It might be worth pointing out, as @Deacon mentioned, it wasn't the intention of this content to entice Summoners who are more solo-focused to eagerly join up for high level war.
It was mostly the opposite: to repurpose and utilize existing content that only a small percentage of Summoners encounter and make it accessible for more people. From an internal design perspective: getting more bang for the buck from the game team's hard work!
Personally, me and my baby-Paragon brain read the nodes and got overwhelmed very quickly. So I understand the jaw-drop reaction as we realize what high-level war Alliances encounter on the regular... There's a reason y'all are Summoners, not Dummoners. (Because you're smart)
Honestly dig this idea. Being able to put out more content without overburdening the devs is great. Personally I like this content, but I was also doing high tier war in this meta so it’s not unfamiliar (except Photon. I thankfully never caught that assignment).
I think the community feedback would be better on it if there wasn’t a Deathless piece associated with it, as it would feel more optional. But I also think that for a first go at this kind of content, it needs that kind of exclusive reward juice to drive people into trying it.
Overall cool stuff, glad it’s in the game!
Agreed. It's a bit of a push and pull; a balancing act. The KGD piece is something to entice people to try out new content, but then it elevates the stakes a bit.
Hypothetically, without the Deathless piece, more Summoners would side-step the content, which isn't exactly ideal for an entirely new concept. But, you're right, it does feel like more pressure to try something new; and trying new things can be uncomfortable.
At the same time, the Deathless champ chase has always been exactly that: a chase. It's meant to be difficult and aspirational. We said a lot of people would try, and some would fail along the way. So, a new, difficult concept does fit the bill for how these pieces have been presented!
Ultimately, I understand both sides, and feel conflicting feels, and it's making me stressed, so I'm going to stop thinking about it and go lay down and contemplate life for a minute.
*praying that this comment passes the abyss*
I think this is a great piece of content. I like the idea of showcasing top tier content to the playerbase. I’ve always wondered what top tier AW is like and now I get a chance to try. I think that’s cool.
If there are summoners who are just under top tier AW, this showcase might convince them to punch above their weight. Maybe even those who are not remotely close to it, you never know.
I only voted no because I can’t commit to AW let alone top tier AW; nor do I have the roster, for that matter.
It might be worth pointing out, as @Deacon mentioned, it wasn't the intention of this content to entice Summoners who are more solo-focused to eagerly join up for high level war.
It was mostly the opposite: to repurpose and utilize existing content that only a small percentage of Summoners encounter and make it accessible for more people. From an internal design perspective: getting more bang for the buck from the game team's hard work!
Personally, me and my baby-Paragon brain read the nodes and got overwhelmed very quickly. So I understand the jaw-drop reaction as we realize what high-level war Alliances encounter on the regular... There's a reason y'all are Summoners, not Dummoners. (Because you're smart)
Honestly dig this idea. Being able to put out more content without overburdening the devs is great. Personally I like this content, but I was also doing high tier war in this meta so it’s not unfamiliar (except Photon. I thankfully never caught that assignment).
I think the community feedback would be better on it if there wasn’t a Deathless piece associated with it, as it would feel more optional. But I also think that for a first go at this kind of content, it needs that kind of exclusive reward juice to drive people into trying it.
Overall cool stuff, glad it’s in the game!
Agreed. It's a bit of a push and pull; a balancing act. The KGD piece is something to entice people to try out new content, but then it elevates the stakes a bit.
Hypothetically, without the Deathless piece, more Summoners would side-step the content, which isn't exactly ideal for an entirely new concept. But, you're right, it does feel like more pressure to try something new; and trying new things can be uncomfortable.
At the same time, the Deathless champ chase has always been exactly that: a chase. It's meant to be difficult and aspirational. We said a lot of people would try, and some would fail along the way. So, a new, difficult concept does fit the bill for how these pieces have been presented!
Ultimately, I understand both sides, and feel conflicting feels, and it's making me stressed, so I'm going to stop thinking about it and go lay down and contemplate life for a minute.
I personally this that is a great game mode, especially with the idea of repurposing content in a new way, reducing workload on the Kabam team while still generating new content for players. It is great and a win win for all.
