Battle of the Four Tribes - first thoughts

Sirchombli

I banked because of the Max 3 charges without even realizing I was banking. I got to the game as soon as I could and I'm putting up good numbers, but I'm going to end up missing my last games because of timing. Bear in mind I didn't jump in like 16 hours in, it was more like 8.5. It's a pretty tinykitty feeling that I now get punished for doing things like sleeping or working . I even ground out all 15 games as soon as I joined. Took like 2 hours. This is why I don't like the "big" pvp events . They feel like work . Now this feels like work . It's a fun event, but this definitely puts a bit of a damper on things. On a positive note , the game play of this event is really cool. This is probably the first new pve I've liked this much .

ILikePancakes

I've been able to beat every single opponent *except* for the Vampire boss. Am I going to have to bust out a semi-cycling deck to win? Dang, she's harder than the end boss for the cards I have.

Mburn7

ILikePancakes said:

I've been able to beat every single opponent *except* for the Vampire boss. Am I going to have to bust out a semi-cycling deck to win? Dang, she's harder than the end boss for the cards I have.

Azor is surprisingly the easiest fight of the last 2 nodes (disclaimer, I have only fought him once so far).
Its most likely because he is the most straightforward, with the least annoying secondaries.

But yeah, St. Elendra (and Vona before her) are appropriately terrifying.  Well designed

Bil

Starfield lock with gideon's defeat and thopter network are working pretty well against elendra. For more security the lifelink support from RIX is helpful too.

Gunmix25

bken1234 said:

Coilbox said:

I would add that having a boss that deals 999 damage with a single skill stands on the very cheesy side... But thats only just me i guess.

I actually agree with this. You have to cycle to succeed and you’re at the whim of draw because there is only so much support and creature destruction available.  

Been using Bolas with Imminent Doom to beat this node. It's a race for the finish line though. Makes it a bit of a rush, I gotta tell ya. Haha

Stormcrow

I like a lot of these fights. I haven't used cycling to beat any of them, except one creatureless Ob Nix deck which has some cycling in it (but doesn't really rely on it or need it). The "play tribal critters" nodes have been fun to beat actually using tribal critters (I might've griped about the Dino node had I not just gotten Etali from an Elite Pack....suddenly that node became fun!). The vampire nodes do take a long time though, especially if you go Vampire vs. Vampire as the game encourages you to do - all that lifelink can just make things take forever.

Speaking of taking forever....probably my least favorite node is Azor, the very last node. The battlefield restrictions on not being able to attack or cast spells or cast supports each turn doesn't really do very much, it seems to me, except drag the game out and make everything take longer. (And add bugs...I ended up pulling a couple of spells, with Goggles I think, on a turn where they weren't castable, and they just stayed not-castable for the rest of the game.) On top of which, his deck is also almost embarrassingly harmless, but fantastic at dragging things out and making things take forever, and his PW abilities are pretty good for dragging things out, too. Plus he's got the usual 500 hp for a final boss. It's not hard, I've never once felt like I was in danger of actually losing a fight against him (and the length of the fight makes the optional objectives incredibly easy), but my god it takes forever.

All in all: fun, but very very time consuming. Except for Azor, who is just tedious and not very fun.

BenRama

I like the event, but for the love of *expletive deleted* please do not keep it at starting 2 out of 3 max charges per node. It's a bad idea for a number of reasons, all of which have been well covered in previous comments. I've already notified my coalition leader (SWWAgain/4pdaru) that if the event hasn't been changed by next time it's run, I'll have no choice but to step down for the duration. Thanks for letting me vent, and see you on the 'boards!

BenRama

boopers

So some comparative reality regarding cycling. 

As said here multiple times, cycling decks are highly adaptive to almost any objective. They are fully functional in only a few turns at most, reducing risk of letting Greg’s deck getting a foothold on the board state. They are just low risk, and the technique is available to all.

It’s honestly not a bad game mechanic to have available to level the playing field on these PVE events so it is possible for new-ish players to play them at all. Imagine trying to play the 5.x nodes after only having been playing for a couple months.  Without cycling or spending a huge wad, it’s impossible. 

I would say it is incumbant on the experienced players to challenge themselves to build non cycling decks... when you feel confident with the new event. RotGP was the same way... everyone had at least 3-4 cycling decks to start, and as players got better acquainted to the event, got new powerful cards, experimented with deck building, they ditched cycling decks for builds that were more enjoyable to play. Cycling was STILL the lowest risk strategy at that point, but the individual players decided to give that up in exchange for more interesting matches. 

It’ll happen again... just take it upon yourself to ditch cycling if you hate it so much. If you don’t like the added risk, and value the rewards more, that’s your choice. 

Now the event nodes stating at 2/3... that can go pound sand. Seriously. Doesn’t octagon know that people are sleeping for about 8 hours somewhere in the world when this event starts?

And don’t get me started on progression rewards... what a crock. I doubt 10% of the community gets the max. If you aren’t in a top 10 coalition, there is very little motivation/reward for playing. Being able to hit personal progression should be possible by winning on each match without getting any secondaries. 

BUT, I do like the event opponents and decks, especially the x.3 matches with the special supports. Those are fun on a bun. Well done octagon on building 15 good and unique opponents, that ain't easy. 

