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

DNA3000

DarkestDestroyer wrote: »

DNA3000 wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

DNA3000 wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

It's only hard because it's new.

Its harder because it is harder. It would be an exaggeration to say tons of people are going to quit over it, but anyone who thinks Sentinels are not harder than Syms either has a very peculiar psychological aversion to Syms or has no idea how to judge difficulty in the game. And I say that without exempting the developers from that statement.

The point I'm trying to bring home is we will adjust, and it doesn't usually take that long.

I understand your point. However, that point is orthogonal to the question of whether the content is now harder. Regardless of whether it is easier or harder, you can almost always say that. It doesn't contradict, or even address, the question of whether the content is harder in an unjustifiable way.

More importantly, if your point is that people will adjust, then I don't see why you would try to make that point by saying "it's only hard because it's new" because that statement is false, and doesn't support your point at all.

Why you even bothered if a couple extra fights are harder?

The rewards didn’t need to be adjusted, AQ did because it was boring and repetitive.

What’s your problem? I’m guessing you could finish all sentinels in the event quest difficulties?

If so how can you smash an Uncollected sentinel and say a low level pi one is a hard fight? Like really!?

Apparently, my problem is that I am compelled to point out facts which agitate other forum posters.

Hosemania

I think kabam did it again. There maybe another uprising due to this bad change and to start map 5 with NC as the mini boss is just another way of them telling us to gfy. Nice work kabam.

unknown

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Marine31_

Yeah there's nothing easy or right about what Kabam has done yet here we sit talking to each other while we get a typical no answer from the game team...basically laughing all the way to the bank or maybe the bankruptcy center...hahahah I truly think that this is my final straw and will quit if they do nothing about this!!!!

Air98

My wolverine that I put the resources into getting to rank 5 is now horrible for a good portion of the aq fights...another screw you from kabam.

Legend_of_Cakedaddy

Great post @Cakedaddy . You nailed it! They have always increased awards with a new season or changes to the season of AQ.

This is like a ponzi scheme.

They made AQ much harder, we now have to spend more on revives/health, they provided no fix to the gold/tier 1 alpha/tier 4 basic shortages & expect us to not realize they are ripping us off.

It is critical that we acknowledge that the development team must work furiously to create new characters & more content to engage the top 30 to 100 alliances in the game. The community understands that the tens of thousands of dollars they spend on crystals, arena grind, and specials to enhance their rosters dwarf the $200 or so dollars a month those in the top 20% of the elite bracket sacrifice to this business. Without the immense spending, devotion to completing content & countless hours the top echelon of the community put into this game, most of what makes this game enjoyable would not exist. We understand that you must continue to produce more challenging & engaging content to keep them satisfied.

We fought Ultron, Venom, Kang & Dormammu as AQ final bosses. Each of the previous seasons & changes during each of the prior seasons began with a major revisions in the game difficulty related to each boss, nodes and other areas of content that was easily managed by the upper chambers of the community but impossible for the vast majority of the community including a supermajority of the top bracket.

In the previous 7 introductions in AQ, 4 of the last 5 were met with not only a nerf of the difficulty but compensation for the immense spending needed to compete with the demanding content. I must reiterate, most of the community understands that the amount of revenue generated by the highest PI alliances makes their input more important than the larger portion of the community that sends less of their income to your company’s ledgers.

Season 1 & intermission had a small number of alliances able to reach the apex. The intermission brought at least a 25% increase in rewards & swelling of the steepest ranks of the prize pyramid. The difference in rewards from the top tier to those in the top 300 created less than a 10 percent alliance PI difference.

Once again, season 2 & intermission forged another increase in awards that was outlined to allow a larger number of alliances to obtain T4cc to move up. Unfortunately, that season was mired in coordinated alliance swapping that allowed the crafty alliances that gamed the system to maximize the reward payout. The difference in PI between the top 100 alliances & those in the top 425 alliances jumped to a 31% spread. The bright line of division was between those able to reach superhuman regularly able to take 4* champs to rank 5 & the rest of the community only able to max champs out at rank 4.

