Witness the Great Revival! Act 6 Chapter 1 - Coming March 13th

BORN AGAIN
Carina has awoken. For ages she’s been trapped in her crystal prison, but with the support of Ægon, The Collector finally has his daughter back, but she’s not interested in standing still. Keen to find her place in The Battlerealm, Carina begins to understand her power and explore the fringes of the unknown, but Carina’s rebirth has reminded the Elders that the scars of their past have yet to fully heal. Taneleer Tivan and En Dwi Gast must jockey for Carina’s attention as they both attempt to mold her into the Elder they think she ought to be. Unfortunately for the both of them, Carina is as rebellious as she is powerful, and her defiant nature might just prove too much for the old Elders to handle…

Join Carina, Ægon, The Collector, and The Grandmaster when the final episode in the Elder Saga begins in ACT 6: REBIRTH!

RELEASE + LEGENDS
Act 6 Chapter 1: Great Revival releases on MARCH 13TH for all who have completed Act 5: ELDER’S WAR to enjoy.

Alongside this release, we’re happy to announce a Legends Run for Chapter 1! This Legends run will begin the moment you start Act 6 Chapter 1, and end the moment you 100% explore all Quests in the Chapter. You’ll have until April 13th at 10:00:00 AM PDT to log a time. The rewards for the Legends run of Act 6 Chapter 1 are:

Rank 1-5
10x Tier 5 Class Catalyst Fragment Crystals (2% each of a random Tier 5 Class Catalyst)
22,500x Tier 5 Basic Catalyst Fragments
2x Tier 2 Alpha Catalysts

Rank 6-100
5x Tier 5 Class Catalyst Fragment Crystals (2% each of a random Tier 5 Class Catalyst)
11,250x Tier 5 Basic Catalyst Fragments
1x Tier 2 Alpha Catalysts

In a new turn of events, we’ll also be featuring a Legends Run for all Chapters of Act 6, and a special Act Legends Reward throughout the release of Act 6! The top times for each Chapter’s Legends will be collected, and awarded with a new 6-Star Champion never before owned by any Summoner!

In order to win the Act Legends Reward, you’ll need to place in the top times of each Chapter, as follows:

Chapter 1 - Top 20 Times
Chapter 2 - Top 40 Times
Chapter 3 - Top 60 Times
Chapter 4 - Top 100 Times

If you happen to qualify for all 4 Chapters, you’ll receive the Champion 4 times, meaning you can Awaken them this way! We will have more to reveal about each Chapter’s and the Act Legends rewards in the future, but that’s all we have for you for now.

CHAMPION REQUIREMENTS
Act 6 is some of the most challenging content to date, and the perils within require only the strongest Champions of The Contest. Chapter 1 will contain CHAMPION REQUIREMENTS that will restrict the Champions you use to ONLY 5 and 6-Star Champions.

BUFFS
There are 7 new buffs making an appearance in Act 6 Chapter 1. Each Quest features one or more of these Buffs as Global effects, so you’ll need to bring your best. See below for each Buff and a little description of our intentions with it.

NO RETREAT! - When the Attacker dashes back, they gain Degen Timer for 1.2 seconds. Dashing back again while the Degen Timer is active causes a Passive Degen, dealing 200% of the Defender's Attack as direct damage over 6 seconds.
This Buff is meant to impose the mentality of its title: Do not retreat. While other similar Buffs like Caltrops can be easily countered with an Immunity, No Retreat requires careful planning and execution on playstyle to overcome. No Retreat was designed to be possible - but challenging - to avoid.

Special Delivery - The Attacker begins the fight with 15 Combo charges. Each landed basic attack decreases the Combo charges by 1, and launching a Special Attack will reset the charges. If all charges are removed, they are reset, and the Attacker suffers a Passive Degen equal to 100% of the Defender's Attack Rating over 4 seconds.
Similar to fighting Thor Ragnarok, this Buff will require you to make sure you have a Special Attack at the ready, but there are sure to be challenges to that strategy strewn throughout…

Combo Party - For every 10 hits of the Combo Meter, the Attacker gains a permanent Cruelty Buff, granting +500 Crit Damage Rating. When struck, the Attacker loses all Cruelty Buffs if their combo meter is lost and takes 40% of the Defender's attack as direct damage for each Buff removed this way.
This buff is generally quite simple, and is intended to create a “ride the line” feeling - you want to get your combo count up, but losing it will cost you dearly.

