5-Star Featured Crystal Change Discussion Thread

Summoners!

We've just released some more information on the future of the 5-Star Featured Crystal here: https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/43300/upcoming-changes-to-5-star-featured-crystal

We know you've got questions, and this is the place to ask and discuss!

FAQ

Will you announce the pool of 18 each time it changes?
We do plan on sharing the list every time the crystal is updated.

Can you buy the 5 star featured crystal with units or only shards?
This crystal is replacing the currently available 15,000 Shard Featured Hero Crystals.

So does it means that if a new champ comes to the Battle Realm we won't be able to get them as a 5* right away?
You will still be able to get them in the Grandmaster Featured Crystal, but they will not be available in a featured 5-Star Hero Shard Crystal until they are added to this new Crystal. So, this might mean having to wait a little while to get some Champions, but it also gives you a shot at 6 New Champions at a time, as well as a smaller Basic pool.

Comments

unknown

This content has been removed.

Dub

I want to see where storm or ant man are effective on any levels. The lower you to the worse they get. Storm used to hit hard before bleeders were crazy good. Now she’s mediocre at best. As far as Jane goes. If you want a good stun champ put hulk. Or put iceman or aa as chances so people’s odds of getting a decent champ are higher than like 8 percent

becauseicant

You need to run the featured crystal schedule all the way up to Sentry to give everyone who was saving for champs in between Blade and Sentry a chance to get those champs. No reason not to do this considering how monumental of a change this is.

Deadlyslayer007

Wow total cash grab, with the aim to increase salea of there GMC!

Release new champs and dont allow your playerbase to not get them for months... unless they spend?!?! and even then you chuck in a ton of useless 5* in the mix!!

i guarantee you NO one uses antman or cyclops for aq so whoever is giving you your data is as reliable as your servers!

nice way to flip your playerbase off and completely become detached from what they want

GroundedWisdom

Dub wrote: »

I want to see where storm or ant man are effective on any levels. The lower you to the worse they get. Storm used to hit hard before bleeders were crazy good. Now she’s mediocre at best. As far as Jane goes. If you want a good stun champ put hulk. Or put iceman or aa as chances so people’s odds of getting a decent champ are higher than like 8 percent

I can't agree with that. Storm is a killer.

sbb75

Kabam Miike wrote: »

TKal wrote: »

Kabam Miike wrote: »

Just talked to the team, and they are comfortable with sharing the list of Champions we plan to include in the first Featured Champion Crystal. It's important to note that this list could still potentially change a little before the release, but the selected Champions are based on empirical data showing their effectiveness as 5-Star Champions in both Alliance Quests and Alliance Wars.

Beast
Storm
Cable
Cyclops (New Xavier School)
Thor (Ragnarok)
Taskmaster
Agent Venom
Hawkeye
Modok
Sentry
Void
Ant-Man
Mordo
Thor (Jane Foster)
Loki
Juggernaut
Hela
Phoenix
Ronan
Venompool
Nebula
Punisher (2099)
Civil Warrior
Doctor Octopus

Bold Text denotes Featured Champions.

You really picked the best mystics, I like it ! Would love to see what your data shows about effectiveniss in AW et AQ about those amazing god tier mystic champs

Again, we never said that they were the best performing. It is also important to keep in mind that what may be desirable at your level of play may differ from other players as well. A lot of players could use a Champ that hits as hard as Storm with her Special Attacks, or the ability to shrug off debuffs like Agent Venom, or Stun like Jane Foster.

The ONLY type of players you should look at are people that purchased a 5* feature before. Give is the % breakdown of 5* rank levels of those 18 champs for people that have purchased a 5* feature in the past. Compare those stats to their other 5* champs.
MOST companies make changes to their products based on the customers wants and needs.

Be honest @Kabam Miike the criteria for selecting those.champs is the same for answering questions on the Forums. Avoid the tough ones!!!

Lets all get back to the big beta testing program rolled out to Address Luke Cage and RH.

