Some random Battlegrounds thoughts

Hi, folks! Obviously, I have been playing, trying to get in there and test the mode, test my skills, beat some of you annoyances into cosmic dust as my very name makes the multiverse itself tremble in fear…

Um, er, where was I?

Oh. Yes. Battlegrounds thoughts.

Obviously, the mode isn’t working as intended. I never won multiple fights within the same matchup, because it would not advance to the second fight, just like everyone is reporting.

This post isn’t addressing bugs — Kabam is gonna get that sorted. It’s a Beta. They’ll get it sorted. This post is more for what I see/think could be a very fun mode:

1. If you’re a newer player just advancing to Uncollected and beyond, don’t be afraid to put some resources into some of the quirky characters this game has that you like. Obviously, the elite characters are who they are. Everyone knows them, and you certainly have to do whatever is best for your account progression. But we can only ban three characters, and trust me, the only characters that made me nervous in the ban/fighting phase were those who are just quirky enough to punish the slightest dip in concentration.

2. The ban phase is long enough, but the selection phase(s) could maybe use one or two more seconds. I understand it can’t be forever, and honestly, I don’t want it to be. But at the same time, there are 200 characters in the game and holy smokes, trying to remember all the counters in your deck for the tough characters you didn’t ban does take a few seconds.

3. I am uncertain if Boosts have been allowed in the Beta. I hope not, and don’t think they should be now and moving forward. People have different Masteries, different favorite characters, different rosters and skill levels. That should be enough for the mode to be really competitive — I matched in five times, maybe six, and went through the Ban phase. Again, some of the most effective characters in the game were consistently ranked up, but I did see a decent amount of other characters in the decks.

4. I don’t love 15 Energy cost. But it’s…OK. I would rather it be 10, since it’s going to be part of it. I understand 5 wouldn’t be enough.

5. It is fun — seriously. Advancing through the Ban phase and actually seeing another real person’s roster choices, seeing how they intend to counter you or beat you…it really is fun. The mode could be really, really good.

That’s all I got, for now!

Sincerely, the World’s No. 1 Ranked Player (What?) 😎😎

Comments

Wozzle007

I couldn’t get on at all yesterday. Today 3 fights straight away. Got to a second fight twice, both of these should have gotten to a 3rd tie breaker fight but didn’t. They both went down as a win for me points wise so I’m it’s currently making me feel that I’m actually pretty decent at this mode!

Whenever I previously heard content creators and forum posts talk about the “Single Player Combat Mode” it made me think this wasn’t a mode for me. That I wouldn’t want to play it.

After 3 goes that we’re only half the fights it should have been, I can honestly say I love it so far. Choosing the dec, strategising about who to choose as the attacker and defender based on their selection. It’s honestly a great time.

The 15 energy cost would stop me playing if it continued that way. 5 should be the maximum. I think people have put this ideas forward but If Kabam wanted to monetise it, a better way is probably a separate currency, with 10 entries a day then 5 units to buy in once those entries are used up.

Anyway, great mode Kabam. Really good work. And hopefully people will appreciate this is a beta, not the final game mode, so there will be teething problems and points of learning to iron out. We’re quick to judge the real problems in the game but some people are going for the jugular because a beta wasn’t perfect on deployment. It’s not the full game mode that’s been launched. It’s a beta that’s being tested.

ESF

After 3 goes that we’re only half the fights it should have been, I can honestly say I love it so far. Choosing the dec, strategising about who to choose as the attacker and defender based on their selection. It’s honestly a great time.

For real, it’s funny, but I could legitimately do deck bans and strategy all day. I love that stuff. It’s really fun, seeing what other people do and think about their rosters.

winterthur

I played once. The opponent did not ban my Human Torch and placed a Mystic defender, epic disaster.

I think finally there is going to be a few champs that will perpetually sit in the cellar.

ESF

I played once. The opponent did not ban my Human Torch and placed a Mystic defender, epic disaster.

I think finally there is going to be a few champs that will perpetually sit in the cellar.

At some point, I am probably going to touch on this in a too-long post. Because what you said is the stone-cold truth — this mode shows what every single person actually thinks of their roster.

It’s pretty clear, how people are gonna approach it — whether someone likes offense or defense or a mix with utility, it is crystal clear which kits are simply not capable of competing in this mode.

I don’t want to get too off the rails, because it really is a promising mode. I have been able to string together numerous matches in a row, as the game mode has stabilized.

