Quite a few players have!
It’s baffling – no reason not to have left in the ability to upgrade gear to mythic. Completely compatible with the new gear system: just add one more honing stage, where spending aether takes an item up a level.
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I am at that stage, all my stuff I honed fully that first day. I can manage up to rank 8, so not quite 100 chests, and I’ve seen 3 legendaries and 1 mythic drop. Hundreds of chests, some seasonal, some old seasons. 3 legendaries that did match my gear setup, and a mythic that was both weaker and would have broken my legendary 6 pc set bonus to downgrade to. I started doing the whole loot ticket thing lately, I haven’t much wanted to play in a few days. I do get ungodly ants of rare nonsense, so that’s great. And here in a year or so when I can get my crafters to mythic lvl, I might be able to use the new currency too! All in all, a general net negative with this patch. There’s no real hope of moving forwards, right now it’s just the slog till I find a new game to take over.
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There is one reason I can think of: you can spend crowns on follower bundles to get you followers up to L50, in order to craft random mythic gear.
Considering it takes 40 crystals per follower to go from 45-50 and it costs about $20 for one of those bundles of 4 (I know, some cost a fair bit more), you’re looking at an easy $200 per follower to be maxed out. Considering there are 3 to look at (Gemka, Tor, and soul) that’s a good $600. Oh and don’t forget they are gonna be ‘fixing’ followers soon so expect that number to double here soon too. Heh, talk bout a big no.
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That “fix” has me very worried. I bet it’s going to be like the scrolls & spellbook; your hero level + your highest level = your followers’ [scroll] level. They’ll probably do something similar with minions too.
Here’s a link to the suggestions I made:
Seems to be a very common reaction. And a rational one.
Also completely predictable.
If the devs didn’t see this coming … HOW?
If they did and made these changes anyway … WHY?
Because everything is calculated by Project Managers and their Directors, even predicted losses to realise future maximum income generation. Welcome to the outside of the Skinner Box, lol.
There will always be new meat to grind for their machine, as long as existing players stick around to keep the bones of the machine running for them.
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I retired from Gems of War after six years. Definitely and forever. So I’m trying PQ3 expecting it to be a nice change, I’ve loved all the previous Puzzle Quest games (even though I know it’s totally different) but… uh… probably another thing to get rid of so I don’t mess up my mental health (yeah bipolar mad person here) and I’ll go back to Grim Dawn, Elder Scrolls online and Pillars of Eternity because I’m happy to pay for GAMES THAT MAKE SENSE (I was at a solid VIP level in Gems of War, I used to enjoy the game, so I was happy to contribute).
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Welcome to PQ3! The best thing you can do is find a decent guild and get the free gems a day for getting the dragon.
I did not play Gems of War, but there are some things to love about PQ3 and some things that are a little head scratchy at times. The new system has a lot to enjoy, that allows for flexibility but also its pretty tough to make “perfect” sets. That being said, you can still end up with sets that slap pretty hard, and get you through all the PVE stuff without driving yourself crazy.
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Brand new player here; I’ve been a long-time player of GoW, but my frustration with its incredibly bad design had caused me to be leery of PQ3. And, honestly, my impressions are that PQ3 does seem a little bit better (which is low praise, but still). But it really looks like this was a bad time to join. I know I’m pretty new to the mechanics and my comments aren’t worth much, but … is it really true that older players only needed a single level-50 armor piece (14 glyphs) to get a free level 50 armor scroll with all 7 characters (which now costs 665 glyphs)??? That’s unbelievable.
Since I sadly missed the cutoff, it looks like I’ll have to pick only one character to main, with no possibility of ever switching, and the only way to improve my gear will be to hope that the tiny trickle of legendaries that my level-60 chests give me will happen to be decent pieces. (And forget about colour or building proper sets!)
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Yes, if you’re a new player to PQ3 these days, you’re pretty much screwed.
I, for one, wouldn’t recommend that anyone start this game now - and if I were coming to it as a new player, I’d give up on it just as soon as I got my bearings and figured out how hopeless it is to advance in any controlled or intelligent way. It’s nothing but a slot machine.
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That said, there are some changes supposedly coming out later this year which may or may not be an improvement.
In essence, the devs seem to have decided to completely rework the item-upgrading mechanisms, and have been doing so piece-meal.
The current “hot mess” that’s been created is, undoubtedly, partly a result of being in that transition period.
