What If... PvEs Felt WORTH The Grind?

user311

At the end of the season there is too much PVP to get done and trying to keep awake to do those and PVE is tough. Unfortunately just missing a single refresh cycle can pretty much make any grinding you may have done worthless. I would have rather seen no PVE the last week of a season.

Unknown

This last IF pve was brutal for me.

I finished 8th and got all 3 covers.
The sentry node/cover was a nice touch (if you needed the cover given out and I did)

But other than that it was stressful, too hard, too time consuming, etc

I hit a wall around day 2 where the ai levels became crazy and I could not beat any nodes without boosting, even worse than that if I dared not to boost I would get one shot by a goon or the TU cover the ai brought in with them or of course the never ending cpu cascade when I have them cornered with low health.

So it became either boost and wipe the cpu out within 6 moves or pay a heavy price.

It just was not any fun at all.

One battle that stood out to me as **** was I had the AI down to just IM40 and he had 1 less red than needed to blast me. I carefully matched any red, strategically keeping it away from him. Around 800hp left he decided he didnt need the ap required and unleashed it on me. Blatant cheating.

Oh one other plus, the last day events never scaled up. This made the last day better than the previous 5 because I could develop strategies. I even wrote the teams I needed for each node on a piece of paper. And it let me also have a chance to think about and test out other team combinations to try on nodes. That to me is gaming.

It just should not be this mentally and physically draining to play a pve.

simonsez

Worldrevolver wrote:

I finished 8th and got all 3 covers.

It just should not be this mentally and physically draining to play a pve.

You beat 992 out of 1000 other players. Why would anyone think that should be easy to accomplish?

Unknown

simonsez wrote:

Worldrevolver wrote:

I finished 8th and got all 3 covers.

It just should not be this mentally and physically draining to play a pve.

You beat 992 out of 1000 other players. Why would anyone think that should be easy to accomplish?

But you ignored these other important points he (assuming Worldrevolver is a man) he was trying to highlight:

He spoke about how he was only able to win using boosts at a certain point.
He spoke about how it was mentally and physically draining.
He spoke about how it was not fun

Unknown

For the boost issue it's irrelevent because high end anything is going to boil down to boosts. It's not like you'll be shield hopping without boosts unless you really like to see a shield hop blow up in your face. I can't remember the last PvE node I had to use AP+3 all boosts, so even with the insane level it's still not nearly as hard relative to the time constrain faced in a PvP shield hop. I think boosts are a problem in general but it's certainly not specific to one type of event.

The only complaint I have for PvE is that they need to make up their mind on the type of scaling, like Meet R&G you have end of subs nodes in the 250 range, and I had nodes that started at level 320 on Thunderbolt Mountains, and I play the same way in every event so these two events obviously aren't remotely similar in scaling. A 2* roster will do much better in Meet R&G compared to Prodigal Sun, and they need to make up their mind on whether this is supposed to be the case because it's really stupid to try to figure this out. Maybe the events themselves need to be classified as 'normal' or 'hard' so that you're not wasting your time only to find that you got beaten by someone with only 2*s because it was a low scaling event.

simonsez

MikeHock wrote:

But you ignored these other important points

I don't see how any of that is relevant. How many things can you think of in which you can achieve top 1% status without incurring some of the misery that goes along with reaching that pinnacle?

Wonko33

SnowcaTT wrote:

If every 1000 rotated 500 iso / 25 HP / 500 ISO / Heroic token - then it would be worth grinding past the progression (which is only occasionally worth getting to in the first place).

that would be nice, when you hit that last progressions and there are 3-4 days left for Patch Rewards that you've had fully covered for over a year..... it's like : I better get Whales TUs from the newer alliance mates that are begging to place high

Unknown

Yeah I agree.

It just makes you wonder, do I want to put in the hours and hours of work it takes to finish top 10?

I was chatting in the alliance lines and people with "less" covers were having a much better time and easily placing top 25.

So I guess my problem is my roster.

Best cover is a 168 xforce
I have 7 more over level 100
Then a whole mess of covers from under 100 to level 40.

And it gives me nodes with the cpu at 166 (fair fight) sometimes but more often in the 200 to 270 range.

