Time to Tweak the TB Daily?
DrZola
Member Posts: 9,122 ★★★★★
SoP will usher in a slew of new TBs. 6* shards are as prevalent as they’ve ever been. R4 champs are here.
Not quite a year, and the TB Daily has been a decent addition. But does its prize breakdown still make sense in late 2021 MCoC? Or should it be tweaked to align with the roster demands of TB players?
Here’s my personal experience with just under 6 months of TB Daily crystals—overall odds are in the top table followed by total monthly hauls below:
Good, especially for a free crystal and especially to a new TB, but over a longer haul nothing special—basically a regular T4b/T4c stream with some T2a shards and a once in a while random pull of T5 tossed in.
I realize it’s not enough data to mail down everything statistically, but it should be more than sufficient for solid directional drop rates, recurrences, etc. Some items I have no drops in my history (T5c, 6*), so I can only assume these are quite rare.
Before offering some ideas, a few thoughts. First, no daily should be a jackpot crystal—it’s a different version of a login prize and shouldn’t carry things like 6* AGs or T6b or T3a—but it should still be useful to TBs. Many end-endgame players won’t really care one way or another, since they are often flush on many of the items trickled out via the Daily, and some players who have had obscene luck will see nothing wrong with the current Daily formula. Finally, changes to the game since the introduction of TB have made the current drop breakout much less relevant to TBs, which will always be the case, but it shouldn’t be that way for something pitched as the game’s titular pinnacle.
I will offer a few ideas—some are better than others, and all are intended make the Daily more relevant. All of them together would be too much, but a few would improve the Daily without breaking the game.
1) Get rid of partial T4b and T4c catalysts.
Currently, 18K shards is possible for both T4b and T4c. Remove the option of shard T4 and replace with full T4 cats only—to the extent TBs need T4 (and often it is T4b), shards only go so far.
2) Upgrade T2a drops to full or 50% T2a.
Again, removing the lower 25% T2a option. Given the quantity of T2a needed to R2 6*’s, not to mention the viable 5* champs in game, making the Daily a steady source of T2a might be a welcome change.
3) Remove 5* Champs as an option.
Do random 5* champs serve a purpose to someone building a TB roster? Apart from the ISO and 6* shards, probably not.
4) Include 5* rankup gems as rare drops. A different way to help T2a/T5b squeeze. This could be a 3–>4 gem with a rarer 4–>5 gem.
5) Sprinkle more 6* shards. Currently, as far as I’m aware, there’s only a 10K 6* shard option. (can’t say as I’ve never pulled any from a Daily). Sprinkling in 100, 250, 500, 1000 6* shards as rare drops would be a potential option. But there are ample ways to get 6* in game already, so perhaps unneeded.
6) Remove or upgrade Units as a prize. The units amount is tiny, relatively speaking (I believe I got 20 units once). Either remove them completely, increase the amount or increase the drop frequency.
7) Add 6* Sig Stones. One of the rarest items in game—this could be another rare drop. Useful to all TBs.
Feel free to pick apart. Just intended to be a thought starter, not an all-inclusive plan. But I personally would like to see a little more utility from the TB Daily and a little less of the items that are already very common in game.
It is a Daily, so nothing should be game-breaking. But it feels a little light to me given where the game is today.
Dr. Zola
Not quite a year, and the TB Daily has been a decent addition. But does its prize breakdown still make sense in late 2021 MCoC? Or should it be tweaked to align with the roster demands of TB players?
Here’s my personal experience with just under 6 months of TB Daily crystals—overall odds are in the top table followed by total monthly hauls below:
Good, especially for a free crystal and especially to a new TB, but over a longer haul nothing special—basically a regular T4b/T4c stream with some T2a shards and a once in a while random pull of T5 tossed in.
I realize it’s not enough data to mail down everything statistically, but it should be more than sufficient for solid directional drop rates, recurrences, etc. Some items I have no drops in my history (T5c, 6*), so I can only assume these are quite rare.
Before offering some ideas, a few thoughts. First, no daily should be a jackpot crystal—it’s a different version of a login prize and shouldn’t carry things like 6* AGs or T6b or T3a—but it should still be useful to TBs. Many end-endgame players won’t really care one way or another, since they are often flush on many of the items trickled out via the Daily, and some players who have had obscene luck will see nothing wrong with the current Daily formula. Finally, changes to the game since the introduction of TB have made the current drop breakout much less relevant to TBs, which will always be the case, but it shouldn’t be that way for something pitched as the game’s titular pinnacle.