But yeah. The buff program is really, really important. Any pull going forward a kit that can’t be competitive…man. That ain’t great

unknown

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Wicket329

Hard agree with you @ESF about nerding out on the strategy aspects of this. I’ve got some weird champs in my deck that people just don’t expect and they end up being match winners for me (Hood and Jabari, for example). That’s some of the most fun. I think my favorite matchups have been taking my Nimrod against a Nimrod defender and just rinsing through him, and then using Jabari Panther against an iBom and just using all the incoming poisons to fuel my Hunt. Who needs poison immunity?

Team building and counter play tactics have always been one of my favorite parts of the game, it’s why I loved Grandmaster’s Gauntlet so much. Now I get to micro-dose that dopamine hit of a well thought out counter pick.

Demonzfyre

Hard agree with you @ESF about nerding out on the strategy aspects of this. I’ve got some weird champs in my deck that people just don’t expect and they end up being match winners for me (Hood and Jabari, for example). That’s some of the most fun. I think my favorite matchups have been taking my Nimrod against a Nimrod defender and just rinsing through him, and then using Jabari Panther against an iBom and just using all the incoming poisons to fuel my Hunt. Who needs poison immunity?

Team building and counter play tactics have always been one of my favorite parts of the game, it’s why I loved Grandmaster’s Gauntlet so much. Now I get to micro-dose that dopamine hit of a well thought out counter pick.

I have the same thing with my deck. Though I am disappointed that my R4 Silver Centurion keeps getting banned lol. I have played 2 matches so far all the way through but yesterday I tried matching a lot but couldn't connect like most but it got me familiar with the fight set up and whatnot.

I've taken the ban process and started using it like war.... ban Human Torch every round.

ESF

Hard agree with you @ESF about nerding out on the strategy aspects of this. I’ve got some weird champs in my deck that people just don’t expect and they end up being match winners for me (Hood and Jabari, for example). That’s some of the most fun. I think my favorite matchups have been taking my Nimrod against a Nimrod defender and just rinsing through him, and then using Jabari Panther against an iBom and just using all the incoming poisons to fuel my Hunt. Who needs poison immunity?

Team building and counter play tactics have always been one of my favorite parts of the game, it’s why I loved Grandmaster’s Gauntlet so much. Now I get to micro-dose that dopamine hit of a well thought out counter pick.

LOL NGL: Jabari is tricky enough on a two-minute timer. Jabari on a timer with Masochism?

I totally banned the first one I saw, because I knew what that was all about. I tried to take the down the next one I didn’t ban, almost got her down with an OML, but yikes. She’s a hard one to kill — because I know what I am doing with OML

ESF

Hard agree with you @ESF about nerding out on the strategy aspects of this. I’ve got some weird champs in my deck that people just don’t expect and they end up being match winners for me (Hood and Jabari, for example). That’s some of the most fun. I think my favorite matchups have been taking my Nimrod against a Nimrod defender and just rinsing through him, and then using Jabari Panther against an iBom and just using all the incoming poisons to fuel my Hunt. Who needs poison immunity?

Team building and counter play tactics have always been one of my favorite parts of the game, it’s why I loved Grandmaster’s Gauntlet so much. Now I get to micro-dose that dopamine hit of a well thought out counter pick.
I have the same thing with my deck. Though I am disappointed that my R4 Silver Centurion keeps getting banned lol. I have played 2 matches so far all the way through but yesterday I tried matching a lot but couldn't connect like most but it got me familiar with the fight set up and whatnot.

I've taken the ban process and started using it like war.... ban Human Torch every round.

I have a few counters to Torch, but even so, man. That is a tough kill, on a timer. I haven’t been banning him, but I did get absolutely smoked by one

Demonzfyre

Hard agree with you @ESF about nerding out on the strategy aspects of this. I’ve got some weird champs in my deck that people just don’t expect and they end up being match winners for me (Hood and Jabari, for example). That’s some of the most fun. I think my favorite matchups have been taking my Nimrod against a Nimrod defender and just rinsing through him, and then using Jabari Panther against an iBom and just using all the incoming poisons to fuel my Hunt. Who needs poison immunity?

Team building and counter play tactics have always been one of my favorite parts of the game, it’s why I loved Grandmaster’s Gauntlet so much. Now I get to micro-dose that dopamine hit of a well thought out counter pick.
I have the same thing with my deck. Though I am disappointed that my R4 Silver Centurion keeps getting banned lol. I have played 2 matches so far all the way through but yesterday I tried matching a lot but couldn't connect like most but it got me familiar with the fight set up and whatnot.

