New Mission Difficulty For All Story Events *Updated

Nick441234

I was worried going into this event having failed to finish top 50 for the first time in about a year in the previous event but I've actually been surprised by how well I'm doing.

I dont have time for 4 clears when the subs open, so I'm compromising with 3 (in the 11pm slice). I'm then hitting them again in the morning (I do two clears of each then) and hit them a couple more times during the day. I am currently 17th overall in my slice doing that. I can accept that. The evening grind when the sub opens is still laughable, the game shouldn't have to be played like that, but its better than I expected.

Dragon_Nexus

I definitely find myself questing my resolve. The new sub event opened and I felt my heart sink. I have to do all this again. I doubt I'll want to do this again for the next new character. I've already hit max progression with 24 hours to go, so I've very little to go for except the final reward.

It's just...so...tiresome.

Give us more progression, including a 4* cover for the new character.

Hell, just get rid of placement all together. Create a load more progression rewards and let us play that way. THEN you'll have that "Play whenever you want!" game you seem to want.

The Herald

As someone more casual, I'm good with this system.

But AS a casual, if they moved to progression only? I would be pretty damn happy.

If you want new characters to be given out on a player versus player slap fight basis, why not move it entirely to player versus player?

New character comes out, you get an out of season Battle World gimmick that runs for 3 days. Top X per 1000 get a new character. Have fun slapping the **** out of each other.

Orion

So when you talk about PvE rewards, there's 3 things that matter: ISO, progression and placement.

If you only care about ISO, the PvE format doesn't matter. You can do the runs whenever you want, and when you finish each mission 7 times, you're done.

If you only care about progression, then you want to hit top progression and collect your 25 cp. It was pretty easy to hit top progression in Hearts of Darkness, but that had nothing to do with the format. It was because the target score was only 42k, down from 55k the run before. If they keep the top progression score down so low like the last few PvE events, then the format really doesn't matter as much. I certainly didn't run HoD optimally this time and I got top progression with a day to go.

So if you care about placement, then the PvE format absolutely matters. So do people who care about placement want this system or the lad one. I know I'd rather have the 8hr timers back than having to grind for 3-4 hours every night. I know I liked the one that produced a ton of ties, but preferences differ of course.

hesjingixen

I like the new format, but it feels like the scaling is still off sometimes. It was decent in Rocket & Groot, Thick as Thieves, and Heart of Darkness, but in The Hunt, they are regularly wrecking me.

fmftint

Idk about anyone else's bracket, but there's not a single soft capper in my T10. All champ 4☆ or better

The Herald

OJSP wrote:

fmftint wrote:

Idk about anyone else's bracket, but there's not a single soft capper in my T10. All champ 4☆ or better

Would you consider someone keeping their 5*s the same level as their highest levelled 4* a soft capper?

I would call them a scale dodger, with a soft capper being someone who underclocked everything for advantage

Kjempen

The "nerfing" of Maggia Muscle has in no way affected Kingpin's Maggia Pawns (power/cover levels 3 and up) power, right?

mckauhu

Having played this new system now for a while, I'm satisfied on it. I hit 25cp reward every time unlike before. I also place higher than before. Thanks for this change!

kobu

This is my second time through with Unstable ISO-8. The first time I was able to clear out all nodes and place decently. Now I can't even clear round 4 on the last boards. Really, Maggia with more health than my guys dropping tiles every round and then one-shotting everyone while I'm apparently pelting them with snowballs? How is this at all balanced? I used to think there were stupidly unfair matchups in the original Puzzle Quest, but this has got it beat hands down. And things have been getting progressively worse as I improve my roster. I'm sure things have improved for most of the veterans, but I'm still championing my 2* characters and getting punished for doing that and cashing in tokens as I get them. Hmm, locked out of essential nodes and DDQ if I don't spend tokens, beaten to pulp in story mode if I do.

On that note, some have mentioned that VIP is only good for new players, well, getting and spending those legendary tokens is apparently part of what's killing me. This stage of the game is really poorly implemented. I'm too stubborn to sell my 5*s, and hard nosed enough to suffer through, but I imagine most people hitting this wall just throw in the towel.

ViralCore

The removal of one of the clears has been great but still requires just a tad bit too much time. Please consider removing another clear and doubling the current ISO. I would imagine most would agree the new system would then be perfect.

Nick441234

The stingy buggers need to put the 6th row back in that they took out. Its disgraceful they took out the row that featured the most ISO.

