask other players to take the same stand. Arenas have been butchered and they are changes made just to get us to supplement the lost units with our wallets. I am not asking for anything new or extra, I'm asking that those that have invested their time into learning the inner workings of the game and have expanded their rosters to take advantage of that knowledge not have our primary source of regular units taken away from us for the sake of players that are not invested with their time or money in the same way.
Great post. The last paragraph in particular sums up my position exactly.
So, I guess changes has been made and I’ve missed it.
I just don’t get what’s with the new format. But it sucks so far. And I don’t understand it yet.
How many wins must we get before getting a run going?
It’s like I have to use maxed out 5* champs until God knows when TJ get a run going.
Why make changes all of a sudden?
I usually try to get 1000 or 500 5* shards but now I’m gonna lose interest in the Arena soon if I have to bust my a55 so hard just to get bare minimum rewards. I bet lots of people would feel the same too.
First time logging into the forums to make a comment--These changes are not friendly or helpful changes. Been doing arena for 5 years, and spend lightly to moderate on the game. Rely on arena for most of my gold and units. This has been a poorly executed and implemented change. I hope that you guys see that with all this feedback and change it. The death matches have increased and it's absurd. I understand the community complains when changes are made, but the arena change here was maybe the last straw for me, it has taken all the fun out of the arena. I used to look forward to the arena every week.
Cannot add anything that hasn't already been said. I am so disappointed in this arena change. Tuning the AI helps in those earlier matches but then to turn around and do what you've done to all of the other matches is pretty crappy.
I'm barely holding on to the game as is and arena was my happy place but now that that's been destroyed idk...idk...you may have lost some people over this
This is the first time I’m commenting in a while but this change is not helpful to casual player and casual arena grinders.
I usually try to get all the milestones in 4* basic and 4* featured every 2/3 weeks. I don’t have the highest skill level or the most well developed roster but it’s was decent enough to maintain a streak under the previous format. I previously enjoyed arena because once you pass round 16 you can relax and fight in a less stressful environment. You can practice intercepting and parry and any any other skills you feel like you want to try out.
In the new format the arena matchups are a lot harder and more time consuming. This isn’t great at all and has changed an area of the game that was not stressful into something far more difficult and stressful.
The arena shouldn’t be consistently matching you up with opponents 1,5x - 2x your team PI. It now feels like all my fights with 3/45 and lower are boss fights that require hyper concentration and take 50% longer than before. And there is enough stress in the game already. Players that want a challenge have cavalier difficulty and alliance war. I would prefer this format to not be so times consuming, challenging and stressful.
It’s nice that enemies are throwing specials more but overall the match making is terrible now. We should be matched against PI similar to the level we bring in and not consistently 1,5x our PI and higher.
Most of the changes based on the roadmap so far have been positive but this one is terrible. I agree with the comments that the milestones should be reviewed. They have not changed in years despite the game progressing a lot. 6* have been in the game long enough that we should be getting a 5* basic arena to allow us a way to more easily awaken our 5* champions. Those changes would be much better than the one implemented currently.
This update is also causing the game to crash a load so fixing that would also be appreciated.
To be honest, @Kabam Miike you are a bit too defensive for my taste. if this is the way forward and you guys are going to not take feedback into account then this game isn’t worth playing. This is the type of change that causes burnout and players to quit and why you guys had such a big problem a few months ago.
Comments
To be honest, if it's not for this post, the community would not have kicked up a big fuss.
We understand that as champs get higher rank, death matches or matches with much higher PI will naturally happen.
But not at this frequent level where u are basically facing much higher PI Opponents all the time after 15 streaks.
In future, just post, u will get much more death squads instead of less likely.
Consumers are not dumb. They want something that is as per what was advertised. If u give something much different, it's natural that people complain.
Just my 2 cents.
Would agree that having at least 7 days of this new matching system will tell us more than the past 24h, but what metrics won't tell you is the effort it takes to grind now. From mindless grinding to more concentration needed per fight - this is what's frustrating. The average points per player in X arena will definitely be higher, seeing that the points given are much higher for this iteration of the arena, so measuring anything related to points won't do you guys any good. Perhaps compare before and afters for:
• Number of fights that ended with 1/3 or 2/3 victories
• Time taken to complete a set of 3 fights
• Number of lost streaks above x
This is annoying!
Thanks for demonstrating us how damaged your brain is. I guess you're the one who designed the mysterio acid wash fight, right ?
