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

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magnus_xix

Resonate mastery gonna be clutch for the science chapter

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slacker

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
You are forgetting masacre and fury.
Good catch with Masacre, i have fury on the list but he requires an SP1 to trigger disorient
Elsa Bloodstone was also missed as Incinerate.

But it's suck that her bouns damage from crit capped on her based atk rating, so she won't deal insane damage compare to other who benefit it

Morghaxor

The changes are absolutely horrible...

No bleed in skill...

Need heal block/armor break tech...

How great - Cavalier EQ will once again be untouchable for me after I was able to fully explore it the last 3 months... awesome -.-

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Sarvanga1_

My boi blade got shafted. Why does Kabam hate blade so much?

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Pyrda

Thx for nothing a short time before you said you won’t bring new nodes in a near future cuz game design takes so much time, therefor we ranked up the best counters for buffed up and distrack and now you bringt this?.....

I would’ve be fine if you bring harder nodes but then beef up the rewards!

Destroy4589

Honestly these new nodes are awful lmao. You say you want to address how long it takes to explore cav difficulty but put in harder nodes with more niche counters. If we go outside the class that gets buffed by these nodes, then we don't get the damage boost and the fight takes longer. But with how niche these nodes are, the fights will still take long...

Also rewards aren't buffed eventhough nodes are getting harder. I love this logic. At least for the love of God make the t5cc a selector

ItsDamien

I'll reserve my judgement on the new nodes and such until they actually enter the game. I won't say I'm happy or disappointed on a personal level until then.

I will however voice my opinion that Kabam still aren't really tackling the root issue in a way that satisfies the majority of players. Cav difficulty should be difficult for Cav players without being obnoxiously difficult especially if the rewards aren't benefitting them enough to warrant exploring the whole quest. However, Thronebreaker difficulty should be on the horizon and soon. For those that are Thronebreaker, the node changes in Cav Difficulty are only an inconvenience at best, and the rewards really aren't aimed at them anymore. Give people a challenge without it being obnoxious, and give rewards appropriate for the level of difficulty that should be there.

The_Sentry06

Science: I like this one. All the hulks could benefit from it including OG Hulk. Additionally poison immunity is one of the more common immunities, so I don't think this will be much of a problem.

Tech: The key here it seems is to use tech champs with atleast a heal block or armor break. This includes Civil Warrior, Doc Ock, HB, IMIW, Iron Patriot, Punisher 2099, Rocket, Sentinel, Vision AoU, Warlock and Yondu. The pool does seem big here but most of these have heal block and armor break on specials so not the best options but could potentially work. Only time will tell although other champs that have some way to reduce the regen could work.

Cosmic: Armor break is important here, so Air-Walker, Annihilus, Black Bolt, CMM, Corvus, CGR, Cull, Hyperion, King Groot, Medusa, Silver Surfer, Terrax, Venom and Aarkus can all benefit from the node. Additionally, the node doesn't punish other attackers much so they could all work. Not a problem here.

Skill: Falcon, Mole God, Nick and Hit-Monkey can take advantage of the node without a chance to get screwed over I guess. Additionally, Elsa and Massacre can also work. The pool of champs this node benefits isn't much strangely but atleast evade countering is more common these days.

Mutant: Again, mutant benefits the most from this with Apoco, Prof X, both mags, Sunspot, Gambit, Jubilee, Emma, Havok and literally any horseman benefiting from this. Additionally, all other mutants have a chance to work and regen is fairly easy to counter.

Mystic: Nullify heavy champs will work well here with Claire, Doom, Maw, Juggs, Sassy, Jane Foster and the Hood also working. Additionally, any champ with slow can work here although this node is more restrictive than others.

Honestly speaking, the pool of champions benefitting the nodes is bigger than expected and the change in nodes is a refreshing change for endgame players. The only thing is that majority of us wanted a rewards change. Kabam did say about valuing our time investment more though.

Elwind

This cavalier diff. event quest already good.
Please kabam please buff the rewards.
I dont understand Why are you ignoring this.People want buff rewards.Not the node nerf.

Ironman3000

This is awful. You just made different champs useful after we've all ranked the ones that used to work. Now we're all SOL.

Hera1d_of_Ga1actus

I'll reserve my judgement on the new nodes and such until they actually enter the game. I won't say I'm happy or disappointed on a personal level until then.

I will however voice my opinion that Kabam still aren't really tackling the root issue in a way that satisfies the majority of players. Cav difficulty should be difficult for Cav players without being obnoxiously difficult especially if the rewards aren't benefitting them enough to warrant exploring the whole quest. However, Thronebreaker difficulty should be on the horizon and soon. For those that are Thronebreaker, the node changes in Cav Difficulty are only an inconvenience at best, and the rewards really aren't aimed at them anymore. Give people a challenge without it being obnoxious, and give rewards appropriate for the level of difficulty that should be there.

Kabam did kind of screw themselves by making the progression to Thronebreaker more available. Because of this there is a group of players who have been brought to a new level and should be getting certain content instead of something like Cavalier difficulty. If Kabam made it so you had to have multiple R3s (which they said was what they felt should be Thronebreaker even though they didn't make it the requirement) instead of getting so many players moving forward, we wouldn't be having such a big divide right now

Crcrcrc

Wait a minute...
iHulk best option for science node confirmed?

