5* Ghost Rider as essential 72h after being released in tokens UPDATED 2/13 OP no longer valid

Colognoisseur

UPDATE 2/13: First I should not have made this post prior to Brigby announcing the next PvE event. I was wrong to make assumptions and then throw down a post which would irritate people.
I apologize to all who were correct in pointing out within the thread that I shouldn't have made assumptions; you were right.
Finally, to the Developers and Brigby I have learned to wait until there is something official before complaining. I will try and not repeat the same mistake in the future.
Thank you for having a Boss Event, I am very happy about that.

I don't know what the next PvE after Venom Bomb will be. The Town Crier has not informed us. What I do know is the 5* essential has to be Robbie Reyes. Thor was the essential for Fight for Wakanda; Archangel is the essential for Venom Bomb, it has to be a latest 5* for the next PvE which only leaves Reyes as the 5* essential.

This means a player will have had to draw at least one cover from Latest Tokens in about 72h to compete in the first time slice with a little more time for the later slices.

Let's breakdown what this means. if you are player who draws tokens as you get them here are how many opportunities you will have to draw a Reyes cover.  One from 25cp from pvp progression. One latest token from DDQ clash of the titans tomorrow. That's two whole chances to get a cover necessary to play the next PvE before it starts.

This is just a lousy move by Demiurge to require a 5* essential so soon after it enters tokens. For new 4* essentials you have the chance to earn a cover via the previous PvE or lately the parrallel running PvP.

For 5* they seem to be saying its all up to RNG whether you can continue to play.

This is in contrast to the way it worked for the early 5* essentials where the new 5* didn't show up in PvE for 5-6 weeks which allowed more than enough time for players to have the opportunity to roster a cover so they could play the 5* essential.

I know they don't really care about these kind of things which has been shown over and over.

This is mainly to let them know you will eventually push your player base away for good if you continue with decisions like this.

BoyWonder1914

Guess you should be prepared to make more threads like this, assuming that they're going to continue to have "Latest" 5-stars as essential characters. Regardless of where you stand on this issue, you do have to admit that it's technically easier for a newer player to acquire a cover of a Latest 5 as opposed to a Classic one due to dilution. So since the 5-star node will continue to be a thing regardless, it's ultimately more "fair" for them to feature Latest more often. I considered a possible solution of them featuring more Classic 5-stars as part of the lineup after a new character enters Latest so as to allow more time for covers to be acquired; but then you're giving the shaft to newer players who will have trouble acquiring these classic characters in the meantime. 

So I understand and share your frustration, I had to blow my entire hoard to have Archangel in time for the last run of Strange Sights. But at the same time I also don't really see a plausible solution that satisfies everyone. 

Quebbster

You know what would be hilarious? If Robbie was essential in a seven-day event. We're about due for one I Think.

But of course, that will give us more time to get the covers! [/sarcasm]

PenniesForEveryone

Maybe they will recognize how crazy that would be and adjust the rotation so that Ghost Rider isn't essential until later???

You know everyone was opening and spending everything they had available to try to max Gambit before he left too.

Wjohnson992

How many hours until Robbie is in the tokens? Want to know if I have time to get another token!

Starfury

BoyWonder1914 said:

Guess you should be prepared to make more threads like this, assuming that they're going to continue to have "Latest" 5-stars as essential characters. Regardless of where you stand on this issue, you do have to admit that it's technically easier for a newer player to acquire a cover of a Latest 5 as opposed to a Classic one due to dilution. So since the 5-star node will continue to be a thing regardless, it's ultimately more "fair" for them to feature Latest more often. I considered a possible solution of them featuring more Classic 5-stars as part of the lineup after a new character enters Latest so as to allow more time for covers to be acquired; but then you're giving the shaft to newer players who will have trouble acquiring these classic characters in the meantime. 

