Whenever you start to think "Hey, it can't get any worse."

I don’t even know where to start anymore. Reading this Dev Diary, all I feel is frustration and disappointment. It’s like these guys don't even try to understand us, or what keeps people logging in every day. Instead of fixing problems, you’re piling on systems that strip away freedom and squeeze us harder.

Previously, players could focus on a handful of champs to optimize prestige. The new system creates something chaotic.

F2P or low-spend players typically have fewer high-rank champs (obviously). Under this system, their rewards will be worse than high-spend players with larger rosters. Essentially, someone who fought tooth and nail to acquire like 5-9 r4s whether ftp or a low spender can basically kick rocks in comparison to someone with like 20 to 30 r4s.

This change directly pushes lower-resourced players further behind, because rewards now scale more heavily with roster size and rank, not skill or effort. So out of touch its starting to hurt.

It does not inherently “determine skill,” but it penalizes smaller rosters in terms of rewards, progression, and competitive content. WHO is making these decisions, get rid of them.

From the Dev Diary:

Adaptive Difficulty replaces the six EQ difficulties with one dynamic difficulty scaling to your account.

Players with higher Prestige can toggle Elder Difficulty.

...Ok?

Removing multiple difficulties eliminates the lower-tier farming opportunities for units and other resources.

Previously, F2P and moderate spenders could farm lower difficulty EQ for units and resources they couldn’t otherwise get quickly.

The new system means only higher-prestige rosters get meaningful rewards, leaving low-prestige accounts with less opportunity to progress efficiently.

Single-difficulty EQ reduces the ways F2P and low-spend players can farm resources.

Reward scaling with Prestige favors high-prestige (usually big-spend) players, further widening the gap.

Both changes together push non-whales further behind.

Top 30 Prestige increases the baseline needed for “good” rewards.

Single-difficulty EQ removes alternative ways to gather units/resources, making progression slower for F2P/low-spend players.

The game is no longer just about skill or effort—it heavily favors roster size and rank, which correlates with spending, I love how they typed that up like they're evolving the game when in reality they're making a bunch of players angry and killing it.

Comments

tbarr1977

I have brought these issues to Kabam and they refuse to fix anything because they make too much money from it. I participate in the BG and I am constantly getting out matches by stronger players. Doesn't matter what time of day, out match 15-1, win one outmatched another 10 times. I spent money on resources like victory shields and deck swaps, and outmatched every time making me waste my resources. I've been playing this game for over 9 years and this is the worst I've seen it. It's all about money screw the players. I have an attorney on retainer for a CLA just gathering more evidence before I move forward with it. Something has to change so that players are getting fair value for their money and not an endless money pit.

Barrier Reef

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2864094#Comment_2864094

When do you not see things differently lmao

M_A_D_D_Y

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2864317#Comment_2864317

Your attorney will 100% explore your savings (-_-)

Finalfuryk

I think we have to see what the cut off is for prestige. I think when people hear prestige they imagine the top 1% alliances running three explorations of Map 8 for top rewards and I don't buy that's how the cut off for EQ will be. I imagine almost all valiants will be included in top tier progression and wouldn't be surprised if a good number of paragons can access those rewards too. I'm not concerned about the top of the game.

The bottom half of the game is where I can see issues getting access to lower tier rewards and units. If Kabam rolls all of the lower tier EQ units into one quest I'd see that as a win. I don't need to have 20 energy refills in the overflow if we don't have to autobattle through Conqueror for easy units. I'd welcome that change if Kabam actually puts all of the units there in content I would actually engage with. We will see though. Kabam certainly hasn't earned the benefit of the doubt with a lot of the recent changes.

As far as growing accounts, it has never been easier to gain progression levels so I'm not concerned with an Uncollected who had been able to Herc their way through the Paragon gauntlet losing out on rewards for a few months while they increase their prestige. Also, I'm not mad at the game requiring someone who just hasn't done the story quests to get past Thronebreaker being locked out of the ability to get top rewards. Story content is without a doubt consistently the fairest difficulty in the game and anyone who is capable of completing valiant difficulty level quests without being valiant should just bite the bullet and do the story quests.

If prestige cut off is knocking out people who are valiant that "only" have four rank 4s that would be a real problem, but I doubt it'll be that high. We'll see though. I could be completely wrong and Kabam could Kabam.

ThaGenius_

Smh, its a mobile game and your "issues" sounds like a bunch on whining BS.

