The Return of the Week in PvP, The MAC and more... a lot more! (07.16.17)

First off, gratz to GMAC for going Eternal! It is not an easy task to accomplish but you are consistently in the mix and one of the most humble legends of the game. My hats off to you bruh!

So another week in the books for PvP. I had a fun and at times, frustrating week. Played more this week for the daily Arena store rewards and been writing down some thoughts over the past few weeks since taking a bit of a break from the forum that I need to get out there.

So much in fact, that I had to break it down into sections. I ran into a bunch of you in the arena and even though I hate to lose, I enjoy the intelligence of the community in putting together defenses that kick my ass on a regular basis! A quick note as I post my stats for a good laugh, most of my losses were against Strike teams. My defense is my offense with the occasional swap (GR for VE, Wrath for Troll and sometimes AoF or WPS) against Prisoner, Warrior or Sentinel-heavy teams

No Strikes, Some Shell and Immunity... all chars used are maxed.

Rank: 64
Points: 3724
ATK: 81% (362/446)
DEF: 17% (66/384)

***PvP: Best Defense = Three Strikes Law***
This is something I thought would be interesting to keep track of. My continuous encounters with Strike talisman teams are the current bane of my LotB existence (I'll get to bugs in a minute). Strategy is a key part of the game and winners use what means they are given very wisely. Its no secret that Strike talismans are the new OP trend in PvP. If you have them, you're a fool not to use them. How does one defeat a team equipped with Strikes, without them? Blind luck. Literally, Blind talismans, bene fx removers and some luck. BTW, I have a set of Explosives that live on my Artillery Dog but they are not nearly as OP as people might think when going up against a team loaded with Strike talismans.

How one uses them is something I have begun to genuinely appreciate. Being in the higher tiers is sheer madness without them and makes me wonder what would be more interesting, auto-play or strike-dance. Now that most players have two or more chars equipped with Strikes, NF will eventually need to nerf them because the "35% chance" is obviously triggering at a higher-than-advertised rate.

Add that to the lowered chances of removing enemy bene effects from VE and Wrath (why not just keep both at 50%?) and three chars with Strikes giving defenses 105% chance of at least one char counterstriking per hit and the odds mount against you. At times, as I sit back and watch the dismantling of my team, I wonder if NF laughs when they tell us certain bugs (like reflected damage triggering Strikes) have been taken care of with the last update.

And after that long introduction to the most difficult team I've faced this week, I will say that quite a few went undefeated against me (5-0), but the matches were riddled with bugs and hiccups that I will address in a different section. I had many losses but my team has a "no-strike" handicap that is not easy to remedy.

Toughest DEF:
ovy - the use of Strikes and Invisibility talismans is actually quite masterful. A lot of thought went into building this team, (VE w/Energy, GPR w/Strikes & Invisibility, DM w/Strikes & Invisibility and Nomad w/Strikes) it went 8-1 against me. It should be noted that I went second in all matches except for my one win against, but was defeated 8 times regardless. My hats off. My mind, blown.

Which team gave you a hard time this week?

Who would be your go-to non-Strike talisman ATK team?

What are your thoughts on Strike talismans triggering rates?

***PvP: De-motivating Factors***
I have stepped into the arena with some of the best and I've had some awesome fights. It is one of the more enjoyable aspects of the game at the moment. Getting into an epic battle where you come from behind and pull the rabbit out of your hat, that last trick up your sleeve for the win... only to see the screen go black and the infinite spinning wheel that leads to that 3rd APMA3 of the evening... leading you to shout at your neighbors, "I had you beat you son of a bitch!", and witness the puzzled looks on their faces as they close the mini-blinds. (oh BTW, anyone who still throws tantrums and their phone at the wall, I have one suggestion... Otterbox.. lmao!)

Yes!! These are the spoils of war! If I wait a while, it just might count that 10 minute match! Metal gods unite! Wonder twin powers, deactivate! LMAO!

