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

Pali32

THIS MONTH CAVALIER IS HARDEST AS EVER

Mr_Platypus

I wish you would just say we are capping the rewards and making it more difficult for players to get throne breaker because these new nodes are make it more restrictive and increase the difficulty. I’m still upset that falcon cannot get fury buffs like elsa and Nick fury. But if you wanted it to take less time, how about you remove some paths and give us the old nodes back?

Falcon can get fury buffs after his SP3. But tbh he kills long before that because he still stacks up mad cruelty passives.

imShakib

Hey Kabam, yoy have completely ruined the Cavalier difficulty for me and players like me who are still with a growing roster of 8-10 R5 champs. I was specifically ranking champs of classes keeping Cav difficulty in mind that was good enough before. Now it's completely worthless node design for most of my champs. I liked the previous node designs much better. It has gone horribly difficult now.

imShakib

Gotta say last months Cav difficulty was the best.

imShakib

I strongly suggest removing path counts from the EQ quests to reduce time and efforts and please give the previous nodes back.

unknown

This content has been removed.

Judge_Pain

Mutant global regens not able to stack, nor do they apply on hits from sp3. Better off just heal blocking and playing like normal. Most of the maps have had a similar effect on my champ selections. I am no longer going deep into a specific class to counter or take benefit of the global. Just using the same well regarded champs to handle everything.

TyEdge

Hey Kabam, yoy have completely ruined the Cavalier difficulty for me and players like me who are still with a growing roster of 8-10 R5 champs. I was specifically ranking champs of classes keeping Cav difficulty in mind that was good enough before. Now it's completely worthless node design for most of my champs. I liked the previous node designs much better. It has gone horribly difficult now.

On the one hand, Kabam has been clear that 100% cavalier EQ isn’t for players like you. On the other, this kind of stuff really deserves to be handled with more notice in roadmap-style communication. Even a warning that they’d be changing nodes next month or the one after. Similarly, give us an idea of how often to expect the 4-star challenge or (even better) make a mega-buffed up chapter 4 that replicates the difficulty of the al6 easy paths. That would save people from wasting resources on 4-stars that are otherwise kinda worthless

Liquidkold

This months Cav Difficulty was the worst one yet. I have 30 5/65, 6 r3 and 13 r2 six stars. This was a step backwards. Last month was a lot better with time spent. I feel the changes to the global nodes narrowed down the champs that you can use. I think that there needs to be better balance to the time spent playing it and the rewards you receive. If you do not have the proper counter in the benefitting class you can use a different class but plan on being over 100 hits even with a 5/65. I would open the gates a little to allow more champs of that class to be useful if that is what the end goal is. I also would not keep changing the nodes if you are going to force us to rank up champs that we will typically not use for other content. Rank ups are costly. This is Cav Difficulty and Not Thrown Breaker.

Notsavage19

This months Cav Difficulty was the worst one yet. I have 30 5/65, 6 r3 and 13 r2 six stars. This was a step backwards. Last month was a lot better with time spent. I feel the changes to the global nodes narrowed down the champs that you can use. I think that there needs to be better balance to the time spent playing it and the rewards you receive. If you do not have the proper counter in the benefitting class you can use a different class but plan on being over 100 hits even with a 5/65. I would open the gates a little to allow more champs of that class to be useful if that is what the end goal is. I also would not keep changing the nodes if you are going to force us to rank up champs that we will typically not use for other content. Rank ups are costly. This is Cav Difficulty and Not Thrown Breaker.

This is nothing near what TB should be. If you think that this is TB and not Cav, you're mistaken.

TheReALShAMeoNU23

New nodes absolutely sucks! yes you made it more flexible with the roster you can use in the eq cavalier, but also made nodes harder especially those intercept with unstoppable with same rewards, recent nodes were way better and you think this changes was a good news for players lol... This is a downfall

Notsavage19

New nodes absolutely sucks! yes you made it more flexible with the roster you can use in the eq cavalier, but also made nodes harder especially those intercept with unstoppable with same rewards, recent nodes were way better and you think this changes was a good news for players lol... This is a downfall

Oh so having less restriction is a bad thing? Alright.

