Folks be grindin'

Unknown

aesthetocyst wrote:

Well, it used to be worse. MUCH worse. It used to be a NON-STOP grind. 3-day events, first place to whoever can play constantly and wipe the least.

After several tweaks to PVE, we are now at the "1/6th reduction, 48hr regen model", which mandates clearing once at the beginning, once every 8hrs, and then up to 6x at end to squeeze out maximum points.

30min every 8hrs and 2hrs at end is a whole lot better than 3 days nonstop!

It may sound strange, but I liked the game more those days (1+ year ago), mostly because there were no multiple brackets and joining a fresh one wasn't that hard. Then all you had to do is play for 1 day and get the rewards. Now, you either join from day 1 and you have to arrange your social life around these ridiculous 8-hour refreshes for a week, or you try to join a bracket 1-2 days before the event ends, but with multiple brackets open, you will often join as #600 which means it's game over.

firethorne

Yep, I started late. I have no points, and got grouped with people who already have gone well above the top progression reward four days from event end. This just isn't fun.

Growth industry is still great. That needs to be the direction for PvE. Enemy of the state isn't actually PvE, but just an insane point grind race competition against other players. I can clear every node and still end with a recruit token or ** Captain marvel. Not worth it.

tanis3303

I had an "Aha!" moment after the end of the PvE that awarded Thing. I managed a top 10 finish on that one, but to do so I had to cancel plans with friends so I could grind down the end of one of the subs. I finished in 7th place by just a few points over 10th place, then the next PvE started - Venom Heroic. While it was kinda cool to see the redesigned structure and see that it was wrapped in a shiny Spider Man theme, this was easily the worst event I've ever played in due to the **** "allowed" roster, the useless rewards (to me at least, no offense intended) and all the Goon+Carnage nodes. That shiny, fancy Thing that I just neglected friends to win? I used him one time. ONE. I played one of the Things essentials with my practically useless 1/1/2, lvl 70 Thing vs lvl 250 enemies, got incredibly frustrated, realized my roster wouldn't suffer at all if I just sat the rest of the event out, and Thing has sat on my roster, unused, ever since. (I used the loaner in his PvP since a 1/1/1 that never took any real damage was actually better than my 1/1/2 Thing)

This is when I decided that playing PvE for top spots simply isn't worth the time or effort. I love my alliance, so when a new character comes around, I will hit my refreshes as they come up to help out my comrades, but this nonsense of playing each node 6 times at the end of a sub? I couldn't be more done with that.* I got my Ant Man from growth industry, and even if I was to play for the 48+ hours that would be required to t10 Enemy of the State, I would have a 1/2/2 Ant Man. That's completely worthless. A that's not completely covered does essentially nothing. I can hit 1,000 in PvP without even shielding since the point increase, and it takes about 2 hours. I feasibly could top 10 every PvE if I wanted to, but why? How is it worth it? Yes, the next PvE is going to require the new character, but there's a 95% chance that I won't need the rewards on offer from the event. Heck, the only 3* character I even need is Bullseye, everyone else is fully covered.

So I've been playing EotS casually, hitting my refreshes as they come up and maybe running the survival nodes a 2nd time near the end of the sub. That's it. I'm pretty solidly in t100 in my bracket doing this, and I've had no stress, haven't had to neglect any friends or family, haven't lost any sleep and when it's all said and done, my roster simply isn't going to suffer much. PvE can bite a big one.

*There's one exception: when they release Gambit, woe to the other 999 people that end up in my bracket.

Lemminkäinen

Malcrof wrote:

Mu slice is a mess, i am well over final progression already, barely hanging on to t20..

That's nothing. I'm barely t100 and I passed the final progression a long, long time ago.

There really, really should be more rewards even if they are just 25HP every 20000 points or whatever else inane.

DCUDCU

I'm finally far along in getting 3*, with five 166 of Thor/Cyclops/Magneto/Iron Fist/Luke Cage, along with other fully covered 3* at 122..and I'm trainsitioning my focus from PVE to PVP. Obviously new character events are the exception.

I'm just targeting being top 10 for my sub everyday and that keeps me top 10, I have been 5th or 6th each day and currently already way past progression at 116K, but I can see why this is all totally annoying and gets old at some point.

It really is more for moving up in the 2 to 3 transition, especially in events for older characters many already have.

Orion

I don't mind grinding, and I'm actually pretty good at it. After the 2nd sub of Enemy of the State, I'm in 2nd place. But what I do mind is grinding Every. Single. Day. for a 7 day event. Bring back more 2 or 3 day subs, please!

PeterGibbons316

Having the same problem. Hit final progression this morning with over 3d left and was just barely in top 50.

DCUDCU

Orion wrote:

I don't mind grinding, and I'm actually pretty good at it. After the 2nd sub of Enemy of the State, I'm in 2nd place. But what I do mind is grinding Every. Single. Day. for a 7 day event. Bring back more 2 or 3 day subs, please!

