The Problems plaguing this game
Can we talk about the state of this game? I have played since 2019 and this is honestly, a new low.
-> this is repost of a critique I previously made but I put more effort and thought into it.
- Game Crashing:
The game crashes in both ladder and ranked, which is extremely frustrating and completely ruins the player experience. It is not "fun" to spend your time simply getting kicked... rejoining... kicked and so on. A billion dollar company can not fix their own servers?
I haven't experienced it as frequently as before, but the fact such issues were allowed or not addressed quickly still is concerning.
2. Ranked:
The "competitive game mode" is completely uncompetitive in my opinion right now. The meta is really low-skill (Najia, Brock, Meg, 8bit, Crow, Damian) and quite toxic honestly. Many brawlers often feel overtuned to encourage people to spend money on these new buffies (I have played none of the new buffies btw) and those who refuse can't stop them from being picked due to a lack of bans.
-> if official matches like Brawl Cup, World Finals have global bans, why shouldn't we consider reworking the draft phase of normal ranked?
-> another point worth mentioning is adding some way of communication in the draft and match phase, something very useful in solo queue.
Furthermore, this is a more localised issue but I live in Australia where there are no servers above L2 most of the time which is ridiculous. I am forced onto Japanese servers with delay and get teamed up with some of the most egotistical randoms I have ever seen. Especially so in the last 2 seasons. Masters honestly feels impossible and I am really demotivated to push, as ranked does mentally tire me.
Elo-related:
Moving back onto broader problems, there is also some elo inflation. Too many people are reaching l1 (or higher ranks in general) honestly, it just feeds into the idea of having "bad randoms," holding you back. This isn't a big issue but would be nice if it was addressed.
Furthermore, I also feel that elo losses are far too harsh especially when you are not at fault. Sometimes, one or both of your teammates may sell and end up with pretty abysmal stats. It's completely unfair for you to lose more or an equal amount as the expectation of "carrying" in some instances is completely infeasible.
Continued complaint of the meta:
Let us take a look at some of the "meta" brawlers of this season.
-> Meg: A completely braindead brawler in that, her main attack and super are both very simplistic; being very easy to hit once in range.
-> Starr Nova: Likely not a problem unless above Legendary 1 as I rarely see her below that elo range. However, has a ranged attack classified as "melee" which prevents any counter play once in range (auto-aim works at MID-RANGE), unload speed on super form is way too fast.
-> Surge: No punishment for wasting super/utility in that sense which really means there is no risk of dying in most respawning modes. Gadget buffy allows him to run up and simply kill the enemy in many instances, furthermore the fact it's 11s CD if you trigger the shield is completely ridiculous (essentially it gives you double the util. at no "cost")
-> Max: Same premise with the gadget buffy. Provides too much utility by allowing a double dash in a ~5 second window.
Just from these 4 examples, you can see the recurring pattern of "Low Skill"* brawlers standing at the top of the meta; which is stupid because now the system doesn't reward mechanical skill/game knowledge but just whoever that pays. This fact really frustrates me because I'm L3 (and 1200 hrs on this game) trying to seek a competitive experience but rather instead get a rather unfun experience where it often feels skill is not a requirement to win.
*You can totally have a different opinion on my definition of "no/low skill" but it would be blind to not see how to some extent this is correct.
3. Ladder:
I have 92k trophies so I might be able to put some perspective on this as well.
Ladder is kind of relaxing compared to ranked, but prestiges are bad because they lock you out of playing your favorite brawlers (because those are the ones you'll push to p2 or higher) due to the fact you can't lose trophies once reaching that 1k, 2k etc. milestone. Higher trophies on a brawler means there is no moment of just "having fun" as you get matched up with more difficult opponents AND sometimes means matchmaking is very slow.
Furthermore, the prestige system devalues trophies as a whole due to how easy (or unpunishing) gains and losses are up to p2. Therefore 100k is no longer a "flex" but just a nice thing to have. Also, the gap between p2 and p3 is ridiculously exponential when comparing jumps from other trophy ranges as reaching p2 is far, FAR easier than reaching p3. This creates a weird situation where almost anyone can get p2 (so it's not valued) whilst very few can get p3.
However, despite the difficulty of p3 it still has problems (which I am not experienced with as I only push p2s) but generally it is often:
- Boring (infer from the fact you gain 4 trophies above 2800)
- Long MM time especially above p3
- Doesn't reflect actual skill
My third point is best explained by the fact people can win trade in SD or in other GM (not sure but probably possible) to get p3s which devalues p3 as well when it is claimed to be the next "rank 35" or harder than it by the devs.
P3 also stands as the strongest argument against prestiges where playing that brawler in ladder is often too difficult or annoying to do. You could argue all of these MM time related problems could be solved by playing Ranked, but it's not an experience like ladder because no one e.g. will play Shade on Shooting Star even if they have him at P3. It's just a sell pick. Forcing matchups is generally ill-advised either way.
You can compare this graph to my argument where too much effort (not skill) is required for too little reward.
4. New content:
Let us talk about the new content.
New Brawlers:
-> Nori: A great example of power creep (inevitable), having a mobility far greater than his parents and being broken too.
A lot of a brawler's kit comes down to the merging or the reduction of original traits e.g. being able to fly over water, invisibility which I think is concerning in relation to the longevity of this game.