LeNoirFaineant

Kabam Miike wrote: »

Just talked to the team, and they are comfortable with sharing the list of Champions we plan to include in the first Featured Champion Crystal. It's important to note that this list could still potentially change a little before the release, but the selected Champions are based on empirical data showing their effectiveness as 5-Star Champions in both Alliance Quests and Alliance Wars.

Beast
Storm
Cable
Cyclops (New Xavier School)
Thor (Ragnarok)
Taskmaster
Agent Venom
Hawkeye
Modok
Sentry
Void
Ant-Man
Mordo
Thor (Jane Foster)
Loki
Juggernaut
Hela
Phoenix
Ronan
Venompool
Nebula
Punisher (2099)
Civil Warrior
Doctor Octopus

Bold Text denotes Featured Champions.

Let me get this straight. The new crystal will have an increased chance of pulling Antman and other questionable champs vs. the previous featured crystal. It will have a decreased chance of pulling the featured champ that you want once, let alone twice. It will have zero chance of getting many actually good champs that are in the basic pool like GP, Voodoo, AA, etc. And we get all this for an extra 5k shards? Sounds about right lmao.

InmortalKratos

So that way you can nerf the heros before we can put our hand on them.

SpiritOfVengeance

Ok can't we just meet halfway and make the 6 featured have a higher chance than the 18 basics at least?

unknown

This content has been removed.

Firelord_Ozai

The best part about the new featured is that there are only 2 good pulls from the whole list lol.

Firelord_Ozai

And... that's if void is even good. Hela was the only other good champion on the list.

Dub

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

Dub wrote: »

I want to see where storm or ant man are effective on any levels. The lower you to the worse they get. Storm used to hit hard before bleeders were crazy good. Now she’s mediocre at best. As far as Jane goes. If you want a good stun champ put hulk. Or put iceman or aa as chances so people’s odds of getting a decent champ are higher than like 8 percent

I can't agree with that. Storm is a killer.

You can’t tell me you’d be ok with pulling one of the oldest champs in the game out of a 15k shard deal over the champ your going for. I’ve had her r4 before and there’s a reason she’s not any more. She’s behind on the curb of champs.

BossyBuilder

Kabam Miike wrote: »

TKal wrote: »

Kabam Miike wrote: »

Just talked to the team, and they are comfortable with sharing the list of Champions we plan to include in the first Featured Champion Crystal. It's important to note that this list could still potentially change a little before the release, but the selected Champions are based on empirical data showing their effectiveness as 5-Star Champions in both Alliance Quests and Alliance Wars.

Beast
Storm
Cable
Cyclops (New Xavier School)
Thor (Ragnarok)
Taskmaster
Agent Venom
Hawkeye
Modok
Sentry
Void
Ant-Man
Mordo
Thor (Jane Foster)
Loki
Juggernaut
Hela
Phoenix
Ronan
Venompool
Nebula
Punisher (2099)
Civil Warrior
Doctor Octopus

Bold Text denotes Featured Champions.

You really picked the best mystics, I like it ! Would love to see what your data shows about effectiveniss in AW et AQ about those amazing god tier mystic champs

Again, we never said that they were the best performing. It is also important to keep in mind that what may be desirable at your level of play may differ from other players as well. A lot of players could use a Champ that hits as hard as Storm with her Special Attacks, or the ability to shrug off debuffs like Agent Venom, or Stun like Jane Foster.

So basically this is designed to impact the players in the middle of the player base. But how many of those players have the opportunities to save up 15k 5* shards like the more advanced players do? The group of players that these champs would be effective for and who can afford to save up the shards in time is pretty narrow.

Again, to say nothing about the "effectiveness" of Ant Man or Civil Warrior... If you're trying to progress in the game, these champs will not get you there. If people are using them it's because they have to, because that's all they've been able to get out of a 5* crystal. Your data is skewed. People are using these champs out of necessity, not based on effectiveness. No one would choose to use Ant Man for attack in AQ if they had other options.

All this first group of 18 champs does is breed more mediocrity.

LeNoirFaineant

Kabam Miike wrote: »

bradshaw84 wrote: »

Beast, Jane foster, Cyclops, Ronan, Loki, Phoenix, Venompool, civil warrior, ant man amongst the 18 best and most used in aq and aw? GTFOH! LMAO!

