I’m saying that as a possibilty, but the overall main point is just a challenge for mid gamers that will help them build skills, practice against new nodes and make the game feel like they care about you. Right now it feels like they release a lot of new content for beginners and endgamers, but mid gamers just play the stuff already there.
It seems completely different to the beginners and endgame players.
Most of the game is actually more appropriate to the mid tiers than anything else. That's actually a fundamental design rule that virtually all games as a service obey. The focus is on the middle. They keep accelerating beginners to get them to the middle, and they deliberately slow down the end gamers so they can't accelerate too far ahead of the middle. The middle is where most of the action is.
The Boss Rush itself is not end game content. It is intended to be extremely challenging for mid-tier players at or about to become Uncollected. When people say that things like the Boss Rush aren't meant for "middle" tier players, what they generally mean is that it is too hard for middle tier players. But that's on purpose: what you see as "too hard" the game devs see as "extremely challenging."
I can tell you that when I was involved with the Boss Rush last year, I specifically asked what target I should be designing for. What I was told was that the content I designed should be very challenging for players with well-developed 4* rosters. That's the target for the Boss Rushes: 5/50s. Does that mean everyone with 5/50s should be able to do it? No. That means it should be very challenging for that category of player, which means many of them will fail. But some percentage will succeed.
I think of the Boss Rush like honors or AP high school classes. They are obviously intended for high school students not college students or graduate students. But that doesn't mean all high school students can pass that class. It is intended for high school students, but intended to be very difficult for most of them by design. When someone looks at those classes, they could say they aren't fair, that they are clearly intended for college graduates because only college graduates could hope to be able to do the work at a reasonable level of effort. But that misses the point of those classes.
I think one of the flaws in this game is that , there really is no training mode where beginners can practice their basic skills, before going thru the contents. It's all trial and error, based on my experience when I used to be active in this game. It can take a lot of anyone's time , you're like investing in able to develop skills necessary to go thru the contents as effortless as possible. I remember having a hard time parrying and dexing during my first time here. I tried researching watching YouTube videos, but of course, it's really different when you are the one in the driver's seat. And reading the tips here is a hit and miss thing, especially in this forum where it's hard to differentiate a troll from the next guy. I guess learning is a personal thing. Or maybe I see this thing as it is : just a game, not to be taken seriously.
I think the idea is that for something like international women’s day they could have included a little side quest or something else, not just make one thing for one type of player and be done with it
This is pretty much what I guess I meant. I think it's a bit **** that they make a "thing" for IWD and it is a thing a large chunk of players stand no chance of doing or getting anything out of.
and thank Kabam disagrees don't affect your star rating or I'd be on -3 or something! lol
I think the idea is that for something like international women’s day they could have included a little side quest or something else, not just make one thing for one type of player and be done with it
This is pretty much what I guess I meant. I think it's a bit **** that they make a "thing" for IWD and it is a thing a large chunk of players stand no chance of doing or getting anything out of.
and thank Kabam disagrees don't affect your star rating or I'd be on -3 or something! lol
This is the side quest. There are also the solo objectives. I think those asking for an easier level and getting frustrated by people disagreeing with them should search the forum. There is a thread on every eq saying make an easier level so we can get the rewards to catch up. There is also currently a thread asking to exclude people who already have a legend title from the calculation for future legend titles. There have been posts saying make another level between act 5-6, 4-5 and even 3-4 to let people catch up. Who are you trying to catch up too? How do you think making an easier level will actually help you anyway? If its about roster growth there are crystals. Feel free to pop until you have every 6* in the game at max sig. Sure that may help you power through act 4 but once you hit act 5 you need to develop an understanding of what nodes do and how to beat them. Nothing they give you can replace the skills you learn from completion of existing content. What giving more rewards will do is take away the sense of accomplishment you get when you do finally beat whatever content you are stuck on. There are videos of people beating this content with 2 and 3* champs. Why? Because they have played through the content already in existence and developed the skills and understanding of the nodes to do this.there is a shortcut to roster growth called money but it won't replace the skills required to use that roster once you obtain it. From some of the arguments I have seen they should create a level between map 6 and 7 because it's not fair for someone who can't do either to be excluded from the rewards and the ability to "catch up" because the difficulty is too high. You are only competing with yourself if you can't do this one there will always be another.
but the overall main point is just a challenge for mid gamers that will help them build skills, practice against new nodes and make the game feel like they care about you.
