Trials of the Alchemist/Elements Difficulty

V1PER1987

So I have been seeing a lot of people voicing their concerns over the difficulty of this new side quest, Trials of the Elements/Alchemist. I wanted to get a feel for how the community perceives this “new” side quest and maybe help to provide some constructive criticism/feedback.

Please keep this thread constructive and respectful.

Comments

General__Ross

I like epic trials. It’s been fun the past 14 days. I’ve faced most of the “tough” champs people seem to be complaining about with no disarray.

unknown

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Timone147

I like the difficulty and nodes. I don’t like the randomness. I hate rng difficulty as for some it’s far easier to clear and get the same rewards. Everyone should face the same challenge for the same rewards.

winterthur

Trials difficulty revealed to me how little I understand the buff nodes.

BigPoppaCBONE

Just too much RNG everywhere on everything with cheap elements. Kabam needs to move away from challenges that seem designed to make you throw something. Think more Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat bonus stages and less cheap Beat em up bosses.

Maldroit2

Remove brawl and everything will be fine. I never thought I'd hate any node more than rage....

mum_m2

I just don't like all of the variables here. The maze only taught me to quit before I invested in it. I tried using champs that covered as much ground as possible and still got wrecked by one. It's like I can only take so many immunities in and counters before it catches up to me.

So if I get stuck I'm not reviving. Not worth it. Stress and care free.

Proud end game player.

Fingfangfoomfanes

Didnt bother to finish epic. Again. For the second week. Too much item use for rubbish interactions.

CoatHang3r

Had to go spot on as the option below it was too broad, my only issue is the ridiculous sig levels on Iceman and Dormammu. A surprise like that shouldn’t exist when they are toned down in every other quest content (that comes to min) when your entries are limited.

Badrose

It is way too... RANDOM! Having to fight 7 different random champions is way too much. Din't bring any blood immune today and I got smashed by Morningstar

Ghostboytjie

Wasnt that bad. Was actually fun.

LilMaddogHT

I personally don't think it's that bad.... Some fights can get a bit hectic but I do have a great squad to deal with the crazy set of nodes. Over the first 2 weeks, I used one L2 revive and about a full stack of L2 HPs (~25).

Been able to clear Day 7 in the 1st & 2nd week without items with the boosts on. If you don't get all the boosts, it would be quite a bit more difficult.

Week1

https://youtu.be/escLqdwiKI8

Week2

https://youtu.be/kvqs_ntTExM

V1PER1987

I appreciate all the honest comments. As a whole the trials aren’t the worst but certain matchups are way overpowered and clearly untested. Killmonger and Punisher on brawl, gambler’s fate, double down, and oscillate along with Dormammu/Iceman on spite are the first combinations that come to mind. Like in @LilMaddogHT’s video of week 1 Punisher is a pain if you don’t have one of the few counters like Sparky or maybe Magik. Thanks for sharing your videos by the way.

th3motivatorrr

Ill take these trials over that maze quest any day. Kabam did a great job this month. Keep up the good work. Although the unstoppable mechanic in these new champs to trigger mid combo is a little cheap.

RiderofHell

Idk what secret deals they made but past months event quests and side quests have gotten ramped up with difficulty that makes the game not fun no more.

Not to mention the monthly unavoidable damage/unblockable mechanics if this is any indiction of the direction the game is going then i wont be surprised Act 6 will have the lovely nodes we saw in dungeons and monthly events.

Also unavoidable/unblockable will continue to stick its ugly face

Sungj

The only node and champion combination that to me seemed overboard was Hyperion on brawl and oscilate and dormammu. Everything else can be covered by 5 champions in your team. The highest difficulty of the trials is meant for rank 4 5*s and up, it's not too bad if you bring a good set of broad counters. I cleared the past 2 with no revives albeit I didn't get stuck with too many terrible matchups and only used blade and ghost with the full quantum trinity plus the hood and I am far from a great player.

If your team can cover an immunities champion, iceman counter, Dormammu counter and hyperion counter I think you'd be covered for any matchup if you play well but I could be missing a few I don't remember all the champion possibilities.

RT9

the real problem is the difference in difficulty. it’s either u can do epic or basically auto fight the expert this is same for the others as well and it feels like you’re missing out on the rewards

unknown

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Hammerbro_64

I thought I sucked/had bad champs, but apparently it’s a pain for most non multiple-5/65-owning folks

V1PER1987

Haji_Saab wrote: »

They are not difficult. They are an RNG fest. Another problem is going in blind. We are supposed to counter bleed, poison, Dormammu, Cold snap, Hyperion's power gain on oscillate and then still have enough in the tank to take other nodes ... This puts us squarely in the hands of RNG.

