Bored into submission?

[Ezz]

Current PVP meta needs some work. This week I have had 3 or 4 matches where I actually force quit in the middle of the match because it was boring as hell and taking forever. I could have won the matches mind you, but I did not feel like grinding it out for 10 minutes.
I’ve now identified the teams to avoid so I don’t have to deal with it. But I have to ask was this NF’s intention? I know they wanted diversity, and wanted defenses to have better chances but jeez - boring an offense to the point of quitting is not what I consider a fun game.
Not going to specifically call out the teams that are at fault but let’s just say ithey typically include a certain mustachio with counter strike and a few yellow characters with him.

[Yup]

PvP is ALL boring to me.

There's little diversity. I mean everyone knows the good character to use and it's all a game of talisman swapping and who has more skill shards. There's no strategy or skill to any of it. And I STRONGLY suspect an algorithm determines the winner of every match as soon as the Battle button is clicked.

Problem is... where's Night City and the Secret Planet????

[Ip4]

i always stop playing on start pvp,they really need to focus on story or this game will lost all players...

[Ian]

PvP is ALL boring to me.
There's no strategy or skill to any of it. And I STRONGLY suspect an algorithm determines the winner of every match as soon as the Battle button is clicked.

No. You just need to get better. It's perfectly possible for a middling player like me to achieve 96%+ win rates without varying my team much, if at all. There is definitely strategy for this, and thus skill. Luck is involved but apart from the times nothing at all goes your way, it's very much down to the player vs a weak AI

[Yup]

Ian, I hold my own in PVP. That doesn't make it "strategy" there is none. Look at the top teams.. al a mix of the same 10-15 characters. There's a reason for that.

Most skill shards, best toons, best talismans.. most time to play or most ability to refill SOW..... that's all there really is to it. If you think it's more than that, you've been fooled.

Why I think the AI picks a winner at the click of the Battle button.. I can lose to teams I should never feasibly lose to... and I can win against teams I should never be able to beat... The Ai picks the winner, gives that team a "bump" and there you have it.

Truth of the matter is, the actual "battle" doesn't even need to take place. It could just be a button that you tap... it rolls "fake" dice and tells you who won. Same thing without the 8 minutes of bullshit that amounts to nothing.

it's like baseball.. the team with the most resources will always win. There's no mystery or strategy to it.

[Ezz]

it's like baseball.. the team with the most resources will always win. There's no mystery or strategy to it.

Now hold on a second, did my mediocre payroll Houston Astros not just beat the highest payroll in baseball $230M LA Dodgers in the World Series? 😉

[Amarthir]

This week has erased all ideas in my mind that battles are determined by dice rolls or anything like that. After 303 battles this week staying mostly in the Warlord division, I've only lost 3 fights and reasons being from
A: Desert Marauder
B: Prisoner
C: Warrior Newborn of Light

Every month the top characters change a little bit, from either one or two characters to an entire difference. Before the Valkyries, it was SSD, Wrath and WUR. After the Valkyries, the Prisoner became useful again, and now that thorn/cyclone Talismans were buffed, that brought DM into use. And next month, I'm sure someone else will take the spotlight. But no matter who it is, it doesn't change the fact that Vampire Hunter Eddie is almost always up front. If not him, than it's Pharaoh Eddie, Navigator, Aces High, etc. Out of around 25 Eddie's, only 3 or 4 of them are really seen in the top ranks. And 1 is capable of outclassing all the others. That doesn't mean VHE needs to be taken down, it means the others need to be just, better. Aces High was a good start. Fear of the Dark was also decent, Rainmaker was kind of meh, but what's next after that?

Edward the Great aka Monarch Eddie, assuming that will be his name, will he be able to do what Hallowed Eddie couldn't and what Trooper Eddie almost can?

[Yup]

Now hold on a second, did my mediocre payroll Houston Astros not just beat the highest payroll in baseball $230M LA Dodgers in the World Series? ��

Even a blind squirrel will find a nut every now and then.... ask the Cubs.

My point is players are not "winning" anything or strategizing in ANY way. They are just feeding numbers into an algorithm.. that's all. Discovering what characters feed the correct numbers in... is a guessing game, not strategy. Everyone has access to most of the same characters (except VHE it seems). So, really... if all the cards are the same... there's no game to play. Imagine playing video Black Jack with only Aces and Face cards and you MUST take 3 cards.. sure that's 15 different cards......but really, how "diverse" is that? You'll either win or bust, that's all.

[Amarthir]

My point is players are not "winning" anything or strategizing in ANY way. They are just feeding numbers into an algorithm.. that's all. Discovering what characters feed the correct numbers in... is a guessing game, not strategy.

No you're right, all you need in order to win is these few specific characters. That defeats the idea of diversity, because if you have these certain characters, you're automatically eligible for top ranking. I've seen players who's player rank is 30 or lower, and they're residing in the top 50. I mean, I want to take a Hellhound, or a Pyro Soldier and I want to be able to use all the different kinds of characters instead of being forced to use certain characters in order to win. I mean, even the newly introduced characters are forgotten about, a week after they're introduced, just because they don't come with the right moveset or the right passive. I've never said "oh no it's a Pharaoh Dog I have to plan around him" it's always "oh good a Pharaoh Dog, that means I don't have to even try".

[Yup]

I took my defense stat from a steady 15% to now a steady 24% just by swapping a couple characters. That's not strategy, that's just a better guess.

Sorry, I just find it hilarious that some players actually treat PvP as if they have some "special training camp" or "ringer" character, as if it were athletics or something. It's not. Stock up on skill shards for a specific set of characters, and max out their talismans and that's all you really need. And just forget about making top 50 until you have VHE.