That's pretty much most of the game at the moment ..
for mid-game players, the following is (generally) a challenge:
Act 5 Realm of Legends Road to Labyrinth Act 6 Variants Labyrinth of Legends.
As Uncollected player, having been playing since Jan 2015 .. I consider myself "mid-game" .. I have a maxed 5* Ghost. I have two 6* champs ..
I'm (slowly) working towards cavalier .. and Realm of Legends and Road to Labyrinth are done.
Rest is still a challenge for me (or too much) .. so right now, it's EQ - uncollected .. and when I have time, keep working on Act V ..
Is it just me, or does anyone else feel that it's a bit unfair that there's only one level of Boss Rush? Like, sure alla y'all endgame players who've skipped and danced through Acts 5 and 6 and who frolic through UC difficulties month-in-month-out get to do it. But what about the lesser players who're still fighting to get to Uncollected, or who are only Conqueror or Proven or even lower? What do we lesser mortals get? sweet fanny adams, that's what. I know, I know, "git gud" or "not all content is for all players", but when they make something special for IWD like this, it's rather pants that only one chunk of the player base gets catered to.
I just feel like there ought to be a top tier BR for 10k 5* shards and stuff for the endgame players and then maybe a couple easier levels, say one worth 5k 5* shards or 4k 4* shards for the middle levels and one worth 4k 3* shards for the lowest levels.
Hi, uncollected player here. I am level 49 and i can do the monthly uc eq (completion) but even i cant clear the boss rush. This goes to show that its not the matter of strength, its a matter of skill. I understand the frustratio. since i used to be a conqueror once. But if u have enough skill u cld even bring in a team of 4/40s and can still clear the boss rush.
I think they don’t do it like that mainly so the endgame players don’t just run through 3 or so difficulties and gain 15k+ shards. Doing it that way would even further the gap between endgame players and the average one.
Then make a pass needed to enter each level and give one to each player with no way of obtaining more. Make it consumed after finishing so if a player accidentally gets into a level too high/low for them or wishes to try a harder version before settling for their level they aren't punished.
I’m saying that as a possibilty, but the overall main point is just a challenge for mid gamers that will help them build skills, practice against new nodes and make the game feel like they care about you. Right now it feels like they release a lot of new content for beginners and endgamers, but mid gamers just play the stuff already there.
It seems completely different to the beginners and endgame players.
Most of the game is actually more appropriate to the mid tiers than anything else. That's actually a fundamental design rule that virtually all games as a service obey. The focus is on the middle. They keep accelerating beginners to get them to the middle, and they deliberately slow down the end gamers so they can't accelerate too far ahead of the middle. The middle is where most of the action is.
The Boss Rush itself is not end game content. It is intended to be extremely challenging for mid-tier players at or about to become Uncollected. When people say that things like the Boss Rush aren't meant for "middle" tier players, what they generally mean is that it is too hard for middle tier players. But that's on purpose: what you see as "too hard" the game devs see as "extremely challenging."
I can tell you that when I was involved with the Boss Rush last year, I specifically asked what target I should be designing for. What I was told was that the content I designed should be very challenging for players with well-developed 4* rosters. That's the target for the Boss Rushes: 5/50s. Does that mean everyone with 5/50s should be able to do it? No. That means it should be very challenging for that category of player, which means many of them will fail. But some percentage will succeed.
I think of the Boss Rush like honors or AP high school classes. They are obviously intended for high school students not college students or graduate students. But that doesn't mean all high school students can pass that class. It is intended for high school students, but intended to be very difficult for most of them by design. When someone looks at those classes, they could say they aren't fair, that they are clearly intended for college graduates because only college graduates could hope to be able to do the work at a reasonable level of effort. But that misses the point of those classes.