Long Distance Relationship - While close to the Defender, the Attacker gains a Weakness Debuff every 3 seconds, reducing their attack by 10% permanently. Staying far away from the Defender causes these Weakness effects to fall off.
The goal here is to encourage you to find “openings” to deal as much damage as possible. Waste those openings, or just spend too long near the opponent, and you’ll need to back off in order to gain your damage back. If you’re pinned in a corner, you’ll want to use your abilities to create some space and start dealing damage again.

Close Encounters - While close to the Defender the Attacker Regenerates 1% of their Max Health every second. While far away from the Defender, the Attack Degenerates 3% of their Max Health every second.
Sort of the inverse of Long Distance Relationship, Close Encounters encourages you to stay as close to the Defender as possible, and being efficient as you bait specials or get out of the way of abilities that could cause trouble up close (like Mephisto or Omega Red).

Power Struggle - The Attacker cannot gain Power during the fight through normal means. Each time the Defender reaches a full bar of Power, the Attacker is granted one as well and whenever the Defender launches a Special Attack, the Attacker loses an equal amount of Power.
This one is all about a “use it or lose it” mentality - you’ll want to make sure you’re keeping an eye on your Opponent’s power and how it relates to your own. Characters who can control power using their specials, like Vision or Magik, will excel here.

Hurt Locker - Using the same type of Special Attack twice in a row gives the Attacker a Delayed Blast charge for 5 seconds which may be removed by landing a Heavy Attack. If the Blast expires, the Attacker takes 50% of their Health as direct damage.
This one is (as the name might suggest) focused on creating a “bomb defusal” moment while you play. If you make a mistake, you’ll have a small window to correct it before your mistake comes back to bite you. Rest assured there will be challenges that will threaten to trip you up…

PI RANGES
Keep in mind these are approximate - there is some variation around the values but in general, this is what you can expect:

Quest 1
Paths: ~22,500-28,000 PI
Boss: ~ 55,000 PI
Quest 2
Paths: ~23,000-30,500 PI
Boss: ~ 58,500 PI
Quest 3
Paths: ~23,500-30,500 PI
Boss: ~ 50,000 PI
Quest 4
Paths: ~23,500-35,500 PI
Boss: ~ 54,000 PI
Quest 5
Paths: ~27,000-31,000 PI
Boss: ~ 66,000 PI
Quest 6
Paths: ~28,000-39,000 PI
Boss: ~ 72,000 PI

ENERGY/PATHS
In general, quests in Chapter 1 have a consistent energy requirement the whole way through. On average, All quests in Chapter 1 will have:

3 Energy Per Step
~ 9-10 paths
~ 600 Energy for Quest Mastery

REWARDS
Of course, we know that any announcement of new Story content wouldn’t be complete without some nice rewards for your efforts. Here’s what you can expect:

Quest 1 - 6 (Completion + Exploration)

30x 5-Star Signature Stone Crystals
180,000x Gold
63,000x Tier 2 Alpha Catalyst Fragments
50x Units

Chapter 1 Completion
9,000x Tier 5 Basic Fragments
2,000x 6-Star Shards
5,000x 5-Star Shards
1x 5-Star Rank up Gem Crystal (2-3)
1x Tier 4 Basic Catalyst
1x Tier 4 Class Catalyst Crystal
500,000x Gold

Chapter 1 Mastery
1x Tier 5 Class Catalyst Fragment Crystal (25%)
1x 5-Star Rank up Gem Crystal (3-4)
Tier 5 Basic Catalyst
4,000x 6-Star Shards
8,000x 5-Star Shards
3x Tier 4 Basic Catalysts
3x Tier 4 Class Catalyst Crystals
1,000,000x Gold