The season before our current run, Season 3, plus its intermission included another 35+% increase in both rewards & spots in the top tier. These positively received changes were extremely well received by the our community. Despte a constantly erosive slate of technical issues related to game that drained our resources. The frequent compensation packaged for the inconvenience and a reward structure that had a massive leveling effect on those in the top 50 alliances and those in the top 500 alliances.

Even with the introduction of 5 star champs, the difference in individual prestige between the top alliances and those in the top 500 decreased to the under 500 points. The community’s most gilded oligarchy noted that others should not make inroads without putting in the equity they placed into this game. These aristocrats demanded the revolt inducing disaster that was Patch 12.0. Daily, they took to the forums leading with their checkbooks ordering a nerf of several champs that forged a perfect block trio and other hard hitting champs that eliminated the advantages they built in the previous 2 cycles of AQ.

We are now in the current season and entering another intermission. This episode added glory, Map 6 & additional methods to rank up champs. This update provided a modest increase in T4cc, it drastically reduced the amount of Tier 1 Alpha & Tier 4 Basic Catalysts. The methods of obtaining gold & payout of gold in arena crystals was drastically reduced. At the same time, a structure that brought parity to the top 1000 alliances, once again more closelt resembled the prize structure of Seasons 1 & 2. A prestige gap that narrowed to 500 exploded to over 2500 between alliance 295 and alliance 536. Most damning, a 100k individual PI advantage between the alliances that perch among Mount Olympus has exploded to over 500m individual member PI advantage between these members and those in the top 20% of the elite tier.

What does a player with a 500k prestige like myslef and those towering above a million PI look like?

I am proud that my work in this game produced 20 Rank 5 4-stars, 3 of my 23 5-stars are rank 4 (only 4 are duped ) & my roster features a 6 star champ ranked to its current max.

Those who are pushing for more difficult content to handle in all aspects in the game that are blessed with a PI toppling the million mark feature 40 plus rank 5 4-stars, over 30 rank 4 5-stars and already have obtained 3 to 4 6-stars.

This version of AQ eliminates the usefulness of most champs that use buffs to increase damage output. Instead, we must turn to the game’s armor break champions. Few of the premier armor break champions in the game have the utility to produce enough of a benefit outside of fighting the Sentinels.

I close with a few simple questions that may fix the problem of burying us with more difficult content without increased rewards but a need to spend more of our hard earned money @Kabam Miike

1. Are the developers unaware that the 20th percentile of the elite bracket enters content with only 10% of the requisite soldiers for the upcoming war? And that their tiermates near the top of the leaderboard usually have 30 to 35 more Rank 4 5 stars?

2. Why are you surprised that that the community expected a modest prize increase to mirror those for every other AQ devery or revision?

3. How exactly do we rank up armor breaking champs when the foruF moderators admitted that this season of AQ rewards bocha depression era shortages in Tier 4 basic catalyst and Tier shortage?

4. For 2 season debuts & their failed corrections, the community has been filled with exasperation about the dearth of gold & a skimpy payout of gold through battlechips made worse by the steep 5 & 6-star rank-up requirements boost. Do you think finally addressing this issue could make a difference?

5. What form of beta testing does this company use to test new content? How can you greet us with bemused shock over the content difficult when this happens every time?

6. When can we expect answers to these questions?

Zeke_the_Xbot

I have a question are sentinels supposed to proc their abilities when hitting you while blocking?

Why do they get one of the hardest to evade specials for the vast majority of players allowed to be unblockable?

Why is it okay to increase the difficulty for players (the risk) but not the reward?

Answers are in short supply but so warranted by the community.
@Kabam Miike

Feeney234

Yet another poorly executed move by Kabam. This is terrible and MUST be addressed. Clearly lots of people are unhappy with this so Kabam should really consider throwing the players a bone of they intend to keep this going. If not, revert AQ back to what it was and focus on an entirely new season of AQ.

This isnt an attempt to "refresh" AQ, clearly this is a ploy to make it harder while offering nothing in return. HORRIBLE

DTT

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!