I will offer a few ideas—some are better than others, and all are intended make the Daily more relevant. All of them together would be too much, but a few would improve the Daily without breaking the game.
1) Get rid of partial T4b and T4c catalysts.
Currently, 18K shards is possible for both T4b and T4c. Remove the option of shard T4 and replace with full T4 cats only—to the extent TBs need T4 (and often it is T4b), shards only go so far.
2) Upgrade T2a drops to full or 50% T2a.
Again, removing the lower 25% T2a option. Given the quantity of T2a needed to R2 6*’s, not to mention the viable 5* champs in game, making the Daily a steady source of T2a might be a welcome change.
3) Remove 5* Champs as an option.
Do random 5* champs serve a purpose to someone building a TB roster? Apart from the ISO and 6* shards, probably not.
4) Include 5* rankup gems as rare drops. A different way to help T2a/T5b squeeze. This could be a 3–>4 gem with a rarer 4–>5 gem.
5) Sprinkle more 6* shards. Currently, as far as I’m aware, there’s only a 10K 6* shard option. (can’t say as I’ve never pulled any from a Daily). Sprinkling in 100, 250, 500, 1000 6* shards as rare drops would be a potential option. But there are ample ways to get 6* in game already, so perhaps unneeded.
6) Remove or upgrade Units as a prize. The units amount is tiny, relatively speaking (I believe I got 20 units once). Either remove them completely, increase the amount or increase the drop frequency.
7) Add 6* Sig Stones. One of the rarest items in game—this could be another rare drop. Useful to all TBs.
Feel free to pick apart. Just intended to be a thought starter, not an all-inclusive plan. But I personally would like to see a little more utility from the TB Daily and a little less of the items that are already very common in game.
It is a Daily, so nothing should be game-breaking. But it feels a little light to me given where the game is today.
Dr. Zola
45
Comments
#4 is very interesting and would be very cool to get. Even if it wasn’t 6* based, a r2-3 or 3-4 5* rank up gem would be helpful.
Definitely increase the 6* and t5cc drop rates or sprinkle in smaller amounts as well.
Kabam has a method of waiting too long to update crystals. (Looking at those war crystals 🤮) It would be nice to see upgrades even small ones more frequently.
I find the 4hfree crystals of more use as I’ve had a lot of revives in there.
My opinion on the TB basic is that it seems a lot more enticing than it actually is. Of course the reel is full of 5* champs, and the real percentage of pulling a champ is probably around 2%. Also, I constantly have t4cc, t4b, and sometimes even t2a expiring. I don't really need tier 4 catalysts, and I haven't for a long time. That said, it's a free crystal where all you need to do is log in. I think the best case scenario is actually that the daily crystal is kept the same, and a thronebreaker objective crystal is created. This could have 6* shards, ISO, t1a, t2a, potential for rank up gems, and sig stones.
%*'s are still viable for a good majority of TB players. Remember, all you need is one run through act 6 and a R3 6*. I'm seeing more and more TB players with severely underdeveloped rosters. Many of these single R3 6*'s TB's still rely heavily on 5*'s. I've pull 3 5*'s from there since becoming TB last year so it's not like we're swimming in 5* daily pulls but I also wouldn't care if they were pulled either.
I agree we need more full T4CC/T4B.
I don't think we include 6* sig stones as everyone is still complaining about max sig 6*'s not rewarding anything.
I don't pull units enough ever to care that they are in there so I can take them or leave them.
Everything else you said is fine.
I often find myself looking at the awakened 5* of a champ (who doesn’t necessarily need awakening) and the 6* version of the same champ and debating who gets the nod. It’s also an all too common feeling to rank the 5* and then find the same champ springing from your next 6* crystal.
Dr. Zola
Dr. Zola
Cav to TB is way bigger than UC to Cav.
I think my preference is for a little boost to the low end prizes and elimination of the prizes that make little sense (units, for example).
My run rate is about 2 T2a and one T5b a month from Dailies, which is ok but once you consider most of what I’m ranking is 5/6*’s it contributes only a little. Even T4b gets in short supply—TBs don’t usually need a couple of T4b, they need several. And I have to admit I’m loath to spend Glory on T4b.
I think @SkyLord7000 suggestion for a whopping amount of ISO once in a while is actionable. I would be open to that.
To the folks who have tapped Agree, Like, or Disagree, but haven’t said anything, what specifically do you like or dislike? Do you consider the Dailies fine as is? Do you have other ideas?
Dr. Zola
I would welcome more 6 star shards, more t5cc and higher increase in units. I feel like units (next to sig stones) is where Kabam is the most stingiest.
