Small Change, Big Difference.
Introduction
Over the years, there is a rising interest from Kabam to make the game more fresh and dynamic. This is evident from updates such as relics, adaptive EQ difficulties, and Crucible-like content. While these changes have been promising for the game's direction, more can be done. One area I’d like to highlight is replayability and difficulty.
For one, it’s already well-known that Battlegrounds is one of the most replayable modes, while other modes — though technically replayable — often run the risk of becoming tedious. Second, the game has long revolved around one main philosophy: punch the opponent, revive, and punch again until they die. This design carries over into much of the content, such as The Crucible, Necropolis, and the new 9.3.
So what issue do I have with this? It is dull and tedious and there's not much stakes involved. All you need to do is heal up if you die, that's about it. Necropolis is a perfect example of this; farm enough potions, bring this counter, fight for 4 hours, repeat. Needless to say, these contents do target something in particular, The Crucible: roster management and planning; Necropolis: player's stamina, and health resources. In the past there was the Summer of Suffering bosses which brought a newfound difficulty to the game, but it was nothing a couple of revives couldn't solve. Now, revives are much more abundant and this renders the resource management part of the game a concern of the past for players.
My proposal
Instead of only going up in difficulty via increasing healthpools, having new bosses, niche counters, and stacking on a bunch of nodes, I suggest a small adjustment that targets a player's skills. One suggestion could be rewarding them (perhaps through tiers Bronze, Silver, and Gold) for taking the boss in as least revives as possible (e.g. solo, 1 revives). This encourages players to actively learn about a fight and do it in a manner that's meticulous. There are many things that can be added on top of this system of rewarding a player's skill; not getting hit, completing under a certain amount of time, etc.
