Access Granted: S.H.I.E.L.D. Clearance Level 9 *Updated (9/20/17)

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Comments

  • PresidentDoom2020
    PresidentDoom2020 Posts: 180 Tile Toppler
    I'm only going to play SCL9 if I either have the required 5* or I need the two 4*s bad, which is probably going to be often enough. I'll definitely go for the Riri covers after this, I just can't find the strength to do an even harder Venom bomb for two measly champ levels for Carol plus I don't have 5* Star Lord
  • Beer40
    Beer40 Posts: 826 Critical Contributor
    I didn't want to jump into this conversation too soon because I saw this when I woke up this morning and wanted time to think about it. So here's my initial assessment:

    Pros:
    SCL 9 is now open giving us more options.
    A new 5* node! Cool!
    Slight increase in rewards

    Cons:
    Slight increase in rewards
    Not enough incentive for lots of people to populate SCL 9?

    Granted the second "con" is only a guess, so this is a positive improvement. However, that "guess" could significantly alter the results MPQ are hoping to get from this. I was told I'm a 3/4 transitioner so I'll use that as an example. As a 3/4 T that almost exclusively plays PVE with my 4*, I can hit max progression and top 100 placement pretty consistently with a sub optimal play style + green checks in SCL 8. Depending on the event + boosted 4* list, it can either be fun or a chore. If it appears to be a chore and I don't want the 4* prog award, I'll play lower. 

    Now with SCL 9 scaling, it would appear to make scaling just more enough of a chore to not interest me. I think that's probably as intended, so I'm good with that. However, I don't see the rewards increases as enough to make a lot of people jump into SCL 9 that are in my spot, or even higher. That confuses me, because I thought it would be a "no brainer" type of move for high level rosters. It doesn't appear that way. 

    Anyway, enough of my rambling. Its a net positive, although on first glance, I'd be surprised if I saw any benefit from it.
  • shardwick
    shardwick Posts: 2,121 Chairperson of the Boards
    byc said:
    There's no way SCL9 will be a ghost town.  People have been crying out for it for months.
    That was mostly before the change in scaling though. Before scaling I was in 8, grinding away for slightly better rewards than 7 for the same enemy difficulty. So at that time even I would have been fine with CL9 and I'd either go up for better rewards or stay in 8 for less competition. Since then I haven't seen a whole lot of people begging for CL9 like they used to. Many came down to 7 for the easier clears. A decent amount of people will go up to 9, most likely after the abomination that is Venom Bomb anyway, because their rosters can handle the tougher opponents and they don't mind the grind. Everyone else will stay on 8 or come down to 7 for an easier 5* node.
  • BoyWonder1914
    BoyWonder1914 Posts: 884 Critical Contributor
    I initially thought to praise this 5* node change, as I thought wow, they've finally found a good way to deter all those 5-star bracket snatchers who drop down to CL7. But then I realized, this screws over the rosters that were actually meant for CL7-8, because they prob won't be able to do these 5-star nodes at all. That node will be nothing more than a bump in the road to a 5-star roster, furthering the separation gap. It caps at 405 in CL8, which is still might be a little too overwhelming for even a 4-roster. 

    I'm glad they finally opened up CL9, and the 5-star folks have a new playground with rewards that actually make sense for their level, but without making any changes to the CL7-8 reward structures, you're forcing people to do 4 extra clears on a node that will be harder than any of the previous ones, for no additional payoff. Those node rewards are trivial. A standard token? Really? Hope this gets tweaked very soon. 
  • purplemur
    purplemur Posts: 454 Mover and Shaker
    I'm reading the following complaints:
    1)Your lvl 65+ but you don't have 5*s to unlock an optional node?
    -poor decision making skills or conflating a falsehood.
    2)"ohh noes 5Starz taek all deh prizes in SCL7 nowz I cants ever haz wins!"
    -so whats changed? YOU can get 7 cp extra a week! and 550 thanos will be getting the same placement as before. Better rosters get top placement: Still not an issue. 
    3)meager rewards for scl9
    -yes, for all but the T50
    4)standard tokens for 5* node reward in SCL 9
    -but you have a 1/70 chance of getting a pair of ***3stars, yay for farming..?.!?

