Returning player/Current state of the game?

As the title suggests I’ve recently started playing again after taking a short and much needed year long break from the game. If anyone would like to inform me about a few things regarding the current state of the game, I would really appreciate it. Some background Info though: Before taking a break I had just reached Thronebreaker and therefore only have a few rank 3 6* champs. Story-wise I’ve only completed as far as 7.1. If anyone is currently in a similar or higher position to me, I’d love to hear your insight.

1. State of AQ/AW? I don’t currently plan on joining an alliance again due to time/commitment worries but would like to know what everybody thinks of AQ/AW? Is it enjoyable and do the rewards suffice for the effort.

2. Battlegrounds: Worth playing? What champs are meta on attack/defence? Is it fun and is the BG currency easy to obtain, at least relatively?

3. Event quests: Cavalier EQ still looks the same as ever. Is it worth completing/exploring for the current rewards, because from what I can see, apart from the T6 Basic frags and T3 Alpha frags from exploration, there’s not much else that’s valuable for a roster looking to transition from 5->6 stars.

4. Variants: Are the more recent ones still worth doing? Rewards are starting to look slightly outdated all across the variants.

5. Story mode: What champs are necessary for completion from 7.2 onwards? From my perspective, it looks like focusing on act 7 completion is the best thing to do at the moment.

6. New champs: Are many of the champs released this year any good? What champs from the past year or two are worth seeking and how relevant are they for content (Aq/aw/story/Battlegrounds) ?

7. I’ve only briefly heard about relics and 7 stars, anything else coming soon that’s worth noting? I’ll probably have more of a look myself, but what’s the general consensus regarding the upcoming content?

8. Anything else from the past year and a bit that you think is worth knowing?

Thank you for any and all replies, I know the post is pretty long. I’m typing this on mobile also, so hopefully there won’t be any formatting issues.

Comments

13579rebel_

1. AW rewards were buffed some mention of AQ will be made in November

2. They are worth playing good defenders are lots of the newer characters such as Hulkling Wong and omega sentinel and your usual defenders such as bishop Korg and apocalypse.

3. If you are looking to transition into 6 stars I wouldn't say eq is the best place

4. Variants aren't really worth it

5.you should focus on act 7 and 8.1 completion there are plenty of you tube videos out there I would recommend MCOC NOOB

6. New champs from the last 2 years that are in the base pool that you'd want to get are Hercules, kitty pryde, nimrod, Spider man 2099, knull, omega Sentinel, black cat, scorpion, Rintrah, and Hulkling.

7 don't worry about for now

8. There will be no gifting this year

Hzori

1. AW rewards were buffed some mention of AQ will be made in November

2. They are worth playing good defenders are lots of the newer characters such as Hulkling Wong and omega sentinel and your usual defenders such as bishop Korg and apocalypse.

3. If you are looking to transition into 6 stars I wouldn't say eq is the best place

4. Variants aren't really worth it

5.you should focus on act 7 and 8.1 completion there are plenty of you tube videos out there I would recommend MCOC NOOB

6. New champs from the last 2 years that are in the base pool that you'd want to get are Hercules, kitty pryde, nimrod, Spider man 2099, knull, omega Sentinel, black cat, scorpion, Rintrah, and Hulkling.

7 don't worry about for now

8. There will be no gifting this year

Thanks for the reply!

I already have some of the champs you listed as 5/6* but will keep my eye out for the others. Variants and cav event quest not worth it? Gotcha, guess I’ll be focusing on Act 7 and battlegrounds for the time being. Hopefully the buff to AQ rewards are significant, that could interest me again.
I didn’t know that gifting isn’t returning this year, that’s pretty unfortunate, it’s normally something to look forward to during the Xmas season. Is that just this year or are they ending the gifting events entirely because of whatever issues?

One thing I forgot to mention was incursions. I saw there’s a solo mode now so that’s pretty interesting, the rewards look pretty decent especially since 6* incursion crystals have finally been added. I imagine everybody else has been playing incursions to aim for certain 6*s.

