Dev Diary: Cavalier Difficulty in 2021 and Beyond - New Buffs for February!

Summoners!

Everybody's favourite Balance Designer and sick beast of a gamer, Kabam John, has taken some time to jot down some thoughts on Cavalier Difficulty, what we've seen so far, and what's to come in the future! There's also a sneak peek at the new Buffs coming in the Cavalier Difficulty Event quest in February!

Read the post here!

Comments

Mr_Platypus

@Kabam Miike please get this monthly eq situation sorted out... this months difficulty vs rewards is way out.. this will probably be the first time in 2 years I just can’t be bothered to 100% it’s just not worth it.
These rewards are fine for cav difficulty but this is thronebreaker difficulty which should reap better rewards!
We need cav difficulty with current rewards and thronebreaker with better rewards

If you think this is “thronebreaker” difficulty then might I recommend just sticking to uncollected difficulty? Your problem is that you probably rushed straight through act 1-5 anyways just like all the youtubers tell you to and didn’t learn the basic skills.

Bugmat78

@Seriously @Kibi

I did a path of UC EQ on autofight.

To my surprise, i autofought the whole path. I could have soloed the boss but autofought it because why not.(Chapter 3 Quest 1)

https://youtu.be/la_Tx7j-kcg

I've tried this a few times after hearing many ppl on the forum boast about autofighting C EQ - never worked for me with 5/65s at max sig. The amount of health you lose due to the stupid AI given to the player champs is ridiculous. You'd have to use pots all the time to continue through an entire quest w.o losing what may be counters to bosses etc and that kind of defeats the purpose for me. As I still have to expend time to move along the path and start the fights it's not saving much time (especially as AI fights take 2-3 times as long) and you can definitely waste in-game resources.

Htotheizzo

@Kabam Miike please get this monthly eq situation sorted out... this months difficulty vs rewards is way out.. this will probably be the first time in 2 years I just can’t be bothered to 100% it’s just not worth it.
These rewards are fine for cav difficulty but this is thronebreaker difficulty which should reap better rewards!
We need cav difficulty with current rewards and thronebreaker with better rewards
If you think this is “thronebreaker” difficulty then might I recommend just sticking to uncollected difficulty? Your problem is that you probably rushed straight through act 1-5 anyways just like all the youtubers tell you to and didn’t learn the basic skills.

I did not present my comment very well... what I meant is that cav eq’s rewards vs difficulty is not worth the time it takes to do and as it is the top difficulty available and takes ages to do the rewards should be better... where’s the t2a?! 10%t5cc is not enough, nowhere near enough 6* shards. I agree the difficulty level is fine but it takes too long.. so for me and a lot of endgame players we need throne breaker difficulty with better rewards! I completed act 6 before the nerf god knows how long ago that was and still no thronebreaker difficulty or rewards.

To finish.. my problem isn’t that I completed act 1-5 too fast and listened to youtubers my problem is I’ve completed everything in the game and the monthly content’s effort vs rewards is not worth the time it takes

Worknprogress

@Kabam Miike please get this monthly eq situation sorted out... this months difficulty vs rewards is way out.. this will probably be the first time in 2 years I just can’t be bothered to 100% it’s just not worth it.
These rewards are fine for cav difficulty but this is thronebreaker difficulty which should reap better rewards!
We need cav difficulty with current rewards and thronebreaker with better rewards
If you think this is “thronebreaker” difficulty then might I recommend just sticking to uncollected difficulty? Your problem is that you probably rushed straight through act 1-5 anyways just like all the youtubers tell you to and didn’t learn the basic skills.
I did not present my comment very well... what I meant is that cav eq’s rewards vs difficulty is not worth the time it takes to do and as it is the top difficulty available and takes ages to do the rewards should be better... where’s the t2a?! 10%t5cc is not enough, nowhere near enough 6* shards. I agree the difficulty level is fine but it takes too long.. so for me and a lot of endgame players we need throne breaker difficulty with better rewards! I completed act 6 before the nerf god knows how long ago that was and still no thronebreaker difficulty or rewards.

To finish.. my problem isn’t that I completed act 1-5 too fast and listened to youtubers my problem is I’ve completed everything in the game and the monthly content’s effort vs rewards is not worth the time it takes

Takes ages to do? It's a few hours spread out over the course of a month...

