Kabam, the EQ Design is your capstone of 2021
Rookiie
Member Posts: 4,821 ★★★★★
I got really excited when I found out we were using the Champions’ tags for the EQ. I thought it was creative and a great opportunity to dig deep in my roster and put champs I don’t normally put to good use.
But WHAT THE *expletive* is wrong with the nodes? It’s a total *expletive* show. Everything contradicts each other.
In 2.1, you’ve got this design that says the following: knock down the opponent, and you get an Evade charge, which is consumed when the opponent goes Unblockable, and if they try to hit you while you have an Evade charge they get stunned for 0.9 seconds. Good? Good. But guess what? This isn’t enough time to land a Heavy, so the opponent claps you in the face if you don’t already have an Evade charge. So you need to rely on your Parry game, but you can’t land Parries because every 6 seconds the opponent goes Unblockable, and if you have an Evade charge already they get stunned for 0.9 seconds, and now you’re panicking because you need to get another Evade charge otherwise you’re open to Unblockable, but if you try to land the Heavy you get clapped anyway.
I felt like Sisyphus stuck in this damned loop. What were you thinking?
And in 3.1: You need to land a Stun debuff to gain a Passive Bleed, but you have a node on the opponent which makes them Stun Immune when starting an Attack? So basically they are always Stun Immune unless you are reparrying. And I can reparry, but you’re asking me to reparry EVERY single hit in EVERY single fight in THE WHOLE QUEST.
AND you give the opponent Unstoppable,
AND put us up against champs with Power again and Unblockable in their base kit?
You’d have to be a moron to think this is okay. This is in the Mercenaries and Guardians chapter. These guys don’t have utility man. And no one has Mercs ranked up (I do for the record, and still faced a lot of issues).
I get that we are your lab mice for testing new things, but the problem is that these are our personal resources that we are using to test your new *expletive*. Our energy refills, our units, our potions, our revives.
Honestly, it’s almost as if you brought the Act 6 team to design this EQ. That, or you have no idea what you’re doing. And if you don’t know what you’re doing, then give us the damn resources to cope with the new things you’re trying out.
If you made it this far, thank you.
But WHAT THE *expletive* is wrong with the nodes? It’s a total *expletive* show. Everything contradicts each other.
In 2.1, you’ve got this design that says the following: knock down the opponent, and you get an Evade charge, which is consumed when the opponent goes Unblockable, and if they try to hit you while you have an Evade charge they get stunned for 0.9 seconds. Good? Good. But guess what? This isn’t enough time to land a Heavy, so the opponent claps you in the face if you don’t already have an Evade charge. So you need to rely on your Parry game, but you can’t land Parries because every 6 seconds the opponent goes Unblockable, and if you have an Evade charge already they get stunned for 0.9 seconds, and now you’re panicking because you need to get another Evade charge otherwise you’re open to Unblockable, but if you try to land the Heavy you get clapped anyway.
I felt like Sisyphus stuck in this damned loop. What were you thinking?
And in 3.1: You need to land a Stun debuff to gain a Passive Bleed, but you have a node on the opponent which makes them Stun Immune when starting an Attack? So basically they are always Stun Immune unless you are reparrying. And I can reparry, but you’re asking me to reparry EVERY single hit in EVERY single fight in THE WHOLE QUEST.
AND you give the opponent Unstoppable,
AND put us up against champs with Power again and Unblockable in their base kit?
You’d have to be a moron to think this is okay. This is in the Mercenaries and Guardians chapter. These guys don’t have utility man. And no one has Mercs ranked up (I do for the record, and still faced a lot of issues).
I get that we are your lab mice for testing new things, but the problem is that these are our personal resources that we are using to test your new *expletive*. Our energy refills, our units, our potions, our revives.
Honestly, it’s almost as if you brought the Act 6 team to design this EQ. That, or you have no idea what you’re doing. And if you don’t know what you’re doing, then give us the damn resources to cope with the new things you’re trying out.
If you made it this far, thank you.
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Comments
I agree with the Mercenary bleed one though, that is dreadful. Also reparrying felt like it wasn’t working, since so often the opponent will go for a medium and then throw a heavy, so you get an opening but not the passive bleed - which is way too short anyway
Sure there’s a search bar, but it’s set in something like 6-point font at best.
@Kabam Miike any way we could add this to a later update for ease of use?
Dr. Zola
I love the cross fights though, meaning you can build up throughout the quest and even face the boss with a huge attack rating increase (something the class nodes never allowed you to do). I also like how the cross fights are purely damage now, I wasn't a fan of the prowess buffs for mystics and mutants, I always personally liked getting more attack rather than just special damage.