The problem lie (which seem to be a similar theme for a lot of new content recently), is the difficulty level.
What we are looking at is 8 x 7* R3 max sig. Even at Tier 1 war, I'm not sure how many players in a group of 10 (per BG) would take 8 fights on their own and also not sure how many Alliance would have that kind of ranking and sig level either, sure there are but not many. So what we can look at in tbis content is the top of the top level of AW, so understandable it is overwhelming and too much for a lot of players.
On top of that add 1 of 5 DL in Exploration, that really does push a lot of players to their limited if not over.
I really do hope that this will become regular permanent contents, but also hope the Kabam team can review and make suitable adjustments on the mode.
Maybe 7R2 instead, and maybe 6 or 7 instead of 8. Small changes could make a massive different between fail or success.
You said yesterday on another thread that Kabam do listen to feedback, which I do believe, but you can imagine it is not hard for players (none CCP) to feel unheard, when the same issue keep reoccurring.
Hope you could pass some of the players feedback back to the team. Many thanks
One thing I'm wondering is how the rewards will look going forward. The main chase item this time was obviously the King Groot piece, but other than that the rewards weren't that enticing. Especially since it was basically a run through some of the most difficult content available on a regular basis. 7K worth of 7* shards is nothing to sneeze at but taking the Deathless piece out of the equation still slices off a significant part of the rewards.
From what I gather, Jax, it doesn't sound like every Showdown will contain a new piece. Are there any plans to add other rewards to piece-less Showdowns or are the 7 tokens (and an emote) the baseline rewards with this initial outing being a one-off?
One thing I'm wondering is how the rewards will look going forward. The main chase item this time was obviously the King Groot piece, but other than that the rewards weren't that enticing. Especially since it was basically a run through some of the most difficult content available on a regular basis. 7K worth of 7* shards is nothing to sneeze at but taking the Deathless piece out of the equation still slices off a significant part of the rewards.
From what I gather, Jax, it doesn't sound like every Showdown will contain a new piece. Are there any plans to add other rewards to piece-less Showdowns or are the 7 tokens (and an emote) the baseline rewards with this initial outing being a one-off?
I was wondering this too. The DKG piece being the big reward actually made me less likely to try this or sink resources into it since I’m already out of that chase. I was trying to come up with what a suitable replacement would have been but you bring up a good point that Kabam already has to solve that problem for the next iteration. I don’t know that half a 7* is enough to make this worth it at its current level.
Btw anyone know why we must finish it in 2 hours?? What? Why? We get 2 days for war even, whoever came up with this idea needs to go out for a jog in morning tomorrow.
First the part that makes this way harder... In war... you can use "war boosts" like power start 1 or invulnerability boosts.
In war... you get a path with an identity, and then assigned /choose appropriate mini bosses that go with your team... this is a smattering across the whole map, and no-one would ever have taken more than half of these fights in a single war.
There is no support/backup (reserve can't bring you a spare wag's boost)
And the part where it is easier: reviving isn't as much of a pain, and there is no item limit
there is no fight timer. I definitely spent more than 5 minutes on a few of the fights.
So while this content was ... interesting... it shouldn't sway people one way or the other about doing higher tier wars.
It might be worth pointing out, as @Deacon mentioned, it wasn't the intention of this content to entice Summoners who are more solo-focused to eagerly join up for high level war.
It was mostly the opposite: to repurpose and utilize existing content that only a small percentage of Summoners encounter and make it accessible for more people. From an internal design perspective: getting more bang for the buck from the game team's hard work!
Personally, me and my baby-Paragon brain read the nodes and got overwhelmed very quickly. So I understand the jaw-drop reaction as we realize what high-level war Alliances encounter on the regular... There's a reason y'all are Summoners, not Dummoners. (Because you're smart)
I feel like the reactions would not have been as negative if we had more stuff to work with. As multiple people have pointed out, most of these fights in high tier war are done fully boosted due to how hard and unforgiving they are, so not being able to use a single war boost to tackle them just made the fights harder and annoying.
