No good queues after 900 in pvp

mpqr7

After 900, all my queues turn to 20-30 points or else very strong champed 5* teams who could just retal me. Even with only a few hours left. Has everyone given up at hitting the cp reward at 1200? They all just stop at or around 900 now? Is this what d3 wanted? For no one but the whales and extremely devoted and/or lucky rng players to get the full 25 cp per pvp?

I almost never used CCs, maybe once every 5-10 pvps. But I clearly benefited from others who left and used CCs, because in the past, there were people with very high scores, so it was easier to get queues of 60+ points, even past the 4* progression reward.

I imagine I'm not the only one facing this issue, only getting 10cp instead of 25 cp per pvp, so progression has been slowed down.

Maybe we can lower progression to hit the last 15cp to 1100 or 1000, or else we can add in further progression prizes between 900 and 1200, so that more people have a reason to score above 900 and don't simply give up at 900. Because now, it doesn't really make a difference whether you score 920 or 1160, other than possible non-guaranteed placement reward improvements.

Dartmaster01

Yup, same here. I thought about making almost this exact post today. I don't even much care about the CP but not having any matches over 22 points after 900 is bad. I couldn't even q the 5* teams so I had nothing. I'm not shield hopping for 19-22 (2k iso spent looking) points so I guess they don't want me to use shields, buy HP, or finish the event. Message received I quit at 940. I hope this gets fixed or else there is absolutely no point to play over 900.

fmftint

The problem is that over 900 is when people start hopping, good points exist but there is a narrow window of opportunity to queue them

Fightmastermpq

Welcome to the post-CC meta.

First event of the season is always worse as well - lots of people joining late to get better season brackets. It's always one of my favorite events though because I can climb from 900-1100 just 5 points at a time and bring in a ton of ISO.

mpqr7

I refuse to join line and scour BCs looking for hopping opportunities. I used to do it, and it's incredibly stressful, you need to scroll through thousands of lines of messages, and it's just waaaaaaay too much work, plus you need to schedule your hop around everyone else's hops, and I only have very specific times when I'm free to plunge 30+ minutes into playing this game (mostly my train ride to and from work).

The BC I do now is just so my alliance mates know not to hit me when I'm hopping, but it's not used for any coordinated action.

It's too bad because I have a decent roster but no champed 5*s, so I'm still cannon fodder with my OML being at a "mere" 420. Last year, having an OML at 420 was pretty great, but well it's been over a year since I've won another cover for it, so.... oh wait! I will win a 6th black cover from my login reward in a few days...

Chrono_Tata

I agree with the suggestion that there should be more rewards between 900 and 1100. Even when there were cupcakes and the aforementioned progressions were at 1000 and 1300, unless you were in the correct brackets or hopping at the correct times, it was hard to find good targets. Many people just stop and shield out the event after 900 because trying to hit 1100 is pretty dangerous and you could easily lose a ton of points. For many people it's just not worth the time and resources. If there were more regular rewards in between, that would increase the incentive to play between those points a lot.

Bowgentle

mpqr7 wrote:

I refuse to join line and scour BCs looking for hopping opportunities. I used to do it, and it's incredibly stressful, you need to scroll through thousands of lines of messages, and it's just waaaaaaay too much work, plus you need to schedule your hop around everyone else's hops, and I only have very specific times when I'm free to plunge 30+ minutes into playing this game (mostly my train ride to and from work).

The BC I do now is just so my alliance mates know not to hit me when I'm hopping, but it's not used for any coordinated action.

It's too bad because I have a decent roster but no champed 5*s, so I'm still cannon fodder with my OML being at a "mere" 420. Last year, having an OML at 420 was pretty great, but well it's been over a year since I've won another cover for it, so.... oh wait! I will win a 6th black cover from my login reward in a few days...

OML was released last November, so I doubt you had a 420 a year ago.

tanis3303

I know for me, I get to the 900 point, grab my 4* cover and GTFO. It's actually been pretty great for me, as my roster can climb to 900 in like an hour (boosted characters dependent, of course) so I can make a run anytime within 24 hours of the end of the event, drop one shield (75-300 hp cost, depending on when I have time for the climb) and call it an event. The 10 CP at 575 has really helped as well, allowing me to make slow progress towards the "end game" (which we all know by now I don't really want to be in anyway)

