**Mastery Loadouts**
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
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On principle, I don't have an issue with rotating nodes, or even these types of nodes this month. I just want Kabam to smooth the interactions between the beneficial and the difficult node.
Corvus could if I let the opponent stack up a bunch of armour a couple times, but that was somewhat slower than just playing normally.
Hyperion i ignored the node for the most part.
Heimdall sort of worked and terrax seemed alright as well.
I think it is important to remember that difficulty isn't linear: what's easy for someone is difficult for someone else and vice versa. So I think if there's one good thing about the many paths instead of just having one or two is that those paths theoretically can present a variety of challenges, such that the paths aren't necessarily "easier" and "harder" but just different, so that a player who can do 25% of the challenges can still get some of the rewards and still has something to work towards.
I don't focus on the absolute difficulty, so much as I focus on the path to progress. If Cavalier maps had two paths with difficulty 10 (contradicting my own assertion that difficulty isn't linear, but just to simplify) then a player that can only do difficulty 5 is just stuck, and possibly permanently stuck. If the map has five paths of difficulty 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, then maybe there's a path for such a player to conquer path 6, and work their way up to 7, and eventually reach 10. That was actually the fundamental core idea of my Act 6 analysis as well: not that it was too hard and needed to be made easy, but rather it offered no practical path for a lower player to work their way up.
I like the *concept* of the Cav maps not having different *levels* of difficulty (except for the easy path) but rather just different *kinds* of difficulty, and instead of players having to just "git gud" they need to instead broaden their roster, knowledge, and skills. I'm not saying the execution is perfect, but the concept is a good one, and it requires that the content have many paths through it. I think they could reduce them, because we also have six maps so we can disperse the variety across them (even with the scaling of the maps). But requiring just one or two really hard paths removes the ladder of progress (or ramp, or whatever, as it is wider than tall) element.
Now, the question of an *optional* way to get full exploration rewards while running fewer paths is something I'm open to. In fact I suggested a way to do that a couple times now. Use linked paths and have one path contain the bulk of the rewards, but have all other paths boost-link to it. So if you can do that one path with all the boost links up, you can snag all the rewards doing just one path. But if you can't, you can do all the other paths to remove those links, and that path just becomes a regular unlinked path with normal difficulty. Or, you can do something in the middle: clear a couple outside paths to remove half the links, and then hit the reward path while it has some, but not all the links, for a harder but not hardest path.
Presume that the fully linked path would have no cheese mode, and individual fights comparable to or even harder than Abyss-class fights, to give maximal Thronebreakers something to work towards. Something like that is I think workable in theory. If not Cavalier difficulty, I hope they consider it when they get around to Thronebreaker difficulty.
You'd use iron man and iron patriot? No one ranks up war machine either. Basically sentinel,darkhawk and mysterio benefited from this (im listing champs ppl would use). Guilly 2099 and guardian got massacred
Agreed no one would use the first 3 and IMIW only if you have him awakened. I liked Sentinel. His ravage is great and he won’t go down if you slip up on a combo
So Warlock's become outdated huh?
For science I was planning to use She Hulk and had ranked her up to r4, but ended up just using Luke Cage and Void same as before it just now takes longer than before.
Tech I use the same champs as before, Hulkbuster and G2099, but added in P2099. Thought this node was on par with the last one. HB still kills it.
Skill was more annoying than last time, still using BWDO. Same champ, slightly longer fights.
Mutant, Apocalypse kills it. Using him instead of Omega. About the same for me.
Cosmic. Terrax is killing it. It takes a bit too long to get furies with Corvus but he's OK too. Maybe it's more inclusive now that Angela isn't the only option. Takes a bit longer than before.
All in all, not as bad as I originally thought, but it feels longer than previous. It's not difficult but boring. Once I get that last 10% tech T5CC (hopefully after this one) I don't think I'll 100% more of these.
