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

Usedup

I’ve been on the fence for the past couple months on whether to continue playing mcoc. Adding Map5 miniboss NC in combination with sentinels seems like a good time. I’ve spent way to much on this game thanks to unblockable specials and all the other garbage cash grab nodes. Just imagine stun immune NC for map 5. Yippee so glad I earn 325 t4cc frags and 500 basic frags for putting up with that.

DoomDoom

If no increase in rewards how about making making map 4-5 free and reducing donations for map 6

Well at least start gold realm its so hectic to keep grinding. Need gold for everything donations, ranking up, leveling up, it's a joke how you keep bringing in new content but ignoring small things community being asking for.

NikoBravo

Any look at the app ratings lately? I wonder if they've changed yet? People are usially quick to react when they start disagreeing with what's going on.

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lazapridvorice91

I think its boring to fight unawaken dormamu

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AIISupernatural

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!

No we will not get used to it! Its a money grab pure and simple! Negating our bleed and poison champions is not something to get used to!! Its just a way to make us discard the champs we have worked hard to rank up so we wont have to use tons of potions and revives to get through the map. And don't say otherwise cause u will simply be lying! Find a different way to change things without making the players pay for it! And i was just starting to think that KABAM learned their lesson and started to respect the people they make money off. We ate up the block resistance nerf we ate up the willpower nerf, we ate up the change from % to flat rates which makes everything a lot lower, we ate the nerfing of Doctor Strange, Scarlet Wutch,Thor etc We ate the new AW, we ate the hirendous new MODOK labs I think we have to draw the line somewhere.

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roastedbagel

AIISupernatural wrote: »

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 ate up the block resistance nerf.

For all intents and purposes, the PB nerf single handedly made a majority of you guys better fighters in the long run, since it forced you guys to actually *fight*. That was a well needed nerf.

BDLH

Onmix wrote: »

Kabam Miike wrote: »

\

Ascoop24 wrote: »

Kabam Miike wrote: »

420sam wrote: »

So, you are making it more difficult yet not adjusting anything like rewards or even glory? Can I ask why? How does this benefit the players?

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.

If you aren't at a place or time to refresh the rewards then you shouldn't be at a place or time to refresh the difficulty. One should not go without the other. This is a great example of pure laziness

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!

That's not actually true. Go against a Mornignstar without a bleed immune champ or blade. You're gonna get wrecked. She's not a champ with common counters.
Nightcrawler is annoying yes but you can defeat him with any champ. He's not the problem.
And of course Setinels are more difficult. His specials are more difficult to evade than those of the majority of the Symbiod, and he's immune to poison and bleed. Regardless, I do think Sentinels is a good change, but maybe you could make some slight changes between classes. Otherwise is gonna get real boring cuz every fight with them on any path is the same.

I highly doubt Miike or any of the other mods are also the testers as they claim they "extensively" test everything before release and have multiple emergency maintenance and thousands of complaints every major change they've done in at least several months. He's just passing on the message. Most people here actually play the game, and many at a high level with all the end game content completed. I do not get the impression from their responses this is where the mods are at and their level of understanding and ability in the game as that's not their job. Anyone who has been doing this at high prestige in the 1% bracket would know that the changes ARE more difficult, although unlikely significant enough that it'll be game changing for the higher alliances already at this level as they can adapt fairly quickly to any champ.

Whether or not it is more difficult, if it is at a comfortable place where many alliances can reproducibly clear the current content with minimal cost hundreds of times, ANY change without changing the rewards CANNOT be a positive change in terms of cost vs reward. We are already on easy farm mode doing our 5X5 at 125M bracket for essentially free. You cannot make it easier or cheaper than free.

Adding a blanket XX% increase to all rewards is OH SO HARD AND TIME CONSUMING, that they could not accomplish this as easily as swapping in many different defenders and node changes. What a pathetic excuse. If you have the time and resources to change the defenders and nodes, you have the few minutes it takes to do a minor reward tweak to go with it. Then you can work on the complete overhaul later. Just dissappointments lined up one after another from this company.

DeathBringer77

people aren’t spending anymore on aq so let’s make the bosses harder so people use more revives/health. The reason for the change is clear. If it wasn’t, why not wait till next season? $$$$$$$$

No reward increases either. Lol. You guys don’t understand your player base at all.

MarvelZ

Vote with your wallet. Only way to get change is by not spending money. Worked before and we need to do it again

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AIISupernatural

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.

We don't want you to clarify anything!!
WE DO NOT WANT SENTINELS & HARDER MINI BOSSES
How much more simple can we say it!!
First fix all the existing problems, buff the rewards potions, catalysts, gold etc that have been the same for ages and then make changes that don't negate all the pkayers hard work and chanps!!!

BDLH

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. [/quote]

We as a community have a hard time trusting either statements or believing many mods even know the difference first hand in clearing high end content. No offense Miike, but can you even beat LOL RULK that we use as target practice for our new champ rank ups so we have some reference of your comments and where you stand in the actual game?