Last two months I finished Cav exploration within between 24hrs and a week of it releasing. I'd hardly call that taking ages to do

Mr_Platypus

@Kabam Miike please get this monthly eq situation sorted out... this months difficulty vs rewards is way out.. this will probably be the first time in 2 years I just can’t be bothered to 100% it’s just not worth it.
These rewards are fine for cav difficulty but this is thronebreaker difficulty which should reap better rewards!
We need cav difficulty with current rewards and thronebreaker with better rewards
If you think this is “thronebreaker” difficulty then might I recommend just sticking to uncollected difficulty? Your problem is that you probably rushed straight through act 1-5 anyways just like all the youtubers tell you to and didn’t learn the basic skills.
I did not present my comment very well... what I meant is that cav eq’s rewards vs difficulty is not worth the time it takes to do and as it is the top difficulty available and takes ages to do the rewards should be better... where’s the t2a?! 10%t5cc is not enough, nowhere near enough 6* shards. I agree the difficulty level is fine but it takes too long.. so for me and a lot of endgame players we need throne breaker difficulty with better rewards! I completed act 6 before the nerf god knows how long ago that was and still no thronebreaker difficulty or rewards.

To finish.. my problem isn’t that I completed act 1-5 too fast and listened to youtubers my problem is I’ve completed everything in the game and the monthly content’s effort vs rewards is not worth the time it takes

Ok, so what you’ve said here is completely different to what you said originally lol.
I can’t agree on the time it takes as I don’t think it takes an absurd amount of time.
And I do somewhat agree on rewards, but only in the sense that I feel you should get a reward selector upon exploration where you can Pick an extra T2a or the current T5b amount.

LeNoirFaineant

Why 50% chance to evade
It's mix masher korg and doom all over again
The idea here is to encourage Evade encounters, and combined with the Skillful Distraction buff, this gives more Skill Champions access to the kit necessary to prevent Evasion.
Again you are going
Hey everybody, thank you all for the feedback. Please keep it coming, as it will help us improve Cavalier Difficulty as we move forward.

One thing I want to point out: With the addition of the new Buffs, we are not doing away with the older ones. Our goal is to create a pool of buffs to pick and choose from for Cavalier Difficulty, but still not as wide as what you might remember from Uncollected difficulty.

Your Champions you've ranked up are still going to help you in these Quests, but maybe not the same Champions every month.

I hope this clears that up a little bit.
Your intention is preety clear here. You want to keep changing cav nodes and thus the champion requirements . And with each change that I estimate you will implement every 6 months or so will force players to rankup Champions who normally never get used. But you arr not encouraging players to rankup champions , what you are doing is forcing them to do it and then change the meta as you see fit.

There is a world of difference in designing a back issues that reward you for using certain champions and forcing players to rank up champions who has zero end game usage just for monthly EQ. Whilst making them invest rare resources in cav EQ just to keep getting the same rewards which they have been working hard to get .

And then you expect us to save up these resources to rank someone to R3 to get a title. You are pulling players in 5 different directions and not giving them any way to get there. These changes are poorly planned or may have had good intentions but the direction in which the game is going is still no different than half a year ago. At least buff the rewards to match the time and effort required. And next time do it from the start and not after half a year feedback collection from the playerbase

Personally I can't remember ever ranking a single champion in order to run EQ and I've done every UC and Cav difficulty that has ever existed 100%. I think their intention is to keep it interesting. If the direction were the same as a year and a half ago, act 7.1 would look very different. Anyway, I don't know whether these changes are going to be good or not. This may be a radical idea on the forum but I'm going to wait to play the next EQ before deciding.

Venomblasted_0622

This is NOT a valid complaint. Kabam are always changing and adding new nodes to the game. That’s like ranking up spider Gwen to take out the collector,Then complaining when you run into a biohazard node. In that case every summoner should get a rank down gem for all of their champs.

The RNG in this game messed us up a lot.if you ranked up a useless champion for a difficulty y’all keep complaining that the rewards aren’t worth,and they change the node,y’all deserved it!!

SatsuiNoHadou

This is NOT a valid complaint. Kabam are always changing and adding new nodes to the game. That’s like ranking up spider Gwen to take out the collector,Then complaining when you run into a biohazard node. In that case every summoner should get a rank down gem for all of their champs.

The RNG in this game messed us up a lot.if you ranked up a useless champion for a difficulty y’all keep complaining that the rewards aren’t worth,and they change the node,y’all deserved it!!

