What is going on with PvP MMR and 94/166 opponent selection?

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  • Unknown
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    Phantron wrote:
    The game's designed such that money doesn't help very much to discourage you from approaching this like a P2W. Even if you spend thousands of dollars on this game, stuff like scaling/MMR would ensure you'll not get very far without devoting a ton of time. This is rather different from the generic P2W game where if you spent that kind of money you'll most definitely easily stomp over the guys who do not.

    The problem here is that in an effort to make the game not very P2W then the question becomes 'so why would you spend money at all?' If spending money doesn't help you win the game, why spend it at all? The game's underlying competitive model is that you simply can't always win no matter who you have, but if you can't always or even usually win, why continue playing? This is something D3 never really figured out. I remember talking to a head dev of EQ1 why they think it's okay to design a game where you can't beat content from 3 years ago and he's like 'well not everyone can win' and of course the result of that is that people stop paying them a sub when you can't even beat stuff from 3 years ago by design. While MPQ isn't quite as bad I see that they really haven't thought about why people should continue to play once they realize that the game, by design, isn't something you can always win.

    Yes to all this. It's what I keep harping on: there's no "winning" with this game. There's no story that gets resolved (The Prologue, for instance, just sort of...ends), there's very little in terms of milestones. When's the last time I felt like I accomplished something? It was a top 10 placement in a PVE, and before that, leveling a hero above 100. Whoopideedoo.

    I've spent money on the game - roster slots, some 10-packs, and even bumping up some skills. It hasn't really made much difference and I still hit this 166 wall. So why pay money at all? Why even bother playing the game at all when my progress, despite paying a little bit per month (like a subscription), really gets me bupkis?

    Is the whole thing just a continual cycle of releasing a new character, making them essential, rinsing and repeating? That's awful. No one wants to spend money on that - there's no end-game to it, no sense of advancement. And now you throw in the awful meta-game for the PVP (losing to win, shield-hopping, figuring out when to start for a "fresh" bracket) and it's like they're doing everything they can to frustrate the hell out of ALL levels of players, except maybe the whales.

    MPQ is a fun game, don't get me wrong. But its overall structure is...I don't really have words for it. I just can't fathom that this is how things are supposed to be working.
  • MarvelMan
    MarvelMan Posts: 1,350
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    As an aside to the conversation above, going back to the topic: I was playing the Predator and Prey PVP and pushed up to 808, sat there over night only losing ~100 points. Pushed to 885 on retails but switched to PVE. Played that til HPs were done (200+ AI will do that). So I sat at 885 unshielded for 3-4 hours...no hits, just one win that pushed me up 8 points. Awesome! So I start to push up past that. Pulled in 30+ on my first fight, so i was over 900, then grabbed a second and by the time I finished that I had 7 attacks, followed by 4 more while I checked my alliance chat. Pushed me down to high 600s. I used retals to get back up to 765, and have sat there, unshielded, for another 3+ hours.

    Kind of ridiculous that poking your head above certain thresholds brings out the Carl Spacklers in force.
  • Unknown
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    The game still doesn't update your rating consistently enough so once you appear to be 900 or whatever magic threshold that makes you seem valuable everyone is going to hit you when they see you even if you're no longer worth that many points by the time someone attacked you. Most of the drastic falls would happen way less if the scores are updated in real time, and not sure why they can't do that since your actual result for winning/losing is certainly updated in real time.
  • Unknown
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    I have 2 maxed 3*s (Patch and BP), and managed to place over 1000 in the last two PVPs using only a couple 75 Hour shields in each. This was the first time I broke the 1000 barrier in months. I always forget to use my boosts, so I keep losing the +All progression rewards since I usually have 30 already when I get them. Never intentionally tank either. At the same time, I'm showing up in more hardcore brackets now, so the only thing I can usually depend on is a top 25 placement.

    I've noticed the harder difficulties of opponents. And even if I simply start the event late, they seem to "scale" the same way PVP does, with high level 0 point teams. I'm used to wiping a few times on my way to 600 (except for the LDaken event where I coasted past 700 within a couple hours on opening night). One thing I'm glad of is that I'm no longer in the "transition" land, so max 166s are far less scary, at least without a Hood.
  • Unknown
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    Kinda unrelated: But in PvP events, didn't the 3* awards previously go down to 150 instead of just rank 100? It seems to be moderately easy to get in the 150-100 range, but much harder to get above 100 (at least with my current deck).

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