I didn't think it was possible. You took the worst game mode and managed to make it even more miserable while advertising changes people would enjoy. And even worse, I'm sure you really mean it which shows how out of touch you are.
I'm over 586K victories in arena today so I know what I'm talking about. All my 5* are rank 3 or above and a full 5* run used to take around 2 hours (this was before the game app crashes every hour on average).
Yesterday it took 2h45. Thanks for wasting an extra 45 minutes of my life per run.
Did I enjoy the grind ? I already did not before, but for the first time you managed to convince me to let down not play another run.
Let's face it. Arena has been the last shelter for players who realize how crazy overpriced the unit store is, and how the crystal algorithm is meant to screw players. By the way, how is the patent to skew drop rates depending on players past spending behavior doing ? Oh yeah that's true, you spent thousands of dollars in research to develop it but you don't use it so everything is fine.
So now you are in good way to definitely disgust people of the arena. I should be thankful after all. Maybe thanks to you I'll finally reach the no return point and delete this game forever like I should have done a long time ago.
Feel free to delete this post. Since no one will be able to read it after you can always claim it breaks the forum rules right ? What rules ? I don't know man, you'll easily invent one. We know you change the game rules at your convenience, I mean everytime you have a spine in your foot right ?
You can´t tell me that something that has been part of the game now for 5 years was "an unintentional bug". Sorry...
You say these changes were made for newer players, yet completely missed the fact that 4* and 5* featured arenas are not for newer players. It is a great idea to make more champs viable to fight in these arenas, but in doing so you have made things more frustrating for the players you have spent the last 6 months trying to keep from quitting the game. If these arenas are too difficult for new players, then they need to put the same time and energy into the game to expand their rosters the way the rest of us did.
You have made great changes for both new and old players over the months, but this is the first one that has completely alienated the very players you've been trying to keep invested into playing the game and grinding.
It is true that it is more expensive to acquire new customers than to retain old customers, and that should be the reality if these changes aren't reversed or at least corrected to welcome new players into the ebb and flow that veterans have enjoyed for years.
I, like many players, am a F2P hybrid. I don't regularly spend money on the game, but I enjoy taking advantage of the deals that fall on July 4th and Cyber Weekend. In arenas alone, I grind roughly 1k units per week and I was hoping to grind another 6-8k units between now and Cyber Weekend so I have a good pile of units on top of the unit bundle offers I usually purchase. These changes are so incredibly frustrating and so incredibly time consuming that it is going to cut into my unit grinding significantly. It's honestly so frustrating that it makes me not want to run arenas at all. I am not going to buy into this terrible money grab and make up the difference for units I am going to lose out on. And frankly, if these changes aren't reverted, then I will have no plans to spend any money on Cyber Weekend, and I ask other players to take the same stand. Arenas have been butchered and they are changes made just to get us to supplement the lost units with our wallets. I am not asking for anything new or extra, I'm asking that those that have invested their time into learning the inner workings of the game and have expanded their rosters to take advantage of that knowledge not have our primary source of regular units taken away from us for the sake of players that are not invested with their time or money in the same way.
And so i ask - why x2? Why not make the limit x1.3? It will be manageable, slightly harder than before, acceptable to both old grinders and new players.
a team of full r4 vs full r5? Doable. Full r3 maxed 6 stars that need counters and specific play styles? Not fun.
These are not quality of life changes. Spending more time grinding for the same rewards is not a step in the right direction
The new Arena's AI change is a net positive overall as opponents SP's can be baited. However, that's where the positives end.
There are some fundamental design flaws with the arena with the matchmaking. Some of it will likely encourage less spending from players by design - and that's not due to ppl quitting! The discussion below pertains on the 4* Featured and 5* Featured primarily.
So here is what everyone is facing:
In the old system, post-20 rounds, we reach an "infinite streak" where once the players champions are above a certain PI, in effect, they are matched up against teams that are similar PI or less. KABAM Miike (two "i"s) mentioned something about the code being officially 4x, but since there's no teams with PI's that high, it defaults to the state we have. KABAM Miike mentioned that may have been an intended design.
In the new system, every after 20 no longer places importance of a PI cutoff. The teams that you are faced up against are approximately 2x PI. We see the following match-ups.
