Gargantos Heroic Boss Event Impressions

Neuromancer

I have to say that I enjoyed this challenge, but yes, it was like being woken up with a bucket of water. Dark Avengers cold water. Our very casual (alliance-events-only) alliance has nearly all hit personal progression. It was a struggle, but I feel like it was balanced. I like the concept of team affiliation restrictions as Gargantos/Shuma-Gorath picks on a specific target. I agree they could improve event implementation. I feel like they needed to host two simultaneous events, and each player could choose a single one to join: normal, with full roster access and lesser rewards, or the more challenging (Dark Avengers) for these improved rewards.

HoundofShadow

1) For the last few boss events, I flew through all of them with my Thanos/Thor and Shang Chi. But there's an important point you need to know: I've already set certain goals for each event type in the game for myself, namely:

Pve and boss event: speed
Pvp: speed to 1200 mostly. Pick-3 pvp will be more on trying different teams in the beginning if I have the time.
Shield sim: trying different teams.
Shield training: find best synergy for that new 4*.

2) I'm not complaining that the boss event is stale. I agreed that it is kind of stale and I also acknowledge the fact that there are players out there who want the dev to shake things up.

Actually, the general complain is that MPQ gameplay, overall, is stale. Boss event is a subset of MPQ and it just so happen that the dev decided to roll out Heroic into boss event. Even if the dev continues to roll out boring boss events, I'm fine with it because I already have shield sim to use different teams. However, another camp of players could find it boring and would feedback to the dev. 

2) The opposite of stale is fresh. As I've mentioned, limitations/constraints help to encourage creativity. It makes you do things in ways that you'd normally never thought of, and from there, you could gain new insights and experiences. It freshens things up. I think some players did learn something new that they wouldn't have without such limitations imposed on them. I guess the difference between putting the limitations yourself and the dev doing it is probably because one is imaginary and another is real. Another benefit is that it actually generates tons of discussions. The first run discussiom was actually pretty much non-existent, gameplay wise.


3a) I would Thanos/Thor and SC my way out because boss events and its nodes are largely not challenging, and playing against goons are not really challenging. I go to shield sim to look for challenges using non-meta teams/new synergistic teams or pick on high point 550/672 enemies in pvps if they are presented to me and they are worth high points. You could suggest using 1* - 3* as a challenge but fighting against meta teams with non-meta teams are more challenging.

3b) same as 3a: Thanos/Thor and SC.

3c) I would slot the milestone characters in between SC/Thor in boss node just to get the rewards, if it's worth it to me. Else, I'll ignore. 

Rewards are secondary to me as far as using different teams are concerned. I'm already using different teams in shield sim. I prefer challenges to shake things up ans I've suggested to the ex-dev to make things smarter but it wasn't approved. Maybe I should try my luck with the new dev team. 

DAZ0273

My Alliance will doubtfully complete Round 7 of this and that is OK. We will grow. We  did before and we will do so again. Congrats to those who make  it to the end and for the rest of us let us rise up beyond MPQ flicked too hard!

WilliamK1983

WilliamK1983 said:

Not a fan of this 💩

I'm a solo player, no alliance members to speak of.  I don't count my irl friend who is the only other member because he hasn't played in like 11 months.  I still hit the usual thresholds I always do but this go round was a bit more of a challenge.  It was a drain on resources, mainly boosts and health packs, since I ran the same 3 characters the entire time(Scorpion, Samurai loaner, and Agent Venom).  I have all the characters rostered(all 4*s champed, 2* & 3* farming so the levels there vary) but my 5*s required for this event are single covers.  I still wouldn't say I enjoyed this event but my original assessment has become slightly more positive.  I like a challenge from mpq, even if I took the easy road here by just using more resources to continually run my best 2 out there.  Decent event overall, but the Dark Avengers as a group are the bottom of the barrel compared to the other groups(x-men, avengers, etc).  

Bad

Some points here.
1. To think that players should use second tier tools for to play instead of the best tools it's a naive statement. No, I will use the best tools because the reward it's the same and I will save time, even if it's the same boring gameplay, because I have a life outside and time is gold.
2. I want restrictions (or godboost) that force me to play characters that I almost forgot because now there is a valid reason to play that character.
If the restriction is really tight, I like it the most. I can even realize another part of the game that I wouldn't never experienced because of 1. point.
3. No, I'm not a criminal for to desire these things. It's up to the devs to ensure that all players could enjoy the experience. I'm glad if more players than before get more interested and play more (on my alliance almost all members hit 900k points for the first time).
4. This is a gacha game. Everyone should use the resources as they consider it the better. But all gacha games benefits collector players. And this event would be the expected behavior in a standard gacha game.

Alfje17

My Goblin/Old Man Daken/Agent Venom team hasn't really had too much trouble with this event, but the junior members of my alliance are struggling. On the other hand we're all getting at least 1 KK cover, so I'm not really complaining.