As for the nodes themselves, I'm now mostly talking about the design of the nodes, rather than who you can use for them - as in, if the pools are increased then how does the design hold up. If I say no change needed, I don't mean the pool of champs should stay the same.
Spiderverse/Symbiotes/Sinister Six:
Evade unblockable attacks - Once I figured out you can launch a heavy with champs who have decent reach on heavy attacks this was pretty decent. There was adequate challenge and benefit for me. The unblockable goes away after even a dodged attack so the pressure is off a little. Design was ok, could definitely do with a little tweaking, maybe let knocking down opponent give 2 charges
Defenders/Thunderbolts/Inhumans
Use different attacks to end combos to apply physical vulnerability - I liked this one again, changing your playstyle to apply the debuffs. The power lock could be annoying, but avoidable by throwing heavies, MLLLL or MM to change quickly. Power lock should have a slightly longer timer
Defenders/Thunderbolts/Inhumans
Apply bleed or they go unstoppable - genuinely awful design. The stun immune on first attack of combo means you have to reparry, but most of the time the AI seems to go for a heavy attack instead of attacking again. The passive bleed is too short to plan in to stop the unstoppable. No tweaking needed, get rid and try again in my opinion.
Dimensional Being/Illuminati/Thanos Army
Block attacks to give them armour, dodge specials to gain power - Loved this one, especially with mystic champs who gain a ton of power from MD. The design didn't feel overly finnicky, playing normally can get you power and attack. No change needed.
New Avengers/A-Force/Fantastic Four
Use/punish specials - probably the easiest one to complete without changing your playstyle, playing normally does it for you. The power gain buff is great to throw off more specials. Very much enjoyed, no change needed.
Avengers
Gain power drain charges when critting/drain on medium ending combo - this one was ok, I thought the energise was the tiniest bit too much, and I'd suggest draining the opponents power to give the attacker a crit rate boost for X seconds.
Overall, the tags are badly done, considering 1) how annoying it is to filter one by one and 2) how few champs are in each tag. In regard to the nodes, I actually liked it not being class based, I don't think that's the criteria to make Cav EQ nodes good. Lets assume the tag system worked better with filters, allowing you to find champions who are Sinister 6 OR Spiderverse Heroes OR Symbiotes it would be great. And assume the number of champions each tag included was bumped up to around 1/6th of champions (class based nodes affected around 35 champions, and these tags affect closer to 25), and assume the design was altered slightly - I think if those 3 things were altered these globals could be amazing.
I disagree with anyone saying go back to class based, remember this is an iterative process. Does anyone remember the first set of Cav EQ globals? They were awful, the mystic and tech ones were absolutely terrible. But we gave feedback and they were changed, now they're a lot more fun. So I urge everyone to give feedback that can be used to make these better, not just to scrap any idea because it doesn't work the first time. There's potential here, and class based or tag based, it changes Cav EQ up and freshens it if we help kabam make it better. Don't just say Tags Bad without explaining how it could be made better, that doesn't help anyone - least of all you.
1. Put champs I don’t normally use to good use
2. Which is consumed when the opponent goes Unblockable and tries to hit you, after which they get stunned for 0.9 seconds
3. Power Gain (*expletive* autocorrect)
Unblockable / Evade: increase Stun duration
Passive Bleed / Stun Immune: change Passive Bleed to Passive AAR, that way we can deal with the stupid Unstoppable ability and maybe some of the others in the base kits like Unblockable and Power Gain
Look at the very first quest: #A-Force, #F4 and #New Avengers who have BUFFS (or heal reversal/block). For Cavs, it can be hard to even own a champ with these tags and the need of buffs/consistent healblock eliminates many of the already limited options.
So IMO, require mechanics (buffs, debuffs etc) from classes. Tags belong to a very diverse groups of champs, so rather than looking for a common ability, base the difficulty on ownership of champs with the given tag. That is difficult enough, if you insist on keeping this set of nodes.
However, the game isn’t in a normal, functional environment. Getting tagged from across the screen as you glance at the fight or flight timer and check Cage’s armor up buffs is way more likely when there are still significant dex/parry issues.
This line from OP stands out:
“I get that we are your lab mice for testing new things, but the problem is that these are our personal resources that we are using to test your new *expletive*. Our energy refills, our units, our potions, our revives.”
Dr. Zola
Regarding the Cage fight: as if Unstoppable and Unblockable were not enough, they threw Death Touch on him too.
That, and the fact that the AI is now a master Light and Special Intercepter, is *expletive* sadistic.
I’m at a loss for words.
Change is usually a good thing but new nodes, new tags and all the feedback I saw on the new EQ makes me think about skipping this month for the first time in like 4 years. It’s not like the rewards are anything to rave about.
