ADAPTIVE EQ IS BROKEN!!
Punishing Difficulty and Overtuning:
Scaling is too Aggressive: The difficulty, which is based on a player's Prestige (derived from their top champions' ranks), scales so rapidly that it often feels "insulting" and punishing, rather than a balanced challenge.
Excessive Fight Length/Grind: Fights often feature vastly inflated health pools and attack ratings, making quests feel like a time-consuming chore that leads to player burnout.
Increased Item Consumption: The high difficulty and overtuned damage force players to use excessive amounts of Potions and Revives, decreasing overall reward value and encouraging spending.
Loss of Player Agency and Choice:
No Difficulty Selection: The removal of classic fixed difficulty tiers (like Easy, Normal, etc.) takes away the player's ability to select an enjoyable difficulty level for monthly rewards, forcing them into content scaled by Prestige.
"Aiming at No One": Because the content scales with roster strength (Prestige) but not necessarily with an individual's skill level or available time, many players find the content either too hard or not suitably rewarding for the effort required, meaning the content fails to satisfy a broad player base.
Flawed Reward Structure and Progression:
Punishing Account Progression: The system discourages players from ranking up their champions (which increases their Prestige) to avoid a sudden, drastic spike in EQ difficulty that outpaces their ability to earn new resources.
Widening the "Whale/Normal Player" Gap: EQ was previously a reliable source of steady rewards for monthly account progression. Tying the highest rewards to Prestige means that the largest accounts (often "Whales") get an outsized advantage in a non-competitive game mode, further increasing the gap between top-tier and mid-tier players.
Backend Loaded Rewards: The most valuable rewards are too dependent on full completion of the highest difficulties, making them inaccessible for many players.
Outdated Quest Design:
Narrow Roster Checks: The node designs in the Elder difficulty can be anachronistic or demand an extremely narrow pool of specific champions to counter effectively, forcing a focus on a small set of high-Prestige champions instead of encouraging a deep and varied roster.
Suggestions for Solutions:-
Reintroduce Player Choice & Flexibility:
Manual Difficulty Opt-Down: Implement a system that allows players to manually select a lower difficulty tier than their Prestige would suggest, receiving appropriately lower rewards. This prioritizes player time, enjoyment, and skill level.
Revert to the Old/Hybrid System: Consider either bringing back the old, fixed EQ difficulties alongside the new Adaptive content, or adopting a hybrid system where players choose a broad difficulty bracket (e.g., Challenger, Elite, Master) and the content within that bracket slightly adapts.
