Yellow/Loan nodes: How many times do you clear them?

Punisher5784

Other (explain below)

It depends of the event. If it is a 7-day event, I'll definitely try to hit it 6/6 but typically it's just once to four times.

Loaners are seriously a waste of time. They need to be one-and-done. Sure we get some node rewards but it's annoying grinding a node that resets points every win. It's even more painful when the 3 essentials do not play well together. Sometimes the loaner node takes longer than the 5* node!

ThaRoadWarrior

1 clear

I typically do it once, unless i'm really close on points for placement, or if i missed something and I'm trying to grind out progression. It's rare that the team ups feel fun to play, so typically one or two of them carry the fight for me and as mentioned earlier these nodes often take the longest of all.

The rockett

4 clear (optimal)

@Brigby it seems that this could be a good QoL item that could be looked at.   Just some interesting feedback. 

Brigby

Hi Everyone. So just to get the full picture, the concern with these specific Join Forces nodes is that players feel like having to clear those nodes X amount of times feels rather tedious.

Is it specifically because certain Join Forces teams don't seem to have much synergy or seem disadvantaged against the enemy, or is it simply because it's an additional node with significant enough points to affect Placement? Or other?

Sm0keyJ0e

Brigby said:

Hi Everyone. So just to get the full picture, the concern with these specific Join Forces nodes is that players feel like having to clear those nodes X amount of times feels rather tedious.

Is it specifically because certain Join Forces teams don't seem to have much synergy or seem disadvantaged against the enemy, or is it simply because it's an additional node with significant enough points to affect Placement? Or other?

Probably both. For me personally, the teams in these nodes don't make any sense 90% of the time and are not teams you'd construct yourself. I personally don't mind the few extra hits required for placement, but the nodes should be fun and not just random toons.

ThaRoadWarrior

1 clear

There are 2 things that would encourage me to play them more than 1X that don't involve just making the rewards on them worth chasing:

1) Teams with either internal synergy or row-sham-bow synergy against the opponents. If you're going to make me use Kraven and Moonstone, make sure that the enemies are generating special tiles for instance. 

2) there were enough points available on this node to compensate for missing one of the essentials for full progression (though adding points to these nodes basically means you have to clear them if you want placement, so that wouldn't be ideal from a quality of life standpoint)

To me, the reason these nodes are painful is because they are universally a slog to get through. They seem to be chosen arbitrarily, or maybe through tier-based rotations that don't align because of the different numbers of characters in each tier. So when I have characters that don't work well together up against characters they aren't particularly effective against, it's just not fun.

I was playing SCL 9 in Wakanda with a max-champ Ares, a champed Nico, and a decently champed Ragnarok, and that team had no synergy at all. It was the absolute pits, particularly with all the environmental hazards on the board. 

The rockett

4 clear (optimal)

Brigby said:

Hi Everyone. So just to get the full picture, the concern with these specific Join Forces nodes is that players feel like having to clear those nodes X amount of times feels rather tedious.

Is it specifically because certain Join Forces teams don't seem to have much synergy or seem disadvantaged against the enemy, or is it simply because it's an additional node with significant enough points to affect Placement? Or other?

If you are a top end player, you have to clear these nodes 3 times at the end of the pve sub.  If you look, I bet your data will show that these nodes do not get that many 6/6 clears while every other node in the sub would get cleared 6/6.  That would show that people don’t like this node or it doesn’t make sense for us to clear it since we are only missing 200 Iso for not clearing it.  

It would make more snese to have this node as a 1/1 but keep it unlocked if player would like to try out these teams, this is like the Shield training Events with the top node.  

Juat feel like their could be improvements to this node. 

Stax the Foyer

1 clear

Clearing them 6/6 will hurt your chances at optimal placement, because there's nowhere to squeeze those last two hits in, in a way that doesn't make the previous 4 clears worth less points than they would be otherwise.

But the big issue is that it's a randomly generated team where synergy is the exception, rather than the rule.  With decent characters it can be fairly painless, but it's the outliers that stick with you.

If it were a 1/1 node, it would be a lot easier to stomach, because you wouldn't need to plan for it in your final grind.

As I'm drifting away from playing this game, hitting this node more than once was one of the first things to go.

justsing

4 clear (optimal)

Brigby said:

Hi Everyone. So just to get the full picture, the concern with these specific Join Forces nodes is that players feel like having to clear those nodes X amount of times feels rather tedious.

