PVP: Increasing difficulty but no progress

Unknown

Many of you know that a while back I decided to take it slow with this game in order to find the fun it it once again. Honestly, the game is fun even after 211 days played. If you can find that right balance for your schedule, you can see this game as game again and not a chore.

So, after the time slots appeared, I decided to step it up a little and I joined a T250 alliance that has a chance at T100 from time to time. We got a min requirement of 400 in PVP and PVE is not mandatory. Just perfect for what I look for in this game and the extra cover or HP are awesome.

I love the time slot change and I can now get covers without even have to shield (At least the T100 cover). 500 points is super easy to get and it will secure you T100. So that was my plan!

3 PVPs later, 500 points is not enough to end up in the T100 for that one cover. I did not progress any further by adding 3 covers in my roster. I did not level anyone or score anywhere higher than 500-550 points. It is not just a bad bracket that the game threw me into, it's every bracket I enter now that I need more than 500 points to compete for that T100.

What I don't get is why do I need to play harder to get the same reward I was able to get a few days ago? Clearly, I have not progressed higher in order to be able to gather more points for myself.

So, the way I understand it is that if you place T100 this PVP, the next one is going to be harder for you to get the same result. I would really like it if my MMR was not so much based on what rank I was on the last event. If my roster is the same for 10 events in a row, then I should not get more difficult brackets for no reason.

I know, a workaround is to completely ignore one PVP and you will be back to normal for 3-4 PVPs (This is what I did with the PVP that offered Groot covers). Is that even a logical solution here? Not to mention that even though I am put in a harder bracket, the wall does not move upwards. So, I have to get 550+ points to get the same reward as before but, the wall is still where it was!

I don't know if you guys have anything cooking that will address this, but it's kind of annoying that you have to "not play" to make the game easier for you!

Unknown

It's not only that you have changed, but the player base has changed. More players means at the top more hungry players, more players who are willing to pay money, more players who are willing to sacrifice sleep. Top 100 is closer to 575-600 now. A 2*-3* player can't really rank in top 100 without being able to play the last hour or shielding. Even if you can play the last hour it's very hard now to rank top 100.

This is the new normal. Skipping events puts you back into a weaker more 'casual' bracket where it's easier to rank, but even those are harder now.

OnesOwnGrief

I'm not seeing what's not to get here. If you think your same score is going to earn you the same reward next PvP then you aren't factoring in the possibility of other human players outperforming you. Your score is not improving and remaining stagnant while others around you are and pushing you further down. That's the nature of the beast. Not only that but with such a low score, yes that's low, you're also swimming in the worse area of PvP where scores are much more closer to each other and you can easily drop 10-20 places quickly.

Unknown

I think it's more the fact it has suddenly changed, for a lot of people, and this is having an impact on their progression and contributing to Alliance's etc.

Unknown

OnesOwnGrief wrote:

I'm not seeing what's not to get here. If you think your same score is going to earn you the same reward next PvP then you aren't factoring in the possibility of other human players outperforming you. Your score is not improving and remaining stagnant while others around you are and pushing you further down. That's the nature of the beast. Not only that but with such a low score, yes that's low, you're also swimming in the worse area of PvP where scores are much more closer to each other and you can easily drop 10-20 places quickly.

Then how come that if I quit a PVP I go back to T100 with the same points? Many people become stronger and that is fine. But sharding is messing around with us. Scoring a T100 spot makes you eligible to jump in a harder bracket right away? That's a bit messed up. People do not get competitive in 7 days. How do you explain the fact that if I skip a PVP my brackets become easier? Sharding should take more into consideration roster strength than ranking. I should not have to play harder to get the same reward in the time frame of 2-3 PVPs.

2 PVPs ago my top scorer was 1100 points, now my top scorer is 2000 points. T25 (2 covers) is completely 100% out of reach for me and T100 is tricky to reach. You see, people did not decide to get so competitive in the next PVP just like that. Nope, the game threw me in a tough bracket because it thought it was logical since I got a good placement the last time around. That good placement offered me 1 cover which did nothing towards me becoming more competitive. So, what happened is I now play against tougher opponents and I have to step up my game to get the one cover again. Or, I can quit 1-2 PVPs and then go back to the less competitive opponents.

I don't know about you, but to me it feels like I'm jumping from cold to hot water directly. I think getting stronger should go in par with difficulty. What usually happens here is the difficulty goes up even though progress is not considerable.

I know how to game the system and get me that cover. Not seeking for any advice on how to do that. I'm just trying to share something that I'm sure tons of others have experienced. Maybe the devs can keep an eye on it too.

GuntherBlobel

daibar wrote:

It's not only that you have changed, but the player base has changed. More players means at the top more hungry players, more players who are willing to pay money, more players who are willing to sacrifice sleep. Top 100 is closer to 575-600 now. A 2*-3* player can't really rank in top 100 without being able to play the last hour or shielding. Even if you can play the last hour it's very hard now to rank top 100.

This is the new normal. Skipping events puts you back into a weaker more 'casual' bracket where it's easier to rank, but even those are harder now.

I agree with this. Your recent decline could just be that other players are adopting your strategy, which then makes things a bit more competitive for you. Also, not all PvP events are created equally. I've done pretty well this Season since so many of the last PvPs have featured old characters like IM40. My lvl 200 IM40 isn't at a terrible disadvantage compared to the lvl 250 max character. The Rocket and Groot PvP was a different matter entirely, since I had a loaner and others had purchased all the covers already.

In any case, I'm glad that you are enjoying the game more now. I'd keep trying to play at your own pace and see how it goes over a longer run. I am Alliance-free and have been doing everything I can to avoid popular, Alliance dominated brackets for several seasons now. I'm pretty happy with that strategy so far. The unpopular end-times are making it even easier to avoid high-scorers. For me, MPQ feels more like it used to, before Alliances and Seasons were introduced. But not totally, of course, I'm more of a T25 player now, when I used to be T5. It's a small price to pay for not having peer-pressure to score high, IMO.

HailMary

Okin107 wrote:

2 PVPs ago my top scorer was 1100 points, now my top scorer is 2000 points. T25 (2 covers) is completely 100% out of reach for me and T100 is tricky to reach. You see, people did not decide to get so competitive in the next PVP just like that. Nope, the game threw me in a tough bracket because it thought it was logical since I got a good placement the last time around.

Or, this time, you happened to pick an end-time with a bunch of monster players in it. Your bracket leader's score correlates with your own MMR sharding and the luck of your end-time draw.

But, you knew that already:

Okin107 wrote:

I love the time slot change and I can now get covers without even have to shield (At least the T100 cover). 500 points is super easy to get and it will secure you T100. So that was my plan!

You just "forgot" it a few sentences later.

Unknown

If there's a guy with 2000 points in your bracket that'd imply there must be a lot of guys in the 1XXX range that you can queue up normally so it's not as daunting as it looks. Sure you probably won't be hitting 2000 but you can usually have a relatively easy path to 1300 and that should be a good thing for anyone who is still progressing. The lead is a relative thing. In a low point bracket someone sitting at 1000 can easily be well out of reach for you if the vast majority of high scores are in the 800 point range.