Chapter Total (all of the above)

1x Tier 5 Class Catalyst Fragment Crystal (25%) (Note: This is a Special Crystal, and not the regular Tier 5 Class Catalyst Fragment Crystal)
1x 5-Star Rank up Gem Crystal (2-3)
1x 5-Star Rank up Gem Crystal (3-4)
13,000x 5-Star Shards
30x 5-Star Signature Stone Crystals
6,000x 6-Star Shards
1,680,000x Gold
63,000x Tier 2 Alpha Catalyst Fragments
4x Tier 4 Basic Catalysts
4x Tier 4 Class Catalyst Crystals
1x Tier 5 Basic Catalysts
9,000 Tier 5 Basic Catalyst Fragments
540x Units

BECOME A CAVALIER
A new Act, a new Progression point! Summoners that complete Act 6 Chapter 1 will gain the new designation of “Cavalier”!

This designation is not as game changing as Uncollected, and is a step up similar in scope to becoming Contender, Proven or Conqueror.

Cavaliers will have access to a brand new Cavalier Crystal that guarantees at least a 3-Star Champion with a 38% chance at a 4-Star Champion, an 11% chance at a 5-Star Champions, and a rare 1% chance of a 6 Star Champion! These Crystals will be available for 200 units each.

Cavaliers will also have access to:

- A 25 Unit Discount on Grandmaster Crystals
- A new Cavalier Calendar in place of the Grandmaster Calendar that will grant a Grandmaster Crystal over 7 days, instead of 14
- An upgraded Daily Crystal that contains a rare chance of T5B Fragments, 5-Star Shards, or 6-Star Shards, and double the amount of - T2A Fragments, T4CC Fragments, and T4B Fragments!
- A slightly upgraded Free (4-hour) Crystal with more Gold!

This is the next step after becoming Uncollected, and we plan to continue to add more as the Story progresses!

Comments

DNA3000

So I can bring a Rank 1 Level 1 unduped 5* Antman to Act 6, but I can't bring a 5/50 Sig 99 4* Archangel.
In all seriousness, @Kabam Miike would you guys consider gating it by challenger rating instead of star level/rarity?

i.e. 4* 5/50 and 5* 3/45 and above only?

My point is, you guys invented challenger rating to essentially say a 5/50 is the same power level as a 3/45. They take similar amount of catalysts to rank, and have similar stats. Yet the way you are gating Act 6 doesn't take this into consideration. You can bring an extremely low level 5*, but not your most powerful 4*.

I am personally not for any gating, however I think this would be a good compromise. It would be more about making sure players have the right roster for the job, and less about who is getting lucky with 5* pulls.

I like this. If you are going to gate it at all, gate the content to Challenge Rating >= 90 or 100.
They aren't gating to power level of the champs, but rather (to oversimplify a lot) the effort required to acquire them. A 5/50 has similar strength to a 3/45, but the 3/45 is much harder to acquire.
Not hard at all...38 minutes left to get that increased chance 5* Ghost just now. It’s only money.
Shhh, don't tell anyone but I just snagged one of those crystals without having to spend money. However, it seems harder to get a 5* from them than you thought: mine only had a 3* in it. Maybe I need to try harder next time.
Wait aren't you building your roster with those. I thoughts how we did it.

I wouldn't recommend using FGMCs as a primary roster building strategy unless you're willing to spend enormous amounts of money on them. I build my roster through gameplay. I open the occasional FGMC purely for fun. And I never spend actual cash on them.

Tasty_Yum_Yums

At level 50-60, it's easy to forget that for much of an early player’s experience they are bumping into padlock icons all over the quests menu:

- A multitude of our arenas cannot be played without specific Champion rarities, and to be competitive requires a lot of them.
- Normal and Heroic difficulty event quests are locked behind levels 12 and 25, respectively.
- Master was, for a long time, gated monthly behind the 100% exploration of its Heroic counterpart.
- Uncollected difficulty requires not only reaching level 40, but completion of Act 5, Chapter 2.
- Even entering Beginner asks you to be level 6!

