Fights The (main) problem with Rift Battle mode

[nesteaisnasty]

This game is pretty much polished in every way possible but there's always some kind of trouble when it comes to real people playing with each other. Rifts were unbalanced in the very beginning, then the catalysts came but also the matching was fixed. But within some time the matching became ridiculous once again. I have four evolved diamonds (all marqueed) and four natural ones, 25 golds that are good enough to use (18 have MA). Considering my collection I should be around Gold 3-4, right? Wrong. It's been months and I still can't get back to gold (I used to be Gold 2 in the beginning if I remember correctly). I remain in the silver category for one simple reason - I don't get equal opponents. I keep getting matched with people who have a rank or two higher than I do and I'm always losing. They don't even have a full diamond base but the catalysts make it IMPOSSIBLE to compete. Imagine having 3 Fortunes and a Scratching Post on the boss node or Big Bands with Armour Rating and Futile Resistance! And when I keep getting people who have 100-200 points more than me it makes me want to abandon rifts. The weirdest thing is why don't I get extremely easy opponents? Why does matching work like this? You give more points if you win yeah but the truth is we keep losing and going down because there's no way for us to win over them. Even if we complete the base they will have a sufficiently higher score. It is extremely infuriating and I know for a fact it's a common problem. And now, with the PVP coming soon, it won't get enough attention. So please...
Please, fix the matchmaking!

 

[Dusty00]

I don’t know man, It really depends on which diamonds you have and if you have prepared to counter the meta or not. Catalysts can be tough but there are certainly strategies to beat them.

If you truly care about rift and want to improve, first read all of Brother Null’s threads on getting to the diamond rank.

Then, if you don’t already have, seriously invest in the following easy to access yet very effective characters:

Rusty Painwheel - bronze and her SA counters all except ICU Vals and Futile Big bands.

Doublicious Double - Silver PF reward. Currently one of the best character in rift that can beat any defense.

Silent Kill Valentine - Gold PF reward. Her debuff is super helpful against a lot of things.

Divine Intervention Eliza - Gold PF reward. She’s the best counter against Scratching Post catalyst.

Learn how to intercept, and how to use your characters. I am pretty confident that if you have those 4 above at even just Gold Lv50 their utility should help you get out of silver and back into gold.

 

[xcapibara]

How is diva the best counter to scratching post? (Just curious).

 

[Dusty00]

How is diva the best counter to scratching post? (Just curious).

Her intercept is fairly easy to pull off against Ms Fortune. Even if you fail, take some damage instead of blocking would charge her meter. Once you have have Sek out you gain life back.

 

[BallotBoxer]

Perhaps when you fight is a factor? I'm Silver 1 constantly climbing and falling out of Gold 4, and I wait until the end of the week to fight my five minimum requirement. Maybe a couple are the 2-ranks up, "here's +29 if you can win, lol" match-ups, but most are +15/-15 even fights. Victory depends on a margin of a few hundred points so if you miss a blockbuster finish or do a retry, you're cooked. But it is comfortably close to what the Rift should be. Best part of fighting procrastinators trying to get their Rift quota: sometimes they don't care to even defeat a single node, or they give up too easily.

In other words, "fight on!" It gets better higher up (well, I am not eager to go the nightmare realm of the Diamond stratosphere yet).

I don't like how Gold 1 doesn't exist (all top 200 are pulled into Diamond). Shouldn't the hierarchy be reconsidered so there isn't a giant vacuum? Maybe everyone should be upgraded one rank...

 

[nesteaisnasty]

I don’t know man, It really depends on which diamonds you have and if you have prepared to counter the meta or not. Catalysts can be tough but there are certainly strategies to beat them.
Learn how to intercept, and how to use your characters. I am pretty confident that if you have those 4 above at even just Gold Lv50 their utility should help you get out of silver and back into gold.

here's my collection, i hope it helps.
now a few corrections. Rusty is absolutely useless with Bands and Vals who are currently the main obstacle in every rift. plus, having her maxed out at gold is not enough when you're going against maxed out diamonds. Doublicious is great but not with the immunity node and her atk and hp are lacking against strong opponents. Silent Kill is a good one yet she might be a bigger trouble than help, her hit amount might bring more armour than debuff the opponent at all. And Diva is not a counter against Post in any way. she might work on easy gold nodes but when you're constantly given opponents who have diamonds almost everywhere she will be killed in a combo or two.
my main problem is not the actual rift and it's conditions (even though they might be ridiculous sometimes) but the matchmaking. there's no way in getting out of silver when given gold.

Perhaps when you fight is a factor? In other words, "fight on!" It gets better higher up.
I don't like how Gold 1 doesn't exist (all top 200 are pulled into Diamond). Shouldn't the hierarchy be reconsidered so there isn't a giant vacuum? Maybe everyone should be upgraded one rank...

the thing is i'm not even giving up, i used to just leave it before but now i'm trying my best and it's not enough. good for you that it's giving you even fights but i barely even get to fight at all. it takes me 3-4 tries per day just to get one battle because the match was not found and when it is found it is 100-200 points higher. and i also don't get this whole hierarchy too! most people should be a rank or two higher. and it's really unfair when diamond players get incredible rewards even tho they don't really need them and people who are desperately trying to grow get pretty much nothing.
i love this game wholeheartedly and i'm a veteran (playing since my senior year in school and now i'm a sophomore) but things like this really spoil the whole experience. it's noticeable and many people struggle with it. this problem has existed since the existence of rifts and it wasn't really fixed.

