Alliance Quest Miniboss and Sentinel Refresh - April 2018 - Discussion Thread [Updated April 13]

Summoners,

We've just announced a small refresh of Alliance Quests that will start April 2nd. This will include new Minibosses, and a farewell to our Symbioid friends!

Read all about it, then ask your questions!

UPDATE:
We've just posted an update in regards to your feedback on Alliance Quests. This post includes some adjustments to Sentinels and Alliance Quests that will be coming with the next series (Starting April 18th). Take a look right here: http://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/62626/upcoming-adjustments-to-alliance-quests-april-18th-2018

Comments

ninexhelix

This will most likely effectively ruin sentinel as an AW defender across all tiers of AW. Everyone will eventually learn to fight him effectively if they can’t already. so...glad I didn’t go for him in arena or drop units on crystals to try and pull him I guess?
The animations of the symboids, though they mirrored a class counterpart, were at least varied. Fighting sentinels over and over though will get monotonous and boring. I’d embrace this change regardless of anything else if the sentinels mirrored a class counterpart just for AQ. It’d be hilarious and worth it to see a mystic sentinel running the same animations as SW😂.

unknown

This content has been removed.

Bwest289

Not really looking forward to needing to remove suicides for void...

Seems like that's gonna make it "harder" on my pockets.

CoatHang3r

Bwest289 wrote: »

Not really looking forward to needing to remove suicides for void...

Seems like that's gonna make it "harder" on my pockets.

Um you run suicides for Hyperion? How do you get around the heal block?

Bwest289

CoatHang3r wrote: »

Bwest289 wrote: »

Not really looking forward to needing to remove suicides for void...

Seems like that's gonna make it "harder" on my pockets.

Um you run suicides for Hyperion? How do you get around the heal block?

R5 5* gwen, lots of bleed, Enervate.

Nomarigerol

"What is it ? kabam CEO asks. A revolt ?
"No sir, it's a revolution, the mods reply.
Again ?!! Damn, when are they gonna learn ? Fine, give them some better rewards or the'll have my head".

xD

187

Don‘t hate the messenger boy. He was neither involved in the planning, nor does he have the slightest chance to take any influence on their execution. He tells us what others had decided. These changes are planned and carried out in other departments, not the „community management“.

Bwest289

Also to note, not overly opposed to the changes but I do think there should be better rewards. The gold/t1a struggle is real.

Otherwise, make masteries free to change until a proper reward system can be invoked. Otherwise, there really is no reason to play the harder AQ maps. Change is fine but don't make a change that forces players (who use suicides) to spend to otherwise avoid (unavoidable) damage.

Wildpants

Kabam DK wrote: »

BitterSteel wrote: »

Kabam Miike wrote: »

But how are you so sure that the difficulty has gotten worse?

Granted, Bleed and Poison champions may not be as effective in Alliance Quests as they were before, but Sentinels melt at the power of a Armor Break Champion, and a lot of the new Mini-Bosses have very common counters!

Kabam DK wrote: »

With regards to the comments about how this version of Alliance Quests will be harder, we understand where you're coming from. As with anything you're unfamiliar with, it will be definitely be harder at first. It might take a little while to get used to, but we know our summoners, and we know how quickly they learn and can get used to new content, especially content that is recurring like Alliance Quests. If this update was so inconsequential that it was as easy at the start as you all find Alliance Quests right now (after months of practice) then there would be no point in us making this update, or ANY update for that matter.

It will take some time to get accustomed to the new encounters, but refreshing recurring content is important to keep the game fresh, and exciting!

So it seems here that DK is admitting it’s harder, and Miike is saying it won’t be. Which one is right, I’m inclined to think it will be harder so I’ll go with DK. The thing is, what is the point in releasing the update to AQ now? Why not wait a little longer and have the difficulty and rewards go up at the same time, in the manner it should.

Let me clarify:

I am saying ANY change of consequence will be harder AT FIRST, but not because the actual difficulty/complexity of the fights is harder, simply because you will not be as experienced at doing the fights. Miike is saying the complexity/difficulty of the fights is approximately the same: i.e. not necessarily harder. Both are accurate statements, but we're sorry for the confusion around them.

Sentinels are harder to fight that Symbiods end of the story. No matter even if you fight Sentinels billion times and get used to them like your own hands, Symbiods are easier. I don't think you lot get it. We don't care about the difficulty. Fine increase it, keep it "fresh", doesn't matter. What matters is rewards. We're not asking you to give as T4cc every time we clear a map, even a gold reward bump would've been welcomed. This is just pathetic.

Gorilla508

@Kabam Miike can you confirm if Morningstar in map 5 will have her awakened ability? So we need to bring bleed immune champs into AQ?

