Source
r/duelyst•
SharpyShuffle

Does leveling up factions create an 'enthusiasm wall' for new players?

Discussion

As you might expect, my answer to this question is a firm yes, but I'm interested in what other people think, and if there's a reason for making the leveling process so slow beyond 'Hearthstone does it'.

I understand the logic: gating cards and generals allows players to get to grips with each faction's unique playstyle and mechanics in a gradual way without getting overwhelmed. Which made sense for the first faction, but now I'm trying to level up my second one and it already feels incredibly slow. I'm getting introduced to new cards every time I open an orb and I can handle that just fine. I really don't think this level of hand-holding is needed.

I mentioned hearthstone earlier and while leveling there was also annoying, it's better for two reasons. First of all, casual mode. I'm at the silver ranks so I don't particularly want to start tanking down playing a deck missing key cards. Secondly, the higher level of rng in hearthstone, both in draws (no replace) and in many cards means that even as an underdog with weaker cards, you still have a shot. Here I just feel like I'll be crushed if I play a substandard deck (relative to others at my rank).

This creates the 'enthusiasm wall' I mention: I really like this game but right at the point when it's captured my interest and I want to be throwing myself into it and really figuring it out, I'm grinding games against the AI which is no fun at all. I really think leveling could stand to be many times faster without new players becoming confused, and I don't see a downside to it. But maybe there's something I'm missing.

Posted Jul 27, 2016, 9:23 AM UTC

716
HighJusticeGrimMechawh0re•

You know you can't go down in rank past silver anymore right? You have no reason not to play ranked, because once you reach a new division, you can't lose your division.

8
SharpyShuffleOP•

Yeh for sure, but I'm currently about halfway through the silver ranks and I'd like to push for gold before the end of the season. But obviously if I'm levelling up new classes that would be much harder. If and when they reactivate the casual queue then it becomes less of an issue, but as it is it feels like I'm forced to either play AI games (dull) or lose chevrons (frustrating) if I want to level up all the factions.

1
SonofMakutaswing for 10•

I don't disagree with you - getting the third (etc) faction up to level 11 felt like a grind when I started as well. There is nothing wrong with playing on ladder instead, since you can't fall out of a division, but that doesn't level you up any more quickly.

Perhaps Counterplay could add an XP bonus for factions under level 10-11 for each faction you already have at that level? Duelyst is quite a difficult game, so a slow initial on-ramping seems like a good idea so you can get the hang of stuff like having to position units or how the replace mechanic works. Once you've done that, though, the rest of the faction unlocks are somewhat tedious, since you're partially just relearning the same stuff.

Would be really interested to hear what the devs thought about this. :)

3
GenkeiDrei•

Actually I leveled all the factions to 10 in 2 days of gameplay, it was fun testing all the factions out, however if there was an achievemnt for that, lets say gain a gauntlet ticket or an orb, the finishing line would have been more satisfying.

3
narnou•

Well, I don't really understand the problem to be honest... I installed the game two nights ago and already leveled up every factions but Vetruvian to unlock the basic cards. Didn't seemed especially long to me. I understand this can be felt long for more casuals players, but I'm not THAT crazy either so what about those guys spamming the game like hell ? You need to hold them down a little bit :p

I've also climbed to rank12 that way. You can do that on Hearthstone with subpart decks, but you'll need some game knowledge to compensate. And I don't consider myself already having Duelyst knowledge to be honest...

I actually feels it the other way : every TCG skill is magnified in Duelyst compared to hearthstone. Handling positions, value from cards, good trades and tempo seem to allow me to wreck casual opponents with ease, even when they have some crazy legendary drops I never saw yet :p I've got no doubt I'll soon be facing more experienced people that will give me the hit back :p But I feel it will be more about their skill than their cards collection.

2
Kawakaze_Scotch and Nova.•

Getting to 11 is fairly easy for everyone involved (provided they enjoy the game).

Getting to 40 on Lyonar for my prismatic Mystic Healers? Now that's a grind.

But then again, cosmetics and all.

2
HamandPotatoesProfessional Argeon Hater•

They're on Lyonar? NOOOOOOOO

1
Kawakaze_Scotch and Nova.•

I'm literally only missing them for a full prismatic deck.

And I don't like Lyonar, so it kinda sucks.

2
MrManager226•

Which prismatic neutral cards are with each faction? Is there a list?

1
Kawakaze_Scotch and Nova.•

Just search for prismatic in crafting, every ranked reward is put there.

2
AeronFaust•

So much hate on Lyonar. I'm going to Cryonar :(

1
Gil4•

While we're talking about faction levels, I'd like to note that getting lvl 50 on all factions would take quite a lot of time now. Imo, with lvl cap having been raised by 21 lvls (which's more than a 70% increase) the experience gained per battle should be a bit higher as well. Not that I cared about prismatics that much, but having most factions so "low-leveled" annoys me.

1
HamandPotatoesProfessional Argeon Hater•

The idea is that only dedicated players of a faction should be able to earn a prismatic general.

0
tundranocaps•

The real dedication will be that as you can't simply switch generals out of a list, you'll have to remake the entire list just for the prismatic general.

Kappa

2
DirtbagHippster•

Yeah, that initial grind is too tedious, although not too too tedious. I guess it could use some way to speed the levelling.

1
randomdragoon•

You can level factions up in Gauntlet mode and you're on an even playing ground with veterans over there.

1