Half way mark of the PVP season, how is it going for you?

The rockett

No I hate the changes, but playing the same PVP

9 Days in.

314 People Voted:

Yes I like it:  58 / 18%

Indifferent:  29 / 9%

No I don't like it:  204 / 65%

Quit:  23 / 7%

I looked back at some other polls posted here and this is one of the highest voted on polls. I will be doing one after the season as well. 

bluewolf

No I hate the changes, but playing the same PVP

Random observation:  the flips are up for pve EotS, if I’m right.  It would support people switching to pve. 

Uncletas

No I hate the changes, and playing less PVP

Each one is a slog. Usually I would have been in each pvp at least trying to get to 900. The last 3-4 pvp I haven’t even bothered to join. It is a burnout factor. Seeing the same teams that always cause massive damage and knowing I have to beat them 40 times for one 4 Star. Ugh. I know mmr is a huge factor and many people have said it needs to open up if 40 is here to stay.   Sorry if it has been said before but what about opening it to the star level below yours?  5 can see 4, 4 can see 3 etc. I know many would be against it but it is one possible solution 

Dax317

Yes I like the changes, and playing more PVP

I know I have said it on this thread already,but it was with several other things. Go back to the way things were before. For the record, I didn't like the old way. However, make this one change. Once you reach any reward level, be it in an event or SIM or season; you can't fall below that point total. You can fall to it but not, below it. So many players would work hard to reach a certain level the go to bed then wake up to find all their work wiped out. Yes, I know you are going to say shield then, but people have to save that for roster slots. I know the devs won't do this because it is not wallet friendly, but I think it is a good compromise between what there was and what we have.

Dotproduct

CT1888 said:

Undoubtedly. It's just unfortunate that they had to gut the enjoyment and engagement of one group to get another group engaged.

Part of product management. If my group is much bigger than your group and will likely also evolve into spending (which with the recent changes is likely for me) then it is better overall. 

I've just picked up another set of 10CP that I would have never gotten under the old system. So for the 10 or so events since this change, I've gotten 10 CP in all but the 3Clops event, and even in that one I got a few recruit tokens.

Jabrony_Geoff

Yes I like the changes, but playing less

I quit playing the old pvp because of the unfair win/loss system.

Who remembers winning a match only to find you've lost 3 matches at the same time.

Who remembers losing position in the season after losing a fight.

It was the only league system in the whole world where your points and wins on the board didn't count.

I'm glad that part of the game is gone.
I play less because I'm still burned out.
All you guys and girls killing yourself doing PVE and PVP for command points, STOP!

Choose only one at a time because trust me you will burn yourself out. 

I'm currently playing fist bump. Logged on, noticed I lost 5 matches and more.
  yes I laughed because I haven't really lost anything, brilliant.

Only one gripe about the new system, can you kindly bring the 40 wins requirements down to somewhere between 30 and 35.
Also adjust the maximum CP requirement for the season. 340 wins is nonsensical. 

carrion_pigeons

Yes I like the changes, and playing the same PVP

I played to 16 wins for the first time a couple days ago, have to say the experience was pretty much exactly as boring and frustrating as it used to be under the old system.   So if their goal was to find the sweet spot to make pvp exactly as lame as it used to be, they did a pretty good job.

Every time I look at the way this game is designed, I keep finding these uber-cynical efforts to keep the playerbase as spread out as possible, which hurts engagement and runs directly counter to the idea of what constitutes a well-designed multiplayer game. And then I remember, oh yeah, it's the whales' fault.   They *could* have meaningful rewards at reasonable levels of time commitment, but they don't, because it would disincentivize spending. So instead, everyone in the game suffers with bad matchmaking and excessive grindiness, *including the darned whales*, because they can't stand the idea of playing a game with a level playing field. 

[Deleted User]

Took the hint from some pages back - and was present as the balance of power event opened.

Easily 10 seeds, made 10cp in no time - if its possible for you to be there when an event starts it pays off.

Was a first time for me, I never realised it worked that way.  

bluewolf

No I hate the changes, but playing the same PVP

sh81 said:

Took the hint from some pages back - and was present as the balance of power event opened.

Easily 10 seeds, made 10cp in no time - if its possible for you to be there when an event starts it pays off.

Was a first time for me, I never realised it worked that way.  