TheEyeDoctorsWife

Only 6 in my alliance played past the first round . Still all 6 got personal progress and we made it to round 7 with the battles being easily beaten ( except you Iron Spider). I did miss a cover which would give me an extra LT for tomorrow but that’s an extremely minor inconvenience 

Daniel2121

I still think that most of the frustration with this event comes from the fact that most of the DA heroes are pathetically weak.

I mean, most of them are 2*/3* for crying out loud, with some being among the worst the game has *cough*Sentry*cough*. Many of them have a tendency to hurt themselves and/or their team which is quite literally... unhealthy.

Perhaps if the affiliation was regular Avengers, or X-Men, we would have real fun.

HoundofShadow

Here's an idea for the list of future useable characters in Heroic events, for Halloween maybe:

1*: Yelena, Hawkeye, Venom
2*: Bagman, Bullseye, Hawkeye
3*: Angel, Elektra, Psylocke, Vision
4*: Bishop, Emma, Black Knight, Talos, Mysterio, Sam Wilson
5*: Kingpin, Wasp, Bruce Banner, Magneto, Ultron

Gracktbnarkt

In retrospect now that it is wrapping up I would call it a dull slog. I had a deep enough roster that I had issues with neither the nodes or the boss. But the gameplay was just flat with the given rosters. And using virtually the same roster on all side nodes and the boss reinforced that. 
Just my thoughts…

Tarelgeth

Gracktbnarkt said:

In retrospect now that it is wrapping up I would call it a dull slog. I had a deep enough roster that I had issues with neither the nodes or the boss. But the gameplay was just flat with the given rosters. And using virtually the same roster on all side nodes and the boss reinforced that. 
Just my thoughts…

Exactly.  It wasn't challenging.  It was just .. bland.  There was *less* strategy than the average boss event because the same one team just did everything on all nodes instead of having different required characters in the minion nodes.  There was nothing to do or work out.  Having so narrow of a roster didn't make me "experiment with characters I would normally never use".  It just made me feel like neither those characters nor the rest of my roster mattered because wins and losses weren't up to character choices.

HoundofShadow

LavaManLee said:

I 100% disagree with this.  I am not one of the SCL 10 T1-10 players (usually T50-100) but why would those players currently placing T1-10 want others to be possibly be there with them?  That makes zero sense.  Who says they are bored?  Just because you think so doesn't mean that they are bored.  Why on earth would they NOT want their current rewards?  Honestly makes no sense.

I'm surprised T50-T100 players will disagree with this even when it means you could get higher placements. Those top players look at the game differently from normal players, and I strongly believe that they will be happy with this change/challenge. Years of Hulkoyes have already numbed their minds and Heroic will only serve to excite their minds, especially when the stakes are high.
I'm not saying make it for all pves, but doing it once or twice a month is fine. 

primetime21

jredd said:

i have yelena, daken and goblin champed so i just rode them the whole way.

I have the same and I found this event easy.  I found Gargantos simple; most times I killed him before he went invisible, and if not I killed him as soon as he came back.  I never came close to even losing one character in any of the battles.

TheEyeDoctorsWife

I find it laughable the same people who have ONLY used BRolaris or Scarlet Steel for the past 1-2 YEARS  are complaining they had to use the same team for 3.5 days.

itsuka7

As a cmd of a pve focusef t50, rosters varying from 4* transition to almost all 5* champed, I can add my observations for the devs. My alliance made full progression on saturday, and the last 4* transitioner made personal late on the sunday. My observations.

The good:
1. I really appreciated the addition of loaners. The previous Gargantos had way too many required 4* and 5* and it was frustrating for my 4* transitioners, who could not play all the nodes then. They could now, even if it was way more challenging.

2. I really appreciate that the devs were adjusting in the middle of the event. Listening, learning and willing to adjust things quickly is a stellar attitude that gives us hope for the future.

3. I had some veteran players quit this year because of boredom. The next one I feared that would go this way actually liked this event and was less bored. So, mixing it up might help that crowd. 

4. The event in its current form was extremely challenging for the 4* transitioners, but after the adjustment they managed to complete it. It dud cost them extreme amounts of healthpacks and our Team Up giving capabity was stretched to the limit.

5. I am a 5* player now, but I did the entire event with Agent Venom, Scorpion and 3* Daken. I personally enjoyed rediscovering Scorpion, as he came at a time I was already a 5* player, so never could use him as a damage dealer. My roster has always been broad, and I enjoy careful board play (I would enjoy MPQ even more if the hated cascades were gone, as they encourage dumb instead of careful play, but I play Gems of War to remedy that) so this sort of challenge is fun for me personally.

