JustVisiting

The additional levels certainly make the PoA Bonus Path a lot more appealing, and I'd suggest worthwhile in terms of Koban investment compared to other events from a purely 'number of girls received' perspective. From what I can see you get: - 4 legendary 3 stars from the Path - 9 6 sphere Mythic (~2 girls, which you can be patient and choose your level of, most likely 3 stars) - 2 10 sphere Epics (2 girls legendary/epic most likely 3 stars) - 2 Epic Draft (2 girls legendary/epic most likely 3 stars) - 46 Epic spheres (~2 girls legendary/epic most likely 3 stars) So 12 girls total. You'll have spent most of the resources you gained getting through the PoA, but you'll still have the Pachinko spheres to stash for the next Pachinko competition (1336220pts) to help recoup some Kobans (though that's unlikely to be enough by itself). There are few events that will allow you to pick up girls at a price of 100 Kobans in my experience. However, the problem with this event is that effectively all of the girls are going to be 3 star. You might be able to pick up a 5 star or two with the Mythic 6 spheres if you're very patient (I haven't seen any 5 stars on Epic, I have picked up a few from Mythic and the 3 girls/rotation makes it easy to get them when they do come up), but other than that you are effectively guaranteed to only get 3 star girls. And for the purposes of the new battle system, 3 star girls are effectively dross. Yes, most weeks there is a 3 star amongst the top girls due to a double Blessing, but each girl getting double blessed will be a rarity, whereas 5 star girls end up in the top 20 regularly and 6 star girls are almost inevitably in the top 20. When I've got the choice of getting 12 girls that I'll hardly ever use or keeping the Koban and getting nearly half of a Mythic, which will be used most weeks, the choice is clear. It is even clearer when you can get ~5-6 of those girls without the Bonus Path (meaning that the extra 6-7 really cost closer to 200 Koban each). If they started offering some 5 star girls in the mix - doesn't have to be legendary, it could be new rare or epic girls - this event would become hard to pass up, but without that it seems to me that the better option is banking the Koban for Mythic consumption.

Good point, well made. But it still means that any time a position comes up as a Blessing, it is going to favour historic class players for that position. I say this based on my own playing style. I was KH. I prioritised collecting the best 5 star Legendary KH girls. Each time there was a small improvement in any of the 3 attributes I would pick that up to allow me to switch in and out the team to be strongest against the class I was facing. So I have a very healthy stock of KH 5 star Legendaries. I cannot say the same for the other classes. I assume other players have done similar for their own classes. You're absolutely right that it wouldn't make sense to collect only your own class of girl most of the time - there is no benefit - but for the strongest non-Mythic girls, the 5 star Legendaries, and players who were not at the stage of having 3+ Mythics the same selection bias will still apply (if they were trying to optimise). If I had been a Charm player I likely would have most of the 4 of the top 7 naturally. So the core point is that for the lower leagues, I would still suspect that players will be able to form stronger teams when one of their historic class positions is Blessed. This becomes less relevant as time passes as the incentive to focus on collecting 5 star Legendaries of your own class is now gone.

FAO Nutaku players (I couldn't see an equivalent thread for Nutaku) - Snake Charmer Mordona is available in Mythic pachinko for the next couple of hours. She disappears with the change in Blessings that happens at the same time, making her the 8th best girl for your team for the next week. I picked her up for a free spin plus 8 spheres, two of which I recover for getting an extra 50k points in the Legendary Contest today

Another thought on the new battle system - just how random are the Blessings? I'm not suggesting that they are not using the RNG when selecting (I thnk they are, but whether consciously or unconsciously, when selecting attributes for the girls historically certain classes of girls seem to have been favoured for certain attributes. Take the Blessings that will come into play in a few hours time on the Nutaku server: The Blessings are Nose Dive and Zodiac Libra. The only unblessed girls are the Mythics, so we can ignore them. Out of the top 25 (17 discounting the unblessed Mythics), 15 out of 17 girls are of the Charm class. Of those 15 girls, all 15 have the Nose Dive position and 5 are also Libra (meaning that none are Libra alone). Of the 2 who are not Charm, both are Libra, not Nose Dive. To me it seems unlikely that, with such a high grouping in the Blessed girls of Charm/Nose Dive, that this occurred randomly. It seems like the developers historically favoured the Nose Dive position for Charm girls. That would naturally favour players that previously were Charm players. At least at lower levels where they still felt it important to pick-up every Charm 5 star Legendary (i.e. before Mythics started to dominate the leagues). I wonder what other class related biases exist within the dataset?