DFiPL

kobu wrote:

On that note, some have mentioned that VIP is only good for new players, well, getting and spending those legendary tokens is apparently part of what's killing me. This stage of the game is really poorly implemented. I'm too stubborn to sell my 5*s, and hard nosed enough to suffer through, but I imagine most people hitting this wall just throw in the towel.

Not to be glib, but...the spending part is what's hurting you, yes, especially if you're pulling 5* with any regularity. Scaling used to be based on the average level of your top 4 characters (I think; might have been 3 or 5, so treat this as an approximation). If you have two 5* and two level 100 2* champions as your top four characters, you're looking at (255+255+100+100)/4 = ~177 as your average level, and your enemies will scale according to that.

If your roster is still in the 2* phase and you're championing 2* but haven't really built out your 3* bench at all, you're best off sitting on those tokens for a while, especially if you know that you're stubborn/hard-nosed. Don't put yourself in a position of "aw tinykitty I got a 5* but I'm not going to sell it I'll just suffer."

Build your 3* bench, and once you're able to start championing THOSE cats, your best non-5* will be much closer in level and you'll be able to handle what's getting thrown at you.

Now, that said, supposedly a scaling fix was coming that was going to also take power coverage into account so that the 1-cover 5* wouldn't hurt quite so much. I haven't heard anything about that in a while, so I don't know if it ever happened or whether it would have any appreciable effect on a 2* roster that has a 5* or three, but that potentially changes my napkin math.

deadtaco

DFiPL wrote:

Now, that said, supposedly a scaling fix was coming that was going to also take power coverage into account so that the 1-cover 5* wouldn't hurt quite so much. I haven't heard anything about that in a while, so I don't know if it ever happened or whether it would have any appreciable effect on a 2* roster that has a 5* or three, but that potentially changes my napkin math.

"a 2* roster that has a 5* or three" - that is pretty much my position.

I can attest that they did indeed adjust it. I had a 5 added to my roster about 3 or 4 events prior to the change. (boring story) At that point PVE became impossible. PVP came alive however, and I reduced PVE while working toward the 10-pack for the previous season. By the time the season ended I was going to sell, but my resolve was gone and I pulled an OML. Thankfully I saw the note about the 'fix' and held out hope that it would make things better.

And it has! I have gotten full progression on the handful of PVEs since then (except one, I was traveling). The later nodes get well above my champed and my aren't completely ready to use in those. OML and phoenix help with 90% of those later nodes as a tank.

kobu

DFiPL wrote:

kobu wrote:

On that note, some have mentioned that VIP is only good for new players, well, getting and spending those legendary tokens is apparently part of what's killing me. This stage of the game is really poorly implemented. I'm too stubborn to sell my 5*s, and hard nosed enough to suffer through, but I imagine most people hitting this wall just throw in the towel.

Not to be glib, but...the spending part is what's hurting you, yes, especially if you're pulling 5* with any regularity. Scaling used to be based on the average level of your top 4 characters (I think; might have been 3 or 5, so treat this as an approximation). If you have two 5* and two level 100 2* champions as your top four characters, you're looking at (255+255+100+100)/4 = ~177 as your average level, and your enemies will scale according to that.

If your roster is still in the 2* phase and you're championing 2* but haven't really built out your 3* bench at all, you're best off sitting on those tokens for a while, especially if you know that you're stubborn/hard-nosed. Don't put yourself in a position of "aw tinykitty I got a 5* but I'm not going to sell it I'll just suffer."

Build your 3* bench, and once you're able to start championing THOSE cats, your best non-5* will be much closer in level and you'll be able to handle what's getting thrown at you.

Now, that said, supposedly a scaling fix was coming that was going to also take power coverage into account so that the 1-cover 5* wouldn't hurt quite so much. I haven't heard anything about that in a while, so I don't know if it ever happened or whether it would have any appreciable effect on a 2* roster that has a 5* or three, but that potentially changes my napkin math.

I'm totally with you and thanks for the advice, I mean I just got myself into this position playing the game as anyone would. Now I know better, but I think the devs really need to sit down and play from the beginning to see where the low level scaling issues kick into ludicrous speed. I just foolishly tried the Colossus essential node for clear 5 and lost my whole team on something like turn 6. I hadn't even been able to fire a power off yet.

In the meantime I'm going to hoard any LT I get, but it's kind of hard to think that's the intent. I mean, I can't see myself doing VIP much longer since the rewards are already so paltry for the level I'm at, and the real draw was those CP and LT to get my missing essential 4* characters. Sure, pay for VIP to get kicked in the teeth more, yes please!

