Demi really seems to want to make a game mode where the players are supposed to lose 75+% of the time. They seem intent on doing that no matter what the players think. So why don’t we make some (hopefully constructive) suggestions about how they could do it without creating a completely unfun experience.
Ground rules: Let’s try to avoid making any suggestions that would require significant coding changes and bug testing, since demi probably doesn’t have an abundance of programmers sitting around not doing anything else. Accordingly, I won’t suggest removing the healthpack mechanic entirely.
(1) Give the boss node a single reward and make it REALLY good. Maybe an LT or even a 5* cover for Round 8. Putting eight rewards in a node that most players will struggle to beat once is just insulting. They could even make the node worth 50XP instead of just 10.
(2) Sub nodes should also have just a single reward, since they can only ever be beaten once. Given them 4 rewards is just screwing the players who get bad rng, and taking 50XP away from everyone.
(3) The two wave subnodes for each refresh should also have a 5x healthpack reward. Giving out 10 health packs every boss cycle will really mitigate the sting of incredibly difficult boss fights. It won’t feel like difficulty is just a money grab.
(4) Forget about limited boosted lists. Designing a boss that is very challenging for boosted characters makes the boss impossible for unboosted characters. That turns these very hard boss events into heroic events where people can only use whatever characters are boosted (e.g. KP and Cho in this boss rush event), and no one likes that. Bosses have unique mechanics and it can be fun to mix and match teams against them, so let everyone use their whole roster. Boost 1* through 4* characters to their unchamped max level (94 for 2s, 166 for 3s, and 270 for 4*s). That way everyone can try out whatever characters they have rostered (and deeper rosters/champions have a meaningful advantage, which seems to be Demi’s preference). This will also make designing the bosses much easier, since the player power level will be more predictable.
(5) Lock out Prof X. His blue ability is a ton of fun, and is not overpowered in normal game modes. But it does create a bunch of winfinite engine possibilities. And that means that any match is winnable if prof X. and team can survive long enough to get infinity engine combo rolling. I think this is why so many of demi’s ridiculously hard boss designs are “get lucky or you will be slaughtered by round 4.” Anything slower would be vulnerable to infinite player loops. X doesn’t need a nerf, and he isn’t broken overall. But locking him out of boss fights will open up a lot of design options (and it also makes a ton of sense in-universe too, since just about every major x-men story line involves incapacitating Prof. X in some fashion to up the threat level to the rest of the X-men team. Prof X IS overpowered in the comics!).
Would people be more willing to grind extremely difficult boss fights if some or all of those features were implemented?