Unless these are different versions of the same Sentinels, Morningstars, NC, etc, that we have actually fought hundreds of times compared to the mods who I doubt are in the top 1% brackets as many of the posters are. WE KNOW THEY ARE HARDER FIRST HAND. Not because we are bad or biased, but because we do this way more than you guys do. This is not a symantics thing of you two saying the same thing in different ways - it is black and white what champs are considered easier or harder to an experienced player. You're either covering up a negative change by stating new = temporarily harder, or you truly just don't understand much about actually playing this game. You cannot claim that Cap/WS and NC and MS are essentially the same or that symboids and Sentinels are essentially the same other than the "new" factor. You can fight them a thousand times and one will still be harder than the other.
Failing to acknowledge this again either means you don't understand the game, play it at a very low level, or are just passing on the message from your bosses without actually knowing first hand the differences in these champs. "Easy" champs we practice with 500k - 1.5M HP because they are exactly that - EASY. Not the other way around, they did not get easy because we have spent millions of taps killing them to test champs. They were known as the EASY champs the first time we ever walked through ROL and LOL. We did not have to die to WS and CM dozens of times to make them easy.

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. [/quote]

Umm, no. See above there are inherent differences between champs that make one harder or easier beyond the new factor. None of these are new to US, and we know which ones are easier and which ones are harder first hand. Are they new TO YOU GUYS because you don't actually play the game or haven't even gone through uncollected this month yet? We have fought them more than we care to admit through every difficulty minus beginner of the monthlies, so unless you've done the same it's fair to say we actually know the champs much better than you do.

Danicb94

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!

u guys aren't making anything to keep the game fresh or exciting, u're doing the opposite, we feel cheated with this changes, since AW changed we all can agree that AQ is useless, we were expecting and update on AQ and now that there is one there are no changes on rewards? REALLY? also with new changes guess which champions will be the most used at AQ? you are forcing every player to use Spark, Ghost Rider and Blade, i can clearly see a nerf coming and then u guys will be excusing saying that we all use that team and that wasn't the goal, you guys are a joke

ANTI_HERO3

Kabam Miike wrote: »

420sam wrote: »

So, you are making it more difficult yet not adjusting anything like rewards or even glory? Can I ask why? How does this benefit the players?

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.

Then why roll it out this way first? You should save it until it's ready to be released. That means reward the players for the difficulties they face. Not make it harder and let us play it until you finally roll around to finishing it. It's unfair to us. You are also making us change our line ups... for no reason. Is this because y'all feel y'all aren't making enough money on alliance potions and revives or what?

Teco

AQ is stale and boring as hell now. Prestige no longer matters since ur new AW seasons idea which is also a bunch of **** because of the top ally’s all piloting to get best rewards. Another example of Kabam letting top dogs get the best rewards while cheating and no punishments dealt out. These so called AQ moves to supposedly make AQ interesting again is a major fail. AQ sucks, rewards suck and no matter who u change it up with it’s an old event that has been on the decline for a while now and don’t really see anything that can b done to it to make it relevant again. We all just go through the boring ass motions to get it done.

Lt_Magnum_1

If Kabam bumps the difficulty, potion costs need to be reduced. If they chose to have Sentinels, they should not be duped. Kabam is only doing this to force people to buy Medusa GMCs which is a complete jerk move. #welldonekabam

JFerg114

This is trash and they know it. We gonna be spending more of health and revives, well some of us. The point is who waits until a season is almost over to shake things up. This is garbage, any excuse they give is garbage. Just tell the truth, Alliances are cruising through AQ and you wanted more revenue.

Knightarthus

Adding rewards to match the new difficulty does not take much. Simply boost the glory gain by flat 50%. That’s it. Saying that time is needed to update the rewards but applying harder difficulty is not very believable.

GroundedWisdom

Player Base: "These AQ Bosses and Minis are so easy......"

(Months later)

Player Base: "When are you going to change AQ? We're tired of the same thing."
Kabam: "We are focused on other things at the moment, but for now we will change the Bosses and Minis to shake things up until we get to the new Season."
Player Base: "This will make it harder! No new Rewards? Money grab!"

SMH. Never satisfied.

It's not a new Season. There wouldn't be new Rewards. That's part of what they are still working on. It's just a swap of Champs. Same Grind. Yes, it will be a new challenge. People will adjust. What's the sense of swapping it up in the meantime if it's not a new challenge?

Kobra217

I will hold off on the difficulty/rewards until I actually play the refresh, but comparing the same level of symbioid to Sentinel automatically makes it harder with just immunes. I question the Sentinels for the simple fact they animation and movement plain out sucks. Nothing is fluid, they change the vision of the screen, and just awkward to watch. By far the worst champ in the game for us to have to look at over and over again.

Dezz_1

I don't understand why they would change AQ for the worst without fixing the lag issue.

Bloodshedz

Everyone acts so surprised when content gets harder with same or little rewards.
WAKE UP PEOPLE!
This game is a cash grab. It's made to benefit netmarble not the players. We are a means to an end.
Just play and deal with it.
Suck it up and move on.

Vuska

WT.... Sentinels? Really?
How about sentinel not immune? I agree if it.

Kiryu

4* og thor making a comeback

GroundedWisdom

SL.

SuperChrona

Kabam could easily have fixed most of this (removed by Moderator) storm. They should just have come out and said. Yes here are new mini bosses and new content. We know that you worked hard to rank up your champions, so to make things a little easier we have decided to give all a glory boost of 25% until next AQ season. Use the glory for you liking. Rank up champs to fight the new content, buy potions to survive and so on.