To put things into perspective, rank ups are done after considering the benefits vs the potential pitfalls of such a decision. I consider these parameters before I make a permanent decision like that. Thus, this ensures I don’t face the issue of “rank up remorse” as all the champs I take up to higher ranks will serve some purpose currently or in the future for various types of endgame content. The main goal of rank ups is to obtain a diverse enough roster to handle whatever challenges the game will throw at you; yes, some might feel that their rank ups were wasted as those champs are under utilised for certain pieces of content, but you’ll be thanking yourself that you did when the time comes for those champs to put in a shift. Having a more diverse roster that’s ready to take on unexpected scenarios is better than having a roster that is narrowly skewed in a particular direction any day. This helps to circumvent potential problems brought on by future challenges by ensuring you’re ready to cover all bases. That being said, none of us have a crystal ball and we will definitely make some not so wise choices over the course of the game, but that’s life for you. We just have to try our best to decide wisely.

ItsDamien

Feedback on the Science node.

I don't like it. Feels like the poisons don't trigger often enough to benefit from gaining the fury. Don't like the passive weakness if the enemy isn't under a non damaging debuff.

Will give more feedback on other nodes when I 100% the first quest. But so far, I prefer the Disstrack variation much more.

Gamer

Strong dislike the new not w don’t make me like to r 4 star any more since then probably a few mouch there chamge them again just make me fell sad like the 4 star chanllgen

Rotelly

Looks like CaptIW isn't gaining a fury when his signature ability purifies a poison debuff.

Vexing Blight: Science Attackers gain an indefinite Passive Fury increasing Attack Rating by 20% every time they remove a Poison effect or are immune to one. Max Stacks 15.

@Kabam Miike @Kabam Zibiit

xNig

So far tried the Science, Tech and Cosmic ones with 4*s.

Science:
I agree with @ItsDamien. The poisons are not triggering often enough. A slight adjustment to 40-50% chance to proc per hit will be nice. The non-damaging debuff requirement is fine. Brought Void and She Hulk, even HT worked since it’s parry medium heavy and the incinerates deal normal damage.

Tech:
Interesting method of ramping up. Just getting a heal block will suffice, the armor break is icing. Didn’t have Warlock or Sentinel or the other regular healblockers/armor breakers ranked as a 4* so I brought in Yondu for the paths and Nebula for the Boss. Worked pretty well.

Cosmic:
A little troublesome with the 10% procs. Some fights (like Groot) were a little long since armor breaks don’t stick long enough. A slight buff to 20% procs will be nice.

Will post my feedback on the other 3 class nodes later after I’m done with the first 3 chapters.

My progress so far.

Only 100%ed Quest 1, and it’s 4.30am now. Lol

Etm34

What skill champs apply disorient besides fury? 50% evade chance is high to me. Cant even get masacre’s bat lit for the incinerates because they evade every 1.5 seconds

Buttehrs

What skill champs apply disorient besides fury? 50% evade chance is high to me. Cant even get masacre’s bat lit for the incinerates because they evade every 1.5 seconds

Hit monkey

RiderofHell

Great wont be able to do Cavalier on mini bc i dont have HM

Crimson8399

Hey everybody, thank you all for the feedback. Please keep it coming, as it will help us improve Cavalier Difficulty as we move forward.

One thing I want to point out: With the addition of the new Buffs, we are not doing away with the older ones. Our goal is to create a pool of buffs to pick and choose from for Cavalier Difficulty, but still not as wide as what you might remember from Uncollected difficulty.

Your Champions you've ranked up are still going to help you in these Quests, but maybe not the same Champions every month.

I hope this clears that up a little bit.

Clearly we have told you what is good and what is awful. The fact is you guys don't listen. How many people have said the 4 star challenge is terrible. We asked for a change to buffs in cavalier and you make it more difficult. How are any changes that have been made an improvement to cavalier difficulty. The easy path health removal is about the only good change made since cavalier came out.

L3X85

Weak on the knees is the buff that's limiting a lot science part for regular players. The others are fine, and connect each other..