You provided examples of padlocks/gates in the past. You know what happened when players reached those milestones... they got an increase in their inventory limits and energy level. Should we expect to see our inventory limits expanded?

Timone147

So some feedback is we need better ways to pull the specific champ/champ type that we need for this content. If you want to have the content behind a milestone like this then I think it needs to be less completely luck tied to champs or at least some improvement. I still use some 4* at time(rarely) because even with all the 5* I have I dont have great luck with my pulls. Luckily I have the champs/skill to at min do one clear(hopefully much more lol) but I am missing certain niches in my champs(coldsnap counter for instance).

I watch people pull top level 5* champs weekly while it takes me months of opening 5* Crystal's to finally get one that is worth something. This game is too luck dependent without a completely open form of loot progression to endlessly gain resource on our time for barriers like this.

More traditional rpg/mmorpg games allow for grinding to achieve certain goals. Like in destiny luck is a big part of the game... but I can endlessly grind engrams to decode to get what I need eventually. This is not true of 5 and 6 star shards(or any resources really). There is a hard limit to rewards in this game so you cant overcome bad luck without time(not playtime but physical time) which is not a good formula with these champ requirement additions imo. I thought variant was wrong with this and this is even further a step in the wrong direction in the current loot system.

I get the goal but the system is built to be punishing and alienating as a result because the randomness of the loot structure combined with the hard stop of how much loot you can aquire.

Mereel

CHAMPION REQUIREMENTS
Act 6 is some of the most challenging content to date, and the perils within require only the strongest Champions of The Contest. Chapter 1 will contain CHAMPION REQUIREMENTS that will restrict the Champions you use to ONLY 5 and 6-Star Champions.

Adding my voice, the 4 star ban is stupid. Remove the requirement

unknown

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kikiFurieux

The 4 star ban is not the best decision Kabam made that's for sure... If they wanted to put some requirements why not pushing the max level to 70 and say act 6 is for level 70 only? Or they could have based the entry requirement on 100% act 5.
An interesting thing would have to allow only 1 and 2 stars champs with strong opponents, making act 6 skill based.
But the 4 star ban is indeed not very wise...

LeNoirFaineant

@DNA3000 nice post. I’m not that fussed about it but I wish they would find another solution. I feel like barring a sizable portion of everyone’s rosters for all future story quests is too high a price to pay. Just curious. Having read the explanation do you think this particular gate is a good idea?

DrZola

We’re all going to laugh when 5* IP is the answer to 6.1.

Dr. Zola

DNA3000

@DNA3000 nice post. I’m not that fussed about it but I wish they would find another solution. I feel like barring a sizable portion of everyone’s rosters for all future story quests is too high a price to pay. Just curious. Having read the explanation do you think this particular gate is a good idea?

It isn't how I would have done it, but that's not an entirely fair criticism. For one thing, while I don't know what specific imperatives the devs are operating under, I would probably have saved any gate like this for whatever follows Act 6 (which I refer to as Act 7, although it might not be called that). The reasoning is that Act 6 is the last chapter of an entire story arc, and it might be more palatable conceptually for whatever happens next to have a more abrupt progress gate controlling access to it. This would also have given more time to get people used to gates like this: eliminating 2* and 3* champs from early Act 6, say, and eliminating CR80 and lower from later Act 6.

I'm also more in favor of single hurdle gates than lockouts. One idea I think has a lot of merit is an idea I heard Brian Grant mention in a recent stream. He proposed the idea that the 5*/6* prerequisite being something that players could either unlock or somehow mitigate. For example (and this is my thoughts, not his, although there is overlap) you might require the first run through to be restricted to 5* and 6* champions, but perhaps different paths could have keys like Act 5.3 that unlock the ability to use, say, 4* Skill champs, or 4* Spiderverse champs in your team. Alternatively, Act 6 could award Act 6 special currency that you could use in a special store to unlock certain additional types of champs. Since everyone is different, players could work towards unlocking their own specific needs, like (lower level) Quantum champs or Bleed immune champs or whatever. There would be some additional strategy to how you ran different paths to then make additional runs progressively easier, or at least have more options.