Hey @DvDivXXX, I'm curious as to whether your fantastic result in D3 this week - DvDivXXX's first Top 4 Finish! - has changed your opinion on the new league structure any? Do you feel that this result was simply a result of their being greater RNG variance introduced, or did you find more opportunities against poorly chosen teams or unboosted players? Could you field a stronger team than average within your league grouping? Huge congratulations! That's a very impressive result given the level disadvantage you face

My first point would be this - there hasn't been any change here. The dynamic of looking for unboosted players to beat still exists. If you're saying that unboosted players are no longer as vulnerable, I haven't noticed that dynamic myself, but that's perhaps my view is being distored by being in a lower, less competitive league, or other factors. There are a couple of points to make here. Firstly, I did say in my first post, admittedly in a more round about way, that picking and choosing the weeks where you feel you can be competitive was likely required. If you felt that under the previous system you were always competitive, then yes, this is not going to be an improvement. But take the example of the top teams on the Nutaku server this week and next: This week I'd consider it a waste of time to compete because there's no possiblity that I could compose an optimum team (the Blessings were rubbish and it resulted in 7 Mythics being optimal). Next week however, despite being significantly younger than yourself or many other players, I could field a very competitive team. Random chance has left me with enough of the top girls to feel competitive. So I didn't intend to suggest that the new system was going to give a better chance every week, just some weeks. Secondly - and this may be a false assumption on my part - I am assuming that the current 3/13/15/25 system will be gone soon. It seems like an obvious unintended result of the new system and it seems likely to me that it will get changed to utilise the range of points available in the nearish future. So yes, as long as you're of a lower level and going to default to 15s rather than 20s while higher levels are more likely to default to 25s rather than 20s that is going to make things a LOT tougher. If this mechanic doesn't change as I expect that likely ends the discussion. Finally - I do think that if you are going to play a 'freemium' competitive game of this nature, you have to accept that the developers are going to look to build in advantages for p2p players. That's the nature of the economic model. For myself, this model doesn't work at all - any enjoyment I take from playing is in overcoming a challenge, via hard work and strategy. I would take no gratification from 'buying' a win and any spend would diminish the experience for me. I'm not adverse to supporting the developers - a donation option I'd likely use. But the moment you tied spend to in game advantage, it'd take away from the 'fun' part of the game for me. The nature of this model means that there are always going to be players who simply buy everything and yes, it's going to be very tough to compete with them if you don't spend. That is the core mechanic of a freemium game - allow the player to work really hard and have to wait to gain rewards, while offering a short cut to the rewards behind a pay gate. This imbalance is a natural aspect of this type of game. Personally I might prefer things to be different, but if I was that bothered by it I'd choose a different game model. That said, I have also waxed lyrical in the past regarding the fine line that KK have to walk here. If they provide p2p players too large an advantage and reduce the entertainment for f2p they could end-up with a declining player base and a game that's less fun for their p2p players. Level 321 and D1 playing since tail end of 2020. I mentioned potentially distoring factors above - I moved into D1 in the first week on the new system. Being in a new league at the start of this removed the baseline I would previously have had to compare the systems. I wasn't sure what the step-up in difficultly was going to be. The first week was very tough but I still managed to get to #16, which was my target. In subsequent weeks I've realised that the first week wasn't naturally that tough but a consequence of the bug exploit that happened at the time. I tend to consistently be in the bottom 10% of players by level, but can consistently achieve at or a few points from #16 (artifical constraint of not being willing to go over this position). When I make it around the bottom 20-25% I tend to go for advancement and have comfortably managed a top 4 finish at these points. I am/was KH as well. You have a lot more experience than me and I've no doubt that time may teach some painful lessons, so while I do still broadly think that the above is accurate, I do accept that reality could end up being a harsh wake-up call Agreed, but my point was that unless they have all the girls there are opportunities just through the RNG and what girl pops-up for you in Pachinko. I would also point out that over time there is a boundary on this particular differential. I save Koban aggressively, rarely spending anything. But my average girl collection rate/month still appears to exceed the release of new girls (as opposed to reissues). If that trend was to continue it is a slower road for a f2p player, but ultimately they will catch-up to the vet/whale in terms of number of girls, trending to the same boundary ultimately. Likewise with levels - as each level requires greater amounts of experience, lower level players should naturally advance quicker. So for a level 450 player, if you're optimising your experience gain, you should still be 'catching-up' to a level 490 player, even if it is slowly. Thanks for the responses chaps! They make for interesting reading

