How to deal with the tediousness of PVE?

JSP869

SymmeTrey said:

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. 

As a west-coast USA office drone, I usually join Slice 4 because the 8pm start/end is so much more convenient for me compared to the other slices, and probably for almost everyone else, too.

The other two slices that sort of could work for me are the 4am (first one) and 11pm (last one). I'm on the train heading into work by 4:30am so I can do my initial clears then, and my final clears before going to sleep. Certainly not optimal timing by any stretch, but I'd also not be doing final clears for one sub then initial clears for the next back-to-back, as I typically do with the 8pm slice, and that is a surefire recipe for burnout.

My PvE Alliance looks for full progression and I'm usually there by the end of the second-to-last subevent. I'll still hit the nodes in the final subevent for the rewards, especially the CP, but at that point my place in T20/T50 is secure so I just take my time with my initial clears, and often don't even do final clears. T20 over T50 really isn't a big deal, it's like 500 more Iso, that's it. No extra covers, no extra tokens, just a handful more Iso, so I don't go hard after T20.

Not only do I often skip the last day of an event, but I late join the next event, 10-12 hours after the event/slice opens, so I won't join the 8-11pm slice until the next morning, or the 4am slice until mid-day or later. That means I'll sometimes go for 36+ hours without playing, and that's a nice break.

For me, playing Prodigal Son was horrible. I was doing final clears then initial clears every 24 hours for 5-6 days straight. It didn't help that during the first two days I had a couple of evening events to attend that messed up my round first few clears, and 3-4 days into the event I was worried that I wasn't going to hit full progression, and I wanted those 55 CP. Man, I really wanted them! I didn't get them until I did my initial clears for the last subevent. That was a nailbiter.

I did SCL9 for several events too, and it is grindy as all hell. It was sort of more fun because I had to pay a lot more attention to what was going on, I couldn't just wreck the enemy teams with Ye Olde Faithful (Medusa, Gamora, & R4G) but had to be selective with my teams to counter who I was facing, but man, those clears took forever!

So I'm back doing SCL8 again and, aside from a few of the tougher events, it's a lot more relaxing...and a lot more boring. But I don't spend anywhere near as much time playing either.

Rockwell75

I've been playing for just over a year and in that time some changes have been great, others less great.  The single change I take issue with the most though, is when they made it so that you had to 5x clears to hit progression...I simply cannot understand why/how they expect people to invest SO MUCH time into this game.  As it stands I personally only care about progression and anything more I just do for my alliance reqs.  I agree with many who think they should improve rewards and move towards a progression only structure for PVE.

Magic

aesthetocyst said:

Just get your roster to the point (read champ Thano5 and a few or all of the following:  HappyThor, Chavez, 5Devil, Bolt, Gambit, 5trange) that you can clear in 40min or less. Then drop down a CL so you can burn it all down in 30 min or less.

Still tedious but less time wasted. If you can play more or less to the game's schedule, your placement shoots up, too 

This is so true. I had champed Gambit, Strange and DD for a while. The PvE was repetitive but pretty quick. However for each event I would decide to go competitive i would lose to the teams with Thanos . He is the key to quick clears. Since last week I've added Thor and him to my group. The PvE is now a breeze so I surely support this approach. I know that you can't get them on a whim but this could put the PvE struggles in perspective - if you don't have the championed 5* (and preferably Thanos among them) - stick to scl7 and the clears would be quick and easy. Takes away a bit of tediousness of this game node.

broll

JSP869 said:

As a west-coast USA office drone, I usually join Slice 4 because the 8pm start/end is so much more convenient for me compared to the other slices, and probably for almost everyone else, too.

Oh man and 8pm start time is my dream.  Sadly as an east-cost USA office drone my options are 7am, Noon, 5pm, 11pm, or 2am.  Giant gap in my prime time gameplay time of 6pm-10pm. 

Quebbster

broll said:

JSP869 said:

As a west-coast USA office drone, I usually join Slice 4 because the 8pm start/end is so much more convenient for me compared to the other slices, and probably for almost everyone else, too.

Oh man and 8pm start time is my dream.  Sadly as an east-cost USA office drone my options are 7am, Noon, 5pm, 11pm, or 2am.  Giant gap in my prime time gameplay time of 6pm-10pm. 

I am in Central Europé and my main options are 6 PM and 11 PM, neither is particularly attractive. 9 PM would be ideal, I could accept plus minus an hour.

(The other options are 1 PM, 5 AM and 8 AM...)

Bowgentle

Quebbster said:

broll said:

JSP869 said:

As a west-coast USA office drone, I usually join Slice 4 because the 8pm start/end is so much more convenient for me compared to the other slices, and probably for almost everyone else, too.

Oh man and 8pm start time is my dream.  Sadly as an east-cost USA office drone my options are 7am, Noon, 5pm, 11pm, or 2am.  Giant gap in my prime time gameplay time of 6pm-10pm. 