I think one of the flaws in this game is that , there really is no training mode where beginners can practice their basic skills, before going thru the contents. It's all trial and error, based on my experience when I used to be active in this game. It can take a lot of anyone's time , you're like investing in able to develop skills necessary to go thru the contents as effortless as possible. I remember having a hard time parrying and dexing during my first time here. I tried researching watching YouTube videos, but of course, it's really different when you are the one in the driver's seat. And reading the tips here is a hit and miss thing, especially in this forum where it's hard to differentiate a troll from the next guy. I guess learning is a personal thing. Or maybe I see this thing as it is : just a game, not to be taken seriously.
I disagree in general about "training mode." The game has so much content it doesn't lack for a way for players to practice in general, if they actually spend any time looking for it. People use RoL for practice. Most players straddle difficulty tiers which means they can usually do one tier at a relatively low difficulty to practice before doing the tier that is more difficult - that's why people often tell players who complain about the difficulty of UC to "practice" on Master mode first.
Now, this is a game, and you should take it as seriously or not seriously as you wish by choice. Bowling is a game, not to be taken seriously. Unless, of course, you want to get good at it, in which case maybe take it seriously enough. If you don't take it seriously, you shouldn't care about training or practice because you don't care how good you are at it. You can just show up, rent the shoes, and throw the ball randomly down the lane, if your goal in life is to be the comedic relief of your friends. Or you can learn how to play the game, practice, and get better.
In case anyone thinks it is literally "trial and error" and there's no way to know what's a good source for getting better at the game, then you start with DorkLessons Youtube channel. I point everyone to Dave, especially his training videos. He's not the be-all end-all of the game, but he is the best place to start for those wishing to get better than "random trial and error." By the time you outgrow him, you'll know how to spot someone who knows what their talking about and who doesn't.
I do think there's room for improvement, for example Kabam mentioned in an interview a plan to make special "duel targets" that were easy to find to help players practice against certain champions. And I've suggested several things in the past for how to improve certain aspects of this, like with a "collector" system of collecting champion punching bags and node combinations. But the idea that the game lacks ways to practice to get better is completely alien to me, as it seems to be overflowing with ways to practice getting better at the game.
here a good way to have different difficulty for boss rush is to have a key that unlock difficulty you want to do and then the key will disappear so you will be stock with that difficulty. this way that top player won't take advantage of the rewards of the low difficulty.
and here the difficulty setup and rewards: 4 star of the champions ninus two nodss. rewards one 4star crystal 5 star of the champions ninus one nodes. rewards one 4star + 5000 5star shards 6 star the same as you always do it.
Those rewards seem extremely high for the drastic drop in difficulty by removing the nodes. On top of that there is no reason to call it a boss rush if you are going to drop the difficulty to the level of kang thanos fights in a 4* arena. Also just curious if you would leave the special 3 active as you drop the difficulty or is that an additional node you would want removed. In all seriousness it isn't supposed to be a side event with free rewards. It was designed to be doable with rank 4 and 5 4*s and 3 and 4 5*s. It was also designed to be a little bit harder to get through than normal content. That's why it is called a boss rush. Even in act 4 bosses have multiple nodes. They have been tuned down to the detriment of those running it allowing faster progression but at the cost of not learning counters. If you can't do it it's not a problem. We were all there once. Use it for practice and keep growing until the next one comes out.
I’m saying that as a possibilty, but the overall main point is just a challenge for mid gamers that will help them build skills, practice against new nodes and make the game feel like they care about you. Right now it feels like they release a lot of new content for beginners and endgamers, but mid gamers just play the stuff already there.
It seems completely different to the beginners and endgame players.
Most of the game is actually more appropriate to the mid tiers than anything else. That's actually a fundamental design rule that virtually all games as a service obey. The focus is on the middle. They keep accelerating beginners to get them to the middle, and they deliberately slow down the end gamers so they can't accelerate too far ahead of the middle. The middle is where most of the action is.