So I understand and share your frustration, I had to blow my entire hoard to have Archangel in time for the last run of Strange Sights. But at the same time I also don't really see a plausible solution that satisfies everyone. 

A 5* in latest is about 6x as likely to get from a LT than a vintage character. So that means by using CP alone, the chance to get 1 5* GR cover with three days of CP income is about as high as getting any vintage character with 15 days worth of CP.

No, the "more likely" argument doesn't cut it when they give you less than a week to pull a character.

broll

Based on my previous resource tracking (your mileage may vary) I earn about 2 Latest Legends pulls per day.  Since the odds are 1:7 for any of the 3 5* you probably want to save up at least 21 pulls for the new 5*.  In the future I'd suggest starting a mini-hoard as soon as they announce a new 5*.  That should give you ~20 days or 40 pulls when they new guy shows.

I know you may not like hoarding, but by not hoarding you're playing right into your hand.  They want you to be annoyed / incentived enough to open your wallet to get him.  Hoarding is your best tool against  such business practices. If you don't like hoarding I understand, but I highly recommend at least doing a short hoard like this to cover yourself for future releases, I don't expect this to stop.

EDIT:
Ironically, I have the opposite frustration.  I like hoarding and these force me to crack my hoard at least somewhat for every new 5* rather than waiting till I have 300 pulls for all 3.  It's a clever strategy from their end that both discourages/puts a dent into long-term hoarding and tries to nickle and dime those that refuse to hoard.

Thankfully I pulled a GR with free tokens from his release event.  

bluewolf

One counter point is that if the character is very hard to get, many players will not have him.  I did pretty well in the first Archangel essential event (I think it was Strange Sights) without him, and the Simulator with him as essential I was t50 - still without him.

I don't really support their feigned ignorance in picking a brand new character as an essential, though.

PenniesForEveryone

broll said:

Based on my previous resource tracking (your mileage may vary) I earn about 2 Latest Legends pulls per day.  Since the odds are 1:7 for any of the 3 5* you probably want to save up at least 21 pulls for the new 5*.  In the future I'd suggest starting a mini-hoard as soon as they announce a new 5*.  That should give you ~20 days or 40 pulls when they new guy shows.

I know you may not like hoarding, but by not hoarding you're playing right into your hand.  They want you to be annoyed / incentived enough to open your wallet to get him.  Hoarding is your best tool against  such business practices. If you don't like hoarding I understand, but I highly recommend at least doing a short hoard like this to cover yourself for future releases, I don't expect this to stop.

EDIT:
Ironically, I have the opposite frustration.  I like hoarding and these force me to crack my hoard at least somewhat for every new 5* rather than waiting till I have 300 pulls for all 3.  It's a clever strategy from their end that both discourages/puts a dent into long-term hoarding and tries to nickle and dime those that refuse to hoard.

Thankfully I pulled a GR with free tokens from his release event.  

In this case though I'd rather just skip the 5* essential node and have more chances at Gambit covers.

HoundofShadow

I thought you could get cover for 5* GR during one of the PvE a couple of weeks back. I guess you missed the boat, you didn't have enough CP to open the token or you did not want to use your CP. I have seen teams with 5* GR in PvP a number of times already. The last time I seen one was yesterday.

Colognoisseur

HoundofShadow said:

I thought you could get cover for 5* GR during one of the PvE a couple of weeks back. I guess you missed the boat, you didn't have enough CP to open the token or you did not want to use your CP. I have seen teams with 5* GR in PvP a number of times already. The last time I seen one was yesterday.

Actually I've always gone for the new release token store during the boss event. For archangel I got my cover that way.

For Reyes I pulled 12 tokens via cp including the two I received from the boss event and the one available in the vault. 0 Reyes

I then hoarded once I realized that Reyes was going to be the 5* essential until he was added to tokens. Just pulled 20 tokens. 0 Reyes.

I have pulled 35 tokens to try and get one Reyes cover and received zero. I've gotten other 5* covers it is not like I'm not getting the advertised drop rate but to play PvE I need a cover of one character which I can't draw.

