ANB leagues

[BardPitt]

Reading through the forums in the past couple of days I thought I'd give my 2 cents to the new events scheme.

First off. Over the past couple of years Ive turned from a hardcore player that used to spend days, months and years in D1/D2/PoE into a very casual player, who turns more often into mobile games rather than PC. Not by a choice, though. Im way too old to be spending my days by computer screen, playing video games. At the same time, I hate casual games. I hate pure pay to win. I hate when games are too easy and lack competition.

That said. Ive seen a lot of posts saying how pay to win the new event is. How little time people have to do things/ upgrade skills/ etc.
Ive started playing Eternium couple months back. I was super lucky that the day I installed the game, was the day ANB 2 started. Coming from Diablo/Path of exile games, I love season. I love starting fresh and I love the competition and hype that comes with new content. Shortly after the ANB 2 ended, the game became incredibly boring for me. Lets face it, the depth of Eternium isnt the best. The fact that you can't obtain the best gear in the game ( Celestial Items ) through a regular rift grind, doesnt help either. There really isnt much to do for player like me.

I've always thought, Id come back to the game, once there was a new season/event. Unfortunately the events didnt seem to be as common as I thought at that time. and so from checking the forums every day I went to checking every once in a while and then stopped completely. By a complete coincidence Ive came back to the game a couple of days back, 1 day after bronze league ANB started. I started the game and saw the rules, which made me a bit sad. I saw 12 hours and thought to myself that the only thing I like about this game are events, and I only have 12 hours to play them ? The sadness slowly turned into an excitement and later on into a pure joy. As soon as I realized that 12 hours is pure "In Trial" time, I knew Im in for a treat. Thats EXACTLY what I think, this game needed.

Dont get me wrong, any event is a win. But in the previous ANB I had a chance to join, I couldnt come anywhere close top the ladder, considering Ill find 1-3 hours a day to play. With a timer, same for everyone, this aint issue anymore. I found the 12 hour WAY enough to accomplish good things. I reached Trial 101, ended up in top 20 for BHs, easily upgraded all my skills to level 10 and finished all the reward quests available, with plenty of spare time.

This post might be much longer than necessary, but what I wanted to say is a massive THANK YOU to the devs for the way this game progresses. I cannot wait for silver/gold league to come and Im hoping and wishing that there are new events in store for us right after gold league ends. Its trully amazing, fun and fresh experience, you dont get often nowadays, especially on Mobile.

To the people crying about pay to win. I get it. Sometimes it may seem so with all these "free to play" games out there. On the other hand, I spent ~ 1400 gems this event, mostly just for xp boosters. All these gems came from my previous playing + 2x 100gems/day for 30 days subscribtions. Ive still got tons of gems left ready for the future events.
A friendly reminder, this game is free. People making this game, updating the game and keeping it fun and alive for us aren't. If everyone had the same mentality, this game would never exist.

Wish you all great day and see you in Silver league.

[Adrian (Developer)]

Thank you! Hearing this from an ex-hardcore D1/D2/Poe user means a lot to us.

[Un_known333]

The rules and parameters of any game is subject to change according to devs wants......play the game or dont.....dont critique and whine any time something doesnt suit your playstyle. I agree with your post this wasnt directed at you

[Terranisaur]

I loved the event as well. Honestly, I was skeptical at first but everything panned out nicely. I did a BH as well and finished around 125 but didn't spend hardly any gems besides the 400 for the extra skill upgrade slot. I was able to use the new crafting system to craft a few epic set pieces to complete my set earlier, as well as some enchantments, I felt the new crafting system worked well in the event. I feel the eternium devs really understand ARPG and this event reinforced that belief. I come from a hardcore ARPG background and my God having timed events like this is so amazing I've been wanting them for years. Think of how amazing D3 would be with timed seasons to get rid of botting and allow normal humans who don't have 12 hours a day to play to compete... Anyways, thanks eternium team!!!

[Buppy]

Few things:

First, customer feedback, including the negative, should be an important part of any business model. If everyone who was unsatisfied simply walked away without a word, the company would be left to guess why they were losing players. And I as a player do not want to give up a game I generally enjoy just because of one thing I disagree with, nor am I willing to just "shut up and take what they give me" without expressing myself. The criticism, at least what I've seen here, has been civil and constructive. No one should have any problem with that, least of all the devs themselves.

