Venom Heroic - Aug 29 - Sep 1

AXP_isme

That was thoroughly frustrating. Went to bed in 20th, happened to wake up 15 minutes before the end and I'd dropped 260 places. The combination of the rubberbanding and the unfriendly end time for non-US players seems to put us at a huge disadvantage. Now we'll struggle in the next pve because we weren't able to get the feature character, it becomes a vicious circle.
Would it be so difficult to let people choose to enter an event with a specific end time? I imagine there are more than enough European players to support a few splits that started and finished earlier (or later). You might run into trouble rubberbanding against a global leader who is 6 or more hours play time ahead but really, how hard can it be...

_RiO_

AXP_isme wrote:

You might run into trouble rubberbanding against a global leader who is 6 or more hours play time ahead but really, how hard can it be...

If we are to believe D3P/Demiurge: hard enough for it to not be worth it, cost-benefit wise.

Disclaimer: ofcourse, these are the same people that somehow cannot find the time to provide a fresh story episode once a month because they would rather spend time on completely unasked for features such as team-ups. (And then they can't even manage to have those features working correct and have them broken out-of-the-gate, again like team-ups.)

Unknown

Went to bed in 11th 90 minutes before the event ended. Woke up having finished 184. So that kind if sucks, but I guess the people that stayed up and grinded to the bitter end deserve a Beast cover more then I did. Oh well. On to the the next event, even if I will be short handed.

Marty17

Yep, it was pretty unpleasant. I just knew leaving it at #22 with 2hrs to go won't be enough. With 60mins to go it was #106, if I had properly slept instead of power napping, I definitely would've missed out on Beast. & to think I was debating whether to push for #20^ - ending finishing #45.

Unknown

I read these forums and see people easily scoring top 100. I don't even know why I bother trying anymore. I grinded down each node until I had 1-2 rewards left (getting 20 ISO about 100 times) and still couldn't finish high enough to win a BEAST cover.

Bowgentle

MikeHock wrote:

I read these forums and see people easily scoring top 100. I don't even know why I bother trying anymore. I grinded down each node until I had 1-2 rewards left (getting 20 ISO about 100 times) and still couldn't finish high enough to win a BEAST cover.

Didn't people tell you in the _last_ PVE that the optimal strategy is to play every node exactly _once_ every 2.5 hours?
Stop grinding so much and forget about those potential rewards and you'll make t100 easily.

Getting screwed by end times is one thing - screwing yourself by playing inefficiently is something else.

Unknown

Marty17 wrote:

Yep, it was pretty unpleasant. I just knew leaving it at #22 with 2hrs to go won't be enough. With 60mins to go it was #106, if I had properly slept instead of power napping, I definitely would've missed out on Beast. & to think I was debating whether to push for #20^ - ending finishing #45.

You guys who slept or power nap thru out, all the grind and hardwork leading up to the final 2 hr really means squad. I even realize this and went to bed the last few nights where 7-10 hrs I did nothing. And still pulled within top 10 with 2 hrs to go. This event is all about waiting for the right timing and strike as many node as you can afford. I must have done like 50+ nodes in the last 2 hrs (also skipping the two hardest node as they was not worth the risk and reward was small)

while I managed 5th, I was only like 500 pts out of 10th and 300 pts out of 1st place. My alliance team we finished 4 spots out of top 100 which was heart breaking.

like I said, this type of event is all about the final few hours. Those that finished in the top 100 most likely slept the night before and simply made sure they were around in the final mad dash.

wymtime

I really enjoy PVE becuase it is a good way to farm ISO for all the 3* I am looking to build, but for the love of God can the dev's not use a heroic for a new cover. I got top 10 and it was a grind at the end. The top 10 in my bracket was seperated by under 400 points. I am all for some rubberbanding but Heroic is a little crazy. If someone is able to hit each sub ever 2.4 hours they should not be penalized in the last hour if they cannot play. I used the rubberbanding to my advantage in this one but it was crazy.

ZeiramMR

Managed a Top 20. Joined around this time yesterday morning, and got through most of the refreshes with a bit of slippage (meals, areas without mobile coverage) while we were traveling home. Might have been able to hit Top 10 but I had to drive back to my place during the first half of the last hour (and some of the high point nodes were still refreshing). Probably not going to go that grindy again, though.

CrookedKnight

simonsez wrote:

Thugpatrol wrote:

That said, if they cared in any way about the people who play their game, they would stop this 2.5 hour refresh madness immediately.

I can get behind this, but if the means to that is to have ridiculously high rubberbanding like this event, then I would say please don't. This event was awful. Rewarding people for not playing is just as unhealthy for the game as making them play too much.

It's not physically unhealthy, just kind of a **** move, which I'll take over physically unhealthy and a **** move. Down with 140-minute refreshes and midnight ET event ends, absolutely.

Unknown

I hope the next PvE starts soon. 16 Days with no rubberbanding at all and people who start late get put into 5 day old shards. That's the dream.

Unknown

I am confused by people raging against the 2.5 hour system; how are you defining "competetive"? It is really, really not difficult to play as "lazy" as you want and make top 20 as long as you hit each node once in the last 1 or 2 refreshes. It's MUCH better than grinding a half dozen nodes to zero at t-9 hours and t-1 hours.