With regards to the rewards: I do not see an issue with the rewards, as much as the troll overs for T5cc bother me, because I know with time I will finally form a t5cc. However, that being said, I would like to suggest that the cavalier challenge (this month’s 4* challenge) be rewarded with a selector. They are the most tedious challenges for a gamble. I think if anyone fully commits to those challenges, then they should be rewarded with a 10% selector.
Please note this is in no way meant to be offensive towards all your hard work. It is constructive criticism
1) Science node: Not bad, sucks at times with passive AI, but still allows you to use a lot of champs. Just maybe increase chance of poison by 10% and reduce the weakness efficiency?
2) Tech node: This one is fun. Actually use the node. Last time i barely noticed it.
3) Mutant node: Much better than the previous one imo. Can technically do the full lane with 1-2 champs and just get a synergy to get prowess if needed.
4) Cosmic node: Not bad, but would like chance of fury proc to increase. Again, even a 10% increase makes the fight faster.
5) Skill node: Not too bad, but a few changes could be made. Reducing evade chance so that we can atleast parry and heavy comfortably. And I find it weird that Disorient is stated as a way to stop champs from evading, but doesn't give the fury. I get that it is to stop AAR champs from getting the fury, but atleast let champs putting Disorient get it.
6) Mystic node: I hated it. There are barely any buffs to nullify, so you're just holding specials if you want to convert the prowess. Which makes it a longer fight sometimes. Also, the unstoppable still procs even if staggered, so you can't do a cycle/combo comfortably and have to keep looking at when you parry to see if they will suddenly come out of stun or not.
Mystic one was tricky. Defenders didn’t have enough buffs to nullify but I found no issue getting to 5 furies every fight. I think that’s probably why the node only gives up to 5 and not 10. It’s a slower build up, but each buildup gives a larger increase.
You might need to lower the evade chance if you allow that, but maybe not.
TLDR: Didn’t find it harder as such but at the moment it’s slower. I’m sure that will change as we collectively fine tune next month who the op champs are and best play styles.
Science - feels about the same as last node, maybe a little slower with the weakness but that’s easy to play around with short combos using the parry stun to remove it. Used a range of champs. Red hulk, ibom, capiw, torch all strong.
Tech - feels about the same as last time if a little more reliable in fury applying. Warlock and HB destroyed it. R1 6* HB was finishing fights sub 20 hits I think 11 being the best. Warlock hit count is higher than old node but I think just as fast. Imiw was decent as backup but not really needed. He was faster than old node.
Skill - initially thought this was annoying but if played right, champs are slapping hard very quick. NT was totally OP. He’s made for this node, 10 furies plus the node furies and the damage is awesome. Bwdo, Elsa and moleman were also great. R3/4 5*s were more than sufficient. You can build fury incredibly quickly by hitting into block while you have the relevant debuffs up (no parry stun to inhibit evade). As fast as old node but champ pool feels small.
Cosmic - didn’t have many options to explore but r3 5* cull destroyed it. Corvus works really well too but overall it’s a bit slow. Feel like a r4 cull will be as quick as Angela was on final version old node.
Mutant - used OML, colossus and omega. Would have thought OML would shred this node but he was maybe twice as fast on the old iteration. Avg 25 hits old vs 45 new. Preferred old biohazard using colossus w/ warlock/vision, omega and OML synergies, that was a blast. New nodes def slower overall.
Mystic. This one kinda sucks vs old node. Maybe need to just work out how best to play it but neutralise/stagger is the way to go over nullify, could just use a strong slow champ too? Sym sup destroyed it, had no issues with the stagger not working immediately vs unstoppable in the way it does with doom (which was super annoying). Longshot was pretty good, likewise tigra w/black panther. Doom was great if you paid close attention to unstoppable.
All the bosses seemed really easy. Maybe I had perfect counters.
Of the new champs, AA destroyed both. In other runs SymSup obliterated skrull and hype and CMM made light work of PsyM.
Outside of maybe cull don’t feel like any of the champs that work really well with the nodes wouldn’t be otherwise extremely useful to an underdeveloped cav roster.
Anyway, because of this intent, it’s counterproductive to allow all skill champs to do the quest, rather than the 30-40% or so due to the restriction.