What Championing Won't Do - Closing the 4* to 5* Gap

Stax the Foyer

Championing, sadly, isn’t tuned to close the power gap between 4*s and 5*s.

I’d been holding out hope for this patch and the Champion feature based on statements from IceIX that the rollout of 5*s was being monitored, and that the 4* tier would receive a buff when 5*s became widespread. (I'm paraphrasing, but I don't think I'm mischaracterizing) That buff has apparently come, and it’s a complete joke in terms of closing the gap between 4*s and 5*s.

Just look at the raw numbers. If the covers fall as expected, you’ll pull one 5* cover from a LT for every nine 4* covers that you pull. You’ll also get the occasional 4* cover from progression awards, and if you’re willing to bracket snipe, you’ll get a couple more from PvE. So something like 12-15 4* covers for every 5* cover, assuming that you play pretty hard and you have normal luck with LT draws.

Now, pulling a 4* cover gets you one single Champion level on that character, assuming that the character was worth maxing to 270 to begin with. Pulling a 5* cover gets you fifteen levels on a single character, and those levels are a massive, concentrated boost to the power of that character. I have 8 champion-able 4*s, and one more that I’ll probably be championing. Out of 25 4*s, and growing. I don’t see that number increasing anytime soon.

The expected value of a LT, at this point in the game, is about 0.036 champion levels for each championed 4*, and 0.5 levels per 5*, assuming none have 5 covers in a given color. If you have all 25 maxed, each LT will get you, on average, 0.9 4* champion levels, spread out across your 4* characters, and 1.5 5* levels, spread out across your 5* characters. LTs will continue to increase the gap between your 5*s and your 4*s, at least until maxed 5*s are widespread, even if you have every single 4* maxed.

The numbers just get worse as you have fewer 4*s maxed and championed. For me, I'll get 0.19 4* champion levels for every 5* level I get from a LT (or I would, if I had normal LT luck). Even with other sources of 4* tokens, like heroic tokens and progression/ranking awards, it would take an amazing run of luck and effort to even keep pace with the 5* level gain rate. Those numbers change slightly once you've got one or more 5*s with 5 covers in a given color, but that won't happen anytime soon for the vast majority of players, even high end players.

Championing is a great feature for boosting 2*s, and it’ll help a little bit in the 3* realm as well. For 4*s, though, unless you receive a significant benefit from respeccing, it’s throwing a few crumbs to people with developed 4* rosters and bad token luck, in its current setup. It's inexplicable that they didn't give, at minimum, 2 levels per 4* cover for championed rosters, which would at least allow the gap to close somewhat.

High end progression in this game is now entirely based around LT pulls, and the game is designed so that people with normal to lucky 5* pulls will keep pulling away from the pack, and there's nothing that the unlucky players can do to stop that, even after the Championing feature goes live. It doesn't matter how hard you play, it's all luck, and it isn't how any other tier transition has gone. I haven't had meaningful progression in the last two seasons, and it turns out that the championing feature won't change that in any real way.

mpqr7

True. But what it will do is give you a lot of cool stuff to do and work on, while you wait for more 5*s to fall into your roster!

PeterGibbons316

aesthetocyst wrote:

Hey, it gives the magewhales something to do!

So can champion levels be bought for 2500 HP? That is the real question.

Stax the Foyer

aesthetocyst wrote:

I'll be champing 4s looooooooong before I finish any 5s.

Hey, it gives the magewhales something to do!

I will too, but the point is that 4* progression, even with champing, will be trivial compared to 5* progression.

Magewhales sound awesome, though. Although they probably don't want to cast fire spells.

simonsez

Stax the Foyer wrote:

Magewhales sound awesome, though.

They are!

FaustianDeal

The images I have seen teased suggest a good number of CP and possibly even tokens (legendary ones even) in the champion-level rewards. If that's true this feature could dramatically accelerate the 3* and 4* transitions. Though, no, it won't necessarily help the 4* rosters compete with 5* players.

xellessanova

No, it won't help the 4* transitioners. I left most of my 4*s at 220 cause I don't have the ISO to spare, so I'll be way behind until I can level my cover maxed 4*s.

It's actually a huge bonus for the 5* players because championing will incentivize more people to level into the 270+ range, so 5* players won't get matched with the same 3 other people over and over again after fighting seed teams because those are the only ones at their level.

FaustianDeal

I'm thinking about it the wrong way then, but the screenshot I saw suggests that you get a legendary token for training a 3* to level 167. If that's true that's why I'm viewing this as helpful to the 4* transition. 3* players with finished characters are basically just 1 round of deadpool daily away from a legendary token for every 3* they have finished.

Does it help get you (or me) to the top level of play? Not necessarily. But it seems like lots of people on the cusp of that tier of play could have (up to) an additional 40 legendary draws within the next 40 days. Less if you've been hoarding your DPD rewards for the last couple weeks.