It also does affect competitive play as some brawlers have no real hard counter or they simply gain too much value without any risk. This can be applied to buffies as well since many of these additional kits having stuff like shields (Max, Emz, Mortis, Shelly) etc. which does get boring or "unfun" (especially the concept of invincibility) rather quickly.
Furthermore, this might be a bit of a stretch however, it sometimes feels as if we have returned to the HC meta where many purple buttons like:
-> Surge
-> Damian (super in general)
-> Max (to some extent, through its sheer support value)
-> Meg
just have team wipe potential and it's not like this is a small issue necessarily as these brawlers are very likely to be picked.
Hopefully you guys can take something of value from this post :)
u/Extra_Presence_9588 — 1 month ago
The state of this game
Can we talk about the state of this game. I have played since 2019 and this is honestly, a new low. (I would say this is both a rant and feedback post)
- Game Crashing:
The game crashes in both ladder and ranked, which is extremely frustrating and completely ruins the player experience. It is not "fun" to spend your time simply getting kicked... rejoining... kicked and so on. A billion dollar company can not fix their own servers?
- Ranked:
The "competitive game mode" is completely uncompetitive in my opinion right now. The meta is really low-skill (Najia, Brock, Meg, 8bit, Crow, Damian) and quite toxic honestly. Many brawlers often feel overtuned to encourage people to spend money on these new buffies (I have bought none of the new ones btw) and those who refuse can't stop them from being picked due to a lack of bans.
-> if official matches like Brawl Cup, World Finals have global bans, why shouldn't we consider reworking the draft phase of normal ranked?
-> another point worth mentioning is adding some way of communication in the draft and match phase, something very useful in solo queue.
Furthermore, this is a more localised issue but I live in Australia where there are no servers above L2 most of the time which is ridiculous. I am forced onto Japanese servers with delay and get teamed up with some of the most egotistical randoms I have ever seen. Especially so in the last 2 seasons. Masters honestly feels impossible and I am really demotivated to push, as ranked does mentally tire me.
Moving back onto broader problems, there is also some elo inflation. Too many people are reaching l1 (or higher ranks in general) honestly, it just feeds into the idea of having "bad randoms," holding you back. This isn't a big issue but would be nice if it was addressed.
Speaking of elo, I also feel that elo losses are far too harsh especially when you are not at fault. Sometimes, one or both of your teammates may sell and end up with pretty abysmal stats. It's completely unfair for you to lose more or an equal amount as the expectation of "carrying" in some instances is completely infeasible.
- Ladder:
I have 91k trophies so I might be able to put some perspective on this as well.
Ladder is kind of relaxing compared to ranked, but prestiges are bad because they lock you out of playing your favorite brawlers (because those are the ones you'll push to p2 or higher) due to the fact you can't lose trophies once reaching that 1k, 2k etc. milestone. Higher trophies on a brawler means there is no moment of just "having fun" as you get matched up with more difficult opponents AND sometimes means matchmaking is very slow.
Furthermore, the prestige system devalues trophies as a whole due to how easy (or unpunishing) gains and losses are up to p2. Therefore 100k is no longer a "flex" but just a nice thing to have. Also, the gap between p2 and p3 is ridiculously exponential when comparing jumps from other trophy ranges as reaching p2 is far, FAR easier than reaching p3. This creates a weird situation where almost anyone can get p2 (so it's not valued) whilst very few can get p3.
However, despite the difficulty of p3 it still has problems (which I am not experienced with as I only push p2s) but generally it is often:
- Boring (infer from the fact you gain 4 trophies above 2800)
- Long MM time especially above p3
- Doesn't reflect actual skill
My third point is best explained by the fact people can win trade in SD or in other GM (not sure but probably possible) to get p3s which devalues p3 as well when it is claimed to be the next "rank 35" or harder than it by the devs.
P3 also stands as the strongest argument against prestiges where playing that brawler in ladder is often too difficult or annoying to do. You could argue all of these MM time related problems could be solved by playing Ranked, but it's not an experience like ladder because no one e.g. will play Shade on Shooting Star even if they have him at P3. It's just a sell pick. Forcing matchups is generally ill-advised either way.
u/Extra_Presence_9588 — 1 month ago
How do I hit Masters
This is my first season on hitting legendary 3 and peaked at 7.9k elo, but I'm struggling to push further due to many reasons:
Skill issue (sometimes I am the bad random)
Teammates (Berry first pick on Hot Potato)
Delay. I'm in Australia and I only have time to push in the afternoon and evening realistically. However, I always face Japanese/Koreans/Chinese etc., just people in SEA and Asia region, and consistently get 1/2second to 1 second of delay. If not, it's noticeable. This literally prevents me from playing any of my assassins (Kenji, Mortis, Edgar, Shade, brawlers that are mostly reliant on ping) and makes me play worse on any multishot brawler like Leon and Colt.
The delay is the biggest issue imo, I feel so limited in my picks and feel like I am getting ping diffed in many games. There is nothing more frustrating than losing a game you should've won simply because you can't pick a ping based brawler to counter their comp or because you're playing on ping, especially when I think most of the SEA playerbase aren't even that good in my lobbies atleast. Any advice?
u/Extra_Presence_9588 — 3 months ago