I've done Tier 1 war for like 2 dozen seasons. Never at the tippy top but Masters & top Plat 1. I've stepped down to casual Tier 2 wars just because I don't think it is worth the time/stress (but that's another story) yet I personally don't have a problem with the Showcase. I do think the "Design Philosophy" section of the pre-release post just was a bit misleading though & unnecessary, where I think a lot of the complaints come from.
"Most of the common Defender Masteries applied via nodes" This should have been "The best masteries all maxed out - applied via a new node: Mastered
We can't have such a Mastery setup - it's fine & new but we won't see such setups in Tier 1 AW.
We aren't "revisiting paths"... the fights on the two paths don't often overlap with assignments. It's fine & new - great but again just not typical.
"and more" - this leaves it open to anything, so maxed out r3 7-stars, particularly champions that are only 6-star. again fine...
A lot of Tier 1 war is crazy, expensive boosting and nuking fights. While you can boost some, we don't have access to the 3min AW boosts so it just seems odd. And deaths don't really matter here while in Tier 1 it very much does matter. I personally didn't use a single boost but it would be nice if there was some kind of incentive for not die'n like in Tier 1 & if we wanted to access the AW boosts, we could if we wanted.
Putting Photon as the boss WHEN she is bugged... Really low blow IMO. While I got a 'solo', Kabam has very well known for weeks that she is bugged. Put her as the boss for the next showcase AFTER she's been fixed and put someone else in - that seems like the right thing that should have been done.
In the end, communication and timing of that matters. I personally would have just liked to see minimal release details, rewards w/ teasers. Let the community speculate and theory craft. Being vague and talking about design philosophy before we can see and experience it just leads to unreal and unmet expectations.
I've done Tier 1 war for like 2 dozen seasons. Never at the tippy top but Masters & top Plat 1. I've stepped down to casual Tier 2 wars just because I don't think it is worth the time/stress (but that's another story) yet I personally don't have a problem with the Showcase. I do think the "Design Philosophy" section of the pre-release post just was a bit misleading though & unnecessary, where I think a lot of the complaints come from.
"Most of the common Defender Masteries applied via nodes" This should have been "The best masteries all maxed out - applied via a new node: Mastered
We can't have such a Mastery setup - it's fine & new but we won't see such setups in Tier 1 AW.
We aren't "revisiting paths"... the fights on the two paths don't often overlap with assignments. It's fine & new - great but again just not typical.
"and more" - this leaves it open to anything, so maxed out r3 7-stars, particularly champions that are only 6-star. again fine...
A lot of Tier 1 war is crazy, expensive boosting and nuking fights. While you can boost some, we don't have access to the 3min AW boosts so it just seems odd. And deaths don't really matter here while in Tier 1 it very much does matter. I personally didn't use a single boost but it would be nice if there was some kind of incentive for not die'n like in Tier 1 & if we wanted to access the AW boosts, we could if we wanted.
Putting Photon as the boss WHEN she is bugged... Really low blow IMO. While I got a 'solo', Kabam has very well known for weeks that she is bugged. Put her as the boss for the next showcase AFTER she's been fixed and put someone else in - that seems like the right thing that should have been done.
In the end, communication and timing of that matters. I personally would have just liked to see minimal release details, rewards w/ teasers. Let the community speculate and theory craft. Being vague and talking about design philosophy before we can see and experience it just leads to unreal and unmet expectations.
I must've missed this memo at some point, but which part of Photon is bugged right now? Is it something only affecting certain modes in the game, or all facets currently? I'm also assuming it's something that makes it a bit harder to counter her and not a bug that benefits us using her offensively as well?
Btw anyone know why we must finish it in 2 hours?? What? Why? We get 2 days for war even, whoever came up with this idea needs to go out for a jog in morning tomorrow.
I hope they don’t continue using this timer when we see this content return. It feels like I’m taking an online quiz on Blackboard for a uni course and have to get it done all in 1 sitting.
What if i get to the boss or midway and something comes up irl? Or what if we have a smooth run for the first x fights, hit a potential barricade and need to grind arena for some revives while learning alternative strategies to push forward
I don’t mind the content. I’m a Tier 4 Alliance, but this content was doable with my roster. However the ai and constant game lagging really didn’t help.
If it wasn’t for the deathless piece I’d probably skip it… for a few days and then do it because almost half a 7*. Think it probably could do with a T6cc selector as well, but eh.