I've taken the ban process and started using it like war.... ban Human Torch every round.
I have a few counters to Torch, but even so, man. That is a tough kill, on a timer. I haven’t been banning him, but I did get absolutely smoked by one

I find it crazy we can activate pre-fights in BG's but still can't do it for duels lol

BitterSteel

I am absolutely loving battlegrounds, the only bad thing I have to say about it is people keep banning my Mr Negative

The time investment is perfection you can just jump in and play when you need, the strategy element is like a war match up on micro scale and it’s beautiful - you feel like you’re outsmarting your opponents pulls.

The roster investment feels amazing, you feel like you can use any and all the champs you’ve ranked.

I can’t wait to see new nodes added, reward systems added and everything else.

The one change that I hope makes it to the live version (kinda) is that individual champions do not need a cooldown. Unless it’s a very high amount. There isn’t a need for energy to play, and each champion having energy as well.

The good thing about this mode is that it’s not like arena where you get points added cumulatively and you can just grind and grind adding more and more with no skill. If you try that here and your skills aren’t up to scratch, you will lose points and you’ll always just stick around your level. Because of that, there’s no need to gate entries as hard as having energy to play AND champion stamina. I think the 15 energy cost is fine personally, but it’s at its absolute max. 10-12 is ideal, but I can manage with 15.

I’m also so excited for friend challenging that will be such a vital part to enjoying this mode, but I also feel they shouldn’t count for any points since that’s easily exploited.

Overall, this is the most excited I’ve been about a new mode being added - literally ever. This has the potential to be Kabam’s Magnus Opus. Mode designers, hats off to you. You have created something incredible.

DirtyMully

Definitely agree that champion stamina and energy cost will be a little much when this makes a full release. Great mode in concept though!

BitterSteel

On second thought, I also think that we shouldn’t use questing energy to play. We already have potentially 3 things per month we use energy for: Quest content, Event quest and side quest.

It’s getting a bit much, and it’ll really drain on energy resources which already feel stretched enough when it comes to trying to do Cav EQ, UC, completion of lower levels and then push in quest content.

Create a new energy resource like we have for War and AQ, make it identical to questing if needed. 70 max, same recharge, same cost. Or alter it to what is tuned best if they don’t work. But I just don’t think that normal energy should be used for battlegrounds personally.

unknown

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unknown

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Wicket329

On second thought, I also think that we shouldn’t use questing energy to play. We already have potentially 3 things per month we use energy for: Quest content, Event quest and side quest.

It’s getting a bit much, and it’ll really drain on energy resources which already feel stretched enough when it comes to trying to do Cav EQ, UC, completion of lower levels and then push in quest content.

Create a new energy resource like we have for War and AQ, make it identical to questing if needed. 70 max, same recharge, same cost. Or alter it to what is tuned best if they don’t work. But I just don’t think that normal energy should be used for battlegrounds personally.

So I agree and disagree here. I agree that just throwing this onto the pile of content that consumes quest energy at the current rates is too much. We’ve got enough going on there that this is unnecessary.

However, I don’t know about creating a separate energy count for it. I like the idea of being able to pop an energy refill and keep playing here. I don’t want it to be like AQ or AW where I do my couple fights and say “okay well I guess I’m done here now.” I want to have the option to sit down with the mode for an hour or more if the mood strikes me.

I’m not sure what the solution here is. Obviously Kabam needs to have some kind of monetizable interest here, I just don’t know how to balance that with ease of access to the mode.

Whiskey_Poet

Hard agree with you @ESF about nerding out on the strategy aspects of this. I’ve got some weird champs in my deck that people just don’t expect and they end up being match winners for me (Hood and Jabari, for example). That’s some of the most fun. I think my favorite matchups have been taking my Nimrod against a Nimrod defender and just rinsing through him, and then using Jabari Panther against an iBom and just using all the incoming poisons to fuel my Hunt. Who needs poison immunity?

Team building and counter play tactics have always been one of my favorite parts of the game, it’s why I loved Grandmaster’s Gauntlet so much. Now I get to micro-dose that dopamine hit of a well thought out counter pick.
I have the same thing with my deck. Though I am disappointed that my R4 Silver Centurion keeps getting banned lol. I have played 2 matches so far all the way through but yesterday I tried matching a lot but couldn't connect like most but it got me familiar with the fight set up and whatnot.

