So when will we get a variant quest with relevant rewards ?
Artemis108
Member Posts: 29 ★
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Artemis108
Member Posts: 29 ★
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I do hope next variant will be an end game content with grt amount of 6* shards and gem as well.
Add in some sig stones, maybe 2 6 stars (or 2,5). And for exploration add 50% of both t6b and t3a. Difficulty equal to 7.4 with maybe somewhat higher attack values as variants typically have those compared to their respective progression.
Now that the meta has shifted I’d expect new ones to have R4 materials in them and nothing 5* related but they’ve always been pitched as hard but quirky with good loot.
Variant 1 released between Acts 5 and 6. It was intended to be stepping stone content to help players acclimate to the substantially more difficult Act 6 from Act 5 and provide additional rewards along the way. Variants 2, 3, and 4 were addressed at that same kind of niche, although they reduced the difficulty from Variant 1 and saw an extremely slight buff to rewards over V1.
It wasn't until V5, Blood and Venom, that we saw a substantial buff to Variant rewards. The previous 4 iterations were all very much focused on 5* roster growth, both in champion acquisition and rank up. V5 included 5,000 6* shards for completion, as compared to previous Variants having 2,250 for exploration as well as approximately quadruple the t5b. These rewards also now include 25,000 5* shards, whereas previously it had been two fully formed basic crystals (equivalent to 20,000 shards). There have been 4 variants under this reward scheme in total. There have been updates to rank up gems and such along the way as well, but I don't think I need to get any more into that right now.
The point of this history is to show that Variant content was, at one time, considered endgame content. But this is true of Realm of Legends and Act 5 and many other areas of the game that, at the time of release, were the most challenging content in the game. The difference between Variants and those other pieces of content that have aged out of their endgame status is that Variants have been an ongoing project still aimed more or less at the same place they were targeting at their inception. It hasn't scaled up because it isn't meant to scale up. It is meant to provide players who are working their way through Act 6 with an additional piece of challenging, fun content they can attempt outside of the story mode.
It is also worth remembering that this design philosophy for the Variants originated before the nerfs to Act 6's difficulty. It was truly challenging, and so making a different kind of questing content available was important. Now, Story content is not where the most difficult challenges in the game are found anymore. So creating alternative permanent questing content to work through until you have solutions for another roadblock isn't as critical. Instead, Story mode is where the tools are gathered to take on content like EoP and Carina's Challenges. I imagine this is why Variants have fallen off the production radar a bit. With the change to story mode philosophy, Variants just aren't needed as stepping stone content anymore.
Of course, I'm just speculating.