Posting this here because I think it just got/gets lost on reddit as only gripe threads get upvoted and visibility/responses there.
A copy of my reddit feedback:
I've been playing since about Jan 10th and have spent about $200 on the game (actually a lil more but that more was totally wasted on buying packs that gave me shards and characters i don't and probably won't use, it was a waste, i firmly believe buying crystals and using them for refreshes, or buying packs for set toons like the droid pack and ewok packs are the only good packs to buy). So i spent about $200 effectively over 3 full months of play.
My thoughts are:
I'm having more fun than ever with the game.
I'm able to compete with a wide variety of characters and win battles i could never possibly win before, but they're challenging, not easy.
I really still would like to be able to try Old Ben as my leader if the team would be so kind as to fix that leader ability so it actually applies to the whole team, not just Ben.
Magma trooper is a very cool hero, but him triggering a dodge and offense up against the ENTIRE enmy team is a lil bit of a downside. Of course this only happens vs a certain leader i believe...sigh.
Galactic War was really no more challenging than before. Fought a lot of capped 73/74 teams and didn't have an issue, had to swap out a toon twice and restart maybe 3 fights, no different than before really. The protection DID NOT add time to the war in the net balance because the tuned damage allowed me to recover from heavy hits instead of having to restart the battle. Total time spent: about the same as before.
Circling back a bit, Arena has been really fun since the full update for me, but the clock needs to be extended cause...some fights i spend full time on are getting really close to that 5 minutes. I think a clock extension to 6:30 would be in order.
Complaints i've read about pvp taking too long make no sense as it's active playing and folks have been complaining about the game being just hit a few buttons then put down for 8 to 24 hours then play again. This gives more real play, i like it. I LOVE it so far.
The droid for android and ewok for ios + the omega for everyone events were perfectly designed and timed to give everyone a bigger deeper more advanced roster to take better advantage of the changes which favor bigger deeper rosters. This was well thought out, if it was thought out, the omega event is a nice training boost right now to folks suddenly needing a few new toons trained up more fully.
Omega event refresh is so awefully pay to win since we can't otherwise get those yet. I feel this was a step too far allowing the omega reward to be refreshed. A step way too far, very very disappointed that particular one is refreshable. Providing the same possible quantity to everyone woulda made a lot more sense with this being the only way to get them right now rather than allowing a whale to equip many characters with full omega and a FTP to equip one. If anoither way to get them was already in game that would make more sense as an option, but it's not, so bad bad money grab on that one.
Overall first impression of update is favorable. My greatest concern at this point is too much negative posting about it causing reversion or worsening of the changes that feel good.
I got like one response to this on reddit so far and it was someone saying they basically agree and linking to their thoughts.
+1
Its sad that the devs made the actual play better, but the facerollers/auto-button crowd will likely persuade them to undo it. Really dont understand why they "play" at all if all they want to do is hit auto.
The changes make it a much better game and i really hope the devs have the courage of their convictions and stick with it.
Not very pleased right now... Challenges changed from being able to auto fight and win with a well geared team to not being able to even beat the 2nd hardest tier when controlling it myself. This is ****
EA finally did it. Didn't think it was possible, but they managed nerf the entire game. I haven't been playing daily since December to now have to relearn the entire thing.
Want a quick way to even the playing field, add crossover leader abilities the way Asoka can lead Jedis and Night Sisters. Maybe Savage could lead Sith and NS, Anakin Jedi and Droids, Leia Rebels and Ewoks, Ventress NS and Sith.
What peace of s*** this new update. I really hate it. Please EA Bring back the old client.
It's stupid to fight a team in GW with full protection while you even don't have it since the 3rd station. And healers can do anything for... In addition I actually think characters damage less and lost more Health.
Wait until you Face a Kylo Ren , RG , Savage , Vader all G9 Team with Dooku as Leader and try to beat them all in 5 Minutes ... I get 3 Timeouts
Maybe, that dang Dodge is a time waster, but fixing one toon (that I rock regularly...so don't call me anti-Dooku) would fix the issue. Not reverting back to the times of GS/QJG/Dooku/Lumi/Sid/Rey on every team. I am not buying that EVERYBODY'S times went up as dramatically as they are saying. Just nailed another one in 2:20. give it some time people, we are only on day 1. My GW was about the same real-world time, and arena is about the same.
