9.1

DONZALOOG1234

I always enjoy story content. The nodes that allow us to use champs that we won't often use are always fun. But, 9.1 just isn't it man. The only problem I have is the nodes. The new scourge nodes make all in fights in my experience such slogs, especially so that the 6 star buff node was removed.

For example:

9.1.5. The intercept scourge node. I don't what everyone's experience has been but mine has been hell. The AI refuses to dash in, they either stand holding block or slowly jog in. How am I supposed to intercept them? Additionally, the node timers are so slim. When I do get an eventual intercept, only 2 scourge charges get removed. Mind you the opponent is probably over 10 charges by now. Pausing is done using a striker and only for a mere 4 seconds. How are these supposed to be fun?

All in all, the nodes and AI made 9.1 a slog for me. I've already explored 9.1.1-9.1.5. Hopefully, the rest is better

Furrymoosen

The scourge paths are some of the worst content put out. Hopefully they will improve on that in 9.2 and add something rewarding to them for playing well.

LordSmasher

DONZALOOG1234 said:

I always enjoy story content. The nodes that allow us to use champs that we won't often use are always fun. But, 9.1 just isn't it man. The only problem I have is the nodes. The new scourge nodes make all in fights in my experience such slogs, especially so that the 6 star buff node was removed.

For example:

9.1.5. The intercept scourge node. I don't what everyone's experience has been but mine has been hell. The AI refuses to dash in, they either stand holding block or slowly jog in. How am I supposed to intercept them? Additionally, the node timers are so slim. When I do get an eventual intercept, only 2 scourge charges get removed. Mind you the opponent is probably over 10 charges by now. Pausing is done using a striker and only for a mere 4 seconds. How are these supposed to be fun?

All in all, the nodes and AI made 9.1 a slog for me. I've already explored 9.1.1-9.1.5. Hopefully, the rest is better

Yeh, that path sucked. I didn't end up intercepting at all but used champs that could deal with the unstoppable and spam specials (Wiccan, Doom, slow champs)

Giantwalrus56

I've always enjoyed story content, too. 9.1 wasn't it. Unblockable every chapter, check. Unstoppable, also check. I see what they were trying to do with the new scourge nodes, but as you said, they missed. It's almost story content has become an afterthought. I do understand the jump in health pools. Our champions are much stronger now. I might be the minority, but I miss the days of pre-nerf act 6 where content was more like a puzzle. Act 9 was a group of about 10-15 champions. No, I didn't "just herc it." Aside from that crappy shocker boss.
I'm not a fan of BGs. I get to the GC, do about 5 or 6 matches, then stop. Repeat next season. This not a knock on BGs, it's just the game is not what it was when I started playing in 2017. Games need to evolve, I get that. But imo, there's a portion of players, that are being pushed aside.
The seasonal content has been mostly enjoyable, too, but also seems in some way neglected. I'm optimistic as we get closer to the end of act 9, the story might become the focus again. Time will tell...

Squidopus

Giantwalrus56 said:

I've always enjoyed story content, too. 9.1 wasn't it. Unblockable every chapter, check. Unstoppable, also check. I see what they were trying to do with the new scourge nodes, but as you said, they missed. It's almost story content has become an afterthought. I do understand the jump in health pools. Our champions are much stronger now. I might be the minority, but I miss the days of pre-nerf act 6 where content was more like a puzzle. Act 9 was a group of about 10-15 champions. No, I didn't "just herc it." Aside from that crappy shocker boss.
I'm not a fan of BGs. I get to the GC, do about 5 or 6 matches, then stop. Repeat next season. This not a knock on BGs, it's just the game is not what it was when I started playing in 2017. Games need to evolve, I get that. But imo, there's a portion of players, that are being pushed aside.
The seasonal content has been mostly enjoyable, too, but also seems in some way neglected. I'm optimistic as we get closer to the end of act 9, the story might become the focus again. Time will tell...

Swear to god way too many people have rose-tinted glasses on for act 6. Act 6 on release wasn’t a puzzle, it was a bs mishmash of every defender and node with little regard for any counterplay. Admittedly they started learning towards the tail end of act 6 and the Grandmaster is an undeniable highlight of story content that demonstrates Kabam’s learning process but the early chapters were unfiltered garbage. May I remind you that strength in numbers is a node that exists in act 6, which is I think the dumbest node they’ve ever made, and keep in mind the node was twice as potent on release compared to now (aka -100% attack and AA if you have one champ left, so you literally can’t do anything). There’s a reason they had to nerf it multiple times and yet the general advice is still to not bother with it.

My problems with 9.1 is mostly just the length. They didn’t technically bump the healthpools by much, but combined with the stark drop in beneficial nodes fights felt like fights took twice as long as in act 8. It feels like too high a jump imo, if they wanted to scale back on the beneficial nodes I think they also should’ve considered scaling back the healthpools a bit to compensate.