Looks like no one is using shields now

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It used to be, 9 out of the top 10 players would have shields on during a tourney, and now in my bracket, 0 top players are using them. I've stopped using them as well.

I have a feeling the devs will reverse the price hike.

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Positions 2-5 are shielded in my bracket. I don't quite see why this far out but wutevs.

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If we are going to get an accurate sense of how many people are using shields, we would probably need a lot of screen captures of the leaderboards for each 500 player bracket. I'm not jumping in anytime soon, though.

Unknown

Only 1 out if 10 top ranked are using shields in my bracket. They are too expensive for me, so this will be another example of a game change that results in me spending less on the game. I was ok spending a few hps on shields before, but no more.

Similarly, if the game had just stayed in the pre-nerf rags broken state, I would have continued to spend a lot of money chasing OP covers. So as the game "balances," it's eliminating incentive to buy.

Unknown

I noticed people use Shields a lot more towards the end of the tournament. It seems reasonable since that's when it starts getting crazier.

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From the last event,the last 8 hours are the most peaceful.
The most active time is from 1 day 12 hours left to 12 hours left.

This round though, its already hyperactive at 1 day 16 hrs, I think by the end of the tournament ,it should be quite, because top guy don't want -50 every minute on his rating, there are way less people competing in 1600+ rating due to shield usage is too high.

Last round I make to 2400 with people shielding and bagman team, this time it won't happen, I think.

Unknown

I'd bet nearly anything that the HP spent on shields will be less than the last tournament, even with the doubled price. Money talks, so this change should not be permanent.

Unknown

just the top 1 in my bracket is shielded at a paltry 600 points, top 10 is just 300 points so no one else is sheilding especially with > 1 day left

Unknown

Here's the thing. If the top score in a bracket is too low...why bother shielding? If you can now find said top players worth +50 often then grinding up to that 600 point first place is only 12-15 matches. At a match every 3-4 min you are talking less than an hour to make 0 to first place. At 200 hp for 8 hours...why bother? When your score I'm in the thousands there is a point to shielding...but if you are going to have a hard time moving past, say, 800 then why not let yourself drop, save the hp, and try to push in the last few hours and only use a 3 hour shield to hold a high rank with am hour of less left and push it in the last few min if you have to.

Before shields were medium risk medium reward. Now they are high risk medium-to-low reward. That just dontake sense in a cost analysis kind of way. Without others spending on shields nobody does and thusly the attempt to rake in more money falls flat. It WOULD be interesting to see just who exactly is still spending on shields..this early at least. Just high lvls with spare hp? Mostly ppl buying hp? Stupid new players who just don't know better yet and are going to end up pissed and never play the game again after losing their hard earned hp they didn't spend on cover slits because they wanted a3***?

I agree with celebrity, that the net will be down, but the real question will be if the PURCHASD hp will be down...as they cpuldnt care less about players with stock piles of the stuff. Honestly, players with earned stock piles kinda hurt the game for everyone, sorta me included, and it gives a false sense of where thr game is at.

Unknown

Yep. No more high level progression rewards. Nobody shielding to create bump spots to get out of dead zones, and the PVP matchmaking is broken right now.

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I reached nearly 1100 rank points when I was bombarded by a trio of players that started with less then 100.

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I'm almost dreading what's going to happen when I join late tomorrow. I will see a host of people with 700-1000 points, just like the last tournament.



Feels bad. (But i want those 50 points)

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Top 2 in my bracket are shielded. First at 1300 second at 1100 then third at 600 with no shield. Both the top 2 have been shielded all day so I'm guessing they used a 24 hr shield. The tenth place person is at 350.

Unknown

You can only get your point up around 800 points(it's the average score in this tornament at the moment), which is where the competition starts.

You might feel bad when you just start, but I guess you feel worse when you reach 800+, because other people would do what you do, beat you and get 50 points, it's a deadlock after the average score.