I am in Central Europé and my main options are 6 PM and 11 PM, neither is particularly attractive. 9 PM would be ideal, I could accept plus minus an hour.

(The other options are 1 PM, 5 AM and 8 AM...)

Always remember: every PVE ended at 6am.
Be glad for what we have now.

nonnel

Don’t play PVE.  Solves the problem

broll

Bowgentle said:

Quebbster said:

broll said:

JSP869 said:

As a west-coast USA office drone, I usually join Slice 4 because the 8pm start/end is so much more convenient for me compared to the other slices, and probably for almost everyone else, too.

Oh man and 8pm start time is my dream.  Sadly as an east-cost USA office drone my options are 7am, Noon, 5pm, 11pm, or 2am.  Giant gap in my prime time gameplay time of 6pm-10pm. 

I am in Central Europé and my main options are 6 PM and 11 PM, neither is particularly attractive. 9 PM would be ideal, I could accept plus minus an hour.

(The other options are 1 PM, 5 AM and 8 AM...)

Always remember: every PVE ended at 6am.
Be glad for what we have now.

Honestly for me 6am EST would be better than any of the option I have available now.  It wouldn't be the most ideal, but I could deal with that.

Quebbster

Bowgentle said:

Quebbster said:

broll said:

JSP869 said:

As a west-coast USA office drone, I usually join Slice 4 because the 8pm start/end is so much more convenient for me compared to the other slices, and probably for almost everyone else, too.

Oh man and 8pm start time is my dream.  Sadly as an east-cost USA office drone my options are 7am, Noon, 5pm, 11pm, or 2am.  Giant gap in my prime time gameplay time of 6pm-10pm. 

I am in Central Europé and my main options are 6 PM and 11 PM, neither is particularly attractive. 9 PM would be ideal, I could accept plus minus an hour.

(The other options are 1 PM, 5 AM and 8 AM...)

Always remember: every PVE ended at 6am.
Be glad for what we have now.

I was around in those Days. I am very thankful they ended. But the current system can still be improved further.

WEBGAS

shardwick said:

The game in its current state is burning out a ton of people, myself included. A move to progression only with a better reward structure would fix most problems that people have. No more tapping, no more need for people to snipe brackets, not having to worry about your internet going out and costing you a shot at top placement, which happened to me yet again recently, because all you need to worry about to get the best rewards in an event is doing a certain amount of clears. I mean if it was me I would just completely knock out a pve event as fast as I could and then chill for the rest of the event. Maybe play pvp more.

Otherwise you could just divorce your wife, quit your job and your podcast to free up more time to play MPQ.

I WAS ASKING FOR A PROGRESSION BASED PVE for a very long time...that I forgot it (like the Devs seem too)

Doc L

WEBGAS said:

shardwick said:

The game in its current state is burning out a ton of people, myself included. A move to progression only with a better reward structure would fix most problems that people have. No more tapping, no more need for people to snipe brackets, not having to worry about your internet going out and costing you a shot at top placement, which happened to me yet again recently, because all you need to worry about to get the best rewards in an event is doing a certain amount of clears. I mean if it was me I would just completely knock out a pve event as fast as I could and then chill for the rest of the event. Maybe play pvp more.

Otherwise you could just divorce your wife, quit your job and your podcast to free up more time to play MPQ.

I WAS ASKING FOR A PROGRESSION BASED PVE for a very long time...that I forgot it (like the Devs seem too)

Just to mention here, we’ve had it before. A long time ago, for 3* Daredevil’s release, all his covers were linked to progression (don’t ask about the exact details, it was like 1400 days ago according to my daily logins). It didn’t seem to work quite the way it was supposed to - a lot of things were different then, like rubber banding, 3* being the equivalent of 4* now, and no time slices (or fewer, again I forget exactly), so maybe it would work now.

Bowgentle

Doc L said:

WEBGAS said:

shardwick said:

The game in its current state is burning out a ton of people, myself included. A move to progression only with a better reward structure would fix most problems that people have. No more tapping, no more need for people to snipe brackets, not having to worry about your internet going out and costing you a shot at top placement, which happened to me yet again recently, because all you need to worry about to get the best rewards in an event is doing a certain amount of clears. I mean if it was me I would just completely knock out a pve event as fast as I could and then chill for the rest of the event. Maybe play pvp more.

Otherwise you could just divorce your wife, quit your job and your podcast to free up more time to play MPQ.

I WAS ASKING FOR A PROGRESSION BASED PVE for a very long time...that I forgot it (like the Devs seem too)

Just to mention here, we’ve had it before. A long time ago, for 3* Daredevil’s release, all his covers were linked to progression (don’t ask about the exact details, it was like 1400 days ago according to my daily logins). It didn’t seem to work quite the way it was supposed to - a lot of things were different then, like rubber banding, 3* being the equivalent of 4* now, and no time slices (or fewer, again I forget exactly), so maybe it would work now.

I don't think it was his release - I remember the prog covers were all red.

