Gauntlet, Are you kidding me?

TLCstormz

Do the nodes / battles / gauntlets here SCALE? Like PvE? Or not at all?

Thanks.

Unknown

TLCstormz wrote:

Do the nodes / battles / gauntlets here SCALE? Like PvE? Or not at all?

Thanks.

In the last Gauntlets every Node you did raised the level of all other Nodes.

Ryz-aus

Made it through the second one in 9th - had to use iso boosts but spending hp wasn't required. Leaving the third until later.

Unknown

I wonder if D3 thinks the $5 they made from each of the top 10 finishers plus maybe the 10 guys immediately behind them, if even that (it's hard to imagine needing more than 500 HP worth of boosts to beat the first two brackets) was worth destroying whatever goodwill they may have had with the Gauntlet. Is a couple hundred dollars really worth reminding everyone how broken this game is when you boost every match? The funny thing is that this round of Gauntlet opponents are pretty well thought out, but you sure wouldn't know that if you were max boosting and trying to power your way in a mad dash for another 2500 iso 8. BTW I didn't even make an attempt for the top 10 because it wasn't worth spending a few thousand iso to try to win 2500 more, but seeing the rate those score were going up is a painful reminder of how silly this game becomes when you boost every fight.

Unknown

"The irony of this is that the only people who will win the Gauntlet 10-pack are people with cheatcodes rosters who don't even NEED the pack."

Too true.

MPQ used to be good at keeping players in a league with other players who are similarly leveled.
When I first started playing, 3-4 weeks in as a new player, I placed first in a Deadpool event that nabbed me three Frank Castle covers and an Inivisble Woman, and it wasn't even difficult.
Now, I'd have to struggle and sacrifice my social life just to break top 50 in most events.

Something is amiss.

Unknown

Ryz-aus wrote:

Made it through the second one in 9th - had to use iso boosts but spending hp wasn't required. Leaving the third until later.

I spent some HP boosts, but mostly that was just for speed. Came in 4th in the second after sprinting through everything but the essentials in the first. Went back after a break and grabbed 434 in the first one.

The blitz thing was fun, but looking at the token odds, it's pretty much a heroic 10-pack, so I won't likely be rushing it again. With sub 1 and 2 done, I'll probably pick at 3 over the next few days but not care about when I finish. No sprinting there.

I'm impressed Bee finished 1st in the 1st, and 3rd in the second. That's some crazy grinding.

Ryz-aus

j12601 wrote:

Ryz-aus wrote:

Made it through the second one in 9th - had to use iso boosts but spending hp wasn't required. Leaving the third until later.

I spent some HP boosts, but mostly that was just for speed. Came in 4th in the second after sprinting through everything but the essentials in the first. Went back after a break and grabbed 434 in the first one.

The blitz thing was fun, but looking at the token odds, it's pretty much a heroic 10-pack, so I won't likely be rushing it again. With sub 1 and 2 done, I'll probably pick at 3 over the next few days but not care about when I finish. No sprinting there.

I'm impressed Bee finished 1st in the 1st, and 3rd in the second. That's some crazy grinding.

He, flare808 and Puerto Rico got top 10 in both - even with hp spending that's crazy fast to beat those of us who skipped the first essentials.

Unknown

I'm just pretending they don't exist.

10000 person brackets? They put the rewards in simply to mock people. 0.1% of people get a 10 pack. Everyone else gets 100 or maybe 250 ISO.

It makes me incredibly bitter seeing that, but I am trying to just push past it and pretend they don't exist.

If they really wanted people to go hard, they'd give actually decent rewards for completion.

Like a 4hor cover. Or an Xforce cover.

Something people might actually push for.

Unknown

j12601 wrote:

Ryz-aus wrote:

Made it through the second one in 9th - had to use iso boosts but spending hp wasn't required. Leaving the third until later.

I spent some HP boosts, but mostly that was just for speed. Came in 4th in the second after sprinting through everything but the essentials in the first. Went back after a break and grabbed 434 in the first one.

The blitz thing was fun, but looking at the token odds, it's pretty much a heroic 10-pack, so I won't likely be rushing it again. With sub 1 and 2 done, I'll probably pick at 3 over the next few days but not care about when I finish. No sprinting there.

I'm impressed Bee finished 1st in the 1st, and 3rd in the second. That's some crazy grinding.

The token is different I think. You should have won a 2 star Gauntlet token for progression but the top10 reward is a 3 Star token.
Just for comparison the Heroic 10 pack in the season progressions has only 2 stars, just like the single tokens, so the top10 token has to be something else.

All the negativity is surprising. All D3 did was increase the prize support for the people who don't care about the Gauntlet. There are tons of people who already have the chars, what are they supposed to do? For those few people they put in the top10 rewards so they have something to play for, I'm sure it's quite exciting for them. You also win pride points.
Yet there are people whining about "destroyed goodwill" and "stolen prizes". It's laughable.

Unknown

onimus wrote:

I'm just pretending they don't exist.