Kabam Miike wrote: »

Just talked to the team, and they are comfortable with sharing the list of Champions we plan to include in the first Featured Champion Crystal. It's important to note that this list could still potentially change a little before the release, but the selected Champions are based on empirical data showing their effectiveness as 5-Star Champions in both Alliance Quests and Alliance Wars.

Beast
Storm
Cable
Cyclops (New Xavier School)
Thor (Ragnarok)
Taskmaster
Agent Venom
Hawkeye
Modok
Sentry
Void
Ant-Man
Mordo
Thor (Jane Foster)
Loki
Juggernaut
Hela
Phoenix
Ronan
Venompool
Nebula
Punisher (2099)
Civil Warrior
Doctor Octopus

Bold Text denotes Featured Champions.

I didn't say most used, but they are among the most effective. Cyclops actually scores very high on this list. There is a smaller group of players that use him, but they use him VERY effectively.

This smaller group wouldn't be the lower tiers in AW where people haven't figured out how to evade yet, would it?

Zer0bits

He’s an easy fix, do a player selected 3 month crystal, where players vote for what champs will be the 18. I honestly can’t belive that magik, mephisto, Morningstar didn’t make it into the crystal if you are aggregating data of who is most effective in AW. I mean pretty much every boss is a magik.

JayV429

So is there any word on the basic pool of champs yet. Is it gonna feature specific champs or are they randomly chosen

unknown

This content has been removed.

GroundedWisdom

Dub wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

Dub wrote: »

I want to see where storm or ant man are effective on any levels. The lower you to the worse they get. Storm used to hit hard before bleeders were crazy good. Now she’s mediocre at best. As far as Jane goes. If you want a good stun champ put hulk. Or put iceman or aa as chances so people’s odds of getting a decent champ are higher than like 8 percent

I can't agree with that. Storm is a killer.

You can’t tell me you’d be ok with pulling one of the oldest champs in the game out of a 15k shard deal over the champ your going for. I’ve had her r4 before and there’s a reason she’s not any more. She’s behind on the curb of champs.

Dup her, Rank her, and eat a Special. Not an insult. Just an example.

GroundedWisdom

LeNoirFaineant wrote: »

Kabam Miike wrote: »

Just talked to the team, and they are comfortable with sharing the list of Champions we plan to include in the first Featured Champion Crystal. It's important to note that this list could still potentially change a little before the release, but the selected Champions are based on empirical data showing their effectiveness as 5-Star Champions in both Alliance Quests and Alliance Wars.

Beast
Storm
Cable
Cyclops (New Xavier School)
Thor (Ragnarok)
Taskmaster
Agent Venom
Hawkeye
Modok
Sentry
Void
Ant-Man
Mordo
Thor (Jane Foster)
Loki
Juggernaut
Hela
Phoenix
Ronan
Venompool
Nebula
Punisher (2099)
Civil Warrior
Doctor Octopus

Bold Text denotes Featured Champions.

Let me get this straight. The new crystal will have an increased chance of pulling Antman and other questionable champs vs. the previous featured crystal. It will have a decreased chance of pulling the featured champ that you want once, let alone twice. It will have zero chance of getting many actually good champs that are in the basic pool like GP, Voodoo, AA, etc. And we get all this for an extra 5k shards? Sounds about right lmao.

Technically, there's now an equal chance to pull any Champ. Before there was an increased chance at a Basic.

Propaganda83

Can I make a couple of suggestions to stem the bleeding? Either one might help …

1) announce that there will be a 50-50 chance of getting one of the 6 featured champs. This will mitigate that it may not be the latest and greatest; OR
2) announce that you will reduce the cost of this rubbish crystal to 12,000.