As to D3's intention with this change, your guess is as good as mine. My view is that no, it's not really working as intended, and I bet they're kicking themselves a bit for cutting off the revenue stream of people shield hopping multiple times per event. I make more than enough HP via gameplay to cover one shield per event, even if I have to pop the big 24 hour one. I'm not someone that opens token packs, as I find the disappointment of not getting what I want/need from them much much greater than the satisfaction/trill of opening them, so this change has put me into a situation where I literally have NO reason to spend money. Ever. What am I going to spend it on? HP? For what? I have 12,000+ HP saved up just from playing events...I have nothing to really spend it on, so I'm not buying that. ISO? Yea, no. VIP? I probably would buy into the VIP program if I thought it was worth it, but it's just not IMO. Tie it to Shield rank, so you're buying a subscription to rewards that actually make a meaningful impact on your development and I may reconsider, but until then, $10/month for a couple extra slot pulls and a negligible amount of ISO just isn't worth it.

Overall, I'm reasonably happy with PvP at the moment. 900 is pretty smooth sailing for someone that often has 3-4 of the weekly boosted 4*s champed and was lucky enough to cap his 5*s at 360. My MMR is about as close to fair as I can ask for. Medium covered 5*s and champed 4*s (decent mix of weekly boosted and overall good ones like Jean/HB/Cyke) so basically I'm fighting teams exactly the same strength as my own. On the flip side, this system has created a situation where spending money makes very little sense for me. Rack up too many players with that kind of situation, and D3 could have a problem on their hands...I mean, I wasn't spending much before, but now that not much is a big fat zero. That cant have been their intention, that's just bad business...

acescracked

LOL @ "scour BCs looking for hopping opportunities. I used to do it, and it's incredibly stressful, you need to scroll through thousands of lines of messages, "

C'mon man! Turn down the hyperbole. Nobody "scours BCs". Also, scrolling back "thousands" of messages would get you old & outdated hopping information.

I'm in one BC and two BCs if I go a certain slice. Majority of players don't use the BCs to find queues. It's more of, you already queued someone while skipping and goto BC to see if they are shielded.

I've had a 420 OML for months and hit 1200 with only checking a BC to be sure I don't hit a friendly unshielded. I find all my 60+ point queues while I'm above 900 the old fashioned way. You CAN beat max champed dual 5* teams with an OML + boosted 4*. I do it all the time. It really isn't that hard. Sheesh, very easy this week if you have a champed xfdp. Sometimes you luck into a few dual 4* teams worth 60 while above 900..the new cupcake lol.

Our rosters are nearly identical but our PvP experience is different, strange.

Edit: btw to hit 1200, it does take me a 3 hr & 8 hr shield with a break at the end. Sometimes, can do it on one shield and a break at the end or two shields and no break at the end.

Jarvind

I just stop at 900 now. The 10 CP on the way up is fine with me. I've started joining easier slices so that I get better placement for the effort. Yay more ISO!

mpqr7

Bowgentle wrote:

OML was released last November, so I doubt you had a 420 a year ago.

I don't remember the specifics, it's been a very long time. My other 5*s are Ph (9 covers, but no green), SS (11 covers, but only 1 red), and a bunch that are only 7 covers or less. So after playing well over 2 years, still no great teams to hit max prog in pvp. Maybe in another few years.

mpqr7

acescracked wrote:

Edit: btw to hit 1200, it does take me a 3 hr & 8 hr shield with a break at the end. Sometimes, can do it on one shield and a break at the end or two shields and no break at the end.

So there, we go. What used to take generally 1 hop, sometimes 2 (75 HP or 225 HP) now takes 3 or more hops (375+ HP), as well as a lot of time and queue coordination to find the right opponents while shielded.

Thus, a lot more work just to get the same 25 cp that I used to get.

The same effort as previous now just gets me to the 4* cover, which apparently is all that I deserve after only playing for around 2.25 years.

Fightmastermpq

mpqr7 wrote:

acescracked wrote:

Edit: btw to hit 1200, it does take me a 3 hr & 8 hr shield with a break at the end. Sometimes, can do it on one shield and a break at the end or two shields and no break at the end.

So there, we go. What used to take generally 1 hop, sometimes 2 (75 HP or 225 HP) now takes 3 or more hops (375+ HP), as well as a lot of time and queue coordination to find the right opponents while shielded.

Thus, a lot more work just to get the same 25 cp that I used to get.

The same effort as previous now just gets me to the 4* cover, which apparently is all that I deserve after only playing for around 2.25 years.

Everything that you deserve for playing for 2.25 years you get in your daily resupply. The rest you have to earn on your own merit.

sinnerjfl

There really is no incentive for most people to go on after they reach 900pts now. And it only gets worse because more and more people will just do that and therefore less overall points for everyone.