In the last two weeks, I had good luck but my good luck means facing Killmonger, Abomination etc.

Yeah it’s bad enough rewards are based on RNG but now quests are starting to be at the mercy of RNG too? It’s no wonder I spend less and less time on here anymore.

Kushstar420

EPIC difficulty does not match the rewards nor does it match the min. team rating they want us to use.
with ridic boosts to health and attack on top of non sense nodes (that FEEL cash graby) this trials is only good on master as it makes sense.

what we have to face in epic DOES not make sense.
feels like its there to deplete our resources and units

Ultimatheory

I’m all for difficult content and I haven’t had to use a revive yet for this thanks to a wide roster that can cover a lot. I’ve been bringing in Blade, GR, Magik, AA, and Emma and that covers most of the difficult nodes.

However, I can see that if I lacked just one single counter to some of the harder champ/node combos that it would be extremely difficult or nearly impossible to make it through. A lot of the new content is coming down to roster development first, skill level second, even though a high level is required for both. I really empathize with alliance mates who have been on a string of bad pulls lately.

Kobster84

It’s was only a problem with certain match ups but overall it was fun enough

borntohula

The RNG element is what kills it for me. The combination of champs / nodes gets ridiculous at times. I also think Brawl is the worst idea since unavoidable damage. As a player you need to remain the feeling of being in control. Or, failing that, the knowledge that you could be. Eg by getting better, thinking nodes through and figuring champs and interactions out to come up with viable counters.

If you have to go in blind against extremely beefed up champions (most of which are great defenders in their own right) on highly annoying nodes, you sometimes can’t. In that case, the game crosses the threshold form being hard (fun) into an exercise in frustration (no fun).

After dying three times without even understanding what the hell is going on, and seeing the 33rd ‘check your connection’ message pop up, you might just call it a day.

DrZola

LilMaddogHT wrote: »

I personally don't think it's that bad.... Some fights can get a bit hectic but I do have a great squad to deal with the crazy set of nodes. Over the first 2 weeks, I used one L2 revive and about a full stack of L2 HPs (~25).

Been able to clear Day 7 in the 1st & 2nd week without items with the boosts on. If you don't get all the boosts, it would be quite a bit more difficult.

Week1
https://youtu.be/escLqdwiKI8

Week2
https://youtu.be/kvqs_ntTExM

This was helpful @LilMaddogHT.

Well played and solid selection of champs for the nodes you met. The Punisher fight in the first video made me feel better—I’ve been on that one and gotten plowed, and I don’t have OR or OGV to help me through it. It was similarly ugly.

I appreciate your being willing to drop videos onto the forums instead of offering mockery, like some posters do. That’s constructive and uncommon.

To me, your videos reinforce a few simple things:

(1) Rankups matter. Pick sub-optimal champs, and you will pay for it. I’ve been sitting on cats and AGs for a long time waiting for Stark, Void, KM and others. It’s very tempting to rank another “solid” champ for the now but I’m sure I will regret it later.

(2) pRNG really matters. No one’s cranking through that content without at least a handful of great pulls. If anyone’s got an IF, Drax, Falcon, CW and OML video crushing Epic, I would love to see it.

(3) Skill matters. You handled most of those nodes as well as could be expected. No amount of great champs would have helped you if you didn’t know how to play. You had a plan and executed it.

Thanks again.

Dr. Zola

Shrimkins

I think it needs a little tweaking but it's not overwhelmingly hard for me personally.

I'm glad they fixed the masochism node but also they need to fix the spite node. Even if I bring champs that don't get buffs, kabam's boosts trigger the spite anyway. Other than that, the nodes are fine. Yes brawl is annoying but if you pay attention to the timer it is easily worked around.

As for the champion selection, it seems pretty silly that they add champs that require a specific counter (dormammu, iceman, MS) and don't tell us who we are fighting up front. For me it is not a huge deal since I have the champs I can build an entire 5 man team to handle all those situations, but for most people that probably isn't possible.

It is possible to beat iceman without a coldsnap immune champ as long as you have the arc overload boost on, but then you have to deal with the spite power gain for most of the fight. It just comes off as kinda cheap.

I've been able to complete epic every day and I had to use 1 revive the first alchemist trial because I got iceman. All in all the rewards are definitely worth the time/resource investment for me personally.