Do you guys really not anticipate the backlash when you do this sort of thing? Is it so hard to imagine that this is not great news for the community? Wake me up when it's over and Kabam has come back to its senses …

Dub

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

Dub wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

Dub wrote: »

I want to see where storm or ant man are effective on any levels. The lower you to the worse they get. Storm used to hit hard before bleeders were crazy good. Now she’s mediocre at best. As far as Jane goes. If you want a good stun champ put hulk. Or put iceman or aa as chances so people’s odds of getting a decent champ are higher than like 8 percent

I can't agree with that. Storm is a killer.

You can’t tell me you’d be ok with pulling one of the oldest champs in the game out of a 15k shard deal over the champ your going for. I’ve had her r4 before and there’s a reason she’s not any more. She’s behind on the curb of champs.

Dup her, Rank her, and eat a Special. Not an insult. Just an example.

I’m pretty sure this list was acquired by people who actually still get hit by storms specials..

PandasRFud

Kabam Miike wrote: »

TKal wrote: »

Kabam Miike wrote: »

Just talked to the team, and they are comfortable with sharing the list of Champions we plan to include in the first Featured Champion Crystal. It's important to note that this list could still potentially change a little before the release, but the selected Champions are based on empirical data showing their effectiveness as 5-Star Champions in both Alliance Quests and Alliance Wars.

Beast
Storm
Cable
Cyclops (New Xavier School)
Thor (Ragnarok)
Taskmaster
Agent Venom
Hawkeye
Modok
Sentry
Void
Ant-Man
Mordo
Thor (Jane Foster)
Loki
Juggernaut
Hela
Phoenix
Ronan
Venompool
Nebula
Punisher (2099)
Civil Warrior
Doctor Octopus

Bold Text denotes Featured Champions.

You really picked the best mystics, I like it ! Would love to see what your data shows about effectiveniss in AW et AQ about those amazing god tier mystic champs

Again, we never said that they were the best performing. It is also important to keep in mind that what may be desirable at your level of play may differ from other players as well. A lot of players could use a Champ that hits as hard as Storm with her Special Attacks, or the ability to shrug off debuffs like Agent Venom, or Stun like Jane Foster.

Based on my knowledge from having played the game for over 2 years, only newer players would need champions like Agent Venom, Storm, or Jane foster for the damage/utility that they possess. The majority of players in the end game community find these characters to be nothing more than "arena fodder" (practically useless outside of arenas).
Under practical circumstance, do you truly believe that newer players would be in any position, much less willing, to spend an additional 5000 5-star shards just to obtain one of the champions that was named? To be brutally honest, I don't think hardly anyone would be willing to purchase these crystals. The endgame community certainly won't, and I don't think a newer player would find any merit to purchasing these crystals over the 10k ones.

GroundedWisdom

Dub wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

Dub wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

Dub wrote: »

I want to see where storm or ant man are effective on any levels. The lower you to the worse they get. Storm used to hit hard before bleeders were crazy good. Now she’s mediocre at best. As far as Jane goes. If you want a good stun champ put hulk. Or put iceman or aa as chances so people’s odds of getting a decent champ are higher than like 8 percent

I can't agree with that. Storm is a killer.

You can’t tell me you’d be ok with pulling one of the oldest champs in the game out of a 15k shard deal over the champ your going for. I’ve had her r4 before and there’s a reason she’s not any more. She’s behind on the curb of champs.

Dup her, Rank her, and eat a Special. Not an insult. Just an example.

I’m pretty sure this list was acquired by people who actually still get hit by storms specials..

Are you aware of a way to avoid an L3? I'm not talking about Baiting.

SpiritOfVengeance

Why on earth are you even bothering looking at lower players aq and aw picks? I did not even realise till now but if you wanna help everyone out then you need to check out only the higher player groups picks. I could see you guys recommending a 1 star spiderman next.
I cannot get this out of my head after 17 pages of no no no no please here is a better suggestion please kabam don't do it from all of us summoners you still want to go through with it.
I feel so bad for just everyone at this point it is like we are all talking to a brick wall. Oh well this is a lesson to people treating customers which is never to do what you guys do.

LeNoirFaineant

@GroundedWisdom you are in favor of the new crystal? I'm shocked... Still waiting for you do disagree with something, with anything that Kabam does. Maybe if you pretended to disagree with something just to add a little credibility...

