Its a shame that...

The Ascension Model came out the way that it did. I don't think that many players are happy with an RNG/expensive Rank up system where we have little agency other than throwing thousands of units hoping to be able to ascend our champ of choice. This is so different from how rank ups have worked over the life of this game. Its a shame because ascension is such a huge part of the future of this game and Kabam fumbled it so badly. This "own goal" seems worse when you consider the fact that this month they proved they know how to make a fun, engaging game that players want to come back to. For example...

Upgraded Saga Incursions - took away an outdated model and improved rewards for a more enjoyable experience...W

Womens Side Quest - easy, simple, not grindy, useful rewards...W

AW Showcase - not new, but interesting and useful rewards...W

Magik Side Quest - ability to earn 60k radiance worth of tokens for FTP...W

Carina's Challenges - tough but approachable, very relevant rewards, designed cut off at the 4 and 6 milestone mark for rewards...W

Elder Title...new goal to aim and strive for, a "why" to keep grinding...W

Essentia...ok so the rollout was a dumpster fire, but it does honestly seem that Kabam realized it and is trying to make it right, I think its moving in the right direction and I like the idea of a single currency...lowercase w LOL

Kabam has these spurts where I am reminded of why this game can be so great. I just don't understand why there is so much inconsistency month to month. Kabam please focus on making a great game first...people will spend money when they are having fun. I cannot believe that a single Kabam employee looks forward to dropping thousands of units/dollars on grace crystals for a 1 in 30 chance to ascend the champ they want to. It's just not a good system. It's so imporant to get this right. You have proven you can make a truly great game at times. If you get acsension right, the future of this game can be so bright!

Comments

ahmynuts

This post is the embodiment of this comment

DancingElephant

I don't think you should see ascension as a rank up system, I think it is more like coming out of 8 stars. If you think of it that way it the RNG makes much more sense.

ahmynuts

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2937538#Comment_2937538

No it actually doesn't make sense

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/412240/pricing-breakdown-and-a-couple-ascension-suggestions

spiderknight616

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2937538#Comment_2937538

Nah. Even if it was 8 stars I don't see why it has to be locked to featured crystals for so long. Why not drop some Ascension materials for Titan dupes?

DancingElephant

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2937544#Comment_2937544

I appreciate your post and I did read through it but I think it is lacking in some perspectives and Kabam Mike has explained it in one of his responses.

First is that it assume we are paying everything with money and it doesn't take into any account of the free crystals that Kabam gave us. Kabam Mike said they are giving around 100 free empowered crystal a month through playing the content. I think that cut down the cost by a lot if we take that into account.
Second is that I think you are still seeing ascension as a pure rank up. Yes, it sounds absurd if that is the case. But I think this is more like introduction of 8 stars. Imagine instead of empowered crystals, Kabam is selling 8 star shards (15,000 shards for a full 8 star crystal). Since it takes about 120 empowered crystals to get an ascended champ, each empowered crystals is like 125 shards for 300 units. Yes it is extremely expensive but that is not that much different than when 7 stars were first introduced. I remember when 7 star shards first came out, it was really absurb how expensive it was (it was also like 200 shards for 300 units). And honest I never paid money for it, I simply couldn't afford to. So I took the free shards from completing content and I just wait for the price to come down, which it eventually did after about 6 months or so. So I don't see this as much different.

Again, I am really not trying to defend Kabam but I just don't think ascension is that much different than introduction of new star system and that's how Kabam always operated. Making things really expensive in the beginning to do an initial cash grab from people who cannot wait or who has a lot of money to spend. I actually do think ascension is a little more player friendly compare to the introduction of 8 stars. So for me, I don't think I will be purchasing any empowered crystals, I will complete my content and take the free ones, and just wait for the price of ascension to come, which I think will happen eventually.

DancingElephant

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2937548#Comment_2937548

Hmm, actually that part is true. I didn't think about that. I think one thing that is different is that when 7 stars came out, we could get dupe 6 stars and get 7 star shards. But currently we don't have a way of getting base pool ascension material other than finishing content and opening valiant crystals. I agree with your point, I think Titan dupes should give you an empowered crystal that will be nice.

However, duping 7 stars and titan does give you super duper shards, which is technically ascension material. But this part is really confusing and I don't quite understand why they decide to introduce two tracks, that was never very clear for me.

