My own thoughts and ramblings on AW
Liss_Bliss_
Member Posts: 1,779 ★★★★★
Following are my thoughts on AW past and present and why, for me personally I dread AW.
First off a bit of prefacing. I have played at T2 and managed to break T1 but normally would hover 3-2. I loved it. Would always take middle as myself and 2 other people would always be on at that time and we managed time/energy well. So one would get us to the first fork in the road and we would each either go left or right. No big deal. Our BG would 100% the map about 90% of the time, old system. So this meant using items if needed and giving a kill or 2 if we messed up. This want usually a problem as our alliance would usually hold back 1 boss kill because of the champs we used.
This was fun to me. The fact that if we lost and each bg/alliance cleared it came down to skill. You didn't finish your lane and needed back up? Cool that just means we don't 100% and hope our boss holds up. Spoiler our BG boss usually did. I would lose a champ or 2 or even all 3 up the middle sometimes. But because of how the map was set if I got to the middle mini and had 1 champ left there was still 3 other people who could go at that champ. Once the middle was down I could sit back and revaluate how I did and how I messed up. What champs have me issues and learn from my mistakes.
It was rare for me to tackle thorn nodes but I have done it. Even without BW, regen champs were what got me through hard content before they help here. But I have seen people without bypass champs take thorns down. It wasn't "that big of a deal".
What I am trying to say is dying or being "forced" to revive and use health pots was a learning experience, and not a detriment. If my 1/2/3 deaths meant we lost that was on me. And myself and my alliance would figure something out. Spoiler alert I have never lost or personally seen an AW lost because of 1 death. Reviving wasn't bad, it meant you had to better yourself. I never once told my alliance "sorry guys I died once and I won't play again" nobody has ever said that, that I know. So for Kabam to say that was a hinderance is foolish.
Fast forward to AW currently. Gone are the days of thorns. Some rejoice. Some are mad at thorns removal. I am one of those, just because I always managed to get a few kills on that node. We were told defender kills won't count and it's a true test of skill.........wait what? No real penalty for dying? And you say it's skill? We are told that the players hated dying. Well duh everyone hates losing champs. We are told this caused people to just give up.......really? If someone gave up on one node because they died one time......they shouldn't be playing at the level they are. It's not about skill it's about who can field the biggest number of points in defense with star rating and rank.
We currently have act 5 nodes, why? Because the map was too easy? Wanna know why the map was too easy? Well we have people bringing LC/SG/IP/CW/sub garbage tier champs to the map for the sake of diversity.
Kabam, you know when you make challenges and events how you place the SAME CHAMPS on almost identical nodes? You do this because you know that Master event DP(red) will always suck. DP(red) is usually always in act 2 and near and area where you have to pass him 75% of the time to 100% the map. I remember one master quest he was right before the boss. Meaning you needed SL (duped) or Guilly for that quest to make it easy. You do this for a reason. And no it's not to "make money" it's to make us use potions and make us think and play better. You know how you always use IceMan on certain nodes or give him certain buffs? This is the same reason you always toss huge armor champs on armor nodes in quests. You know it will be a hassle. This is the same thinking as to why some people placed 2 Magik/NC/Dorm/Hype/Mordo champs on certain nodes. This is why you saw double or even triple of the same champs in each bg and 90% of the time on the same nodes. We did it because IT WORKS.
The removal of Defender Kills took skill out of the game. Look at it this way. Say after every quest fight every champ was revived and healed back to 75% health. This is basically the same thing as no defender kills. You take skillful play out and all you are left with is no penalty. Tell me why an alliance that died over 60 times to a Spider-Man in one bg should win? Well it has happened. All because a group of 10 people managed to have better luck in pulling and duping champions over another 10. How is THAT fair or fun? When my Magik kills the entire bg 2 times over. While on offense we gave them idk maybe 10 deaths total and we lose because of a scoring mechanic we have no control over? How is THAT fun. Putting road blocks up (harder nodes) to make "skill a deciding factor) we know that is that's not the case. You say it's to prevent 100% of the map and thus negating rating/diversity from being the factor. And we know it's because diversity was a mistake.
Dying - not fun but we knew it was part of advancing and we learned from it. And we never "jus gave up"
Thorns removed - awesome (I guess)
Act 5 nodes after too many alliances 100% the map to much- not fun at all.
Losing a match even though they died to us 100% more times - not fun or fair.
When a new AW starts I dread the first 24/25 hours. And even 48 sometimes. You say people stopped playing because they died one or 2 times? I have seen alliances zone in and not move because why even bother when you know just by looking at alliance ratings you will lose no mater how much you clear or how many bosses you kill? I have seen alliances all stay on that starting node because they were defeated at placement phase. The time needed to put in exploring rewards is not beneficial. A few shards? I can get more opening crystals. A few gold? I can get more out of milestones. A few thousand loyalty?
Scoring system needs a look at, not "how can we make this tougher" so they don't 100% it. When you took control of win/loss out of the hands of the players and put it in the electronic brain of ratings that was a huge let down. You basically said "it's not up to those who play better, it's up to those who have the better team". That's like taking Michael Jordan, and despite all his accomplishments, wins, rings, skill you give him a lower ranking because he is older (aka Low PI champs) and taking a college shooting guard who has less wins and skill and giving him a higher ranking because his longevity is higher (aka high PI champs) and have them play 1v1 and despite MJ utterly destroying the college player by an astounding 148 points he still looses because the college guy has better prestige.
Please Kabam take a look at AW and listen to your player base. A small yet significant change to scoring is what will make AW fun again and not a nightmare.
