I won the EotS slice I was in but......

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ General Discussion
1

I have to say this test was horrible. I figure I’d give this test an honest effort since the last two I really didn’t. This also meant I had to pick a different ending time slice then I normally do. So, I picked the one that ended at 5pm est. As of this post there’s still 7hrs left in the slice but I was the 1st to 259,122 points. So, here’s the breakdown of how it went:

Shield base(48hrs): 3 wave nodes. I did some that Thursday night and finished up on Friday. Placed 49th

Avenger’s Tower(24hrs): 3 wave nodes. Took 6 hrs to clear(I did take a break for a couple of minutes a few times). Placed 29th

The X-Mansion(24hrs): 3 wave nodes. Took 5.5 hrs to clear(no breaks). Placed 14th

Hell’s Kitchen(24hrs): 0 waves! Took 2.5 hrs. Placed 2nd

Hand Fortress(24hrs): 4 wave nodes. Took 3.5 hrs to clear. Placed 1st

Nick Fury Rescue(24hrs): 3 wave nodes. Took 3.75 hrs to clear. Placed 1st

I usually skip the 7 day events unless it’s for a new hero. I hate the 7 day events but this I wanted to try this test. If Jean Grey and Hulk Buster weren’t boosted, I don’t know if I would have played past the first day.There were some good things about it, but there wasn’t enough to outweigh the bad things for me anyways.

Wave nodes: Extra rewards are always nice, but having to clear them 9 times was terrible. Just about every wave node that had a token or cp took at least 7 clears before getting them. They were challenging which is good, because you don’t want them to be to easy. I had to break out winfinite a few times.

If you want to finish in the top 10, this format flat out sucks, because it’s a total race to clear as fast as possible. It’s much easier to clear, wait 8hrs, wait 8hrs, grind the last 2.5hrs to get a top 10 finish then this format. If you just want to get progression rewards without a top 10 finish, then it was probably great for you.

2

Actually, this worked out much better for me, since I don’t, as a general rule, have the time available every 8 hours to play through the different nodes. Being able to grind out as much as I can in a single sitting is a stellar option for me.

3

glad that it worked out for you shem, but i’ll maintain that it is a healthier design to promote several smaller play sessions during the day than to design an optimal that requires a single, extended play session. morning clear, lunch clear, and evening grind is a much healthier ‘optimal’ to me. I’m sure many enjoyed this version though.

4

Its unfortunate that there’s not an efficient way to provide an option to people based on their preferences and/or time availability. Like running the same Story mode campaign in both the currently 8-hour cycling format and the grind-as-you-can format side-by-side.

Or alternate between the two. Granted for me, its not really an issue at the moment, seeing as how my roster is still in a very developmental 2-star stage, but once I really start looking for the 3s and 4s, having the option, even if its only every other PVE, to be able to push up the points, would be phenomenal.

5

The healthier is to make it so you can play when you want / how you want. This is a game not a job we should have to punch in for. Take away the placement rewards from PvE, they have no place there. I’m fine with you having to grind a lot to get to top teir progression rewards, but I’m not OK with the current setup where you can grind to death and still not get anything worthwhile for that effort. That’s not how PvE is supposed to work, you shouldn’t be competing against other players, just yourself and the scoreboard.

6

There is an option, make it placementless and just based on points. You get the same amount of points regardless of when / how you play and all the rewards are stacked into progression.

7

There is an easy way to do that. Move all rewards to progression only, with optional alliance rewards.

8

The play system itself was better (play when you feel like it is better than any variation of schedules) but node design and placement were very wrong.

Theoretically you could place 1000 in each sub but as long as you got max points in all subs and finished the final sub 1st you will win…and people did.

I finished t50 in every sub playing when I felt like it but then pushed for t5 in final sub and got it. Very unfair.

On another note wave nodes are unfair when repeatable.

Final sub had a wave node with 6 waves. My roster average is 284 My scaling ? 426.

So I had to fight. 3 x level 426…6 times…in one fight. When factoring in it was a 9 clear node that is a ball blisteringly stupid 162 nodes… Or another way it was 162 level 426 enemies for my paltry team of 3 to fight. That’s ridiculous, an entire sub should have that many…not one node.

9

I won the EotS slice I was in but…I have to say this test was horrible.
For truth. I won my slice as well. Played fairly leisurely for most of it, then ground the crap out the last sub…got first. I cant decide if it is fair or not.