Even if you werent lying, there is FAR more people having the exact opposite problem.
So EA should listen to the bulk of their users.....
But it's true dude! Not everything is a conspiracy theory around here. Now if you are attacking with Old Ben and Barris/Yoda, you are just asking for it! That kind of a team will get draws all over the place.
This is the worst update ever. I've been playing daily, so I was loving this game. Now I feel like everything I've worked for, and even paid for, has been wasted. If challenges and especially this insanely stupid protection bar aren't fixed – as in removed entirely – then I'm quitting this game. Better than being frustrated at watching my hard work go to waste. Nothing to be proud of, nothing to enjoy.
I like most people have been playing this game for a while now, but this recent update ruined the game.. Like most the Challenges are really a pain, can only due level II when I could do V with no problem. Seems the AI damage and stats didn't change but ours did.. Well hopefully they look at this and fix the problem..
This is the worst update ever. I've been playing daily, so I was loving this game. Now I feel like everything I've worked for, and even paid for, has been wasted. If challenges and especially this insanely stupid protection bar aren't fixed – as in removed entirely – then I'm quitting this game. Better than being frustrated at watching my hard work go to waste. Nothing to be proud of, nothing to enjoy.
How did your hard work go to waste. Please explain. I can't see how this update made anything "go to waste."
Overall I like the changes. Galactic War definitely needs to be addressed as well as challenges. Challenges are too difficult now and GW takes forever. Yoda got the shaft in this update for sure and I feel they were too heavy handed with him. He went from really good to garbage and that's not good. I like protection in arena a lot though. My droid team survives the first round and I've actually managed to beat some Dooku teams lol.
I can deal with the other changes, but breaking the health bars has completely ruined the game. At its most basic level, the game is about health management. How can we do that if the health bars don't work properly?? I've seen hits take a fraction of a segment, followed by a hit for nearly identical damage take a whole segment. It sometimes turns yellow before the meter is even half gone. It just seems random! Plus the enemy's meter in the upper right corner doesn't move at all, it just stays full and green no matter what.
And "protection" not being renewable AT LEAST in GW is complete ****.
I want to love this game again, I REALLY do! But the new health system is pure tablet-throwing frustration like I have never seen before.
Overall I like the changes. Galactic War definitely needs to be addressed as well as challenges. Challenges are too difficult now and GW takes forever. Yoda got the shaft in this update for sure and I feel they were too heavy handed with him. He went from really good to garbage and that's not good. I like protection in arena a lot though. My droid team survives the first round and I've actually managed to beat some Dooku teams lol.
Oh yea agreed with almost everything you said! I don't know about GW yet, need more time. Maybe they will pair us with much easier opponents, this happened somewhat to me last night. Yoda!!! Noooooo. But i don't think he is garbage. He is still usable in certain team comps but come on...how OP do they think his damage was to nerf him in such a way?
Idk, I face 8 different Phasma lead teams and had to retreat like 15 times each (I'm exaggerating here but you get the point). RNG was not my friend today. One Phasma team proc'd an assist on each and every attack. I had to use my Arena killing squad to even compete. Lot of whales in my GW today. One even had a maxed Kit Fisto (that one was brutal).
I totally hate the new update for the following reasons:
1. Enemies are now harder to kill.
2. Now in the arena with the personal health bar, approx. 80% of the matches end in draws. The 5 minute timer is not enough to win a match against 5 other characters with personal health bars as well.
3. i played this game to relieve daily stress, and found I was more stressed to play with the new update this past day.
4. I no longer enjoy playing this game. Please revert back to previous version.
5. Baris and Sid are now useless with the new update. Also not fair is how it takes 2.5 minutes to take down someone else's Sid with all 7* characters, but the opponent takes mine down in half the time with almost the same characters??