    These changes are a reward to the competitive alliances and a gameplay nod to the senior players. There is no real negative to the average roster,
    benefits:
    +minor movements out of the lower scl's by the apex players to claim the prizes in 9, bubble players will slide into the vacancies
    +over-achieving non placement players can have a challenge and get some better progression also moving from 8-9
    + 1 extra cp, approx. 1k iso(selling the standard) and an event token every day! and the best rewards are front loaded!
    +A new store with featured 5*'s to help your odds of having req'd for the optional node. Thats more choices for hoarders, I'm excited for when it rotates and we get a chance at different classics! you could phinish your phoenix, CAP/IM/BW?, Blck bolt, black suit spidey, black panther? Villain pack? I do think it should be 20cp though...

    Basically this was a welcome change and a net positive to the game. This and win based progression in PvP has me excited for the anniversary! I am guessing we are going to get a new story and new toons, hopefully with a double iso launch and a 30% 40% sale! Its gonna be Dino-Mite!
  • Crowl
    Crowl Posts: 1,580 Chairperson of the Boards
    Orion said:
    The fact that a 5* essential node yields a Standard Token as a reward shows just how out of touch the devs are with higher-level play.  That's just absurd.
    It is fairly idiotic that those even exist at all beyond a certain point in the game and they should automatically become elites after a certain shield level or days played.
  • Rodolfo78
    Rodolfo78 Posts: 70 Match Maker
    purplemur said:
    I'm reading the following complaints:
    1)Your lvl 65+ but you don't have 5*s to unlock an optional node?
    -poor decision making skills or conflating a falsehood.
    2)"ohh noes 5Starz taek all deh prizes in SCL7 nowz I cants ever haz wins!"
    -so whats changed? YOU can get 7 cp extra a week! and 550 thanos will be getting the same placement as before. Better rosters get top placement: Still not an issue. 
    3)meager rewards for scl9
    -yes, for all but the T50
    4)standard tokens for 5* node reward in SCL 9
    -but you have a 1/70 chance of getting a pair of ***3stars, yay for farming..?.!?

    These changes are a reward to the competitive alliances and a gameplay nod to the senior players. There is no real negative to the average roster,
    benefits:
    +minor movements out of the lower scl's by the apex players to claim the prizes in 9, bubble players will slide into the vacancies
    +over-achieving non placement players can have a challenge and get some better progression also moving from 8-9
    + 1 extra cp, approx. 1k iso(selling the standard) and an event token every day! and the best rewards are front loaded!
    +A new store with featured 5*'s to help your odds of having req'd for the optional node. Thats more choices for hoarders, I'm excited for when it rotates and we get a chance at different classics! you could phinish your phoenix, CAP/IM/BW?, Blck bolt, black suit spidey, black panther? Villain pack? I do think it should be 20cp though...

    Basically this was a welcome change and a net positive to the game. This and win based progression in PvP has me excited for the anniversary! I am guessing we are going to get a new story and new toons, hopefully with a double iso launch and a 30% 40% sale! Its gonna be Dino-Mite!
    I like your perspective, and generally agree that pushing some 5* players out of CL7/8 can't help but be a good thing. I'll disagree on "no real negative to the average roster", though, in that the extra high-level node is going to add 20-30 minutes per day for anyone playing for placement. I get my PvE done from 5:20-6:40AM pretty much every day, and already feel stupid for doing it... I don't need to get up any earlier or make my commute worse by playing later.