This content makes me never want to go near a T1 alliance.
If it’s gonna be back next month we’ll need something to replace the deathless piece, otherwise it will feel like the rewards have been nerfed.
@Kabam Jax no need to self depreciate. This misunderstanding was that this was supposed to be a representation of top tier wars. I saw it as an introduction to the new loyalty currency and another everest style content for a groot piece. Was it difficult? Sure. Did I use more revives than my last necro run? Absolutely. Summoners appreciate your responses for both their timeliness and consideration but again. Unless you wanna end up like us don't start self depreciating for the approval of strangers 🤣🤣 psychologically it's a great tactic to calm down conflict but it starts becoming a habit you can't avoid reverting to.
It didn't make me less interested. I actually like the content just because I get to try high tier aw nodes. But I'm not interested in high tier aw just because it requires a lot more commitment and involvement. Tbf, I have no idea how exactly it could encourage anyone to start doing aw seriously
Agreed. It's a bit of a push and pull; a balancing act. The KGD piece is something to entice people to try out new content, but then it elevates the stakes a bit.
Hypothetically, without the Deathless piece, more Summoners would side-step the content, which isn't exactly ideal for an entirely new concept. But, you're right, it does feel like more pressure to try something new; and trying new things can be uncomfortable.
At the same time, the Deathless champ chase has always been exactly that: a chase. It's meant to be difficult and aspirational. We said a lot of people would try, and some would fail along the way. So, a new, difficult concept does fit the bill for how these pieces have been presented!
Ultimately, I understand both sides, and feel conflicting feels, and it's making me stressed, so I'm going to stop thinking about it and go lay down and contemplate life for a minute.
Yeah, I understand the goal here, and I appreciate the thoughtful responses @Kabam Jax!
As a person in the camp of "I was in the deathless race until now", I can explain why I find this particularly frustrating.
I spent a lot of effort and resources on the other deathless pieces, without knowing what challenges would be put in place for the future pieces. I did that because trusted that the later challenges would be achievable by somebody who completed the earlier ones. But I don't think that's the case here (I'll explain why). So, as a result, I feel like I wasted all that effort I undertook to get those other pieces, and I'll just sit around with 3 or 4 deathless KG pieces in my inventory reminding me of my failure.
The reason I think this challenge is so much harder is primarily the ticking clock. For a mid paragon player like myself, if I don't happen to have the right champs ranked up today, I simply don't have the resources to rank up the necessary champs within the next 2 weeks. For example, right now, I have the resources available to r4 a single 6* champ. I can't r2 a 7*, and I obviously can't r3 a 7*. Obviously, I will get more resources in time, but not in the next 2 weeks.
So my choice now is either to bash my head against this content with underpowered champions, or just give up on this chase in the last leg of the race.
When you mentioned in another post that we would find out new information that makes the deathless champions even more desirable, it's really just adding salt in the wound for me, unfortunately.
Wise up. This was specifically to control who got the last piece of Groot. They were testing how much you will put yourself through for a fraction of a champion, and are probably considering it as a regular event for obtaining deathless pieces. So what is the answer? How much damage will you do to your inventory and your account just to get a deathless piece?
I've given it a few half hearted attempts, but since I don't have the right champs ranked to be able to do it, I think I'd rather just save up units and buy the last KG piece.
It was mostly the opposite: to repurpose and utilize existing content that only a small percentage of Summoners encounter and make it accessible for more people. From an internal design perspective: getting more bang for the buck from the game team's hard work!
You said “ utilize existing content that only a small percentage of Summoners encounter and make it accessible for more people.” Then why put it behind the paragon+ wall? That not making it accessible for more people.
Probably because nobody under paragon is gonna be playing in top tier wars, nor should they get half of a 7 star that easily?
It might be worth pointing out, as @Deacon mentioned, it wasn't the intention of this content to entice Summoners who are more solo-focused to eagerly join up for high level war.
It was mostly the opposite: to repurpose and utilize existing content that only a small percentage of Summoners encounter and make it accessible for more people. From an internal design perspective: getting more bang for the buck from the game team's hard work!
