I am aware there is a thread where feedback regarding relics is welcomed. However, after having the chance to actually play/test relics, and taking into consideration the overall reaction to relics, I felt it was necessary to create a more detailed feedback thread.
The list is based off my interactions/discussions with players on my team/other top spending teams, players from Armor Gaming Alliance Discord chat(mostly younger free players), and my personal experience with relics.
A List of Concerns and Issues Regarding Relics
[BUGS/GLITCHES]
- There are a myriad of bugs and abusable glitches with relics,
virtually all speed altering relics will cause turns to be skipped when the speed changes comes into play and when the speed changes leave play. Speed altering effects has always been an issue in ML, however in the past, the game designers basically scraped that idea by nerfing slow/haste effects to the point no one would use them. Social point was aware of this and still choose to incorporate these broken mechanics into the new content.
- Many healing potions, that state “When being hit, if the wearer's Life is below “x”%, heals it by “Y” amount” were not properly tested and is an exploitable mechanic . Yes, the potion does recover life when the life drops below a certain percentage, but the potion also triggers when a monster’s life is reduced to 0 and healing it by such amount. This essentially prevents death, and makes it impossible to kill a monster in a single turn. These potions are available across all relic qualities and severely impacts the game. It is an unfair and highly exploitable glitch that should be urgently addressed.
[QUALITY]
- One inconsistency involves the wording of several relics. Relics that state “When entering battle” for the most part triggered before combat takes place. However, with trap relics, the same cannot be said, as the relic triggers on contact, when the relic holder gets hit.
- Another concern is the existence of inferior relics. There are relics within the same quality tier that are strictly inferior to another relic within the same quality tier.
Take for example these two diamond quality relics.
There is no reason to use Cane of the Atlantis over Balthasar’s mask aside from the fact they are different relic slots, which they themselves seems to be arbitrarily assigned to monsters. It is a flawed design to create strictly better/worse relics within the same quality tier, it was a lazy design and was a convenient way for Social Point to push out more relics.
[GAMEPLAY]
The game is monster legends, and many feel the emphasis of the game has always revolved around the monsters. While items like runes and relics, should be treated as supplements to the core of the game, monsters.
However that is not the case for relics. Upon release, it was pretty clear relics were going to be more than "supplementary items". The actual power level of relics is so far out of line compared to the other aspects of the game such as the monsters themselves. It seems that it is more important to have a powerful relic than to have a powerful monster.
[PLAYER EXPERIENCE]
The player experience is an important aspect for long lasting games and is no different for Monster Legends. Social point should have been more considerate and drawn more feedback from the community during the development of relics.
For the most part, relics were negatively received by the top teams based on my observations and interactions with other spending players on top teams. The poor implementation of relics makes many believe that Social Point was willing to ruin player experience and the longevity of the game for short term profits.
The decision to release grossly powerful items to the game devalues the player experience. Relics are a new addition to the game that essentially makes monster ranking and runes secondary. The effort, time and money spent on ranking up monsters and obtaining high level runes becomes insignificant compared to relics.
[AVAILABILITY]
Two majors concerns in regards to relics are, the availability of relics and chests that contain relics. We understand relics are supposed to be developed over a long period of time. But we are asking why are relics for the most part exclusive only through in game purchases?
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The introduction of the lab and the monster ranking system was designed to be a long term progression, but it also involved smaller spenders and the “free player” base. It came in the form of ranking breedable legends and the ranking of generals by buying multiple copies of the same general from the War Shop.
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With the rune system, casual/free players can obtain high level runes through the crafting of lower level runes, and level 1 runes can be bought with gold from the Rune shop.
Which begs the question, why the sudden change of direction and ostracize a large majority of the player base by making relics all but impossible to obtain except through in game purchases?
Making relics extremely powerful and limiting their obtainability through only spending, shows that Social Point has changed for the worst.
They are going away from a system that made the game popular and was accessible to the masses.
To a system that requires spending in order to experience new content and an exorbitant amount of spending to reach the max level.
[CHEST CONTENTS]
Relics are obtained from chests, and chests are priced at 95, 375, and 985 gems. These same chests also often yield level 1 runes, gold, food, and consumable items. Considering the price of these chests, players feel cheated by this new gambling system after paying 985 gems only to find a large portion of the rewards are useless/insignificant items. Chest fillers should be drastically reduced or removed completely from the loot table.
[ PRICING]
Each legend monster has 2 relic slots. Comparatively speaking, the cost to get the best relics and max the relics is astronomical compared to past contents such as monster ranking and runes.
- To obtain and rank a legendary to level 130, it takes 18 eggs priced at 249 gems per egg, 4500 gems total. And often it is possible to obtain several copies of a monster by simply playing the game and cell donations from a team.
- A level 10 rune costs 345 gems during a rune sale, and three level 10 runes to fully equip a monster costs 1035 gems. Runes can be obtained and ranked through the crafting system. Players can complete their rune sets through crafting, starting with level 1 runes, paying for level 10 runes at 345 gems, or a mix of both crafting/spending.
- There are 8 different diamond relics. The most expensive chest does not even guarantee a diamond relic, and based off observations, the odds of getting a diamond relic from the 985 gem chest is below 1:1. So in order to obtain a specific diamond relic, it would on average require more than 8 chests. Each chest priced at 985 gems. Over 7,880 gems. This doesn't even include the cost to rank up a diamond relic to max.
The current pricing of relics and the gambling involved to obtain relics is far out of line compared to past content. And limited availability ostracizes casual players, and forces spenders to pay an exorbitant amount of money to own powerful relics or not bother with relics at all because they have been priced out to play competitively.
In conclusion, chests often contain useless items or an inferior relics which makes the experience of buying a chest unrewarding. We wish for the removal of filler items and the removal/change of inferior relics as well as a change to the current pricing, to one that is similar to the price point of past contents.
