Static Championing Rewards Impacting 4* Progression

Mjmacka

Since champion rewards were set, I've been wondering if/how this issue could be addressed.

How can we get covers for 4* characters that were released after champion rewards were set? For example, with the release of the 4* Punisher, shouldn't the 3* Punisher's level 183 give a 4* Punisher as a reward?

Thinking about this there are a few ways to get around this issue but as the game progresses since the introduction of championing this is going to become more apparent.

Resolutions:
1) Update rewards and retroactively give covers. Example: if you have a level 183 3* Punisher when they update the reward you get a free 4* cover to replace the Elektra one you sold. If your 3* Punisher hasn't hit 183 you only have the opportunity to win the Elektra cover.

2) Change static character rewards to random 4* rewards. Don't give out a legendary token but give out a new token that includes only 4*'s. That way characters released after Championing was released are reflected in the championing reward system. (This new token might be a better PVP prize in most events too. The group I PVP with usually only tries for top 5 when an Elektra, SL, XF, 4thor, or any 4* older than about 6 month is 1st prize. The same motivation loss also happens in PVE when older 4* covers are prizes.)

I'd really like to see this issue addressed because championing is becoming less useful for improving progression as the game continues to age.

mohio

I think this issue/solution is more of an aesthetic issue than a practical one. By aesthetic issue I mean that it doesn't look or seem right in many cases, and when you look at it as a whole it doesn't make sense that some 4* are fed by 2 3*, some 1, and some 0. You can't even see what the champion rewards will be until you champion the character, so people are going to be really confused when they champion (I'll use your example) Punisher 3* and see that they will get Elektra covers and not 4* Punisher covers. So in the aesthetic sense, it's a big problem, and should be fixed.

From a practical standpoint it's not really going to materially effect 4* Progression imo. The truth of the matter is that 3* covers aren't plentiful enough to make their champion rewards really a part of the conversation. So, what's having the bigger effect is simply 4* cover dilution throughout the entire reward system. Every new 4* dilutes the token percentages, and increases the rewards cycle in PvE and PvP by one. It hurts your ability to acquire covers for the new character as well as every single other character as well. Getting only one 4* cover at 1k in PvP every 11+ weeks means that we basically have to rely on RNG from heroic/event tokens and legendary tokens to cover our 4*. Making progression almost entirely random is really disengaging for the player base. You feel like you have no control over your own experience in the game. It's causing people chasing after 5* to quit and now it's severely impacting the 4* level as well.

Anyway, I don't mean to call your idea bad, or say it won't help. I actually think it would be a great change. But I think a lot more is needed to help ease the frustrations at least a little bit, of players progressing into 4* (and vets wanting to cover newer ones). Maybe in combination with your idea they could really increase the rate at which 3* covers are handed out. Make a second 3* progression prize in both PvP and PvE. Have them drop rarely from random battles. Maybe even make new tokens that are only 3* or higher and give those as rewards as well. If people can churn through champion rewards more quickly then the 4* covers in there will have more an effect on their game and they may also get to use some of them again as they get more powerful quickly.

FaustianDeal

I somewhat agree with this, but not just as it relates to 4* land. As someone who flips 2* characters - over half of the 3*s aren't linked to a 2* to feed them a cover. You could have each character have a linked set of 'related characters' (phrase used as loosely as required) and each time to champ a given character you could choose, or it would randomly select, which of the linked characters you would receive as cover rewards for this iteration of your champ. Having it be a list of related characters and having it change each time (and allowing overlaps) would allow them to quietly update the related characters to add new ones or shift them around to facilitate better balancing. (Picking would be cool - so it'll never happen.)

But where I disagree is the point of saying my 4* punisher is materially suffering due to the fact that 3* punisher isn't awarding those as related prizes. The pace of champing a 3* is very slow, and even when they are fully champed we are only talking about +3 covers - awarded over a painfully long time scale.

What I would really enjoy seeing (instead of replacing the existing linked covers) would be for them to go in and select 3 more champ reward levels where the base ISO is awarded, and let's replace those with covers for a *2nd* linked character. No reason 3* cap can give Sam Wilson Captain *AND* Peggy just at different points in the level progression.