Personally, me and my baby-Paragon brain read the nodes and got overwhelmed very quickly. So I understand the jaw-drop reaction as we realize what high-level war Alliances encounter on the regular... There's a reason y'all are Summoners, not Dummoners. (Because you're smart)
well, you guys are trying to make AW even more difficult, remember this tactic is the simplest one in the past 6 months. we have to deal with this kind of things every day.
That longshot was scary for me. Tried couple of times but couldn't solo him..even I couldn't take his more 20% health. So I throw some revives and did it. He alone t I don't have titania I had just 6*R3 silk. Si longshot fight becomes more difficult..
So for me it is clearly no because I never ever want fight with longshot with suger pill on that node. Other fights were not that much hard in longshot path. I yet to complete Red skull path. But yeah it was fun to fight because kills don't matter in showcase.
I dont see the biggest problem in this quest with those nodes. Except the Sassy/Longshot and the final Photon fight twice its quite well managable.
But looking into future when this piece of content gonna showcase the absolute trash new tactics with crush/sturdy and magic thief/x-magica, wanna me delete this game in advance already.
taking a turd, making it round with a hole in the middle and putting icing over it doesn't make it a doughnut, hiding the deathless piece behind this "as mentioned above", doesn't make it fun and enjoyable, it makes it even worse
quick question. if this was the content for the 1st piece, how many would chase it? now that is the last, we are all forced to dip into our pockets to get it done
I must've missed this memo at some point, but which part of Photon is bugged right now? Is it something only affecting certain modes in the game, or all facets currently? I'm also assuming it's something that makes it a bit harder to counter her and not a bug that benefits us using her offensively as well?
Defensively, Photon cannot be switched when at 10+ charges with her dashing back and holding block. It’s the easy and simple way to play around her Pure Light From to avoid eating unblockable/undexable specials. You can knockdown when under a bar to trigger and wait it out but lining that up isn’t always going to work out well.
It’s been like a month (Feb 24th or earlier) since it was reported & “fixed” (or to be fixed). So the fact they put her in as the boss is just messed up IMO.
Comments
I think this is a great piece of content. I like the idea of showcasing top tier content to the playerbase. I’ve always wondered what top tier AW is like and now I get a chance to try. I think that’s cool.
If there are summoners who are just under top tier AW, this showcase might convince them to punch above their weight. Maybe even those who are not remotely close to it, you never know.
I only voted no because I can’t commit to AW let alone top tier AW; nor do I have the roster, for that matter.
I personally this that is a great game mode, especially with the idea of repurposing content in a new way, reducing workload on the Kabam team while still generating new content for players. It is great and a win win for all.
The problem lie (which seem to be a similar theme for a lot of new content recently), is the difficulty level.
What we are looking at is 8 x 7* R3 max sig. Even at Tier 1 war, I'm not sure how many players in a group of 10 (per BG) would take 8 fights on their own and also not sure how many Alliance would have that kind of ranking and sig level either, sure there are but not many. So what we can look at in tbis content is the top of the top level of AW, so understandable it is overwhelming and too much for a lot of players.
On top of that add 1 of 5 DL in Exploration, that really does push a lot of players to their limited if not over.
I really do hope that this will become regular permanent contents, but also hope the Kabam team can review and make suitable adjustments on the mode.
Maybe 7R2 instead, and maybe 6 or 7 instead of 8. Small changes could make a massive different between fail or success.
You said yesterday on another thread that Kabam do listen to feedback, which I do believe, but you can imagine it is not hard for players (none CCP) to feel unheard, when the same issue keep reoccurring.
Hope you could pass some of the players feedback back to the team. Many thanks
From what I gather, Jax, it doesn't sound like every Showdown will contain a new piece. Are there any plans to add other rewards to piece-less Showdowns or are the 7 tokens (and an emote) the baseline rewards with this initial outing being a one-off?
First the part that makes this way harder...
In war... you can use "war boosts" like power start 1 or invulnerability boosts.
In war... you get a path with an identity, and then assigned /choose appropriate mini bosses that go with your team... this is a smattering across the whole map, and no-one would ever have taken more than half of these fights in a single war.