 

[Dusty00]

View attachment 6020
here's my collection, i hope it helps.
now a few corrections. Rusty is absolutely useless with Bands and Vals who are currently the main obstacle in every rift. plus, having her maxed out at gold is not enough when you're going against maxed out diamonds. Doublicious is great but not with the immunity node and her atk and hp are lacking against strong opponents. Silent Kill is a good one yet she might be a bigger trouble than help, her hit amount might bring more armour than debuff the opponent at all. And Diva is not a counter against Post in any way. she might work on easy gold nodes but when you're constantly given opponents who have diamonds almost everywhere she will be killed in a combo or two.
my main problem is not the actual rift and it's conditions (even though they might be ridiculous sometimes) but the matchmaking. there's no way in getting out of silver when given gold.

the thing is i'm not even giving up, i used to just leave it before but now i'm trying my best and it's not enough. good for you that it's giving you even fights but i barely even get to fight at all. it takes me 3-4 tries per day just to get one battle because the match was not found and when it is found it is 100-200 points higher. and i also don't get this whole hierarchy too! most people should be a rank or two higher. and it's really unfair when diamond players get incredible rewards even tho they don't really need them and people who are desperately trying to grow get pretty much nothing.
i love this game wholeheartedly and i'm a veteran (playing since my senior year in school and now i'm a sophomore) but things like this really spoil the whole experience. it's noticeable and many people struggle with it. this problem has existed since the existence of rifts and it wasn't really fixed.

All I can say is, level your characters and learn to play them well against the right enemy. Maybe instead of denying what others are trying to tell you, that you keep an open mind. Why would I bother waste time to give advice that wouldn’t work?

You pretty much answered yourself. Don’t use Rusty against Vals and Bands. Don’t do combos when using SK against armor and time your CVs for burst damage. Even better, use Rusty against armor...

Doublicious steals immunity and is actually the best answer to immunity catalyst. Play aggressively. Doublicious wins with Chaos, not atk. You are playing her wrong otherwise.

I already wrote about how to use Diva in another reply. Take hits to build up meters and drain HP back with Sek mode.

Another strategy against Scratching post is to use any Parasoul, Peacock, or Squig. Start with intercept throw and immediately use immunity taunt. This isn’t easy but with practice it works.

I see you have Summersalt and Primed around lv50 Diamond. They are probably the best counters for both Val’s and Bands in the meta. Save them for those nodes.

And when you say your characters aren’t strong enough, go level them up and invest in moves. At least for your collection there’s so much room for growth. Once you get to D2/D1 the only room for growth is investing in lv15 moves...

 

[Manowar]

This game is pretty much polished in every way possible but there's always some kind of trouble when it comes to real people playing with each other. Rifts were unbalanced in the very beginning, then the catalysts came but also the matching was fixed. But within some time the matching became ridiculous once again. I have four evolved diamonds (all marqueed) and four natural ones, 25 golds that are good enough to use (18 have MA). Considering my collection I should be around Gold 3-4, right? Wrong. It's been months and I still can't get back to gold (I used to be Gold 2 in the beginning if I remember correctly). I remain in the silver category for one simple reason - I don't get equal opponents. I keep getting matched with people who have a rank or two higher than I do and I'm always losing. They don't even have a full diamond base but the catalysts make it IMPOSSIBLE to compete. Imagine having 3 Fortunes and a Scratching Post on the boss node or Big Bands with Armour Rating and Futile Resistance! And when I keep getting people who have 100-200 points more than me it makes me want to abandon rifts. The weirdest thing is why don't I get extremely easy opponents? Why does matching work like this? You give more points if you win yeah but the truth is we keep losing and going down because there's no way for us to win over them. Even if we complete the base they will have a sufficiently higher score. It is extremely infuriating and I know for a fact it's a common problem. And now, with the PVP coming soon, it won't get enough attention. So please...
Please, fix the matchmaking!
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I agree. I was lowest tier diamond for weeks when rifts came out and then they changed matchmaking. I dropped all the way to silver from not playing this mode much and I’ve only climbed back into gold 4. I keep getting matched with players two tiers or more higher than myself. We both finish all the nodes and they score more points than I do. Really lame. We need new catalysts and changed to matchmaking.

 

[Starsmore]

I already wrote about how to use Diva in another reply. Take hits to build up meters and drain HP back with Sek mode.

Exactly, Diva against Scratching Post is good, just give her hp and defense, two Sekhmet blockbuster will do the rest (when you use one, you already filled the meter of the other, call him back, use the second, repeat, it the enemy is getting too much armor just use chaos banish).
Silent Kill with Icu i also good, if you get stunned you can also get regen, I use her also against armor nodes.
A marqueed Painwheel have chances to get five stacks of armor, with them you only get free meter, if you use Firefly is even better.
About amro nodes. the best is Poltergust, just keep hit the enemy on purpose to give them armor, in ten seconds you already have a full bb3, just activate it when the last armors are expiring, with the curse effect they can't get armor anymore for a few seconds. A marqueed dead squigly does the trick too, just hit the enemy over her dead body.

 

[Kurokazeee]

I agree with Nestea that matchmaking could be improved. The tips and pointers are all correct and getting better is the best solution, but the key question was mentioned by Nestea
"why do I keep getting matched with better opponents?"
part of the reason could be the collection strength matchmaking, which means that you must use your collection well or near-forever lose rift fights! (no offence intending to Nestea, just trying to speculate what is the matchmaking problem here).

I think there could be a better way to match players skill on attacking to appropriate rift base defenses and also put players in brackets with similar rift attacking skills. The key idea is to separate the rift ranking of a players attacking skill and players defending skill (rift base difficulty), so each player has two rift "rating" and there is no need for collection strength matchmaking by matching directly to the attacking skill of players. I put more details in my rift matchmaking suggestions post! Hope to get some comments on it.