6. Time required to complete challenges have doubled or tripled, or are impossible at max level.
Agreed. Also somehow the darn jawas are super now. They must of updated that too cause those lil bast@r&ds pack a punch..wiped out my whole squad
Really not loving the changes. If I wanted to spend hours a day grinding a game I'd do it on one of my games systems or computer, not my phone. If they wanted to keep players entertained, they should have added additional options, not downgraded just to make things more difficult. I prefer more strategy to longer, redundant gameplay so this may just be personal preference. I'll give it a week and if there are no improvements I'll just delete and move on to another phone game.
All of a sudden I feel almost no motivation to play the game. I used to wake up doing my dailies first thing in the morning. Now that it takes way longer to do things, this game is no longer a simple pick up and play. Sure they fixed pvp, but everything else was ruined. Never thought I'd say this, but I kinda wished they undid the update.
I went through EA and they said I need to go through Google Play to pursue a refund, contacted Google and they said I need to go through EA for a refund...POS mega corps...
First impressions (usually the good ones as we say...):
- game is more difficult. We might not like it as we were used to a certain difficulty level, but I'm sure shortly we'll get used to it and love it. Challenge is always good!
- no more one shot: it is good. I'm happy that overall damage went down. High dps are still high, as it is always relative
- the only problem I feel so far, and I'm afraid it is a very big one unfortunately, is that the game is now way too long. The principle is that it is a daily game: so if you can't do the daily content in a reasonable time, you feel like losing power, and you end up quitting. I feel that the way it is I will stop (and soon) not because I want, just because I have not enough time. A fist spontaneous suggestion: keep the hard part for 1 or 2 activities only, and let the rest "easy". Maybe let the challenges as easy as they were. Or protection only in arena not in gw? Or even better: keep gw that long, but triple the reward, so that quick player and ftp still get something by doing a small part of it, and hardcore gamers have a real bonus of spending that much time (and also casual ones on a long rainy Sunday)
Anyway thanks for this update, for me it goes in the good direction
Now the changes are out. I CAN still take people out before they get a chance to go. Galactic war is now a pain in the neck, and very lopsided. Protection only makes it harder since only the opposing team benefits in the later rounds. Mine didnt come back. Arena rewards has been nerfed as well. Combat is now too slow and dull. Also i cannot beat the harder challenges due to more damage that i have to carve through and a more intelligent ai.This update so far in my experience is just an all around player nerf. Slowing the grinding only makes it harder for newer players to compete.
You haven't even experienced the changes. Anything said one way or the other is COMPLETE SPECULATION
Everyone needs to seriously chill out. The re-tool hasn't even gone live yet.
From reading these posts, I thought the sky was falling. I readied my pitchfork and tried the game. I am completely FTP.
Challenges: Only had to do 1 battle over again. The difference after the patch was I got to use my special abilities on the first two waves instead of saving them for the third. This allowed me to save some armor bar for the boss. The extra time it took in the challenges allowed my special abilities to cool down and use again.
Arena: I hover around the 50 level every day. Didn't see any RG in any opposing groups. Won every battle as usual. I liked how the battles took a little longer allowing some strategy. I also liked how my characters didn't die in two hits.
GW: No problems there. Took a little longer, but finished it as usual. Didn't really see a difference.
I know your experience may be vastly different, but for some, the update really didn't do that much.
I LOVE this update. Seriously. I was able to have fun in GW (see my topic here: https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/28539/galactic-war-is-actually-fun-at-last-there-is-no-reason-to-change-it-thank-you-devs) and go back to 3-star the last level 7 nodes in hard and light sides. The damage nerfs needed to happen, thank you. The extra health (protection) is perfect so that multiple turns and cooldowns can be utilized. Challenges are challenging! Took me three tries to learn patterns and set up teams that countered oppress and his droids, and the tarkin/veers assault. FUN.
What's not fun? The instant gratification these entitlement-babies want. They want instant rewards for a sim ticket or button press. How lazy are you that you can't use your brain and sub characters that, gasp, do different things than just blast stuff! Yes, you're going to need the Jawa duo to take on those killer droid levels. Yes, you'll need Cup/Daka/Dooku stuns to survive the jawas. Hey guess what, you need droids and Jedi too for some levels. THATS WHAT THIS GAME IS ABOUT, variety and mixing/matching. This update gave new meaning and new life to a game that was just click and kill.