The Boss Rush itself is not end game content. It is intended to be extremely challenging for mid-tier players at or about to become Uncollected. When people say that things like the Boss Rush aren't meant for "middle" tier players, what they generally mean is that it is too hard for middle tier players. But that's on purpose: what you see as "too hard" the game devs see as "extremely challenging."
I can tell you that when I was involved with the Boss Rush last year, I specifically asked what target I should be designing for. What I was told was that the content I designed should be very challenging for players with well-developed 4* rosters. That's the target for the Boss Rushes: 5/50s. Does that mean everyone with 5/50s should be able to do it? No. That means it should be very challenging for that category of player, which means many of them will fail. But some percentage will succeed.
I think of the Boss Rush like honors or AP high school classes. They are obviously intended for high school students not college students or graduate students. But that doesn't mean all high school students can pass that class. It is intended for high school students, but intended to be very difficult for most of them by design. When someone looks at those classes, they could say they aren't fair, that they are clearly intended for college graduates because only college graduates could hope to be able to do the work at a reasonable level of effort. But that misses the point of those classes.
I think one of the flaws in this game is that , there really is no training mode where beginners can practice their basic skills, before going thru the contents. It's all trial and error, based on my experience when I used to be active in this game. It can take a lot of anyone's time , you're like investing in able to develop skills necessary to go thru the contents as effortless as possible. I remember having a hard time parrying and dexing during my first time here. I tried researching watching YouTube videos, but of course, it's really different when you are the one in the driver's seat. And reading the tips here is a hit and miss thing, especially in this forum where it's hard to differentiate a troll from the next guy. I guess learning is a personal thing. Or maybe I see this thing as it is : just a game, not to be taken seriously.
I disagree in general about "training mode." The game has so much content it doesn't lack for a way for players to practice in general, if they actually spend any time looking for it. People use RoL for practice. Most players straddle difficulty tiers which means they can usually do one tier at a relatively low difficulty to practice before doing the tier that is more difficult - that's why people often tell players who complain about the difficulty of UC to "practice" on Master mode first.
Now, this is a game, and you should take it as seriously or not seriously as you wish by choice. Bowling is a game, not to be taken seriously. Unless, of course, you want to get good at it, in which case maybe take it seriously enough. If you don't take it seriously, you shouldn't care about training or practice because you don't care how good you are at it. You can just show up, rent the shoes, and throw the ball randomly down the lane, if your goal in life is to be the comedic relief of your friends. Or you can learn how to play the game, practice, and get better.
In case anyone thinks it is literally "trial and error" and there's no way to know what's a good source for getting better at the game, then you start with DorkLessons Youtube channel. I point everyone to Dave, especially his training videos. He's not the be-all end-all of the game, but he is the best place to start for those wishing to get better than "random trial and error." By the time you outgrow him, you'll know how to spot someone who knows what their talking about and who doesn't.
I do think there's room for improvement, for example Kabam mentioned in an interview a plan to make special "duel targets" that were easy to find to help players practice against certain champions. And I've suggested several things in the past for how to improve certain aspects of this, like with a "collector" system of collecting champion punching bags and node combinations. But the idea that the game lacks ways to practice to get better is completely alien to me, as it seems to be overflowing with ways to practice getting better at the game.</blockq
People play games as a means to something, as they see fit, as part of a coping mechanism, to relieve stress, escape reality for at least 30 min, combat boredom or you just want to waste 1 hour of your life doing something silly for a while. It's called freedom of choice. But at the end of the day, reality takes over, taking time away to disengage in playing this game we all love, or used to love , thru the years.
My opinion represents the people who used to play this game, until certain priorities in our real life that we need to attend to that made us stop playing it. But I have no regrets. Each of us has personal goals to fulfill. However, no matter how you disagree with me, it doesn't mean that what I experienced beforehand, is not valid, is not real, just an excuse to bash this game to death. It is real to me, and I'm expressing it now because I am hoping things will improve the game for the better, my kid loves playing it too.