10000 person brackets? They put the rewards in simply to mock people. 0.1% of people get a 10 pack. Everyone else gets 100 or maybe 250 ISO.

It makes me incredibly bitter seeing that, but I am trying to just push past it and pretend they don't exist.

And what does D3 get out of this? Maybe $100? Look, I know player goodwill isn't worth much so if they think they got a shot at even a number measured in the 1000s they should definitely go for it, but they do not! Even if 20 guys all spent 500 HP (and 10 of them failed to place top 10 but somehow that totally didn't make them angry or anything) that's $100 at the worst money to HP conversion rate, even though I"m not sure how you're even supposed to spend 500 HP worth of boosts to finish the first two brackets (that's 50 AP+3 all boosts, I guess it's possible to use that much if you're just super wasteful). Do they really think people were going to buy 25 health packs to try to come in top 10 instead of err, using iso 8 boost on every fight and possibly adding a few HP boosts at 30 HP per fight if needed?

Unknown

A desperate and poorly-thought-out cash grab.

Joke's on them, this is a free game and I like to keep it that way.

scottee

They increase rewards; people complain.

I'm thinking of a sentence that starts with a small feline and ends with a word that rhymes with bore'em.

DrStrange-616

It's the perception of it more than the reality. It's a shiny thing that will add to a "rich player's" token pile and the rest get virtual crumbs. It's all a bonus on what was offered, but it looks like cake for a few and crumbs for the unwashed masses.

Unknown

I'm getting tired of the "cash grab" reactions to EVERYTHING.

First, they're in the business to make money. It should not be difficult to understand, if they don't make money, there is no game. Again, if they don't get money from someone, there is no free game for those that don't want or cannot spend money.

Second, no one is making any one go for the 10 packs. The gauntlet still has the same rewards as before. You know the same rewards that we're good enough before. The only difference is they added a reward that equates to first place on 1000 person brackets. In other words, they are not cutting back on the regular reward tier; they were generous enough to try and do something different that does not affect anyone that liked the way the gauntlet has been in the past.

Unknown

The_Valeyard wrote:

I'm getting tired of the "cash grab" reactions to EVERYTHING.

First, they're in the business to make money. It should not be difficult to understand, if they don't make money, there is no game. Again, if they don't get money from someone, there is no free game for those that don't want or cannot spend money.

Second, no one is making any one go for the 10 packs. The gauntlet still has the same rewards as before. You know the same rewards that we're good enough before. The only difference is they added a reward that equates to first place on 1000 person brackets. In other words, they are not cutting back on the regular reward tier; they were generous enough to try and do something different that does not affect anyone that liked the way the gauntlet has been in the past.

It's not a big deal at all, but it is what it is: a cash-grab. I would probably be doing the same if I ran things over there. Gotta make money somehow, no need to white-knight for them. Conversely, people do have the right to complain when certain rewards blatantly appeal to that 1% of players who don't mind dropping $50 on this game on any given day. That is a valid complaint for people who invest a lot of time in the game with little reward. But the fact of that matter is, that aforementioned 1% of players is probably the only reason this game still has a dev team actively working on it.

scottee

Daggg wrote:

The_Valeyard wrote:

I'm getting tired of the "cash grab" reactions to EVERYTHING.

First, they're in the business to make money. It should not be difficult to understand, if they don't make money, there is no game. Again, if they don't get money from someone, there is no free game for those that don't want or cannot spend money.

Second, no one is making any one go for the 10 packs. The gauntlet still has the same rewards as before. You know the same rewards that we're good enough before. The only difference is they added a reward that equates to first place on 1000 person brackets. In other words, they are not cutting back on the regular reward tier; they were generous enough to try and do something different that does not affect anyone that liked the way the gauntlet has been in the past.

It's not a big deal at all, but it is what it is: a cash-grab. I would probably be doing the same if I ran things over there. Gotta make money somehow, no need to white-knight for them. Conversely, people do have the right to complain when certain rewards blatantly appeal to that 1% of players who don't mind dropping $50 on this game on any given day. That is a valid complaint for people who invest a lot of time in the game with little reward. But the fact of that matter is, that aforementioned 1% of players is probably the only reason this game still has a dev team actively working on it.

This isn't even a cash grab. Go read the event thread. People got top 10 mostly with iso boosts. Most reported not buying any healthpacks. Maybe some +3 alls at the end, which you don't have to buy because they give them away all the time.

New theory: people aren't skilled enough to be good at this game, so they assume people doing better than them must be spending lots of money.

Flare808

People need to calm down. Like others have said, the guaranteed 3* progressions are still there. They haven't been replaced at all. Honestly, outside of the top 25ish people in a bracket, there really is no race. People should be smart enough to realize that once the top 10 fills or they're way ahead, you can relax and play the Guantlet normally. They will make some money off health packs from a few people who are close to the top, but I would think that amount is minimal in the grand scheme of things.