It seems like bugs never go away. While I don't want to turn this into a huge rant, it is something that really needs to be addressed. Been playing since last August and while it is one thing LotB has always excelled at, bugs aren't what we want to be great about LotB are they? (BTW, anyone notice that WUR lately? Something weird going on there...)

There are two major issues that frequently take the wind out of my sails, the first is bugs. I've stated before that they thrive in the arena. I think we all can agree on that statement. The other is the VP system! There is no greater de-motivating factor than the PvP victory point system. It's not p2p, it's p4p! Something needs to change with this system, as it is strange to feel that playing less is better... PvP, better the less you play? If you have a DEF team loaded with Strike, Immunity and Shell talismans.. HELL YES!!

#Punished4Playing2017

***There Can Only Be One??***
Is there a reason why we can't have more people going Eternal? Follow me on this one for a second..

This is a global game and Iron Maiden has one of the largest fan bases in the world, right? So I would like to see who the best player in Europe is! I want to know who lead Australia last week! Don't ask why, I just do. Only the top 250 in the world get rewarded even though millions have downloaded this game. There must be a way to break it down to regional ISP. Computers and satellites are pretty good at doing this kind of thing pretty fast these days, aren't they?

All I know for sure is that some of the best players and forum members have either taken a step back or completely walked away from the game recently due to a system that has grown stale and needs some re-inventing. Who said the arena would need to keep evolving so that things stay interesting? Maybe not in so many words but the gist of it is there. So here's an idea...

Why not have a PvP system where the best 250 from each country see similar rewards, one goes Eternal in each country (or region if that works better), with a tournament of the top 10-25 from each region of the world every so often to see who goes Immortal? Our own LotB World Series. The Immortal Cup lol. And for those who don't get the last reference, the NHL here in North America has a trophy named the Stanley Cup that has the names of the players on the winning team engraved on it every year, so why not add another tab to the Arena that lists players who go Immortal? An LotB Hall of Fame so to speak.

I'm not a programming-developer-type-person but I would think that this type of professional would really enjoy sinking their teeth into a project like that. Maybe someone can fill me in as to why this would be a nightmare for NF or any programmers in general to do. Seeing as the priority had better be on the long overdue BNW and Night City worlds, this may be a pipe dream at best but as it might actually take the same amount of time to release either as it will for an actual brave new world to exsist, where are NF's priorities at these days??

*******
As always, your experiences, thoughts, concerns or straight up complaints are welcome. The forum seems kinda quiet lately unless you're a spammer! LMAO! And if you made it this far, thanks for reading! See you all in the arena! For now, GoT time!

Cheers!

Nice post mjm! Believe me otterboxes are not indestructible!

WoW !! Well said

Nice having this thread again. Here are my stats:
Rank: 80
Points: 3643
Tier: Warlord II
Attack Wins: 90% (182/203)
Defense Wins: 17% (32/184)

The first time I legitimately reach the Top 100, so I'm quite happy about that. With only one refill too!
I managed to get my hands on Sentinel Harpy and GCR during the Anniversary event, and they've been a huge boon to my offense. They improved my usual win % by 6%, which is fairly major. My one set of Immunity Talismans also certainly helped out there. I finally managed to settle on a nice attacking team, but a good defense seems to elude me without Strikes and Shells.

Good post by the way, mjmxiii, I agree with pretty much everything.

good to see the thread again, thanks man

attack 203 (i belive, the screen is bugged as you all know)
defenses 185

just one thought:
the playerbase is not near as big as you might think. even if 1.000.000 downloaded the game i would be surprised if we are more than a couple thousand of players, who play regulary.
that's why you see the same names all over the top 50. so a division into seperate regions would lead to nowhere and the effort they would have to put into this won't pay back at all.
that said it'S definetly true that we need some change, this system only rewards playing on saturdays and that's stupid for all.

for them because buying refills before saturday is not a real option and for us because we are screwed if we are busy on saturday....

so something has to be changed, but with all the bug fixing which is needed and new content that should come out too i'm afraid we will have to wait for a long time for a better system...

