With 4* Star Lord released it is clear that the devs believe the game can sustain a monthly 4* character release.
Since October they have released more 4*'s than they did in the first 12 months (4 vs. 3)
They say this is going to be an easier transition than it was from 2->3*
I do not believe this can be true unless they dramatically increase the iso flow.
For over a year now I have been able to earn enough iso to keep up with a 3* release every two weeks.
I am an outlier who can regularly farm >100k iso/week but if I make 200 iso over 2 weeks I can max a 3* as they are released.
This will not be true if they release a 4* every four weeks because even as one of the more efficient iso farmers in the game if I make 400k I would still be short enough to max the monthly release.
If you’re still with me and are thinking blah blah whales crying you are right. But I think this also has the potential to hurt the game long term.
They mentioned that the majority of players have started since September. How long will it take a new player to realize the amount of iso they need to get to end game?
I know personally I had two of my gaming friends pick the game up in October and they had the big advantage of my feeding them through Facebook drops. They both looked at the mountain to climb and after finishing the prologue they quit. They liked the game but they quickly realized it is not a game which rewards players sufficiently to allow reasonable progression.
It is a long trip but here is my point. The devs have kept the hp and iso flow the same while dramatically increasing the costs for any player as they progress. They have to significantly increase the flow of hp and iso to be earned in the game if they are really serious about having the game be around long term.
This course of action by the devs has changed the way i am going to approach these 4*'s. I am going to treat them as if they were a 3*. I’ll give them 175k of iso and max the covers but then I’ll leave them there and very slowly add iso in when I get an unexpected boost.
I would really like to know what people consider end game in this game. It sure as hell is not the prologue since it finishes very fast in the beginning. Is it collecting every single char? If yes, what is the reason? Just collection? Since you can beat everything the game has to offer with more or less 3 chars, what’s the point?
Personally, this pushed me away. I’d love to have more material to play with. Like alliance raids, crusades, dungeons etc. This game feels dull content-wise. No matter how many characters they add, there are just not enough mechanics in the game to make it interesting.
I really wonder if D3 is planning on upping the rate of earning iso and HP, either by a new mode or price cuts or some other method.
While I agree that the 3*-4* transition will need to be adjusted. The 2*-3* definitely needs to be fixed first.
With the ever increasing number of 3* getting to the 3* stage is incredibly hard.
That being said the 3*-4* might be an easier fix if like you suggested they just lower the iso needed to level 4* . But This might then result in players skipping the 3* stage and jumping straight to the 4* stage.
At that point I’d be why worry about 3* when you know lots of people will have 4* and will still beat you. As a 2*-3* transitioner If I could jump straight from 2* to 4* then I would.
Completely agree. And if you are having ISO shortages, think of us “semi”-hardcore types. What shot do we have to honestly do this transition?
The one thing I would add is that they need to loosen the 4* rewards on release (top 50 is ridiculous) AND they need to rotate 4* events at least once a month. Give us more opportunities to actually win these covers beyond the release. There is no transition if you get 1 shot at these covers and only 1/2 of a percent of the players get all three covers. Expecting top 1 to snag a rotation of the rest of these 4* covers thereafter is not a viable model and pretty demoralizing for those of us that like, ya know…sleep.
Edit: I think if they did a monthly 4* event with say top 100 as the 4* and top 150 for 2 covers of a 3* and top 200 for 1 cover, it might go a long way to help a 3* transition as well. It isn’t every event but once in awhile throw us a bone. Could address many concerns of the player base.
Maybe for you the only problem is iso, but for the great majority of players the problem is max the covers first (then get the iso, so fucking IMPOSSIBLE). It is really difficult to max a 4* in a month without spending money (I dare to say impossible), so each month you will have a new 4* that you are not going to max in 6 months or more. So you will have to spend HPs in roosters slots that you are not going to use in A LOT of time, etc, etc and the snow ball will get bigger, etc
I have been playing allmost since the beginning (I have a very deep roster), and I still need 2-3 months at least to max covers for a 3*, and I think I will need around 6-8 months to max a 4*
So the 3->4 is going to be a NIGHTMARE for all the players. Maybe it is going to be easier to do 2->4 than 3->4 because of MMR, but I really think developers are crazy and they should not introduce that many 4*, they are killing their own game.
I think that a good step to take to ease both 2-3 and 3-4 transition would be to rework the PVP placement awards. I would get rid of the 26-50 and 6-10 tiers and bump everthing down to fill the missing spots and make 1, 2-5, and 6-10 4* awards.
It would make it easier for everyone to get move covers more quickly.
They expect you/us to drop money and buy Iso. Which will not happen.
On Android, Contest of Champions is 17th most profitable app, MPQ is now 75th…
They are slowly killing the game. When all the vets have gone because they’ve had enough, there will be nothing to dream about… The Top 10 with 2* rosters and XForce (everyone has XForce now)… ?
They are going to 4*'s, they said expect a lot more. Fine, great! Now there are 7 1*'s (with probably no more coming) and 7 4*'s (with plenty more coming, apparently)
I suggest they should just re-order star tiers.
1*'s - the current 2*'s. Rather than getting rid of the old 7, lump them into this batch to have more characters for starters. Give these out in standard tokens, progressions, and random PVP drops.
2*'s - the current 3*'s. There are so many that people already can’t transition - make these the only thing that drop in heroic tokens. Perhaps change reward structure so these are given out to #51-#250.
3*'s - the current 4*'s. Keep these as high progression marks, perhaps #1-#50, keep them pretty rare in tokens.