Whether what it transitions to, at the end of the process, is worth sticking with remains to be seen.
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For my part, I enjoyed the “version” of PQ3 that I started last year enough that - despite how dull and unenjoyable and unproductive the current ‘transition’ gameplay is - I’m sticking around for the moment in the (perhaps overly) optimistic hope that, once the new mechanisms are fully in place, it’ll be worth continuing to play.
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But, to answer your questions:
Yes, if you had advanced enough in gear and levels before the conversion to 3.0, you got your heroes and battle scrolls all at level 50.
If not, then you’re pretty much screwed, because you need - as you observed - all those glyphs.
I’m assuming that this was a money grab by the devs – to try to incentivize people to buy more glyphs so they could play more heroes.
If so, it has completely (and unsurprisingly) backfired: nearly everyone’s response, if they weren’t at or near level 50 already, has been the same as yours: to give up on pursuing more than one hero, including the spells and gear that those other heroes would have used.
Which means such players have even less incentive and fewer items on which they might be inclined to spend $ than they did before 3.0.
This new “battle scrolls” are reducing both the customers’ options and, in all likelihood, reducing their spending accordingly.
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The other big chance is that you can no longer significantly upgrade your gear.
Used to be you’d get lower-level versions of things, try them out, find what you liked, and then spend resources (gotten by gameplay and $) to upgrade well-chosen gear sets so that you could conquer the tougher parts of the game.
Now you’ve got no ability to upgrade gear (beyond minor effects of honing). If you want a better version of that item, you have to just keep playing the slot machine.
You’re completely dependent on random drops from the “slot machine” mechanic to get gear, and you have little to no control over what’s dropped.
Which, again, if it was an attempt to get more $ from customers (at least the non-alreaady-end-game customers) is, I expect, a complete flop … At any rate, I’d be far more likely to spend a few dollars to upgrade gear-in-hand I was working to improve (and thus had invested time and resources into, with a guaranteed result at the end of that process) than I am to drop money on getting myself nothing but more pulls of a slot machine in the hopes of some hypothetical and un-guaranteed reward.
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As for expected rates of return, yu can find threads elsewhere about this.
To briefly mention a few observations: seems to be the consensus that you have - at best - a 1% chance of getting the highest level (mythic) gear from highest-level (100) chests. Mythic gear does drop from lower-level chests, at some reduced chance.
So work towards getting level 100 chests as quickly as you can. Because you’re a new player, not “grandfathered” in at a high level where you can easily burn through skirms and dungeons at level 100, there’s little point “actively” playing the game to try to beat those levels. It takes too long and a good reward is too unlikely. Go the loot ticket route. (You can find help elsewhere on how to maximize your rewards that way.)
Of course, no guarantee that a mythic item that drops (that 1% of the time) will be of any use to your one hero. My own experience to date has been that dropped mythics are of any help only about 15% of the time – or (at a guess) 1 drop in roughly 500-600 level-100 chests.
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One other observation: You can try to target specific gear sets by doing specific dungeons. But, again, getting a lower-level version of gear is useless for getting the high-level versions, since you can’t upgrade it any more.
(Intermediate gear will, of course, let you beat higher levels, but brings you no closer to getting that specific high-level piece you want, if you see what I mean.)
But don’t expect to have much luck there either. For example, if you want 2 particular mythic items from a set that drops in a specific dungeon, expect on average (median not mean) to have to beat that dungeon 900 times at level 100 to get those two items at mythic grade.
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Mind you, that’s as things stand now.
We don’t yet know what the “end goal” will be like after the remaining planned updates. Announcements about those plans are supposed to come some time this month.
We don’t know if this game will remain mainly a discouraging slot-machine, or if some sort of control over advancing gear will be returned to players.
We don’t know if those innovations - if any - will be something that players at all levels can take advantage of, or if it’ll be something stupidly expensive and basically reserved only for end-game players.
But still, bear in mind that the depressing picture I outline above may or may not be temporary … things may change further, and possibly even for the better, over the course of the next few months.
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But, yeah, as things stand right now, your advancement is completely random, a slot-machine mechanic that have little or no control over.
The “depth” and (at least to my mind) engaging fun of selecting and upgrading intelligently-coordinated gear sets for multiple heroes (which is what kept me playing that earlier version of PQ3) … that’s all a thing of the past.
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Hi there. Its not a terrible time to start, but its also a time of some questions from many in the more level-headed player base.