DNA3000

Il tell you what this is a joke now. Make it harder than it was. And with rubbish rewards too. Am taking a break . Seatin won't even do it 100% that should tell yous that something is wrong. Won't listen/don't listen

No offense to Seatin, but why is this noteworthy?

DNA3000

This months Cav Difficulty was the worst one yet. I have 30 5/65, 6 r3 and 13 r2 six stars. This was a step backwards. Last month was a lot better with time spent. I feel the changes to the global nodes narrowed down the champs that you can use. I think that there needs to be better balance to the time spent playing it and the rewards you receive. If you do not have the proper counter in the benefitting class you can use a different class but plan on being over 100 hits even with a 5/65. I would open the gates a little to allow more champs of that class to be useful if that is what the end goal is. I also would not keep changing the nodes if you are going to force us to rank up champs that we will typically not use for other content. Rank ups are costly. This is Cav Difficulty and Not Thrown Breaker.
This is nothing near what TB should be. If you think that this is TB and not Cav, you're mistaken.

It is disappointing how many players believe that "Cavalier tier difficulty" is supposed to be trivial to complete for anyone who manages to get past 6.1. Like the point to becoming Cavalier is that once you get that title the game starts fanning you and peeling grapes for your consumption.

This is a progression game. The reward for reaching a progression point is opening the door to earning the next progression point. Cavalier difficulty is not meant to feed rewards to Cavalier players through a tube. It is meant to challenge them. Like, a lot.

I wish I could say that the number of people who think the current Cavalier EQ difficulty was Thronebreaker-appropriate was surprising, but it is not. A lot of us were predicting more or less this attitude before Cavalier difficulty itself was announced.

You know, I've completed every 4* objective challenge for Cavalier difficulty since the first one. I remember when UC first came out: it was a struggle, and no way could I have done UC with 3* champs. Even a year later I don't think that's something I could easily do. On a relative basis, Cavalier difficulty is easier for me today than UC was when it was released, and it allows for more ways to tackle it in my opinion than UC did, which often required a lot more brute force or narrower options (relative to what existed back then). It is very hard for me to reconcile the complaints about difficulty, even from what appears to be veteran players, with the game's history. Have we collectively gotten that soft?

xNig

This months Cav Difficulty was the worst one yet. I have 30 5/65, 6 r3 and 13 r2 six stars. This was a step backwards. Last month was a lot better with time spent. I feel the changes to the global nodes narrowed down the champs that you can use. I think that there needs to be better balance to the time spent playing it and the rewards you receive. If you do not have the proper counter in the benefitting class you can use a different class but plan on being over 100 hits even with a 5/65. I would open the gates a little to allow more champs of that class to be useful if that is what the end goal is. I also would not keep changing the nodes if you are going to force us to rank up champs that we will typically not use for other content. Rank ups are costly. This is Cav Difficulty and Not Thrown Breaker.
This is nothing near what TB should be. If you think that this is TB and not Cav, you're mistaken.
It is disappointing how many players believe that "Cavalier tier difficulty" is supposed to be trivial to complete for anyone who manages to get past 6.1. Like the point to becoming Cavalier is that once you get that title the game starts fanning you and peeling grapes for your consumption.

This is a progression game. The reward for reaching a progression point is opening the door to earning the next progression point. Cavalier difficulty is not meant to feed rewards to Cavalier players through a tube. It is meant to challenge them. Like, a lot.

I wish I could say that the number of people who think the current Cavalier EQ difficulty was Thronebreaker-appropriate was surprising, but it is not. A lot of us were predicting more or less this attitude before Cavalier difficulty itself was announced.

You know, I've completed every 4* objective challenge for Cavalier difficulty since the first one. I remember when UC first came out: it was a struggle, and no way could I have done UC with 3* champs. Even a year later I don't think that's something I could easily do. On a relative basis, Cavalier difficulty is easier for me today than UC was when it was released, and it allows for more ways to tackle it in my opinion than UC did, which often required a lot more brute force or narrower options (relative to what existed back then). It is very hard for me to reconcile the complaints about difficulty, even from what appears to be veteran players, with the game's history. Have we collectively gotten that soft?

