Agree. Reverse control node was super messed up, ended up fighting as though I had reverse controls despite using Wiccan.
9.2.5 Sersi was very difficult and stressful as she kept getting buffs and then indestructible. BWCV worked for me but it was a long fight. Just saw MSD play who was also struggling. Arcade was another crazy fight with his auto block, for some reason Herc sp1 is supposed to have true strike to bypass auto block but it was not triggered.
Bully power gain. Can't push defender to the wall or they gain massive power
Brute force, not landing hits in 6 seconds, take direct damage
Never back down. Can't dash back twice within a time frame or defender will gain regen passive
Aggressive regen. Defender immune to heal block
Aggressive. Defender excels at heavy and dash attacks
Basically you have to keep the fight in middle of the map and can't dash back too much but also you have to make sure to hit the defender before 6 seconds while the defender is more aggressive.
You have Saasy on this path with large health regening constantly which makes the fight brutal
Bully power gain. Can't push defender to the wall or they gain massive power
Brute force, not landing hits in 6 seconds, take direct damage
Never back down. Can't dash back twice within a time frame or defender will gain regen passive
Aggressive regen. Defender immune to heal block
Aggressive. Defender excels at heavy and dash attacks
Basically you have to keep the fight in middle of the map and can't dash back too much but also you have to make sure to hit the defender before 6 seconds while the defender is more aggressive.
You have Saasy on this path with large health regening constantly which makes the fight brutal
You're supposed to use a heal reverse champ like leader
Started it, got through a couple of fights and stopped. This content is only worth doing once for worthwhile rewards. Definitely not just 7 star shards.
Scourge nodes and these health pools have taken all the fun out of story content for me. As stated elsewhere in this thread, bring back weapon nodes. Scourge is pure punishment.. let us enjoy the game.
Agreed the weapons were fun because you got a reward for doing something in the fight specifically
I ended up using Wiccan for the Sersi matchup. Neutralize is the way to go for sure. Do not use Kushala since you can't nullify the buffs and she is basically indestructible from the start.
Agree that the impact path or whatever it was called was the most fun. Masacre did really well. Noticed champs like Onslaught and Punisher 2099 only benefitted from the first hit of their sp2's instead of all of them. Not sure if that was a bug. Also agree that the payout for eradicating a big number of scourge charges wasn't worth the effort in many instances.
If strikers remain a requirement, remove the binding limitations. It's already a pain to move relics around with the UI. Since the development resources are prioritized in champ design, at least make the relics we do have easier to manage/move around.
I don't find the fight fun.. it more like a unit or resource firepit... design to burn up potion, revives, and units.. I don't have the best roster and/or skill so it's going to burn up my limited resources.
Agree. Reverse control node was super messed up, ended up fighting as though I had reverse controls despite using Wiccan.
9.2.5 Sersi was very difficult and stressful as she kept getting buffs and then indestructible. BWCV worked for me but it was a long fight. Just saw MSD play who was also struggling. Arcade was another crazy fight with his auto block, for some reason Herc sp1 is supposed to have true strike to bypass auto block but it was not triggered.
Arcade reduces true abilities aar by 100%
I learned something. That makes the fight worse then.
Done 100% exploration. I only found two paths actually "fun". That was the crit into block. Masacre destroys the path and the power shield into block which Bishop destroys. They really felt like the only paths that "reward" you for playing with the nodes.
Not going into every path in detail but as a general note. Playing correct doesn't feel fun... it just feels less punishing. I don't play the game to "hurt less". I play it for fun. Tuning the time, the amount and how many are removed of scourge charges (and protection) will go a long way to making the experience better. If the AI doesn't play nice you can either find yourself doing no damage and no way out of it because the defender just doesn't lose enough protection charges fast enough. Alternatively, you end up stuck with a crappy mechanic that you can't get rid of e.g. unblockable - dance around until you die.
Without an unlimited stash - this definitely feels like a "farm your resources" type of content, because any single fight on a path could land you in trouble if you don't have the right kind of counter. And it's not just the right class but very much whittled down to a small set of champs because of the node and champ interactions e.g. one fight nullify might work, another fight it won't and you need neutralize or vice versa. And you need to know which champ works for which fight.
With Story mode not considered end game content anymore, this doesn't feel like the right direction.
Scourges are not the big problem as we already had them in the 9.1 chapter The biggest problem i saw was the combination of all nodes with the difficulty of some defenders
when you have to met certains conditions to do real damage and that condition can only met so rarely because you have to deal with nodes, misses, auto-bloc, immunity to some way to get the condition on, that leaves you with a tiny windows of opportunity to do real damage ! If you add the fact that 1 error and your 7R3 attacker gets nearly killed in one full combo, that makes those fights very hard and enjoyable
it reminds me of the act 6 that finally happened to be nerf 2 times because no one wanted to spend time and ressources to 100% complete it
Just hope Kabam will take all these feedback and modify some paths and bosses
This kind of reminds me of the act 7.1 beta which prompted a big feedback thread causing kabam to make some radical changes in the way story quest was designed. Looks like the design philosophy changed again for the worst.
