I understand there are multiple threads concerning everyones thought and opinions regarding the newly implemented shield cool downs. Whether I should have just included the thoughts I’ll share with you below in a preexisting thread I leave up to you. However, I thought that my concerns regarding the impact shield cool downs had for me on the game deserved their own platform (plus I had 0.02 cents laying around, so why not!). I don’t want this post to be a rant about how horrendous this new game feature is considered by some, but truly just how it impacted my game play.
1. The “fun” was sucked out of the PvP event
Simply put, I felt handcuffed. The climb to 600+ felt like every other PvP event that came before it. I’m a player with almost 20+ maxed 3s, but have only ever purchased HP to shield hop. All my ISO and a lot of HP came from continual playtime and a lot of effort. With my roster I usually see the 166 wall by 500 points, and the 2 out of 3 maxed 4s by 600 points. As I said, everything was working properly until I had to drop my first shield. Usually once I drop a shield I’ll wait about fifteen minutes for anyone who was fighting me or had me in their queue to attack; at that point I’d unshield and go for three matches before shielding. Sadly though, I found that I couldn’t do that because of the newly implemented cool down times. Instead I moved over to the PvE. Well, after going through all the nodes once it’s not smart to hit them again until they’ve refreshed on their own (only way to maximize points). Next…wait, there was no next. The game was finished for me. This was the first time in a long time that I found myself simply having to set the game aside involuntarily and find other things to do with my life. Granted, the bathroom needed cleaning and the laundry needed a wash, but I can’t believe I felt forced by the developers to set their game down. It was a weird experience, as being a consumer of a product I can’t remember ever having my crack dealer ask me to “set down the pipe and do something else for a while”. It was a paradox that my feeble mind was having problems comprehending; a game mechanic that forces you do put down the game. Weird.
The fun was beginning to disappear because of my lack of play time. Okay, the eight hour shield was just five hours into it’s life, so it was time to jump and throw down a three hour shield. My strategy was that by the time the three hour was up I’d lay down another eight hour shield (trying not to drop 300 HP at a single time on the 24-hour shield unless absolutely necessary). As I began to prepare to unshield I quickly scrolled through the leaderboard. Unlike leaderboards in the past, where playtime only has short periods of respite, this board had been dormant to me for over five hours. Not a lot had changed, but the names weren’t as lively in my brain as they had been in the past and I wasn’t able to follow the behavior of the other leaders like I did before; if you’re leapfrogging back and forth with others you learn how they play…which makes competition more intense, ultimately producing a more satisfactory and fun experience. Well, that aspect of gameplay no longer existed for me and I instantly felt that I simply was making a “jump” to make a jump and stay in the top five, instead of jumping competitively for the fun of it. This loss of gameplay experience only became more apparent as the match went on. By it’s conclusion I was glad it was over, not because I landed top five, but because it was the most unenjoyable PvP I’d played in over a year. Just two weeks ago I spent the last three hours of a PvP playing leapfrog with an opponent from a great alliance. Our scores were only fifteen points apart for almost the entirety of those last three hours, and if it hadn’t have been for a loss on their part (something I could see by watching the leaderboard every other minute to observe their behavior) I think I would have lost the event. However, I put in a final jump in the last minute and came out 15 points ahead with 1800+ points (I think). That match was epic in my mind. I could care less about how much HP I burnt (but I’m sure D3 loved it), and even though I like the blue 4hor cover I received as top prize, the competition was an instant classic! If the person I battled reads this I really want you to know that I had a blast. I know I won, but I would have been more than content if I had come in second because of how much enjoyment the competition was. All of the aforementioned joy I’ve been babbling about…absent entirely because of shield cool downs. That’s a HUGE issue that the developers shouldn’t overlook.
2. Heavy-hitting rosters got a big time buff!
I don’t have a single maxed 4*. My X-Force it sitting at a 553 build with a level of 231. I find that his stats don’t change enough for me to increase his level 39 more times. Having said that, while I have all the other 4* characters, none of them are above level 125 (4hor). Therefore I generally run my 553 Deadpool alongside XF and whomever is the featured 3* of the PvP. Deadpool’s red is cheap and hits heavy, while his purple has great AoE damage. It’s a great team that kills other teams in under 30 seconds (a must when you’re sitting above 1300 points in a PvP). Sometimes I can even devastate a fully maxed 4hor, XF, and Fury team with mine in under a minute. The problem with the best team I can build to remain highly competitive and sit atop the scoreboard with the best of them, is that it has no defensive value. No one will pass on a 50-point team like mine, especially if there are other 50-point teams out there that are comprised of fully maxed 4s. This wasn’t an issue in the past because I could simply unshield, fight one or two matches (usually one when your worth is more than 1500 points), then shield up and avoid damage. However, with cool downs I can’t jump as often as I need to keep the pace with maxed 4 teams. They can still climb because their rosters don’t need to stay shielded constantly like mine because their rosters possess ample defensive deterrent. That gap between me and a maxed 4* team is now going to grow exponentially because cool downs will hinder my ability to remain competitive against those teams in the new PvP landscape. As I said, I started from scratch and have only ever spent real money on HP. I’ve never bought a cover or ISO. All my covers have been pulled through tokens or through PvP placement rewards (98% of my covers were gained this way…at least). Now I’ll need to start actually purchasing covers to max my 4* teams just so I can build that scary defensive team; this though is something that will never become reality though, as I refuse to spend the money necessary to do so. Simply put, cool downs bring non-deterrent 4* defensive teams to their knees at a certain point and give all the momentum for the top of the leaderboards to those with the ultimate rosters. Our whales are gonna grrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
