[4.6] Holodeck Event: First Impression and Strategies

[Art3mes]

How do I begin?

Holodeck is a great event which provides considerable amounts of EXP within small amounts of time. A dream for many.

To me, the event looks the next level of Accursed Experiments but with more EXP in exchange for rewards. But it's not something you can just play around with. Since the opponents are unknown, the outcome of the match, somehow, depends on luck. Also the opponents can be any evolved or natural diamonds, so the possibility of facing your counter is also high.

For example, if you want to solo the match with a bleeder but got countered by Bloodbath, you took Rainbow Blight but got countered by Stand Out, and many more bad dreams.

So, in conclusion, it'll be a very good event for you if only you got nice variants to carry the fodder.

The total fighter score is something about 80K-110K, with providing EXP around 40K-80K (no EXP booster).

I usually carry the fodder with:
Love Crafted
Freaky Friday
Bioexorcist
Flytrap

I wonder how the mid-game players are doing in it?

What do you think?
Got any strategies?
Is it EXP or XP? I am not sure!

 

[shivy]

¿Es EXP o XP? ¡No estoy seguro!

Creo que es EXP

 

[shivy]

Investigue, es XP para ''experiencia'' , para ''puntos de experiencia'' es PX

 

[Lililira]

I'm enjoying it a lot! It gives the experience of a high-streak PF match without needing to worry about Marquees or Match Modifiers making things tricky.

I think I'd recommend bleeders / miasma / other health drainers the most as a carry. Without Marquees, you don't have to worry about facing an ICU Valentine and getting countered that way, so the only real counter to bleed is Bloodbath. Also debuff spammers, like Chaos Doubles and Mean One would probably do nicely.

Not sure how necessary buff removal or Immunity is yet though, since that's entirely dependent on luck to see what you get in terms of opponents.

Fighters that have worked really well for me: Buzzkill, Rusty, Xenomorph, Toad Warrior

 

[Dusty00]

Lv15 move sets really shine for this event. More than anything you just need raw strength to clear. I took model leader from 55 to 60 after 16 or so hours of holodeck. As a side effect I took 9 Golds to 50 and used up most of my spare fodders and ele essences.

It’s overall a much better grind than pea master or high streak pf. It’s stress free and you can stagger 2 rounds back to back if you play the last 10min and first 10 min of the hour. Finally a good event to go along with the 12 hr XP boosters that’s been just sitting there.

 

[Lililira]

After a bit more experimentation, I realized a few more things.

1. Be careful against fighters with moves that give them temporary Unflinching, as that can one-shot low health fighters, and the AI here is good enough to find openings to use it. This includes: Big Band (Dash), Robo (Rotation Hazard), Cerebella (Battle Butt, Lock and Load), and probably a few others.

1b. Also be wary when fighting against fighters with unbreakable grab moves, mainly Cerebella and Beowulf.

2. Gotta have enough health to tank the blocked hits. After a few more tries I'm not sure I'd recommend Painwheels or Doubles since they're fragile enough to get KO'd even if they block *all* incoming hits.


Bio-Exorcist has been my main carry for the later nodes, since her healing + health drain + self-revives mean that she's good at both surviving and dealing damage against tanks. Also, this mode is the best place to power level Golds to prep them for Diamond evolution, by a pretty huge margin. I've been able to get ~10 or so of them to level 50 when most were sub-35 on Friday. Definitely faster and more consistent than using PFs to level them.

 

[BallotBoxer]

Observations:
- Tons of XP!
- Another thing stacked into the overstuffed weekend.
- Sometimes it comes down to luck. Nice when they serve up easy wins. For instance, Mean One Peacock is your carry and the enemy team is a bunch of greens that rely on buffs.
- Enemy Splitting Image Fukua appears = you lose, good day sir!
- Exciting to fight diamond versions of fighters rarely seen. Makes one think "uh, what does that normally silver Double do again?"

 

[Codlugarthia]

How do I begin?

Holodeck is a great event which provides considerable amounts of EXP within small amounts of time. A dream for many.

To me, the event looks the next level of Accursed Experiments but with more EXP in exchange for rewards. But it's not something you can just play around with. Since the opponents are unknown, the outcome of the match, somehow, depends on luck. Also the opponents can be any evolved or natural diamonds, so the possibility of facing your counter is also high.

