You are going to run the only decent PVE right after a 4* release making the new “shiny” an essential and have no progression to get him. That locks 95% of player base out of getting all progression rewards.
Give your heads a shake.
The last Gauntlet defied the tradition that the boosted characters were also the essentials, if I remember correctly.
Also, there ws a dev quote somewhere that confirmed that Reed will not be essential in this Gauntlet.
Every node must be made available to everyone all the time?
The rewards are pitiful anyway couldn’t throw a JG or Xforce DP in there, could they? QS essential on second tree also
Reminder that even with the essentials rostered, a large chunk of that 95% can’t complete the Gauntlet anyway.
It does seem a bit lame that you can’t get the points for the progression rewards from grinding the earlier nodes like you would be able to do in any other pve event though.
It would also be good (and probably even help their sales) if all the essential characters were included in the ones with boosted droprates in the special packs for that event too.
This left me scratching my head as well. It’s a week long event that requires a character that only a handful of players actually have. I’m not sure what the logic behind that one was.
Wait, IIRC on every other PvE after a new release the character was essential on the next one (or at least it has been like this for a whole year and beyond), but I’ve never seen a progression reward on the next PvE for any new 4*, only 3s. Usually they put a random 3 as top progression after a 4* release.
I was lucky enough to join late and get an easy bracket. Two full grinds and I got four covers. One more reason to make the new release 4* a high grind progression reward instead of a placement reward. I put in half the time that many people did and got better rewards for it.
You can’t always luck into this, but I’ve done it for Carnage and Reed and got four covers both times. It isn’t fair for the people who put in four days and couldn’t cover him.
Normally I’d just wait for the 4* PvP and get all three covers with a stark salary. I had planned that anyway for the silver surfer release to try and get a lucky pull on a legendary, but now I’ll probably just try my luck on scoring a legendary token in the events. I’ve never hit 1300 in a PvP before, but I can easily hit 2x or 3x progression if that’s what it takes.
I have always thought the Gauntlet should be essential-less. It makes much more sense for it to be a “throw whatever you’ve got” situation, where everyone has access to their entire roster to try and beat the thing.
To be fair, Gauntlet is the only PvE event where you have to complete the essentials to get full progression rewards.
Pretty certain that ICEIX, in the 5* thread confirmed that Reed is not required for The Gauntlet.
Well according to the even thread Reed is required for the last node in the last essential branch.
Ah, yes, it seems JVReal and I misremembered the quote:
Poo! 
But then again, I probably won’t even make it into the third Gauntlet and also don’t have Quicksilver anyway… 
That does suck then. Granted, I did get Reed this time, but for the Gauntlet where you can’t miss a single node or you don’t get full progression… that does suck. I thought the challenge to the Gauntlet was the battles, and if you can clear them… not if you have the essentials or not. Essentials are supposed to slow down the grind in points based ranking and increase the distance between players… with Gauntlet being pure progression, there is no valid reason to exclude points when the direct challenge is personal scaling.
you know, i said something akin to the OP when they announced the Reed PVP was directly before the gauntlet.. and i got sniped at for my remark…
Yet, i turned out to be 100% correct. I expect apologies.
Hasn’t the character that has been awarded in the previous PvE always been an essential for the Gauntlet, just like for any other PvE?
That being said, what is a shame is that Thoress’ crummiest cover is top progression reward. Not sure if I want to put myself through the hassle of L300+ nodes for that one, especially since I already have yellow at 3 and am working towards a 535 build.
Guess I can just take it easy then. I don’t get how the devs can destroy such a good idea as the Gauntlet with a mechanic that makes it impossible to clear if you lack even one of three specific characters. The final reward (whatever the 4* would be) isnt even worth the hassle.
The Gauntlet = Good idea, poor execution.
Will reed’s pvp run before the gauntlet finishes? Yes.
Can you get reed via the 1k progression there? Yes.
Doesn’t this leave you a limited time to do essentials? Yes, if you wanted all week you should’ve done better in the pve release.
But what if I can’t hit 1k in reed’s pvp? You probably wouldn’t be able to finish the gauntlet even if you had him then.
was able to finish gauntlet months before i ever got my first 1k in PVP..
i do have a 2 cover reed.. but i am just saying.. the 2 do not correlate at all.