3. Progression rewards are unattainable.
Last season I tallied 16,000+ points. That was a great season; not as good as Season 8, but really good. I achieved that mark because the game was built to allow anyone with a halfway decent 3* roster to compete with the whales. As I stated in the previous section, my star team could jump fast and keep up with the best (well, not the 3000+ point whales). The only thing I needed was determination and HP to jump with. After the two tokens at 300 and 900 (ultimately always a Moonstone or Hawkeye), the only two progression rewards that I really looked forward to were the guaranteed cover at 1100 and the 4* at 1300. Those two rewards were instrumental in me getting my roster to where it is today. I only have my 4hor where she is today cover-wise because of those 1300 point rewards. And too many times after a new character is released I was always able to obtain another of their covers (one I always needed) in their first PvP at the 1100 point mark. So, todays PvP left me with 909 points. Nowhere near the 1100 mark I’ll need to reach if I want Luke Cage’s red cover in the now current PvP. Honestly, I don’t know how I’ll reach that mark. Do any of you?
4. Why can’t shields possess dual functionality?
As I was playing the aforementioned PvP where I scored 909, I had more than ample time to think about the functionality of shields. The developers of MPQ have stated that one of the main reasons that shield cool downs were implemented was because shields were being abused. Basically, they were initially introduced into the MPQ landscape to provide safety to a person’s score (not their ranking, as that isn’t dependent upon their gameplay alone). To many players were complaining about hitting that wall, you know the wall where your points get high enough that where every game you play and gain 30 points you lose 80+ in the process. It was infuriating and something needed to be done. Shields were invented and almost everyone was ecstatic. Soon though, many began to revolutionize the way shields were used. Shields were no longer being used to keep your points static and safe, but instead be began to use them as the main mechanic to coordinate with our alliance mates and hop. Scores soared from that point on; but only for a few. Btw, I would like to share with everyone that I am part of 5 Deadly Venoms, and while we do have a great chat room, I’ve NEVER coordinated with any of my alliance mates any hops. Never have I used them as points after they’ve shielded, unless I just happened to come upon them while I was browsing available targets. Many believe that shield hopping needed precise coordinated back-and-forths between alliance mates, but that is simply untrue. The best PvP I ever had was over 2300+ points…and I did it all by myself. All I did was fight, shield, wait, unshield, fight, shield, wait…and so on.
So I ask again, why can’t shields possess dual functionality? For players like my daughter who are just making the 2* to 3* transition, she is beginning to use shields. She uses them the way they were intended. She gets into the top twenty-five, shields, and collects two much needed 3* covers. She’s never once shield hopped. That strategy works for her at her placement in the game. She has no chance of every placing 1st right now; as she doesn’t have the roster or the resources. I was there once too. However, as my roster grew as a result of being able to shield, I was able to start using teams in PvPs that let me truly compete for top five. Now that top five was a possibility the risk vs reward for HP use in shield hopping became a reality. The reward began to outweigh the risk and I began to hop. It was my time. I had put in the time, I had foregone sleep. It was finally my time to have a chance to compete at top five. So I began to shield hop. From that point on my roster has become even stronger. I expect to place top five, as I put in the time and I risk the HP necessary to hop. I’m not guaranteed placement, but I know my chances are good. Since I don’t buy ISO that 5000 ISO from top five is HUGE to me. I have been able to level a 3* at a rate of about one every two weeks now. However, I fear that will all change, and very drastically due to shield cool downs.
Conclusion
As I said, this wasn’t a rant. All I did was share my thoughts and my gameplay experience with all of you. However, I fear that even though this is a massive negative gameplay mechanic that was implemented, the developers won’t change the game back to how it was, or at least to a landscape that doesn’t hinder development and actually make their consumers put down and walk away from their product (I’m not talking about never coming back, but instead the now mandatory blocks of time where you can’t play the game). We as consumers of MPQ are always told by the developers that they need to see the data before they consider altering any mechanics of the game, and if the data dictates a move should be made then they probably will. However, all I can do is thing back to our poor old friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. He needed a nerf; but he got the double whammy. That was a LONG time ago. Sadly, the most popular character in the Marvel universe now lays dusty and unplayed by almost all. His data dictates he needs a power skill. The data dictates he needs a buff. Spidey has seen no buff, nor do I foresee a change to shield cool downs. I hope I’m wrong, as I was very happy giving MPQ my time and my $$ for HP. If things stay the way they are I think it’s a very realistic possibility that one of these times one of the developer created mandatory shield cool downs might become a permanent leave from the game. Once again, I don’t want that to happen, but cool downs in my opinion are unnecessary and should be gotten rid of…quickly.
Thanks for the time ya’ll.