This is what is frustrating. I am spending CP I am pulling tokens but I have no ability to affect RNG and when it wants to laugh at you it does.

Unless I get lucky in the next 84h before s4 starts it looks like I will have to play cl9 without Reyes.

That makes me unhappy

HoundofShadow

I've totally forgotten about RNG. My bad. I hope you get the luck you need.

Calnexin

No one is going to die by not placing T10 in one or two PvE's.  If you don't have him for his inaugural essential, you'll probably have him for the next one, or the one after that.  If you're not the sort of person who either hoarded or whaled for him, you'll still be at a disadvantage to those who did.

Or perhaps I've just gotten too complacent.  Not having a champed Gambit has me playing the whole game at a much more leisurely pace.

Hendross

Such a pessimist.  In 2 chances, you have a 9.75% to get 1 or more Robbies.  13 pulls give you a ~50/50 shot at 1 or more.

Colognoisseur

Calnexin said:

No one is going to die by not placing T10 in one or two PvE's.  If you don't have him for his inaugural essential, you'll probably have him for the next one, or the one after that.  If you're not the sort of person who either hoarded or whaled for him, you'll still be at a disadvantage to those who did.

Or perhaps I've just gotten too complacent.  Not having a champed Gambit has me playing the whole game at a much more leisurely pace.

Nobody is going to die by not doing anything in this game.

Still doesn't mean I can't feel disappointed by not being able to play a part of the game solely because I didn't roll the right numbers on my pulls.

We all play differently and I don't know whether others feel as I do or feel like you do.

crackninja

Planning for these has given me an excuse to ceate a new tab on my spreadsheet that goes day by day to the end of the year, marking all key dates, guesstimating my pull counts, balances, etc. so I can see exactly where I'm expected to stand assuming expected pull rates.
Non-hoarders are clearly expected to join buy clubs to get the cover if so inclined.  Not saying this is right or wrong, it just is what it is.  The one good thing is it is mostly avoidable.

JackTenrec

On the other hand, not having the 5E character makes it a whole lot easier to just do some suboptimal clears and stumble over the progression line, whenever. No hoard, classics all the way.  I actually hope for 4* when I draw.

DarthDeVo

They did something similar with Archangel, requiring him as the essential less than a week after he was in tokens. I had burned my hoard trying to get as many champ levels for Daredevil as I could before he rotated out, so I had no chances for trying for him the first time he was required.

As soon as they showed Thor being the 5* essential for the Wakanda event rather than Gambit, I had a feeling we were in for requiring a new 5* just a few days after they entered tokens again. Sure enough, that looks to be what we're in for. I'm just glad I've got about 50 pulls or so to try for him. 

Dartmaster01

I have to think this is working as intended. They don't want people to hoard, they want you to feel like you need the character immediately and blow your CP trying to get them. Sounds like that's exactly what happened.

Sorry for your bad rng  luck though, I would be disappointed also.

grunth13

Its not that hard, Colog...I think you are overstating the issue.  It took me only 60 pulls to get my first ghost rider and only approximately a 100 to 120 pulls to get my second.  That's easy peezy.  Going to love playing a 515 level 5star essential with a 2 on 3 match.

Calnexin

Colognoisseur said:

Still doesn't mean I can't feel disappointed by not being able to play a part of the game solely because I didn't roll the right numbers on my pulls.

We all play differently and I don't know whether others feel as I do or feel like you do.

Yeah.  I guess I'm numb to not being able to use GR as an essential since my abysmal pull rate and nine unwanted archangel covers leave me unable to seriously play a full half of the game.

It is a relatively small thing.  One event, and the placement prizes aren't exactly blockbusters.  The big draw for the event is the new 4* cover in placement, which you don't need the 5* for.  Yeah, a temporary dip in your CP income feels bad, but it's really very temporary.