**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.
Comments
The issue isn't that they're offering it. The issue is people want to be able to do it all. That's not always how it goes.
Conversely, if people are spending that much Loyalty and ending up less than the top, that's something to consider on a personal level.
the only way to get those groots from masters will be to forgo the greater number of r4 materials you can get from using loyalty bc you had to spend all your loyalty on potions/boosts for war to get masters.
I really don't get it...
But the change makes no sense for purposes of competition. For instance a more logical change, would be to drastically reduce the cost of the boosts and make them more available. That allows the people who don’t want to/can’t compete in war the ability to buy their materials to rank up their collected champs they can’t use but still allows those who play competitively to do so and makes it worth their time bc they can get boosts and the r4 materials.
Or even better—let the glory store go back to being used to buy potions and add boosts to that store. Glory is now literally the most useless resource in the game.
For the moment though, It makes no sense to buy any potions/boosts from the Loyalty store. No ones account will benefit from doing so. If you want the honour of winning the AW Season, that's one thing, but there is no long term value to pushing this season. At any level, especially those who aren't P1 or higher.
One thing that I will mention though is Kabam has made it clear that they want defender kills in AW. They have said that. That is going to happen with thsese changes, at least for this season. No one considering their long term progression in this game can justify spending 500K on Potions/Boosts as the difference between spending 20 Loyalty per War and 100K+ just doesn't add up. So until the differences between brackets is substantial in terms of R4 Materials, enjoy going into fights at 40%.
People choose where they use loyalty, you do not have to use it on war, so it is 100% a choice and resource management issue.
Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think that *is* the question.
War is a competition. There's no minimum level of effort necessary to reach Master rewards, or Platinum, just like there is no minimum cut off for the featured champ in the arena. Sometimes it is 250 million, sometimes it is 50 million. What matters is relative effort.
War is not expensive because Kabam made it expensive. Kabam sets the prices, but the players choose to spend. And right now the problem with high tier war is that players feel they *must* spend whatever it takes to win wars. There's absolutely no options there. Which makes sense: the people at the top of any competition will be the people willing to do the most. But there's absolutely no counterbalance to that drive. If you're a top tier war competitor, why *not* spend every last bit of loyalty to win wars. That's what a top competitor does: whatever it takes. And loyalty just sitting there not being used to win wars is just wasting space.
Well, now it isn't. Loyalty isn't just for winning wars. It can be used to earn very high value materials. So now there's a choice. Spend to win wars, or spend to get those materials. Players now have an incentive to not go absolutely all out to win every single war, not even in tier 1. This doesn't mean competition ends. There will still be masters alliances, there will still be tier 1 alliances. Someone has to be at the top. But the alliances at the top will most likely be spending less to be there than before. They still won't be spending nothing, because if every tier 1 alliance spent nothing, then the tier 2 alliance willing to spend something will jump into tier 1. They will have to sacrifice some loyalty store rewards to do it, but they will do it.
I'm not a tier 1 player, so I cannot predict with certainty how this will alter the psychology of tier 1 players. But I can say with certainty it will shake up the meta for potion usage in war. It will act as a deescalating force on the use of potions as an all-out means to take as many kills as possible away from the enemy at all costs. And the more I think about it, the more I think that's the purpose of the changes. Whether that's a net positive or not, will take time to see.
In game design terms, the new loyalty store places a soft cap on potion use in war through opportunity cost in the loyalty store to reduce the overall expense of war at high tier. What happens next depends on the degree to which tier 1 war players can be modeled like rational actors in the economic sense of the term.
If this is the case, (assuming you’re right) and Kabam said “here is what we are changing, we think it will be a net positive and over time war will be much less resource heavy, we will keep you updated on whether it’s working as we hope it will”, at least even if I disagree with it I can understand the reasoning.
But instead, it’s just a grenade thrown into the forum of “hey here’s this change lol”
And firstly, we don’t know that what you’ve suggested is their intention, and secondly we don’t know if it will work or how it will be judged whether to have worked. (Obviously if people are using less potions that’s how Kabam will know how it works, but they won’t tell us that).
To me, this seems philosophically a bit odd, to want to try and reduce healing is good, but to try and do that by disillusionment seems bad. In essence, the ends justifying the means.
The actual stuff in there I think is rather expensive and odd, why no 6* sig stones for TB, do we not need them or something? I kinda understand the 6* AG and Paragon having a limit of 2 to the r4 materials but if TB are only limited to 1 anyway then why do we have to pay 50% extra for it 🤔
The rewards in the loyalty store are so good, and the resource is so scarce that it doesn’t make sense to use potions or boosts. So let’s say that due to decreased potion usage, an alliance misses out on advancing when they otherwise might have or they slip a bracket where they would have maintained under the previous season’s conditions. For most forum denizens, that’s probably a loss of about 5k 6* shards, maybe a bit of t5cc, nothing major. In exchange, I’m getting a 6* AG or some substantial amount of R4 materials. Obviously a trade worth making.
There’s no good reason not to coast on revives. Fine from a reward standpoint, you’re coming out ahead of where you would have been. But for people who enjoy the competition of the mode? Who enjoy pushing hard and seeing how they measure up? That’s gone. And that’s disappointing to see.
Going forward, either AW rewards need to be buffed to the point of being competitive with this store and worth investing the loyalty into, or loyalty has to become so ubiquitous that dropping 20k or more in potions and boosts doesn’t sting so much. Otherwise AW is just going to be a loyalty stipend towards the big rewards.
Why not use these **** changes in aq instead. Thats a garbage mode that nobody really likes playing.
It's not about spending at all cost, but @ExHavok already did some math before...
If u play high rank war and you have tough fights against r4 opponents taking some dmg it just costs a ton to heal up a boosted r4 champ with over 80k health. And u have to heal up cause at the top every death matters...
I just think aw is a competitive mode and rewards for a strong season and finishing in high ranks should count more than just playing some war, collecting loyalty and spend it in the store...
Imo thats ok for aq as a pve mode where u play the same map every week and can buy rank up materials with your glory.
Aw rewards were already outdated before compared to everything u can buy with money or units on july 4th, the new daily deals and eop or aq rewards but without an Update on aw rewards this changes are just bad for this game mode or at least for players who like to play competitive
Right now, however, there are few such lines in terms of in-game expense, mostly because there haven't been many viable alternatives. So the meta gets ingrained that going all-out on potions is just normal. Now that decision will have to be reevaluated by every player. The question of what is "reasonable competition" will have to be redefined. But I don't think this is the end of competition, and I don't think the game will lack for players with "competitive spirit." That competition will just have to exist within different boundaries.
I should say, I think it will. It doesn't have to. Tier 1 players could all decide en masse to ignore the loyalty store and continue to pursue masters rewards at all costs, regardless of the options available. It is their choice. I think they will choose to harness their competitive spirit in a more balanced way, but it is entirely their choice.