There's people upset when they see a team with a 2* Ugnaut or Nightsister initiate as Leader in the top 10. Highly upset. BROKEN! OP! DEGENERATE! No, they just suck and made a cookie cutter team that fit the current meta, dumping all their resources into five characters. Guess what, my 7* Magnaguard just killed your 7" Dooku and Fotp in a couple of turns. Datcha and Jawa stunned your whole droid team and kicked you from the top 10. Don't like it? Then play the game like it was meant to be played, collect and expand.
Devs, you guys Rock. The update is what this game needed, more time than a few clicks and a reason to have two or three teams in your roster. Anyone whose says differently isn't seeking QOL of the game but instant rewards for no effort.
"When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world will be metal."
So, here are my thoughts. As a heads up, I've been playing GoH daily on Android since early November. I usually spend $25-$50 a month on crystals (that number has been going down because the character selection is so narrow. I peaked around $100 in January. My standard PvP team is 6* Phasma (leader), 7* Dooku, 7* Sidious, 7* Old Daka, 6* Kylo Ren. In my ladder, I'm usually around 150-250 in the rankings. I usually spend about 200 crystals/day on energy refills.
1) Galactic War is **** ridiculous now. With difficulty calculated off my highest ranking PvP squad, I can no longer reliably use my previous strategy (4* but Gear 7-Gear 8 max level Barriss, Luminara, Qui-Gonn, Leia, Rey) to grind the easier lower level fights. With Protection in place, and damage nerfed, this squad struggles to even clear 3 and my high end squad absolutely can't fight through the remaining levels. It took me a long time to get two teams to a point where they could GW reliably, I simply don't have the time or resources to create a 3rd
2) Protection makes HP reliant on crafting items for which unreleased content is needed. It's no longer a matter of grinding levels/stars, as HP has been reduced pretty well across the board and healing has absolutely dropped in value (healing can't affect Prot bars). A character's survivability and utility is now directly based on how much RNJesus favors the individual player, or (much more commonly) how much that player is willing to spend on crystals for energy refills.
3) High end damage is now *even more important*. With protection bars lowering the effectiveness of healing, the hunt isn't for alternate builds but in how I can maximize damage output without healer characters. The minimal strategy of heal timing is now, I think, totally unimportant.
4) The character count is still uninspiring. It's been months since exciting new characters that affected the meta in meaningful ways were released. Making the older characters worse while still leaving things like Jedi Luke unreleased just incentivizes me to not play the game.
5) The solution to burst damage is stronger Tanks. The "autoplay" builds most punished by this update had notable weaknesses to lineups with strong tanks and healing. Focusing damage on, say, a Stormtrooper Han or Clone Wars Chewbacca just led to several wasted turns. Buffing their ability to control the flow of damage would have been a stronger option that simply nerfing the most commonly played archetypes.
I now feel like the millions of credits it's taken to build up my characters has been wasted. I'm extremely frustrated that I can no longer beat the VERY IMPORTANT Tier V challenges, and being unable to complete those until seemingly level 80 makes the game feel much, much more grindy than I like. I do not like this update, I do not like how hard the content is now (because there is now no catharsis or reward for the work that I've put in), and while I'll continue to play for a while longer I will definitely be decreasing or stopping my spending on the game.
I'm a lurker, but been playing the game for about 3 months now. I've spent some decent amount of money, definitely more than I should and have built a cool line up of characters. I have a total of 51 characters. 12 are at level 70+,6*+,gear 7+ and then they wind down from there with several in the 50's, 40's, etc.
I play other games and I am used to the doom and gloom of game forums. There is always someone getting "slapped in the face." It's common in the other games I play/played. So even though I'm noobish and still learning, I expected the fallout of such a big update. Whether or not it's warranted, my casual opinion.
I can see the necessity of the update for the longevity of the game. Most users just see the now and don't buy the long term thing and that's understandable. But ultimately, I respect what the devs do. They get paid to do what I pay to do. Longevity is in their best interest.
Overall I like the game, but it is just a bit too much of a grind. I have several characters that need a particular 20, 40 or 50 pieces of gear and as far as I can tell, the purple I need drops at about 1 out of 6 or 7 battles. That is A LOT of grind for one piece of gear. And it's prob a little worse rate of drop for shards. On top of that, I need training droids and credits. Now for the super casual person this is ok in the sense that you get to partake in the cool graphics and sounds of a game that is very faithful to the mythos. But eventually, a lot of people get caught up in the competition and this is where the game transforms.