    This time commitment could be almost exactly offset by making initial clear require only three battles per node.
  • GritsNGravy
    GritsNGravy Posts: 114 Tile Toppler
    This seems like a great change!
  • Jarvind
    Jarvind Posts: 1,684 Chairperson of the Boards
    byc said:
    There's no way SCL9 will be a ghost town.  People have been crying out for it for months.
    I'm not so sure about that. Slumming is already rampant in CL6 and 7. I'm not convinced that plenty of the more "casual" 5* players won't opt to continue stomping the snot out of weaker rosters for better placement.
  • Orion
    Orion Posts: 1,295 Chairperson of the Boards
    Jarvind said:
    byc said:
    There's no way SCL9 will be a ghost town.  People have been crying out for it for months.
    I'm not so sure about that. Slumming is already rampant in CL6 and 7. I'm not convinced that plenty of the more "casual" 5* players won't opt to continue stomping the snot out of weaker rosters for better placement.
    Having a 4* in placement for the top 50 is a pretty good incentive to go to CL9.  I'm not a hard-core 5* PvE player by any means, but if there's a 4* cover that I like in placement, I could see myself working for a top 50 spot.  Heck, if CL9 is as dead as some claim it will be, then more rewards for me.
  • shardwick
    shardwick Posts: 2,121 Chairperson of the Boards
    purplemur said:
    I'm reading the following complaints:
    1)Your lvl 65+ but you don't have 5*s to unlock an optional node?
    -poor decision making skills or conflating a falsehood.
    2)"ohh noes 5Starz taek all deh prizes in SCL7 nowz I cants ever haz wins!"
    -so whats changed? YOU can get 7 cp extra a week! and 550 thanos will be getting the same placement as before. Better rosters get top placement: Still not an issue. 
    3)meager rewards for scl9
    -yes, for all but the T50
    4)standard tokens for 5* node reward in SCL 9
    -but you have a 1/70 chance of getting a pair of ***3stars, yay for farming..?.!?

    These changes are a reward to the competitive alliances and a gameplay nod to the senior players. There is no real negative to the average roster,
    benefits:
    +minor movements out of the lower scl's by the apex players to claim the prizes in 9, bubble players will slide into the vacancies
    +over-achieving non placement players can have a challenge and get some better progression also moving from 8-9
    + 1 extra cp, approx. 1k iso(selling the standard) and an event token every day! and the best rewards are front loaded!
    +A new store with featured 5*'s to help your odds of having req'd for the optional node. Thats more choices for hoarders, I'm excited for when it rotates and we get a chance at different classics! you could phinish your phoenix, CAP/IM/BW?, Blck bolt, black suit spidey, black panther? Villain pack? I do think it should be 20cp though...

    Basically this was a welcome change and a net positive to the game. This and win based progression in PvP has me excited for the anniversary! I am guessing we are going to get a new story and new toons, hopefully with a double iso launch and a 30% 40% sale! Its gonna be Dino-Mite!
    I miss the days of being called foolish for opening up legendaries and rostering the occasional 5*. Now 3s and 3-4* transitioners are somehow poor decision makers for not having every single 5* in the game rostered so we can better compete with guys that have champed 5s and are playing on CL7.
  • Dragon_Nexus
    Dragon_Nexus Posts: 3,701 Chairperson of the Boards

    Brigby said: What would be the benefit of taking the time to complete the 5-Star nodes, as opposed to any other node?

    You answered your own question

    The only thing it awards is node completion resources, like CP or Iso-8
    That, those and them. But not just regular node rewards, up them to make the effort worth it.
  • zodiac339
    zodiac339 Posts: 1,948 Chairperson of the Boards
    Shoot. Was hoping the news update would include confirmation of SCL9 PVP and what its rewards would looks like compared to 8. I imagine the reward changes would be negligable. PVP being how it is, playing in SCL9 PVP should be more viable to 4*s than SCL9 PVE, so the rewards should end up being less of an improvement (but I sure would love to see at least 1 4* cover in top 25 to match percentages. Fingers crossed?)
  • Hyposphere6234
    Hyposphere6234 Posts: 160 Tile Toppler
    SCL 9 is a welcome sight as well as 5* characters being brought into the mix at higher levels. I'm still very much in the middle of 3* to 4* transition and will give it a try to see how it fares. I'm not really too fussed on placement during this transition period due to ISO-shortage, but I will see how far I get with progression and will pass my judgement based on my overall experience of it all.

