Farming for tokens

Unknown

Sounds like brackets are filling slower, meaning you have to be on the ball and start as soon as possible, or somehow luck out and join a relatively new bracket so you aren't too far behind the leaders. If you chose a non-standard slice, it's definitely going to be harder if you start late.

NorthernPolarity

The Viceroy wrote:

The reason why is it seems I get slotted into a sub-bracket even though I haven't completed the fight that opens it.

In this PvE, the people in your main bracket are the people in your sub brackets. This means that joining subs late is NOT an option anymore for sub rewards. In order to get top 100, you basically have to start the sub as soon as it opens, and maintain the 2.5 hour grind throughout the course of the sub. That's exactly what everyone else is doing, and why you aren't getting top 100.

TheViceroy

NorthernPolarity wrote:

The Viceroy wrote:

The reason why is it seems I get slotted into a sub-bracket even though I haven't completed the fight that opens it.

In this PvE, the people in your main bracket are the people in your sub brackets. This means that joining subs late is NOT an option anymore for sub rewards. In order to get top 100, you basically have to start the sub as soon as it opens, and maintain the 2.5 hour grind throughout the course of the sub. That's exactly what everyone else is doing, and why you aren't getting top 100.

That is what I feared, and it is **** terrible and inexcusable.
With people that have normal lives, how is that even manageable to play literally every 2.5 hours non-stop???

If this is the case, this "test" for Event Times for PVE better be only a test, and the next event goes back to how it was. All of the benefits that Event Times have brought are completely cancelled out by this.

I am coping with it on PVP (though don't like it at all), but for PVE it's completely uncalled for.

I've been playing long enough to endure the "PVP Skip Tax" and "True Healing" changes, but this is something of another level.
This is directly impacting my ability to gain covers and HC.

They HAVE TO remove the auto-joining of brackets across the board.

Unknown

The auto joining subs only negatively impacts the guys who are on limited schedule but can grind extremely hard when they're available. Otherwise, you'll be screwed on some subs that are bad for you but you'll be ahead on the subs that fall in nicely to your schedule while being bad for other people. Normally, if you had a sub with a nice schedule for you, you'd also be in a sub with everyone else who had a favorable schedule too.

TheViceroy

Phantron wrote:

The auto joining subs only negatively impacts the guys who are on limited schedule but can grind extremely hard when they're available.

This highlights what is wrong with PVE.

Players shouldn't have to plan their world around freaking event times and when they start & end.
I know many players that have written off PVE because they can't put in the insane amount of time required to get the rewards.

My issue that I can make time for it, and did with every PVE before this one.
Joining a bracket on my own terms starts that clock WHEN I AM READY for it. That's not possible now, so I am missing out on a ****-ton if HC rewards because I'm not at the beck & call of the time's when these events start and/or end.
Auto-joining brackets means that you have to be 100% lockstep with the event for the ENTIRE TIME in order to get any rewards worth a damn. And that is a ridiculous assumption for the devs to make.

Unknown

I don't mind the auto joining of brackets if the underlying dependence on grinding isn't so great. If they're on 4 hour refreshes, it'd soften the grinding factor considerably (but the grinder will still have an advantage). Well, it wouldn't matter for 12 hour subs, but I assume this is not something normal.

fmftint

The Viceroy wrote:

Phantron wrote:

The auto joining subs only negatively impacts the guys who are on limited schedule but can grind extremely hard when they're available.

This highlights what is wrong with PVE.

Players shouldn't have to plan their world around freaking event times and when they start & end.
I know many players that have written off PVE because they can't put in the insane amount of time required to get the rewards.

My issue that I can make time for it, and did with every PVE before this one.
Joining a bracket on my own terms starts that clock WHEN I AM READY for it. That's not possible now, so I am missing out on a tinykitty if HC rewards because I'm not at the beck & call of the time's when these events start and/or end.
Auto-joining brackets means that you have to be 100% lockstep with the event for the ENTIRE TIME in order to get any rewards worth a damn. And that is a ridiculous assumption for the devs to make.

The real issue is competitive PVE. Remove the ladder and it wont matter what slice you are in or when you start

Unknown

Picture this: You're grinding a 2 day and a half PVE to perfection every 2.5 hours, even sacrificing sleep. Then you're late on one refresh, and despite a valiant effort, end up top 25 instead of top 5. Going to the forums to lament your lack of covers, you find someone else joined in the last 20 minutes, did a quick pass of each node twice, and scored top 5!

HOW IS THIS FAIR?! I worked so hard for days and yet someone has gotten more rewards in less than half an hour. What's the point of trying to play the game legit?

Now take this new system: with relatively fixed rubber banding, while it doesn't entirely fix the issue on the global scale, it's a heck of a lot better. If you play hard the entire round, you're a lot more likely to get a better reward than the same (OR WORSE!) reward as someone who started in the last 20 minutes. It takes away the loophole of 'join times' that we used to have.

While I have exploited that myself when it existed, (eg joining last day for easy top 5), the new system seems sort of fairer. Why are people expecting top rewards for EVERY sub, when they're not putting in much effort for EVERY sub? It fricking pisses me off. I don't get why it doesn't annoy all the other vets who are busting their humps and who come into the forums and have to hear all this whining.