Yesterday doing a sub close and pvp was pretty busy. I'm sure Wednesday night I'll be mad about particpating so much. Hopefully next PVE is somebody I don't need.

puppychow

aesthetocyst wrote:

Well, it used to be worse. MUCH worse. It used to be a NON-STOP grind. 3-day events, first place to whoever can play constantly and wipe the least.

when I first joined MPQ over a year ago, the refresh was 2 1/2 hours. So it was a question of who could sleep LESS and have no life outside of MPQ pve events.

Various38

Unfortunately I'm one of the grinders in this event because I've tried several attempts to get to 1000 in pvp and failed even with shield hopping. This allows me to at least have a multiple covered 4* without getting hit every two seconds when I'm about to hit the 800 mark. My roster is still developing in the 3* range even at 127+ characters. Grinding for the next 3 days will be hard as I'm barely cracking the T50 mark now.

JVReal

Grinders will grind... with or without community scaling.

It feels like the grinders are the ones upset about community scaling being gone, because it eliminated their ability to box people out by artificially increasing the strength of nodes other people hadn't played yet. That's like being upset that you can still see the guy you just passed on the highway in your rearview mirror... you passed him, he's not supposed to still be able to catch up to you if he wanted to! The highway is supposed to close down behind me!

hex706f726368

JVReal wrote:

Grinders will grind... with or without community scaling.

It feels like the grinders are the ones upset about community scaling being gone, because it eliminated their ability to box people out by artificially increasing the strength of nodes other people hadn't played yet. That's like being upset that you can still see the guy you just passed on the highway in your rearview mirror... you passed him, he's not supposed to still be able to catch up to you if he wanted to! The highway is supposed to close down behind me!

Not sure that analogy works for me. Looking at a couple of the rosters in front of me, they are both under-leveled, but well covered, which I assume means their personal scaling is lower to match their roster strength. So, I think, if I complain through analogy, it'd be that even though I have a faster car, that I spent a lot of time (maybe some $$$) building, I'm getting detoured to another highway where I have to drive over a steeper mountain to get to the same destination.

I'm not complaining yet though, I'll save it until after I see how the whole event plays out first. The analogy you made just struck me as off a bit.

Linkster79

Linkster79 wrote:

A viable tavtic if ypu aren't fussed about progression is join a shard near the end time and hope for a new bracket. This has risks though as you may join a nearly full bracket.

Just joined a slice amd got entered into a bracket wirh 998 players, took a gamble and it didnt pay off. C'est la vie.

Still finished top 50 of the sub though so not all bad and hopefully I will get full progression for the event.

stochasticism

Linkster79 wrote:

Linkster79 wrote:

A viable tavtic if ypu aren't fussed about progression is join a shard near the end time and hope for a new bracket. This has risks though as you may join a nearly full bracket.

Just joined a slice amd got entered into a bracket wirh 998 players, took a gamble and it didnt pay off. C'est la vie.

Still finished top 50 of the sub though so not all bad and hopefully I will get full progression for the event.

Which slice?

Linkster79

Not sure if 3 or 4. Has 2 days 23 hours remaining as new sub Hells Kitchen has just opened up. I always pick the one that ends 2200 UTC for weeks I work day shift.

TxMoose

that is slice 3 where there is allegedly 2 open vet slices. I think the other slice 3 is in the 700s. its still a risk.

Linkster79

Current leader is tfp888 with 111149 points closely followed by qwerty55 with 108827 points. Hope the info helps.

Buret0

I've noticed that if I stay up from rollover at 1:00 AM and double tap the whole board, I'm generally able to then pick up and grind out a top 10 finish pretty easily after work rather than waking up and doing a second round too early by hitting it again before work.

The thing I love about Enemy of the State is those five round nodes that are worth a ton of points. Where other people seem to leave points on the board by failing to grind those nodes to dust, I will do so. Maybe other people just think that those nodes are too long, but seeing as they are the only really 'different' kind of node in the game, they are my favorite and the reason that I love Enemy of the State.

As brutal as the ninjas can be from time to time, I'd still rather face 10 round nodes of level 200+ ninjas than to face a neverending series of dark avenger feeder nodes. I even don't mind when Wolverine shows up in the middle of a round (unannounced) and unleashes adamantium claws on me. Because I'll remember for my next refresh when he shows up and I'll be ready for him.

Just remember Buret0's second rule of Puzzle Land:

wiz_biz

TxMoose wrote:

that is slice 3 where there is allegedly 2 open vet slices. I think the other slice 3 is in the 700s. its still a risk.

i thought i'd throw caution to the wind and join since i'm not too bothered by getting the rewards here...got dumped in the not-so-fresh slice 3 vet bracket (sherlock1 in 1st w/ 122030)...currently only 639 players, doubt it fills

choose wisely!

Heartburn

did they have the difficulty increased at the end of xmansion. In the runs i scraped off the top pretty easily but now clearing down i'm losing 1/2 the time with fully healed boosted characters. unlucky? or something else? What are you guys seeing in your grinds. Was scaling turned back on?