And your opinion represents the people who has the passion for it. You made some good points. But that doesn't mean this games has no flaws. I am aware you're doing your function as the guardian of this forum. But if all feed backs here are all positive, imagine how boring and one dimensional will it be. How can a room for improvement be possible? As is in the community, you will hear a multitudes of responses of what each people here experience on how they feel playing these game. But listening to them, no matter how overwhelming it can be, is the key on how to make MCOC better and make the people who play it happier, they are vital to the success and vitality of this brand, of this community. I still think you're doing a great job. Hope Kabam do listen, and I do believe they take time to listen, as this is the point of this whole forum, right?
I agree there should be varying difficulties so players don’t feel excluded and there are ways to make them challenging for each difficulty ie almost every boss in every side monthly quest we’ve had. I’m uncollected and still can’t beat it. Yes I agree some of it is definitely skill based but the rest seems like you just need to be lucky to have the right champ for each boss. Becoming uncollected was WAY easier than this trash challenge that requires you to be blessed with a 5* 5/65 void or cap IW. I’m not wasting revives to finally pull my upteenth 5* meme champ, no thank you.
I’m saying that as a possibilty, but the overall main point is just a challenge for mid gamers that will help them build skills, practice against new nodes and make the game feel like they care about you. Right now it feels like they release a lot of new content for beginners and endgamers, but mid gamers just play the stuff already there.
It seems completely different to the beginners and endgame players.
Most of the game is actually more appropriate to the mid tiers than anything else. That's actually a fundamental design rule that virtually all games as a service obey. The focus is on the middle. They keep accelerating beginners to get them to the middle, and they deliberately slow down the end gamers so they can't accelerate too far ahead of the middle. The middle is where most of the action is.
The Boss Rush itself is not end game content. It is intended to be extremely challenging for mid-tier players at or about to become Uncollected. When people say that things like the Boss Rush aren't meant for "middle" tier players, what they generally mean is that it is too hard for middle tier players. But that's on purpose: what you see as "too hard" the game devs see as "extremely challenging."
I can tell you that when I was involved with the Boss Rush last year, I specifically asked what target I should be designing for. What I was told was that the content I designed should be very challenging for players with well-developed 4* rosters. That's the target for the Boss Rushes: 5/50s. Does that mean everyone with 5/50s should be able to do it? No. That means it should be very challenging for that category of player, which means many of them will fail. But some percentage will succeed.
I think of the Boss Rush like honors or AP high school classes. They are obviously intended for high school students not college students or graduate students. But that doesn't mean all high school students can pass that class. It is intended for high school students, but intended to be very difficult for most of them by design. When someone looks at those classes, they could say they aren't fair, that they are clearly intended for college graduates because only college graduates could hope to be able to do the work at a reasonable level of effort. But that misses the point of those classes.
I think one of the flaws in this game is that , there really is no training mode where beginners can practice their basic skills, before going thru the contents. It's all trial and error, based on my experience when I used to be active in this game. It can take a lot of anyone's time , you're like investing in able to develop skills necessary to go thru the contents as effortless as possible. I remember having a hard time parrying and dexing during my first time here. I tried researching watching YouTube videos, but of course, it's really different when you are the one in the driver's seat. And reading the tips here is a hit and miss thing, especially in this forum where it's hard to differentiate a troll from the next guy. I guess learning is a personal thing. Or maybe I see this thing as it is : just a game, not to be taken seriously.
I disagree in general about "training mode." The game has so much content it doesn't lack for a way for players to practice in general, if they actually spend any time looking for it. People use RoL for practice. Most players straddle difficulty tiers which means they can usually do one tier at a relatively low difficulty to practice before doing the tier that is more difficult - that's why people often tell players who complain about the difficulty of UC to "practice" on Master mode first.