First off a bit of prefacing. I have played at T2 and managed to break T1 but normally would hover 3-2. I loved it. Would always take middle as myself and 2 other people would always be on at that time and we managed time/energy well. So one would get us to the first fork in the road and we would each either go left or right. No big deal. Our BG would 100% the map about 90% of the time, old system. So this meant using items if needed and giving a kill or 2 if we messed up. This want usually a problem as our alliance would usually hold back 1 boss kill because of the champs we used.
This was fun to me. The fact that if we lost and each bg/alliance cleared it came down to skill. You didn't finish your lane and needed back up? Cool that just means we don't 100% and hope our boss holds up. Spoiler our BG boss usually did. I would lose a champ or 2 or even all 3 up the middle sometimes. But because of how the map was set if I got to the middle mini and had 1 champ left there was still 3 other people who could go at that champ. Once the middle was down I could sit back and revaluate how I did and how I messed up. What champs have me issues and learn from my mistakes.
It was rare for me to tackle thorn nodes but I have done it. Even without BW, regen champs were what got me through hard content before they help here. But I have seen people without bypass champs take thorns down. It wasn't "that big of a deal".
What I am trying to say is dying or being "forced" to revive and use health pots was a learning experience, and not a detriment. If my 1/2/3 deaths meant we lost that was on me. And myself and my alliance would figure something out. Spoiler alert I have never lost or personally seen an AW lost because of 1 death. Reviving wasn't bad, it meant you had to better yourself. I never once told my alliance "sorry guys I died once and I won't play again" nobody has ever said that, that I know. So for Kabam to say that was a hinderance is foolish.
Fast forward to AW currently. Gone are the days of thorns. Some rejoice. Some are mad at thorns removal. I am one of those, just because I always managed to get a few kills on that node. We were told defender kills won't count and it's a true test of skill.........wait what? No real penalty for dying? And you say it's skill? We are told that the players hated dying. Well duh everyone hates losing champs. We are told this caused people to just give up.......really? If someone gave up on one node because they died one time......they shouldn't be playing at the level they are. It's not about skill it's about who can field the biggest number of points in defense with star rating and rank.
We currently have act 5 nodes, why? Because the map was too easy? Wanna know why the map was too easy? Well we have people bringing LC/SG/IP/CW/sub garbage tier champs to the map for the sake of diversity.
Kabam, you know when you make challenges and events how you place the SAME CHAMPS on almost identical nodes? You do this because you know that Master event DP(red) will always suck. DP(red) is usually always in act 2 and near and area where you have to pass him 75% of the time to 100% the map. I remember one master quest he was right before the boss. Meaning you needed SL (duped) or Guilly for that quest to make it easy. You do this for a reason. And no it's not to "make money" it's to make us use potions and make us think and play better. You know how you always use IceMan on certain nodes or give him certain buffs? This is the same reason you always toss huge armor champs on armor nodes in quests. You know it will be a hassle. This is the same thinking as to why some people placed 2 Magik/NC/Dorm/Hype/Mordo champs on certain nodes. This is why you saw double or even triple of the same champs in each bg and 90% of the time on the same nodes. We did it because IT WORKS.
The removal of Defender Kills took skill out of the game. Look at it this way. Say after every quest fight every champ was revived and healed back to 75% health. This is basically the same thing as no defender kills. You take skillful play out and all you are left with is no penalty. Tell me why an alliance that died over 60 times to a Spider-Man in one bg should win? Well it has happened. All because a group of 10 people managed to have better luck in pulling and duping champions over another 10. How is THAT fair or fun? When my Magik kills the entire bg 2 times over. While on offense we gave them idk maybe 10 deaths total and we lose because of a scoring mechanic we have no control over? How is THAT fun. Putting road blocks up (harder nodes) to make "skill a deciding factor) we know that is that's not the case. You say it's to prevent 100% of the map and thus negating rating/diversity from being the factor. And we know it's because diversity was a mistake.
Dying - not fun but we knew it was part of advancing and we learned from it. And we never "jus gave up"
Thorns removed - awesome (I guess)
Act 5 nodes after too many alliances 100% the map to much- not fun at all.
Losing a match even though they died to us 100% more times - not fun or fair.
When a new AW starts I dread the first 24/25 hours. And even 48 sometimes. You say people stopped playing because they died one or 2 times? I have seen alliances zone in and not move because why even bother when you know just by looking at alliance ratings you will lose no mater how much you clear or how many bosses you kill? I have seen alliances all stay on that starting node because they were defeated at placement phase. The time needed to put in exploring rewards is not beneficial. A few shards? I can get more opening crystals. A few gold? I can get more out of milestones. A few thousand loyalty?
Scoring system needs a look at, not "how can we make this tougher" so they don't 100% it. When you took control of win/loss out of the hands of the players and put it in the electronic brain of ratings that was a huge let down. You basically said "it's not up to those who play better, it's up to those who have the better team". That's like taking Michael Jordan, and despite all his accomplishments, wins, rings, skill you give him a lower ranking because he is older (aka Low PI champs) and taking a college shooting guard who has less wins and skill and giving him a higher ranking because his longevity is higher (aka high PI champs) and have them play 1v1 and despite MJ utterly destroying the college player by an astounding 148 points he still looses because the college guy has better prestige.
Please Kabam take a look at AW and listen to your player base. A small yet significant change to scoring is what will make AW fun again and not a nightmare.
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Comments
This right here is another thing. Some alliances are juuuuust out of reach of that elusive T4CC so increases to their lineup comes from shards. And the best shards come from AW. But it's no longer fun.