One of the side effects of making the game easier and “facilitating clear times”. Some are just so pampered.

Worknprogress

This months Cav Difficulty was the worst one yet. I have 30 5/65, 6 r3 and 13 r2 six stars. This was a step backwards. Last month was a lot better with time spent. I feel the changes to the global nodes narrowed down the champs that you can use. I think that there needs to be better balance to the time spent playing it and the rewards you receive. If you do not have the proper counter in the benefitting class you can use a different class but plan on being over 100 hits even with a 5/65. I would open the gates a little to allow more champs of that class to be useful if that is what the end goal is. I also would not keep changing the nodes if you are going to force us to rank up champs that we will typically not use for other content. Rank ups are costly. This is Cav Difficulty and Not Thrown Breaker.
This is nothing near what TB should be. If you think that this is TB and not Cav, you're mistaken.
It is disappointing how many players believe that "Cavalier tier difficulty" is supposed to be trivial to complete for anyone who manages to get past 6.1. Like the point to becoming Cavalier is that once you get that title the game starts fanning you and peeling grapes for your consumption.

This is a progression game. The reward for reaching a progression point is opening the door to earning the next progression point. Cavalier difficulty is not meant to feed rewards to Cavalier players through a tube. It is meant to challenge them. Like, a lot.

I wish I could say that the number of people who think the current Cavalier EQ difficulty was Thronebreaker-appropriate was surprising, but it is not. A lot of us were predicting more or less this attitude before Cavalier difficulty itself was announced.

You know, I've completed every 4* objective challenge for Cavalier difficulty since the first one. I remember when UC first came out: it was a struggle, and no way could I have done UC with 3* champs. Even a year later I don't think that's something I could easily do. On a relative basis, Cavalier difficulty is easier for me today than UC was when it was released, and it allows for more ways to tackle it in my opinion than UC did, which often required a lot more brute force or narrower options (relative to what existed back then). It is very hard for me to reconcile the complaints about difficulty, even from what appears to be veteran players, with the game's history. Have we collectively gotten that soft?

Calling a massive portion of the playerbase soft is a massive understatement. Anything remotely difficult gets labeled BS and anything incredibly easy gets called "fun"

ItsDamien

This months Cav Difficulty was the worst one yet. I have 30 5/65, 6 r3 and 13 r2 six stars. This was a step backwards. Last month was a lot better with time spent. I feel the changes to the global nodes narrowed down the champs that you can use. I think that there needs to be better balance to the time spent playing it and the rewards you receive. If you do not have the proper counter in the benefitting class you can use a different class but plan on being over 100 hits even with a 5/65. I would open the gates a little to allow more champs of that class to be useful if that is what the end goal is. I also would not keep changing the nodes if you are going to force us to rank up champs that we will typically not use for other content. Rank ups are costly. This is Cav Difficulty and Not Thrown Breaker.
This is nothing near what TB should be. If you think that this is TB and not Cav, you're mistaken.
It is disappointing how many players believe that "Cavalier tier difficulty" is supposed to be trivial to complete for anyone who manages to get past 6.1. Like the point to becoming Cavalier is that once you get that title the game starts fanning you and peeling grapes for your consumption.

This is a progression game. The reward for reaching a progression point is opening the door to earning the next progression point. Cavalier difficulty is not meant to feed rewards to Cavalier players through a tube. It is meant to challenge them. Like, a lot.

I wish I could say that the number of people who think the current Cavalier EQ difficulty was Thronebreaker-appropriate was surprising, but it is not. A lot of us were predicting more or less this attitude before Cavalier difficulty itself was announced.

You know, I've completed every 4* objective challenge for Cavalier difficulty since the first one. I remember when UC first came out: it was a struggle, and no way could I have done UC with 3* champs. Even a year later I don't think that's something I could easily do. On a relative basis, Cavalier difficulty is easier for me today than UC was when it was released, and it allows for more ways to tackle it in my opinion than UC did, which often required a lot more brute force or narrower options (relative to what existed back then). It is very hard for me to reconcile the complaints about difficulty, even from what appears to be veteran players, with the game's history. Have we collectively gotten that soft?
Calling a massive portion of the playerbase soft is a massive understatement. Anything remotely difficult gets labeled BS and anything incredibly easy gets called "fun"

I dunno, easy can be fun. Depending on context. Just saying.