Now, this is a game, and you should take it as seriously or not seriously as you wish by choice. Bowling is a game, not to be taken seriously. Unless, of course, you want to get good at it, in which case maybe take it seriously enough. If you don't take it seriously, you shouldn't care about training or practice because you don't care how good you are at it. You can just show up, rent the shoes, and throw the ball randomly down the lane, if your goal in life is to be the comedic relief of your friends. Or you can learn how to play the game, practice, and get better.
In case anyone thinks it is literally "trial and error" and there's no way to know what's a good source for getting better at the game, then you start with DorkLessons Youtube channel. I point everyone to Dave, especially his training videos. He's not the be-all end-all of the game, but he is the best place to start for those wishing to get better than "random trial and error." By the time you outgrow him, you'll know how to spot someone who knows what their talking about and who doesn't.
I do think there's room for improvement, for example Kabam mentioned in an interview a plan to make special "duel targets" that were easy to find to help players practice against certain champions. And I've suggested several things in the past for how to improve certain aspects of this, like with a "collector" system of collecting champion punching bags and node combinations. But the idea that the game lacks ways to practice to get better is completely alien to me, as it seems to be overflowing with ways to practice getting better at the game.
People play games as a means to something, as they see fit, as part of a coping mechanism, to relieve stress, escape reality for at least 30 min, combat boredom or you just want to waste 1 hour of your life doing something silly for a while. It's called freedom of choice. But at the end of the day, reality takes over, taking time away to disengage in playing this game we all love, or used to love , thru the years.
My opinion represents the people who used to play this game, until certain priorities in our real life that we need to attend to that made us stop playing it. But I have no regrets. Each of us has personal goals to fulfill. However, no matter how you disagree with me, it doesn't mean that what I experienced beforehand, is not valid, is not real, just an excuse to bash this game to death. It is real to me, and I'm expressing it now because I am hoping things will improve the game for the better, my kid loves playing it too.
And your opinion represents the people who has the passion for it. You made some good points. But that doesn't mean this games has no flaws. I am aware you're doing your function as the guardian of this forum. But if all feed backs here are all positive, imagine how boring and one dimensional will it be. How can a room for improvement be possible? As is in the community, you will hear a multitudes of responses of what each people here experience on how they feel playing these game. But listening to them, no matter how overwhelming it can be, is the key on how to make MCOC better and make the people who play it happier, they are vital to the success and vitality of this brand, of this community. I still think you're doing a great job. Hope Kabam do listen, and I do believe they take time to listen, as this is the point of this whole forum, right?
Just to clarify a couple things. As a forum Guardian, I have certain responsibilities but they explicitly do not include, and even forbid representing the company in any capacity. I have an obligation to conduct myself in a manner that benefits the forums in general, and I have some limited capacity to notify the official moderators if I see something that might be a violation of the rules. But no Forum Guardian is allowed to state or imply that their opinions represent those of the moderators or the developers of the game or Kabam in general. Any opinion I state is mine alone, and represents no other opinion but my own.
The same right you're afforded to express your own opinions about the game is the same right I exercise to express my own. And frankly, I cannot see how anyone could read a post that explicitly states "I do think there's room for improvement" and imply that it tries to claim the game has no flaws. Nor can anyone reasonably make the claim that I've ever implied that the game is without flaws: I disagree with the developers about as often as I disagree with the players, and there's a lot of post history anyone could use to verify that statement. The only statistical difference is the developers post less often, so there's less opportunity to disagree with them even implicitly through commenting on game design changes.
I listen to as much forum discussion as possible, on every side of an issue. In fact, I consider it a prerequisite to commenting on an issue. If I'm going to weigh in on a topic, I'm going to read as much as possible about it. And again, when I've weighed in on things like AW design changes or difficulty scaling or balance changes I'm as well informed as I can be about what everyone else is saying about those topics. And most importantly, I've never taken any action that could be reasonably construed as discouraging or suppressing criticism when I do weigh in. But that goes both ways: I encourage criticism of the game and the developers, but I also encourage criticism of forum critiques which themselves are subject to critical review.