I'm not *opposed* to the straight up 5*/6* gate, in that I think it is just a hurdle to overcome that isn't terrible to overcome. On a *technical* level I think it is fine. But on a *psychological* level, I think players are much more willing to accept hardship if they think they can work through it to get to some better result at the other end. The Act 6 gate probably looks to most players less like a speed bump, or even a hurdle, and more of a constant cost. You can't "overcome" it, and giving players the means to overcome a hurdle tends to make hurdles far less controversial.

I'm a firm believer that the best game design is invisible. When it works right, players hardly notice it is there. You can't always do that, but it should always be the standard to strive for.

To answer your question directly, I think the gate is a good idea in the sense that I believe it does things that will ultimately be beneficial to the game as a whole. On the other hand, I think the gate picks a fight with the playerbase that I don't think is a good idea, because I think it could be avoided.

unknown

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DNA3000

An interesting thing would have to allow only 1 and 2 stars champs with strong opponents, making act 6 skill based.

I think it is worth taking this head on. Not to pick on one poster, because a lot of people have said this, but the reason why this kind of restriction doesn't make sense in this context is because the gate is intended to be a progress gate, not a skill-measuring gate. Limiting the content to 2* champs is limiting the content to champs just about everyone has. Because everyone has them, it isn't a measure of progress.

Some are arguing that this is a measure of progress, because it takes a lot of skill to do content with lower champs. But that's a different kind of progress, and not the kind of progress being discussed here. Relatedly, some people are asking (partially rhetorically) why *can't* Act 6 be "about skill." It is in part about skill, as is Act 5, and Uncollected difficulty, and lots of other higher tier content. But no part of this game is about pure skill, because this game is a champion collecting game that is built on a foundation of building rosters. Building rosters is a fundamental element of the game that can be a metric for measuring progress. "Skill" is a tool players use to play the game, but it is not a direct measurable quantity for gauging progress quantitatively in this game.

There are always exceptions, but in general in the core content of the game you won't tend to see the game taking away the highest rarity champs because the very value of those higher rarity champs is that you can use them to make the content easier. The game also rewards skill, but it is not going to reward skill *above* the reward for possessing higher rarity champs.

allinashes

I think champ restrictions were probably a hard decision for Kabam. Without them, this content sounds too easy for Act 6. The amount of health and nodes they would have to put would be ridiculous.

Otherwise big dogs would complain that is too easy and less advanced players would still complain it's too hard and unfair. People without a LoL champ would complain. Corvus users would complain. In short, it would be about what it is now just with different topics.

No win situation here. Interesting that they gated it this way, but that's likely the rationale.

axelelf_1

I think champ restrictions were probably a hard decision for Kabam. Without them, this content sounds too easy for Act 6. The amount of health and nodes they would have to put would be ridiculous.

Otherwise big dogs would complain that is too easy and less advanced players would still complain it's too hard and unfair. People without a LoL champ would complain. Corvus users would complain. In short, it would be about what it is now just with different topics.

No win situation here. Interesting that they gated it this way, but that's likely the rationale.

The rationale is money: sales of exclusive fgmcs, ranking up 5*s we already have 5/50s of (and won't rank higher than r3 as a 5*). It's utter B.S. And so blatantly so. Really stupid move as it's eroding a lot of the goodwill regained since 12.0.

Maximus_Spankerson

With that full page of "explanation", I haven't heard one actual good reason WHY 4*s are being frozen out.
They alluded to Variant class gates and its intent to force summoners to come up with alternative solutions (ex. Hawkeye for power control), but no good reason, no reason at all was provided for restricting lower rarities in Act 6.