Its not all doom and gloom and theres plenty of things to make the game fun, you just have to adjust your expectations. It is not simple to just rocket your ship up to a level 50 book as a new player without a lot of time/money involved, and even that is not guaranteed without money. And even spending money doesnt guarantee a result that. you might desire.
I would do what you can with one character, level their book up to a spot without glyphs, because that is usable, and focus on the dungeons you like in order to get mythic drops. There are lots of people that will help do parties with you, and once your character is level 50, you can use autoclear tickets.
Theres plenty of things to look forward to, and hopefully we get some clarity now that the devs are off holiday. Take it at your pace and enjoy what you are able to enjoy, especially as a new player. Theres a lot of wisdom on this board and people are generally willing to give you sound advice, without making you feel like theres no path forward.
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Thanks @Switch and @ParaTara for the replies and great advice! I’m not ready to give up on the game yet; as it turns out, I do quite like the gameplay. 
At the moment there are plenty of things to progress on, so I’m still at a fun stage of the game.
But yeah, thanks for confirming that it’s not my imagination, and 3.0 really did raise an insurmountable wall blocking me off from endgame play. I’m holding out hope that it’s at least still reasonable to gear up to the point of farming level-100 dungeons reliably. (I know I could ask some good samaritans to carry me through some high-level dungeons so I can start spending loot tickets, but it’d be a lot more satisfying to get there on my own…)
If things don’t get better, I’ll probably focus on getting all the achievements (spending gems to level a single scroll for one character), then quit. But we’ll see what comes down the line. (I just hope they don’t follow the Gems of War pattern of releasing 5 cash grabs for every player-friendly update.)
There’s a lot of fun stuff in the game, especially as a new player when you’re discovering it.
But then you hit a “wall” – the point where you’ve gotten familiar with the game, figured out how you want to improve (specifically good coordination of gear and spells) and are trying to advance. At that point (as things stand) you come to a screeching halt.
Used to be a bit that way before, too, but you could chip away at upgrading your gear sets, and make steady progress towards end-game gear. Now it’s just that slot-machine.
But, yeah, try things out, see what it’s like, and come to your own conclusions.
Will get a better read on this once we learn what their plans are for the next few updates.
We lost a lot of players because of 3.0, and I’m sure a lot more are waiting to see what the next set of changes will bring. We’ll find out soon.
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Same as you, I do not like how gear has become completely dependent on chest opening and luck. I am really looking forward to the promised changes to be able to evolve or craft desired items. However, I completely disagree with you on this particular opinion.
After starting a second account I have been enjoying the game with it as much or even more than the first time I played it. In less than 3 weeks I have an incredible custom build with 4 mythics, 5 lefendaries, 2 epics and a single rare. That would have been out of the question before the 3.0 rework. It is true that now my progress will be likely very slow, but that is because I have grown really fast in very short time.
Therefore, I wouldn’t say that the new system of growing really fast at the beginning and then being stalled is any worse than the old system where progress was at all times painfully slow. In fact, it may feel even better for starting players.
The issue is mainly for mid/late-game, where you already have everything at epic/legendary and you want a custom build of high rarity, which will require lots of farming and luck to get. But this should be fixed with 3.1.5, just in time for any new players to reach that mid game level and not suffering it too much.
All in all and from my experience with the new account, I believe that currently the game is more enjoyable and satisfactory for newer players than before. However, we do need some changes so that it remains enjoyable once you enter mid/late-game or players won’t last that long before they get tired and bored of depending exclusively on chest opening gambling (slot-machine system, as switch well points out).
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I think we’re saying much the same thing … perhaps with some difference on where we think the “stalling out” happens under the current system.
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Part of it will depend on “game style”.
When I started playing, my focus quickly shifted to getting good gear sets, since that was obviously the way to advance “long term” in the game. So I gravitated right away to trying out different pieces, to see how their set bonuses worked, and then to getting them in desired colors as I built up gear sets for all the heroes.
A new player, these days, who takes that approach would be frustrated almost immediately with the complete dependence on random drops and inability to advance a desired piece/set once chosen.
A new player who takes a “haphazard” approach to gear, just grabbing whatever new piece drops and not worrying about build will, by contrast, not hit that “barrier” to improvement until they run up against the mid-game challenges where more intelligently-selected & developed gear becomes increasingly necessary.
I think good game design would be to appeal to both play-styles, as that increases the potential customer base.
