How do we feel about The Elderspark now?

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Boogeyman

I dislike it a bit

Have you ever seen a tractor pull?  As the weight is pulled closer to the tractor, it becomes more difficult to pull. 

Maybe after 500 pts (The maximum single rewards), the difficulty of Greg can increase (somehow).  It doesn't sound good at first, but could give top coalitions more variability in the last 1000 pts of play.  

Although, I still vote for this event to end sooner or not have as many charges.

Gabrosin

I dislike it a lot

Still my least favorite event.  Despite the creativity of the various nodes, it's an absurd slog.  There are just far too many charges to try to process in a single weekend.  Please cut the refresh rate to eight hours... or twelve... or 72... or never run this again.  Thanks.

mrixl2520

I dislike it a bit

Did anyone else feel like they were perpetually fighting for tiny amounts of mana? I swear every game after my first swap I struggled to get any mana. Compound that with often not even drawing a creature and I lost a lot of games in very unfun ways. Frustrating, and kind of suspicious... 

I appreciate the level of challenge in this event: its nice not to just steamroll a 100hp opponent. However, a couple events felt unbalanced. I really struggled with node 2.2? (The one with art of Nahiri fighting Sorin). Greg’s 2nd ability “steal a dude, hit you with it, then kill it” is infuriating, especially when you’ve been choked for mana for several turns and you don’t even get to swing with your creature.

Another event that was frustrating was Vitu-Gazi and the unbreakable support that destroys everything once there are 20 or more token critters.

I really dislike how pushed Vanguards are for this event. Greg usually had some means of disposing of them fairly quickly, especially in events that had them for objectives. I would spend a bunch of turns casting something that doesn’t make an impact when it hits the board and then its gone. Vanguards are so slow, underpowered, over costed, and too difficult to obtain. But that’s a rant for another topic I supposed.

Boogeyman

I dislike it a bit

mrixl2520 said:

Did anyone else feel like they were perpetually fighting for tiny amounts of mana? I swear every game after my first swap I struggled to get any mana. Compound that with often not even drawing a creature and I lost a lot of games in very unfun ways. Frustrating, and kind of suspicious... 

I appreciate the level of challenge in this event: its nice not to just steamroll a 100hp opponent. However, a couple events felt unbalanced. I really struggled with node 2.2? (The one with art of Nahiri fighting Sorin). Greg’s 2nd ability “steal a dude, hit you with it, then kill it” is infuriating, especially when you’ve been choked for mana for several turns and you don’t even get to swing with your creature.

Another event that was frustrating was Vitu-Gazi and the unbreakable support that destroys everything once there are 20 or more token critters.

I really dislike how pushed Vanguards are for this event. Greg usually had some means of disposing of them fairly quickly, especially in events that had them for objectives. I would spend a bunch of turns casting something that doesn’t make an impact when it hits the board and then its gone. Vanguards are so slow, underpowered, over costed, and too difficult to obtain. But that’s a rant for another topic I supposed.

It depends on what level you are playing.  For veterans, they have so many goods cards that balance the mana gain in your favor, despite the computer trying to starve you.  Yes, I did have a game where it was obvious, but still managed to win due to my overpowered cards. 

boopers

I dislike it a bit

If there were no bugs, and limited to 48 hours instead of 72 -- I'd like it a bit or a lot.  As it stands... no thanks.

mrixl2520

I dislike it a bit

Boogeyman said:

mrixl2520 said:

Did anyone else feel like they were perpetually fighting for tiny amounts of mana? I swear every game after my first swap I struggled to get any mana. Compound that with often not even drawing a creature and I lost a lot of games in very unfun ways. Frustrating, and kind of suspicious... 

I appreciate the level of challenge in this event: its nice not to just steamroll a 100hp opponent. However, a couple events felt unbalanced. I really struggled with node 2.2? (The one with art of Nahiri fighting Sorin). Greg’s 2nd ability “steal a dude, hit you with it, then kill it” is infuriating, especially when you’ve been choked for mana for several turns and you don’t even get to swing with your creature.