Worknprogress

This months Cav Difficulty was the worst one yet. I have 30 5/65, 6 r3 and 13 r2 six stars. This was a step backwards. Last month was a lot better with time spent. I feel the changes to the global nodes narrowed down the champs that you can use. I think that there needs to be better balance to the time spent playing it and the rewards you receive. If you do not have the proper counter in the benefitting class you can use a different class but plan on being over 100 hits even with a 5/65. I would open the gates a little to allow more champs of that class to be useful if that is what the end goal is. I also would not keep changing the nodes if you are going to force us to rank up champs that we will typically not use for other content. Rank ups are costly. This is Cav Difficulty and Not Thrown Breaker.
This is nothing near what TB should be. If you think that this is TB and not Cav, you're mistaken.
It is disappointing how many players believe that "Cavalier tier difficulty" is supposed to be trivial to complete for anyone who manages to get past 6.1. Like the point to becoming Cavalier is that once you get that title the game starts fanning you and peeling grapes for your consumption.

This is a progression game. The reward for reaching a progression point is opening the door to earning the next progression point. Cavalier difficulty is not meant to feed rewards to Cavalier players through a tube. It is meant to challenge them. Like, a lot.

I wish I could say that the number of people who think the current Cavalier EQ difficulty was Thronebreaker-appropriate was surprising, but it is not. A lot of us were predicting more or less this attitude before Cavalier difficulty itself was announced.

You know, I've completed every 4* objective challenge for Cavalier difficulty since the first one. I remember when UC first came out: it was a struggle, and no way could I have done UC with 3* champs. Even a year later I don't think that's something I could easily do. On a relative basis, Cavalier difficulty is easier for me today than UC was when it was released, and it allows for more ways to tackle it in my opinion than UC did, which often required a lot more brute force or narrower options (relative to what existed back then). It is very hard for me to reconcile the complaints about difficulty, even from what appears to be veteran players, with the game's history. Have we collectively gotten that soft?
Calling a massive portion of the playerbase soft is a massive understatement. Anything remotely difficult gets labeled BS and anything incredibly easy gets called "fun"
I dunno, easy can be fun. Depending on context. Just saying.

Depends on the person. It typically feels like a tedious chore to me, especially if it's long like EQ or story content. If it takes me 5 min a day, who cares. If I'm spending hours doing something I don't even have to pay attention to and use a ton of energy to finish, I'd rather at least have to pay attention to what I'm doing

TheReALShAMeoNU23

New nodes absolutely sucks! yes you made it more flexible with the roster you can use in the eq cavalier, but also made nodes harder especially those intercept with unstoppable with same rewards, recent nodes were way better and you think this changes was a good news for players lol... This is a downfall
Oh so having less restriction is a bad thing? Alright.

whats the sense of less restrictions? yes you can use other roster and it is more flexible but will you be able to walk pass the new harder nodes? what about players who has average skills? THINK

Crimson8399

So with a stagger on from Doom, in the mystic chapter it does nullify the unstoppable but after it triggers for a split second. Long enough that the AI gets to counter. Is this intended or a bug. Stagger always used to make it not even trigger because it was instantly nullified. @Kabam Miike

Notsavage19

New nodes absolutely sucks! yes you made it more flexible with the roster you can use in the eq cavalier, but also made nodes harder especially those intercept with unstoppable with same rewards, recent nodes were way better and you think this changes was a good news for players lol... This is a downfall
Oh so having less restriction is a bad thing? Alright.
whats the sense of less restrictions? yes you can use other roster and it is more flexible but will you be able to walk pass the new harder nodes? what about players who has average skills? THINK

I'd prefer fewer restrictions and harder nodes over more restrictions and easier nodes any day. THINK.

imShakib

Different people have different perspectives on the Cav difficulty. No issues with that. Everyone has a different roster or progression or time spent (let alone money) on the game. So, I don't really care how anyone else will find my opinion. And for me, this cav difficulty sucks big time. It was way better last month. The node designs were way better allowing more champs of a particular class to be useful.