The bad:
1. Time constraints. Keeping a t50 pve alliance together these days takes serious work. This sort of event might keep in the bored vets, but it will turn away the players who feel they cannot afford so much time and can get by normally by having meta routine teams. They cannot scale down to a lower scl, they have to play as not to let the team down, so these types Alliance events might  make them quit. Because it is more difficult and so more time consuming. A scaling system like pve that would let them get the points but choose to go easier for lower rewards sounds like a great solution to me.

2. Frustration for any player below 5* transition level. Collecting and champing the extremely bloated 4* tier takes ages nowadays. While the loaners helped the 4* transitioners, the heroic style and very limited roster options really hurt them. These guys want to put in the effort, or they would not join our alliance. They felt they had gotten somewhere when they were rosterwise far enough to be eligible for a t50, and they get requirements (if no unlucky combination of 4* and 5* essential turn up in a pve), but now they are shoved back to the ‘maybe not good enough’ category. The adjustment saved them, and their determination and the TU helped them through, but it was hugely frustrating for them. They want to contribute, they do not like to feel a liability for the team.

3. No warning. Had I known in advance, I would have made different champing choices, and I am sure that is true on all levels of play. Iso gain is too slow to suddenly change course on champing characters (and the amount of iso to buy vs costs is so ridiculously bad I have never been even tempted to shell out €100 for a laughably low amount of iso.

When the event started and one of our top 5* players lost to the boss in the first round, I was not confident we could finish the event, even if we normally are in the t10 of speed in finishing an alliance event. We did not come in t10 this time, but everyone finished. I still had to give them the next event off to recover from the shock and horror of it… 

i want to encourage the devs to continue shake things up. But please be mindful and respectful of players that are still struggling to champ the 4* tier, they have invested for a long time and deserve a road to the win. And though I have none in my alliance, give 2* and 3* players perspective.

Bad

As the event is ending, my impressions are:
- I loved to use characters which I don't usually use because there are characters who perform faster than them. Heroic restrictions give a reason for to champ em all, in a game where the content based on speed is still 80%.
- I hadn't any problem at all to make full progression and even scoring something more, like others have commented. Actually when I enjoyed the most is when I tried to check out if the loaners could do their role because there was a real risk of not scoring the points for my alliance and there was a real challenge there.
-Not all rosters are the same and many players are demanding what I asked on mpq devs q&a: scl or some standar difficulty levels por special events.
- Effectively new devs are really taking in mind our feedback and being very communicative. That attitude, at least for me, makes my proud of myself as the effort I put on these forum gets effective rewards (and the infinity support was bananas )

DAZ0273

Daniel2121 said:

I still think that most of the frustration with this event comes from the fact that most of the DA heroes are pathetically weak.

I mean, most of them are 2*/3* for crying out loud, with some being among the worst the game has *cough*Sentry*cough*. Many of them have a tendency to hurt themselves and/or their team which is quite literally... unhealthy.

Perhaps if the affiliation was regular Avengers, or X-Men, we would have real fun.

Sentry did just fine for me up through Round 7.

Daniel2121

DAZ0273 said:

Daniel2121 said:

I still think that most of the frustration with this event comes from the fact that most of the DA heroes are pathetically weak.

I mean, most of them are 2*/3* for crying out loud, with some being among the worst the game has *cough*Sentry*cough*. Many of them have a tendency to hurt themselves and/or their team which is quite literally... unhealthy.

Perhaps if the affiliation was regular Avengers, or X-Men, we would have real fun.

Sentry did just fine for me up through Round 7.

O rly? How many health packs did you spend? 

JasonLikesToTravel

Like quite a few others I was continually getting wiped out at the start of this event, not helped by a fairly limited roster (all 3's rostered but still easing in to 4* land).
Not sure if it was a result of the changes or just smarter gameplay / finding a winning combination but this event certainly grew on me once I got to grips with it. I had more fortune in latter rounds despite relying on mostly the loaned characters and quite liked the fact that it was more challenging. 

I didn't hit full progression in the end but that was largely down to traveling Transatlantic over the weekend and missing out on time to play the event. Wouldn't be against a similar boss event in the future. 

DAZ0273

Daniel2121 said:

DAZ0273 said:

Daniel2121 said:

I still think that most of the frustration with this event comes from the fact that most of the DA heroes are pathetically weak.

I mean, most of them are 2*/3* for crying out loud, with some being among the worst the game has *cough*Sentry*cough*. Many of them have a tendency to hurt themselves and/or their team which is quite literally... unhealthy.

Perhaps if the affiliation was regular Avengers, or X-Men, we would have real fun.

Sentry did just fine for me up through Round 7.

O rly? How many health packs did you spend? 

It wasn't that bad to be honest! I used my 5* until the were killed and didn't bother reviving them and I had two Sentry's to switch between (lvl 300 and 366) and then you had the loaners too. So really only if AV or Scorpion died.