For example, if you want to solo the match with a bleeder but got countered by Bloodbath, you took Rainbow Blight but got countered by Stand Out, and many more bad dreams.

So, in conclusion, it'll be a very good event for you if only you got nice variants to carry the fodder.

The total fighter score is something about 80K-110K, with providing EXP around 40K-80K (no EXP booster).

I usually carry the fodder with:
Love Crafted
Freaky Friday
Bioexorcist
Flytrap

I wonder how the mid-game players are doing in it?

What do you think?
Got any strategies?
Is it EXP or XP? I am not sure!

The best thing about this event is being able to slap on a 4 or 12hr XP boost and solo the event. The result: power levelling all those high gold/low dia you never have enough time to focus on. Best XP so far is 208K per character (with a boost on) from the last node.

The downside is not having a life. 3 daily PF's on Sunday incl. the new Annie dailies (those skill points gotta be earned!), the Sunday rift race (why does rift only seem to matter to people on Sunday?), the Sunday Medici Coin grab and an elemental PF. And all that's after the end of a 3 day PF on Saturday. Time, the bane of Gollum. It's precious.

Strategy wise I solo with Neuromancer for BB meter and collateral damage then either of Jaw or Wulfsbane for the final three nodes. It's pretty effective until you meet the RNG god and then it all goes south in a heartbeat.

It certainly feels like Accursed's big brother and that's a good thing. Personally I'd like to have the event running on tickets like rift. You get, for example, 14 tickets at the start of the week and then you spend one whenever you want to start a one hour Holodeck event. That way you get to choose when to flex on a more time friendly schedule.

 

[Lililira]

Before I get into my detailed thoughts and constructive criticisms, I just want to reiterate that I really like Holodeck and am very grateful to have such a good place to power level Golds and low level Diamonds.

Alright, on to the things I think could be improved upon.


After giving it a bit more thought, I agree that it's a lot to add into the already-full weekend schedule, as that requires practically no-lifing the game all weekend, what with the Elemental PF being the most important one of the week with generally higher cutoffs than the Character PFs, the Medici PF on Sunday, and having *3* character dailies on Sunday instead of the usual 2, *and* the Moves PF when those show up if you choose to participate.

Additionally, the fact that it resets every hour means you have to be able to pick up the game and play at least once an hour in order to get the most out of it. I mean, the other weekend stuff requires time too, but at least with those things you'll be done for the day if you sit down for an hour or two and grind it out. With Holodeck though, you have to be able to play all day long to get the most out of it.

Also, I saw a lot of mid-level folks really struggling with it whereas it's a real breeze for high-levels, so I worry about it creating a power gap between mids and highs which may go on to affect PF and Rift scores.

So in summary, this would be my preference on potential tweaks:


More nodes, resets less often. Balanced so it gives the same EXP but you can better take it at your own pace.

I'd prefer if the map was made longer by adding some more nodes for all levels (but especially some lower level nodes for mid-range players near the start of the map) and also reset less often, so you can grind it out and be done and not need to go back for a while. It's not like there's completion bonuses anyways, so what's the difference if they were to shift things so that one playthrough gives 6x the EXP but only reset once every 6 hours? It's six of one, half a dozen of the other, right?

That'd also make it easier to make it a mid-week thing instead of weekend-only, since it'd give folks a wider range of time to complete it between resets without missing out on any easy EXP, even if they had jobs / school / other work-day obligations to deal with.

(I also like the idea of a ticket system, as another way to allow you to take it at your own pace throughout the week.)

 

[Art3mes]

creating a power gap between mids and highs which may go on to affect PF and Rift scores.

Thats not a good thing. Even now the power gap is considerable between mid and high level players, this event will further increase the gap.
It clearly speeds up the leveling process for late game players, which is a blessing for us and it's kinda more favourable for us than mid-game players, I suppose.
We have the roster, vibrant enough to easily complete the event with ease.
I can imagine a very sharp sloped exponentially growing power curve.

Considering the crowded weekends, I shifted my rift grinding from weekends to mid-week.(I only play 5 matches though)
But still there is so much to do on the weekends .

I like the token idea of @Codlugarthia very much. It puts a limit to how much one can grind which is a good thing, not for us, but for the early to midgame players.
Also @Lililira's idea to change the timing of the event is also something to be considered.
I hope something happens in that regard.
Till then, Happy Grinding