Option 1 - take a break from the game and maybe when you come back the game will change

Option 2 - enjoy the game and progress your roster how you see fit.

Viper198787

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2864156#Comment_2864156

No that’s not the way it’s always been. It’s been top 5, not top 30. Last I checked 30 is 6 times more than 5, simple math. Why do you even bother replying without any thought? Before top 5 wasn’t that big of a deal. Maybe some people had similar champs but now that it’s top 30, most rosters are going to be extremely generic. You know what the number 30 relates to in MCOC? BG deck. If everyone has top 30-35 champs ranked for prestige, can you imagine what all the BG decks and AW maps will look like? Think before you talk next time you decide to respond with some meaningless “that’s how it’s always been”. Actually add to the conversation.

GroundedWisdom

No one is telling anyone to go out and Rank 25 more Champs for Prestige. You're reacting as if Kabam is forcing people to do it. We haven't even seen the differences in Rewards for Prestige yet. As with many things, something is announced, and people are going off without knowing what it looks like.

I said those who are choosing to chase Prestige end up with Accounts that look the same. Whether that's 5 Champs or 30 Champs, that's what they trade in the process. You can either choose to focus on that, or you can play how you want where you're at. Either way you're going to progress. No one at any point ever said if you want to get anywhere in this game, you have to Rank 30 for Prestige.

I have never understood why every subject is put through the F2P vs P2P wood chipper, like there's some great conspiracy to undermine free Players, but that's not a thing. As per the points made, any Account that only focuses on a few good Champs will only progress so far. That's got nothing to do with playing free. That's just because the game is designed on rewarding progress. That is as much about the content you complete as it is Roster depth and breadth. That's what Prestige is. It's a measurement of the top average Roster rating. Sorry, but Accounts with larger Rosters are more advanced are more advanced than smaller ones. That much is logical.

This is something I've asserted for years. You can rank a few OP Champs and content-rush, but you still need to spend time and energy growing the width of your Account.

ItsClobberinTime

Definitely concerning but we'll have to wait and see how it scales and how far they go cause there's obviously going to be a limit. Maybe the limit doesn't end up being as high as we're predicting, and if it is, maybe the difference won't be that huge towards the end meaning if you're already a high level Valiant player the prestige really won't be as detrimental. However, if it is another "whales get everything f2p and low spenders can eat ****" type thing such as J4 deals where even $400 didn't get you jack **** but $600 got you Torch and a bunch of r4, then yes this is going to be very frustrating.

WhisperDARK

Kabam can paywall the entry to story content and some people would still repeat "nobody is forcing you to play, there's never too much monetization, if frustrated you can just quit" and stuff. I can wish for a better life from God but for some reason I'm not allowed to wish for a better game from Kabam cause its already perfect according to these people.

Kabam is keeping the lights on for whales first and foremost. All the increasedly desperate ways of monetization give back nothing in return to the players but we are expected to applaud them for their efforts to make the game a better place for the whales to spend harder.

I'd go on but I'd get banned as I already got myself a warning for my comment on a similar post on the same topic for telling it as is. Its ok, I'll also quit soon and leave this mess behind. Its not the same game I used to enjoy and seems that there's no turning back at this point.

ItsClobberinTime

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2864317#Comment_2864317

Gathering evidence to move forward with what? Lmfao if you're already spending money on victory shields and resources why not spend that same money on the events that give those strong players you talk about the upper hand so you can be a strong player too and stop spending money on victory shields entirely. I hope that attorney part was satire cause you don't need an attorney for something that barely requires common sense 💀

Viper198787

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2864410#Comment_2864410

Who even said anything about F2P? You don’t even know my spending habits on the game or my prestige. I simply said that rosters/decks are going to look extremely generic. You’re actually making my point by saying, “the game is designed on rewarding progress.” Logically people are going to lean towards more prestige champions because that’s the progress that’s rewarded. Once again, I don’t know why you even brought money into the conversation. You went on a total tirade about F2P versus P2W and it wasn’t even a point of my argument. Jesus.

Demonzfyre

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2864240#Comment_2864240

We have no idea what they'll do. Those current rewards are part of the budget as is. Last time they removed a difficulty, they moved them into the other quests.

GroundedWisdom

I never said you, Viper. Replying in this Forum is hell, so I'll just comment. Regardless, F2P has been mentioned in every Thread I've seen on this so far and I was talking about the overall subject.