Another event that was frustrating was Vitu-Gazi and the unbreakable support that destroys everything once there are 20 or more token critters.

I really dislike how pushed Vanguards are for this event. Greg usually had some means of disposing of them fairly quickly, especially in events that had them for objectives. I would spend a bunch of turns casting something that doesn’t make an impact when it hits the board and then its gone. Vanguards are so slow, underpowered, over costed, and too difficult to obtain. But that’s a rant for another topic I supposed.

It depends on what level you are playing.  For veterans, they have so many goods cards that balance the mana gain in your favor, despite the computer trying to starve you.  Yes, I did have a game where it was obvious, but still managed to win due to my overpowered cards. 

Yeah, I couldn't even get out my mana accelerating cards. If I did manage to get one it, it seemed like it barely made a difference or got destroyed almost immediately. Usually I was so far behind I was just putting all my effort into removal and damage control. 

Klep

I dislike it a lot

mrixl2520 said:

Boogeyman said:

mrixl2520 said:

Did anyone else feel like they were perpetually fighting for tiny amounts of mana? I swear every game after my first swap I struggled to get any mana. Compound that with often not even drawing a creature and I lost a lot of games in very unfun ways. Frustrating, and kind of suspicious... 

I appreciate the level of challenge in this event: its nice not to just steamroll a 100hp opponent. However, a couple events felt unbalanced. I really struggled with node 2.2? (The one with art of Nahiri fighting Sorin). Greg’s 2nd ability “steal a dude, hit you with it, then kill it” is infuriating, especially when you’ve been choked for mana for several turns and you don’t even get to swing with your creature.

Another event that was frustrating was Vitu-Gazi and the unbreakable support that destroys everything once there are 20 or more token critters.

I really dislike how pushed Vanguards are for this event. Greg usually had some means of disposing of them fairly quickly, especially in events that had them for objectives. I would spend a bunch of turns casting something that doesn’t make an impact when it hits the board and then its gone. Vanguards are so slow, underpowered, over costed, and too difficult to obtain. But that’s a rant for another topic I supposed.

It depends on what level you are playing.  For veterans, they have so many goods cards that balance the mana gain in your favor, despite the computer trying to starve you.  Yes, I did have a game where it was obvious, but still managed to win due to my overpowered cards. 

Yeah, I couldn't even get out my mana accelerating cards. If I did manage to get one it, it seemed like it barely made a difference or got destroyed almost immediately. Usually I was so far behind I was just putting all my effort into removal and damage control. 

For the most part I wasn't having issues with this, but the 3.2 node Breach of New Prahv where Greg has both an ability that totally drains a non-creature card of mana and also runs Lavinia feels unfair in a bad way.

Gideon

I’ve been asking for charges up front for a least a year and a half. Instead they just continue to break the game with every update. This Vanguard slow fest is crazy. Do they get paid to make us hate the game? Once again I must ask. Do you even play test your own game before you release an update? 

Kinesia

I dislike it a bit

I like it but the time is too long... Decrease the number of games _somehow_ either by making the recharge time slower or by shortening the time. It didn't end here in Australia until _tuesday_ morning. That's not a weekend event in any way!

FindingHeart8

I like it a bit

I'm traveling right now, so it was nice to only have to play the last node for completion.

greenmeanie

I like it a bit

Agree with what has been said.  The 
4 biggest issues to me are starting charges, length, recharge time, and the progression points.  

Need to start with only 1 charge per node.  Cut the length from 72 hrs to 48.  Up the recharge time from 6 hrs to 8 hrs.  Finally increase the 500 max progression to 1000 like they had the first time.  

I don't mind the  2nd or 3rd objectives with the vanguard or proliferate cards.  Since I have more of those cards to chose from.  Some of the vanguard's are not to bad but I really don't care about the proliferate ones.  

ambrosio191

I like it a bit

greenmeanie said:

Agree with what has been said.  The 
4 biggest issues to me are starting charges, length, recharge time, and the progression points.  