Rebark

Currently the game is fine.
One problem I always complained about was the lack of what to do.
We only had the acts every 6 months and the aw during the season.
Currently thanks to BG, if you want to play all day, you will have something to do in the game.
About the acts: It's easier than ever, you can complete without spending up to 8.1 with only a few good 6* champions in position 3.
AQ Status: Boring, outdated, many alliances that were map 8 are now map 5 because it's not worth spending money/resources/time on map 8.
AW Status: The rewards have been greatly improved, it's really worth playing.
Variants: Dead content, maybe we'll have one in December, outdated rewards, for me, it's even harder than some patches from act 8, I did it just for the gold.
Event Quests: Currently it's ok, I think they should reduce the number of patches, I find it very long and tiring, but in a way, the rewards are ok.
New Champs: In terms of animations, design, we've had amazing champions, if you want to know if we have a new Hercules, no. But all the champions released recently are useful for something, no Psycho-man has been released in the last few months.

DNA3000

1. State of AQ/AW? I don’t currently plan on joining an alliance again due to time/commitment worries but would like to know what everybody thinks of AQ/AW? Is it enjoyable and do the rewards suffice for the effort.

A while back I started a thread called "Earning Glory as a Solo Player" where I discussed starting your own alliance as a solo player and just doing AQ all by yourself to earn some glory. A lot of people commented that they did this as well when they did not want the pressures of joining an alliance, and the rewards were fairly reasonable for not much effort.

A very recent update to AQ potentially makes it worth revisiting this idea, because all links in AQ are now gone. This means a solo player that decides to just plow their way through the map can do so without the need for any alliance mates to clear links. The map will be no more difficult with alliance mates than without, except for the fact that you have to clear your path and kill the boss all by yourself. This means one main account and an alt theoretically have enough energy to complete any AQ map, and only one of those accounts actually has to do any fighting.

Not most people's cup of tea, but it is out there now.

6. New champs: Are many of the champs released this year any good? What champs from the past year or two are worth seeking and how relevant are they for content (Aq/aw/story/Battlegrounds) ?

If you're trying to be competitive in Battlegrounds, the meta is complex enough that a whole lot of champs are now in play. This is complex enough that I wouldn't want to discuss it in a short paragraph, and to be honest I'm not focusing enough attention myself to have an expert opinion there. But @Hzori above covers the basics on the highlight reel of champs that have come out recently. I will say that Hercules and Kitty are champs that, in particular, if you were not around for their release, you might want to watch some videos on. They are the top meta-busting champs in that list.

8. Anything else from the past year and a bit that you think is worth knowing?

Solo mode incursions, which you mention above.

Depending on how long you've been gone, you might have missed Summer of Pain from last year, and also Eternity of Pain this year. Summer of Pain was a multi-week event where one champ per week was released in a map that you had to defeat, ending with a map containing all of them. EoP is the successor to that event, that has been running for a few months now in seven week cycles. We're about the start the last cycle next week. Rewards pretty good, content difficulty is Your Mileage May Vary. Some think it is fair, some thing it is horribly unfair, I personally think it is deliberately unfair because it is supposed to be end game content.

There's a catalyst store now. Depending on your progress, you can buy select catalyst for units. Depending on your situation, this can be a good thing to have to fill in rank up resources.

If you decide to start pushing through Act 7, there was some interesting ... stuff that happened surrounding the offer you got for initial Act 7 (7.4) completion. At the time the rewards were considered excellent for the cost, which was high (12k units). Enthusiasm has dampened with time, of course, as the rewards in the game continue to open up. However, it is something to research before completing 7.4, just to see what it is all about.

If you're not going to join an alliance again, this is not relevant to you, but alliance war revives are now free and can be used in an unlimited fashion. Well, technically speaking they aren't free: they cost one loyalty per. For alliances that want a less expensive war experience and are willing to sacrifice losses for allowing their members to not spend (like, ever), this is an interesting new option for war participation.

Oh, and you can now buy alliance quest and alliance war energy potions, very limited with glory and loyalty, and unlimited for units. I would probably not buy them for units, but stocking up on them for glory and loyalty and keeping them around for that one time you wish you had just one more energy move is probably worth it. Also irrelevant if you're not joining an alliance, but its there.