All avengers power drain,
New Avengers all get buffs
Symbiotes get evade
That last one has nullify
Granted some are not enough but it is there
Symbiote/spider verse
Champions has to be able to evade unblockable hits —> all champions in the tag gets the ability to evade unblockable hits by knocking the opponent down
Defenders/thunderbolts
Champions have to be able to apply debuffs —> ending combo with different attack applies a debuff
Mercs/guardians
Apply bleed to stop unstoppable —> stunning them applied a passive bleed (for all the shortcomings of this global, it still gives them the ability to do it)
Dimensional beings
Requires nullify —> all champions get the ability that dodging specials nullifies armour up buffs
Avengers
Needs buffs —> punishing specials or interrupting attacks gives you buffs
No selection of tags has enough in common to have a global that will only require specific utility, so they have each champion in the tag the specific utility to deal with it. I see no issue in this one aspect of the new global
Life is good until you’re facing a jacked up Hyperion with Domino.
Symbiote / Spider-Verse: 0.9 seconds Stun was a smidge too short. Short enough to make sure you get clipped if you don’t charge the Heavy instantaneously.
Mercs / Guardians was a disaster, man. There’s no excusing this one. They could have given them passive AAR or DAAR instead of a useless instant Bleed. What do I need them to bleed the opponent for anyway? Domino, Masacre, Goldpool, Crit Monkey and others all have Bleed in their base kit. I didn’t include Guardians because lol, buff them first Kabam. All the more reason for passive AAR or DAAR.
Avengers: I felt this was bugged. I did not notice the Power Drain at all. I don’t think this had much impact even if it worked right.
The thing is, the Class based Nodes worked for champs much more effectively than Tag based Nodes. And that’s the point that needs to be driven home.
Requirements are getting more specific, so these half-baked aren’t going to cut it.
But things like the short bleed timer or heavy reach in the Spiderverse quest create a situation where it's quicker to clear with a hard counter (like stagger in 3.1) rather than playing the quest as intended, which shouldn't really be the case.
But they do have the utility to the node, and the utility has been added as the node bonus, it just needs tweaking.
Bit of extra stun duration, extra bleed duration in their respective nodes and you’re sorted. The statement I’m replying to makes it seem like there’s no way for these champions to deal with it when there is, it just feels a little inaccurate. We need to give our feedback accurately or it won’t be changed.
I get there are things that people don’t like, but saying things like that won’t help I’m afraid.
Right, but what’s the point in giving Mercs and Guardians passive Bleeds? You’re not always going to be able to reparry, the AI doesn’t give you the openings you need and the Stun Immune node makes sure that you do get it 10% of the time. So why give me a passive Bleed? If I reparry, I want to be able to deal with it all. The Unstoppables, the Unblockables, the Power Gains, the Regens. Otherwise it’s a crapshoot.
Here is a simple question to answer:
How is Drax or Domino supposed to take on a Hyperion that is Stun Immune, Unstoppable, has Power Gain in his base kit, and is hell bent on pulverizing you in the corner until he reaches 3 bars of Power?
That’s not giving the right utility. That was dumb on the design front. If I want to deal with this fight, give me AAR or Slow. I need a way to take control of the fight with the given Tags.
Mind you, I beat the fight. But I beat it with Nick Fury. But then what’s the point? Read the comment up there where the gentleman ignored the Tags and just took his own counters.
Would you still say we are given the utility to deal with the nodes? Or that we are now in fact hampered?
All my argument is, is that we ARE being given the utility to deal with it. That’s a fact, and as a concept, that’s fantastic.
You yourself argued for it, “they should have added the damn utility as the Node bonus.” So you know that’s the important part, in your example here with the Merc, you aren’t saying “there is no utility given to us” you’re saying “there is something in the way of the utility given to us”. Which I agree on. I disagree, however, that we haven’t been given the utility in the first place.
So when you say “If the champions with the Tags don’t have the utility to deal with the Node then they should have added the damn utility as the Node bonus.” I think what you mean is, it’s great that they’ve given us the utility, but it needs tweaking so it’s more usable and less clunky.
In 3 places it’s been great (haven’t tested the last chapter yet but I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt).
In 2 places it’s clunky and needs tweaking (Power Drain for Avengers seemed weak or bugged, not sure, and Stun duration could have been increased for Spider-Verse heroes, etc.)
Here, we have utility.
In 1 place, it’s a damn mess. And is driving factor behind the frustration of this post. The utility given was not effective at all. We could have gotten more utility or the right utility, IF they wanted to keep Stun Immune. Otherwise, they can take off Stun Immune and we will see if the utility currently provided is enough.
That’s what I’m trying to say behind all the frustration.