Dev Diary: Cavalier Difficulty in 2021 and Beyond - New Buffs for February!

Summoners!

Everybody's favourite Balance Designer and sick beast of a gamer, Kabam John, has taken some time to jot down some thoughts on Cavalier Difficulty, what we've seen so far, and what's to come in the future! There's also a sneak peek at the new Buffs coming in the Cavalier Difficulty Event quest in February!

Read the post here!

Comments

Onmix

Ok. I’m sorry, but who the hell thought this change to the science node was a good idea?

Removing diss track was a move in the right direction. But the nodes? Oh my god are they horrible.

The previous node required you to let a debuff expire to get a fury. Simple. Efficient. Beautiful.

Now? Let’s see:
First, you need to have a non-damaging debuff at ALL times or you get a weakness. Any benefit from letting it expire? No.
It is just detrimental to the player if you DON’T have it.
You need to hit the opponent to get the poison debuff which in turn you need to convert to fury by dexing or parrying.
How was this a good change?
First, it’s RNG. In many fights I didn’t get over the 7th fury.
Second. Now we depend on the opponent to do something if we want the fury. If they don’t dash then you eat all the damage from the poison and there’s nothing you can do since you are at the AI’s mercy. GREAT.

How was making this so convoluted and complicated helped in speeding up clear times? That was your aim correct? Well you missed the mark.
Please re-think this node or better yet, return to the old one.

xNig

Disagree. Science chapter was pretty decent.

There are so many science champs that inflict a non-damaging debuff. And to remove the poisons, you just need to either parry or evade an attack, how is that difficult?

Science champs that inflict non-damaging debuffs: ALL (since stun is a non-damaging debuff, and you need to parry to remove the poisons anyway)

Excluding stun, I’ve used Void SheHulk SpiderGwen Wasp CptIW and Quake. They all work.

I’ll record a video when I’m clearing on my alt.

xNig

https://youtu.be/DAn7GJPYgvc

I wouldn’t consider this speed as slow or troublesome though. Used SG for the whole path except HT for Stryfe, and wasn’t paying much attention to playing well.

YimiGotay

Disagree. Science chapter was pretty decent.

There are so many science champs that inflict a non-damaging debuff. And to remove the poisons, you just need to either parry or evade an attack, how is that difficult?

Science champs that inflict non-damaging debuffs: ALL (since stun is a non-damaging debuff, and you need to parry to remove the poisons anyway)

Excluding stun, I’ve used Void SheHulk SpiderGwen Wasp CptIW and Quake. They all work.

I’ll record a video when I’m clearing on my alt.

I think all players complain about the parry (including myself), if they have 3/3, the skill reduction does not let the node work and many times the fury is not activated when a debuff is purified

Onmix

I have absolutely no difficulty doing anything lol
Why is it always about difficulty? A node can be easy and still not be a well designed one.
I can clear the chapter no problem. For one, I run resonate lol

That has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they switched a node that was fast for another one that is not fast and is much more complicated under the concept of making it faster. They wanted to reduce the time it takes us to clear it. They didn’t.

There’s no need for this node or it’s complexity. The past one worked much better.

xNig

I have absolutely no difficulty doing anything lol
Why is it always about difficulty? A node can be easy and still not be a well designed one.
I can clear the chapter no problem. For one, I run resonate lol

That has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they switched a node that was fast for another one that is not fast and is much more complicated under the concept of making it faster. They wanted to reduce the time it takes us to clear it. They didn’t.

There’s no need for this node or it’s complexity. The past one worked much better.

How is it complicated?

A. Use a science champ that can inflict a non-damaging debuff.
B. If not poison immune, parry/dex to remove it.

🤦🏻‍♂️

It seems that anything that is remotely an inconvenience is complained about.

DNA3000

Hey everybody, thank you all for the feedback. Please keep it coming, as it will help us improve Cavalier Difficulty as we move forward.

One thing I want to point out: With the addition of the new Buffs, we are not doing away with the older ones. Our goal is to create a pool of buffs to pick and choose from for Cavalier Difficulty, but still not as wide as what you might remember from Uncollected difficulty.

Your Champions you've ranked up are still going to help you in these Quests, but maybe not the same Champions every month.