DGC

This change is bs see enough night crawler in war don't want to see him everyother day in aq as well. Plus sentinels are jittery as f**k. This just a straight up way of getting more money out of the aq part of the game.

Speeds80

I think I might quit, the sentinels are terrible, you have to bait the l1 because the l2 does too much block damage, but the sentinels assess you while you bait, then soon they are unblockable, who’s going to beat the immune sentinels and the bleed nodes now, this is going to be massively more difficult in every way since wolverine, blade, dr v, iceman all became far less effective.
Horrible idea by a stingy company, you guys realise your customers nearly all hate your company, more bad news after sequentially more bugs every update. Your agenda to make everything much more harder that it’s not possible without units is just so blatant

Codornas

Lord_Shaedow wrote: »

SpiritOfVengeance wrote: »

Just do a poll and it will be easier for you to see how many of us don't like the change without buffed rewards.

They won't do a poll because they don't really care. Had they really cared they would have done a poll with proposed changes and gone over these with the community before implementing them instead of springing it on us this way.

I created a Poll. In 10 minutes it got shut down and i was told to discuss the new AQ in this post

unknown

This content has been removed.

Liss_Bliss_

Kabam Miike wrote: »

As we said in that post, we are working on a full refresh. We are not at a place or time where we can increase the rewards or fully refresh the mode right now.

This is an EASY code. Want me to show you how fast you can change rewards? I will do it for 3 RDT to use on my now useless AQ team.

Not at a place or time to fix something HUGE that has affected players time and time again like NC’s broken mechanics? But probably at a time and place to fix the bug that was shown with NC that would make him easier to fight, right?

AQ rewards have been in need of a refresh for some time now, plain and simple.

Kabam Miike wrote: »

But how are you so sure that the difficulty has gotten worse?

Granted, Bleed and Poison champions may not be as effective in Alliance Quests as they were before, but Sentinels melt at the power of a Armor Break Champion, and a lot of the new Mini-Bosses have very common counters!

Let’s see taking a broken champion that is broken in your favor = making it harder.

Placing bleed/poison immune instantly take quite a few champions off the table and we are forced to make new AQ teams with limited upgrade resources.

Kabam DK wrote: »

VirtuaNovak wrote: »

Will the Nightcrawler mini-boss be awakened?

Yes. He also has the defensive buff which makes him dash back/block more than normal. This is there to make it much easier to switch his mode.

That will not matter when his broken the way he is.

Kabam DK wrote: »

Mcord117 wrote: »

Kabam DK wrote: »

Batty_Numppo wrote: »

What is Morningstar’s curse buff?

When you block one of her hits, she will gain a soul (her persistent charges)

Wait, what??? So why not just give her 5 charged to start the fight? Unreal

The goal with the Oppressive Curse buff is to give Morningstar ways to gain Souls (otherwise she'd never gain ANY) while also providing a way for skilled players to avoid giving them to her. If you intercept her, she'll never gain any. If you don't, you'll need a bleed immune Champion

So you admit MS is broken? You know how pathetic she is if she can’t gain souls so you make it so YOURS can get them, making her increasingly more difficult, yet won’t admit to making the mode harder?

Kabam DK wrote: »

With regards to the comments about how this version of Alliance Quests will be harder, we understand where you're coming from. As with anything you're unfamiliar with, it will be definitely be harder at first. It might take a little while to get used to, but we know our summoners, and we know how quickly they learn and can get used to new content, especially content that is recurring like Alliance Quests. If this update was so inconsequential that it was as easy at the start as you all find Alliance Quests right now (after months of practice) then there would be no point in us making this update, or ANY update for that matter.

It will take some time to get accustomed to the new encounters, but refreshing recurring content is important to keep the game fresh, and exciting!

We think you are missing the point. We have given you many examples of how this is a difficulty increase but you guys are not wanting to admit to those. Saying anything new will be difficult. Taking a JV basketball team and making them play football against the Eagles is new, but it’s overwhelmingly harder because the difficulty is harder.

In regards to NC as a mini boss, you have been made aware of how broken he is for close to a year now. Yet you have failed to remedy the bug. Now you are taking one of the most broken champions and making him a mini, without fixing him? How is that fair? Will NC be fixed by the time the new champs are in? @Kabam Miike

You are essentially killing off good and still viable AQ champions making them nothing but arena fodder now. Are we going to see RDT’s made available since you are basically saying we can’t use them? I use teams of bleeders and poisoners for my AQ team. Now I am forced to rethink my next ranks to field a full 4 man AQ team. The 4th is if I am taking a different path(s) than my normal one(s). This is stress that’s not needed.