I am sorry, but that response wasn't just good enough, it wasn't a response at all

Nike013

I just want to start off by saying I have been a fan of this game for over 3 years and still enjoy playing it regularly. Having said that, this move to ban 4 stars from act 6 play is a complete money hungry decision. Speaking from experience after 3 years of game play completing all of the content that has been put out and over 50, 5 star Crystal's I have maybe 5 usable 5 star champions. I don't like the idea of being punished for not pulling some of the God tier 5 star champions that have been put out. I know as well many people feel the same as well, as anyone that has had the same misfortune that personally have is getting punished. Now I greatly appreciate the rework of both she hulk and spider gwen. Being someone who was unfortunate enough to have both as 5 stars pre-buff. On the behalf of the community, I advise you lift the ban of 4 stars, or provide some sort of compensation to the community for all the time and resources that have been put into ranking and attaining a strong 4 star roster.

TyEdge

Champion requirements are an awful decision. First, story mode has never had champion or level bars in any form. This is an awful place to start.

Second, and most importantly, the reasoning provided is a straight up lie. 5/50 champs have 10% lower attack and health than a 3/45 champ. Because of the prevalence of 4-star sig stones and crystals, it’s much easier to reach a high sig level with those champs. It’s also easier, based on volume of pulls, to obtain high quality champs.

Finally, with the importance of unique synergies in the game, depriving summoners of the choice of using, say, a 5/50 Spark with 4/55 Blade doesn’t serve any purpose besides creating crystal cash grabs.

Hey look! There’s a day-long crystal sale. What a coincidence. I’ve only pulled 13 consecutive 3-stars from FGMCs. I’m sure this’ll be fine.

Maximus_Spankerson

I think champ restrictions were probably a hard decision for Kabam. Without them, this content sounds too easy for Act 6. The amount of health and nodes they would have to put would be ridiculous.

Otherwise big dogs would complain that is too easy and less advanced players would still complain it's too hard and unfair. People without a LoL champ would complain. Corvus users would complain. In short, it would be about what it is now just with different topics.

No win situation here. Interesting that they gated it this way, but that's likely the rationale.

Errr... They are restricting RARITIES not RANKS. So while a fully maxed 5/50 4* isn't permitted, a rank 1 level 1 5* is...

Brutus2099

Hey everyone,

Thank you all for the discussion on this topic. There’s been a lot of constructive feedback and thoughts, and it’s been valuable to us for considerations and internal discussion. We wanted to be clearer with our intentions, and better clarify why we want to do this and how it aligns with our past direction in the game.

This is not the first time we’ve hard-gated something behind a form of progression. We use gates liberally, oftentimes to prevent players from having frustrating experiences in content beyond their capabilities, but also because we’re game developers and we have some intended play experiences in mind that we--through both iteration and personal gameplay experience--believe smooth out the ride and make the whole thing as enjoyable as possible.

At level 50-60, it's easy to forget that for much of an early player’s experience they are bumping into padlock icons all over the quests menu:

- A multitude of our arenas cannot be played without specific Champion rarities, and to be competitive requires a lot of them.
- Normal and Heroic difficulty event quests are locked behind levels 12 and 25, respectively.
- Master was, for a long time, gated monthly behind the 100% exploration of its Heroic counterpart.
- Uncollected difficulty requires not only reaching level 40, but completion of Act 5, Chapter 2.
- Even entering Beginner asks you to be level 6!

And this is just looking at the monthly event quests. Dungeons need you to have a sizeable count of certain rarities before you can access the very same ones. Side Quests follow similar locking mechanics to the Monthly Events, and we’ve used gating methods both inter-quest (Dimensional Rifts and their shards) and more explicit (Danger Rooms rarity requirements, the current Recon Missions) to craft a specifically targeted experience or to more tightly tune the content we’re making.

On the topic of tuning, that is our goal when using more stringent requirements in quests. Back Issues #1 used this explicitly with the Class requirements; we did this so we could build areas in each quest where lesser-used Champions could stand out--Hawkeye’s power drain capabilities in Chapter 1, Quest 1, for example--and be important for strategy where they normally would not. We’re aiming to do similar things in Back Issues #2, with a different approach. (More on that soon!)