The seeds used to be a way to inject some points into the shard so people could start bouncing back and forth for something other than 1 point (vs everyone fighting each other from 0).  Now they are a huge advantage.  30 regular matches plus 10 seeds?  I’d actually accept that system.   But seeds are hit or miss, and hope your game doesn’t restart while (sorry, if) you have them queued up.

The current system of grafting wins count on top of a point based design should probably be reconsidered.  I hope that is on the dev agenda.

Angjo

I’m ending the season on approx 500 matches and 12000 pts, which equates to roughly double the number of matches I played last season, for the same points.

Tell me again how this is a QoL improvement?

CHRISJN

No I hate the changes, but playing more PVP

I hate the changes.. But no choice but to play more.. 
1) 40 wins to get 4* cover is a long play. 
2) 15 cp lost at progression and can only be acquired if you finish top10. Which means you need to keep up with the pace. Last time I started playing pvp going to final 24hrs. Saves hp and can easily cruise to 1.2k. Now u need more hp and healthpacks to do it. 

TriggerTime

Yes I like the changes, and playing more PVP

It took me most of this season to figure out how to play PvP in a way that suits me. Previously I thought that win based progression was good in theory - I like the idea of playing whenever it suits me - but did feel that the win count of 40 was too high. More to the point, it seemed that the MMR was definitely stacked against you this time, which made it very difficult to get 40 wins if you're also playing PVE regularly (both in terms of time and health pack consumption).

But with each event I tried slightly different strategies and eventually settled on what I call 'Little League' PeeWee PvP.

I try to start as soon as any time slot opens and fight any seed teams available with the loaner featured character and two weak (but strong enough to win) characters (normally 2* champs). Thereafter I only play the red retaliation nodes and keep using that loaner team.

In general, I'm only  hit by teams of a similar strength, which are normally quite easy to beat. I've found that most players who hit me are newer players with weak rosters - so this way I'm helping them progress and they're helping me. Matches with weak teams are usually quick too, so it never feels a chore to get to 40.

Also the advantage of using the loaner is that you only need to use health packs on 2 of the team (if need be). You can even easily roster dupe 2* characters so the spares can be used while the others recover.

I suppose if I wanted, after getting some of the 40 wins using this system, I could switch to using a strong team and play for ranking. However, I prefer to play for progression and leave the loaner team out there for the benefit of the MPQ community.

Most of the events this month have been completed the first or second day. It certainly feels like I'm playing less overall time on PvP playing under this method.

I've also found that this is an awesome way to fill that dead time in between the optimal timing for playing PvE. Retals pop up sporadically, but I find that works well because I normally only have time for short sessions of play. By the time I'm ready to play again, I have more retals waiting.

At this rate, I'm practically guaranteed a 4 star (plus the easy individual rewards from quick matches) every three days. No need to shield nor spend any hp (though I sometimes stockpile on AP if I want to speed things up).

I have hit the 900 mark on the old PvP system a few times, but never found it that much fun and I always had to spend HP on shields. Under the new system, however, I've never enjoyed PvP more.

Daredevil217

Yes I like the changes, and playing more PVP

TriggerTime said:

It took me most of this season to figure out how to play PvP in a way that suits me. Previously I thought that win based progression was good in theory - I like the idea of playing whenever it suits me - but did feel that the win count of 40 was too high. More to the point, it seemed that the MMR was definitely stacked against you this time, which made it very difficult to get 40 wins if you're also playing PVE regularly (both in terms of time and health pack consumption).

But with each event I tried slightly different strategies and eventually settled on what I call 'Little League' PeeWee PvP.

I try to start as soon as any time slot opens and fight any seed teams available with the loaner featured character and two weak (but strong enough to win) characters (normally 2* champs). Thereafter I only play the red retaliation nodes and keep using that loaner team.

In general, I'm only  hit by teams of a similar strength, which are normally quite easy to beat. I've found that most players who hit me are newer players with weak rosters - so this way I'm helping them progress and they're helping me. Matches with weak teams are usually quick too, so it never feels a chore to get to 40.

Also the advantage of using the loaner is that you only need to use health packs on 2 of the team (if need be). You can even easily roster dupe 2* characters so the spares can be used while the others recover.

I suppose if I wanted, after getting some of the 40 wins using this system, I could switch to using a strong team and play for ranking. However, I prefer to play for progression and leave the loaner team out there for the benefit of the MPQ community.

Most of the events this month have been completed the first or second day. It certainly feels like I'm playing less overall time on PvP playing under this method.