Need to start with only 1 charge per node.  Cut the length from 72 hrs to 48.  Up the recharge time from 6 hrs to 8 hrs.  Finally increase the 500 max progression to 1000 like they had the first time.  

What you are suggesting makes it literally impossible to reach progression.  There arent enough points available with those suggestions to reach 1000 points.

greenmeanie

I like it a bit

ambrosio191 said:

greenmeanie said:

Agree with what has been said.  The 
4 biggest issues to me are starting charges, length, recharge time, and the progression points.  

Need to start with only 1 charge per node.  Cut the length from 72 hrs to 48.  Up the recharge time from 6 hrs to 8 hrs.  Finally increase the 500 max progression to 1000 like they had the first time.  

What you are suggesting makes it literally impossible to reach progression.  There arent enough points available with those suggestions to reach 1000 points.

I hit the 500 pts with in the first 12 hrs this past event.  Only missed 10 pts to get to the 500 threshold.  I hardly played after that.  Ok maybe could start with 2 charges.

James13

I like it a bit

I like it.  But it runs too long.

G_pretender

I dislike it a lot

Some interesting battles/challenges, and also some repetition in objectives. But all completely overshadowed by the fact it is too damned long.

Stager

I dislike it a lot

There is almost nothing to like. Progression rewards are ok but as already mentioned we are able to get them really fast and the rest of the event we lack motivation. Collation placement rewards are poor for an event that runs for that long. Games itself are not enjoyable. As an example let's use second set of nodes:

• 2.1 -> Domri uses 2nd ability, kills his own creature along with MTGPQ
• 2.2 -> Waiting for Nahiri to cast a creature and have to dmg only with your own creature in order to be count
• 2.3 -> Well...this is the WORST encounter in the entire MTGPQ. You are supposed to play spells in order to successfully complete secondaries but his deck revolves around making your spell incredibly costly + lavinia. 

So the games takes forever. This would be acceptable if there were not 6hrs recharges! This recharge time is absolutely ridiculous when the matches takes forever. Not to even mention the event length. 

Machine

I dislike it a lot

This event is too time consuming. After the first iteration, I was about to quit playing entirely. The second time was a bit better, but only because you know what to expect on how to counter some of the lame decks you have to play against. Node 2.3 is definitely the worst encounter ever designed. But the feeling of trying to keep it the ENTIRE weekend AND on Monday, when most of us are at work is just ridiculous and insulting.

I'm not surprised we need to have a poll before we can have the slightest hope for change. I warned Brigby before this event started (https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/79847/3-8-release-notes-updated-10-2-19/p3) and even revived an old thread (https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/79076/the-elderspark#latest) to get more focus on this issue. But alas, thrown into the void. Such a shame we have to express our feelings yet again.

@Brigby: any plans on doing something with the information the players are giving this time around?

Edit: My proposal would be to start with changing the recharge time to at least 8 hours and secondly change the number of starting charges to 1 instead of the current 2. My third proposal would be to reward players also for long term play: add a reward when reaching, say, 1000 points or so. People playing in higher ranked coaltions will play most of the charges anyway so reducing the number of points required for the current rewards doesn't help nor reward them.

Ampersand

I dislike it a bit

I put Dislike It a Bit because while I think it needs to be fixed, the fixes that I think it needs are easy to implement and will make it a good event. Without these changes, the event is a terrible, grindy, mess.

1. Change it from a 6hr charge refresh to 8hr charge refresh. This will go A LONG WAY to making this event less grindy. 
2. Change the end time so people who have work/school/real life obligations on Monday aren't screwed.
3. Recalibrate progression rewards accordingly, and increase Coalition placement rewards. This is supposed to be a BIG EVENT!  Make it feel like one.

Ampersand

I dislike it a bit

Alternatively, it could be split up like Battle of For Tribes was. I would suggest making pt. 1 a pairing of the 1.x nodes and the 3.x nodes, and pt. 2 the 2.x nodes and 4.x nodes.