Just for illustration purposes. I spent about 1100 HP net to finish the Gauntlet on health packs and some +3 AP boosts. In addition to that, I color boosted every node in the second and third portions. That is not an outlandish amount of HP. That amount is well within the range of the FTP group of the community.

Unknown

scottee wrote:

Daggg wrote:

The_Valeyard wrote:

I'm getting tired of the "cash grab" reactions to EVERYTHING.

First, they're in the business to make money. It should not be difficult to understand, if they don't make money, there is no game. Again, if they don't get money from someone, there is no free game for those that don't want or cannot spend money.

Second, no one is making any one go for the 10 packs. The gauntlet still has the same rewards as before. You know the same rewards that we're good enough before. The only difference is they added a reward that equates to first place on 1000 person brackets. In other words, they are not cutting back on the regular reward tier; they were generous enough to try and do something different that does not affect anyone that liked the way the gauntlet has been in the past.

It's not a big deal at all, but it is what it is: a cash-grab. I would probably be doing the same if I ran things over there. Gotta make money somehow, no need to white-knight for them. Conversely, people do have the right to complain when certain rewards blatantly appeal to that 1% of players who don't mind dropping $50 on this game on any given day. That is a valid complaint for people who invest a lot of time in the game with little reward. But the fact of that matter is, that aforementioned 1% of players is probably the only reason this game still has a dev team actively working on it.

This isn't even a cash grab. Go read the event thread. People got top 10 mostly with iso boosts. Most reported not buying any healthpacks. Maybe some +3 alls at the end, which you don't have to buy because they give them away all the time.

New theory: people aren't skilled enough to be good at this game, so they assume people doing better than them must be spending lots of money.

I really enjoy this game because I've managed to do pretty well without even spending much money at all. In my opinion, that takes more skill than just spending money when you can't get ahead in the game.

And yes, it is a cash grab. Whether it's on a small scale or a large scale, most things in this game have some element that pushes players to think about spending money. A lot of cell phone games work this way. Again, they need income to keep this game going, and that is ok.

GothicKratos

I feel like this is a nice ideal on how to keep The Gauntlet from being a competitive grindfest, but also giving the folks that still want to have some kind of placing.

That being said, I feel like it's poor execution (but they are entitled to that, this is the first time they've tried something like this for The Gauntlet). I feel like (at least) one of the following should have happened;

* Smaller brackets. Not 100 man brackets, but the usual 10,000 player brackets make it to where practically only the first fifteen or so players to enter have a real chance. 1,000 player brackets maybe? 500? I don't know the right answer, but I know 10,000 is not the right answer either.

* More unique prize tiers. I feel like the ten-pack is a great top prize, but giving it only to the top ten and then giving the other 9,990 players a Standard Token? I understand the ten-pack is supposed to be a fancy carrot, but this is why people feel like it's "too competitive" (even though The Gauntlet is still giving away great Progression Awards, so I feel like they're over-reacting). They're giving away a prize to the 0.01% and nobody else gets anything. Give away some Heroics, give away some Gauntlet Tokens, give away some clumps of ISO-8.

* Smaller prizes. Honestly, a ten-pack isn't a big deal, but it sounds shiny, so everyone gets up in arms about it. Additionally, it is very much so in a different league of prize than just a single Standard Token. There's a big discrepancy here. If you would having been giving away a block of HP and ISO, or single Gauntlet Tokens, or Heroic Tokens - those things would have felt like icing on the cake.

NorthernPolarity

Daggg wrote:

The_Valeyard wrote:

I'm getting tired of the "cash grab" reactions to EVERYTHING.

First, they're in the business to make money. It should not be difficult to understand, if they don't make money, there is no game. Again, if they don't get money from someone, there is no free game for those that don't want or cannot spend money.

Second, no one is making any one go for the 10 packs. The gauntlet still has the same rewards as before. You know the same rewards that we're good enough before. The only difference is they added a reward that equates to first place on 1000 person brackets. In other words, they are not cutting back on the regular reward tier; they were generous enough to try and do something different that does not affect anyone that liked the way the gauntlet has been in the past.

It's not a big deal at all, but it is what it is: a cash-grab. I would probably be doing the same if I ran things over there. Gotta make money somehow, no need to white-knight for them. Conversely, people do have the right to complain when certain rewards blatantly appeal to that 1% of players who don't mind dropping $50 on this game on any given day. That is a valid complaint for people who invest a lot of time in the game with little reward. But the fact of that matter is, that aforementioned 1% of players is probably the only reason this game still has a dev team actively working on it.

Calling this a cash grab is just straight up dumb. Even if there were say 100 people, each of which spent 1000 HP on boosts and health packs, that's an entire 500 dollars profit for Demiurge! Considering how they're earning what, 20-30k a day, they'd have to be idiots if they actually implemented this feature with the intention of making any meaningful amounts of money.

The developers added this as an alternative for the higher level people who wanted to try a speed-run through the Gauntlet, and nothing else.