I've also found that this is an awesome way to fill that dead time in between the optimal timing for playing PvE. Retals pop up sporadically, but I find that works well because I normally only have time for short sessions of play. By the time I'm ready to play again, I have more retals waiting.

At this rate, I'm practically guaranteed a 4 star (plus the easy individual rewards from quick matches) every three days. No need to shield nor spend any hp (though I sometimes stockpile on AP if I want to speed things up).

I have hit the 900 mark on the old PvP system a few times, but never found it that much fun and I always had to spend HP on shields. Under the new system, however, I've never enjoyed PvP more.

How many seeds are you queuing doing this. Is it true that the slower you beat seed teams the less likely you are to get more seeds? Or is that a myth. I use 3* Thanos/4* Grocket/Loaner to try and end the match in as few moves as possible. I usually get 8 seeds, sometimes 1-2 less.  But never had 10. Any tips?

bluewolf

No I hate the changes, but playing the same PVP

TriggerTime:

I am glad you found a way to play that works for you. But reading your post makes me think that a design failure exists, when a good strategy for playing “Versus” is to use a starting roster team to win a 4* cover.  Not, say, to develop your roster and run your strongest team.  Isn’t “B” the point of a Versus node??

I would love to know if the intended design is to largely separate playing for progression from playing for placement.  Because this hybrid system is basically saying either grind out 40 wins and worry less about score (so you get easy retals, you want hits) or just climb late for high points but miss out on progression.  Trying to do both seems less and less appealing. 

TriggerTime

Yes I like the changes, and playing more PVP

Daredevil217 said:

How many seeds are you queuing doing this. Is it true that the slower you beat seed teams the less likely you are to get more seeds? Or is that a myth. I use 3* Thanos/4* Grocket/Loaner to try and end the match in as few moves as possible. I usually get 8 seeds, sometimes 1-2 less.  But never had 10. Any tips?

For the events I've played, I haven't always been able to join right at the start of the event. Sometimes I get up to 10 seeds, sometimes just the 3. I don't know that the way you play affects the number you get.

To be honest, the seeds are a bonus but it's not the win count with the seeds that matter (for the way I play) but rather the fact that you get your winning team out there - that will attract the retals. For my system you need to be prepared to take a little longer fighting the seeds with your loaner team - as soon as you use any stronger characters, that will likely become your defensive team and perhaps not be such a tempting target for other players.

TriggerTime

Yes I like the changes, and playing more PVP

bluewolf said:

TriggerTime:

I am glad you found a way to play that works for you. But reading your post makes me think that a design failure exists, when a good strategy for playing “Versus” is to use a starting roster team to win a 4* cover.  Not, say, to develop your roster and run your strongest team.  Isn’t “B” the point of a Versus node??

I would love to know if the intended design is to largely separate playing for progression from playing for placement.  Because this hybrid system is basically saying either grind out 40 wins and worry less about score (so you get easy retals, you want hits) or just climb late for high points but miss out on progression.  Trying to do both seems less and less appealing. 

Sure, I guess there are many design 'failures' in this game, I don't know what D3's intent was but irrespective they'll never be able to please all the people all the time. There were aspects about the old system I didn't like, and aspects about the current one I don't like... whatever else happens, we should all continue to try different strategies to keep it fun to play.

From the looks of the leaderboards in my events, there are plenty of high powered players grinding the PvP game to death. I'm guessing they don't get out of bed unless they're playing their strongest team.

Plus, as I said in my original post, you could use my strategy to rack up some easy wins, then after an appropriate number of wins, switch gear to your strong team if you want to rank high. With some experimentation you'll probably get to 40 wins anyway. I've never tried it but I'd advise others to give it a go and see if it works for them.

I should also mention that I love the change of pace PeeWeePvP (hopefully the name will catch on ) offers. Optimal PvE play is all about grind as fast as you can at the right time, wait for the right time, then... grind as fast you can. Rinse and repeat. Now with these changes I'm suddenly making use of my two stars and my gaming time is spread throughout the day.

I can't complain. (How often do you read that on this forum..? )

xKOBALTx

No I hate the changes, and playing less PVP

TriggerTime said:

But with each event I tried slightly different strategies and eventually settled on what I call 'Little League' PeeWee PvP.