Scourges are not the big problem as we already had them in the 9.1 chapter The biggest problem i saw was the combination of all nodes with the difficulty of some defenders
when you have to met certains conditions to do real damage and that condition can only met so rarely because you have to deal with nodes, misses, auto-bloc, immunity to some way to get the condition on, that leaves you with a tiny windows of opportunity to do real damage ! If you add the fact that 1 error and your 7R3 attacker gets nearly killed in one full combo, that makes those fights very hard and enjoyable
it reminds me of the act 6 that finally happened to be nerf 2 times because no one wanted to spend time and ressources to 100% complete it
Just hope Kabam will take all these feedback and modify some paths and bosses
...that makes those fights very hard and UNenjoyable.
Bully power gain. Can't push defender to the wall or they gain massive power
Brute force, not landing hits in 6 seconds, take direct damage
Never back down. Can't dash back twice within a time frame or defender will gain regen passive
Aggressive regen. Defender immune to heal block
Aggressive. Defender excels at heavy and dash attacks
Basically you have to keep the fight in middle of the map and can't dash back too much but also you have to make sure to hit the defender before 6 seconds while the defender is more aggressive.
You have Saasy on this path with large health regening constantly es the fight brutal
Count is still very new but I was lucky and got his 6*. He destroys that path. I don't think you can lose him if you try.
I let him nearly kill me and still got back to almost full health just messing around.
Don't take that as I like this beta that was probably only path i liked just because I enjoy Count and squash was my longest fight but I wanted to nearly die (I did get scared I would die when that sp3 took me there) hyp mas about a 1 min fight and i did run recorder for that if interested. All these walls of text to understand to be able to play the lanes and still the dancing around to meet the just right conditions isn't fun at all.
Almost through the 9.2 beta and I feel like I can confidently land a plane sight unseen… likely be more intuitive than the node combinations I’ve had to face…. Good lord what a cluster…. caught a clip of my champ trying to follow all the node interactions:
Wasn't too bad for the most part. 9.2.5 Sersi was awful.
I have a well developed roster so didn't run into not having a specific counter but I can see people running into trouble cause they don't have a specific champ. A person should ve limited by lack of skill not because they don't have most of the champs in the game at either 6 or 7*.
And the biggest complaint I have which applies way to often is for this game to stop designing fights that require intercepting while the defenders are so passive. Either program them to interact and not turtle or stop requiring intercept. Kabam needs to seriously pick one or the other.
Honestly I'm testing this out and it's boring. For the love of God stop these protection nodes. Lots of the node combinations are terrible. It takes way too long to complete a path. Definitely needs some adjustments, this isn't end game content it's a quest. Should be tough but fun. There's no fun in this design.
One of the most difficult paths was in 9.2.2 or 9.2.3 where there was a node that you cannot dex on special attacks but then you have Cable, Cyclops and Storm with blasts as specials. One special and that’s it. How do you avoid damage? Remove dexterity from mastery setup?
One of the most difficult paths was in 9.2.2 or 9.2.3 where there was a node that you cannot dex on special attacks but then you have Cable, Cyclops and Storm with blasts as specials. One special and that’s it. How do you avoid damage? Remove dexterity from mastery setup?
Pretty sure thats on 9.2.1 and Yea its not a fun path. I messed up in my initial run too by not bringing my Lady D, would have at least have shut down the unlockable. I'm not sure how you can avoid the damage tbh. Also this brings me to this topic, Theres a lotta those undexable specials paths in 9.2 and is not fun especially with the Storm boss in 9.2.3 if you don't have Iron Man you could have a hard time
One of the most difficult paths was in 9.2.2 or 9.2.3 where there was a node that you cannot dex on special attacks but then you have Cable, Cyclops and Storm with blasts as specials. One special and that’s it. How do you avoid damage? Remove dexterity from mastery setup?
Honestly I'm testing this out and it's boring. For the love of God stop these protection nodes. Lots of the node combinations are terrible. It takes way too long to complete a path. Definitely needs some adjustments, this isn't end game content it's a quest. Should be tough but fun. There's no fun in this design.
I’d actually be completely fine with more punishing attack values instead of all the damage limitations with these healthpools.
There was like two lines I found super annoying because of these charges, for me the least fun was that 80% of it was all about protection and intercept. Even when it doesn't say straight, "they start unblockable" or other stuff that's preventing you from blocking, so you must intercept. The other thing I didn't like is that every line designed in a way only one, maybe two champs can handle it, if you have that champ, you can get through them fairly easily, if you don't, you're going to suffer big time.
Finally finished the beta. I did not struggle nearly as much as many people in here seem to have. Did not change the fact that I wasn’t having much fun. What I said in my first comments is still true, the fights are much too long to be fun and the result is that I was pigeonholed into using all my meta nukes because anything less and I could very well be walking into 10 minute fights. This ain’t Necro, I’m not looking for paths that take an hour to complete. That and some of the fights and path nodes were stupid, but y’all seem to have that covered so I won’t rehash that.