Matty_Ice

I find the nodes just more annoying this month.
If you don’t have the right science counter you’re stuck with a weakness. Even with the right counter, I’m slogging through fights with my 6*R1 Luke Cage.
The skill evade is just annoying.
The mutant one really doesn’t benefit.
And constantly playing around the unstoppable with the mystic quest is annoying.

I’m not trying to say the content is too hard and needs to be easy. I want a challenge with it, but I just find those quests more annoying than enjoyable to play.

xNig

I find the nodes just more annoying this month.
If you don’t have the right science counter you’re stuck with a weakness. Even with the right counter, I’m slogging through fights with my 6*R1 Luke Cage.
The skill evade is just annoying.
The mutant one really doesn’t benefit.
And constantly playing around the unstoppable with the mystic quest is annoying.

I’m not trying to say the content is too hard and needs to be easy. I want a challenge with it, but I just find those quests more annoying than enjoyable to play.

No issues with the Science one.

Loved the skill one.

Namor massacred the mutant one.

Doom tore through the mystic one.

Those complaining just don’t see the interactions between the nodes and fury gain at times.

Matty_Ice

I find the nodes just more annoying this month.
If you don’t have the right science counter you’re stuck with a weakness. Even with the right counter, I’m slogging through fights with my 6*R1 Luke Cage.
The skill evade is just annoying.
The mutant one really doesn’t benefit.
And constantly playing around the unstoppable with the mystic quest is annoying.

I’m not trying to say the content is too hard and needs to be easy. I want a challenge with it, but I just find those quests more annoying than enjoyable to play.
No issues with the Science one.

Loved the skill one.

Namor massacred the mutant one.

Doom tore through the mystic one.

Those complaining just don’t see the interactions between the nodes and fury gain at times.

I understand the interaction between the nodes and getting furies. Just find them annoying personally. I’m glad that some people found them enjoyable.

unknown

This content has been removed.

Mr_Platypus

Well that’s that 100% done.
As usual, pretty easy. Though some of the new nodes are slower imo.
Namely the science (could be solved by having furies cap at 10, instead of 20, with double the current potency)
And cosmic (Could be solved by making it a 20-30% fury chance per armour break).
Also not a huge fan of mystic node as it’s seemingly set up so that you nullify the unstoppable to make your prowess permanent, but really you’re only pulling that off safely with stagger or a nullification aura of some kind, but it is possible to work around with most opponents by nullifying the other buffs.

TheGrandM4ster

After fully exploring this new EQ I can say overall the new nodes are worse and more restrictive. The tech, science and skill are just annoying. The mystic node is the most annoying if it is working as intended. Even when a stagger is placed to stop the unstoppable, it still procs up for a brief second. Allowing the defender to still become stun immune and unstoppable for a brief second before it goes away. Not sure if that is a bug or not, but I am still having to worry about the unstoppable which slows down the fight. Stagger should prevent this from ever happening.

xNig

I find the nodes just more annoying this month.
If you don’t have the right science counter you’re stuck with a weakness. Even with the right counter, I’m slogging through fights with my 6*R1 Luke Cage.
The skill evade is just annoying.
The mutant one really doesn’t benefit.
And constantly playing around the unstoppable with the mystic quest is annoying.

I’m not trying to say the content is too hard and needs to be easy. I want a challenge with it, but I just find those quests more annoying than enjoyable to play.
No issues with the Science one.

False this one was annoying af

No issues for me. 🤷🏻‍♂️

xNig

Well that’s that 100% done.
As usual, pretty easy. Though some of the new nodes are slower imo.
Namely the science (could be solved by having furies cap at 10, instead of 20, with double the current potency)
And cosmic (Could be solved by making it a 20-30% fury chance per armour break).
Also not a huge fan of mystic node as it’s seemingly set up so that you nullify the unstoppable to make your prowess permanent, but really you’re only pulling that off safely with stagger or a nullification aura of some kind, but it is possible to work around with most opponents by nullifying the other buffs.

Actually I can understand why the cosmic one was done to be 10% per armor break. Personally, I feel that 20% will be a more comfortable range. That being said, Aarkus and Cull absolutely shredded the map.