To me, the current challenge rift is only useful for every starting season. After that, most people wouldn’t bother with it.
I wonder what is the reason behind it? I think maybe because you can’t use your character to play the Challenge Rift and the reward for completing is underwhelming as well. Maybe give a huge huge EXP after the first completion for Lv70 character just like SC2 Co-op Weekly Mutation did (200k+ EXP for the first completion where normal/2nd completion only give 40k+ EXP) and guaranteed random primal as well?
I think the idea of having CR has a fixed map layout and enemy composition for every week rift is a great idea but the downside is you can’t use your character to play it, so the motivation to play the CR is low.
So I wonder maybe we can tweak it so everyone can use their character to run the weekly CR? The developer can retain the current CR format where you must use the prepared class for you to clear, which is good for Seasonal player, and then add the new 4 difficulties format where you need to pick your character to clear it.
For example:
Now CR has 4 difficulties to choose. (GR75, GR100, GR125 and GR150) and now you need to choose your character to clear it. The EXP will be 5 times of the GR75 or GR100 or GR125 or GR150 upon completion and you can only get the bonus for one time. For example, if you completed GR75 and get the 5x GR75 EXP and the CR cache, the 2nd time you cleared GR100, you won’t get the EXP Bonus and the CR cache as well.
I know that GR150 is unattainable for most players, I just add it so that those hardcore players who have 6k~10k paragon above can clear it without playing at GR125.
I don’t mind if weekly CR has the mutator feature (for e.g. every monster move twice faster, every monster has double life, every monster will spawn broodling after death, every monster can slow you with their attack and etc) from SC2 Co-op but then considering how limited was the classic team’s resource, asking for a mutator feature for CR is just ridiculous and impossible.
Definitely no. I don’t want to play someones haphazardly thrown together build every week because the rewards are more efficient than playing the game itself.
As with the haphazard builds they use, Crifts were thrown out there in a hurried, haphazard manner. There was many great ideas on the old forum to improve them without them being game breaking, but apparently the Devs didn’t see the need to put a little time into making them better.
It only work for the first time you cleared the weekly CR. So I don’t see how it can be more efficient than playing the game itself. Waiting for every week CR certainly don’t feel efficient way of playing game.
Well, if I farm 100 legs an hour, it would take me 4 hours to maybe and I stress maybe get a primal or I could spend 5 mins doing a CR and get a primal, that seems like massively more efficient on top of huge huge exp (which you didn’t define, but makes me think several paragon levels).
The point is, pushing players into end game content solely because it has a huge loot/xp pinata is not good game design. Players should want to play the end game content because it is fun and has a reasonable reward.
As it stands right now, some players never do CR’s, a lot do it once a week for mats, a vast majority of seasonal players do it at the start of the season only, and a handful of masochists compete on those terrible builds for top score. Adding a huge loot pinata does nothing for Crifts other than shifting more players into the “do it once a week for pinata” category.
What challenge rifts really, truly needs is an overhaul to the entire system so players actually want to do them.
The entire point of the challenge rifts is the challenge to able to use someone else’s build effectively. Regardless whether they are good or bad builds. In fact if they would just be the same top builds, what would even be the point of them? I’m sure you are already using those builds copied from some site anyway.
At that point you’d only be chasing someone’s time, and not trying to beat their skill and execution of their build.
If people dislike CR I would argue it is because they lack the interest or skill to actually use a different build effectively. Its certainly not for people that dont enjoy leaving their comfort zone.
Personally I’ve enjoyed doing them for the challenge of seeing if I could achieve what that player could with their setup. Doing it with my own character and build would make the entire thing pointless since then it would only be stats based, and I wouldnt have to learn or adjust anything at all.
CR is fun concept in general, and I see it as once a week mission or task, it’s a play mode I enjoy revisit when I feel I burnt out of a season and try to beat records in CR leaderboard from time to time. (At least I assume there are no bots playing in CR and I compete most likey with humans.)
