**Mastery Loadouts**
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
We have not set an end-date for the new period, but we will update this banner when we have more information.
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
We have not set an end-date for the new period, but we will update this banner when we have more information.
Comments
When my mental calculations said that the correct roster to tackle Book 2 was going to be an 8* champ, I realized something was very, very wrong. As you say, intuition isn't always correct, and the eye test can be skewed by the player looking. But the numbers are much more objective, especially when you consider that the numbers are underestimating relatively difficulty by a huge amount. It doesn't factor in any of the tricky nodes.
Ultimately, you have to go where the numbers take you.
Excellent work as ever
This wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if you could circumvent the problem with ‘good’ gameplay, there’d be the niche, funny solution and there’d be old fashioned button mashing - a celebration of roster and/or skill.
This is taken away when you know that the design is actually punitive - damage limitations etc. - and combined with such ludicrous attack values that unless you’re quaking/ghosting you basically need to farm WS for an hour before a quest run or play perfect with Cap.
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I think players have got to a stage where health pools don’t matter so much now - most of us probably rarely flinch at seeing 2-300k health pools. Instead our eyes are immediately drawn to the attack values and any power gain/BS associated with the fight.
Can Kabam redeem themselves? ABSOLUTELY!!!
Can they still satisfy their player base? A BIG YES!!!
Will every single player be happy? NO WAY!!!
This is a simple mobile game with few control buttons, namely: Tap, Swipe(Back & Forward) and Hold. Yet, it's many champion mechanics and game modes give it a tremendous room for creativity. Kabam have to get smart and creative, there are so many ideas that will make the game both fun and profitable.
If they're lacking ideas, they can just invite the player base to come-up with one idea each for particular mode. In other words, I can only pick a mode like AW and share my ideas. Of course the player base is huge, they can select a few. Even better make it a tournament where the best idea(s) gets a prize like what some corporations or companies do. Not monetary, it could be a game character or item. Setup an team that will review these ideas to select the best, or set it up for a vote with the community.
Like I said, tremendous room for creativity.
Nice work.
The only issue is that health values on these champs are not keeping up to the attack spikes. So even though you technically can keep up with the new material using your characters with high levels of attack, you are severely punished for mistakes. Add a layer of some nodes and abilities that cause damage for just existing and content difficulty can spike through the roof. Then we have the dichotomy between the “get gud” players and those that cry foul about difficult content as a result.
Then there is the RNG element of actually pulling the champs with the crazy damage spikes required to keep up with the content mixed into this. Those that can’t keep up with the luck of others fall behind in content.
Does that mean champs that are now overinflated on attack value need to be toned down? Who knows, but it seems too late at this point to go back.
For example: Slow
-if you have a good champ, no need to waste on a point on it
-if RNG has been harsh, you have an option.
Maybe even make the health/attack/etc masteries meaningful. Amp them up, so you might actually want multiple points in them.
They could then functionally bring old champs up to date, reduce the effects of RNG, make Act 6 accessible, and finally fill in the "coming soon" masteries.
Which ever it’s for doesn’t really matter as long as they do a better job at reworking content and designing new content specifically designated for every player so no one gets left behind.
Either Kabam makes act 6 and forward way easier for the average general player base, whales and end gamers burn through it and get bored or it’s just too hard for everyone and everyone complains. If it’s easier whale and end gamers can then redirect those rewards to war which should be more skill based anyway. Not sure where aq should fall since the biggest complaints are too long timers or too little energy on top of the excessive resource cost and repetitive monotony. So aq shouldn’t necessary need to change as much as war.
Some people are of the opinion that story mode is for all players so it shouldn’t be too much harder then act 5 with act 6 being nerfed, while others want a harder challenge. The division between endgame players and mid tier players is way too wide here. Whales don’t care either way since they’ll do it anyway having put up with any and all craziness that Kabam throws at them like current aw and aq demands. If it’s made easier then Kabam needs to make content besides abyss that challenges end game players. This would be new game modes, reworking aq, aw and eq, but making a monthly eq to challenge end game players is way harder then making a quarterly or bi yearly story mode.