Devs, if you're reading this, please help a brother out and implement that 5* fix so that I can keep merrily expanding my roster and throw you some money now and then. You're killing me here.

kobu

deadtaco wrote:

DFiPL wrote:

Now, that said, supposedly a scaling fix was coming that was going to also take power coverage into account so that the 1-cover 5* wouldn't hurt quite so much. I haven't heard anything about that in a while, so I don't know if it ever happened or whether it would have any appreciable effect on a 2* roster that has a 5* or three, but that potentially changes my napkin math.

"a 2* roster that has a 5* or three" - that is pretty much my position.

I can attest that they did indeed adjust it. I had a 5 added to my roster about 3 or 4 events prior to the change. (boring story) At that point PVE became impossible. PVP came alive however, and I reduced PVE while working toward the 10-pack for the previous season. By the time the season ended I was going to sell, but my resolve was gone and I pulled an OML. Thankfully I saw the note about the 'fix' and held out hope that it would make things better.

And it has! I have gotten full progression on the handful of PVEs since then (except one, I was traveling). The later nodes get well above my champed and my aren't completely ready to use in those. OML and phoenix help with 90% of those later nodes as a tank.

Well, full progression isn't hard, certainly not now. It's being at all competitive for the cover rewards where the trouble comes from. I went from bouncing between T10 and T50 to being shut out of T100 (I'm in the 300s for Unstable ISO-8...) because I can't clear even round 4 on some nodes. And my pathetic Jean and Green Goblin are the only things that let me clear round 4 or 5/6 sometimes (I of course love spending time making sure my glider is safe only to see it go bye bye every time due to some crazy black match that drops out of nowhere). It gets realllllllll old only using them. I know selling them is probably the smart thing to do, but I'm kind of praying that starting to move into 3* land will alleviate some of my pain soon.

hodayathink

kobu wrote:

deadtaco wrote:

DFiPL wrote:

Now, that said, supposedly a scaling fix was coming that was going to also take power coverage into account so that the 1-cover 5* wouldn't hurt quite so much. I haven't heard anything about that in a while, so I don't know if it ever happened or whether it would have any appreciable effect on a 2* roster that has a 5* or three, but that potentially changes my napkin math.

"a 2* roster that has a 5* or three" - that is pretty much my position.

I can attest that they did indeed adjust it. I had a 5 added to my roster about 3 or 4 events prior to the change. (boring story) At that point PVE became impossible. PVP came alive however, and I reduced PVE while working toward the 10-pack for the previous season. By the time the season ended I was going to sell, but my resolve was gone and I pulled an OML. Thankfully I saw the note about the 'fix' and held out hope that it would make things better.

And it has! I have gotten full progression on the handful of PVEs since then (except one, I was traveling). The later nodes get well above my champed and my aren't completely ready to use in those. OML and phoenix help with 90% of those later nodes as a tank.

Well, full progression isn't hard, certainly not now. It's being at all competitive for the cover rewards where the trouble comes from. I went from bouncing between T10 and T50 to being shut out of T100 (I'm in the 300s for Unstable ISO-8...) because I can't clear even round 4 on some nodes. And my pathetic Jean and Green Goblin are the only things that let me clear round 4 or 5/6 sometimes (I of course love spending time making sure my glider is safe only to see it go bye bye every time due to some crazy black match that drops out of nowhere). It gets realllllllll old only using them. I know selling them is probably the smart thing to do, but I'm kind of praying that starting to move into 3* land will alleviate some of my pain soon.

Your pain won't be alleviated until you start maxing/chaming 3 stars. A boosted champed 3 star is at about the same level as an unleveled 5 star, and they can generally hold their own against level 250 enemies (especially Dark Avengers, since all those characters are 1 and 2 stars and got seriously nerfed at that level when they rolled out championing).

The Herald

kobu wrote:

deadtaco wrote:

DFiPL wrote:

Now, that said, supposedly a scaling fix was coming that was going to also take power coverage into account so that the 1-cover 5* wouldn't hurt quite so much. I haven't heard anything about that in a while, so I don't know if it ever happened or whether it would have any appreciable effect on a 2* roster that has a 5* or three, but that potentially changes my napkin math.

"a 2* roster that has a 5* or three" - that is pretty much my position.

I can attest that they did indeed adjust it. I had a 5 added to my roster about 3 or 4 events prior to the change. (boring story) At that point PVE became impossible. PVP came alive however, and I reduced PVE while working toward the 10-pack for the previous season. By the time the season ended I was going to sell, but my resolve was gone and I pulled an OML. Thankfully I saw the note about the 'fix' and held out hope that it would make things better.

And it has! I have gotten full progression on the handful of PVEs since then (except one, I was traveling). The later nodes get well above my champed and my aren't completely ready to use in those. OML and phoenix help with 90% of those later nodes as a tank.