Here is the breakdown of how it went for me:

Shield base (48hrs): I didnt start til about 17 hours left. Think the total was 6ish hours. Placed 13th (12th overall).

Avenger’s Tower (24hrs): Did a couple passes, went to bed. Played a bit during the day, but waited until the end to finish. About 5.25 hours total. Placed 2xth (18th-ish overall).

The X-Mansion (24hrs): Did a couple passes, went to bed and finished up in the morning. Took 5 hrs to clear. Placed 11th (14ish overall).

Hell’s Kitchen (24hrs): Did a couple passes, went to bed (see a pattern?). Played throughout the day. T 3ish hrs. Placed 7th (8th? overall).

Hand Fortress (24hrs): Had to grind the last of this due to falling asleep tucking my kids in, finished it about 45 min before end. Dont recall length or placement.

Nick Fury Rescue (24hrs): Took 3.75 hrs to clear. Placed 1st (1st overall).

I generally bracket snipe middle to end of 7 days, to balance getting a fresh bracket with opportunities for node rewards/progression. Playing all 7 days wore on me, but I liked most of the freedom to play…since I knew all i was giving up on was sub rewards as long as I was the fastest on the final sub.

I HATE, HATE, HATE the way sub/final placement was dealt with. Everyone who had the same score put out the same effort, so the differentiating measurement was purely who could do it fastest? Ridiculous.

I dont have nice things to say about the scaling so I just will ignore that.

Random notes: Not having OML for the first subs made me realize how much of a crutch he is/was…and how much I hate taking damage. Even though there were good required chars…I just hate that they are pretty close to even on scaling and generally worth more points.

10

For those that have already hit perfect score… how many others have perfect score? I know you can only see the people around you and the top 10, I’m curious if when the slice ends, we get a count of how many people in each bracket and each slice got perfect. People thought that ties would not be a big factor with this format.

I wonder how many alliances with 5,182,440 points there will be, and how their placement will be determined…

11

I can almost guarantee it will affect my bracket. Currently there are 6 at max. I’ll hit it late tonight, but because I’m doing it near the end of the shard, I almost guarantee I’ll be on the outside looking in on t10

12

Beyond that, it could affect it at EACH breakpoint. Probably wont, but it COULD…with the differentiating measurement time of completion. Just plain poor design to allow that to happen.

As to the number…there were mid 20s, at least, people who were maxing points in my bracket through the end of the third sub when I lost sight of the bottom. If you do that for three days, why stop? (yeah, yeah. Hitting progression…I dont believe that).

13

In my my bracket, only 9 of us got the full max points of 259,122. #10 finished at 258,934.

14

Only six in my bracket hit max score. There are alliances of twenty perfect scores. At least two.

15

3 1/2 hours left in my slice and all top 10 have max, so probably goes quite a bit deeper into the ranks

16

I honestly have no idea how anybody could play this game that much.

17

At least 37 in my bracket have a perfect score. For me that’s a clear failure of investiture of time to reward. Also the guy who was in first in literally every day but the last, I bet is kicking himself now. He’s not in the t10. I don’t care where I finish so long as it was t50. If I get a perfect score I should at least be there. Just a shame I couldn’t finish the last day in under three hours. Needed six. Oh well. 34, good enough for me.

The ONLY good thing here D3, is that I can stop playing, and know no one will jump ahead. While I really really appreciate not having a timer constantly, the ONLY good thing this test did, was let me STOP playing your game.

Do better, and don’t do finite points. I thought you learned your lesson in the one Gauntlet you gave out 10-packs to people.

18

I liked the format, however it is COMPLETELY AWFUL when survival nodes are involved because they can take soooo long which just drains your willpower.

If they wanna use this format then survival nodes need to be adjusted to no more than 5 clears to be done with them, asking us to do more than that for perfect clearing is insanity.

19

The grind-as-you-like style is okay as long as your only goal is placement.

If they did one of these test runs for a new release I’d seriously consider whether or not I even bothered. The only time I’ve ever done well was in Rocket & Groot. The other two before that were so awful I quit and this one I finished 250th.

20

Did you mean progression?

Honestly, I ended up with nearly double the points of the top Progression goal, and I finished the entire event at 47th place. Top possible score was 259,122. Top Progression reward was 116,000. That’s ridiculous. Just change over to all progression already, make the list for progression rewards giant and frequent, with the current top progression reward at the midpoint of the new reward ladder, and an even crazier prize at top, with lots of other good stuff in between.