How am I so sure? Well, my team is pretty much destroyed and we're barely into section 2. This is much different from the zero problems I had with the symbs. 25 hits and effects go through my block and a few more and the attacks are unblockable. Cue the idiots saying learn to fight better. Sorry, I can't dodge everything and I shouldn't need to be an insane skill level to survive AQ. No way in hell am I going to burn units to revive every AQ.

Badrose

And this is just day 1 of AQ, can't imagine the amount of heat you'll get in the next 4 days

unknown

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Maat1985

Complain complain complain....
Just deal with it....
We all have to....
Yeah sentineloids are harder....
But symbiods were tooooo easy.....
Lets just all learn to adapt....
These first few aqs might be harder but after a while we will know who to bring and how to best foght these guys....
Nebula, medusa, iron fist, cyclops, SIM, blade (paired with gr for danger sense)
There are options.... we just gotta work out the best way to do this....

Draenath

Maat1985 wrote: »

Complain complain complain....
Just deal with it....
We all have to....
Yeah sentineloids are harder....
But symbiods were tooooo easy.....
Lets just all learn to adapt....
These first few aqs might be harder but after a while we will know who to bring and how to best foght these guys....
Nebula, medusa, iron fist, cyclops, SIM, blade (paired with gr for danger sense)
There are options.... we just gotta work out the best way to do this....

That is easy to say, but at high prestige / high points - rewards are at stake...

They have not increased rewards and they have made many champions not worth taking. Sentinels are not enjoyable to fight, that is my issue. I like challenge, I like 5.3 / 5.4.... I like Boss Rushes.

But sentinels are slow, clunky, fighting styles that are counter-intuitive to game play.

Maat1985

Draenath wrote: »

Maat1985 wrote: »

Complain complain complain....
Just deal with it....
We all have to....
Yeah sentineloids are harder....
But symbiods were tooooo easy.....
Lets just all learn to adapt....
These first few aqs might be harder but after a while we will know who to bring and how to best foght these guys....
Nebula, medusa, iron fist, cyclops, SIM, blade (paired with gr for danger sense)
There are options.... we just gotta work out the best way to do this....

That is easy to say, but at high prestige / high points - rewards are at stake...

They have not increased rewards and they have made many champions not worth taking. Sentinels are not enjoyable to fight, that is my issue. I like challenge, I like 5.3 / 5.4.... I like Boss Rushes.

But sentinels are slow, clunky, fighting styles that are counter-intuitive to game play.

Whilst i can agree with what you are saying bout the difference in fighting them we also all know that we will learn and we will adapt....
We always do.....
We also know that a new season of AQ will come and this is merely a stop gap to give a change so lets just deal with it for now....

Wat i found through uncollected EQ is that class advantage is by far superior than any armor break champ.... so i will be spectating AQ before joining and doing my best to have class advantage as much as possible over these mofos.
Also i just realised that GR while slow is amazing for healing.... ROL fights with 955 hits to kill and i can finish on 100% health... i will be giving him a test purely for his regen if i do mess up...

Maat1985

Zeke_the_Xbot wrote: »

I have a question are sentinels supposed to proc their abilities when hitting you while blocking?

Why do they get one of the hardest to evade specials for the vast majority of players allowed to be unblockable?

Why is it okay to increase the difficulty for players (the risk) but not the reward?

Answers are in short supply but so warranted by the community.
@Kabam Miike

If they have analyized you then yes.....
This may help....

Fromundacheez13

There's so many champs that smack sentinels around quit crying and get better

DTT

There's a difference between challenging and cheap and most of the new things Kabam have been adding are cheap. Power gain champs that sit in the corner while they wait for their t3, automatic damage, effects that go through blocks, unblockable attacks, automatic blocks that auto parry as well.

Oh but there's this one champ you can get that will make things really easy. Just spend 500 bucks on crystals so you can dupe Venom or Antman again and again.

Fromundacheez13

Lol so true my antman and colossus are both sig 120

Fromundacheez13

But any armor break champs work well on sentinels and I even had no problem with x23 on map 5....also blade with GR synergy is beastly against them

Fromundacheez13

Sp1 and sp2 are easy to evade the majority of ppl that post in the forums just suck at the game

Maat1985

Need to remember the part about class advantage!!!!!
Very very useful and important....