Speak for yourself. CR’s are one of the things that keeps me coming back every week during a season after I’ve done everything that I wanted. It’s not groundbreaking or anything, but its mildly fun to see what abomination of a build is being used on any given week.
I never said they had to use top meta builds. I said they need to use builds with some actual thought put into them. There are many builds out there that are well put together but can’t reach gr80. Wearing the same item and having that in the cube is not well thought out. Using skills that conflict each other is not well thought out. Having rubies on the chest and pants pieces of a dex based character is not well thought out.
Challenge rifts should showcase what diversity there is in the game and what the player base can come up, not show complete ignorance in putting together a build.
All the CR’s I have done (CR 1,2 and all the ones for the season start) really have not been that difficult. Walk the map once for elite/pylon location, then button mash to victory. I have literally done this on every CR and have completed on the first try. I think for playing different builds, it is less about going outside of players’ comfort zone than it is about playing a clunky, horrible thought out build that you will play one time then never think about again. If I want to do that, I don’t need a mode for it, I can just pick up 13 random pieces of gear, throw on 6 random skills and go for it.
And there is no problem with you enjoying it, but you are in a small minority. The concept of Crifts has so much potential, but until they actual put some thought into the design, the vast majority of the player base is either never going to do them, do them once a week for the bag, or do them once a season.
Here is how I would have implemented Challenge Rifts:
Build Acquisition:
Have a period where fans can submit their own original builds via a short 10 minute video.
Have an employee spend a week and find 3 or 4 somewhat fun builds per class.
Combine this with a few already known builds and some of those poorly designed builds the algorithm loves, now you have a years worth of builds.
Game play:
Players play a already determined static Gr map.
Players choose the GR level they want to run the CR. This allows players to actually push the build to its limits while allowing players that want to try out another build can put on a more easy mode.
Players play with the exact build submitted (items, skills, paragon, etc) to keep a level playing field.
Leader board is based on whoever does the highest GR the fastest.
Rewards:
Completing a CR grants the CR bag
Players who can finish with the build get an additional bag at GR50, 70, 90, 100, 110, etc. Fair reward for the effort, not a massive loot pinata to entice people.
Players who rank on the leader board get an additional reward, something like 1 bag for top 1000, 2 bags for top 500, 4 bags for top 100, 6 bags for top 50, 8 bags for top 10, 16 bags for the 1 spot.
That happened one week. A DH streamer’s run got picked, only 11 people were able to beat his time. I tried it once, and was already 20% behind the timer by the time I beat my first pack. It wasn’t fun.
Rewards vs Time spent is totally worth it for me. I at least try to complete them every week. Are they ideal? Nah, but 5 minutes a week…it’s a no brainer.
Level the playing field so that anyone could attempt to finish it faster than anyone else. And everyone has the same exact setup, so now its based on skill, not paragon, or gear, or map luck, etc.
Its literally a “how fast can you clear this rift with what is thrown at you” sort of thing.
Problem is, believe it or not, many players do not know how to make the most of a build. I have seen builds that at first glance made no sense but were actually put together thoughtfully, and I have seen some that were obviously snapshot during their “gearing up” phase of a season.
Some that were very easy to play and some that were extremely difficult to play.
But they all revolve around a central theme. Who can run that CR the fastest?
I think there was at least 1 that managed to stump 99.99 percent of the players and they couldn’t even beat the original time. I didn’t even bother with that one.
In truth I do them very rarely. There are builds I hate playing or playstyles I don’t like so I skip those. This week’s one should be doable for many. They are always easier if you group up with a friend or two.
But ultimately, its about how fast you can do it in. And you have an advantage the original runner didn’t. You can learn the map. So can everyone else.
Biggest problem for most of us I think is the rewards for doing them. You only get one, and only if you beat the original time. After that, other than getting on a leaderboard, what’s the incentive? That is where it really fails.