Currently at 106, at this rate I’m looking at probably another 6+ months. Not in a rush by any means.
TBH, it kinda perplexes me when people treat these things as if life can’t go on without them. There was a such thing as PVE before Dr. Strange…remember? There was a such thing as PVE/PVP without Clearance Levels, where everyone got the same rewards for t10, t20, t50, etc. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a nice bonus and nothing more. I was enjoying the game before there was a such thing as XP, and I was enjoying the game before I could throw Dr. Strange and Thanos at things when I want to be lazy. Therefore it’s silly to me to no longer enjoy the game when this resource runs out. I’ve champed several people in the 4-star tier in-between the Shield Rank increase iso gains, so it isn’t like I can’t still champ people without it. Not getting the bonus makes about a 2 days difference at the most (getting 55K for each rank increase at the moment). So yes, it will definitely be nice if they retroactively increase rank and I get a big bonus for everything I’ll do after 125, but it’s not a driving force behind why I play by any means.
I am not trying to be a jerk, but it is things like this that just make me shake my head. Many high level players (heck some F2P have hit this) have been cap locked for months, some back to March/April. So while you can enjoy the bonus you get from this, others cannot. In fact, XPs mean nothing any more. They don’t even show up. This is feature that other players are still reaping the befits of, others are not. “Well if it doesn’t affect me, why should I care?” This is the wrong mentality. For months we have asked for an update and nothing at all. They even said at Gen Con and NYCC this is low on their radar. So the only outlet we have is here and remind them that some of us didn’t forget about this even though it seems they did, because well we care.
But you have to admit that the high end players have benefited from it already getting the ISO that put them even more ahead. I am not saying that this issue should not be addressed (on the contrary - should be soon) but there are always two sides on a coin.
But that level is still there for others to get. It’s not like they took it away from you like they did when they took the level 100 reward, 100,000 ISO , and moved it to 125 and lowered level 100 to (well I don’t remember what it is ). Now that was unfair after the standard was set.
The only good thing about the good old days is that they are gone! I’m interested in going forward, not backward.
My next comment in this thread was to answer the obvious question, “But Aes, you played this game for 900 days before SRs, why should you care if they run out?”
Why, yes, yes, I did. So, been there, done that, why should I want to do it again?
The relationship with this game, with any game, is finding a reason to keep playing, or to move on. In this game I’ve done just about everything on offer:
Win a PvP? Yes, many times (been a long time, no desire to re-live the ratrace) …
Win a PvE? Yes, and definitely no desire to do that again.
Finish all the 1s? Yep, and flushed’em.
Maxchamp all the 2s? Yes, a dozen times now.
… the 3s? Yep, and doing it again.
… the 4s? All 4s champed and hellz no I don’t care to do that again.Champing the new ones is pretty easy now. The characters are more fun than ever, that’s nice.
… the 5s? I’ve champed Latests and I’ve champed classics, and I find nothing interesting about doing much more on that front; I’ve hoarded; I’ve finished a couple accidentally via RNG; I’m never going to buy one. And maxchamping a 5 is simply not on this human’s timescale. So, meh.
Hit highest rank? In about 2 days, yes.
So running out of ranks is one less reason to keep playing. For me, at least.
I’ve thought to myself maybe the devs will come out and declare the SR system was training wheels for new players. It’s finite. Once you’ve reached the end, congrats, you’re a vet, you’re up to speed. I could see that I suppose… except it takes a REALLY long time if starting from 0 to hit 125, unless a player is spending heavily.
Maybe XP is being banked, maybe it isn’t, maybe accumulated XP will be honored if the system is extended, maybe it won’t. If I keep playing as hard as possible for a possible later gain, maybe I’ll come out ahead, maybe I won’t, but I will definitely be sinking in more time. Cutting back on play is definitely more time for other things, whether SR is ever extended or not. I’m not big on betting on “maybes”, not from this dev
Anyway, back to the OP, I was wondering how others are reacting to running out of rank. I do know many who have shrugged as if that was nice, and kept right on.
Then you have misread, because my mentality is not “well if it doesn’t affect me, why should I care?”
My mentality is, I was enjoying the game before this feature was implemented, and thus will continue to enjoy the game once I no longer have access to this benefit. Yes, I understand it sucks to not be able to expect a huge lump sum of iso every 2 weeks, and that I will eventually be in this boat myself, but that alone isn’t why I enjoy the game. Nor is it the sole reason you enjoy the game, having been a player long before it was implemented. There will still be sources of iso, and I will still be champing my characters and progressing my roster. Just because I choose to not feel that this constitutes an “end of the world” scenario for me doesn’t mean that I don’t understand that it sucks to be cut off from a resource that you have grown to depend on. All I’m saying is that the game is still here, and there are still enough aspects about it that I enjoy where something like this isn’t a deal-breaker.
That’s how I look at it. Once that source dries up, I’ll be at a place where I’m limited more by cover availability at the 5* tier than Iso. At that point, the Iso need is just about keeping up with 4* releases, feeding farms, and slowly developing viable 5s as they become available, which can be done without the bonus (absent some phenomenal luck on your 5 draws). That’s what I consider end-game, at least unless/until they start another character tier or up the draw rates on 5*.
I’ve discussed this same topic ad nauseam since I hit the wall in May/June. Is it a have-to-have? Of course not. Was it a nice-to-have and an enjoyable part of progression in this game? Yes, yes it was.
The only part that irks me is the loud silence from anyone who could possibly answer whether the wall will be extended, removed, or whether it was just a one and done thing.
But that’s life with this game. Communication is non-existent until they roll out whatever they had been thinking about for the last several months.
I’m gonna hit 125 very soon and I feel the pain of those that are stuck there for many many months. Agree with SmokeyJoe that a single statement would put this issue to rest.
To be fair, 2 months ago the development team was busy working on content for the Anniversary, so they didn’t have the bandwidth available to address the Max Rank 125 issue at the same time.
Now that the Anniversary is over though, they’ve been able do some evaluating, and are currently in the planning stages for how to address it. Once there is some more definitive news I can provide, I’ll be sure to update everyone.
So now that I am chasing rank 126 for real, I can answer my own question for real.
The urge to find those green checks in PvE is already out the window. Clears 5 and 6 are too much effort for 100iso and partial pts each, and they probably always were. No apparent XP, no bother. In the PvE last night, I limped to the max prog and was done.
Also have started hoarding, everything but vault tokens, since they devolve into random pulls.. After less than a full day, I have 32 tokens (geeez). These Sakaar LRs account for some of that number, but I also opened several vault tokens.
It’s been a long time since I last hoarded almost all tokens … not since Dec 2015, in fact. Tokens sure do pile up fast these days…
Haven’t started hoarding iso yet really … still working the farms, still have several 3s to champ again, NC isn’t champed yet. Have been leveling 5s to their caps since they are essentials and get buffs now, that will take awhile.
Hit 125 before during month before anniversary. I feel like I could have flipped it and come close to rank125 again with all the xp I’ve “earned” since then