More useful than any armour break or anything else

DTT

Fromundacheez13 wrote: »

Sp1 and sp2 are easy to evade the majority of ppl that post in the forums just suck at the game

I'm not one of the best but I'm better than average. The sp2 is hard to evade. I've only managed it once. You shouldn't have to be ridiculously skilled to make it through AQ.

Maat1985

To make it through map 5 and 6 you should need damn good skills.... and it is tricky but can be done.... easier than war machine sp1.....

GroundedWisdom

DNA3000 wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

DNA3000 wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

It's only hard because it's new.

Its harder because it is harder. It would be an exaggeration to say tons of people are going to quit over it, but anyone who thinks Sentinels are not harder than Syms either has a very peculiar psychological aversion to Syms or has no idea how to judge difficulty in the game. And I say that without exempting the developers from that statement.

The point I'm trying to bring home is we will adjust, and it doesn't usually take that long.

I understand your point. However, that point is orthogonal to the question of whether the content is now harder. Regardless of whether it is easier or harder, you can almost always say that. It doesn't contradict, or even address, the question of whether the content is harder in an unjustifiable way.

More importantly, if your point is that people will adjust, then I don't see why you would try to make that point by saying "it's only hard because it's new" because that statement is false, and doesn't support your point at all.

It's not false to say that. It's a challenge because we're not used to the Sentinels being in AQ. It will just take time to adjust. The Sentinlels themselves are new, as in their move set, but there's nothing particularly new or challenging about them, aside from their Immunity, and a couple distinct characteristics. The real challenge is getting used to their moves enough to gain efficiency in AQ. That just takes experience. Personally I'm not bothered by switching to them. The whole point of a change is to freshen it up. Had it been Champs that we are used to or something we have already fought many times, that would defeat the entire purpose of changing them. They're challenging, in the sense that they're relatively new to The Contest, but that just takes practice. As with any change, it's being exaggerated. People are bored when things are repetitive, personally offended when they're changed, and expectant of remuneration if growth is presented. Lol. Not all people, but that's the general concensus. If it didn't have an element of new challenge, there would be no sense in switching. So, I suppose the only challenge isn't that they're new, I guess. At least in the literal sense. That's the greater challenge. People will have to adjust. Adjustment usually comes easily, with a great deal of resistance. Lol.

GroundedWisdom

DNA3000 wrote: »

DarkestDestroyer wrote: »

DNA3000 wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

DNA3000 wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

It's only hard because it's new.

Its harder because it is harder. It would be an exaggeration to say tons of people are going to quit over it, but anyone who thinks Sentinels are not harder than Syms either has a very peculiar psychological aversion to Syms or has no idea how to judge difficulty in the game. And I say that without exempting the developers from that statement.

The point I'm trying to bring home is we will adjust, and it doesn't usually take that long.

I understand your point. However, that point is orthogonal to the question of whether the content is now harder. Regardless of whether it is easier or harder, you can almost always say that. It doesn't contradict, or even address, the question of whether the content is harder in an unjustifiable way.

More importantly, if your point is that people will adjust, then I don't see why you would try to make that point by saying "it's only hard because it's new" because that statement is false, and doesn't support your point at all.

Why you even bothered if a couple extra fights are harder?

The rewards didn’t need to be adjusted, AQ did because it was boring and repetitive.

What’s your problem? I’m guessing you could finish all sentinels in the event quest difficulties?

If so how can you smash an Uncollected sentinel and say a low level pi one is a hard fight? Like really!?

Apparently, my problem is that I am compelled to point out facts which agitate other forum posters.

I'm not responsible for the reactions of others. I was trying to be enlightening more than agitating. I could have chosen much more curt words. Lol.

Maat1985

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

DNA3000 wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

DNA3000 wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

It's only hard because it's new.

Its harder because it is harder. It would be an exaggeration to say tons of people are going to quit over it, but anyone who thinks Sentinels are not harder than Syms either has a very peculiar psychological aversion to Syms or has no idea how to judge difficulty in the game. And I say that without exempting the developers from that statement.

The point I'm trying to bring home is we will adjust, and it doesn't usually take that long.