I hope this clears that up a little bit.
Clearly we have told you what is good and what is awful. The fact is you guys don't listen. How many people have said the 4 star challenge is terrible. We asked for a change to buffs in cavalier and you make it more difficult. How are any changes that have been made an improvement to cavalier difficulty. The easy path health removal is about the only good change made since cavalier came out.

Who's "we?"

DNA3000

THis is going to sound crazy, but if Kabam really wants players to 100% the monthly quest, then give the players a reason to 100% the monthly quest. Like I don't know, make the rewards worth the time/resources. I know, its crazy right.

Here's an even crazier thought. Maybe instead of reading anecdotes, Kabam should just look at the game server data, and see how many players are actually doing the content to determine if the rewards are worth it.

Oh wait.

xNig

Also, with the previous node, people were complaining about how limited the selection within the Science class is that fulfills the criteria.

Taking inclusivity into account, how many champs in the science class can fulfill the conditions for this current node? All of them.

Even if they do not apply a non-damaging debuff out of stun/resonate, they will still be able to do the quest, either at a +150%/250% attack increase, depending on whether the bonus from the node is multiplicative or additive.

For the previous Diss Track, how many champs can do it if they do not fulfill the node criteria? None.

So overall, I find that the node was well designed and with respect to clearing speed, about the same as previous, if not faster.

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TBuchanan24

The fact that they have the 4* challenge this month. I swear the only reason they changed it was so they can have people rank up champions they don't use. Again. The science one wasn't consistently working but that change isn't bad but it is definitely worse then the previous one. Cosmic was not better either. The rng is bad to get the fury. Tech is annoying. How can you bring up speed when you introduce a node that gives healing then add nodes like unstoppable and falter so you have less opportunity to apply the heal block which allows them to heal making the fights longer. Im currently on the skill one and I dont even feel like continuing. Skill champs mostly bleed. Why not have bleed instead of shock or incinerate? Like I said, I swear they introduced these nodes just to make you rank up other champs. Why overhaul the entire thing after tuning it b4. People already don't 100%. This wasn't a change that would make people want to do it. They really dropped the ball with this one.

xNig

@xNig Good point. Also you seem to live only in this thread lol

Nothing fantastic in the other threads... lol

xNig

The fact that they have the 4* challenge this month. I swear the only reason they changed it was so they can have people rank up champions they don't use. Again. The science one wasn't consistently working but that change isn't bad but it is definitely worse then the previous one. Cosmic was not better either. The rng is bad to get the fury. Tech is annoying. How can you bring up speed when you introduce a node that gives healing then add nodes like unstoppable and falter so you have less opportunity to apply the heal block which allows them to heal making the fights longer. Im currently on the skill one and I dont even feel like continuing. Skill champs mostly bleed. Why not have bleed instead of shock or incinerate? Like I said, I swear they introduced these nodes just to make you rank up other champs. Why overhaul the entire thing after tuning it b4. People already don't 100%. This wasn't a change that would make people want to do it. They really dropped the ball with this one.

Like Cull doing this?

https://youtu.be/LOGK9zqxisg

Tech was easy. Warlock’s infections last very long, and so many champs are able to healblock/armor break in the tech class. (I used Yondu on my 4* challenge. Yay.) You just need to play around the unstoppable/falter timers which... wait for it..., is where the skill comes in.

No they don’t introduce these nodes to make you rank up champs IF you have a diverse roster of 4/5/6*s. If you’re top heavy and only rank god tiers, and higher rarity ones at that, you’re gonna be in a position.

I found these nodes more interesting than the previous ones. 😊

Worknprogress

Why 50% chance to evade
It's mix masher korg and doom all over again
The idea here is to encourage Evade encounters, and combined with the Skillful Distraction buff, this gives more Skill Champions access to the kit necessary to prevent Evasion.
This is a horrible idea, lets talk about the number of skill champs that can cause Disorient, Incinerate or Shock effect.
- Disorient (Fury[SP1], Night Thrasher[Synergy], Ronin [SP1])
- Incinerate (Agent Venom [SP2], Cross Bones[SP2], Gwenpool [SP1], Winter Soldier [SP1/SP2]
- Shock (Black Widow DO [Basic], Night Thrasher[SP1], Thor Rag [SP3]

Okay based on that only 8 out of 32 skill champs are useful for this buff and only one of the champs can inflict the debuff without having to rely on a special attack
It’s an insanely idiotic design. Who thought this would be fun for players? I have a decent roster and lots of counters. But it’s still so painful to play though. The idea of 100% that map makes me nauseous.