There is no support/backup (reserve can't bring you a spare wag's boost)
And the part where it is easier:
reviving isn't as much of a pain, and there is no item limit
there is no fight timer. I definitely spent more than 5 minutes on a few of the fights.
So while this content was ... interesting... it shouldn't sway people one way or the other about doing higher tier wars.
As multiple people have pointed out, most of these fights in high tier war are done fully boosted due to how hard and unforgiving they are, so not being able to use a single war boost to tackle them just made the fights harder and annoying.
"Most of the common Defender Masteries applied via nodes"
This should have been "The best masteries all maxed out - applied via a new node: Mastered
We can't have such a Mastery setup - it's fine & new but we won't see such setups in Tier 1 AW.
We aren't "revisiting paths"... the fights on the two paths don't often overlap with assignments. It's fine & new - great but again just not typical.
"and more" - this leaves it open to anything, so maxed out r3 7-stars, particularly champions that are only 6-star. again fine...
A lot of Tier 1 war is crazy, expensive boosting and nuking fights. While you can boost some, we don't have access to the 3min AW boosts so it just seems odd. And deaths don't really matter here while in Tier 1 it very much does matter. I personally didn't use a single boost but it would be nice if there was some kind of incentive for not die'n like in Tier 1 & if we wanted to access the AW boosts, we could if we wanted.
Putting Photon as the boss WHEN she is bugged... Really low blow IMO. While I got a 'solo', Kabam has very well known for weeks that she is bugged. Put her as the boss for the next showcase AFTER she's been fixed and put someone else in - that seems like the right thing that should have been done.
In the end, communication and timing of that matters. I personally would have just liked to see minimal release details, rewards w/ teasers. Let the community speculate and theory craft. Being vague and talking about design philosophy before we can see and experience it just leads to unreal and unmet expectations.
What if i get to the boss or midway and something comes up irl? Or what if we have a smooth run for the first x fights, hit a potential barricade and need to grind arena for some revives while learning alternative strategies to push forward
If it wasn’t for the deathless piece I’d probably skip it… for a few days and then do it because almost half a 7*. Think it probably could do with a T6cc selector as well, but eh.
This content makes me never want to go near a T1 alliance.
If it’s gonna be back next month we’ll need something to replace the deathless piece, otherwise it will feel like the rewards have been nerfed.
As a person in the camp of "I was in the deathless race until now", I can explain why I find this particularly frustrating.
I spent a lot of effort and resources on the other deathless pieces, without knowing what challenges would be put in place for the future pieces. I did that because trusted that the later challenges would be achievable by somebody who completed the earlier ones. But I don't think that's the case here (I'll explain why). So, as a result, I feel like I wasted all that effort I undertook to get those other pieces, and I'll just sit around with 3 or 4 deathless KG pieces in my inventory reminding me of my failure.
The reason I think this challenge is so much harder is primarily the ticking clock. For a mid paragon player like myself, if I don't happen to have the right champs ranked up today, I simply don't have the resources to rank up the necessary champs within the next 2 weeks. For example, right now, I have the resources available to r4 a single 6* champ. I can't r2 a 7*, and I obviously can't r3 a 7*. Obviously, I will get more resources in time, but not in the next 2 weeks.
So my choice now is either to bash my head against this content with underpowered champions, or just give up on this chase in the last leg of the race.
When you mentioned in another post that we would find out new information that makes the deathless champions even more desirable, it's really just adding salt in the wound for me, unfortunately.
I'm assuming that's why.
...but maxing out masteries that are impossible for me to do is cheap and nasty.
we have to deal with this kind of things every day.
So for me it is clearly no because I never ever want fight with longshot with suger pill on that node. Other fights were not that much hard in longshot path. I yet to complete Red skull path. But yeah it was fun to fight because kills don't matter in showcase.
But looking into future when this piece of content gonna showcase the absolute trash new tactics with crush/sturdy and magic thief/x-magica, wanna me delete this game in advance already.
quick question. if this was the content for the 1st piece, how many would chase it? now that is the last, we are all forced to dip into our pockets to get it done
It’s been like a month (Feb 24th or earlier) since it was reported & “fixed” (or to be fixed). So the fact they put her in as the boss is just messed up IMO.