Honestly scourge paths were a blessing comparatively because the new eradicate nodes let me actually get some good damage going with proper play. Some people here are saying they’re too complicated and were the worst part of the beta, but at least the eradicate node makes me feel like there’s a payoff to understanding it all and playing to the node (even if it could afford to be higher). The other paths didn’t give me any of that, especially not those striker protection paths. They just threw challenges at me that overstayed their welcome.
Look Kabam, you don’t have to burn all the designs down or anything, but give us outs for the challenges and rewards for playing to the nodes. There’s season of suffering fights with more grace in this regard, and the healthpools are kinda similar too (at least for the bosses). This is the permanent content that’s gonna be played by everyone who is dedicated to this game. Make it challenging sure, but make it fun and fair too.
One of the most difficult paths was in 9.2.2 or 9.2.3 where there was a node that you cannot dex on special attacks but then you have Cable, Cyclops and Storm with blasts as specials. One special and that’s it. How do you avoid damage? Remove dexterity from mastery setup?
you take it in the block and it's ok
All these nodes made me overthink but yes I will just take block damage if I were to do this path again when 9.2 is officially launched. Thanks for the recommendation
Comments
The scourge nodes were fun in comparison to those protection paths
Bully power gain. Can't push defender to the wall or they gain massive power
Brute force, not landing hits in 6 seconds, take direct damage
Never back down. Can't dash back twice within a time frame or defender will gain regen passive
Aggressive regen. Defender immune to heal block
Aggressive. Defender excels at heavy and dash attacks
Basically you have to keep the fight in middle of the map and can't dash back too much but also you have to make sure to hit the defender before 6 seconds while the defender is more aggressive.
You have Saasy on this path with large health regening constantly which makes the fight brutal
Agree that the impact path or whatever it was called was the most fun. Masacre did really well. Noticed champs like Onslaught and Punisher 2099 only benefitted from the first hit of their sp2's instead of all of them. Not sure if that was a bug. Also agree that the payout for eradicating a big number of scourge charges wasn't worth the effort in many instances.
If strikers remain a requirement, remove the binding limitations. It's already a pain to move relics around with the UI. Since the development resources are prioritized in champ design, at least make the relics we do have easier to manage/move around.
Not going into every path in detail but as a general note. Playing correct doesn't feel fun... it just feels less punishing. I don't play the game to "hurt less". I play it for fun. Tuning the time, the amount and how many are removed of scourge charges (and protection) will go a long way to making the experience better. If the AI doesn't play nice you can either find yourself doing no damage and no way out of it because the defender just doesn't lose enough protection charges fast enough. Alternatively, you end up stuck with a crappy mechanic that you can't get rid of e.g. unblockable - dance around until you die.
Without an unlimited stash - this definitely feels like a "farm your resources" type of content, because any single fight on a path could land you in trouble if you don't have the right kind of counter. And it's not just the right class but very much whittled down to a small set of champs because of the node and champ interactions e.g. one fight nullify might work, another fight it won't and you need neutralize or vice versa. And you need to know which champ works for which fight.
With Story mode not considered end game content anymore, this doesn't feel like the right direction.
The biggest problem i saw was the combination of all nodes with the difficulty of some defenders
when you have to met certains conditions to do real damage and that condition can only met so rarely because you have to deal with nodes, misses, auto-bloc, immunity to some way to get the condition on, that leaves you with a tiny windows of opportunity to do real damage !
If you add the fact that 1 error and your 7R3 attacker gets nearly killed in one full combo, that makes those fights very hard and enjoyable
it reminds me of the act 6 that finally happened to be nerf 2 times because no one wanted to spend time and ressources to 100% complete it
Just hope Kabam will take all these feedback and modify some paths and bosses
I let him nearly kill me and still got back to almost full health just messing around.
caught a clip of my champ trying to follow all the node interactions:
I have a well developed roster so didn't run into not having a specific counter but I can see people running into trouble cause they don't have a specific champ. A person should ve limited by lack of skill not because they don't have most of the champs in the game at either 6 or 7*.
And the biggest complaint I have which applies way to often is for this game to stop designing fights that require intercepting while the defenders are so passive. Either program them to interact and not turtle or stop requiring intercept. Kabam needs to seriously pick one or the other.
Also this brings me to this topic, Theres a lotta those undexable specials paths in 9.2 and is not fun especially with the Storm boss in 9.2.3 if you don't have Iron Man you could have a hard time
Honestly scourge paths were a blessing comparatively because the new eradicate nodes let me actually get some good damage going with proper play. Some people here are saying they’re too complicated and were the worst part of the beta, but at least the eradicate node makes me feel like there’s a payoff to understanding it all and playing to the node (even if it could afford to be higher). The other paths didn’t give me any of that, especially not those striker protection paths. They just threw challenges at me that overstayed their welcome.
Look Kabam, you don’t have to burn all the designs down or anything, but give us outs for the challenges and rewards for playing to the nodes. There’s season of suffering fights with more grace in this regard, and the healthpools are kinda similar too (at least for the bosses). This is the permanent content that’s gonna be played by everyone who is dedicated to this game. Make it challenging sure, but make it fun and fair too.