**Mastery Loadouts**
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
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I see two problems with the availability of Tier 2 Alpha Catalysts in the new AQ rewards
Jodo_K
Posts: 23 ★
So I just finished reading about the updates to AQ rewards & Peak Milestones. I think there are a couple of positives to take away from the announcement, but I can't help but feel like Tier 2 Alpha catalysts are going to continue to be an issue for many players.
First of all, shards are still entirely too limited. It's cool that there is a 100% guarantee to earn some shards every AQ cycle for the top 500 alliances, but the amounts for placing in either the 91-250 bracket or the 251-500 bracket are, in my opinion, insultingly too low. To be able to fully form only 1 or 2 full catalysts per year from these rewards is nearly insignificant given how many T2A are required for ranking up 5 and 6 star champions. It's a trickle when many players are in need of a stream.
But there's a second problem with the new rewards, and in my opinion it is the far more concerning issue of the two. The disparity in rewards between the bottom ranks who qualify for T2A shards and the top ranks is way too high. Being in a top 20 alliance is going to be insanely rewarding, being able to form a full T2A every 4.5 AQ cycles at the very slowest. This will create a "rich get richer" scenario that will be extremely difficult to break. Once the top alliances start getting that steady flow of T2A they will be able to perform the necessary rank-ups that ensure that their Prestige can't be competed against, making displacing them that much more difficult (or impossible).
Furthermore, it is entirely likely that having such a disparity in rewards will further compromise the integrity of the game.. Let's face it...the end of S2 was ugly. Regardless of what was true or fabricated, the whole MMX drama shined a spotlight on how seedy things are at the top. If we came away learning anything from the whole ordeal, it was that there are folks who will do literally anything to be at the top. There is still a competitive element to AQ, even if it isn't the direct head-to-head matchup that AW provides, and I think the community has witnessed time and time again that when the rewards for being #1 are exponentially larger than the rewards for being #500, people will do whatever they can (even at the risk of losing their account) to game the system and get those rewards. Sure, there will always be a group of people who will want to earn those rewards honestly...but I think we can all safely assume that the prospect of earning a full T2A every few AQ cycles will open the door to some shenanigans.
And to be clear, I read the whole announcement. I know we're getting more map crystals, more glory and that prices in the glory store are going down. It's just not enough. I agree that T2A should be a rare resource, and that a lot of consideration should be put into ranking up 5 and 6 star champions. I don't know what the "right" amount is...I just know when a 6 star champion requires 252,000 T2A shards to have enough to rank up, getting 500 or 1,000 at a time from any source that takes 5 days to complete is just not enough.
First of all, shards are still entirely too limited. It's cool that there is a 100% guarantee to earn some shards every AQ cycle for the top 500 alliances, but the amounts for placing in either the 91-250 bracket or the 251-500 bracket are, in my opinion, insultingly too low. To be able to fully form only 1 or 2 full catalysts per year from these rewards is nearly insignificant given how many T2A are required for ranking up 5 and 6 star champions. It's a trickle when many players are in need of a stream.
But there's a second problem with the new rewards, and in my opinion it is the far more concerning issue of the two. The disparity in rewards between the bottom ranks who qualify for T2A shards and the top ranks is way too high. Being in a top 20 alliance is going to be insanely rewarding, being able to form a full T2A every 4.5 AQ cycles at the very slowest. This will create a "rich get richer" scenario that will be extremely difficult to break. Once the top alliances start getting that steady flow of T2A they will be able to perform the necessary rank-ups that ensure that their Prestige can't be competed against, making displacing them that much more difficult (or impossible).
Furthermore, it is entirely likely that having such a disparity in rewards will further compromise the integrity of the game.. Let's face it...the end of S2 was ugly. Regardless of what was true or fabricated, the whole MMX drama shined a spotlight on how seedy things are at the top. If we came away learning anything from the whole ordeal, it was that there are folks who will do literally anything to be at the top. There is still a competitive element to AQ, even if it isn't the direct head-to-head matchup that AW provides, and I think the community has witnessed time and time again that when the rewards for being #1 are exponentially larger than the rewards for being #500, people will do whatever they can (even at the risk of losing their account) to game the system and get those rewards. Sure, there will always be a group of people who will want to earn those rewards honestly...but I think we can all safely assume that the prospect of earning a full T2A every few AQ cycles will open the door to some shenanigans.
And to be clear, I read the whole announcement. I know we're getting more map crystals, more glory and that prices in the glory store are going down. It's just not enough. I agree that T2A should be a rare resource, and that a lot of consideration should be put into ranking up 5 and 6 star champions. I don't know what the "right" amount is...I just know when a 6 star champion requires 252,000 T2A shards to have enough to rank up, getting 500 or 1,000 at a time from any source that takes 5 days to complete is just not enough.
13
Comments
Because it’s inadequate?
Good observation, but makes sense since Kabam already allows unfair play by that whale alliance. It only makes sense to give the biggest whales a lock as #1 in AQ so they keep spending.