ISO/HP - at least double, perhaps triple, everywhere: so it is possible for people to actually level their new 2* tier and start progressing into their new 3* tier.
As a semi hardcore player (I dont adjust sleep schedule, but I play too much) the cover drop rate isnt enough to allow me to keep my head above water. Im T25 in most PVPs, often T10, so I can max 3s and have quite a few, in spite of routinely running into 2x 270 with 249 loaner in PVP, and T50 placements in PVE with T25 or higher in about half the subs. That gets me a lot of tokens (Im pushing 300 standards in about that time, didnt track Heroic/events plus 10-pack) but I havent seen a 4 cover in over a month. Im an anomaly in that I get chars to 67 and then dont put ISO into a char unless they are good and I can get them playable (so 11+ covers) but that strategy combined with the drought of 4* has left me sitting on 700k iso. I have 5k+ HP, but that barely makes a dent in a 4* and I dont have enough disposable income right now to buy the rest of one 4* (who does? WAY overpriced) let alone make up the 6-8 covers I would need EACH MONTH with the current release rate.
Its going to be tough to open the tap and relax the 3* → 4* progression without breaking the 2*->3* one (as they did with 1* to 2* by the cover drops), but something has to be done. Id love to see them reduce the reward while lowering the threshold. Essentially make the drop off more gradual and extend out further.
There obviously isn’t enough iso to keep everyone leveled but there’s also no reason to keep everyone leveled in the first place unless the format of the events have some serious shakeup. So I don’t see why this issue is even relevent in the current format where you only need 2 to 3 guys to do virtually everything.
If you didn’t want to break things, you could make token odds dependent on roster composition. For example if every Level 166 3* on your roster increased the drop rate of 4*'s (even just a little) and decreased the drop rates of 2*'s then players would have incentive to go through a 3* transition rather than thinking that they should go 2* → 4*.
I rather like this idea. Maybe base it on percentage of 3* covers obtained. Boost the drop rate of 3s for those who have very covers while boosting the 4 (or 5*?) for those who have most.
I think the complaint would be that it inhibits the 2* from getting 4* covers…but should they be getting them? At 2* they are just a roster spot (ie HP) and getting that elusive 11, 12 or 13th cover for a specific 3* is MUCH more important, and this would boost that.
D3 has made it clear that they expect players to pick between characters. I’m OK with not being able to max level every hero I win (although I would like to be able to keep every hero I win. Cough Roster slots Cough)
I’m in a similar situation. Like you I’m semi hardcore and spend iso only on well covered characters. I have all characters, I hoard iso and hp but I don’t win 4* cover often.
I think I have a choice to make. Until now, most of my HP was spent on roster slots because I liked having them all. Now that I have a deep roster of leveled 3*, I wonder if I want to keep focusing on 3* or on 4* transition.
I believe I tend for the latter so from now I should stop spending hp on slots or shield and invest on buying 4* covers. Sure it’s highly expensive but doable. Currently a roster slot is worth 800 hp for me and I managed to buy one after each release of a new char while my hp stack keep growing slightly. Therefore I probably earn a bit more than 800 HP per two weeks (I have to check carefully though).
Conclusion: to ensure 3*–>4* transition I have to forget my compulsion to keep all character and stop increasing the size of my roster 
Given how hard it is to aquire 4* covers I certaily think 2* players should be getting 4* covers. If you don’t have a maxed xforce / thoress or a team that can consistantly beat them without sucking up too many health packs you won’t get to 1100 or finish first to get a 4* cover -ever. So it will take a very, very long time to get a usable 4* from only lucky draws and the occasional release. Especially if they keep dilluting the 4* pull. I have an extremly slim chance of getting a 4* pull, but now there’s double the 4 * as there used to be, so my chances of getting the 4* I need is now 1/5 of 1% instead of a few months ago when it was 1/3 of 1%.
There is no 3* - 4* transition unless you pay for it, or take well over a year, or unless D3 puts out some new rewards for new types of gameplay
Right now I’m feeling pretty happy with 3* play. You can amass covers at a reasonable rate just by luck or by placing in PvP events. Even now PvE players are having a great shot at some Lazy Thor covers. And the ISO - which is still time-consuming to gather - doesn’t feel impossible. I say leave this talk of ballooning the 4* ranks on the drafting table and let’s just have fun with the meat and potatoes that is the 3* division.
I would think by allowing people to get more high level characters, and therefore use more high level characters, it will help to prevent burn-out from boredom. This would be a good thing for D3 if they want to retain people…but since “more than half” of players started recently, that seems to not be their primary concern.
There’s this thing called ‘fun’ that games are supposed to be. Maybe I’m in the minority, but I find it mind boggling boring to just sit and use XForce all day, just because I can.
The point wasnt to exclude them but rather increase the 3*/4* odds across the board and for a 2* player trade in some of the odds of a 4* for improving those of a 3*, which should be more beneficial to them (unless they are a whale and attempting 2* → 4*). Do the reverse for someone with a high percentage of the possible 3* covers, as a 4* would likely be more valuable to them. Either way, increase the odds overall.
Personally, I cant recall the last time I got a useful 3* cover other than for one of the release chars via placement in PVE/PVP (or the progression in the next PVP), which means my progression has dramatically stagnated. Id either have to have crazy good luck (I had great luck with my season 10 pack, pulling five 3s…none of which were usable) or waiting til they run events with rewards as one of the chars I need…which is increasingly rare due to volume of 3 options. I have almost no hope of fully covering a char within a reasonable timeframe (3-6 mo).