**KNOWN AW ISSUE**
Please be aware, there is a known issue with Saga badging when observing the AW map.
The team have found the source of the issue and will be updating with our next build.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
Please be aware, there is a known issue with Saga badging when observing the AW map.
The team have found the source of the issue and will be updating with our next build.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
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I get what Jax is saying... I do... but flat out saying that time isn't a relevant resource feels like an enormous F.U. to F2P players.
Time = (literally) Energy. If that's not a relevant resource, I don't know what is.
What I think Kabam fails to understand is that if F2P players are happy, they'll bring their friends - that's how I ended up here - and, like me, many will spend more money in the first few months than their F2P friends would have over the games lifetime.
I understand that they don't want players to get something for literally nothing, but there is absolutely no consistency to that stance.
For example, the currently ongoing "Golden Dragon" event... I literally just autoplayed the lunar new year side quest and completed the entire thing in a few hours - tell me, what did I exchange for all those resources (which enabled me to r4 a 6*) besides time?
I can dodge and heavy counter his sp1, but my petrify falls off before I can sp2 him again, and he just heals back up. Or, if not that, I block a hit once and die from a single crit through block. Or if not that, he just stops throwing specials and I get brute forced to death. Or I don't get a heavy window and he gets unstoppable and one-shots me.
I really want those WoW rewards. But I think this fight is just beyond my capabilites.
:-(
I would love to get some points, even if i don't get any objectives. Does anybody know of an easier alternative? I have QS, titania, unawakened void...
Or maybe i should just let this one pass me by.
Kabam knows the ai is broken, but we don’t compensation for it. That’s fine, we continue to get a broken game because they can’t fix it. So instead of fixing the game, instead of providing compensation for a broken game, we get jacked up energy costs and the most restrictive node set/champion interaction in order to try and bleed us dry.
Everyone agrees this should be hard content but what we’ve gotten is a joke. The direction Kabam is taking on everything at the moment, really makes me question whether I want to continue to play the game anymore.
The more complex and nuanced issue relates to game balance, and what it even is. Most people talk about game balance like it is a thing, but it actually refers to relationships between things. A thing can’t be balanced, it can only be balanced against other things.
The arena is intended to be a grinding activity that rewards time spent. Skill plays a role, but it is a relatively minor role. Optimal play in the arena might increase your rewards by 50% compared to the average case, but there’s no way to, say, use skill to triple your rewards, or increase them by a factor of ten. Skill is not a major balancing factor in the arena, so its influence is deliberately muted.
Challenge content like the so-called Everest content is designed to be the opposite. The goal is to provide a skill hurdle for rewards. No amount of time is intended to “earn” anything. The arena is designed to allow players to trade their time for arena rewards. Winter of Woe is not designed to trade time for its rewards. So the answer to the question “shouldn’t I get something for the time I spend in Winter of Woe” is no. Just like the answer to the question “shouldn’t I get a lot more rewards in the arena if I am a lot more skilled” is also, no.
And the answer to the question “well, why can’t everything be dependent on time and skill” the answer is, to radically simplify a completely different subject, because there’s no valid exchange relationship between the two. It takes a certain amount of skill to become the top finisher in Battlegrounds or Alliance War. How much time corresponds to that level of skill, such that if I spend more time than that the game should consider me to have expended more effort to reach those goals? There is no answer to that question. And that’s true, at least for this game and these developers, for lots of other rewards. There’s no amount of time that equates to the effort required to become Valiant, or to earn a T4A, or gain an Abyss Nexus. Grinding for rewards, ala the arena, is a special case situation the devs carefully regulate, where they have decided that this much time equals this much rewards.
Every thing in the game has a complex set of balance relationships between them that correspond to how the game values them in different circumstances. But that doesn’t mean you can just trade anything for anything else. Those exchange opportunities are limited. And player time is similarly limited; it can’t be traded for stuff arbitrarily, The arena, and other grinding opportunities, are the exchange portal for player time. And for that matter, so is cash. Cash also cannot be arbitrarily traded for things on the game. It is the game stores that are the portal to exchange cash for certain in-game things, including units.
Unfortunately, this can open an indefinite descending Matryoshka doll of issues. Why are exchange opportunities limited? Availability distributions. Why are those the way they are? Player behavioral range accommodation. Game economy discussions are never simple, and wading into them is hazardous territory, even at the best of times. And these are not the best of times.
Also the regen is not the worst part IMO its the damn unstoppable. Its the root of the problem with the fight, No unstoppable counter means getting degened, having to dance around which causes specials that u don't want to be thrown, no openings for dmg or heal blocking, etc.
I understand your assertion that the WoW content is supposed to reward skill instead of time. But, while the relationship between skill and time is fuzzy and imperfect (as you pointed out), there is one thing that is clear: skill takes *practice*. Practically doesn't automatically lead to skill, but there is basically no way to achieve skill without practice.
If this fight had a minimal energy cost, it would encourage practice, which could lead to improving the skill of the players. If a player practices this fight enough to win it, that doesn't mean they got something "for free". It means they have improved their skill level to the point where they now have the skill to beat this fight, and then they are rewarded for their newly developed skill, just as you said.
Having tried this fight several times (and spent several energy refills to do so), the conclusion I've drawn is that this energy cost discourages practice. Either you are already skilled enough that you can do the fight without much specific practice, or you're better off just skipping this fight entirely and saving those resources for other activities.
So, for me personally, the design of this fight, along with the cost, basically discourage me from wanting to even attempt it. That means I don't practice, I don't get better, and I will take longer to achieve that skill level (if I ever do). That, in turn, makes me a little less engaged in this game.
Same here, that stupid unstoppable is the worst part and it's so unnecessary I don't understand why they had to throw it in there. I understand the top 1000 players in the game can solo easily but what about the rest of us? Most endgame players aren't in the top 1000 and we don't play the game 24/7 like that.
I understand endgame content has to be tailored around endgame players for obvious reasons but this fight feels like it was tailored around the most skilled players in the game not endgame players in general.
(Sorry everyone. Just spent two full Energy making attempts and I'm on one.)
The next several weeks.. This is it. This is the new content we get. And right off the bat it’s hot garbage and huge swath of the player base is walking away.
Dr. Zola
I have really found myself wondering why I’m still playing this game. If this fight is setting the tone for future “end game” content, then I’m not going along for that ride.
Hell, people usually look forward to these events and trying different champs and what not and get excited about it. This has been the worst opening for a season of emotion so far.
I am valiant and have managed to do the gamma objective - overseer was all I had and it was painful. Can I still get to the top milestone based on what kabam have said about the extra point and also the grace point for the objective with deathless guillotine? Also when do we get the additional point- I show as having only 2 so far.
Thanks
Entry costs make two distinct things more expensive that are difficult to untangle. “Practice” and “repetition.” All practice is repetition, but not all repetition is practice. For example, some players might enter over and over not explicitly with the intent to get better, although that could happen incidentally, but just to “get a good run.” Keep resetting every time you make a mistake and hope to get a mistake free run. It doesn’t have to be a solo, it could be just a really strong run.
So the counter point, which I believe more or less encapsulates the devs position (although I cannot speak for them, this is my own interpretation of it), is that low cost entry enables and rewards repetition too much, and they value mitigating that highly. They feel the higher cost balances the need to restrict repetition without curtailing practice too much, given the very high cost they assign to allowing low cost repetition.
That does not represent my values, but I don’t design Everest content. I’m just acknowledging what I believe their position is.