I do think boss health should be eliminated entirely. The only thing that does is make the event end time unpredictable, and less likely that people will play their last matches, thus decreasing player engagement. Sure, some of us are crazy, waking up at 4am to play for an hour... but there is no enjoyment in that effort,just resentment. 

bk1234

boopers said:

So some comparative reality regarding cycling. 

As said here multiple times, cycling decks are highly adaptive to almost any objective. They are fully functional in only a few turns at most, reducing risk of letting Greg’s deck getting a foothold on the board state. They are just low risk, and the technique is available to all.

It’s honestly not a bad game mechanic to have available to level the playing field on these PVE events so it is possible for new-ish players to play them at all. Imagine trying to play the 5.x nodes after only having been playing for a couple months.  Without cycling or spending a huge wad, it’s impossible. 

I would agree with you, except it's nearly impossible for new-ish players to get the cards to perform this mechanic now and there is nothing comparable in Origins or the current sets. So it's no longer available to all. Many players who have come in since the first of the year lack key cycling cards and will not have them without putting a lot of money into the game. 

ILikePancakes

Mburn7 said:

ILikePancakes said:

I've been able to beat every single opponent *except* for the Vampire boss. Am I going to have to bust out a semi-cycling deck to win? Dang, she's harder than the end boss for the cards I have.

Azor is surprisingly the easiest fight of the last 2 nodes (disclaimer, I have only fought him once so far).
Its most likely because he is the most straightforward, with the least annoying secondaries.

But yeah, St. Elendra (and Vona before her) are appropriately terrifying.  Well designed

Finally beat her, woot! What a pain. Used goggles, sandwurm convergence, gave her creatures flying with stratus walk and one with the wind,  used lay claim to steal, rivers rebuke when needed, desert of the mindful, hour of promise, overcome, had regisaur alpha too but didn't play it. Got lucky with a cascade at the beginning, played as Kiora and summoned the octopus when needed. Health never went out of the 90s.

arNero

Aside from the following ****, I'm fine with this kind of event returning.

1) Insane progression meter. (for this one, 700 would've been quite absurd already)
2) Elenda and especially Azor's Gateway being ridiculous monsters.
3) 2/3 charge on event start, thus only 8 hours to start playing before you lose charges

Quantius

I'm still new so I'm not 100% on this, but are the ribbons counting correctly for this event? After a win the ribbon count flashes twice (usually that means you get +X twice, at least that's how it seems in other events), but when it adds it to your points, you only get the single ribbon value. I thought I was getting +15 / +15 and +30 / +30, but it looks like it's half that. 

Anyone else notice this or am I just nub? Feel free to tell me I have no idea what I'm talking about.

FindingHeart8

bken1234 said:

boopers said:

So some comparative reality regarding cycling. 

As said here multiple times, cycling decks are highly adaptive to almost any objective. They are fully functional in only a few turns at most, reducing risk of letting Greg’s deck getting a foothold on the board state. They are just low risk, and the technique is available to all.

It’s honestly not a bad game mechanic to have available to level the playing field on these PVE events so it is possible for new-ish players to play them at all. Imagine trying to play the 5.x nodes after only having been playing for a couple months.  Without cycling or spending a huge wad, it’s impossible. 

I would agree with you, except it's nearly impossible for new-ish players to get the cards to perform this mechanic now and there is nothing comparable in Origins or the current sets. So it's no longer available to all. Many players who have come in since the first of the year lack key cycling cards and will not have them without putting a lot of money into the game. 

at this point with the game shift, I would agree with you that cycling is no longer a mechanic for newer players.  If that huge "nerf or not-nerf cycling" debate had happened now, I might have refrained from defending it as passionately as I did.

khurram

Quantius said:

I'm still new so I'm not 100% on this, but are the ribbons counting correctly for this event? After a win the ribbon count flashes twice (usually that means you get +X twice, at least that's how it seems in other events), but when it adds it to your points, you only get the single ribbon value. I thought I was getting +15 / +15 and +30 / +30, but it looks like it's half that. 

Anyone else notice this or am I just nub? Feel free to tell me I have no idea what I'm talking about.

You get ribbons once for coalition score which is depicted on the coalition leaderboards and once for your personal placement on the leaderboard. Since this event (like all PvE events) is coalition only and you don't get individual placement rewards ( unlike the upcoming RtO), just ignore the extra ribbons pop-up. Thats just redundant animation.

Quantius

khurram said:

Quantius said:

I'm still new so I'm not 100% on this, but are the ribbons counting correctly for this event? After a win the ribbon count flashes twice (usually that means you get +X twice, at least that's how it seems in other events), but when it adds it to your points, you only get the single ribbon value. I thought I was getting +15 / +15 and +30 / +30, but it looks like it's half that. 

Anyone else notice this or am I just nub? Feel free to tell me I have no idea what I'm talking about.

You get ribbons once for coalition score which is depicted on the coalition leaderboards and once for your personal placement on the leaderboard. Since this event (like all PvE events) is coalition only and you don't get individual placement rewards ( unlike the upcoming RtO), just ignore the extra ribbons pop-up. Thats just redundant animation.

Ah, okay. Well then. I was kinda hoping it was bugged since 1k score seemed pretty hard to get.