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As for your “three weeks” … well, that depends entirely on how many hours a day a new player spends! I imagine more casual players will take quite a bit longer to assemble a bunch of good drops!
I do think the focus on “how fast until mythic” is misguided, however. Obviously, solid mythic builds are the long-term goal of the game.
But I think a player’s experience is better measured by a sense of progress towards that goal. Just having to work longer/harder to get to a goal isn’t a bad thing per se … in fact, it can even cultivate a greater sense of investment in the game. (The catering to impatient players’ demands for immediate gratification is often the death of games … what comes too easily isn’t valued!)
That’s my biggest gripe with the “psychology” of this new “slot machine” PQ3. … Once you start working towards good gear sets (whether as a relatively new player or only in mid-game), the “slot machine” is nearly constant disappointment and negative reinforcement.
Before, when you’d figured out gear you wanted and were working on advancing it, there was - by contrast - a sense of steady (albeit slow) progress towards the goal. Much better design psychology!
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Still, I don’t think anyone would disagree that progress in advancing gear used to be too slow. I know that was a big part of the motivation for gear reworking.
That doesn’t mean that the “solution” provided was an improvement. Not all “solutions” are.
E.g. glyph costs were too high, yes. Shifting them to hero-specific “battle scrolls”, however, was a terrible idea, and made things worse, not better.
Now players will only develop one hero, will thus have fewer items and spells they’re interested in, and will have reduced incentive for microtransations. Everybody loses - players and company alike. That “solution” made things worse, not better.
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Frankly, I don’t think that there was anything wrong with the earlier system of gear upgrading… it just needed to be made a bit faster. Cutting the cost of each level of improvement would have been a far better solution imho.
Still, the honing mechanism isn’t bad either. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. And having pieces with varying qualities also adds some interesting depth to the gear development.
But not being able to upgrade gear’s rarity … that sabotages the whole thing. That, more than anything else, is what turned the game into the tedious slog of the “slot machine” mentality.
That’s what creates the “barrier” between “new” or “mid”-game players (depending on interests and play-style) and the “late/end-game” players’ well-designed gear sets which, as it stands now, few or none of the others will ever achieve.
And which barrier, I have little doubt, will discourage a significant % of new players from continuing on with the game (thus reducing both customer base and income).
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Something as simple as using aether to improve a selected item’s rarity (by honing and/or crafters) would have a dramatic effect in restoring the game’s appeal.
It would make the mid-game slog less frustrating and joyless - because each ‘reward’, even if not a desired piece, would still be contributing towards improving (through aether) the gear-in-hand. [Assuming that improve-by-aether costs weren’t set so high that progress that way wasn’t made even slower than the old gear-improving rate!!]
Provided, of course, that that rarity-improving mechanism is accessible and reasonably priced!! … Otherwise, many casual and F2P players will continue to feel shut out, and thus be alienated before getting sufficiently invested to be transformed into paying customers.
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One door closed a little (spellbooks) but the other door (mythics) was kicked open with a great degree. I would say getting mythics is going to feel a lot better now than it ever could before. The bonus from books is nice, but with mythics you will really enjoy your gameplay better.
I also would just take advantage of people running you to 100 dungeons. While it is nice that you can do it yourself, its kinda great to take the leg up (even though for me personally it took a long time to get there).
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I have been playing since the new season after a many month break. I have not replaced any of my weapons/armor with a Mythic. I have not advanced any spell. So, what is the point of playing now?
Before I had spells I could move up, but was waiting to make sure I wanted to take it legendary. The same for gear.
If the item is below legendary, they should just auto scrap.
Increase the drop rates, make them based on your equipped gear. I grind a specific dungeon for a spell and get one every 20 chests. Terrible.
So I played the 3.0 changes on a new account. The results…game feels better than ever now. You get way more spell pages and quality gear than you did before. I already have a full set of savior. Getting what you is easier than ever, as you simply farm the dungeon that has it. No more waiting on relics and glyphs like in the dark ages of the game, prior to 3.0. Now if you want something, you go out there and you take it. And we’re seeing more varied load-outs than ever before, because now you can actually afford to do that. Not perfect, but a definite improvement on what we had before and I think the game is headed in a positive direction.
I find it hard to believe you. I play specific dungeons and get c r a p drops if not legendary or mythic delete. I need 1000 pages to upgrade a little partial bubble. The most I have is 300 of the 1000. Of course it keeps giving me items I DO NOT USE. Trash.
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