I've taken the ban process and started using it like war.... ban Human Torch every round.
I have a few counters to Torch, but even so, man. That is a tough kill, on a timer. I haven’t been banning him, but I did get absolutely smoked by one
I find it crazy we can activate pre-fights in BG's but still can't do it for duels lol

How do you activate prefights in battlegrounds?

Wicket329

Hard agree with you @ESF about nerding out on the strategy aspects of this. I’ve got some weird champs in my deck that people just don’t expect and they end up being match winners for me (Hood and Jabari, for example). That’s some of the most fun. I think my favorite matchups have been taking my Nimrod against a Nimrod defender and just rinsing through him, and then using Jabari Panther against an iBom and just using all the incoming poisons to fuel my Hunt. Who needs poison immunity?

Team building and counter play tactics have always been one of my favorite parts of the game, it’s why I loved Grandmaster’s Gauntlet so much. Now I get to micro-dose that dopamine hit of a well thought out counter pick.
I have the same thing with my deck. Though I am disappointed that my R4 Silver Centurion keeps getting banned lol. I have played 2 matches so far all the way through but yesterday I tried matching a lot but couldn't connect like most but it got me familiar with the fight set up and whatnot.

I've taken the ban process and started using it like war.... ban Human Torch every round.
I have a few counters to Torch, but even so, man. That is a tough kill, on a timer. I haven’t been banning him, but I did get absolutely smoked by one
I find it crazy we can activate pre-fights in BG's but still can't do it for duels lol
How do you activate prefights in battlegrounds?

In the screen after the matchups have been set, you should see a prompt that reads ABILITIES on your champion’s portrait. Tapping that will open the normal prefight ability activation interface.

BitterSteel

On second thought, I also think that we shouldn’t use questing energy to play. We already have potentially 3 things per month we use energy for: Quest content, Event quest and side quest.

It’s getting a bit much, and it’ll really drain on energy resources which already feel stretched enough when it comes to trying to do Cav EQ, UC, completion of lower levels and then push in quest content.

Create a new energy resource like we have for War and AQ, make it identical to questing if needed. 70 max, same recharge, same cost. Or alter it to what is tuned best if they don’t work. But I just don’t think that normal energy should be used for battlegrounds personally.
So I agree and disagree here. I agree that just throwing this onto the pile of content that consumes quest energy at the current rates is too much. We’ve got enough going on there that this is unnecessary.

However, I don’t know about creating a separate energy count for it. I like the idea of being able to pop an energy refill and keep playing here. I don’t want it to be like AQ or AW where I do my couple fights and say “okay well I guess I’m done here now.” I want to have the option to sit down with the mode for an hour or more if the mood strikes me.

I’m not sure what the solution here is. Obviously Kabam needs to have some kind of monetizable interest here, I just don’t know how to balance that with ease of access to the mode.

A solution could be energy refills for battlegrounds I guess! Put them in milestones, put them in a few crystals we can pop and pull them, make them similar to energy refills now

Colonaut123

Seeing the bugs, I am probably going to skip the beta. The whole concept doesn't excite me. It's just arenas, but more difficult and costly.

ESF

got on twice. slapped around some 5r4s with 6r3s. felt kind of bad they couldn't handle even the 5r5s on defense. got no rewards for 10 minutes of time commitment.

if folks like that, more power to them.

Hey, I get it. I don’t grind Arenas hardly at all, and I have done Incursions a handful of times. We don’t all enjoy the same things, which is why it’s good for Kabam to have different modes

ESF

Seeing the bugs, I am probably going to skip the beta. The whole concept doesn't excite me. It's just arenas, but more difficult and costly.

Ha! See, that’s exactly the opposite for me — Arenas is too easy, so it bores me. But again, I totally get how people feel differently

ESF

LOL I thought I understood Professor X really, really well — I have a 5/65. I literally did not know that he could go Unblockable on Specials WITHOUT hitting you first.

It surprised me so much, I just ate an L2 that absolutely nuked me 😂😂😂

Wicket329

Seeing the bugs, I am probably going to skip the beta. The whole concept doesn't excite me. It's just arenas, but more difficult and costly.
Ha! See, that’s exactly the opposite for me — Arenas is too easy, so it bores me. But again, I totally get how people feel differently

I’d echo this. I’d rather watch iron rust than do an arena grind. Too mindless. But this mode actually keeps me engaged and thinking and working the whole time, and I love that. Very much a too each their own kinda deal.