BitterSteel

Well it seems like immortal Abom is absolutely butchered with the science node. A shame

Wicket329

I think Skill is the only class that is more limited now than in the previous iteration. That being said, Elsa’s gonna be a banger for it. Just drop a parry, M-M and you’ve placed an incinerate safely on the opponent and you’re off to the races.

Falcon is also going to be extremely fun. He may not benefit a ton from the nodes, but he is himself a monstrous damage dealer against mix master.

I, personally, like the changes overall. I know it’s not a rewards update which would be cool, but this looks fun and I’ve been real burned out lately. Looking forward to it.

Deacon

honestly in regards to monitoring how long it takes to complete a quest, what about exploration? i still say the difficulty could stand to lose one more path all around for exploration especially considering the rewards. there are still too many paths for exploration of Cav.

LibertyPrimeV1

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

Exactly, they say they want to reduce the use of Roster Limiting Nodes then create this Skill Class Mess... At least give us an External Source of Incinerate/Shock/Disorientate (like that Node that give you and the Enemy a Chance to apply Incinerate off every Hit) but still what happens when they inevitably put a Human Torch or Apocalypse on a Path in that Quest? 😒
The Current Skill Node isn't limiting at all, any Skill that has Expiring Debuffs (which is practically all of them) gains a Fury Passive when they Expire. Then that's it, no Penalty if your Skill Champion can't apply Debuffs (though even then Everyone has Parry).

pseudosane

i have fun with the cav difficulty, i like this change.
rewards not super great but iti is quite fun and easy so im looking forward to this.
take a chill pill folks, enjoy this content.

KILLMФИGЕЯ

REWARDS!!!!!!!!
you can change the nodes all you like but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter cause the cav eq rewards were outdated the day you introduced it!
From somebody who’s been playing since day one with over 30 5/65 and 7 R3 6*s and a bunch of r2s this content is way to long for these pitiful rewards, straight up.
I’m not asking for a crazy increase here I just want the rewards to reflect the time spent/invested in doing this long content 100%

DNA3000

This cavalier diff. event quest already good.
Please kabam please buff the rewards.
I dont understand Why are you ignoring this.People want buff rewards.Not the node nerf.

People just want to be handed the keys to the store, but a good game never does.

If I truly believed "everyone" just wanted more rewards, I honestly would probably go looking for a new game. That would be a sign of a playerbase intent on destroying the game they were playing, and I wouldn't want to invest my time in a game with no future.

What I keep telling myself, as an expert denizen of the forums, is the forums don't represent the entirety of the playerbase.

xNig

Bunch of guys who are only interested in the rewards and not the experience. Seriously what do you all play this game for?

LibertyPrimeV1

So clearly no one is happy with this whole thing, and it's not just a "Oh well you can't please everyone" moment because clearly everyone agrees on at least one piece of criticism that's been brought up today, so please take that to heart and go back to the drawing board on at least 1 or 2 things...

This feels like a "Don't Fix What Isn't Broken" moment for some of these, the Current Skill Node for example is Great for Every Skill Champion because Everyone has Parry on top of any other Debuffs the Champions have on Base but that New Skill Node set is Far too Limiting (which you said you were trying to get Away From) and is Useless if the Enemy doesn't have any Base Evade or when you run into someone with an Immunity to one or more of the Debuffs and you don't have another Correct Debuff or True Strike Champion.

CoBfan1987

I mean it doesn't directly affect me that much, but the Tech one is super annoying. I mean the only tech champs that i can think of that inflict Armor Break in their normal kit are IMIW, Iron Man, Iron Patriot, War Machine, and Hulkbuster. And I would really only use Hulkbuster in the Cav EQ

Sentinel, spam L1. Gives you Heal block and AB

LibertyPrimeV1

So clearly no one is happy with this whole thing, and it's not just a "Oh well you can't please everyone" moment because clearly everyone agrees on at least one piece of criticism that's been brought up today, so please take that to heart and go back to the drawing board on at least 1 or 2 things...

This feels like a "Don't Fix What Isn't Broken" moment for some of these, the Current Skill Node for example is Great for Every Skill Champion because Everyone has Parry on top of any other Debuffs the Champions have on Base but that New Skill Node set is Far too Limiting (which you said you were trying to get Away From) and is Useless if the Enemy doesn't have any Base Evade or when you run into someone with an Immunity to one or more of the Debuffs and you don't have another Correct Debuff or True Strike Champion.

Oh I see "Can't Touch This" adds Evade Chance on top of Base Abilities, which still is terrible because if you don't have one of the 10 Skill Champions that can Apply the Debuffs or activate True Strike then you'll be Evaded on most of your hits...

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Mauled

Well that settles my decision to not R2 my Luke Cage and Angela

LibertyPrimeV1

I prefer the original cav nodes by a lot. These new ones do not have nearly as many counters.

Some of them are Better (Cosmic for Example with the removal of Buffed Up giving Tons more Options), but some of them are also way worse (Skill for Example which is now an Evade Fest with only around 14 Counters when the Current Skill Node effects EVERYONE Positively because of Parry)...