Searmenis

It s not only the units from lower difficulties we re talking here, it s also the Valiant dif. ones, since they re lumping everything in to one, valiant EQ won t be a separate quest anymore. I think.

destroy456

Yeah no this was just away for them to mess up players in getting free units, i myself always get 240 units out of the lower difficulty of EQ but Kabam being butt hurt as usual that players are smart in farming and saving their resources stopped that just like when they stopped revive farming 2 years ago

BringPopcorn

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2864447#Comment_2864447

I would be more worried about the lawyer taking the case tbh...

BigBlueOx

It’s gonna be horrible, Kabam has already shown us repeatedly how they divvy rewards. Everything will be grossly slanted towards the top 800 players or so, then a massive drop off to create envy and fomo, and so-on and so forth. Look at AW, AW, BGs, the writing is on the wall.

There will be 0 point in moderate spending. Either full commit to whaling or FTP, it’s the only choice thus leaves us

Cretzu

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2864410#Comment_2864410

You have to understand it’s not about Kabam forcing players, of coarse they don’t force anything on anyone. It’s more about players who have played together for years and years who have worked together tirelessly in game, while also spending big bucks to reach the high levels of prestige individually and as a group. Kabam then go and change allot of the top 5 prestige champs in quick succession, which is fine and understandable. But then moving the goal posts once again in a very short time to now include 30 champs for prestige calculations. This is deflating for allot of players as most will now need to spend more and rank more unwanted champs in order to maintain the level they have worked so hard to achieve. This also means allot of these players won’t be able to continue playing together due to the above as many don’t want to go through that stress again.

So I get Kabam isn’t forcing anyone on an individual level, but this game has much more to it than just individual accounts. The building of alliances and friendships along the way is a massive part of why players keep coming back, as well as the levels in which they reach together. These kinds of decisions break up groups of players who then leave and don’t come back as all their efforts and dollars spent to be together and maintain their level is lost.

Jhenny

Man I hope that Wheel of fate won't become a standard, with how roster restrictive it was and how it was whale only content that rewarded having the broadest 7 star roster possible and having a lot of rank ups… oh wait..

GroundedWisdom

@Cretzu I'm not sure how it constitutes as a short time. It's the first change like this in almost 11 years, and it's not something that requires us to run out and rank like mad men.

WhisperDARK

@GroundedWisdom so this guy typed 2 whole paragraphs about his own experience and shared his concerns of the social effects of the prestige change to give an emotionally honest outlook. Yet you chose to nitpick a single sentence, that is mostly irrelevant to the point he was making, to respond to? Just to ignore the rest of his comment and repeat "you're not forced to do anything" as per usual? And then we are expected to believe in your sincerity, correct?

I'm just not buying it, idk how anyone else could. I'll get banned over this but I don't mind, the ragebait was too strong for me to ignore. Not gonna derail the thread, hopefully this comment gets deleted with the account and you guys can act like nothing happened.

I love you Mike but its time we said goodbye 😪

Cretzu

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2864521#Comment_2864521

The short time i was referring to was the change in top 5 prestige champs, that being the addition of dark phoenix, then shortly after that Yelena, then again high evolutionary. This required acquisition of three new champs, paid for, all with sig stones up to sig 200 and all to rank 4. This is quite a feat in such a short time. That, although tough and expensive, most were willing to accept the cost as we all enjoy playing together and want to continue building on what we have for the last few years. They have now quickly added new relics that also affect prestige, and now in a couple of months time, 30 champs that affect prestige. This is the “short time” I am referring to. It’s just too much to ask too quickly. And allot of players are over it.

Now again I am not saying Kabam is forcing any of us individually to chase these champs, but when you build something up over years with a team, changes like this in quick succession make it impossible for allot of players to keep up and ultimately force people out of the game. I am seeing this first hand. Now yes these people can just stop spending and chasing prestige, perhaps go to a smaller alliance and play the game at a more relaxed pace, but they lose their team mates and what they have help build over the years. And this is not an option for them. They just leave the game.

GroundedWisdom

We've all been building over years. That doesn't mean changes won't come. Champs are added monthly so I don't get why you're conjecturing those into this subject. You're saying "because they did A and B and then C, D is too much". However, this isn't connected to that. This is a metric that's been in the game for a decade, and they're broadening its use for content.

Once again, there's a difference between pressure Kabam places on us and pressure we place on ourselves.

BringPopcorn

Why are you guys challenging them to make it worse? 😭 They can and at some point they will 😭😭😭