The primary purpose of the forums is to facilitate discussion between the players. Within that context it also acts as a conduit of communication between the developers and the players, but that is not its primary purpose. If you're expressing an opinion on the forums, you must presume that your primary audience is going to be other players, and other players will have the right to comment on your post in return, both positively and negatively.
Comments
I think one of the flaws in this game is that , there really is no training mode where beginners can practice their basic skills, before going thru the contents. It's all trial and error, based on my experience when I used to be active in this game. It can take a lot of anyone's time , you're like investing in able to develop skills necessary to go thru the contents as effortless as possible. I remember having a hard time parrying and dexing during my first time here. I tried researching watching YouTube videos, but of course, it's really different when you are the one in the driver's seat. And reading the tips here is a hit and miss thing, especially in this forum where it's hard to differentiate a troll from the next guy. I guess learning is a personal thing. Or maybe I see this thing as it is : just a game, not to be taken seriously.
and thank Kabam disagrees don't affect your star rating or I'd be on -3 or something! lol
for mid-game players, the following is (generally) a challenge:
Act 5
Realm of Legends
Road to Labyrinth
Act 6
Variants
Labyrinth of Legends.
As Uncollected player, having been playing since Jan 2015 .. I consider myself "mid-game" ..
I have a maxed 5* Ghost.
I have two 6* champs ..
I'm (slowly) working towards cavalier .. and Realm of Legends and Road to Labyrinth are done.
Rest is still a challenge for me (or too much) .. so right now, it's EQ - uncollected .. and when I have time, keep working on Act V ..
No shortage of things to challenge me there .
Now, this is a game, and you should take it as seriously or not seriously as you wish by choice. Bowling is a game, not to be taken seriously. Unless, of course, you want to get good at it, in which case maybe take it seriously enough. If you don't take it seriously, you shouldn't care about training or practice because you don't care how good you are at it. You can just show up, rent the shoes, and throw the ball randomly down the lane, if your goal in life is to be the comedic relief of your friends. Or you can learn how to play the game, practice, and get better.
In case anyone thinks it is literally "trial and error" and there's no way to know what's a good source for getting better at the game, then you start with DorkLessons Youtube channel. I point everyone to Dave, especially his training videos. He's not the be-all end-all of the game, but he is the best place to start for those wishing to get better than "random trial and error." By the time you outgrow him, you'll know how to spot someone who knows what their talking about and who doesn't.
I do think there's room for improvement, for example Kabam mentioned in an interview a plan to make special "duel targets" that were easy to find to help players practice against certain champions. And I've suggested several things in the past for how to improve certain aspects of this, like with a "collector" system of collecting champion punching bags and node combinations. But the idea that the game lacks ways to practice to get better is completely alien to me, as it seems to be overflowing with ways to practice getting better at the game.
The same right you're afforded to express your own opinions about the game is the same right I exercise to express my own. And frankly, I cannot see how anyone could read a post that explicitly states "I do think there's room for improvement" and imply that it tries to claim the game has no flaws. Nor can anyone reasonably make the claim that I've ever implied that the game is without flaws: I disagree with the developers about as often as I disagree with the players, and there's a lot of post history anyone could use to verify that statement. The only statistical difference is the developers post less often, so there's less opportunity to disagree with them even implicitly through commenting on game design changes.
I listen to as much forum discussion as possible, on every side of an issue. In fact, I consider it a prerequisite to commenting on an issue. If I'm going to weigh in on a topic, I'm going to read as much as possible about it. And again, when I've weighed in on things like AW design changes or difficulty scaling or balance changes I'm as well informed as I can be about what everyone else is saying about those topics. And most importantly, I've never taken any action that could be reasonably construed as discouraging or suppressing criticism when I do weigh in. But that goes both ways: I encourage criticism of the game and the developers, but I also encourage criticism of forum critiques which themselves are subject to critical review.
The primary purpose of the forums is to facilitate discussion between the players. Within that context it also acts as a conduit of communication between the developers and the players, but that is not its primary purpose. If you're expressing an opinion on the forums, you must presume that your primary audience is going to be other players, and other players will have the right to comment on your post in return, both positively and negatively.