TheViceroy

daibar wrote:

Picture this: You're grinding a 2 day and a half PVE to perfection every 2.5 hours, even sacrificing sleep.

That's the definition of a broken system if that's what is required to get the worthwhile rewards from PVE.
It's why many I know have almost completely stopped playing PVE.

Why do people like the Gauntlet so much?
- No rubberbanding
- No scaling
- No "Optimal" playtime windows (aside from the event itself)
- No competitive rankings
- Progression-based Rewards (with multiple 3 star heroes scattered along the way and not just all at the end)

There's also nothing more demoralizing than to wake up and see that you've lost 100+ ranking just because you decided to, I donno, sleep.

Like everyone is saying, get rid of the PVP-like ranking for ALL PVE events, make the rewards progression based, and many of these issues are gone.
Those that want to crazy grind can, but it's not MANDITORY to get any worthwhile rewards because they'd be paced out at a reasonable distribution of points, like the Gauntlet is.

Even better, do it like the Hulk PVE, where there is a community progression bar to unlock the better rewards. That would be a more 'true PVE", as other players would have an affect on your game, but in a POSITIVE way.

Did I just coin a new phrase? "True PVE"?

Carnage_78

The Viceroy wrote:

Even better, do it like the Hulk PVE, where there is a community progression bar to unlock the better rewards. That would be a more "True PVE", as other players would have an affect on your game, but in a POSITIVE way.

I totally agree with you mate...Gauntlet & "True PVE" type of events would indeed be a good thing for players...and would also take out the endless grinding after the last progression reward out of the PVE which is suppose to be you against the environment.

Current PVE should be renamed "PVEP" i.e. Player Versus Environment & Players...

nimvin

Love this event. Love it love it love it. Name one other event where d3 has given out this much iso hp and tokens. It might even be competitive with an equal number of days from the anniversary week. The only max level 3* I have is rags. I have 8 max covered 3* all sitting at 140 for lack of iso. This single event is going to let me hardcap 3 of them.

For those of you complaining about wierd end times for subs or having to sleep or work everyone else has the same problem. Some people work nights. Some goto school in addition to working. Some have a bedtime enforced by parents. Some people's weekend is mon/tue or thur/fri. Everyone complaining about not placing well get over yourselves. The devs aren't here to cater to one person. They have over a million customers to try and please.

With all the complaints people have about hp and iso starvation this event is singlehandedly addressing it.

Unknown

The Viceroy wrote:

daibar wrote:

Picture this: You're grinding a 2 day and a half PVE to perfection every 2.5 hours, even sacrificing sleep.

That's the definition of a broken system if that's what is required to get the worthwhile rewards from PVE.
It's why many I know have almost completely stopped playing PVE.

So you are mad at D3 because other people are working harder and putting more time into a PVE and you aren't willing or able to do the same for top rewards?

I agree that I would love a more casual approach to progression where you can play on your own schedule and time, but until that day comes the rewards go to those who play for them. And there is something about the game that some people go crazy over and will go to great lengths to "win" each event whatever that means to them.

Unknown

Even if Gauntlet become the only format of PvE you can still be sure it'll be tuned such that only 1% of the players can complete it for the 3 3* reward because that's a guideline D3 set out that is independent of the format. While it is always possible to miscalculate, over the long run the guidelines will always win because D3 is the one who sets all the rules in the first place. This would likely mean you'll eventually have a format where enemies scale to level 999 and you cannot use TUs, boosts, Deadpool, X Force, Captain America, and The Hood because that's the minimum needed to prevent 99% of the people from ever completing a Gauntlet event. You probably need a lot more than what I proposed to actually hit this mark and it'd be just as oppressive as now. The primary reason why people like Gauntlet is because it is way too easy. I completed the second one on the first day and that's way too little effort for 3 3* new covers. Currently the Gauntlet is okay because it's an occasionally freebie to make up for the Heroic Juggs and whatnot, the same way how Iso 8 Brotherhood is a large infusion of HP again to make up for stupid events like Unstable Isotope. But if it become the dominant format it'd need to be far more restrictive on who can succeed and nothing would've been changed. If you're not top 1% right now, you likely won't be top 1% in the Gauntlet either, and no, D3 isn't going to just make everyone win everything all the time. It's still going to take an effort equivalent of the top 1% to pull 3 covers just like every other event in the game if Gauntlet is elevated to a common recurring event as opposed to a gift to make up for certain events that nobody want to see again.

Unknown

The primary reason why I liked the gauntlet events was because I was competing solely against myself. I didn't have to think about what other players were doing - I could focus (or not focus) on the event without feeling the need to beat anyone but me.
For the record, I didn't finish either gauntlet (about halfway through sub 3 for each before it got too much for me) but the fact that I could slip in a match here, a match there, without it detrimenting my progress? That was awesome.

Lystrata

NorthernPolarity wrote:

The Viceroy wrote:

The reason why is it seems I get slotted into a sub-bracket even though I haven't completed the fight that opens it.

