After playing with the shield cooldowns this season, I am finding they make playing the game much more frustrating.
I find the cooldowns force me to:
Set specific times to play.
Set timers outside the game to track cooldowns
Reduce the flexibility of being able to play a mobile game on the go and when I want.
I do not find the cooldown method to:
Reduce outside game communication and coordination.
Make top scores more reachable, only the appearance of less separation.
I am OK with not finishing top 10, etc. What I miss is the ability to pick up MPQ and play a couple matches without having to worry about if doing so will screw up my shield cooldown rotation. I often have to plan my PvP play 2 days out, which is so against mobile gaming.
Consider an alternate solution:
Instead of cooldown timers, add a counter and increase HP cost for each additional shield used, across all shields.
Shield 1 is 75, 150, or 300.
Shield 2 is 100, 175, or 325. (base + 1 x 25).
…
Shield 10 is 300, 375, 525 (Base + 9 x 25)
(I would drop the cost of the first shields by 25 HP, because I feel like 3 shield usages should be the same cost as 3 under the current system. ( 75 x 3 = 50 + 75 + 100 for 3 x 3 hr, etc., and so it would be base + shield # x 25. The example below doesn’t include this drop.)
It seems like many of the shield hoppers are using the 3,8,3 rotation, and using around 6 shields? 75 x 3 + 150 x 3 = 600. Under the proposed system the minimal new cost for 5 shields would be ( 75 x 5 + 25 + 50 + 75 + 100 + 150 ) = 775. So multiple hops become even more costly, but shields could be used any time and in any combination.
This returns the ability of people to use any combination of shields in a flexible manner. It encourages people to be able to play the game when they want, and places a steeper cost of multiple hops.