Extensive EQ Feedback
I've been following the comments and overall tide of the situation surrounding players responses to the recent update with Monthly Event Quests, and I have to say I've never seen the community respond with such overwhelming disappointment and frustration since 12.0.
I've seen the game evolve over the years and been with Kabam on this journey because I love this game. I remember when ROL was the sole piece of everest content and when BrutalDLX dominated the scene. Now there's so many modes in this game, and I'm seeing a large pivot in game design towards everest/highly competitive content. This update to the Monthly Event Quests to make it Adaptive felt like utter disregard for casual players.
Like many players I'm a working adult with commitments and choose to relax by playing this game. I have no intention of competing at high levels of the game or participating in any form of everest content. The past Monthly Event Quests allowed me the option of selecting which difficulties I wanted to engage with for the amount of rewards I wanted to earn. For the most part the effort correlated well with the reward. Paragon Gauntlets weren't too difficult that one needed a tonne of revives to complete. I avoided Valiant Gauntlet entirely.
Point 1 - OPTIONS:
Players engaged with Monthly Event Quests for the rewards they wanted at the difficulty they were comfortable with. Players had choices and they exercised their options according to how they wished to play. With the new changes, the ability to choose has been stripped from players. Players no longer have a choice. Players do not appreciate their choices being taken away from them. Casual players not wanting to do difficult content are being forced to fight defenders with 6-digit PI's at more than 3x the amount of attack rating (5-6,000 attack rating vs 18-19,000 attack rating) and health pools of 7-800,000. Making a small mistake costs players heavily, increasing the necessity of using pots and revives. Do I have to explain further why players are unhappy? Furthermore on the other end of the spectrum of players - players who do want to do challenging content - these players are forced to complete the Classic difficulty first before even being allowed to engage with the Elder difficulty. The option to engage with the content they want is being stripped from these players too. Come on Kabam, really?
Point 2 - EFFORT SCALING:
Seatins latest video pointed out a truly ridiculous point with the jump in difficulty from Classic to Elder. 18-19,000 attack ratings jump to 22-23,000, and health pools increase by a further 100-200,000 as well. On top of this increase is the real issue though. The fact that healthpools of attackers are shared. There is no room for error with the Elder difficulty. This highly increases the chances that players will stuff up and will need pots and revives. It's like an even tougher version of Crucibles. Crucibles were meant to be the epitome of everest content at one point. I remember when they advertised it as such. And now Kabam wants to turn Monthly Event Quests into Crucibles+? Who even asked for this? Furthermore there's the matter of the nodes chosen. These nodes are incredibly punishing to players, and from what I've read, even increasing the difficulty more than previous Valiant Gauntlets. The line between challenging and punishing is a fine one. But perhaps giving interesting/better bonuses to attackers TOGETHER with those punishing nodes may potentially smoothen them over so that the fight may be considered challenging rather than just punishing.
Point 3 - REWARDS:
The amount of effort and difficulty it takes for both Classic and Elder difficulties just to get incredibly lackluster and outdated rewards is absolutely ridiculous. Most of the worthwhile rewards require getting to the tail end of the Elder difficulty, making it so that completing and exploring the Classic difficulty isn't worthwhile at all. There's a great need to look at placement in terms of the point in the quest where rewards are earned, to ensure the rewards given match the effort given as players progress through the quest. Right now, completing Classic definitely isn't worth it at all. Not even in the slightest. 30units? Mythic shards? Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.
I don't quite know how to feel with Kabam's response so far to all this chaos too.. We hear you about the choices they said. So here's an early release of the Daily Quest Rework they said..the desperation to soothe players' disappointment leaves abit of a sour taste in the mouth honestly. But I will give credit where credit is due.. The Daily Quest rework seems decent so far. The loss of the ability to autofight in the Monthly Event Quests and it's provision through the Daily Quests was like an attempt to save a dropped vase but still spilling all it's contents. Unfortunately the changes to Daily Quests aren't enough to make up for the disappointment from the Monthly Event Quests.
I love this game and want it to succeed. Just wishing there would be abit more testing and consideration before launching things. Sometimes I wonder what Kabam Rex and Dorky Dave feel when duds they know are duds are gonna be launched and they gotta sit there during streams and act all excited like it's the best thing that's coming to the game. That confliction must be annoying lol.
Anyways if you've read this far and I'm missing out on anything please feel free to add it on. Keen to learn abt more experiences and thoughts from other players.