Agreed, but this assumes that they have EVERY girl allowing them to field the strongest line-up from the non-Mythics (admittedly, many of them do). Otherwise, getting a little luck and having the right girls provides the challenger an advantage. The old system basically allowed the vets to lock in the top strength with 3xMythics of their class. With that and their level advantage they were effectively untouchable every week. With this system, while level still provides a significant and effectively unassailable advantage, there are going to be weeks where the Mythics aren't the dominating force. Therefore there will be some weeks where players who don't have all the Mythics have more of a chance than they had before, even sometimes to play on a level footing. It's not addressed all of the imbalances in the system, but I would suggest it is actually an improvement over the previous system and I certainly don't think that you now have to have 7 Mythics to compete.

This may not be the intended purpose for this thread - which would appear to be a more advanced conversation about booster strategies for those really challenging to win D3 - but I thought I'd offer some more general commentary on the new battle system. It's all about stars. That statement is easy to misread. I've seen a lot of people complaining that the new system is even more unbalanced than the old and to compete you now need 7 Mythics rather than 3. In my opinion, this is fundamentally incorrect. Without the Blessings, yes this new system would simply be about having the 7 strongest Mythics (assuming that sooner or later a wave of Mythics will be release that have fractionally stronger stats than the previous Mythics, as has happened with the Legendary 5 stars). But the Blessings change everything. Yes Mythics are important and those players that have all the Mythics will have an overall advantage (though not necessarily an advantage on any given week). But the really important factor is star ratings combined with Blessings. With a reasonable Blessing a 5 star rare girl will normally be a better choice for your team than an unblessed 5 star Legendary. A blessed 5 star Legendary will be a better selection than an unblessed 6 star Mythic. A blessed 5 star Epic - I haven't actually looked at the numbers - may even be better than an unblessed 6 star Mythic. Mythics are not always the best choice and if you are playing optimally, it would be an unusual week where you'd put forward a full team of Mythics. 5 stars have become a lot more valuable than they were under the old system, where they were effectively made redundant by Mythics. If you just go in with a team of 7 Mythics, you're going to get beaten with players who are using their 5 stars strategically. It's a shame there aren't more Epic 5 stars out there and I do wonder if we're likely to see more of these in the future. 3 stars haven't really changed in value much. They were never a great choice under the old system. Generally they only make a good choice under the new system where you can find a 3 star that has both attributes that are blessed in any given week. Depending on their rarity that is likely to make them a better choice than any other unblessed character. As I said, having all the Mythics is always going to be an advantage, primarily because you increase the chances of catching a Blessing on a Mythic. But it's unlikely you're going to get that every week (at least until there's a lot more of them available). So your team is likely going to comprise of 3-5 Mythics combined with 2-4 other girls who have caught good Blessings. Your Mythics are going to be the core of your team, there to fill the spaces that you don't have blessed girls to fill. It then becomes really important to gather as many 5 stars as you can - which are far less costly to obtain - to give you the best chance of catching Blessings to reduce the number of Mythics you need. Or alternatively, you could look to go down the road of catching as many 3 star girls as possible. They are again generally cheaper to get and far more plentiful in number. This increases your chances of getting a double blessing. And you don't have to have all your girls upgraded all the time - I keep a 2 star minimum and am employing a strategy where I max out the girls that are going to be useful next week. With a week's notice on upcoming Blessings there's time to save up to upgrade anyone other than an Mythic (I don't pick up a Mythic until I have the Aff resources to upgrade fully). Yes, to be competitive you are going to need some Mythics, but these are achievable even for f2p players (I have 2 and enough resourced to add another 2 when the right opportunities come along). And yes, when a Mythic that you don't have catches a Blessing, you likely want to accept this isn't going to be your week if you're competing in D3 (I have a note of the attributes for each of the Mythic girls to watch for this even though I'm not in D3 yet). But many if not most weeks a small number of Mythics and some decent Blessings will give you a very competitive team.