Again, I am still trying to wrap my mind around this who ascension thing myself.

Chobbly

It's too late to do much about Ascension, the opportunity was probably spent six months ago when CCP or a group of players could have provided some thoughts.

Making all/most Greater Empowered (7*) crystals into Nexus crystals could help a bit. It would at least give us some choice over who we wanted to Ascend and give us, as players, a measure of control and agency over how we grow our rosters.

DancingElephant

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2937544#Comment_2937544

Sorry one point to add, and this is the part why I think ascension is friendlier than 8 stars. So again from ahmynuts's post, this is how I see the future.

If you don't want to spend money, in terms of new champ, you will be getting normal 7 stars for awhile, until they eventually become cheaper to ascend.
If you want ascended 7 stars (essentially 8 stars) now, you will need to spend money to get it.

That's also kind of like how 6 star to 7 star transition was. If you don't spend money, you will be keep pulling 6 stars for awhile. However, one thing that is more player friendly is that eventually you can ascend those 7 stars, so you are free to rank them up. In the old system of 6 star to 7 star. It was always a rough choice, I cannot afford to buy 7 stars, but 7 star is the future, so should I still rank up 6 stars I get in the mean time. If I don't rank up, I don't know when I will get the 7 star. But if I do and pull a 7 star, it makes the 6 star rank up completely useless. But this is no longer an issue in the new system, you don't have to make that choice anymore, you are free to rank up the new 7 stars you pull, knowing that you can ascend them in the future, you just have to wait, and I think that is better and is a pro-player move.

Again, feel free to correct me if I am wrong, like I said, I am still trying to wrap my mind around the ascension system.

Sean0333

This may just be a personal preference issue as I'm selective about who I rank up, but it is slightly annoying having the excitement of pulling an ascension, then realizing the champ is at r1.

Everyone says to view it as 8*, but at least if they released 8* with the current ascension pool they'd start at r1 and already be up to par rank wise with our current highest 7*s. Many people have ascended champs that they haven't ranked because those champs don't aren't as good as meta champs. For me, I've now pulled Mr F, Howard, Storm X, & Hit Monkey. Prior to ascension, I only had hit monkey ranked up. If this had been 8*, all 4 of these champs would've been much more viable.

Frumpy_geezer

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2937564#Comment_2937564

Right, and the investments you make in them along the way carry over. No need to dupe them AGAIN, or pull an awakening gem and 199 sig stones. They are already maxed out and if they are R4 or even R5 as those become more and more, they will still be useful in the meantime.

Flavyjay

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2937551#Comment_2937551

Bruh the free crystals we get is for the base pool not for the new champions

ahmynuts

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2937577#Comment_2937577

Maybe I should have specified my post was SPECIFICALLY about new champions when I linked it

DancingElephant

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2937582#Comment_2937582

Oops, yes, that was my mistake. Again, this ascension system is quite complex and kinda confusing, there are a lot of parts to it…

But I think i did correct myself in a later post, I guess I expected that getting an ascended NEW champion will be extremely expensive, it is essentially trying to get an 8 star new champion. When 7 stars came out (correct me if I am wrong). I don't think we had a way of getting NEW 7 stars other than valiant crystals also (until the Titan system came out). If you don't want to spend on valiant crystals, the only thing we had was the 7 star base pool, which is filled with mid champions, my first two pulls are Silver Surfer and Bishop, which was depressing because I saved for months for those two crystals.

I guess all I am trying to say is this ascension thing is not that much different than when the 7 star came out. But the benefit is that at least when we do pull a NEW 7 star champion from Titan, we get to ascend it later. So in way, if we wait, our 7 star can become a 8 star (ascended 7 star), which is something that Kabam hasn't done before and I think that is a pro-player move.

To respond to @Sean0333, yeah, that is a trade-off and that does kinda suck. I wish pulling an ascended 7 star will immediately boost its PI to like a 7 star rank 3 or something, that will be nice.

spiderknight616

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2937586#Comment_2937586

Yeah ascension is a way better option than 8 stars I completely agree. But it's just a little overwhelming at the moment.

I think a good solution would be to eventually add an extra shard crystal exclusively for ascension materials, and you get shards for that as you pull dupes from Titans.