The Sad But Unavoidable Decline Of The 5* Champions
To really accentuate how good the 5* champions were and how long of a lifespan they dominated the contest, let's first go back to the earlier stages of the game.
5* champions were introduced around 10 years ago, and were the highest rarity you could obtain. Being harder to obtain made some rank ups a bit less desirable because of how hard it would be to dupe that champion, however it still was a bliss to get that Starlord or Storm etc.
For a while the highest rank you could have on a 5* was R3, just slightly better than a 4* maxed out. This lasted 1-2 years, after that they added materials to take that champion to rank 4. Now you could have a champion stronger than a 4*, you wouldn't wanna make the wrong choice, the materials were rare and precious.
(to emphasize how dominant this rank was, you could use R4 5* all the way from Act 5.1 to Act 6.4, Labyrinth of Legends, Variants 1-8. This is years of content that a 5* R4 still held value. (your Blade, Hyperion, Medusa, Gwenpool, etc)
Fast forward, the rank 5 was introduced, and soon after the new rarity 6* champions.
(the base pool for the 6* champions was absolute trash and it didn't make sense to really rank up any of them). This is around the time I started playing this game.
What made 5* so good at this stage?
Shards were more widely available, so you have more chances at trying the featured hero crystal and pull a god tier champion.
Sig stones were quite abundant, so you could max out a signature ability. (Omega Red, Void, Ghost)
The base pool was better than the 6* one.
How good were R5 5*? Act 5.4, act 6, act 7, even early act 8, Abyss of Legends, and any challenge thrown to the player.
Even after 6* became more available and you could access the new R3 power level, which was on average 18% stronger than a 5* R5, it still didn't matter because you can just use a 5* R5 with a 20% boost on and you're golden.
Really the decline of the 5* started around R4 6*, and then evolved in the R5 6*/ R2 7* era. them being twice as powerful than the 5* maxed out. And since the 7* base pool was better, a lot of the times you would choose the 7* R2 rank up choice over the 6* R5.
Yes, ascension did come out, but it didn't really help much the dusty 5* champs.
So let's say, 5* became almost completely irellevant by the end of 2023, early 2024.
Think about it, thats almost 10 YEARS of use you got from your 5*, they were legendary, the borders looked awesome, the materials were familiar to use, the shards were easy to obtain. And we got some of the best champions in the game.
What happened with 6* champs? they were still good but didn't see as much use, from 2018-2025, (but lets be honest the first year probably didnt get that much use at all, unless it was a semi-decent champ). so thats what 5-6 years they got used before 7* R4 became the standard and now 7* R5?
At least with the 7* we getting the ascension levels which will preserve and protect the investment in your favorite champion for more years to come.
To wrap this up, i absolutely LOVED and ADORED the 5* era of the contest, so many good memories, and now, i look at my 5* roster, i smile, and it makes me sad, i wish i could use them again...
Kabam, maybe bring some content like variant 4, where we could use different rarities per quest, 1*, 2*, 3* ,4*, 5*, 6*.
Or maybe bring back some old challenges and restrict them to 5* use only, to comemorate and celebrate the early roots of the game.
I dont know, but i do miss using them, the kits and designs were simpler as well, instead of getting in the way, they just worked, you were in full control without having to memorize 20 debuffs, 30 buffs and 10 node-like abiities and countdowns timers.
Nostalgia probably, but its a nice feeling.
But exactly how long did 5* R5 last
