How to deal with the tediousness of PVE?

NotBAMF
NotBAMF Posts: 408 Mover and Shaker
in MPQ General Discussion

I can't be the only one for whom playing 9 or 10 nodes (depending on if I have the 5* mandatory character) 7 times per day, over and over, feels excessively monotonous, right? I mean... who enjoys playing the same exact mini-game 7 times in a day? And then multiply that times 10?

I'm really feeling the burnout of PVE, but I'm stuck in a rut where if I relax my PVE play, I'm going to start seeing a huge decrease in returns as far as rewards go, and at that point... I might as well stop playing entirely. The fun of building my roster and getting rewards is the part of the game I enjoy. I want to play the game, but... not this much.

I'd love it if PVE nodes set to 0 points after 4 clears instead of 7. LOVE IT. I accept that it won't happen, but I'd think that was ideal. I could still play it on the treadmill to kill an hour, but I wouldn't ALSO have to play another hour later on.

Is this just me? I just feel like... I work 10 hours a day, I have a wife, I have a podcast and a blog that I work on, and I have a social life (a little one, but STILL). I can't keep being bothered to sink ~2 hours per day into ONE facet of this game (ignoring all the PVP I play, the DDQ, and whatever else is going on at the moment).

I have considered just playing to max progression, but doing that STILL requires 5 clears per day and it starts having a hugely noticeable effect on my placement rewards.

My complaints about the game in the last few months have slowly shifted from "They need to fix progression loss in PVP" to "They need to fix progression loss in PVP... AND PVE is very repetitive and time-consuming" to "PVE is very repetitive and time-consuming".

I'm rambling because I didn't come into this with a solid post in mind, heh. I just wanted to see if it was just me, and if not, what others thought possible solutions are/could be.

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Comments

  • acescracked
    acescracked Posts: 1,197 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited March 2018
    Is this the first free to play game you've played on a mobile device?

    The other way to get resources without investing time is spending money. Of course that has downsides as well.

    What I do... I play a pve or two really hard, get t10 and way above progression. Then barely or not play at all the next one or two pve's.
  • thisone
    thisone Posts: 655 Critical Contributor
    Work from home. You can play while you Skype people. Just make sure you have audio only..
  • JackTenrec
    JackTenrec Posts: 808 Critical Contributor
    It's ridiculously tedious, which is why I've dropped down to playing SCL7 (even though my roster really should be used in 8) just to make things go faster.
  • Warbringa
    Warbringa Posts: 1,299 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited March 2018
    I am currently in the middle of a two week detox!  I have been feeling the burnout and I informed my alliance that I would play DP dailies every day but that is it for a while.  My alliance is casual with the only requirement being daily play for alliance iso.  I told them that it could be one or two weeks or several weeks before I return to play.  I have gone through this type of burnout several times before with MPQ.  Eventually for me, the desire to play returns and I hop back in refreshed.  I highly recommend taking a step back for a while, if you aren't in a competitive alliance.  If you are in a competitive alliance, you will probably have to leave it and make sure to give them adequate notice first.  For me playing DP daily takes no more than 5-10 minutes daily and the rewards are still pretty decent for the time spent and it continues shield progression.  Then you can jump back in to play PvE  whenever you feel good to do so again.  Sometimes I even play a few PvP matches to earn some iso/tokens if I feel like it.

    I didn't renew my VIP too since I am not playing too much right now but I will pick it back up when I return.
  • udonomefoo
    udonomefoo Posts: 1,630 Chairperson of the Boards
    JackTenrec said:
    It's ridiculously tedious, which is why I've dropped down to playing SCL7 (even though my roster really should be used in 8) just to make things go faster.
    I did that for a while.  At this point I have gone back up to SCL9 since the 5* node gives 3cp instead of 1cp and I just play that one and the 4* essential.  I can't handle the repetition of the other nodes anymore, not even the easy ones.  It's killing my iso production, but whatever.
  • irwando
    irwando Posts: 263 Mover and Shaker
    My play time is way down, working toward giving up entirely, for similar reasons.  I jsut don't care if I miss stuff anymore.
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,824 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited March 2018
    The more you dilute things, the less anything in particular matters. Not having a Classic 5 will be detrimental about once every 7 months (more than that, really) based on the event schedule and how long a rotation takes. It’s probably about the same if you are missing any Vintage 4*.

    So spending 7 days playing hard in PS got you an LT in t10 scl9 and some War Machine covers. 11-50 got some other War Machine covers. Playing with War Machine in Strange Sights reminds me how he’s too slow to be important.  And he might - might - be an essential one more time this year, but probably not. And boosted? If you want to use him, he’s only boosted 4 weeks out of a calendar year with the current schedule.