Once you hit 900 (as described), it's really a wasteland of 20-30 pts matches and you cant progress at all without heavy use of shields. You will get hit constantly and lose more points than you gain otherwise.

Have a reward at 1000 (Iso would be nice) and lower the 15 CP to 1100. It's still gonna be hard and expensive but at least more people have a shot at it.

Right now 1200 is for people running champed 5*'s.

acescracked

sinnerjfl wrote:

...

Right now 1200 is for people running champed 5*'s.

Knew it!!! All those players I know that hit 1200 with only champed 4*s and underleveled 5*s are hackers!! Players with no champed 5*s that hit 1200 should automatically be sandboxed.

Bowgentle

acescracked wrote:

sinnerjfl wrote:

...

Right now 1200 is for people running champed 5*'s.

Knew it!!! All those players I know that hit 1200 with only champed 4*s and underleveled 5*s are hackers!! Players with no champed 5*s that hit 1200 should automatically be sandboxed.

Let me rephrase that: "1200 on first shield is for people running champed 5*s".
As it should be.
People with weaker rosters just got used to the free ride CCs provided, and now, as we said it would, it got back to being hard hitting top prog.

With the side effect that 1200+ usually is good enough for t10.

fmftint

Bowgentle wrote:

acescracked wrote:

sinnerjfl wrote:

...

Right now 1200 is for people running champed 5*'s.

Knew it!!! All those players I know that hit 1200 with only champed 4*s and underleveled 5*s are hackers!! Players with no champed 5*s that hit 1200 should automatically be sandboxed.

Let me rephrase that: "1200 on first shield is for people running champed 5*s".
As it should be.
People with weaker rosters just got used to the free ride CCs provided, and now, as we said it would, it got back to being hard hitting top prog.

With the side effect that 1200+ usually is good enough for t10*.

*as long as you're not in slice 4

wymtime

sinnerjfl wrote:

There really is no incentive for most people to go on after they reach 900pts now. And it only gets worse because more and more people will just do that and therefore less overall points for everyone.

Once you hit 900 (as described), it's really a wasteland of 20-30 pts matches and you cant progress at all without heavy use of shields. You will get hit constantly and lose more points than you gain otherwise.

Have a reward at 1000 (Iso would be nice) and lower the 15 CP to 1100. It's still gonna be hard and expensive but at least more people have a shot at it.

Right now 1200 is for people running champed 5*'s.

Here is another reality. After anniversary event specifically boss rush a lot of vets stopped playing or decided to go casual. I have a championed 5* and when I got to 800 points I started seeing 3* teams worth 30-37 points. The upper tier player who has a deep 4* roster but has not done well with 5* is really thinking out in PVP. If you look at the alliance threads and line recruiting players are not looking for PVP alliances they all want top 100 PVE. PVP is slowly dieing and until the devs add CL 8,9,10 it will continue to discourage players from playing it.

Fightmastermpq

Might I suggest starting as soon as the event opens? I noticed this past event (granted first event of season operates differently from most, but this might be true for other events as well....) that my initial climb to 800 was the usual slog of only 5* rosters, at which point MMR opened up and I was able to queue up some 3* and 4* teams. At first there were a handful of much weaker teams worth 50-60 points!

Your first 800 points of the event are primarily without any 5*s on your ****, if you can climb high before all the 5*s get out you might be able to hit some higher progressions early on. Not sure if 1200 is possible, but maybe with a hop or two? Worth a shot if you are struggling now when you weren't before.

sinnerjfl

acescracked wrote:

sinnerjfl wrote:

...

Right now 1200 is for people running champed 5*'s.

Knew it!!! All those players I know that hit 1200 with only champed 4*s and underleveled 5*s are hackers!! Players with no champed 5*s that hit 1200 should automatically be sandboxed.

Where did I say that? Its not impossible but be prepared to pay up for 3-5 shields every single pvp if youre not running champed 5*'s. Good luck sustaining that without some significant spending.

If youre willing to spend 1000 HP per PVP go ahead. Its too much and not worth it for me. Looking at leaderboards, about 10 to 15 people out of 500 reach 1200.

So that's who willing to spend or have the roster for it, 2-3% of players.

Redrobot30

I know there has got to be other people in the same boat as me when I say this:

Reaching 900 is the highest I even try. No way am I spending a bunch of money on HP so I can shield hop to get 300 more points. That goal is so far out there I don't even try. Half of the time 900 is achieveable but once I get over that 850 mark you become fresh bait for the big fish out there. But yeah, I'm making a final point climb either just outside the 8 hour or 3 hour mark and then promptly shielding.