I wasn't a huge fan of some of the changes (mystic and science in particular) but it wasn't THAT bad

The_Sentry06

My feedback:

1)Science: As other's have said, poison doesn't trigger enough and it takes a long time to ramp up your furies. Fights drag on here but thankfully, there are easy enimies in this quest.

2)Tech: My favorite so far. Warlock absolutely crushes it. Was getting 35K heavies and 16K mediums with my rank 4.

3)Cosmic: This was also fun with Terrax and Silver Surfer but it seems that I wasn't getting furies on every hit into armor broken opponents. Fights usually lasted around 60 hits with Terrax since he was unawakened.

4)Skill: I despise this one. So few counters. I quaked the entire path involving YJ and quaked the boss. This one could have been miles better.

This is all I have done so far.

Worknprogress

The fact that they have the 4* challenge this month. I swear the only reason they changed it was so they can have people rank up champions they don't use. Again. The science one wasn't consistently working but that change isn't bad but it is definitely worse then the previous one. Cosmic was not better either. The rng is bad to get the fury. Tech is annoying. How can you bring up speed when you introduce a node that gives healing then add nodes like unstoppable and falter so you have less opportunity to apply the heal block which allows them to heal making the fights longer. Im currently on the skill one and I dont even feel like continuing. Skill champs mostly bleed. Why not have bleed instead of shock or incinerate? Like I said, I swear they introduced these nodes just to make you rank up other champs. Why overhaul the entire thing after tuning it b4. People already don't 100%. This wasn't a change that would make people want to do it. They really dropped the ball with this one.
Like Cull doing this?

https://youtu.be/LOGK9zqxisg

Tech was easy. Warlock’s infections last very long, and so many champs are able to healblock/armor break in the tech class. (I used Yondu on my 4* challenge. Yay.) You just need to play around the unstoppable/falter timers which... wait for it..., is where the skill comes in.

No they don’t introduce these nodes to make you rank up champs IF you have a diverse roster of 4/5/6*s. If you’re top heavy and only rank god tiers, and higher rarity ones at that, you’re gonna be in a position.

I found these nodes more interesting than the previous ones. 😊

Cull was a lot of fun in the cosmic quest.

Still not a fan of the mystic or science changes. They felt A LOT slower than the old ones. Not any harder just slower

Worknprogress

I don't think I hit the fury cap in any of the science fights and I know for a fact I never got close in the mystic quest

Also I still wish they'd give up on the 4* challenge thing. Either start giving us rank up gems in completion rewards or do something about T4cc availability.

Kappa2g

Champs used for each node (to show I'm already using targeted champs for each node)

Science: Shehulk, Red guardian, Void
Tech: Warlock, hulkbuster
Cosmic: Corvus, CGR
Skill: hitmonkey, Elsa, Falcon
Mutant: Prof x, Magneto , Wolverine
Mystic: Doom, Sorcerer supreme, Dragonman

Feedback:
Positives: Tech node is an improvement as the previous node frequently didn't trigger due to pacify masteries. Mutant node is very accessible and fun.

Rate of gaining buffs (fury, prowess) was noticably slower in the new cosmic and mystic nodes

Bad: Science and Skill quest had a noticable increase in time required to get through, pushing cav difficulty times akin to when they were originally released which is opposite of what dev notes has stated that you wanted to reduce time for exploration overall.

Suggestions:
Science one needs a hard look at, too much going on there.
Cosmic one could use number tweaks to gain fury much faster.
Remove the AAR thing from skill one to open up more champs for that node
Mystic one has awkward timing when you want to convert your prowess into permanent, could add a line that when preventing an unstoppable from triggering (like from slow), gain a permanent prowess.

Overall time for completion/exploration was at a good point in the January event quest. Appreciate the attempt to diversify the nodes to encourage different champions but time expenditure is a step backwards. Hoping for improvements by next month.