    The only suggestion I have is taking a break from an event, resolving to play progression only, dropping an SCL etc. The week of boosted Rocket makes PVE breeze by, and dropping enough with a good roster has the same effect for you personally.
  • Doc L
    Doc L Posts: 279 Mover and Shaker
    This pve, I was trying to see how many pages of my roster is could down using boosted 5* Thanos, with his 8k+ damage to his own team... Surpringly removed a fair bit of boredom from the event, though 7 days...
  • wymtime
    wymtime Posts: 3,759 Chairperson of the Boards
    What is funny is with the 5* meta and all the gambits around I find CL9 PVE much more enjoyable than facing Gambit in PVP.  Mind you I still use Gambit all the time in PVE but in PVE I don’t yell at my iPad nearly as much as I do in PVP.  Also the rewards in PVE are so much better than PVP right now it isn’t even funny.
  • Halleck
    Halleck Posts: 30 Just Dropped In
    As a partial improvement, would anyone miss the easy nodes/pins if they were removed? They seem to be a holdover from a much earlier time, when the game approached scaling very differently than it does now.
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,824 Chairperson of the Boards
    Halleck said:
    As a partial improvement, would anyone miss the easy nodes/pins if they were removed? They seem to be a holdover from a much earlier time, when the game approached scaling very differently than it does now.
    The thing is that there are players - even at scl9 - that might only play those nodes on some days.  They benefit the game since it gives people with minimal time or interest something that they can participate in and get some easy, minimal rewards. 

    Serious pve players look at the whole event and plot out how to hit each node, when to hit them, etc. Others look at the game and figure out where they can get max rewards for minimal effort.  DDQ, PVE easy nodes, and some light PVP (say, to 300) is something one could do and end up with good rewards for little effort.
  • Neuromancer
    Neuromancer Posts: 203 Tile Toppler
    edited March 2018
    I agree, tedious. Then again, I also don't think PVE should be competitive at all. It contributes to the tedium. To fix this, I stopped competing there and aimed only for progression (and only going for the end progression when I have the 5*). Competition is what PVP is for. If they want to expand their demographic, they need to re-imagine their gameplay.

    Also, fill out the surveys when they come through.
  • metallion
    metallion Posts: 276 Mover and Shaker
    Once you accept that it's OK not to get top 10 for every event and that it's OK to just hit progression it gets slightly less tedious. Top 10 requires so much effort and top 50 gives you rewards you can otherwise easily get from tokens, I find it hard to motivate myself from playing beyond max progression outside of new releases. Once I stopped going for placement I found myself splitting my initial clears across 2 or 3 shorter play periods, which makes PVE slightly more bearable over the long term

    Also, take a break. You're probably feeling burnt out. Missing an event or 2 isn't going to set back your progress by months, if you're tired you're just making the slog worse. Stop playing and rest, pursue your hobby, play some other game, get your mind off this game for a while. I'm skipping the current event because I was totally burnt out by the 7 day event, and so far I'm enjoying not having to play this game on the way to work as I type this. 
  • Projectus2501
    Projectus2501 Posts: 218 Tile Toppler
    Pve is boring. Even for paying players
  • shadowyoshi
    shadowyoshi Posts: 153 Tile Toppler
    To OP:

    Go up to SCL 8 in non-release events. As long as you have the required 5* you can reach full progression in 4 clears (maybe sometimes needing to hit the easy nodes a few extra times). Your 4 clears might take a bit longer but you don't have to do any more beyond that.

    Also wait for at least the 2nd bracket to join when doing this.

    I barely play past top progression in non-release events, I am slowly making up my iso debt and I can still champ any newer character within a couple seasons of release.
  • SymmeTrey
    SymmeTrey Posts: 170 Tile Toppler
    I’ve dealt with this too. Even quit for a while. Some keys to getting over burnout:

    - Late join brackets. Placement is much easier.
    - Related note - Slice 4 is most competitive in PVE. Late join other slices and Top 20 is easy with a 6 clear any time of day.
    - Stop worrying about T10. Grind optimally for a multi-day event for 1 extra 4 star cover? A cover that could drop with any 20 CP spend? For 1 extra champion level in the long run? No thanks, this kind of play is a recipe for burning out. 
    - Think of the game as a marathon not an endless series of sprints. Drop to Deadpool Daily play only for a while or progression only. You’ll do better playing a little each day than playing hard for weeks or months and then quitting for weeks or months or quitting entirely and forfeiting all your time and energy (and dollars) invested so far.
    - Bottom line: manage your energy, time, and enthusiasm as a resource, just like you manage CP, HP, ISO. 

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