It also seems to me that Monday blessing change-overs provide a significant opportunity. If you can get your optimised blessed team in place asap there are likely to be other that don't get there as quickly. This presents another chance to catch players at sub-optimal stats outside of the standard booster lapses.

So let's give a quick summation of the impacts that are clearly evident here: i) They rolled this update out right at the end of the LC/Daily Contests, it was buggy and it ended up where no-one could play the end of the contests. For many - including myself - that meant that the contests were a bust when they should have placed well. ii) They've rolled out this feature right at the end of the ToF. Consequences are that the most important 24h of the tournament people are playing with a system that they have no clue about. Tbh, having seen the system I suspect that it had detrimentally impacted me enough that I may struggle to compete in the league I'm in from this point on. A shame then that I'm positioned to finish top 4 and move up a league this week. It may not turn out that way, but if it does I'm sure others will be similarly effected. iii) The battle stats have lowered dramatically, meaning that both Champions Performances and Club Champion are now far harder to pass through. iv) The blessings are still buggy - as noted either above or in another thread, I've got 'Eye colour Bald' as a blessing. v) They've made their battle system vastly more complicated, based on character attributes that were irrelevant previously. There is no easily sortable database of these attributes and they've provided no new feature. So the new battle system becomes next to impossible to use efficiently, even for those with the time/inclination to sort through it. It seems to me that all of this could likely have been avoided via better planning and perhaps having someone on staff actually play the game with any regularity. Like the obvious mis-alignment of pricing of the Mythic Exp/Aff, most of these issues would be readily apparant to anyone playing the game regularly.

I would guess that this is a run on from the reduced availability of Kobans. The introduction of the Mythic Items has meant that it now costs more Kobans to refresh the shop - something that a lot of players do. While individual players will have different approaches, over the complete sample size this will on average reduce the 'disposable income' (extra Kobans) that players have available. Less Kobans to spend = big events like this one getting lower participation. Given that KK have decided to half the Kobans in seasons as well, it seems likely that there is a concerted effort at their end to reduce Koban availability other than through real currency purchases.

It seems fairly apparent to me that this patch was specifically intended to limit the slots in the market for Ymen XP/Aff you could get. That was a primary part of the business model being pursued. Reduce the 'free' resources available by replacing them with 'premium' resources (I appreciate that the Mythic items don't technically cost real currency, but they are far more likely to be used by those willing to spend real currency). The core incentive that has been created to spend real currency on the premium resources comes from the reduction in availability of the free resources. Had they simply been introduced in another section you would not have created the scarcity of resource required to provide the incentive. I would also point out the contrary logic in more spaces being taken up by Mythic items for higher level players. I do understand that lower level players are far less likely to need or use the Mythic items. That's obvious. But the higher level players have a far greater need for the XP/Aff that they were previously getting free. Many lower level players would not yet be at the point of being able to afford to buy every XP/Aff item in the shop so removing a slot or two wouldn't be a major problem for them. The majority of higher level player do buy all the XP/Aff and so every slot is a precious commodity to them. The fundamental marketing force at work here was to frustrate the highly engaged players by reducing the freely available XP/Aff, knowing that they have the greatest need for those resources, and provide them with a premium alternative with the hope of encouraging them to spend more. I'm not making a judgement on the morals of the direction KK have gone here - I'm a 100% f2p player and they're a private business that are entitled to do with their game what they like whether I think it's a good thing or not (I really don't) - but I don't think there's any great mystery as to why the Mythic items haven't been put in their own shop, or given an opt in/out option, or placed as a reward for CC performances, or solely put in with purchase bundles. Doing so would remove the extra pressure to purchase extra resources with real currency. What I would say however is that this is a community game. For a large number of players the fun is in competing with other players. If you drive off a lot of the f2p players, or indeed a lot of the players who were happy to p2p within a small limit, you risk making the game a lot less fun for the big spenders as the competition pool becomes rapidly shallower.