Fix difficulty calculation for Essential nodes

Polares

I think everybody will agree that Essential nodes don't calculate difficulty correctly, and it has been like this since max difficulty cap was removed.

So let's give an example:
Simulator Node 4 Essential
Team: OML - 454, PH - 452, Venom - 175
Max difficulty in the node: 420
Average of the 3 max characters I can use: 360

420 >>> 360 !!!

As a comparison, in the normal max difficulty node the average is 451 and the max difficulty is 435.

Now, how is this fair?!?!?!?!? It is really 'fun' to have to fight Iceman, or MoonK with this 2 person team. It also affects a lot in the 3 essential node. Remember Boss nodes? There it is even more fun because even in 2 essential nodes you have max difficulty!!!!

This problem affects ALL LEVELS OF PLAY (even though is worse in 5 land because the level difference is bigger, but this affects everybody!)

We have discussed this in A LOT of different threads, but it stays un-fixed. Essential nodes MUST consider the level of the character you are forced to use, and right now it doesn't. This is so obvious that it is painful.

So please Devs, please Reds, pay attention to this problem that we have been enduring for A LONG TIME, and PLEASE fix it.

PS: Please guys upvote or add comments, this is a problem that affects every one of us! This should be priority one to fix!

Beastwood

I take back anything i said about thick as thieves....

I hate muscles granted but this whole event has been punishing to say the least, it might be a simulator but it's simulating frustration for me...

It's pulling some absolute beast combos against me, this Strange/moonblade/Power man combo is tearing me a new one, 5k damage from mbs fist (pratically half of my QS/Cyclops hp in one hit), an insta death purple attack and strange doing what strange does best, throwing 2k back in my face all while defense tiles are appearing everywhere and being fortified.... ruthless... they're level 188 starting, i know its for 3.5k iso but man o man lol

edit- well did that who'd have thought the hulk would've been useful, got him upfront so everytime strange popped the yellow i got the black of green madness, had a technpathic strike team up aswell got cycs black up and burnt off strange in a big bang and then mopped the other two up but man that was tough for me

Kingpin/Rhulk/fury on the essential, i dont even want to think about it with my 75 venom i got him through a couple of clears previously but this one i think i'll manage 1/2 at best and i'm being optimistic i get the feeling rhulk is going to eat me alive

It's defo going upto near the top of my most hated event list if not the top, glad i dont rate carnage enough to want him and i at least made the venom on progression but meh

Born2DieNPvP

Agreed. I'm skipping this event entirely because of this. Scaling in general has felt off for me the last 2 events. Maybe adding Strange to my line up put me over the infuriating invisible line and caused my scaling to bump up. Regardless the essential node badly needs to be reworked. Especially considering CP is the reward at the 4th clear. The AI has caught on to my IM40/Iceman combo and now routinely starves the board of yellow.

Polares

Scaling in general is high, but on top of that, we have the requirement of using some characters in Essential nodes that are way under-levelled for the difficulty of that node because this character is not used for the difficulty level calculations. And when on top of high scaling you need to add that you are basically playing with just two chars instead of 3, this make things much harder!

This is not fair for anybody, how is it fair in Boss nodes to have to fight 430 (or 370 or 330 or ... add your own level here) level enemies with a 2 that might be level 200 in the best of the cases ????? This is one of the main reasons why Boss nodes are so damn hard on the last day.

Punisher5784

4* Essentials for new characters should have 2* essential scaling because these nodes are 2v3, or at least just make it 3 Goon enemy nodes, that I can handle.

SnowcaTT

This has been called for by many people for a long time. Ever since they "fixed" the 2*'s to easier I've been asking why I have to drag along a worthless 3* in the scaling formula...and I have basically all the 3*'s above level 200! I consider them worthless in the match, just a "drag along" character like the loaner 4*!

Totally agreed with OP - EACH essential node should scale to your top characters + that essential character, not just your top few characters.

firethorne

Yep, that Agent Venom essential is not good. 2 out of 3 characters downed, and that was only clear 2. Managed only one downed on the third. Wiped on my first two attempts on the 4th, even using AP boost. Made it by on the third attempt with one surviving. My 0/1/1 Agent certainly isn't doing me any favors. That passive is horrible.

madok

firethorne wrote:

Yep, that Agent Venom essential is not good. 2 out of 3 characters downed, and that was only clear 2. Managed only one downed on the third. Wiped on my first two attempts on the 4th, even using AP boost. Made it by on the third attempt with one surviving. My 0/1/1 Agent certainly isn't doing me any favors. That passive is horrible.

Yeah, you should never want to not apply covers to a character. I wish I could go back and not apply black covers to Venom. I've never wanted to down/stun one of my own teammates so much in my life.

dsds

madok wrote:

firethorne wrote:

Yep, that Agent Venom essential is not good. 2 out of 3 characters downed, and that was only clear 2. Managed only one downed on the third. Wiped on my first two attempts on the 4th, even using AP boost. Made it by on the third attempt with one surviving. My 0/1/1 Agent certainly isn't doing me any favors. That passive is horrible.

Yeah, you should never want to not apply covers to a character. I wish I could go back and not apply black covers to Venom. I've never wanted to down/stun one of my own teammates so much in my life.

I was swearing so hard everytime agent venom steals my ap. What makes it worse is that I placed the highest I've ever placed in the last event, and got all three covers and now slowly realizing how useless that character is.

I basically ended up using all my health packs on the 4 clears on essential nodes and then were forced to play weird teams and was just hoping for pure luck to win all the other nodes. By the end of the 4 full clears, almost all of my 3,4,5* characters were dead. I wiped probably more than 10 times. On the other hand, I found out how good black bolt is even at 255 with 2 covers oh and he is practically dead also.