Second, take a look at the leaderboards for the last ANB. Not a whole lot different than the current. In fact, more mages hit TL90 this event than last (pending final results of course). Assuming everyone's being honest about their gem use and how high they ranked this event, what exactly was the problem before? Are we going to say Ephemeral jewelry is the difference, like it takes 70 hours of farming to make a decent set of jewelry? And if it is that big a deal, you could just as easily add Ephemerals in the previous ANB format.

Lastly, none of the rules nor reward structure are tied to the time-limit or P2W format. They could make a time-limited event that doesn't allow gem/money use at all. They could extend the leaderboards and/or increase the celestials given in the unlimited event. They could also alleviate many of the P2W concerns just by changing the rewards to something purely cosmetic or by assuring players that medal bonuses will be capped and that it will be possible to reach the cap without winning any events (it would just take longer to get there).

[Sanctum]

Few things:

First, customer feedback, including the negative, should be an important part of any business model. If everyone who was unsatisfied simply walked away without a word, the company would be left to guess why they were losing players. And I as a player do not want to give up a game I generally enjoy just because of one thing I disagree with, nor am I willing to just "shut up and take what they give me" without expressing myself. The criticism, at least what I've seen here, has been civil and constructive. No one should have any problem with that, least of all the devs themselves.

Second, take a look at the leaderboards for the last ANB. Not a whole lot different than the current. In fact, more mages hit TL90 this event than last (pending final results of course). Assuming everyone's being honest about their gem use and how high they ranked this event, what exactly was the problem before? Are we going to say Ephemeral jewelry is the difference, like it takes 70 hours of farming to make a decent set of jewelry? And if it is that big a deal, you could just as easily add Ephemerals in the previous ANB format.

Lastly, none of the rules nor reward structure are tied to the time-limit or P2W format. They could make a time-limited event that doesn't allow gem/money use at all. They could extend the leaderboards and/or increase the celestials given in the unlimited event. They could also alleviate many of the P2W concerns just by changing the rewards to something purely cosmetic or by assuring players that medal bonuses will be capped and that it will be possible to reach the cap without winning any events (it would just take longer to get there).

I like this idea of costumes being part of or replacing the current rewards for events, therefore making it less pay2win. It's boring with everyone looking the same, i.e. almost all mages are using the Apprentice set.

[Ozymandius]

Are we going to say Ephemeral jewelry is the difference, like it takes 70 hours of farming to make a decent set of jewelry?

No, I thought that the ephemeral jewelry was just another way for the Devs to level the playing field. Players still had to decide whether to use it for XP/Gold or damage stats, but it mostly took skills in jewelry crafting out of the mix. I doubt that just getting the ephemeral jewelry drops was enough to get you to TL90 though...

The ability to craft a specific set piece (and even to select the attributes that you want for that piece) is what made the difference in more players hitting TL90 than last time. Instead of waiting for a "lucky" drop, you could craft the exact piece you needed to complete a set. Plus, the time limit most likely made players think more carefully about their decisions than they otherwise would. I waited until the last day before finally giving up and crafting a legendary set piece with enough movement speed to push through the last few trials. This was the first ANB where I never got a full set of gear; I ended up having to push with 2 Jugg/2 Adv/2 Defender. Never made it to TL90 mostly due to not creating enough balance between damage and toughness for my warrior; a more experienced player would not have made the same mistake.

I agree that the only way to create a "perfectly" level playing field would be to put a cap on the total number of gems that a player could use in each event (whether they were stockpiled in advance or purchased during the event). Then no one could complain that another player had an unfair advantage or that the game had sold out to P2W. I think that if it weren't for the unknowns surrounding the new "medals" people would be more chill about how this first round turned out. Like you said, the leaderboards didn't really change all that much, because the top players have skills and found a way to work around the game's challenges. But the medals seem to have the potential to make this a game of haves vs. have nots, especially if the next round starts off by giving the top players a "head start" based on having better medals with more perks.

Hats off to the developers for continuing to experiment with ways to balance out the event play! For me, this was the most challenging ANB so far.