One reason we do this is because of how progression changes over time. Once you’ve achieved Level 60, we lose a numerical value of your time and experience in the game. The gap between a fresh 60 and a veteran 60 can be massive, just like in many other MMO games. One of the best ways we have to continue using those gates as both protective and progression measure is targeting the baseline strength and breadth of your roster.

Act 6 (and other content) is built with specific challenges in mind. The requirement of 5 and 6-Stars is a broader application of the idea, but it allows us to build a more tightly-constructed experience around a more specific box of playstyles. Making one-size fits all content for an immense player toolbox can lead to things being more watered down and general, rather than the specific moments we can make when we know the lower and upper limits of each player as a matter of fact.

Lastly, this is permanent content. When we place strict requirements on a Side Quest, it’s a gold rush; there’s only ~30 days to build or enhance a team for the quest in question, and it can be a real crunch to get it done. (I myself am going to have a hell of a time with the Avengers leg of the Recon Missions.) Act 6 is going to be around forever. If you can’t get into it right away, that’s alright. It’ll wait for you!

Again I appreciate the discussion around this, and when we say we’re taking your feedback we mean it. When there are lots of opinions and discourse around a topic like this, we take it seriously. I’ve already had two meetings today to chat about it with a variety of teams. I hope my points better explain our stance on gating content, and why we feel comfortable doing it here in the way we are.

@Kabam Goggy @Kabam Miike

While the response is appreciated it really answers nothing, it dances around the topic completely and shows how out of touch with the player base of your game you really are.

Whilst we the community can appreciate that some content needs to be gated there are good and bad ways of doing this and not allowing 4* is the worst way of gating content.

4* heroes form a valuable part of i’d say 90% of people’s rosters and to completely eliminate the use of such champions segregates those people from those that throw bundles of cash at you and creating this rift will damage a great game.

If this is the path you are going to go down then you need to change many other facets of the game.

The game is largely based on RNG with your chance to pull a 5* hero from crystals offers and GMC being extremely low and then if you are lucky enough to get a 5* you have further RNG determining what champion you get. When it comes to 5* crystals while garaunteed 5* as you are more than aware there are desirable and less desirable champions.

If you are making 4* worthless to the player base moving forward then you need to address how people obtain 5* champions. The rewards for everything through the game will need to be adjusted to facilitate your new direction.

Example:
PHC need to include 5* and drop out 2*
All 4* reward shards need to change to 5*
All 5* reward shards need to change to double or change to 6*

Let’s not forget ranking up once again is gated behind RNG in that you have to get the right class catalysts to be able to rank champions up and some classes for everyone lag behind others in acquiring said resources.

With this new gate PHC, GMC, 4* offers are all now worthless for the most part and people will not take up these offers which will hit your bottom line.

4* arenas have become pointless now? Why bother doing something for a champion that you can use for synergies if you can’t now use it?

This decision will send a ripple effect through the contest.

Kabam is a business and we get that but has no one there thought of the obvious? This change will turn more players away from the game than anything else and hit your bottom line.. Did no one in your meetings consider that if the content in Act 6 is THAT hard that if you allow 4* champions the player is already at a disadvantage in tackling the content and that will likely result in more uptake of revives and potion purchases? If you are looking at the bottom line with this change you missed the obvious...

I think the player base has already indicated a far better gate than 5/6* champions only in things like requiring elders bane or 100% Act 5.

For you to drop this bomb on your playerbase 1 week before release shows a complete disregard of forethought on your behalf and a lack of understanding of your core players.

I have generally always been able to find positives in your choices which usually cause community unrest but I’m sorry to say this time I’m at a loss.

I hope you look at this further and decide on a different way to gate content.

