Low level PW advantage

babar3355

I recently was leveling up Ob Nix and wanted to use him in an event. I couldn't get him past 48 before the event started, so I played with him anyway, in platinum. What a treat it was to realize that I was never paired against a hero that was higher than level 53. Needless to say, it was an easy ride to a perfect round in this node. With some good fortune in my other 2 decks I ended up locking a top 5 finish. Despite my good fortunes, I soon realized lots of other people were using similar strategies. Leaving PWs in the 30s or 40s to get under leveled easy matchups against opponents. It is clearly unfair that a herd of lvl 36 PWs playing against other lvl 30-40 pws should be able to get top prizes against the huge pool of extremely geared, well constructed decks in the 60s bracket. However, you wouldn't want to exclude newer players from playing.

Simple solution: Tier PW level available for each bracket.
Bronze: Any level PW
Silver: Only PW's above level 40 can compete
Gold: Only PW's above level 50 can compete
Platinum: Only PWs at 60 can compete

Other solution, do not advantage lower level PWs by giving them a "fair fight". Pair them against PWs up to 20 levels above them.

Nitymp

From experience, my alt was completely locked out of playing any events because my lvl 10s used to constantly be paired against 60s and it was pointless. A lot of missed progression rewards and cards.

This just means that as a new player, they would feel completely useless and just have nothing to play for, event wise, which will probably lead to just not playing anymore.

KoneIV

It's only an advantage if you have cheap high level cards

babar3355

Trust me... if you have 10 PWs, 3 of which are level 52 and the rest level 60, you will be better off using your lower level ones in the events. I have never been paired against a level 60 with my lvl 52 Ob Nix, and have no good reason to level him. Plenty of other good options for Avacyn or other PvE events.

I know other people that have slummed it in the level 30s before.

majincob

Nitymp wrote:

From experience, my alt was completely locked out of playing any events because my lvl 10s used to constantly be paired against 60s and it was pointless. A lot of missed progression rewards and cards.

This just means that as a new player, they would feel completely useless and just have nothing to play for, event wise, which will probably lead to just not playing anymore.

They changed it to fight PW within 5 levels of you now. It's fun to play alts .

KoneIV wrote:

It's only an advantage if you have cheap high level cards

In Platinum everyone has cheap high-level cards. Hence the advantage.

babar3355 wrote:

Simple solution: Tier PW level available for each bracket.
Bronze: Any level PW
Silver: Only PW's above level 40 can compete
Gold: Only PW's above level 50 can compete
Platinum: Only PWs at 60 can compete

Alternatively instead of limiting who you can put in, make a minimum opponent level per tier as suggested. Sure you can play that level 30 PW in Plat, but you'll face only level 60's.

Ohboy

Just solve the problem the same way they solved quick battle abuse.

Lvl 1-20 : 1 ribbon for victory
21-30 : 2 ribbons for victory

Etc.

Alve

Giving less ribbons or pairing up to 20 levels up just punishes new players. If they get less ribbons, they won't even hit progression for a very long time. Ohboy, how come you only complain about 'rich getting richer' when it directly affects you?

I agree on some limitations for Silver and up, it sounds reasonable.

Ohboy

Alve wrote:

Giving less ribbons or pairing up to 20 levels up just punishes new players. If they get less ribbons, they won't even hit progression for a very long time. Ohboy, how come you only complain about 'rich getting richer' when it directly affects you?

I agree on some limitations for Silver and up, it sounds reasonable.

That's an odd position to have to defend, but I honestly don't think the people who are topping platinum are slumming with lvl 30 walkers. I could be wrong, but at this point in time, I have not even considered this phenomenon to be a factor in my brackets.

It's not punishing new players. It's simply no longer giving them extra value for doing less. A level 30 walker shouldn't be having an easier time in tournaments than level 60 walkers.

Taking my real life friends as benchmarks, it takes a new player about a month and a half to field a team of competitive fully leveled walkers into silver/gold tier events. I don't think it's too much to ask. Again taking anecdotal evidence...new players aren't in any position to win events with their collections anyway. They lose a lot of games. This exploit only benefits experienced players who already should have maxed out walkers they're purposely not fielding, instead putting out weak walkers with strong cards. I just assumed this was the segment of the population we're concerned about. Is it not? Are new players really winning events with this?

I agree my initial assessment of the situation was too harsh. I just threw out the qb solution without factoring progression.

All that's necessary is for any non maxed walker to win one less point per match from perfect to discourage people from abusing it to win events outright.

Alve

At some point you hit a ceiling when it comes to story mode. QB can only give you so much with 1 ribbon per win. Event progression is a great thing for new players. Maybe give them less ribbons for the event leaderboard, but make progression depend on the number of wins instead of ribbons. After all, winning with a low-level basic walker and a starter decks is not any less valuable than winning with a lvl 60 Wallet Koth. And I still see no reason to match them 20 levels up. 5 levels is a huge difference in the beginning. 20 is just silly - the hp, mana gain and skills are on a different level. And even if you 'motivate' them to level their walkers 20 levels, they'll just be stuck with even more difficult challenges. Why make it the game so soul-crushing in Bronze? Don't we all want to have Bronze players to have it easy and enjoy themselves as much as possible?

I still see some hypocrisy in your arguments btw - you want to make life more difficult for new players with low level pws and easier for low-level coalitions with subpar management