GroundedWisdom

LeNoirFaineant wrote: »

@GroundedWisdom you are in favor of the new crystal? I'm shocked... Still waiting for you do disagree with something, with anything that Kabam does. Maybe if you pretended to disagree with something just to add a little credibility...

I don't need to solemnly disagree with anything just to prove some kind of allegiance to the Players. I've explained this before. I'm not part of the "US Vs. THEM" mentality.

DNA3000

bloodyCain wrote: »

I have serious question right here and need an answer.

1) Will the new 5* Featured crystal has the same drop rate chance as in the basic 5* crystal but limited to only 24? Because that's what I think you guys are trying to do.
2) Why the need to change the 5* Featured crystal? Nobody in the community said anything about the current 5* Featured crystal.
3) Yes. The addition of new champs to the basic 5* champs pool is catching up but is that an enough reason to totally change the 5* Featured crystal? Why don't you guys slow down the addition? Why not add 3 new champs per month instead?

I know @Kabam Miike answered the first question, but I'm not sure if he addressed the question precisely. The current basic 5* crystal has a number of 5* basic champions and the odds of pulling any one of them is identical, which means the odds of pulling any one of them is 1/X, where X is the number of basics. That number itself is not identical to the odds of pulling a particular champion from the new featured crystal, because those odds are 1/24, since the new crystal always has 24 different champions in it. I'm not sure if that's what you were asking, because I'm not sure what you meant by "trying to do." That is what they did.

Your second question was partially addressed in the announcement. The original 5* crystal had a chance to pull the featured, and if not you'd pull a basic. The pace at which featured 5* champions were added to the basic crystal was very measured and very slow. This meant that under the original system you'd have two shots at a featured champion (the first featured run and the repeat) and that's it. If you didn't get it, there was no hope of ever getting it, since there was no other way to get that featured except by the very slow process of periodic additions to the basic crystal which added champions more slowly than featured champs were added to the game. In other words, the original system was falling behind with every month.

They changed things last year to add the subfeatured pool which gave players another shot at featured champions after their crystals expired, and also sped up the pace at which featured champions were added to the basic crystal so players would have another shot at them. And they increased the pace of additions to be faster than featured champions were being added to the game, which means eventually they would "catch up" and all but eliminate the subfeatured pool and start adding featured champions to the basic crystal almost immediately.

This situation was obviously a transition phase, between the old system where there was a huge backlog of featured champion additions that came and went and if you didn't get them as a 5* you were mostly out of luck, and the new system where 5* featured champions are added to the basic almost immediately and you always have a shot at them, but only in a huge pool of other champions where the odds of pulling that champion were very low.

Now that we're here, the problem - which many players have complained about - is that there's nothing in between. Right now you have a 20% chance of getting a featured champion, and if you miss your next shot would be a one in a hundred (approximately) chance of getting them in the basic. To address this, the current featured crystal is being replaced with a different one that sticks around longer (three months instead of two weeks) and contains all of the featureds released since the last featured (six) and a smaller subset of all basic champions (eighteen). This means if you are looking for a certain champion or set of them, instead of buying the basic champ and having only a small chance of getting what you want, you can wait for a featured crystal that contains what you want inside of a smaller subset of all basic champions, increasing your odds of getting something you want.

The net result is that your odds of getting *a* featured champion are roughly the same, your odds of getting a *specific* featured champion are lower, and you have the option of waiting for, in effect, a crystal with a small subset of basics that contain what you want instead of having to buy the basics which have everything in them (except the most recent featureds). The point of the changes last year seem to have been explicitly designed to get us here where there's no longer this "backlog" of featureds, paving the way for this new "in-between" featured crystal that is less targeted at a single featured champion and more targeted at providing a way for players to have a little more control over which set of basics they want to throw darts into.

The answer to your third question is: this appears to me to be completely intentional and part of a longer term plan. The current featured crystal changes were intended to change how we farm for and try to get 5* champions, because as 6* champions arrive they are going to function less as the top tier pursuit goal and more like a stable of lots of champions with different abilities much like 4* champions function now.