If a node is kind enough to be level 45 I try to fight with covers at the same level to hopefully stay away from the scaling hoodoo but more for just mixing it up and taking a new team out for a spin.

I guess writing this what I would like is if the cpu actually scaled with your roster. I get that the devs want you to buy health packs and maybe I stop writing right here because that is what its all about. Face overpowering opponents, spend boosts, die at a frustrating pace and pay for health packs if you want to continue.

Nowhere does d3 say we assure you this game is easy, I get it.

But I am sitting here shell shocked after the effort it took during that 6 day slog.

Edit: simon, you summed it up perfectly, misery, but like I wrote above, other people are coasting along and placing top 25. Something just seems wrong.

Unknown

simonsez wrote:

MikeHock wrote:

But you ignored these other important points

I don't see how any of that is relevant. How many things can you think of in which you can achieve top 1% status without incurring some of the misery that goes along with reaching that pinnacle?

I'm guessing Worldrevolver would disagree that those points are irrelevant. Why do you think he would make a post like that? I absolutely do think it matters that it wasn't fun to achieve what he achieved.

Unknown

simonsez wrote:

MikeHock wrote:

But you ignored these other important points

I don't see how any of that is relevant. How many things can you think of in which you can achieve top 1% status without incurring some of the misery that goes along with reaching that pinnacle?

Top 1% status in one event on a mobile game is not a pinnacle, this is not an accomplishment you can brag to your grandkids about one day. It is a game, it should be fun. There should not be a point where you have to be miserable to progress past. Why should you have to make yourself miserable to do well? This is not like a sport. You don't have to be in the top 10% of basketball players to be allowed a ball, or shoes. Why should it be an obvious given that only people who make themselves miserable should be allowed to play with a new character? That just doesn't make sense. Obviously the devs want us to compete, but that doesn't mean its a universal rule that only those who compete at the top are entitled to earn prizes that help you enjoy playing the game...

simonsez

Cryptobrancus wrote:

It is a game, it should be fun.

Ask a football player if he enjoys 2-a-days. Ask a blackjack player if he enjoys sitting a table keeping a count for 5 hours at a time. Doesn't matter if it's a "game" and it doesn't matter if it's something you perceive as "worthy" or not. Being the best at ANYTHING can't be easy, or else everyone would do it.

Unknown

simonsez wrote:

Cryptobrancus wrote:

It is a game, it should be fun.

Ask a football player if he enjoys 2-a-days. Ask a blackjack player if he enjoys sitting a table keeping a count for 5 hours at a time. Doesn't matter if it's a "game" and it doesn't matter if it's something you perceive as "worthy" or not. Being the best at ANYTHING can't be easy, or else everyone would do it.

My question was why is being the "Best" necessarily a requirement to earn the tools to play the game with. If your drive is to be #1 then the prize shouldn't matter at all. I don't want to dedicate my life to MPQ, I want it to be a game to play when I have time to play a game. But I guess I need to make myself miserable to get enough Cyclops covers to play the game with one of my favorite x-men, because reasons...

Unknown

Ok lets do it again.

I polled the alliance on what their scaling was giving examples of a few nodes.

The results varied wildly.

And again, I was in direct contact to other members of the alliance who were scoring well and not having much trouble at all. Most of them had rosters no more than level 90. I would go browse their rosters and see they did not have many covers that could generate offense, meaning they most likely were playing dozens of turn matches vs the cpu.

They are playing a relaxing fun game and placing top 25.

So is it that the slower your attack/the weaker your roster the more points you generate from nodes?

So maybe the secret is to sell off every cover I have that is over 100.

simonsez

Cryptobrancus wrote:

My question was why is being the "Best" necessarily a requirement to earn the tools to play the game with

As far as I can tell, you can still play MPQ without having 4 Iron Fist covers.

Unknown

This might be a dumb question: Why do you need top 10 to be competitive? If you put in 1/3 of the effort and hit t150 for 1 cover, that'd still let you be competitive in the next PVE. Seems better than making yourself miserable. Top 15% is way easier to hit than top 1% in a veteran bracket.