RiderofHell

What skill champs apply disorient besides fury? 50% evade chance is high to me. Cant even get masacre’s bat lit for the incinerates because they evade every 1.5 seconds

GP.BWDO are champs who incinerate and shock

World Eater

What skill champs apply disorient besides fury? 50% evade chance is high to me. Cant even get masacre’s bat lit for the incinerates because they evade every 1.5 seconds

Ronin & Night Thrasher come to mind

YimiGotay

I finished completing the EQ cavalier, I noticed it a little more difficult and I finished it in more time than usual in previous months with respect to the old nodes, cap iw has problems regarding the stops and its reduction of abilities, which does not allow it to act well to the node, another that has been complicated for me is the mystical node, that unstoppable is something extreme, which seems strange to me that the cap iw cannot remove it because it is not passive, so far everything else is fine, but if it shows certain difficulty, should improve the rewards now

AbelHasArrived

I feel like this update aint that good (Super skull and physico-man update). I thought we were gonna get 2.5k 5* shards from mastery but oh well.
The Immortal hulks and Immortal abom update was the best i had seen yet. I just feel like this should be better.

ItsDamien

Follow up on the 2nd Quest, the Tech Chapter.

It just works. This is how the benefits to bringing on the right champs should work at base. Brought Warlock, got my infection going, enemy was heal blocked and my furies stacked fast. More of this one.

Madman_marvin

Cosmic node is a complete dud. Chance for armor break is way too low in comparison to how fast they gain armor.

J_Sendero

The rage from distrack seemed much more potent. Maybe Its how long it takes to stack in comparison. But the nodes last month for science just felt way more fun in terms of damage ramp up.

MrTicTac19992008

Have tried quest 1 so far but weakness node is broken for me. It never disappears. Tried parrying, shehulks sp1 and sp2. Luke cage. Makes the fights too long.

Notsavage19

So after going through my completion of CEQ, here are my thoughts:

1) Science
This one was weird. It wasn't particularly bad, but it wasn't fun. I think what frustrated me most about it was the Weak in the Knees node. It would force me to constantly Parry with HT just to remove the Weakness. Not the biggest problem, but it was just slightly annoying. An alternative would just be to extend it to any debuff.

2) Tech
This one was my favorite. The accessibility of Heal Blocks or Armor Breaks in the Tech class makes it easy for the opponent to melt against a good portion of the Tech class. Great job on this one.

3) Cosmic
The chance for the Fury to proc is low. What could work would be to add a node that would allow the attackers to inflict Armor Breaks for every buff/unique buff on them (maybe 10%?). This would make the Armor Breaks more accessible and in turn, allow attackers to gain more Furies without dragging on the fight.

4) Skill
Not too bad. Not sure why they made the node ignore Evades bypassed by AAR, though. A better alternative would be to grant the Fury every time the opponent fails to Evade an attack. This would allow more Skill champions to gain that class benefit. Other than that, it seemed fine.

5) Mutant
Nothing notably bad. The node combination works (at least through my limited exposure).

6) Mystic
My least favorite. At least Buffed Up gave Mystic champions something to Nullify. This node combination forces you to time your Nullifies with the Unstoppable buff that procs or else you lose out on your indefinite Prowess. An alternative could be Feats of Power + a node that inflicts a Slow on the defender every time you Nullify and grants you an indefinite Prowess every time an Unstoppable doesn't trigger.
This gives the Attacker something to Nullify instead of just relying on trying to Nullify the Unstoppable buff while the defender is Stun Immune.

Overall, it was a step up in difficulty when compared to the previous iteration of nodes, but that's a good thing, at least IMO. Of course some things could be changed to help the length of fights, but they're just little tweaks.

Notsavage19

THis is going to sound crazy, but if Kabam really wants players to 100% the monthly quest, then give the players a reason to 100% the monthly quest. Like I don't know, make the rewards worth the time/resources. I know, its crazy right.

Going to pass on this month for me. Have fun everyone else.

Unpopular opinion, but the rewards are perfectly balanced IMO. It doesn't really take that much to 100% the EQ.

Gamer

Disappointed. In the skill one.

Vendemiaire

Only tried the science one before going to work and it wasn't as fun as it used to be. I'm feeling the rest will be the same except for the Tech one. But I had fun with the previous Tech one using Hulkbuster.

Mr_Platypus

Science one is pretty rubbish tbh. Weak in the knees could do with being expanded to all debuffs,and the fury’s should all be doubled in potency and been dropped to a cap of 10, think I only hit the 20 furies 1 time, and that was while using iAbom quite a lot.