Gauntlet - Revised

Grantilis

I have been thinking about the new Gauntlet event after experiencing the outrageous scaling. The developers are applying the same measurements and metrics to the Gauntlet event that are being used to every other event. There is a disconnect that occurs because the Gauntlet is unlike other story events. In Gauntlet there is no competition with other players or alliance, no new characters get released on this event. It is purely a measure of your roster against MPQ for moderate rewards. I think with this event difference should be a change in the way you measure progress and how they should be leveled to a more linear approach. First approach would be the removal of scaling for this and keep it as an event with static levels, with rotated characters for each run.

Take for example Wilderness Survival, this sub event is mainly for low level players (1 & 2* characters):
Progression reward are a 2* character and a Recruit Token
I would recommend enemy levels for this should rank from say lvl 25 to lvl 140

For Alpine Tactics, this sub event is for people with a solid 2* roster working on a 3* roster.
Progression reward is a 3* character and Recruit Token
The levels for this event should be from 140 to say 255

For Global Dominiation, this event is for people either in transition to 4* characters. Which is where I am at on day 650 of playing.
Progression rewards is two 3* characters, a 4* character, and a Recruit Token
The levels for this event should go from 255 to around 370

I think you could also make a 4th sub event. This would be for players with a solid 4* roster, even someone working on some 5* characters. This would be the bigger challenge with bigger rewards.
Recommended progression rewards: 4* character, two Recruit Tokens, and ends with a Legendary Token.
The levels for this ranking should go from 370 to about 500

All these are taking boosted characters into account.

Recruit Token (percentages to rewards):
1/80 chance for Legendary Token (1.25%)
3/80 chance for 4* (3.75%)
22/80 chance for 3* (27.5%)
54/80 chance for 2* (67.5%)

This is just a thought.

zodiac339

You know, it really doesn't fit the other, competitive, PVE events. It's like Deadpool's Daily, but over a week and with that much bigger (more rare) reward at the end. Playing it more that way, with static enemy levels to test how well your roster has grown rather than scaling enemies that treat it like the usual competition. Don't even bother with boosting. Truly use the Deadpool Daily as your blueprint: Require a given character in each section for certain parts, unempowered. It would become necessarily harder to those relying on 3-star heroes in the third section as that isn't meant for them any more than the Crash of Titans is meant for a 3 star. Also, this shouldn't be replacing PVE, but supplementing it. Run the Gauntlet Monthly/bi-seasonally, and for the length of a season. Lock the missions when completed. Those with 5 stars that are truly functional should pass without massive difficulty, and they should pass it. It's not to build the 5 stars. Those with maybe 5 covers on a 5 star probably won't pass (not easily anyway) the maxed legendaries that should be guarding the end of the Gauntlet, unless they are backed up by strong legendaries or high level champion rares. But it's one cover. One. People fight tooth and nail over those in normal PVE and in PVP. Let this be an actual test of what people have. So:
1. Required character in each section.
2. No boosted characters.
3. Static enemy levels.
4. Bi-seasonal for the duration of the season.
5. Locked missions on completion

optimus2861

zodiac339 wrote:

It would become necessarily harder to those relying on 3-star heroes in the third section as that isn't meant for them any more than the Crash of Titans is meant for a 3 star.

Why?

The final reward from the 3rd sub is a single 4* cover. There are, what, 30'ish 4* characters now? And Gauntlet lasts a week? And is only run once per quarter, thereabouts? That hardly projects to a lightning-fast 4* progression for the 3*-4* transitioners.

I feel there's no reason other than stinginess that a fully developed 3* roster shouldn't have a fair shot to complete the 3rd sub of the Gauntlet. Perhaps a 4th sub should be added that would be geared toward the 4* players, which would potentially reward a second 4* cover (maybe even a third), an LT, and significant sums of ISO.

Smudge

The last few times I've played Gauntlet, I never expected it to experience scaling. Fixed difficulty is the only thing that makes sense for this type of event.

Think about the rewards for it anyway. 2* for sub one, 3* for sub two, 4* for sub three. No potential for increased rewards; they are fixed. Why scale the difficulty to make things harder for 5* rosters?

All you accomplish by scaling Gauntlet is making things more difficult for the players who are going to actually spend the money on your game so they have an easier time of it.

Who truly needs that Iceman cover? Me, in the 4* transition who does not have a usable Iceman at all yet and is suffering the most without it and with trying to get it, or the 4-5* player who has a 375 OML and 10 other fully covered, maxed 4* characters for whom this is just champion level 280? Who is going to spend money to potentially make getting that cover easier if they can't quite get there? Hmm.