If you never fully explored Acts one through four, take a look. They were all revamped, and the rewards changed. I will skip over the weird controversies that are no longer relevant today, but the bottom line is those Acts now have a lot fewer paths, and a lot more units. If you didn't explore them, it might be worth auto-fighting through them just for the units.

Lots of other little changes, and some big ones that won't directly alter how you play the game in the immediate future (things like the new balancing systems and processes that were a lot of forum and reddit fodder, but won't directly impact your game play today).

BowTieJohn

Will comment tomorrow.

Hzori

Currently the game is fine.
One problem I always complained about was the lack of what to do.
We only had the acts every 6 months and the aw during the season.
Currently thanks to BG, if you want to play all day, you will have something to do in the game.
About the acts: It's easier than ever, you can complete without spending up to 8.1 with only a few good 6* champions in position 3.
AQ Status: Boring, outdated, many alliances that were map 8 are now map 5 because it's not worth spending money/resources/time on map 8.
AW Status: The rewards have been greatly improved, it's really worth playing.
Variants: Dead content, maybe we'll have one in December, outdated rewards, for me, it's even harder than some patches from act 8, I did it just for the gold.
Event Quests: Currently it's ok, I think they should reduce the number of patches, I find it very long and tiring, but in a way, the rewards are ok.
New Champs: In terms of animations, design, we've had amazing champions, if you want to know if we have a new Hercules, no. But all the champions released recently are useful for something, no Psycho-man has been released in the last few months.

Thanks for replying!

Good to know that Act 7-8.1 is doable without units, can’t wait to tackle it. I played some battlegrounds earlier today and I’m enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would, definitely a welcome addition. Although I hear the matchmaking isn’t great at times. I’m only bronze 3 which I believe is the lowest rank so I haven’t faced many issues yet.

So AQ is still pretty boring then, I’m not too surprised. Although @13579rebel_ mentioned there would be a buff to rewards in November so I hope that’ll reignite people’s interest in the game-mode again.
I’ll have a look at the AW rewards, I really hope AW is a lot more enjoyable and less stressful these days, especially if the rewards are good.
Will avoid the variants and EQs till rewards are buffed, the consensus seems to be they’re pretty lacking compared to the other content.

Hzori

1. State of AQ/AW? I don’t currently plan on joining an alliance again due to time/commitment worries but would like to know what everybody thinks of AQ/AW? Is it enjoyable and do the rewards suffice for the effort.
A while back I started a thread called "Earning Glory as a Solo Player" where I discussed starting your own alliance as a solo player and just doing AQ all by yourself to earn some glory. A lot of people commented that they did this as well when they did not want the pressures of joining an alliance, and the rewards were fairly reasonable for not much effort.

A very recent update to AQ potentially makes it worth revisiting this idea, because all links in AQ are now gone. This means a solo player that decides to just plow their way through the map can do so without the need for any alliance mates to clear links. The map will be no more difficult with alliance mates than without, except for the fact that you have to clear your path and kill the boss all by yourself. This means one main account and an alt theoretically have enough energy to complete any AQ map, and only one of those accounts actually has to do any fighting.

Not most people's cup of tea, but it is out there now.
6. New champs: Are many of the champs released this year any good? What champs from the past year or two are worth seeking and how relevant are they for content (Aq/aw/story/Battlegrounds) ?
If you're trying to be competitive in Battlegrounds, the meta is complex enough that a whole lot of champs are now in play. This is complex enough that I wouldn't want to discuss it in a short paragraph, and to be honest I'm not focusing enough attention myself to have an expert opinion there. But @Hzori above covers the basics on the highlight reel of champs that have come out recently. I will say that Hercules and Kitty are champs that, in particular, if you were not around for their release, you might want to watch some videos on. They are the top meta-busting champs in that list.

8. Anything else from the past year and a bit that you think is worth knowing?
Solo mode incursions, which you mention above.

Depending on how long you've been gone, you might have missed Summer of Pain from last year, and also Eternity of Pain this year. Summer of Pain was a multi-week event where one champ per week was released in a map that you had to defeat, ending with a map containing all of them. EoP is the successor to that event, that has been running for a few months now in seven week cycles. We're about the start the last cycle next week. Rewards pretty good, content difficulty is Your Mileage May Vary. Some think it is fair, some thing it is horribly unfair, I personally think it is deliberately unfair because it is supposed to be end game content.