Is it specifically because certain Join Forces teams don't seem to have much synergy or seem disadvantaged against the enemy, or is it simply because it's an additional node with significant enough points to affect Placement? Or other?

For me personally, it's the lack of synergy / disadvantage against the enemy. I play for placement, so I'm used to grinding down nodes. But with the Join Forces nodes, we'll often have a team that just doesn't work well together or have special abilities that don't apply to the enemy, which then drags out how long it takes to clear these nodes multiple times. For example, in Fight For Wakanda, the sub 2 loaner node in CL7 was taking me 5+ minutes per clear even though I had all 3 characters champed. (I did eventually use team-ups to speed things up, but I shouldn't have to in CL7.)

Punter1

4 clear (optimal)

Brigby said:

Hi Everyone. So just to get the full picture, the concern with these specific Join Forces nodes is that players feel like having to clear those nodes X amount of times feels rather tedious.

Is it specifically because certain Join Forces teams don't seem to have much synergy or seem disadvantaged against the enemy, or is it simply because it's an additional node with significant enough points to affect Placement? Or other?

The nodes feel especially tedious to clear specifically because they rarely have any synergy.  It just ups the slog factor. 

All nodes technically end up being tedious!  Nodes where you have free choice and present a fair challenge are the least tedious.  Nodes with no choice (yellow) and unfair challenges (royal shield) are the most tedious. 

For the featured, keep the 4* rotation on a timing schedule but there should be some effort to create interesting combos with the 3 and 2.  Some of the more fun Behemoth Burritos are when you get lesser used characters but with surprising synergy that make you appreciate roster diversity.  It's the exact opposite when there's a complete lack of synergy, it makes you hate roster diversity and want access back to your limited "useful" characters.

HoundofShadow

The team rarely has synergy and they have overlapping colours.

PenniesForEveryone

4 clear (optimal)

The mechanics surrounding this node are sadly another example of the devs not fully grasping the meta.  To put it very simply: Anything a player does to clear this node 6/6 is going to result in fewer points than they would have gotten with an optimal 4/6 (5/6 on 2-day) clear.  One cannot play PvE optimally for both score and rewards due to this node.  Luckily, the rewards earned for clears 5 and 6 are easy to live without, but it still represents a clear oversight.

Brigby

So it seems so far like the primary concern is the lack of synergy / being disadvantaged against the enemy team.

Just to cover all the bases, let's say hypothetically that only one of the two elements of this issue can be alleviated. Which scenario would players prefer:

1. Join Forces teams always have synergy/are advantageous against the enemy team, but the number of clears that award points remains the same.
2. Join Forces teams may not necessarily have synergy, but only 1 clear is required before the point value drops to 0.

PenniesForEveryone

4 clear (optimal)

Brigby said:

So it seems so far like the primary concern is the lack of synergy / being disadvantaged against the enemy team.

Just to cover all the bases, let's say hypothetically that only one of the two elements of this issue can be alleviated. Which scenario would players prefer:

1. Join Forces teams always have synergy/are advantageous against the enemy team, but the number of clears that award points remains the same.
2. Join Forces teams may not necessarily have synergy, but only 1 clear is required before the point value drops to 0.

Option 3: Put all 6 rewards currently in the rewards table into the first 4 rewards and green check it at 4/4.

HoundofShadow

I guess most players in this forum would prefer no 2 because it seems to be a QOL improvement.

Punter1

4 clear (optimal)

#2 - less clears just about always = better

skittledaddy

1 clear

1 clear then I usually forget them.
Unless I'm bored while waiting for other grinds, then I'll play it a few more times.

ThaRoadWarrior

1 clear

Option 2 would be superior to me; less grind for the win

ejmus

2 clears

@Brigby, definitely option 2, besides that we have far more than enough to grind already and we can make our own synergy, and I imagine that would also be the easier option on the devs rather than having to come up with a synergistic team every event. Also perhaps for new players who want to play it more, they could leave the rewards in and just take away the points so we don't have to grind it for placement.

And not to derail the topic but while I'm responding I'll just go ahead and mention again how much I'd love to have all the pve nodes go back to 3 or 4 clears, with significant difficulty raises for each. That would be so much more fun imo than the current tedious grind.

Steve111

4 clear (optimal)

When the loaner node has to be grinded within 24 hours, it gets 4 hits. I don’t see the point why they give 6 charges to it. 

(When the loaner node doesn’t have to be grinded, of course it gets 6 hits and more.)