TBuchanan24

The fact that they have the 4* challenge this month. I swear the only reason they changed it was so they can have people rank up champions they don't use. Again. The science one wasn't consistently working but that change isn't bad but it is definitely worse then the previous one. Cosmic was not better either. The rng is bad to get the fury. Tech is annoying. How can you bring up speed when you introduce a node that gives healing then add nodes like unstoppable and falter so you have less opportunity to apply the heal block which allows them to heal making the fights longer. Im currently on the skill one and I dont even feel like continuing. Skill champs mostly bleed. Why not have bleed instead of shock or incinerate? Like I said, I swear they introduced these nodes just to make you rank up other champs. Why overhaul the entire thing after tuning it b4. People already don't 100%. This wasn't a change that would make people want to do it. They really dropped the ball with this one.
Like Cull doing this?

https://youtu.be/LOGK9zqxisg

Tech was easy. Warlock’s infections last very long, and so many champs are able to healblock/armor break in the tech class. (I used Yondu on my 4* challenge. Yay.) You just need to play around the unstoppable/falter timers which... wait for it..., is where the skill comes in.

No they don’t introduce these nodes to make you rank up champs IF you have a diverse roster of 4/5/6*s. If you’re top heavy and only rank god tiers, and higher rarity ones at that, you’re gonna be in a position.

I found these nodes more interesting than the previous ones. 😊

I 100% it every month. Dont bring up skill cause that's not my problem. Plus I didn't said it would just make the fights longer not that it would be too hard. I never use potions or revives to beat it. Why would you have a suck yondu ranked up BTW. Anyway I'm talking about other people. Not everyone has warlock ranked up. You said if you are top heavy with a diverse roster but mention ranking only god tiers. Makes no sense.. You clearly don't have say in this. I can tell its difficult because I'm doing the 4* challenge. I just quake everything so im fine. I have rank 3 6*s and a bunch of rank 5 5*s so 100% will be fine for me cuz I am top heavy. It don't make it more interesting for me that its changed. I will mostly use champs that dont benefit and just use my everyday God tier champs. For people without that. How are they suppose to 100% without a crazy diverse roster. A yondu that shouldn't be ranked up. The skill path hardly have counters. Most likely i will just quake otherwise I will have to rank up a 4* from rank 1. The only skill champ i have ranked is blade. Only needed him with the other nodes. Most skills bleed why not have bleed that would open up so many skill champs. The last nodes were way better after they tuned it. Super quick to get the furies. That was the whole point there was no need to change it since it was quicker. So yeah it was changed making other people rank up champs they don't normally use. Like yondu

xNig

The fact that they have the 4* challenge this month. I swear the only reason they changed it was so they can have people rank up champions they don't use. Again. The science one wasn't consistently working but that change isn't bad but it is definitely worse then the previous one. Cosmic was not better either. The rng is bad to get the fury. Tech is annoying. How can you bring up speed when you introduce a node that gives healing then add nodes like unstoppable and falter so you have less opportunity to apply the heal block which allows them to heal making the fights longer. Im currently on the skill one and I dont even feel like continuing. Skill champs mostly bleed. Why not have bleed instead of shock or incinerate? Like I said, I swear they introduced these nodes just to make you rank up other champs. Why overhaul the entire thing after tuning it b4. People already don't 100%. This wasn't a change that would make people want to do it. They really dropped the ball with this one.
Like Cull doing this?

https://youtu.be/LOGK9zqxisg

Tech was easy. Warlock’s infections last very long, and so many champs are able to healblock/armor break in the tech class. (I used Yondu on my 4* challenge. Yay.) You just need to play around the unstoppable/falter timers which... wait for it..., is where the skill comes in.

No they don’t introduce these nodes to make you rank up champs IF you have a diverse roster of 4/5/6*s. If you’re top heavy and only rank god tiers, and higher rarity ones at that, you’re gonna be in a position.