There's a catalyst store now. Depending on your progress, you can buy select catalyst for units. Depending on your situation, this can be a good thing to have to fill in rank up resources.

If you decide to start pushing through Act 7, there was some interesting ... stuff that happened surrounding the offer you got for initial Act 7 (7.4) completion. At the time the rewards were considered excellent for the cost, which was high (12k units). Enthusiasm has dampened with time, of course, as the rewards in the game continue to open up. However, it is something to research before completing 7.4, just to see what it is all about.

If you're not going to join an alliance again, this is not relevant to you, but alliance war revives are now free and can be used in an unlimited fashion. Well, technically speaking they aren't free: they cost one loyalty per. For alliances that want a less expensive war experience and are willing to sacrifice losses for allowing their members to not spend (like, ever), this is an interesting new option for war participation.

Oh, and you can now buy alliance quest and alliance war energy potions, very limited with glory and loyalty, and unlimited for units. I would probably not buy them for units, but stocking up on them for glory and loyalty and keeping them around for that one time you wish you had just one more energy move is probably worth it. Also irrelevant if you're not joining an alliance, but its there.

If you never fully explored Acts one through four, take a look. They were all revamped, and the rewards changed. I will skip over the weird controversies that are no longer relevant today, but the bottom line is those Acts now have a lot fewer paths, and a lot more units. If you didn't explore them, it might be worth auto-fighting through them just for the units.

Lots of other little changes, and some big ones that won't directly alter how you play the game in the immediate future (things like the new balancing systems and processes that were a lot of forum and reddit fodder, but won't directly impact your game play today).

Wow this is some incredible info @DNA3000 ! Much appreciated and also nice to see you still on the forums. I remember reading your posts/comments back when I was more active on the forums, as helpful as ever

I did not know about the change to AQ and it so happens that I have a decent alt account so I may just set up an ally myself and try to figure this solo ally stuff out. Funnily enough, I’m almost out of glory after years of having an endless amount haha. But it’s great that the option to do AQ solo is at least there somewhat, one of my issues with AQ is the pressure from an ally activity wise which I understand obviously, but being able to take on any content at your own pace is always nice,

I already own a Hercules actually but will keep on searching for them newer roster staples. Kitty Pride I know is good but I recall her needing to be awakened, although my memory might be fuzzy, not 100% sure on that. Many of the newer champions seem to be good in Battlegrounds I’ve noticed, be it on offence or defence.

Summer of pain I remember and did ok in, solid rewards at the time for the effort required. EOP I just found out about, not too fond of having to do 4 tough fights compared to SOP’s 1, especially with all these new node combinations that I haven’t encountered yet. Not my cup of tea personally but rewards look nice.

Good to know about the unit offer from 7.4. but I’ll probably skip that one given that I don’t think I’ve ever had the patience to save more than 3000~ units once in the 7 years since I’ve downloaded the game lol.

I never got around to exploring act 3 yet so I’ll give it a go when I’ve got the extra time, could always use more units.
Thanks again for highlighting most of the changes the past year! Kabam have definitely put in a lot more work this year than in previous years that’s for sure.

DNA3000

I already own a Hercules actually but will keep on searching for them newer roster staples. Kitty Pride I know is good but I recall her needing to be awakened, although my memory might be fuzzy, not 100% sure on that.

The big deal with awakening Kitty is that she goes from only taking a small amount of damage when you hit her while she is phased to taking zero damage from all sources while she is phased. This includes SP3 attacks. Sigs help with damage, but even awakened at sig 1 she's still pretty good.

One more champ I should toss onto the pile is Overseer. I wasn't super excited about him when he first came out, then Act 6 was updated. Very few champions have direct counters to both nullify and poison simultaneously (Omega Sentinel is another one) and he hits like a truck. If Superman threw it at you.

ReignkingTW

Only reason to do variants is if its your only way to get T5cc that you need for 6r3s.