LeNoirFaineant

PandasRFud wrote: »

Kabam Miike wrote: »

TKal wrote: »

Kabam Miike wrote: »

Just talked to the team, and they are comfortable with sharing the list of Champions we plan to include in the first Featured Champion Crystal. It's important to note that this list could still potentially change a little before the release, but the selected Champions are based on empirical data showing their effectiveness as 5-Star Champions in both Alliance Quests and Alliance Wars.

Beast
Storm
Cable
Cyclops (New Xavier School)
Thor (Ragnarok)
Taskmaster
Agent Venom
Hawkeye
Modok
Sentry
Void
Ant-Man
Mordo
Thor (Jane Foster)
Loki
Juggernaut
Hela
Phoenix
Ronan
Venompool
Nebula
Punisher (2099)
Civil Warrior
Doctor Octopus

Bold Text denotes Featured Champions.

You really picked the best mystics, I like it ! Would love to see what your data shows about effectiveniss in AW et AQ about those amazing god tier mystic champs

Again, we never said that they were the best performing. It is also important to keep in mind that what may be desirable at your level of play may differ from other players as well. A lot of players could use a Champ that hits as hard as Storm with her Special Attacks, or the ability to shrug off debuffs like Agent Venom, or Stun like Jane Foster.

Based on my knowledge from having played the game for over 2 years, only newer players would need champions like Agent Venom, Storm, or Jane foster for the damage/utility that they possess. The majority of players in the end game community find these characters to be nothing more than "arena fodder" (practically useless outside of arenas).
Under practical circumstance, do you truly believe that newer players would be in any position, much less willing, to spend an additional 5000 5-star shards just to obtain one of the champions that was named? To be brutally honest, I don't think hardly anyone would be willing to purchase these crystals. The endgame community certainly won't, and I don't think a newer player would find any merit to purchasing these crystals over the 10k ones.

Couldn't agree more. There are much better champs in the basic pool. These crystals make no sense.

GroundedWisdom

LeNoirFaineant wrote: »

PandasRFud wrote: »

Kabam Miike wrote: »

TKal wrote: »

Kabam Miike wrote: »

Just talked to the team, and they are comfortable with sharing the list of Champions we plan to include in the first Featured Champion Crystal. It's important to note that this list could still potentially change a little before the release, but the selected Champions are based on empirical data showing their effectiveness as 5-Star Champions in both Alliance Quests and Alliance Wars.

Beast
Storm
Cable
Cyclops (New Xavier School)
Thor (Ragnarok)
Taskmaster
Agent Venom
Hawkeye
Modok
Sentry
Void
Ant-Man
Mordo
Thor (Jane Foster)
Loki
Juggernaut
Hela
Phoenix
Ronan
Venompool
Nebula
Punisher (2099)
Civil Warrior
Doctor Octopus

Bold Text denotes Featured Champions.

You really picked the best mystics, I like it ! Would love to see what your data shows about effectiveniss in AW et AQ about those amazing god tier mystic champs

Again, we never said that they were the best performing. It is also important to keep in mind that what may be desirable at your level of play may differ from other players as well. A lot of players could use a Champ that hits as hard as Storm with her Special Attacks, or the ability to shrug off debuffs like Agent Venom, or Stun like Jane Foster.

Based on my knowledge from having played the game for over 2 years, only newer players would need champions like Agent Venom, Storm, or Jane foster for the damage/utility that they possess. The majority of players in the end game community find these characters to be nothing more than "arena fodder" (practically useless outside of arenas).
Under practical circumstance, do you truly believe that newer players would be in any position, much less willing, to spend an additional 5000 5-star shards just to obtain one of the champions that was named? To be brutally honest, I don't think hardly anyone would be willing to purchase these crystals. The endgame community certainly won't, and I don't think a newer player would find any merit to purchasing these crystals over the 10k ones.

Couldn't agree more. There are much better champs in the basic pool. These crystals make no sense.

It's entirely up to people if they want to go for them or not. The difference is the 6 new Champs are in these.