Well, full progression isn't hard, certainly not now. It's being at all competitive for the cover rewards where the trouble comes from. I went from bouncing between T10 and T50 to being shut out of T100 (I'm in the 300s for Unstable ISO-8...) because I can't clear even round 4 on some nodes. And my pathetic Jean and Green Goblin are the only things that let me clear round 4 or 5/6 sometimes (I of course love spending time making sure my glider is safe only to see it go bye bye every time due to some crazy black match that drops out of nowhere). It gets realllllllll old only using them. I know selling them is probably the smart thing to do, but I'm kind of praying that starting to move into 3* land will alleviate some of my pain soon.

Champ 3*s will set you right. Just keep developing your roster (even though they REALLY need to fix this one).

I have four 5*s, and I have a 5th waiting for a roster slot. With my 22 3* champs to play with (especially when they're boosted) I'm not getting scaled out of play.

The 2* transition when you are "lucky" enough to drop a 5* REALLY needs ironing out though O.o

DFiPL

kobu wrote:

DFiPL wrote:

kobu wrote:

On that note, some have mentioned that VIP is only good for new players, well, getting and spending those legendary tokens is apparently part of what's killing me. This stage of the game is really poorly implemented. I'm too stubborn to sell my 5*s, and hard nosed enough to suffer through, but I imagine most people hitting this wall just throw in the towel.

Not to be glib, but...the spending part is what's hurting you, yes, especially if you're pulling 5* with any regularity. Scaling used to be based on the average level of your top 4 characters (I think; might have been 3 or 5, so treat this as an approximation). If you have two 5* and two level 100 2* champions as your top four characters, you're looking at (255+255+100+100)/4 = ~177 as your average level, and your enemies will scale according to that.

If your roster is still in the 2* phase and you're championing 2* but haven't really built out your 3* bench at all, you're best off sitting on those tokens for a while, especially if you know that you're stubborn/hard-nosed. Don't put yourself in a position of "aw tinykitty I got a 5* but I'm not going to sell it I'll just suffer."

Build your 3* bench, and once you're able to start championing THOSE cats, your best non-5* will be much closer in level and you'll be able to handle what's getting thrown at you.

Now, that said, supposedly a scaling fix was coming that was going to also take power coverage into account so that the 1-cover 5* wouldn't hurt quite so much. I haven't heard anything about that in a while, so I don't know if it ever happened or whether it would have any appreciable effect on a 2* roster that has a 5* or three, but that potentially changes my napkin math.

I'm totally with you and thanks for the advice, I mean I just got myself into this position playing the game as anyone would. Now I know better, but I think the devs really need to sit down and play from the beginning to see where the low level scaling issues kick into ludicrous speed. I just foolishly tried the Colossus essential node for clear 5 and lost my whole team on something like turn 6. I hadn't even been able to fire a power off yet.

In the meantime I'm going to hoard any LT I get, but it's kind of hard to think that's the intent. I mean, I can't see myself doing VIP much longer since the rewards are already so paltry for the level I'm at, and the real draw was those CP and LT to get my missing essential 4* characters. Sure, pay for VIP to get kicked in the teeth more, yes please!

Devs, if you're reading this, please help a brother out and implement that 5* fix so that I can keep merrily expanding my roster and throw you some money now and then. You're killing me here.

No, I totally agree. When you have a game built around "ooh, shiny, I wonder what I got!" the natural impulse is to...see what you got. The 5* tier being so much higher level that a single cover can wreck a baby roster's scaling is absurd. Even 4* characters, a lone cover is merely level 70, still lower than a maxed, non-champed 2*.

And the game doesn't do a good job - at all - of explaining that. Just "here's your prize, you have two weeks to figure it out."

Here's the other bit: you don't *need* the 4* essentials to reach max progression. If you have the other two, you can get there. And, IIRC, that's true of the others as well. As long as you have 2/3, you can reach max progression. Having the 4* makes it easier because that's the one that gets the most points, of course, but we had a post-change event not so long ago where I didn't have the 4* and still made it.

So if you're buying into VIP for the CP and LTs, and that's a value to you, great. Keep on keeping on! Just sit on those CP and LT until you've built out your 3* bench, because the only thing 4* essentials are, well, "essential" for you for right now is an additional 1 CP/day. Collecting them now can put you in a better position when you're ready to start building out your 4* and 5* benches, for sure, but I don't know that I think 1 CP/day is worth wrecking your scaling over.

Wjohnson992

So these changes have been scrubbed totally, difficulty and progression jacked up again.