Edit: I mean at that point, who really even cares if the full 5* player has a cakewalk to getting that final 4* cover from the Gauntlet that they don't really even need in the grand scheme of things? Making it impossibly difficult for someone after they've spent time and money to advance a roster is only going to motivate them to quit.

Gmax101

posted a very similar suggestion in the suggestions forum under Gauntlet 2.0 as well a in the merged scaling thread...

I think that if you make the Gauntlet a more pure PVE challenge without scaling and fixed rewards, it would be entirely possible to re-run it as a regular pure PVE grind-a-thon to get defined character covers... less than the traditional competitive PVE but still useful to transitioning players...

See my other posts for more details...

and I also think a 4th "Hardcore" sub is worth doing

Skorche

Was thinking something similar I think they should only allow you to use 1 and 2 stars and boosted 3 stats characters for wilderness survival. Alliow you to use 1,2 3 stats and boosted 4 stars for alpine. For last one you can use your entire roster. It would allow us to actually use our full roster for an event.

Neuromancer

I like the gauntlet. I agree the reward:difficulty ratio was wack (glad they just tuned it), but to me, this and Deadpool Daily were the only story (PvE) events that made sense. Every other story event is in fact a versus event in disguise. Why is there competition in so many PvE scenarios? Shouldn't they all be PvP? Is an AI controlled roster based upon three selected characters the only real difference?

All competitions should be moved to the versus tab. Everything under story shouldn't have a competitive undercurrent, it should just be a story.

zodiac339

optimus2861 wrote:

zodiac339 wrote:

It would become necessarily harder to those relying on 3-star heroes in the third section as that isn't meant for them any more than the Crash of Titans is meant for a 3 star.

Why?

The final reward from the 3rd sub is a single 4* cover. There are, what, 30'ish 4* characters now? And Gauntlet lasts a week? And is only run once per quarter, thereabouts? That hardly projects to a lightning-fast 4* progression for the 3*-4* transitioners.

I feel there's no reason other than stinginess that a fully developed 3* roster shouldn't have a fair shot to complete the 3rd sub of the Gauntlet. Perhaps a 4th sub should be added that would be geared toward the 4* players, which would potentially reward a second 4* cover (maybe even a third), an LT, and significant sums of ISO.

Because I'm looking at Deadpool Daily as my baseline. 2 star users are expected to have a hard time on a daily basis getting a single three star cover. Legendaries are harder to come by. They've always been harder to come by, other than with the Legendary tokens that net you a random one or CP that are relatively difficult to accumulate. Each PVP offers a single cover to whoever makes first place. A single cover to whoever is able to get through all the points lost from others stealing their progression to 1000 points. A single cover to whoever can get through points stolen in Shield Simulator to make 2000 points.
Now that I think about it more, a seasonal Gauntlet for one cover would be fine compared to bi-seasonal. But you have to get through to the end. You have to be able to take down a team of level 270 Legendary enemies to get that cover. No boosted roster. No Epics on the enemy team. Just using what you have, going by your skill, strategy, and luck to make more progress.
I'm at a point where it's rare to get through Crash of Titans, but I've done it. I've done it with the cheese of invisibility, yes. But I've also done without invisibility. Most of my Legs are level 94 (#needmoreISO), but some with a lot of covers. Kingpin is 5 yellow, and at level 94, with decent board use, can get past that level 270 Luke Cage. It felt good. It felt so good to take on that difficult side quest, that optional battle, and win.
D3, THAT was my fun challenge. That optional battle. That's what I'm asking of the Gauntlet: to take my rare champions, my level 169 to 186 heroes and do that side quest of the Gauntlet. To try, to die, to rethink and try again, and eventually prevail for the prize that (sighs) so far I haven't achieved in PVP. I can't get past the enemies that steal my progress away. I don't understand this "shield hopping" thing, or why people think it's a good idea to bleed out their HP to do it. This change to Gauntlet, this is what I'd ask for. This side-quest. This thing to take a little time on while waiting for points to recharge, while waiting for the Daily to reset, between attempts to progress in PVP. Something that I can choose to challenge myself with or not, that won't affect my alliance if I don't succeed, that I can shrug my shoulders to and go, "Oh well. Maybe my team will be strong enough next time." Or, hopefully, it will be something that, at the end, I can go, "...I did it! I've progressed!"

EDIT: This would also be a great thing to focus on during Heroic: Whatever. I absolutely hate the Heroic PVE.