-Brutus2099

Bill0927

Not a fan of blocking champs from story quest just seems like a cash grab if you don’t have the right 5 or 6* champs just by featured gmc’s until u get them even though 95% of the time you’ll pull a champ you can’t use in act 6 and if u pull a champ that isn’t useful then just keep trying. Bad choice kabam it’s not like someone with a 3* roster is getting though act 5 and my 4* Medusa got me though the ultron at then end of act 5 if I had to wait for a 5* I still wouldn’t be though it cause I haven’t been lucky enough from a crystal to pull one yet. Sorry but this along with the sudden bringing back all the features gmc’s reeks of cash grab

TitanPunch

There’s a saying - Don’t judge people by their words, judge them by their actions. Seems like the 4* Gate for act 6 is nothing more than a GMC sales campaign.

Bill0927

@kabam goggy question how many korgs will be in act 6 a champ that need such specific counters where you can only use rare 5 or 6* versions shouldn’t be allowed in such content imo because it will put players that don’t have them at a huge disadvantage since with 100+ 5* in the current basic pull the odd of ever actually pulling one are fairly slim

Crimson8399

I remember when LoL came out out and I made a post about it making 4* champs less valuable. A mod commented saying 4* champs were still valuable. I argued the power scale would make them less effective and was told while that is correct you could still use them if we chose. That being said, I see no difference between LOL and act 6 based on the notion that 4*s will provide me a worse time because of their strength.

MaatMan

wow.
i went to sleep at 3am.
woke at 11am.
just spent 20mins reading 158 posts.

sad thing is its all the same.
people are saying the same thing over and over.

people are just not happy.

wat i do know is this.

kabam have just released the perfect test to know wat affect this has on revenue.
they know the community is pissed.
so they spam out crystals.
if they make no $$$$ they know they have really **** up.
if they make a lot of money they can carry on as it doesnt matter there is unrest as the business model is still doing its job

BeardedGMusic

The explanation by Goggy makes no sense at all. Class restrictions fine. Star restrictions not okay. You are purposefully phasing out 4 stars in new content for literally no reason. Just reminding you again that you just recently sold two rank up gem offers for four stars and now you you're cutting them out of content. Why didn't you restrict 3 stars from Act 5 then? The community is clearly upset. I honestly have never been bothered by any changes or requirements you made to the game until now. I love this game, probably too much. I want to still love this game, but canceling out 4 stars in content is not okay and honestly has sapped my motivation and usual joy I get from logging on. Now i just look at all my maxed 4 stars and think "welp that was kind of a waste". Where before I used look at them with pride because of the roster diversity and utility that was collecting. Please listen to your player base and reconsider this.

Stagedear85

Lol

Stagedear85

Lol

LeNoirFaineant

@DNA3000 I think you hit a homerun with the unlocking idea. If we could unlock 4*s along the way I think a lot of the objections would fade. This would still gate the quest somewhat while providing additional strategy and removing a lot of the sting.

ALCAMIST9

This is a big mistake Kabam not everyone has that Many 5 n 6 star champs like I don’t have a 6 n only 11five stars not really much notice either act 6 next week Kabam if this what’s goin to happen should have made 5 n six stars more available to us

RagamugginGunner

I'm wondering if the people complaining about this have done every other piece of content in the game 100% yet. This has been advertised as the final Act to the story. They probably intend it to be done after all other content is completed.

I can empathize with those with terrible RNG though. I like @Hulk_77 post above about Challenger Rating being a requirement rather than star level.
I've done everything in the game 100%. Act 5. LOL. Variant.

I have 101 5* champs

I have 13 6* champs

My total hero rating is 1.18M

My Prestige is 10.2K

I'm in an ally that\s top 30 in AQ

Do you consider me worthy enough to voice my hatred of this stupid rule?
Lol sure. I bet you're ready for Act 6 though despite the gate.

I'll be done before the weekend. That doesn't mean I don't think it's total BS for Kabam to screw over lower level players.

WHOz_R4GE

If Kabam refuses to remove the 4 star restriction, could they implement class based 5 star crystals. This would atleast allow us a greater chance to target specific holes in our rosters, while still be subjected to RNG.