And the final prog rewards were 3 Xforce covers - nobody reached those because people didn't know how to optimal PVE back then, and it would have required perfect grinds on every sub.

I don't think I want to go back to THAT particular version of PVE, thanks.

Quebbster

I remember one old run of Unstable ISO back Before subs and time slices when it was just the World map where the nodes opened up, were available for a while, and then vanished... Anyway, NO ONE got even half the progression rewards that one run. Devs must hav miscalculated the effect of rubber banding or something like that then. It was flat-out impossible to get the last progression rewards.

I Think it was just after the release of 3* Steve Rogers, but I could be wrong about that.

Bowgentle

There have been some very bizarre and terrible PVE ideas over the years, truly insane stuff where I wonder how it ever got the green light to make it into a live system.
Like, roster based scaling that was used for almost 3 years.
No idea how someone could think this would be "fun" for developed rosters.

Doc L

Bowgentle said:

Doc L said:

WEBGAS said:

shardwick said:

The game in its current state is burning out a ton of people, myself included. A move to progression only with a better reward structure would fix most problems that people have. No more tapping, no more need for people to snipe brackets, not having to worry about your internet going out and costing you a shot at top placement, which happened to me yet again recently, because all you need to worry about to get the best rewards in an event is doing a certain amount of clears. I mean if it was me I would just completely knock out a pve event as fast as I could and then chill for the rest of the event. Maybe play pvp more.

Otherwise you could just divorce your wife, quit your job and your podcast to free up more time to play MPQ.

I WAS ASKING FOR A PROGRESSION BASED PVE for a very long time...that I forgot it (like the Devs seem too)

Just to mention here, we’ve had it before. A long time ago, for 3* Daredevil’s release, all his covers were linked to progression (don’t ask about the exact details, it was like 1400 days ago according to my daily logins). It didn’t seem to work quite the way it was supposed to - a lot of things were different then, like rubber banding, 3* being the equivalent of 4* now, and no time slices (or fewer, again I forget exactly), so maybe it would work now.

I don't think it was his release - I remember the prog covers were all red.

And the final prog rewards were 3 Xforce covers - nobody reached those because people didn't know how to optimal PVE back then, and it would have required perfect grinds on every sub.

I don't think I want to go back to THAT particular version of PVE, thanks.

You have a better memory than me in all fairness - I can’t remmeber it properly other than a lot of the covers were in progression rather than placement, and it being a mess. I was led to believe at the time, the issue was too many people achieved the progression to a certain point, so too many rewards were given out - again, that could be totally off piste, but what I remmeber.

WEBGAS

I remember an EOTS event that gave X23 as final progression reward for those who cleared 7 times all the nodes.
7 times is the requested clear to do optimal clear now (without tapping) so if I could get top progression doing 7 clears (or even 8) playing at my own peace during the 24h of each sub, YES I prefer progression rewards...

....but this is My own opinion, so feel free to disagree 

Quebbster

WEBGAS said:

I remember an EOTS event that gave X23 as final progression reward for those who cleared 7 times all the nodes.
7 times is the requested clear to do optimal clear now (without tapping) so if I could get top progression doing 7 clears (or even 8) playing at my own peace during the 24h of each sub, YES I prefer progression rewards...

....but this is My own opinion, so feel free to disagree 

The problem with that run was that as announced, only the top [whatever] were given X-23 covers... and with an equal amount of Points available in nodes, the only differentiation between players were how fast they could finish their clears. They did change this and gave out X-23 covers to everyone who completed all the clears, but that wasn't the plan from the beginning. I assume they realized how bad the idea was since they made amends and haven't revisited the idea since...

Ebichu

agreed on the fact there should be less clear per node to do.. it's just tedious, 4/5 should be the max imo
also no more of those 5 days pve event, it's terribly long, if you happen not to have one (or two) of the needed characters you're just wasting a lot of time until the next event etc
so yeah please 3 days like the doors event is fine

this game is about grinding, that's fine, just try to make it a tiny bit less tedious thanks!

Jabrony_Geoff

Because of everything the OP mentions this is how I play now:-

Deadpool daily 2 CP node everyday. Given up on the other nodes due to burn out.

1 PVE event once a month. It's all I can do now due to burnout.

Given up on PVP just not important anymore and burnout.

I Don't care about the guys with better rosters I just don't care.
I don't care about the excitement around new covers I just don't care. I'm falling so far behind but I just don't care.

Alliance event is the only thing that I like playing now.

The game has lost my heart and is unhealthy so that's how I have to play for my own mental health. 

NotBAMF

aesthetocyst said:

I find boss events to be a nice break from the 'tediousness'.

Well, the repetition anyway.

Ultron fights can get pretty tedious

Fully agree. While I don’t love the Ultron event (more the sentry filled feeders than anything about Ultron’s biss node itself), the Alliance events are a TERRIFIC break up of the PVE grind. I love the regularity with which these are happening. Best change in a long time.