2.5 hour refreshes have made it a lot less effort to get top 20 and a lot more effort to get top 5, and I'm fine with that.

Unknown

I think the 2.5 hour thing seemed worse in this event in particular because of the terrible structure - there were three whole days of hitting the exact same nodes for 20 ISO every time, with nothing to break up the monotony.

What I wish they'd do with heroics - especially "pure" heroics like this one - is stop using them for new character launches and just keep them as a sort of "premium" PVE with good ISO/HP prizes, and less focus on covers. Heroics are always frustrating, and compare how people responded to this event to the reaction to heroics with subs or the Deadpool PVE.

Unknown

Heroics are just awfully designed events in general, always have been. I frankly wish they'd just give up and eliminate them entirely

Unknown

People are just plain nuts.

That's all I have to say about this - - -

Ok no really, the 2.5 hour refresh time is perfectly fine and there's strategy around it and I won't tell you here - you have to join the 5DA to know our secrets. . . . . The problem is with the rubber banding in this heroic - you could literally start the last day and have more points than people who grind for the entire event. The previous 2 pve's were infinitely better in that respect in that you could actually build a lead and hold it (even europeans!) I finished 2nd in the hulk event and didn't have to touch the nodes for the last 12 hours. The extreme rubber banding is nice in that it permits you do be ultra casual the first 95% of an event and bust **** at the end but it also trivializes everything up until the final hours. It's like in sports where everyone gets into the playoffs regardless of a long regular season and just the final few games mean anything at all.

The bigger issue I had with venom heroic is the event was stretched out to three days to try and justify it as a new character minimum time to grind excuse. If there were new subs every day or something other than hitting the exact same nodes like 25 times each, it might not be so tedious. I do agree that perhaps Heroics are not the place to introduce new characters as there are some people who just can't do them because they don't have certain required characters. At least anyone with a leveled patch in this one had a cakewalk to top 10 if they put in minimal effort.

I suppose it's time for some new rewards, perhaps a reward reset every 24 hours, or something to spice it up.

I'd love to see new rewards introduced into the game - many mentioned wild-card covers which could be a Heroic only reward. Or something to differentiate the events a bit more

Anyhow - the previous 2 pve events had perfect rubber banding and I'd love to see a return to something closer to that

hex706f726368

I feel for the timezone displaced, this system sucks for them.

But, given the choice between having the event reward people who can grind for 84 hours vs people who can be present and grind for the last 12, I'll choose the latter every time, even when it doesn't benefit me. I for one appreciated that I could mostly play the game on my schedule over the holiday weekend and only had to worry about timing the last day.

I joined on Saturday and did two full clears, 2.5 hours apart and shot in to the top 20. That confirmed the rubberband was strong enough I didn't need to grind away at the event. Did the same thing Sunday just to make sure and then timed my Monday out so I could set myself up for the end. Think I was able to put in 4 cycles before the final grind and I probably only needed 2 or 3 at best. I don't think I had much if any rubberband towards the end, but being able to do more nodes on the right helped me secure a top 10 placement.

In general, I despise PvE just because it bastardizes the best experience this game had to offer (imo), which was the prologue/story mode, into a competition. I guess I prefer the PvE's with subs as well, but they are really just the same thing drawn out over multiple days. I played the previous ISO-8 Brotherhood PvE as well and only played the last hour or so each sub. I was able to ride the rubberband up into the top 50 every night for the 50 HP. That was enough to net me a top 10 in the main. I realize it was a lazy event, but it had the same issues. It just rewarded cumulative last hour grinding over 1-time last hour grinding. I'm not sure that's all that much better, especially at 9 days worth.

Unknown

Bowgentle wrote:

MikeHock wrote:

I read these forums and see people easily scoring top 100. I don't even know why I bother trying anymore. I grinded down each node until I had 1-2 rewards left (getting 20 ISO about 100 times) and still couldn't finish high enough to win a BEAST cover.

Didn't people tell you in the _last_ PVE that the optimal strategy is to play every node exactly _once_ every 2.5 hours?
Stop grinding so much and forget about those potential rewards and you'll make t100 easily.

Getting screwed by end times is one thing - screwing yourself by playing inefficiently is something else.

The entire PvE is a grind.

Sounds like you're asking me to stop grinding while suggesting that I play every node every 2.5 hours. I wasn't sure if that was sarcasm, but playing every node every 2.5 hours would fit the definition of grinding and I surely didn't do that. I can't and won't do that.

Playing inefficiently? I do not bend my life around MPQ.

Unknown

MikeHock wrote:

Playing inefficiently? I do not bend my life around MPQ.

There's your problem. This isn't a game; it's a lifestyle, a cult, it controls your life and you serve it. It is your master. If you have free time that isn't dedicated to feeding its gaping maw then it has not failed you; you have failed it.

MPQ is your god, now.

CrookedKnight

D3 Publisher. Believe in a smiling god. And buy Hero Points.

simonsez

MikeHock wrote:

Sounds like you're asking me to stop grinding while suggesting that I play every node every 2.5 hours. I wasn't sure if that was sarcasm, but playing every node every 2.5 hours would fit the definition of grinding and I surely didn't do that. I can't and won't do that

Depends on the event. In some, you'd have to. In this one, less was definitely more. Way more.