It’s been no secret that over the past year or so, with all the various character reworks and now a new beyond broken class, that we as players have exploded in power level. And with the likely eye turning to Zealot next (with Veteran likely getting a touch up whenever they go about releasing their new weapon they say they are going to give to them…eventually), and bringing everything full circle, it creates an issue where their perceived solution to the problem (havoc) is universally hated and despised due to the systems marring it’s ability to be played, but they actively try and shove people into it anyway by gutting Auric in terms of it’s difficulty and density, and forcing ‘rank resets’ every major update like that will somehow make things better.
To that end, many have stated how they languish when it comes to getting that ‘moderately difficult rush’ like what used to be present, as it actively doesn’t exist anymore unless you subject yourself to a system nobody asked for or wanted (Party Finder). But, I’m also not naive, and I realize doing high end havoc without a minor vetting process, especially these days, isn’t really something one can expect to just put behind a quick play playlist and have it be fun. It’s already practically unplayable due to the low population and players either playing it 4 stack or not at all, let alone adding quick play and constantly demoting as you get put in teams of people desperately trying to get carried in a game mode that actively does not allow anyone to slack off.
But, that being said, the early ranks of havoc are a joke, on account of them being based on lower difficulties and being an ‘introduction’ to the game mode as a whole. I get why they exist, but they also serve as a MASSIVE barrier for many players, as most high end players don’t want to waste their time grinding the lower ranks, while most low to mid-high players don’t want to ‘push to high’ and suddenly they are having to mega try hard instead of just playing a game mode with actually decent enemy density and toughness in relation to our power level. I’d say ‘nerf things so that auric is fun again’, but it’s very clear ‘everything is being balanced around Havoc’, and one only has to look at Ogryn/Arbitrator to see it.
So, while I’d like to say ‘remove demoting and allow havoc quickplay’, no part of me thinks that will ever occur, at least not within a reasonable time frame to make the game enjoyable again for, as the title describes, ‘the Casual High End Player’ (like myself, who was an Auric Andy since I got to the difficulty and now can only really get my kicks by personally gimping myself in Auric Mortis Trials by picking all bad boons and getting on ‘the good map’ to feel alive again). So, in loo of being able to expect that, I propose this instead, as I have played ‘mid level Havocs’ here and there and enjoyed them, and thus think that:
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Level’s 1-20 havoc become quick play capable, and you can quick play into them as soon as you hit Havoc rank 20. I’d also think shaving off Havoc Ranks 1-10 and just doing 10-30 in terms of difficulty would be nice (doing the maelstrom instead starting you at 6 instead of 16), but if I can specifically state ‘I want to quickplay/host a havoc 20’ I’d be ok without that happening too.
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Havoc Rank 20 becomes a ‘checkpoint’, you can’t lose ranks past 20 ever, and rank resets will only reset you back to 20 at the most (40 still drops to 30, 30 to 20, but that’s it). As stated I’d like to see demotion/this bs ‘player retention’ crap removed entirely from what is a PVE GAME!, but they’ve been doing nothing but doubling down, so I’d at least like to see it ‘better’/enable what I’m currently thinking, verses continue to make it unplayable by random teams at 20 an below still risking demotion.
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Matches done via ‘Havoc Quickplay’ have normal Auric rewards given to them, either just handed to you at the end (if you don’t want to turn back on material grabbing), or said material grabbing is turned back on. Either would be good to me.
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Havoc modifiers stay the same, but toughness/health and ammo reduction is removed from havoc 20 and below (even the minor amount it effects you at those ranks), and instead only starts to scale once you push up to 21 and above. This being instead a proper ‘turning point’ into the big leagues, verses being the ‘sandbox’ that ‘lets you get your feet wet’ with all the modifiers and general difficulty.
With ALL this, now suddenly us ‘previous Auric Andy’s’ without a home, have a home again. We get to have our rng rando quick play experience in a fun, hard, enemy rich environment (Havoc 20), while experimenting with builds and trying to see ‘what might be able to climb’ in a safe experiment capable environment with no worries of ‘getting it taken away from us’. Lower rank players can get occasional help from a quick play Andy and see what they are doing to try and emulate them (perhaps add the ability to see builds at the end of mission havoc screen), and maybe even find players more organically that would want to push into the higher ranks when a ‘good team flow’ happens to randomly occur (given the ‘squad up’ feature already exists in quick play). And the ‘super sweats’ can still push for 40, and sit in their glass house once they get their with their 2 toughness and 1 bullet per ammo pick up, getting annoyed when they get shoved out of it at the start of every season but it mainly being there so that people can be ‘converted’ to super sweats if they happen to get lucky and get into one of their teams along their early ‘season’ climb.
Now there’s an actual ‘on boarding process’, a clear distinction of ‘now is when it gets hard’, and everyone can have their ‘proper playgrounds’ again. The true casuals can play around in their damnations and Aurics and have a grand time feeling like they are ‘doing the fun but hard stuff’, the previous ‘Auric Andys’ can now live in their Quick play Havoc happy place, and the 1% high end sweats can push to 40 and have the difficulty all to themselves. Everyone wins, instead of the current system, where everyone but the toppest of top 1% loses… (since the casuals get frustrated at the Auric Andy’s ‘speedrunning Aurics’ since said players are just trying to feel alive again without having to deal with Party Finder, and said Auric Andy’s are still bored af and just want to ‘feel the rush again’ via a constant flow of enemies but don’t want to deal with the Havoc BS, so only the top 1% players actually feel happy, and only after they’ve hit 40 again every rotation).
