State of the game from a longtime casual player

PartyOfFore

I play PvP to 575, but rarely play PvE. I also play the DDQ. In season I shoot for 4000 in order to get the 10 pack. I can't imagine playing what I do now and adding full PvE progression. That's way too much time for me.  

PartyOfFore

JackTenrec said:

If you don't want your life (or wallet, or both) completely owned by MPQ, you have to embrace the long game.  The only real obstacle to F2P players is roster slots, since once you pay the roster tax, you have an infinite amount of time to accumulate both covers and ISO.  Play as much as you can to qualify for HP rewards, set up farms, and wait.

I'm somewhere in the 1700+ day count, have everyone (except Rescue) rostered, have maybe a half-dozen or so 3* not maxed, have maybe a dozen or so 4* not champed, and this is despite not being a T10 PvE player (even in SCL7, and I have, in my younger and unwiser days, tried), hardly ever participating in PvP, and not being in a highly-ranked alliance.  I typically play PvE to progression (but not with an eye to placement), don't hoard, exclusively pull classics (because I'd rather get 25% more pulls), and I only use bonus heroes to try to finish undercovered characters.

Dilution is bad, no doubt about that.  But the numbers can show up if you can wait them out.

This strategy was kinda working out for me a while ago, but with all the new characters added the long game for a casual like me has become a losing battle.  

In the past couple of days I accumulated 20cp.  Went to the CL and pulled a new 5* that I either roster or let die.  I'll probably let it go since I'll never get a new 5* to the point of usefulness. My best bet for 5* is to hoard hundreds of CP and hope there are 3 new legends worth pulling the RNG handle on.  Then again, hoarding that much for me will take a long,long time and I'll be even further behind by then. 

I need some way to narrow the focus of my pulls down from the 110 4* and 5*. Without that I'm going to be done soon. After 1100+ days, no progress = no fun anymore.    

Spudgutter

ZootSax said:

I admit, this is only one person's experience, but I can't possibly see how anyone can totally discount how vaulting could possibly help casual players.

It helps to know who "anyone" is, because sometimes people just like to be a contrarian. 

Personally, i just use the ignore feature to keep myself from accidentally trying to change the mind of someone who has no desire to have their mind changed.

JSP869

I used to primarily be a Story/PvE player. Before wins-based Versus/PvP came out, I would occasionally try to get to 900 points, and I did from time to time, and without Shield Hopping too! It was horrible! but because it was a very frustrating experience I just stuck to the grind of PvE.

And PvE is bloody grindy! And because of that grind, I would have ordinarily said that anyone doing PvE to full progression is not a Casual, except you can do PvE events at your own pace, whenever you want, and unlike PvP, nobody else can prevent you from getting your progression rewards. And so I think someone could still be considered a Casual player even if they were hitting full progression in PvE.

I think as soon as you stop playing casually though (meaning no longer playing at times when it's convenient for you) but start trying to play more optimally, even just 4+2 clearing nodes in order to improve your placement and rewards, I don't think you can consider yourself a casual player any more.

After wins-based PvP came out I started doing PvP to 16 wins or 575 points, and once you have 16 wins it's not much more of an effort to get 27 wins, and then it's only another 13 wins to the 4-star cover...and that's how I found myself playing both PvE and PvP :P

And I was feeling really burned out but I'll be damned if this game does not have its hooks in me deep.
That, and two years ago I joined a T25 PvE Alliance (so definitely NOT casual) and it's incredible the difference it makes when you're in an Alliance which can fully clear both sides of Civil War, compared to an Alliance that cannot even get all three 4-star covers.

Then last season I finally joined a PvP Line Room, and I went from getting 40 wins and the 4-star cover each event to getting 1200+ points and hitting full progression. I also hit 10,000 points in a Season for the first time ever. And then I did that again this Season. I know. I'm definitely NOT a casual player

But incredibly, I've stopped feeling burned out. It's strange, but I think I know what it is. Even though I'm playing to full progresion in both PvE and PvP, I'm not actually playing more than what I used to. My PvE efforts are still the same, I still typically 4+3 clear most nodes, but whereas I used to get 40 wins in PvP for the 4-star cover, I now typically hit 1200+ points in fewer than 40 wins. So in PvP I'm now getting more rewards for the same, or rather less effort.

After all that, I'm not actually sure what I'm trying to say here. It seems contrary, but by playing more, or perhaps that should be playing more efficiently, that has actually renewed my enjoyment in the game.

I'm definitely NOT a casual player though.

HoundofShadow

Ok fine, casual players means

1) anywhere from not playing PvE till not playing full progression

and/or

2)  ranging from not playing PvP to hitting the 10cp rewards.

With such a wide meaning of casual players, it's going to be challenging to help OP and players in similar situation as his progress meaningfully without changing his playstyle.

The OP has played for 1100 days and he has champed only 3 four-stars, while other casual players have more than a dozen champed 4-stars or 40 plus 4-stars. Again, there are a lot of factors involved that explains why such difference exist, which is beyond the scope of a solution.

The best solution for this particular group of casual players like him is to lower the cost of buying 4-stars cover with CP. No RNG involved. 

The point is, the amount of time spent in game and competitiveness of the players have a direct impact on their progress, and their expectation of progress. 

Rewards in the game are largely fixed and predictable as of now. Only difference is RNG when pulling tokens. That's another factor that "affects" progress.

There are a lot of factors involved. Vaulting is not going to solve problems for every group of casual players. It will largely benefit hoarders when they unload their LTs to get 5-stars.