In this PvE, the people in your main bracket are the people in your sub brackets. This means that joining subs late is NOT an option anymore for sub rewards. In order to get top 100, you basically have to start the sub as soon as it opens, and maintain the 2.5 hour grind throughout the course of the sub. That's exactly what everyone else is doing, and why you aren't getting top 100.

Don't know about that... I played the first two lots of subs twice each, and got T50 in both. For the second last set of subs, I joined immediately, played through each once, then didn't play again until the last hour - was 33 and 34 respectively. Currently rank 44 in main. Didn't even get Gamora progression until yesterday (Tuesday, Australia time).

I can safely say I've put in about 3 hours of play time for the entire event. Either I'm in with a crazy relaxed group of players, or... I don't know what. But I certainly haven't played every sub, every 2.5 hours. Not even close. And I'll definitely end T100, likely T50.

Unknown

Lystrata wrote:

NorthernPolarity wrote:

The Viceroy wrote:

The reason why is it seems I get slotted into a sub-bracket even though I haven't completed the fight that opens it.

In this PvE, the people in your main bracket are the people in your sub brackets. This means that joining subs late is NOT an option anymore for sub rewards. In order to get top 100, you basically have to start the sub as soon as it opens, and maintain the 2.5 hour grind throughout the course of the sub. That's exactly what everyone else is doing, and why you aren't getting top 100.

Don't know about that... I played the first two lots of subs twice each, and got T50 in both. For the second last set of subs, I joined immediately, played through each once, then didn't play again until the last hour - was 33 and 34 respectively. Currently rank 44 in main. Didn't even get Gamora progression until yesterday (Tuesday, Australia time).

I can safely say I've put in about 3 hours of play time for the entire event. Either I'm in with a crazy relaxed group of players, or... I don't know what. But I certainly haven't played every sub, every 2.5 hours. Not even close. And I'll definitely end T100, likely T50.

Your sub is the same guys as your main, so if you had an easy main you also had an easy sub, and vice versa. Unlike the past where it's possible for any combination of hardcore/casual between main/sub, this new format is all or nothing.

Nellobee

All I know is that as a semi-casual (by forum standards) player, this felt like progression. Whereas most PvEs make me feel like I need a bargeload of diminutive feline-tons to get anywhere, this one felt nice. Almost.....fun?

Lystrata

Phantron wrote:

Lystrata wrote:

NorthernPolarity wrote:

The Viceroy wrote:

The reason why is it seems I get slotted into a sub-bracket even though I haven't completed the fight that opens it.

In this PvE, the people in your main bracket are the people in your sub brackets. This means that joining subs late is NOT an option anymore for sub rewards. In order to get top 100, you basically have to start the sub as soon as it opens, and maintain the 2.5 hour grind throughout the course of the sub. That's exactly what everyone else is doing, and why you aren't getting top 100.

Don't know about that... I played the first two lots of subs twice each, and got T50 in both. For the second last set of subs, I joined immediately, played through each once, then didn't play again until the last hour - was 33 and 34 respectively. Currently rank 44 in main. Didn't even get Gamora progression until yesterday (Tuesday, Australia time).

I can safely say I've put in about 3 hours of play time for the entire event. Either I'm in with a crazy relaxed group of players, or... I don't know what. But I certainly haven't played every sub, every 2.5 hours. Not even close. And I'll definitely end T100, likely T50.

Your sub is the same guys as your main, so if you had an easy main you also had an easy sub, and vice versa. Unlike the past where it's possible for any combination of hardcore/casual between main/sub, this new format is all or nothing.

Yah. Main point was really that it's not necessarily set in stone that you have to grind an event to be T100. #1 in my main had well over double my points, so for T10, sure, grinding may have been a factor. But I was (as predicted) T50 myself, with very, very little game play.

Though it could also be partly due to general burnout, season break, an underwhelming (compared with the 3 PvEs prior) reward, etc., which just caused a bunch of people to play more casually.

GrumpySmurf1002

Phantron wrote:

The primary reason why people like Gauntlet is because it is way too easy.
I completed the second one on the first day and that's way too little effort for 3 3* new covers.
If you're not top 1% right now, you likely won't be top 1% in the Gauntlet either, and no, D3 isn't going to just make everyone win everything all the time.

Just isolating these sentences and reminding you're part of the 1% here.

Gauntlet was certainly easier the 2nd go around, but there's definitely a high, high percentage lot of people who aren't finishing it because of its difficulty. It's a nice event because their is no time-stress associated, and the opponents are actually variable. But I wouldn't call it 'easy.'

Unknown

I know I'm in the minority in the forums, but I think the gauntlet usually sucks.

Once you've finished the nodes, there's nothing to do.
If you get stuck on a node, there's no new sub the next day.
Too many boosts are semi-required for some of the harder nodes.
If you don't have the required hero, you can't get any decent rewards.
At least in normal PVE, you've still got a chance to rank if you attack the nodes you can.
In normal PVE, they give you an opportunity to earn the required hero. Not so with gauntlet.