I understand your point. However, that point is orthogonal to the question of whether the content is now harder. Regardless of whether it is easier or harder, you can almost always say that. It doesn't contradict, or even address, the question of whether the content is harder in an unjustifiable way.

More importantly, if your point is that people will adjust, then I don't see why you would try to make that point by saying "it's only hard because it's new" because that statement is false, and doesn't support your point at all.

It's not false to say that. It's a challenge because we're not used to the Sentinels being in AQ. It will just take time to adjust. The Sentinlels themselves are new, as in their move set, but there's nothing particularly new or challenging about them, aside from their Immunity, and a couple distinct characteristics. The real challenge is getting used to their moves enough to gain efficiency in AQ. That just takes experience. Personally I'm not bothered by switching to them. The whole point of a change is to freshen it up. Had it been Champs that we are used to or something we have already fought many times, that would defeat the entire purpose of changing them. They're challenging, in the sense that they're relatively new to The Contest, but that just takes practice. As with any change, it's being exaggerated. People are bored when things are repetitive, personally offended when they're changed, and expectant of remuneration if growth is presented. Lol. Not all people, but that's the general concensus. If it didn't have an element of new challenge, there would be no sense in switching. So, I suppose the only challenge isn't that they're new, I guess. At least in the literal sense. That's the greater challenge. People will have to adjust. Adjustment usually comes easily, with a great deal of resistance. Lol.

I disagree a hell of alot with most of what i see you say on this forum.

But

I cannot aggree more with what you have said in this statement.
You nailed it pretty well here.

Onerednovember

Refreshing is nice. Making champions useless without compensation it's not.

1. When you first announce these changes I always stated that m6 would have the potential to become easier than m5. Does that make sense for a game developer?;
2. These changes also make some champions useless, specially those who rely on bleeding and poison damage (please don't answer me that I still can use them in missions or arena, please, just don't do that);
3. we spent units and resources to grow in a certain direction (deep wounds; ranking 4* wolverine and GP, etc.). No compensation;
4. You increase overall difficulty without increasing the rewards or reducing the map costs. IMO it makes no sense;
5. The gameplay is awful atm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVlXiBztkIk
My opinion about this topic

Maat1985

This is why you should always have a diverse roster.... i used AA before.... now i may replace him with medusa.... easy done....
But i will prob still use my GR for the majority of fights....

GroundedWisdom

Onerednovember wrote: »

Refreshing is nice. Making champions useless without compensation it's not.

1. When you first announce these changes I always stated that m6 would have the potential to become easier than m5. Does that make sense for a game developer?;
2. These changes also make some champions useless, specially those who rely on bleeding and poison damage (please don't answer me that I still can use them in missions or arena, please, just don't do that);
3. we spent units and resources to grow in a certain direction (deep wounds; ranking 4* wolverine and GP, etc.). No compensation;
4. You increase overall difficulty without increasing the rewards or reducing the map costs. IMO it makes no sense;
5. The gameplay is awful atm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVlXiBztkIk
My opinion about this topic

People Rank whoever they want for their own reasons. There is nothing to compensate. Further to that, you would have a hard time convincing me of how GP and Wolverine are no longer useful.

Maat1985

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

Onerednovember wrote: »

Refreshing is nice. Making champions useless without compensation it's not.

1. When you first announce these changes I always stated that m6 would have the potential to become easier than m5. Does that make sense for a game developer?;
2. These changes also make some champions useless, specially those who rely on bleeding and poison damage (please don't answer me that I still can use them in missions or arena, please, just don't do that);
3. we spent units and resources to grow in a certain direction (deep wounds; ranking 4* wolverine and GP, etc.). No compensation;
4. You increase overall difficulty without increasing the rewards or reducing the map costs. IMO it makes no sense;
5. The gameplay is awful atm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVlXiBztkIk
My opinion about this topic

People Rank whoever they want for their own reasons. There is nothing to compensate. Further to that, you would have a hard time convincing me of how GP and Wolverine are no longer useful.

Of course they are no longer useful..... i only ever used these guys to fight symbiods.... never used em for anything else.... i thought thats wat we all did....