When I got to level 70, I thought I hit a plateau of the game and sort of shifted gears to bringing up other characters to try to play with. I think for those that more or less keep up at the top, this is where the next stage of the game is. Even with the insane grind to bring up characters to useful, after a few months you can have several legitimate characters. But enter the update and I realize that my plateau is just a decent foundation. Sure it's not starting over, but moving from 70+ just got a lot slower, literally. Battles I think only take an additional 1-2 minutes for me with the protection, maybe not even that much. BUT, now multiply that by however many # of battles I have to run to get gear, droids and credits. It adds up quickly and has shifted my approach to the game. Rather than keep throwing money at it, I'm gonna slow it down and just play at the pace that I have to with the new update. I do employ sim tickets intermittently. Especially on level 7 hard nodes that are now 50/50 for an auto win and do take longer regardless. I'm not slowing down in protest or anything like that, but I think it's a sensible adjustment to make. My hopes of bringing up my other characters for different fun took a hit, but not derailed.
From my tinkering so far, I'd say I'm not a fan of protection. How I feel about it however is irrelevant to its usefulness. I can see an extra layer of something to help fine tune things as we go along. It seems to me that Arenas are the main benefactor of this encouraging further tinkering by the players. I think this is a good thing. But my main gripe is its use in GW. GW I think hit a reset for a lot of players. If you have a solid roster of end game characters, it should only slow you down some.
Today, I got really frustrated midway through the war as my strongest characters were starting to loose all protection and health. Ultimately I made it to the last node but lost. But back to my gripe. Hitting node after node of end game characters with full protection is a bit much. Overall, I don't mind me needing to re-strategize what I spent weeks to develop, but it is a bit much to have to really grind some more to overcome the obstacle that really did take months for me to sort of conquer. Every time the level cap is raised, the difficulty of GW goes with it and then add the update and ouch. I want to be clear that it's not a deal breaker for me, but I do understand how people feel like all the grind they did is leveled down just like that.
I've only played the AGI challenge and lost for the first time in weeks. Ok, hurts, but let's try a diff approach. I tinkered and I beat it. Definitely need some luck, but it's doable. It's not the steamroll it was before. It does suck a bit to have to strengthen characters I was hoping to level off of taking me away from what I was hoping would be my next stage of the game (playing with different characters).
Overall, after a couple of weeks things will settle down and the raids update may help all of this and people will move on. I look forward to raids and if you read all of this, you're a beast and thanks!
Replies
;.; I know! Looking forward to Ima jedi team!
Hows the office over at EA headquarters?
Want a quick way to even the playing field, add crossover leader abilities the way Asoka can lead Jedis and Night Sisters. Maybe Savage could lead Sith and NS, Anakin Jedi and Droids, Leia Rebels and Ewoks, Ventress NS and Sith.
This **** protection bar though . . . SMDH
It's stupid to fight a team in GW with full protection while you even don't have it since the 3rd station. And healers can do anything for... In addition I actually think characters damage less and lost more Health.
But it's true dude! Not everything is a conspiracy theory around here. Now if you are attacking with Old Ben and Barris/Yoda, you are just asking for it! That kind of a team will get draws all over the place.
How did your hard work go to waste. Please explain. I can't see how this update made anything "go to waste."
And "protection" not being renewable AT LEAST in GW is complete ****.
I want to love this game again, I REALLY do! But the new health system is pure tablet-throwing frustration like I have never seen before.
Oh yea agreed with almost everything you said! I don't know about GW yet, need more time. Maybe they will pair us with much easier opponents, this happened somewhat to me last night. Yoda!!! Noooooo. But i don't think he is garbage. He is still usable in certain team comps but come on...how OP do they think his damage was to nerf him in such a way?
Agreed. Also somehow the darn jawas are super now. They must of updated that too cause those lil bast@r&ds pack a punch..wiped out my whole squad
- game is more difficult. We might not like it as we were used to a certain difficulty level, but I'm sure shortly we'll get used to it and love it. Challenge is always good!