Last week was probably the most unsatisfactory in a long time due mainly to plain bad luck, the worst possible. I can't count the time the strike talisman didn't proc during the whole match (even with two character with it and while under heavy fire from the enemy), frame rate dropping at the most crucial moment, server errors (well this issues is quite common among the community),begginning as second so many times (once 10 or 12 times in a row, always against SSD).
I noticed that generally defenses has become harder to crack, because of the events of the last weeks many player acquired key characters such as the nomad, SSD, GCR, AOW, the prisoner, and there has been a spreading of talisman set more fitting for PVP. My win rate dropped from 93-94% to around 80%, seeing all this improved teams I feel as I have been left behind.

Finally, congratulations to the winner.

Nice writeup mjm, and congratulations GMac.

I'll regret not pushing harder this week... My defense was a bit out of the box and seemed to rack points more from higher ranked players rather than lower (which is good). With 3 refills:

Rank 18
Display bugged on last week attacks, it was 90-95%
Defense 54/243 (22%)

Most noticeable defense I've seen was AoS, SSD, Prisoner and GRE. Nothing new? To you maybe, with the right talismans it was evil. I'm sorry I can't remember the name.

Here's where I was at last time I looked:

Rank: 159
Points: 2382
Tier: Warlord III
Attack: 90%
Defense: 16%

Well after finally managing to sort of catch up with some of you, I gotta say that it's pretty interesting trying to keep up with everyone. That said I'm trying not to go nuts on refills but after seeing how many points some of you have, it might need to happen. But then again I don't have any strike, explosive, or shell talismans so I have to figure out my own workarounds, but that's what makes this game fun for me. It's seeing an equation and working out an answer while I'm out there. For example, when I see someone with immunity or strike or even both, my solution is to use the Clairvoyant to take them away or the Corrupt General to stun them. Beelzebub is more of a juggernaut than most would think, that's why I equip him with Vampire And Energy talismans. That way he'll heal and take energy while stacking burns on the opponent. My idea of planning on going second is to make sure Clairvoyant stays alive, that way she can use her power to ressurect and protect my other allies. And I'm planning on giving her endure talismans once I have 3 of them. And between the 3 and Navigator Eddie, I cover a wide range of situations. Especially with Neddie's moveset. Btw I just now came up with calling him Neddie and it's hilarious.

Thanks mjm for reviving this thread.

My stats: Attack I think was around 87%, Defense 14% (27/191). Rank 208. Took Saturday afternoon off to have fun.

As for a notable defense there is none I can think of, unless you're referring to how similar they all look. It makes me wonder if that's the reason for the mcotd event. Perhaps she's getting a buff on that immunity proc. Every change they make to the PvP meta only seems to make things more of a garbage fest in my opinion.

As for the million plus downloads, remember that every update we have to re-download the game gets counted in that. Many of the players are casual players and quickly lose interest, so a lot that downloaded may not continue to play. I'm more of an rpg gamer, so not as enthusiastic about PvP as some are. I get that with the size of the development team that new content takes time, but if BNW is going to be similar to Lol I'm at a loss for why it would take forever to release it.

Issues I see with the game are numerous. Talismans that are only available to people that have been playing for over a year (or choose to pay-to-play), or who can compete and earn enough iron coins in the arena. I have counterstrike, immunity, shell and regen talismans so I'm not complaining for me about those. I have an extensive roster with nearly every rare toon, bar a couple of Eddie's and one or two that aren't worthwhile for PvP. My opinion is that the bar needs to be lowered for entry into the game and to compete fairly in the arena. Some might not agree with it as they feel their seniority should give them that huge advantage, but if you want more variety than that's what it takes. The current system punishes new players and if I was starting now instead of last December it would probably lose it's appeal rather quickly. As it stands, it's lost it's appeal for me a while back, I'm just an optimist and try to continue believing that the long overdue new content will arrive soon.

Sorry for the rant, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Congrats to GMAC, Carlos and Kamuz for top 3 last week. And, congrats to everyone who manages to continue to play despite the bugs, lack of new worlds, sudden unexplained lack of communication from the devs, etc.

Just gonna leave this here..

https://youtu.be/uB1D9wWxd2w