Tromb2ch2

For everyone saying agent venom is the worst please realize with more covers he becomes pretty good! I know that doesn't help now but don't write him off. Also the complaint about not wanting to add a cover to a character because it makes it "worse" I'd like to point out that brock is the same way lol, but at least av will get better.

Anyway, yeah they need to do something with the essentials. As far as the 4* after release even if they made it a loaner node that would be better...

alphabeta

Tromb2ch2 wrote:

For everyone saying agent venom is the worst please realize with more covers he becomes pretty good! I know that doesn't help now but don't write him off. Also the complaint about not wanting to add a cover to a character because it makes it "worse" I'd like to point out that brock is the same way lol, but at least av will get better.

Anyway, yeah they need to do something with the essentials. As far as the 4* after release even if they made it a loaner node that would be better...

If they made it a loaner node then all the people who didn't place in the launch event would be able to do it and we can't possibly have that in competitive PVE - we must have a reason to run around mindlessly on our hamster wheels competing with each other.

The scaling fix is the way to go

Polares

Today has been super fun getting to the CP in the Rhulk+KP+Fury node.

I stupidly added the black Venom and I made my life even harder (I should have waited until the event finished). So, not just 2vs3, one of my chars was continuously destroying my AP, and to kill a 420 level Rhulk in one turn you need A LOT of AP (a lot of yellow+black, or a lot of purple), so this node has been an even bigger party.

This should not be like this. This node should have had a much smaller max difficulty level. Devs should know already that this difficulty level is wrong. And this should be easy to fix. SO PLEASE DEVS FIX IT !!!!

Bowgentle

Polares wrote:

Today has been super fun getting to the CP in the Rhulk+KP+Fury node.

I stupidly added the black Venom and I made my life even harder (I should have waited until the event finished). So, not just 2vs3, one of my chars was continuously destroying my AP, and to kill a 420 level Rhulk in one turn you need A LOT of AP (a lot of yellow+black, or a lot of purple), so this node has been an even bigger party.

This should not be like this. This node should have had a much smaller max difficulty level. Devs should know already that this difficulty level is wrong. And this should be easy to fix. SO PLEASE DEVS FIX IT !!!!

Just do what you do in PVP when Rulk is boosted.
Nova, Creep, MBW Teamup, etc.

No need to kill him in one turn, let OML eat the damage while you do your thing.

This is simulator, it always had crazy tough nodes, no need to complain about this particular PVE.

Even though yes, I've used 8 HP on my end grind in sub two because it was cascade city.

Polares

Bowgentle wrote:

Polares wrote:

Today has been super fun getting to the CP in the Rhulk+KP+Fury node.

I stupidly added the black Venom and I made my life even harder (I should have waited until the event finished). So, not just 2vs3, one of my chars was continuously destroying my AP, and to kill a 420 level Rhulk in one turn you need A LOT of AP (a lot of yellow+black, or a lot of purple), so this node has been an even bigger party.

This should not be like this. This node should have had a much smaller max difficulty level. Devs should know already that this difficulty level is wrong. And this should be easy to fix. SO PLEASE DEVS FIX IT !!!!

Just do what you do in PVP when Rulk is boosted.
Nova, Creep, MBW Teamup, etc.

No need to kill him in one turn, let OML eat the damage while you do your thing.

This is simulator, it always had crazy tough nodes, no need to complain about this particular PVE.

Even though yes, I've used 8 HP on my end grind in sub two because it was cascade city.

Yeah I know Simulator are specially tough, but I think it is worth showing these problems we face when we have to use a char that is essential with just -/1/1 covers AND the node doesn't scale to the level of this char.

In other PvEs our enemies are usually 2s and Goons, and scaling is not that bad with those, but in events like this one, where enemies are most of the time really strong 4s ( Iceman has been used in two nodes with max difficulty !!!! ), these problems become much more relevant.

Devs need to acknowledge that these nodes really need to consider the level of the char you are forced to use, specially in cases like this where a new 4 is featured or in Boss node fights where the featured char might be a 2


PS: About using Nova or Iceman against Rhulk

The problem of using Nova or Iceman when they are not buffed is that you need a lot of time to kill a 50k hitpoints Rhulk. Usually getting the AP and destroying him in one turn with 5s is faster.

In PvP is even worse, because at my MMR if I use any of those I get completely destroyed in attacks, I need to keep using OML+PH all the time so I don't become an 'easy target'. So fighting Rhulk is A PAIN IN THE **** every time he is buffed (well, know there is some people with Rhulks that are so levelled that you don't trigger his red with match damage, so even though his green does around 8k to 20k, I prefer to fight those :S )

Bowgentle

Polares wrote:

PS: About using Nova or Iceman against Rhulk

The problem of using Nova or Iceman when they are not buffed is that you need a lot of time to kill a 50k hitpoints Rhulk. Usually getting the AP and destroying him in one turn with 5s is faster.

In PvP is even worse, because at my MMR if I use any of those I get completely destroyed in attacks, I need to keep using OML+PH all the time so I don't become an 'easy target'. So fighting Rhulk is A PAIN IN THE **** every time he is buffed (well, know there is some people with Rhulks that are so levelled that you don't trigger his red with match damage, so even though his green does around 8k to 20k, I prefer to fight those :S )

Just use an MBW teamup and use your two 5s, worked for me.

Evilgenius_9

I struggled the first 2 tries, then I went to the old classic lazy cap / IM40. I didn't have to use a health pack between tries 3 and 4. Stun lock is a beautiful thing.

turbomoose

Iceman and scarlet witch work well against most opponents though this time I only went for 6 fights as scaling was a bit ott

Beat iceman 6 times as well but then I have quite a high invisible girl which is great since her upgrade

But yes the new 4* scaling is a bit ridiculous but as they now give us the new character for free we shouldn't complain too much