Stage 3 hunting is a frustrating experience after the latest balance changes

[fringe prawn]

Please give us back the extra illuvial slots for the drone. 8 illuvials gives you really limited options for a team selection for stage 3 runs. This, coupled with the fewer sightings of rare illuvials and the doubling of encounter cost makes the overall experience a lot more frustrating.

It's OK to see rare illuvials fewer times, but now even if you shoot it, you often have to give up the fight after you scan because there is no way to beat the encounter. It does not matter which 8 illuvials I put in my team if I'm up against 10, 7 of which are stage 3s. (just happened) And if they happen to counter my team (if I want any kind of synergy I can at maximum select 2 affinities for my team), they don't even need to be that strong to decimate me.

(EDIT) It must have been a bad stretch when I wrote this so I take back my comments about the encounter strength. I would still like to have the larger roster back for training and variety. Not to mention the crafting for those drone chips.

There is also no strategy involved now, you just cram the same 7-8 illuvials on the board and hope you can beat the other team.

[stark nova]

Do u use the rare consumables?

[fringe prawn]

yes, not always rares cause now I have a bunch of weaker ones from ore farming

[gaunt robin]

It would be nice to have 12 Illuvials in each fight. I think 10 illuvials is still a small number for planing a battle.

The idea would be to have 4 initials, and the drone improvement that allow 8 illivuals more.

[tame raven]

I partially agree, feeling like the encouter cost is punished a lot when you try to mining and want to battle 2 or 3 times just to get a rarer illuvial, but i tend to disagree on the part that encounters are difficult, i actually think that encounter are way too easy and need a buff.

[gaunt robin]

I think the difficult is not the most important. It is boring. All battles are the same. You put the same 8 Illuvials and nothing change, there is not strategy.

[fringe prawn]

Stage 3 encounters are way too easy for you? You must have had a good run, it won't last forever. There is no variety with 8 illuvials and when your fire team keeps running into earth/mud on every map there is not much you can do.

[tame raven]

I have made some encounters on stage 3, but i don't remeber losing any of them miserable. I know there are some encounters with mods that are really hard, but you can't always make them possible with good position and consumables. I think the real problem is the balance of risk/rewards. There is no incetives to take more risk to get better illuvials and the overall feeling is that you're just waiting for the RNG to be good on a specific run.

[late robin]

Tbh i didnt play OW in the new patch but i see @tame raven comment about still being too easy. I saw that they nerfed encounters but you seem to say that illuvials are stronger?

How did you perform with your team prior to this patch @fringe prawn ? Do you think predefined setups would help compensante the fact that we can now only have 8 illuvials? Like if you go in crimson you take your first setup with some water and in bassin you play nature, etc

[fringe prawn]

Stage 1 and 2 are very easy, I agree, probably too easy. On stage 3, the encounter mods have been nerfed but it was balanced by you facing more/stronger units. However, you have way less options than before and will run into unfavorable affinity match-ups more often and you don't have the options to adjust like you did with more units.

Dunno, maybe it was just me running into a bad stretch, I will give it more time. But the 3 changes (less units, double cost, lower spawn rate) together made the overall experience significantly worse, imo.

And there is one more aspect of this when it comes to leveling up illuvials. With the bigger team, you had room to include 3-4 newer illuvials to train up. On easier match-ups you could put them on the board and give them flintcap. Now with only 8 slots, you have to choose between training or winning (on stage 3 runs). With the new spawn rates, we will see less higher stage illuvials so training and fusion becomes even more important. But if you are forced to train on stage 2 maps (or risk losing even more encounters with a training team on stage 3), it will take even longer to fuse stage 3 illuvials.

[trail turtle]

if the hunting is too easy ,you won't get entertainment, the game will be boring very fast

[tropic cloak]

In my opinion, stage 3 encounters are quite balanced, tough enough so you need to assemble a strong team of affinities and classes, so you win around 80-90%, with the option to win 100% using a couple plants.

[fringe prawn]

I didn't ask for easier hunting, I asked to bring back the strategy involved in hunting. If all you can do is putting the same 7-8 illuvials on the board, regardless of the team you are facing, that is what makes it boring very fast.

[fringe prawn]

You are not winning 100% using a couple of plants. You just didn't run into tougher match-ups if you think so. Not with 8 illuvial teams.

[left locust]

that's why the level of your illuvials play a role. for that hard matches. The game is made for you to go from stage 0 to stage 3. If you skip the gameplay to stage 3 immediatly, you will going to suffer

[calm sable]

i feel the same. Can't capture any tier3 ivl anymore. Only started playing a week ago so I don't have many options to use in the encounter. Makes a huge difference for new players the extra slot

[bitter nimbus]

If the opposition can put up 10 only seems fair to have 10 on your side

[fringe prawn]

And why do you think I jumped into stage 3 immediately? I'm going in with lvl 30-40 illuvials that I fused, also barely lost any matches during the previous phase. I'm not saying it's unplayable as it is, but it is a lot less enjoyable compared to the previous balance. Or do you prefer the 8 slots compared to 12-14?

[fringe prawn]

If you only started playing a week ago, then perhaps you need more playtime to level up your illuvials.

[tropic cloak]

I have run into at least 50 fights and have not lost since the new patch 🙂 u just have to create a solid team and position well. Add a couple gumbo drops then u are good

[calm sable]

what build do you usually go with?