- no more one shot: it is good. I'm happy that overall damage went down. High dps are still high, as it is always relative
- the only problem I feel so far, and I'm afraid it is a very big one unfortunately, is that the game is now way too long. The principle is that it is a daily game: so if you can't do the daily content in a reasonable time, you feel like losing power, and you end up quitting. I feel that the way it is I will stop (and soon) not because I want, just because I have not enough time. A fist spontaneous suggestion: keep the hard part for 1 or 2 activities only, and let the rest "easy". Maybe let the challenges as easy as they were. Or protection only in arena not in gw? Or even better: keep gw that long, but triple the reward, so that quick player and ftp still get something by doing a small part of it, and hardcore gamers have a real bonus of spending that much time (and also casual ones on a long rainy Sunday)
Anyway thanks for this update, for me it goes in the good direction
Yes ive played the changes today.
Challenges: Only had to do 1 battle over again. The difference after the patch was I got to use my special abilities on the first two waves instead of saving them for the third. This allowed me to save some armor bar for the boss. The extra time it took in the challenges allowed my special abilities to cool down and use again.
Arena: I hover around the 50 level every day. Didn't see any RG in any opposing groups. Won every battle as usual. I liked how the battles took a little longer allowing some strategy. I also liked how my characters didn't die in two hits.
GW: No problems there. Took a little longer, but finished it as usual. Didn't really see a difference.
I know your experience may be vastly different, but for some, the update really didn't do that much.
What's not fun? The instant gratification these entitlement-babies want. They want instant rewards for a sim ticket or button press. How lazy are you that you can't use your brain and sub characters that, gasp, do different things than just blast stuff! Yes, you're going to need the Jawa duo to take on those killer droid levels. Yes, you'll need Cup/Daka/Dooku stuns to survive the jawas. Hey guess what, you need droids and Jedi too for some levels. THATS WHAT THIS GAME IS ABOUT, variety and mixing/matching. This update gave new meaning and new life to a game that was just click and kill.
There's people upset when they see a team with a 2* Ugnaut or Nightsister initiate as Leader in the top 10. Highly upset. BROKEN! OP! DEGENERATE! No, they just suck and made a cookie cutter team that fit the current meta, dumping all their resources into five characters. Guess what, my 7* Magnaguard just killed your 7" Dooku and Fotp in a couple of turns. Datcha and Jawa stunned your whole droid team and kicked you from the top 10. Don't like it? Then play the game like it was meant to be played, collect and expand.
Devs, you guys Rock. The update is what this game needed, more time than a few clicks and a reason to have two or three teams in your roster. Anyone whose says differently isn't seeking QOL of the game but instant rewards for no effort.
1) Galactic War is **** ridiculous now. With difficulty calculated off my highest ranking PvP squad, I can no longer reliably use my previous strategy (4* but Gear 7-Gear 8 max level Barriss, Luminara, Qui-Gonn, Leia, Rey) to grind the easier lower level fights. With Protection in place, and damage nerfed, this squad struggles to even clear 3 and my high end squad absolutely can't fight through the remaining levels. It took me a long time to get two teams to a point where they could GW reliably, I simply don't have the time or resources to create a 3rd
2) Protection makes HP reliant on crafting items for which unreleased content is needed. It's no longer a matter of grinding levels/stars, as HP has been reduced pretty well across the board and healing has absolutely dropped in value (healing can't affect Prot bars). A character's survivability and utility is now directly based on how much RNJesus favors the individual player, or (much more commonly) how much that player is willing to spend on crystals for energy refills.
3) High end damage is now *even more important*. With protection bars lowering the effectiveness of healing, the hunt isn't for alternate builds but in how I can maximize damage output without healer characters. The minimal strategy of heal timing is now, I think, totally unimportant.
4) The character count is still uninspiring. It's been months since exciting new characters that affected the meta in meaningful ways were released. Making the older characters worse while still leaving things like Jedi Luke unreleased just incentivizes me to not play the game.