I found these nodes more interesting than the previous ones. 😊
I 100% it every month. Dont bring up skill cause that's not my problem. Plus I didn't said it would just make the fights longer not that it would be too hard. I never use potions or revives to beat it. Why would you have a suck yondu ranked up BTW. Anyway I'm talking about other people. Not everyone has warlock ranked up. You said if you are top heavy with a diverse roster but mention ranking only god tiers. Makes no sense.. You clearly don't have say in this. I can tell its difficult because I'm doing the 4* challenge. I just quake everything so im fine. I have rank 3 6*s and a bunch of rank 5 5*s so 100% will be fine for me cuz I am top heavy. It don't make it more interesting for me that its changed. I will mostly use champs that dont benefit and just use my everyday God tier champs. For people without that. How are they suppose to 100% without a crazy diverse roster. A yondu that shouldn't be ranked up. The skill path hardly have counters. Most likely i will just quake otherwise I will have to rank up a 4* from rank 1. The only skill champ i have ranked is blade. Only needed him with the other nodes. Most skills bleed why not have bleed that would open up so many skill champs. The last nodes were way better after they tuned it. Super quick to get the furies. That was the whole point there was no need to change it since it was quicker. So yeah it was changed making other people rank up champs they don't normally use. Like yondu

Cause Yondu is legacy from the older days. He was ranked up likely 3 years ago. Didn’t have to rank up much for the previous 4* challenge.

If Blade is the only 4* skill you have ranked up, then it’s an issue, no?

Also, paragraphs.

Jaded

https://youtu.be/DAn7GJPYgvc

I wouldn’t consider this speed as slow or troublesome though. Used SG for the whole path except HT for Stryfe, and wasn’t paying much attention to playing well.

😂😂 you lost 5% health to getting hit and 55% health to chip/poison damage. Yes that’s exactly how everything should work. Lose half you health to a global buff that is suppose to help your team...

That video didn’t help your cause.

I haven’t gotten into cav difficulty yet, it doesn’t look or sound hard. I’m not complaining. But this video doesn’t make it look appealing haha.

xNig

I was experimenting with the distancing to corner heavy with SG and got hit. 🤷🏻‍♂️

5 slots, 1 champ took the whole path. Doesn’t matter what health she was at at the end.

xNig

Disagree. Science chapter was pretty decent.

There are so many science champs that inflict a non-damaging debuff. And to remove the poisons, you just need to either parry or evade an attack, how is that difficult?

Science champs that inflict non-damaging debuffs: ALL (since stun is a non-damaging debuff, and you need to parry to remove the poisons anyway)

Excluding stun, I’ve used Void SheHulk SpiderGwen Wasp CptIW and Quake. They all work.

I’ll record a video when I’m clearing on my alt.
I think all players complain about the parry (including myself), if they have 3/3, the skill reduction does not let the node work and many times the fury is not activated when a debuff is purified

That’s cause of Pacify mastery, no? It reduces the ability accuracy and causes the attacker to not gain a fury.

Working as intended.

Mr_Platypus

Also, with the previous node, people were complaining about how limited the selection within the Science class is that fulfills the criteria.

Taking inclusivity into account, how many champs in the science class can fulfill the conditions for this current node? All of them.

Even if they do not apply a non-damaging debuff out of stun/resonate, they will still be able to do the quest, either at a +150%/250% attack increase, depending on whether the bonus from the node is multiplicative or additive.

For the previous Diss Track, how many champs can do it if they do not fulfill the node criteria? None.

So overall, I find that the node was well designed and with respect to clearing speed, about the same as previous, if not faster.

It definitely feels much slower to me. Though that could be fixed by just changing the fury cap to 10 and doubling each ones potency. Which I’m fairly certain was basically the exact same change they did with the last set of nodes.

Jaded

I was experimenting with the distancing to corner heavy with SG and got hit. 🤷🏻‍♂️

5 slots, 1 champ took the whole path. Doesn’t matter what health she was at at the end.

Well it does, how do you not see that?
I’m not saying one should finish full health everytime. But we are talking about 60% of your health.

I was experimenting with the distancing to corner heavy with SG and got hit. 🤷🏻‍♂️

5 slots, 1 champ took the whole path. Doesn’t matter what health she was at at the end.

Dude I don’t care you got hit. For you, it didn’t matter what health you ended on. For others it’ll be different. 🤷‍♂️

Just_grinding

Is the skill one broken? NF and falcon were doing almost nothing. And Corvus with 3 charges barely taking off 30% on rhino.

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