@WorldRevolver, this is because of sharding based on roster and rank. The people with worse rosters are placed into easier brackets. If they continue to do well, they'll eventually be moved into veteran brackets.

Unknown

simonsez wrote:

Cryptobrancus wrote:

My question was why is being the "Best" necessarily a requirement to earn the tools to play the game with

As far as I can tell, you can still play MPQ without having 4 Iron Fist covers.

I can play with Iron fist without having Iron Fist covers? Neat. How? Do I need to be miserable? Is that the trick?

Ask a ideological question get a snarky reply...le sigh

simonsez

Cryptobrancus wrote:

I can play with Iron fist without having Iron Fist covers? Neat. How?

Why was "you can play without FOUR covers" so confusing to you? See daibar's post if you're still having difficulty. Or just keep trolling, I don't care.

Unknown

Personally, aside from the PVP three day events, I don't think any of the rewards are worth the time sink. I mean, for the overall season reward our Alliance was top 100 and got 25HP, 500 iso (I think) and a single cover for a mediocre character. Bonkers. I have in my head that at the start of the whole season thing the rewards were actually worth making sure you hit every event and score highly, otherwise why would people bother? PvE is a heck of a grind for sure, but making sure you score highly in every event for 21 days for a single cover and peanut-size HP?

It's not really a dig, for all the moaning about the game people still play it in droves on here etc. Just I haven't for a minute thought that the end justifies the reward anyway.

Unknown

Personally, I love PvE, but even then, I've never felt motivated to kick myself through trying to get more than the 150+ I need for the required cover for next event. Don't get me wrong. Even now, I'm camping the last half hour of DPvsMPQ trying to keep myself over 50 in the Villains sub for the 50 HP alone. but it's not an 'aggressive' sort of fighting to push for the extra Punisher covers. There's a clear advantage for large, functioning rosters as I sit on every maxed 2* (I'm a collector, not a competitor), but then again, I'm also the type of person who will gladly sell 3-stars (even ones with 2 covers) I'm not especially fond of until a future where I can have a roster slot for all 62 unique buildable covers. Until then, I start with the ones I like, pray that my draws let me add to them over time while keeping a few slots for switches in and out for required characters. PvEs are just HP grabs for me, through progression, sub top-50s, and the event itself. My alliance is chill and handles the PvP which I contribute a premium to in exchange for the 25 HP per event, all towards the goal of building a bigger roster for less throwaway 3* draws. Enemy of the State boosted my existing Hood, and it's only a matter of time until one of the other 15 3*s I have gets a lucky draw or a lucky break in an upcoming event so I can get another boost and build up more HP for another slot. And isn't that really what the game is about in the end? There's no end. Even if I owned every character, new ones come out, more roster slots to purchase and a bigger nicer collection to show off.

Sure, overdoing it past the the final progression tier is annoying, but I've always been of the mind that scaled up Iso bonuses relative to the strength of the node being refought instead of the flat 20 would be better than trying to skew the existing progession reward tiers. This would apply for Limited Time events only, not prologue chapters, so no grinding Ragnarok. Perhaps little 5 HP rewards possible at a 1% drop rate for beating nodes with villain teams of higher levels than the team you fight them with. I dunno. Just wishful thinking, but I appreciate whatever I can earn already. Maybe if it's a character I really like, I'll go the extra mile, but killing myself for a 1/1/1 to eat up a valuable roster slot that I may end up trashing for the next required character anyway is not in the cards for me.

loroku

Seasick Pirate wrote:

• Placement rewards for each sub are replaced with what we now have for event placement (top 150 = 1 cover, top 50 = 2 covers, etc.).

This is how it worked just a few months ago.

At this point, looking at PvE as ANYTHING other than a stepping stone to get people from the beginning of the 2* transition to the beginning of the 3* transition is a mistake. Yes: the efforts WILDLY outweigh the rewards when you've got a decent 2* and/or 3* roster already. PvE is not for you, in this case. It's for the people who don't even have their first cover for a 3* character and therefore can't just go do DDQ to pretend like they'll ever catch up. And frankly it does a good job of this.

If you're looking to PvE to help build your existing roster, you should stop. DDQ = where that's at. PvE is just to get you started - that's all.