It feels like the old 400+ deadlock is moving to 800+ now. Only playing really early can get a higher place due to less competition in the start up, then they need to shield up and possibly have an alt account to beat whoever come up their level with rating 0-100s.

Toxicadam wrote:

I'm almost dreading what's going to happen when I join late tomorrow. I will see a host of people with 700-1000 points, just like the last tournament.



Feels bad. (But i want those 50 points)

Unknown

xinyucao wrote:

You can only get your point up around 800 points(it's the average score in this tornament at the moment), which is where the competition starts.

You might feel bad when you just start, but I guess you feel worse when you reach 800+, because other people would do what you do, beat you and get 50 points, it's a deadlock after the average score.

It feels like the old 400+ deadlock is moving to 800+ now. Only playing really early can get a higher place due to less competition in the start up, then they need to shield up and possibly have an alt account to beat whoever come up their level with rating 0-100s.

Toxicadam wrote:

I'm almost dreading what's going to happen when I join late tomorrow. I will see a host of people with 700-1000 points, just like the last tournament.



Feels bad. (But i want those 50 points)

Lol...if this becomes an "alt account to compete" game...I am done.

Unknown

my bracket:

top1 and top2 shielded and above 900.
top10 got 415.

I sit happily at rank 500, then probably start grinding a couple of hrs before the end. Worked for me in the first round (ended in top 5, got 300pts short to 1st and more than 400 to 3rd).

shield implementation was a brilliant idea. now we go back to "connection lost" times in the last hours of tournament, due to high number of players.

Unknown

Fairly new bracket, to be fair.

Don't expect Demiurge to consider this a wretched failure until no one's shielding all week. A lot of people will be concentrating on their final Hunt placement until not long before the end of Ares 2, in any case.

The change does seem like it might encourage late position snipers to buy health packs - 5 cost only the same as an 8-hour shield, now. If you can schedule around it you still get 15 plus any starting excess by starting 9-12 hours out and using two three-hours, but since the late stages are probably going back to LResque absurdity you might really not want to be playing then if you can help it.

Unknown

The cost increase in shield doesn't change the general behavior of using them. Of course people won't be shielding if they have generally low scores. In my bracket I see the guys with 800+ tend to be shielded. It'll also take time for people to readjust to what's considered a high score to use shields in the first place. If the kind of behavior persists in your bracket, it will be perfectly fine to shield at 500 because that's good for a top 5 finish there. Obviously people currently have expectations of getting higher than 500, but if it is indeed the case you can't easily get above 500, then people who are above 500 will notice this and start shielding too to preserve their lead.

Right now whether your group of players hit 1000 rating is pretty much a make or break point. Once everyone is in that range, everyone gets 100 more HP from progression rewards, and that will greatly increase the likelihood of more people using shields which will help the score even more. But without hitting that 1000 rating for 100 HP, it's hard to see people taking the initiative to shield. Right now the group of players I'm matched with seems to fluctuate in 600-1000, so we're not quite there yet.

Unknown

Yeah, agreed. The actual major change is anyone being able to hit anyone (sort of), not an adjustment to what shields cost. As you say, what might take a while is for people to acknowledge that 500 is a higher score than it was three days ago.

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Veracity wrote:

Fairly new bracket, to be fair.

Don't expect Demiurge to consider this a wretched failure until no one's shielding all week. A lot of people will be concentrating on their final Hunt placement until not long before the end of Ares 2, in any case.

The change does seem like it might encourage late position snipers to buy health packs - 5 cost only the same as an 8-hour shield, now. If you can schedule around it you still get 15 plus any starting excess by starting 9-12 hours out and using two three-hours, but since the late stages are probably going back to LResque absurdity you might really not want to be playing then if you can help it.

Oh hey, that's me at #7! *realizes implications* Welp, it might be hard to get top 5 this time around.

Unknown

I finished my first match a couple hours in. The guy at #1 used to be close to 1100 if not over. He's lost a few hundred points since then.