So about six T4B, four T4CC, two and a half T2A, most of a T5B, and a few thousand 5* shards. It is roughly in the same ballpark as Zola's numbers, and overall that seems extremely good for what amounts to a calendar with some extra fetch mechanics. In terms of pure overall value, I see no obvious need to increase the value of the crystals.
In terms of 5* champs and units, the drop odds for those appear to be sufficiently low that deleting them or changing them would have no significant impact on the crystal value. The only reward that has any questionable value and sufficiently high drop odds to matter are the 5k 5* shards, and I think even Thronebreakers could use those. As it adds some variety to the drops without materially hurting the value of the crystal overall, I don't feel compelled to change those.
Another interesting question to contemplate is: how relevant has the TB daily been to my roster progress? Well, at the moment I have eight R3s. I'm sitting on catalysts (I have four T5CC formed, for example) so I could have more. Let's say I have eleven "virtual" R3s total. The total stuff in the daily TB crystals has collectively given me enough materials to do about one full R1->R3 rank up (at least). So you could argue that in terms of 6* rank ups the daily TB crystal is responsible for about 9% of my roster rank up velocity. That's also not bad for a free daily crystal. And I've only opened 89% of all possible daily crystals (because of daily drift I miss a crystal here and there).
If I understand correctly, the current rates of catalyst accumulation would suggest enough of the most common “high cats” (T5b/T2a—I’m
excluding T4b/T4c) to take a 6* from rank 1 to 3 every 6+ months. Looking at my drop rates, I’m a little ahead on sufficiency of T2a (6.1 months) and behind on sufficiency of T5b (7.2 months).
Obviously, I’m also excluding any mention of T5c here because the Daily isn’t a reasonable source of T5c. Sufficient T5c has to be gotten elsewhere.
And like you, I’ve missed more than a week here and there—plus I’ve lost probably several entries at the beginning of TB as well as for other reasons (none, I would add that were “high cats”—entry loss tends to happen for me with T4b/c results, so if anything I’m understating how often those drops present for me).
I would expect that at the current Daily drop rates, your velocity % will likely decline further. A crystal that dropped enough T5b and T2a to take a new 6* to R3 every 6+ months will have a very different impact on a DNA roster from late 2020 versus a DNA roster in late summer 2021.
So if we can stipulate that the TB Daily provides almost enough T2a and almost enough T5b every half year to take a single 6* from R1 to R3–does that sound like the right amount for where the game is for TBs today?
Dr. Zola
One thought regarding the rank-up gems. I think it's a great idea, but if Kabam finds the idea a bit too potent, what about those year-specific Variant rank-up gems? You could have maybe a 5% chance for a 2015 2-3, a 4% chance for a 2016 2-3, and a 3% chance for a 2017 2-3. Then maybe a 2%, 1%, and 0,5% for a 2015-2017 3-4 gem, respectively.
There's no avenue for earning more of them anyway (I'm assuming most TBers have completed most Variants), and they were pretty good for ranking up champs you wouldn't otherwise use hard-earned resources on.
It would be interesting to be able to acquire 6* 1-2 gems for 2015/2016 etc champs, but that's probably not a Daily Crystal type of reward.
But yeah, anyway, I liked your outline. Can't really speak for yearlong TBers and their needs, and I personally don't really need my own rewards improved, but you had some cool suggestions and I certainly wouldn't mind if some of them were heeded.
There's one caveat to this. I've long been a proponent of the notion that players of progress level N get more rewards appropriate for N-2 than the game currently gives them. In other words, consider Thronebreakers. They are supposed to be players whose primary rank up and champion acquisition focus is 6* champs. So we'd expect 5* champs to be a kind of fall-back: nice to have when you're missing the 6* champ. 4* champs would then be mostly "for fun" champs, or for the rare special restricted objective (or for the arena).
So while it makes sense for 6* rank up materials to be restricted for TBs, and 5* rank up materials to be easier to get but still regulated, it makes less sense (in my opinion) for 4* rank up materials to be constrained for such players. They've earned the right to partially "escape" the 4* rat race by then. So I think materials useful to 4* rank up should be much easier to get. Lower catalysts, say, or even straight up 4* rank up gems you can use for those rank ups.
If, and this is a big if, we decide to add such rewards (or any other rewards), we of course have to put them somewhere. We could add them to side quest content, or objectives, or daily crystals. If I look at the daily crystal, I don't see something that in my opinion needs to be buffed. But if you hand me some rewards and tell me TB players are supposed to get these, where should we put them? I wouldn't be opposed to shoving them in the daily crystals either. I don't think that would necessarily make them "overvalued."