The other side of this is that story mode should be hard, while eq becomes more accessible with better rewards to placate mid tier players who can’t do act 6 and beyond, with a cavalier level eq for endgamers. Aq/aw should accommodates everyone based on their level of skill or some sort hybrid of this. The point being Kabams needs to do a better job at designating and compartmentalizing content so all players don’t get bored and no one gets left behind.
The reason most mid tier players don’t complain about abyss is because they know it’s not for them so it doesn’t invite challenge, while story mode is left ambiguous.
But I think if that's an issue at all, it is an issue for the end game content; stuff like the Abyss. Should the Abyss be an Aegon-fest? Maybe, maybe not, but that's an end game discussion. The end game is different, and we can have different expectations for end game players. They should be tested to a higher and more difficult standard. And we can expect them to work harder to get the optimal champs for the highest difficulty situations.
But in the core progressional content, I think nerfing the strongest champs would be counter-productive on its own. We'd just be lowering the strength of players' rosters, which doesn't hurt end game players as much as it hurts the average player. The content is already very hard compared to what they have now. If we think champion power creep is getting too high, we still need to address the problem of what to do with the content if we lower the roster strength of players already struggling.
After cavalier, starting at 6.2.1, make it so you have an extra node on which you can select a buff to your champ. Almost exaclty like incursions. I know that if they made it with a lot of different buffs it would take as much work as reworking act 6 as a whole.
So the only buff to select could be named something cool like 'Captain america's shield' and state: '+x% (or +x flat value) physical resistance/block proficiency'.
Why not just lower attack values? Well the upside to this is they can use the feature in the future if they see that it works. If certain lanes/fights are still problematic they can put new buffs before that fight. Compensate people that already got through that lane/fight.
This is a very shortsighted solution for the high attack values and doesn't adress any node issues in act 6, I know.
I also know it doesn't adress any of the core issues. But it could be one step in the right direction, a babystep maybe.
I really like that 2 difficulty concept (with compensation for completed content) btw!
Clever design can try to do this implicitly, somehow magically buffing BPCW more than Corvus because of some property of Corvus that makes his high performance also less likely to get the buff. For example, just to make up something armor breaks would help BPCW more than Corvus because of mechanical reasons. But to multiply that kind of cleverness in an interesting and non-repetitive way across all champions, would be a non-trivial exercise.
The problem isn't that there're a few champs that are really good, the big problems are that there are too many champs that super suck for the content and the content is too hard. Some champs can rise to greatness from stacked combination effects and some may stay just OK. None will be worse though.
As you stated it would help all champs making the games easier for end game players, but just the same mid tier players need the help. End game players and whales will come ahead anyway if act 6+ is to be made accessible to the average players. The goal is to keep endgamers engaged and not bored through other content. The goal for the average players is to not get left behind a wall like act 6.
I still think multiple Challenge completions from Act 1 on would keep endgame players going for a while. Those players that are complaining about being bored after racing through new content Day 1 will never be truly satisfied and stop complaining. The best Kabam can do is give them a Nuk and something shiny to keep them distracted. Something like the Xtreme Challenge Completion Points leaderboard and The Watcher's Book of Multiversal Records™. I'm picturing something like Most hits to defeat Winter Soldier in 30 minutes.
Otherwise, we would not have seen all the Nerfs for 6.2.6 Champion counters (she hulk, etc).
They seem to only want the content as is, or harder.
One way out is to improve progression, but they already limited that (100% Act 6 rewards compared to rewards for every other Act).
Mastery improvement is the only avenue, I can see, that aligns with their other plans.
I think the core of the issue is in the lane design - players can handle attack values (reluctantly), and health pools (we all have WS in a cupboard under the stairs). There are too many punitive node/champion combinations that make so much of Act 6 unplayable except for a certain 5 champions or whatever.
Lanes that enhance your champions by a theme - eg Spiderverse lane and Venom gets 2x buff procs - but don’t hinder you would allow you to explore the full potential of your roster without actually penalising your for not bringing certain champions. In this case if you took Venom or another Spider champ you’d be able to tear it up, but you wouldn’t get a penalty for not bringing one.