What Trigger describes here is exactly the same thing I've been doing to hit progression as a 5* player. Any time I've missed the seeds I've eventually given up on progression for the event, because beating 5* teams 40 times is a painful slog and mostly requires junkie-level usage of health packs.

These fights are so much easier and you get easily beatable retaliations constantly; slowly moving up from seed-equivalent teams, to 2* teams (where most of my farming comes from), to 3* teams. I'm usually finished by 3* land, but I could easily make it go on to the 4* realm. Basically if you start getting hit by stronger teams, you can just bump up your own. There are always options and almost no health packs are required. You can rely on the essential loaner, switch teams when the others are hurt, or *gasp* WAIT for your characters to heal. I know you've probably forgotten that  characters can even do that if you play in the 5* tier of the game. 

Playing in the 5* realm from the start you'll usually only attract a lot of hits with a high score, otherwise you're mostly ignored as not worth the effort. Any time that you are hit, then the team you are attempting to beat back is a fellow 5* player and probably chose you for a reason. You have no "better" team to upgrade to to make the match easier, just an equivalent team or (if you're lucky) your bench is wide enough that you have a character that has a slightly easier time exploiting a weakness. Health packs are absolutely required. You almost never just let your characters wait and heal in 5* play. Maybe if you're using one or two as a meat shield for Thanos while playing trivial nodes in PvE you will (sorry Bruce), but nowhere else unless it's bed time. The differences in the two are night and day.

bluewolf said:

I would love to know if the intended design is to largely separate playing for progression from playing for placement.  Because this hybrid system is basically saying either grind out 40 wins and worry less about score (so you get easy retals, you want hits) or just climb late for high points but miss out on progression.  Trying to do both seems less and less appealing. 

Agree with this and it calls back to a point Orion made a few weeks ago about the non-compatible goals now facing a lot of players in PvP https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/comment/737172 . Unless you're using brute-force (front-runners) or finding creative solutions that work for you (like the above), you're probably not hitting where you would like on both progression and placement.

bluewolf said:

I am glad you found a way to play that works for you. But reading your post makes me think that a design failure exists, when a good strategy for playing “Versus” is to use a starting roster team to win a 4* cover.  

Absolutely agree with this as well. It does feel like it's exploiting a design flaw and I'm playing where I don't belong, like an adult crawling around in the Play Place at McDonald's (I mean, it is a lot of fun but...). It's silly that it's even necessary, but here we are. Gamers are gonna game. 

NotBAMF

Yes I like the changes, and playing more PVP

With the season just about over, I remain an unapologetically huge fan of the wins-based system. 

There's nothing to say I haven't already said before, but in summation:

1) I'm earning rewards earlier than I would be in the points-based system (consistently getting the 10CP in the 400-500 points range; getting the 4* reward cover at about 700-800 range). 

2) I'm earning rewards I used to never get (I am getting every 4* cover I want to shoot for; I max progressed the Simulator which is something I'd never done before; ditto on the max progression for the season as a whole which I'd never done before).

3) PVP is almost infinitely more fun and enjoyable for me than it used to be. I used to begrudgingly play PVP just to get the 575 points/10 CP reward in one big session of play where I'd have to dedicate 60-75 minutes and 10+ health packs just to PVP, and then I'd jump out because I hated the quicksand feel of losing points in huge lumps (or wasting valuable HP I could use for roster spots on shields or health packs). Now I check in and back out sporadically as I feel the desire to play a match or two, and honestly? It feels like a breeze. 

4) I'm finishing pretty much in the same spot for season placement as I was before (in the 251-500 range, which is fine), and my alliance is going to be inside the top 250 for the season, which is about where we were previously, as well. So on top of getting more rewards and experiencing a more enjoyable season, I'm not giving up any ground on placement. 

So yeah. It's all an A+ change by me. 

beyonderbub

No I hate the changes, and playing less PVP

If my goal was to be mediocre in all facets of this game, I’d love this new system as well. Unfortunately, it’s in my nature to strive for the top. I hope they’ve learned the folly of their ways and switch it back to the way it was in the upcoming season. 

Punisher5784

No I hate the changes, but playing more PVP

Guess most people stopped playing as much.. I'm going to finish the Season in the T25.. I didn't join mid season, I never shielded, only reached 40 wins once (to finally champ Big Pun!), never placed in the T100 any event, never went back to Shield Sim to reclaim lost pts.. basically I didn't care yet I'm placing as high as when I used to play alot of PvP last year.