    I'm guessing SCL 9 will suck for my 5* characters as they all contain various amounts of covers and, apart from one accidental mental blip, are still at their base level.

    It's good to see that there's progression and with this initial public implementation I hope that people take this into consideration. This is a time to be constructive with opinions and feedback.
  • Wumpushunter
    Wumpushunter Posts: 627 Critical Contributor
    Oh look CL9 now I bet everyone moves up one level  and slumming is a thing of the past, right? Just like everyone said on the topic about scaling. Let's just wait and see shall we.
  • Player1575
    Player1575 Posts: 253 Mover and Shaker
    @Brigby any idea if doing every node 4 times (including the 5* required) will let us hit progression without having to do the 5th clear? 
  • Brigby
    Brigby ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 7,757 Site Admin
    @Player1575
    Good question! I'm not exactly sure how many points the 5-Star node would award, but I'll pass that question on, in order to determine if it's enough to hit max progression on 4 clears.
  • vinsensual
    vinsensual Posts: 458 Mover and Shaker
    purplemur said:

    2)"ohh noes 5Starz taek all deh prizes in SCL7 nowz I cants ever haz wins!"
    -so whats changed? YOU can get 7 cp extra a week! and 550 thanos will be getting the same placement as before. Better rosters get top placement: Still not an issue. 
    3)meager rewards for scl9
    -yes, for all but the T50
    4)standard tokens for 5* node reward in SCL 9
    -but you have a 1/70 chance of getting a pair of ***3stars, yay for farming..?.!?

    No, I disagree.  Top placements are earned.  4* player here, and there's always a couple of 4* players who can crack into the top 10 of scl7 because they're grinding at the beginning and end of a sub just like everyone else.  Now it's RNG that decides whether they even have a chance to compete for top 10, because even a single daily 5* essential clear will be enough to create a gap in points that can't be overcome with optimal play. 

  • Saydie
    Saydie Posts: 15 Just Dropped In
    ...so, I tried to read everything in this thread but admit to skimming toward the end, and apologize if this was covered, but...I was previewing the SCL opponent level range, and suddenly SCL 7 has a bad guy range of level 23 to ... 355??!!  After the scaling change I shifted from 8 to 7 because the sheer extra time I would need for clears (unless there is a perfect boost list with the exact few 4* I have) at 8's former 330(? I think?  I hadn't looked in a while, I could remember wrong, but I know it wasn't below that, if anything, higher) level top out.  I am slowly working on the dreaded 4* transition, and while level 7 was a little low, topping out 250, 260ish on bad guys, I am kinda in no way ready to be fighting level 350 bad guys in any kind of decent time.  I mean, I could, probably, maybe do it...with lots of health packs and long matches and...just.../sigh

    Oh yay they opened a new SCL level...and bumped up the others enough that I will probably now be playing SCL 6, which is an even worse fit, but...I can't convince myself the extra long slogs and likely frustration are worth it.  (Venom Bomb doesn't help, but isn't the actual issue)  But playing for 3* and lesser progression and placement?  I guess I will umm try (after Venom Bomb) the level 7 still and see just how rough it is...because the thought of devoting time to an even lower SCL level giving rewards I don't need and that won't help me progress...not making me happy and excited to play.

    **A thought/hope...any clarification if maybe the massively increased level cap is just the high level guys for the 5* node?  So, maybe, hopefully, the actual scaling of the normal 9 nodes are still the same and I'm whimpering and frustrated for no reason and this post can just be a bad dream? /hopeful


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