Forum thread

wymtime

I have been going highest slice each event, it for the season I decided to go CL7 instead of 8. Iwanted to see if I could get top 25 or higher because I have been just outside of top 50 since cupcakes were removed. I score over 1200 per event but cannot keep up with the 2000 point scorers so I am hoping I can get the extra heroic 10 pack as the 10 pack will give me more XP and more ISO overall then placing lower in the higher CL.

SummerGlau

i've noticed a ranking drop since i switched to cl8...may play prodigal sun at cl7

carrion_pigeons

Recently cracked rank 52 so I decided to give SCL 8 a try. Doesn't really seem very different.

They could probably afford to make more of a distinction. As it stands, the placements rewards are so similar that there's nothing stopping players with way better rosters than mine from pulling back a level to snipe better placement from the lower tier.

Top 100 in 8 should be the same as top 50 in 7, at least. That would stop most of the sniping I think.

stowaway

I have an alt account that's on day 20, and it's already SCL4. Is it more advanced than most day 20 accounts, due to my already knowing the game? Certainly. But it doesn't have a single fully built 2* yet. That player is still a 1* player, effectively. SCL4 -- halfway up the ladder. Meanwhile my main account is choosing between SCL7 and 8, and not seeing meaningful differences between them. I think SCL is a great idea, but it needs to be reevaluated top to bottom.

SnowcaTT

I always pick highest PVP/PVE.

I need to re-think that - my brackets (and PVE grind) are insane to try to get placement in.

If I wanted placement, I'd drop down one (or two!) SCL's and not feel bad....since the differences in rewards are SO MINOR between them.....

More (possibly WAY more, beyond 10) SCL's should have already been open. And rewards should have improved enough to encourage -everyone- who can to go into the top one....perhaps great rewards (multiple 4*'s!) in progression tree. Imagine if you got 2 4*'s in progression in scl8 and 3 4*'s in scl9...no one who could choose a high bracket -wouldn't- just to get the progressions!

Instead, the SCL's have had middling changes and you have players like myself considering jumping into lower levels...which only prevents the smaller rosters from getting progression!

Come on D3....SCL's were the way to fix the slow progression problem at all levels! Middle levels could get more 3*'s and upper levels could get more 4*'s....release the rest of the SCL's, and quickly!

GuntherBlobel

aesthetocyst wrote:

It only takes a small percentage of competitive players playing at lower SCLs to lock out the top placements in those SCLs. 0.5% on PVE and 1% on PVP to lock up the top 5 placements. The numbers in this poll who report 'always' dropping down are 8x – 18x those thresholds. If only a tiny portion of these players playing at lower SCLs are playing hard, then all the top placements in those SCLs are being locked up by 'overqualified' players.

Can you do that math without knowing how many people fall into each SCL? If there are 1000X more players in SCL6 than SCL8, then the effect of 10% of SCL8 players dropping down should be negligible. Right? If there are far fewer people in the lower SCLs, then the effect could be worse than you imagine.

In the end, game theory is going to dictate how many people drop down anyway. If there is exactly one good 4* appropriate placement in an SCL, expect a few 4* players to drop down to compete over it. If 100 4* players find themselves in competition over a single 4* cover, most of them will not choose to not drop down the next time.

I contend that the real problem is that the most competitive players in this game quickly rise to the highest SCL, making placement in the highest SCL more difficult than any other. When SCL9 opens, I expect it to be a slog as well. Many players won't find it worth playing in SCL9 because it will be the SCL enriched for competitive players.

Ludaa

In S1 PvP, when CL7 was the max, the population was spread out over 15+ brackets usually. Now, in CL8, Identity Theft had 6 filled and a super late 7th. Top ten was a fight to the death, and for top 5 you had to hop your booty off. I doubt we see CL9/10 for a long time unless they tweak the shield rank requirements.

madok

aesthetocyst wrote:

Why should the top 100 players from SCL 9 slaughter each other .... if they can all take top 5 by spreading out? If top 100 in SCL 9 beats top 5 in lower SCLs, they'll do it. If not, they won't.

This is exactly what I have seen in the first 3 events. A lot of folks tried CL8 that first event and were all bunched up in a couple brackets. So some started going back down to 7 in the second event and that continues to happen. I tried going against that grain and actually went 8 for the second event and couldn't event scratch top 10. In the 3rd event, I'm back in 7 and in the top 5.

fmftint

As SCL increase bracket sizes need to decrease

Bowgentle

Yeah.
CL 8 for the first two events - T25 in the first one, barely made T10 in the second one, both over 1300.

Third event went back to 7, T5 with 1256, without hops or anything.

Think I'll stay in 7 until all the other guys from 8 come down, too.

El Satanno

For Story I go highest. I gave up on competitive Story mode play a long time ago and I still preach that it's for suckers.

In Versus, though, I'm one of those scumbag sandbaggers that does CL7 instead of CL8. Why? For the same reason as just about everyone else. Assuming I don't place t5, which is a rarity in and of itself, the difference in rewards is literally 500 Iso. To do that, I have to stack myself up against those crazy nutjobs with the level 500+ champ 5*s. Thanks, but no thanks. Instead I slum it and either run all over the poor slobs with the 4* rosters or even out with the other sandbaggers. Either way, I win.

Make CL8 a tangible difference from CL7 for more people than only the t5 and you'll get people playing at the "appropriate" level. It's not rocket surgery.

dr tinykittylove

I voted cl8 for both pvp and pve.

For black panther pvp I joined a late cl7 bracket and strolled into #1 for 2 Agent Venom covers. There was no contest at all. Not even close. 2nd was 200 points lower. It would take a lot more work to get the same number of covers getting t5 in cl8.

Not the greatest feeling, but definitely will consider doing it again for covers I want. And would gladly stay in cl8 if they extend cover rewards downward even by say 1 cover for t10.