Yes, I know, it’s somewhat early to talk about 2.0 PvP impressions. Still, I’m pretty sure I’ll find myself too busy (like in “playing Gems of War”) later this week. Please consider this an early, totally biased feedback on which parts of PvP progression I’d like to see adjusted a little.
Tier progression feels too slow
It took me ages to get from tier 15 to tier 10, progression seemed to speed up afterwards. Might have been a side effect of the whole system booting up, still doesn’t feel quite right. Prior to 2.0 tier 15 to 10 required two stars, tier 10 to 5 required three stars, tier 5 to 1 required four stars. Right now tiers are all spaced the same, 100 points. Would it be an option to redistribute that a bit, like 75-100-125? Overall points required for tier 1 would remain the same.
Tier 1 feels unrewarding
Don’t get me wrong, the overall progression rewards are very generous. It’s just that getting to tier 1 doesn’t really feel special, it’s, well, more of the same. Would it be possible to add something fairly exclusive to reaching the topmost rank, like a single arcane trait stone of the week? That’s fairly insignificant for long time players, they usually get heaps of those from the weekly event. Newer players should absolutely love this though, it’s a huge step towards getting a single Common or Rare fully traited, seems like a fitting reward for putting so many hours into PvP.
Top 1000 reward feels too much a Top 20 reward
I’ll probably play PvP like I usually do, up to reaching Tier 1. That takes a lot more time as of 2.0, I’d still be surprised to even up up above rank 10000 (yes, ten thousand). I can’t imagine how much time players will have to put into reaching rank 1000, for a reward that most might not really consider rewarding. You only receive arcane trait stones if you end up top 20, that’s a very, very tiny fraction of all participants. Given that luck during the final battles will probably have a fairly significant impact on final rankings, might it make sense to spread out the love a little? Like awarding arcane trait stones to the top 100, while reducing the amount at topmost ranks a little? And throwing in some runic trait stones all the way down to rank 1000? I imagine it’s something even PvP addicts would find useful, so even a single one should be welcome.
Part of the problem with your “Tier 1 isn’t special” complaint is that you get rewards every time you go up in tier. If you only got the rewards at the end of the week, Tier 1 would feel even more awesome than the old rank 1 did – 46 whole glory keys!
Also, the next step up in goodies from glory keys would be either gems or gem keys, rather than an arcane traitstone (getting a treasure map would be kind of lame). Both of those might be too much “money” to be giving away, since most players will still hit Tier 1 by the end of a regular event. Also also, giving away an arcane traitstone would devalue the rewards for the current top 20 Ranked players. (Ignoring, for now, your posted worries about that system.)
[quote=“Grundulum, post:2, topic:7516, full:true”]
Part of the problem with your “Tier 1 isn’t special” complaint is that you get rewards every time you go up in tier. If you only got the rewards at the end of the week, Tier 1 would feel even more awesome than the old rank 1 did – 46 whole glory keys![/quote]
Sorry to disagree, if rewards were handed out at the end of the week, you still wouldn’t see much of a difference between having reached tier 1 or tier 2. It’s just the numbers that differ slightly. Like I wrote, rewards are very generous, they essentially feel the same though. There should be something special attached to tier 1, something that the other tiers don’t have. Sort of like the cheering crowd on completing the marathon, the carrot at the end of the stick.
I’m perfectly okay with reducing the rewards of the other tiers to make the overall payout the same, if “money” really is a concern. I don’t think gems or gem keys are a good way to go, they don’t fit the theme, just like treasure maps. An event key might be okay, except that it isn’t bound to the season. You’d be opening the event chest of an entirely different season, which somehow feels like an itch I can’t scratch. The event troop would actually fit in quite well, it’s a pretty unique reward. The shop deal tends to be 400 glory, along with a lot of other goodies, so the value of the troop alone shouldn’t be that high. I’m not sure if the tier rewards system is able to handle troops though.