(1) Rank 2 5* teams face Rank 4/55 5* teams or Rank 1/25 6* teams
(2) Rank 3 5* teams face Rank 5/65 5* Teams or Rank 2/35 6* Teams
(3) Maxed 5* teams face Rank 3/45 6* Teams
(4) Rank 1 5* Teams face Rank 3/45 5* Teams
Out of the mix, the best match-ups are actually scenario (4). Why? Too many people follow common tier lists posted online and level up the same champs to as high as possible. When casually grinding arena, I don't want to constantly face teams comprised of Doom / G2099 / Domino / Nick Fury / CAIW / Void / etc. Those fights are winnable, but it requires high attention where one twitch mistake will mean death and likely means the end of your streak.
Do we run into those teams when playing Rank 1 5*s? Absolutely, but less often than when running Rank 2s or Rank 3s. I recall running into the same Doom / Domino / Nick Fury team 4 times in a row - all 5/65. This is not fun.
There's a huge pool of god-tier (Seatin's term, not mine) champs already ranked up in Arena to discourage ranking up 5*s for Arena. In effect, through the changes, Kabam has unintentionally discouraged players from making arena rank ups. It's far better to keep champs at rank 1 5*s and pray on the rank 3 pool, which is usually easier.
Guess where Kabam offers have been leaning the last 2yrs? Rank up materials. This means that player base would be less likely to spend from this change.
Short Term Suggested Solution:
- Keep AI (obviously)
- Bring back KANG / THANOs teams - this provided a predictable set of matches for players looking to push streaks.
- Revert to old matchmaking in the next Arena temporarily
Longer Term Solution:
Some suggestions from the forum suggests changing the 2x multiplier to 1.5x. I'm not sure if that's ideal either. I suspect this would still shrink the diversity of match-ups - let's call it what it is...increase undesirable matchups.
Equal team PI matchups provide diversity of team when grinding 100+ rounds. It's not fun facing the same teams when everyone levels up the same champs. I suspect this would result higher rage-quit rate - was that Kabam's intent? to trim the F2P basein Arena ? If so, I guess go for it...
"We have heard you. We have taken your feedback into consideration. We are gonna make life quality improvements"
What did you do ? You screwed even more a game mode that was already a piece of trash. And now you're trying to hide between a so called "5 years long bug fix" ? Go to hell.
A lot of changes can happen in this game but one thing will remain forever : they will always consider players as idiots.
I just don’t get what’s with the new format. But it sucks so far. And I don’t understand it yet.
How many wins must we get before getting a run going?
It’s like I have to use maxed out 5* champs until God knows when TJ get a run going.
Why make changes all of a sudden?
I usually try to get 1000 or 500 5* shards but now I’m gonna lose interest in the Arena soon if I have to bust my a55 so hard just to get bare minimum rewards. I bet lots of people would feel the same too.
I'm barely holding on to the game as is and arena was my happy place but now that that's been destroyed idk...idk...you may have lost some people over this
I usually try to get all the milestones in 4* basic and 4* featured every 2/3 weeks. I don’t have the highest skill level or the most well developed roster but it’s was decent enough to maintain a streak under the previous format. I previously enjoyed arena because once you pass round 16 you can relax and fight in a less stressful environment. You can practice intercepting and parry and any any other skills you feel like you want to try out.
In the new format the arena matchups are a lot harder and more time consuming. This isn’t great at all and has changed an area of the game that was not stressful into something far more difficult and stressful.
The arena shouldn’t be consistently matching you up with opponents 1,5x - 2x your team PI. It now feels like all my fights with 3/45 and lower are boss fights that require hyper concentration and take 50% longer than before. And there is enough stress in the game already. Players that want a challenge have cavalier difficulty and alliance war. I would prefer this format to not be so times consuming, challenging and stressful.
It’s nice that enemies are throwing specials more but overall the match making is terrible now. We should be matched against PI similar to the level we bring in and not consistently 1,5x our PI and higher.
Most of the changes based on the roadmap so far have been positive but this one is terrible. I agree with the comments that the milestones should be reviewed. They have not changed in years despite the game progressing a lot. 6* have been in the game long enough that we should be getting a 5* basic arena to allow us a way to more easily awaken our 5* champions. Those changes would be much better than the one implemented currently.
This update is also causing the game to crash a load so fixing that would also be appreciated.
To be honest, @Kabam Miike you are a bit too defensive for my taste. if this is the way forward and you guys are going to not take feedback into account then this game isn’t worth playing. This is the type of change that causes burnout and players to quit and why you guys had such a big problem a few months ago.