I really hope this does not fall on deaf ears. I’ve spoken with you in the past and have never had a bad interaction and I know that you care for the state of the game.
I am currently on day 1988 of the game. In two days I’ll get a 5* Star Lord cover as a resupply. In three months, I’ll get the Doc Oc cover. In those 90 days, more than one new 5*s will be released.
Over those many days, I’ve learned a lot about optimal play, earning rewards, and what time and money I’m willing to put into the game to get as much enjoyment as possible. I’ve made goals, achieved them, and made new ones. My current goal is the line that always moves forward, which is to champ everybody. I’ve been very successful (of the older 5s, only Banner, BSSM, Goblin, Hawkeye, and CW:Cap remain unchamped). For me, it’s never been about getting the meta characters to 550. It’s been about just having all the characters and having them ready to use when they are essential, or just to have fun with in Sim. I’m a collector. I’ve got 1,000s of actual comic books to back that up.
The shift though to a more rapid release of 5* is wrecking that fun, though. Why? Because since the “death of swaps” and the introduction of Saved Covers (a blessing for 2/3/4s, but not so much for 5s) and the increased 5* release rate, champing the 5s has become harder and harder.
In the “old days,” I’d pull as I’d go and then usually start saving CP once the oldest new 5* in Latest was champed. Then any LT that I happened to gain via DDQ or 4* champ rewards would go towards a potential Champ Level (or once a new 5* was announced, I’d start saving the actual tokens as well). This worked wonderfully for quite some time and I was able to keep up with roster slots and play to my level of comfort. All my 5*s ended up around level 454 in this manner.
Nowadays, I’m being forced to choose whether to save up CP for the new release store for the recent 5*, just so that I can have that character for the essential PVE that’ll be two weeks away from release, or failing to get enough covers to champ the 5* that will be leaving tokens next. I generally opt for waiting, then pulling for the single cover of the essential 5* so I can participate in PVE, but I’ve been burned by this strategy before. The increased 5* release schedule makes that choice even harder. Starting to get max-champ 4s hasn’t helped with the HP crunch either.
Due to the recent in-game changes, I cannot keep up any longer. Rescue will be my third 5* in a row that will go without championing. She’s at 7/2/3. In the swap-times, I’d need a single cover to champ her. Now I still need 3 and a little luck that one of them isn’t blue. Doom and Hela were the same way. Both of them have 12 covers. Doom has saved covers, but not enough to swap at 3:1. Hela has 5 saved covers, so I could swap, but to what end? She won’t be essential any time soon and there’s a minimal chance a feeder could happen, so I have zero impulse to exchange. And now a new 5* will be out in a few days and there’s nothing I can do to gather the resources to even pull them without spending a hefty amount of money. There was zero time to plan for this and my drive to play and compete is even lower, especially since luck will dictate placement in this next Prof X PVE.
If this is the direction of the game, so be it. But if so, please take into consideration changing the color swaps of 5s to a 1:1 system. This will help everyone champ whatever 5 they are working on and allow much more flexibility to play and not make 5* Bonus Heroes for a 2/5/5 character a lost cause. If things stay the same, I’m afraid I’ll be one of the many vets to say goodbye or at least reduce my play by quite a bit.
TLDR: Change saved cover exchanges from 3:1 to 1:1 for 5*s. The release schedule is unsustainable to champ all 5s.