5) The solution to burst damage is stronger Tanks. The "autoplay" builds most punished by this update had notable weaknesses to lineups with strong tanks and healing. Focusing damage on, say, a Stormtrooper Han or Clone Wars Chewbacca just led to several wasted turns. Buffing their ability to control the flow of damage would have been a stronger option that simply nerfing the most commonly played archetypes.
I now feel like the millions of credits it's taken to build up my characters has been wasted. I'm extremely frustrated that I can no longer beat the VERY IMPORTANT Tier V challenges, and being unable to complete those until seemingly level 80 makes the game feel much, much more grindy than I like. I do not like this update, I do not like how hard the content is now (because there is now no catharsis or reward for the work that I've put in), and while I'll continue to play for a while longer I will definitely be decreasing or stopping my spending on the game.
Nice analogy...
A little complex for Lord Salera tho, don't you think....
I play other games and I am used to the doom and gloom of game forums. There is always someone getting "slapped in the face." It's common in the other games I play/played. So even though I'm noobish and still learning, I expected the fallout of such a big update. Whether or not it's warranted, my casual opinion.
I can see the necessity of the update for the longevity of the game. Most users just see the now and don't buy the long term thing and that's understandable. But ultimately, I respect what the devs do. They get paid to do what I pay to do. Longevity is in their best interest.
Overall I like the game, but it is just a bit too much of a grind. I have several characters that need a particular 20, 40 or 50 pieces of gear and as far as I can tell, the purple I need drops at about 1 out of 6 or 7 battles. That is A LOT of grind for one piece of gear. And it's prob a little worse rate of drop for shards. On top of that, I need training droids and credits. Now for the super casual person this is ok in the sense that you get to partake in the cool graphics and sounds of a game that is very faithful to the mythos. But eventually, a lot of people get caught up in the competition and this is where the game transforms.
When I got to level 70, I thought I hit a plateau of the game and sort of shifted gears to bringing up other characters to try to play with. I think for those that more or less keep up at the top, this is where the next stage of the game is. Even with the insane grind to bring up characters to useful, after a few months you can have several legitimate characters. But enter the update and I realize that my plateau is just a decent foundation. Sure it's not starting over, but moving from 70+ just got a lot slower, literally. Battles I think only take an additional 1-2 minutes for me with the protection, maybe not even that much. BUT, now multiply that by however many # of battles I have to run to get gear, droids and credits. It adds up quickly and has shifted my approach to the game. Rather than keep throwing money at it, I'm gonna slow it down and just play at the pace that I have to with the new update. I do employ sim tickets intermittently. Especially on level 7 hard nodes that are now 50/50 for an auto win and do take longer regardless. I'm not slowing down in protest or anything like that, but I think it's a sensible adjustment to make. My hopes of bringing up my other characters for different fun took a hit, but not derailed.
From my tinkering so far, I'd say I'm not a fan of protection. How I feel about it however is irrelevant to its usefulness. I can see an extra layer of something to help fine tune things as we go along. It seems to me that Arenas are the main benefactor of this encouraging further tinkering by the players. I think this is a good thing. But my main gripe is its use in GW. GW I think hit a reset for a lot of players. If you have a solid roster of end game characters, it should only slow you down some.
Today, I got really frustrated midway through the war as my strongest characters were starting to loose all protection and health. Ultimately I made it to the last node but lost. But back to my gripe. Hitting node after node of end game characters with full protection is a bit much. Overall, I don't mind me needing to re-strategize what I spent weeks to develop, but it is a bit much to have to really grind some more to overcome the obstacle that really did take months for me to sort of conquer. Every time the level cap is raised, the difficulty of GW goes with it and then add the update and ouch. I want to be clear that it's not a deal breaker for me, but I do understand how people feel like all the grind they did is leveled down just like that.
I've only played the AGI challenge and lost for the first time in weeks. Ok, hurts, but let's try a diff approach. I tinkered and I beat it. Definitely need some luck, but it's doable. It's not the steamroll it was before. It does suck a bit to have to strengthen characters I was hoping to level off of taking me away from what I was hoping would be my next stage of the game (playing with different characters).
Overall, after a couple of weeks things will settle down and the raids update may help all of this and people will move on. I look forward to raids and if you read all of this, you're a beast and thanks!
You had one job EA. One job.