The blatant placement of a broken NC is grounds enough for you guys to hold off on placing him, or place a new champion. Or cause for you to fix him. Take your pick.

@Kabam Miike can you explain to us why you chose a broken NC as a mini?

In all fairness I am all for added difficulty but not at the expense of rank up materials that are already hard to come by. Please address NC and the other stuff many have pointed out.

I bet the mods to approach the game devs and tell them how upset the community is with the slap in the face that we have been told about here today. Harder stuff but no extra rewards for it.

Why not wait till next AQ season for a FULL refresh?

Codornas

Lmao mindblowing. Of all these zillions coments, 95% of them are complains and bad feedback, yet kabam stands tall on their plans. Nobody listens to the community i guess, unless ur a youtuber or u play at the top 1 alliance

Ærroneous

While yes there are many of the upper map players demanding increased challenge & rewards (i get that), but majority of the player base isn't at that point yet for the increased difficulty.

Here's a novel idea. Why cant we have 2 AQ modes? Have a normal mode with the old fashion syms (w/ new bosses) but also a Hardcore mode that change the syms to sentinels & INCREASED rewards for their extra work & challenge.

This way a lot more of the player base is able to compete at a level that is better for them.

Speeds80

Actually my alliance have t4cs stacked up, due to this bs we gonna start running 53333, no pots from us , just an alliance that will probably lose a few members and a few people will quit, shortsighted kabam at it again

Knightarthus

The update and change to the maps should have been delayed until the rewards were updated. This is not something to be excited about.

QuikPik

Of course you have made AQ harder...

1. Sentinels are immune to bleed and poison. Their sp2 is very hard to evade. That makes them a lot harder than the current symboids.
2. Bonus charges versus mutants. Many favorite champs in the current AQ are Rogue, X23 and Wolv. Why are they favorites...because they regen for reasons due to lag, disconnects and just a casual mistake. Let's be honest, it's very hard to play a perfect AQ every day.
3. The new mini bosses are harder than the current ones.

Rewards are outdated especially for the Alliance Quest Completion. 100 4* shards at 5000 points and 200 5* shards at 7000 points...this is really laughable. It isn't that hard to change these rewards to let's say 3x what it is now. It is literally changing a number in your code. Something much easier to do than changing all the mini's and symboids. The fact of the matter is you didn't want to update the rewards.

You state you listen to your community but recall the latest AQ season; you were going make Dorm awakened as AQ boss until there was a huge uproar from the community. You didn't even know the impact of an awakened Dorm boss would have on us.

I'm betting we will see a potion sale right before the new AQ starts.

unknown

This content has been removed.

roastedbagel

black0sheep wrote: »

I think this is the best time for you to give us some rankdown tickets and here is the main reason why.

Bwahahaahahahahaha

There it is! Knew it wouldn't take long for the RDT crying.

So because a champion is no longer viable in certain sections of AQ you need to rank them down? After using them and benefiting from them for so long?

I for one am glad I can bench wolvie and bring Medusa. Besides, why can't you use wolvie in other areas of AQ? Sentinels aren't the only opponents...

AlphaKratos

I still don't get why people spend money on this game when they ignore their player base like a champ. Kabam is acting no less than a TYRANT forcing even their bad updates on players. There is a need to even fix the bugs that the content currently has for over months but all we get is refreshing of contents/new contents without a decent game play costing us money. Ignorant turds.

Gorilla508

@Kabam Miike @Kabam Wolf can you guys confirm if Morningstar will be awakened and other mini bosses in a AQ map5

roastedbagel

I also think it's funny that people here are more worried about their precious wolverine not being able to take down sentinels more so than being worried by the fact that the new miniboss can't be touched without a bleed immune champ.

There's gonna be a lot of surprised, pissed off people come day 1 fighting that Morningstar 😂😂😂

MattPart

Just please, please don't do it.

Sentinels are annoying as hell. Introducing an annoying opponent and making him super common in one of most important modes in the game... really? What's the point, saying "**** you" to the whole player base?

AQ won't be a fun for me anymore. And this is a big and important part of gameplay in each alliance.

For the first time ever a change introduced by Kabam makes me thing about quitting the game really.

NikoBravo

What is the need for Symbiods or Sentinels in the first place? You have more than enough characters in the game to use once per map but you choose to continuously use repeat champions on the same paths ie: Vision on tech path in map 5.

The lack of imagination is ever so increasing. Boredom is kicking in.

SpiritOfVengeance

Ok I give up what do you want so you can buff the rewards? A please? Pretty please? Money? Ooh that one defo caught your attention. 😑

Firethumb_1

Can I have a rank down ticket for Wolvie please

DTMelodicMetal