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Why the increased cost of champion mastery ranks?

LeafyGreen··55 votes·2,333 views

I genuinely don't understand why the costs were increased to 3,900 BE to upgrade my mastery on a champion. Now that champions cost BE now, I have to decide whether to spend over half the cost of a 6,300 champion on getting a higher mastery rank on a champion, which doesn't make any sense to me.

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It is going to take me longer to earn enough BE to upgrade these shards than it is to even be "allowed" to show off my mastery of them, long after I have already earned it.

I get that there are lots of players who own every champ, but there are still a lot who do not. The price of upgrading a champion mastery was fine at 500 before because I would disenchant all champion shards I earned so that I would have enough when the time comes around to get a higher rank. Now that BE is what is being used to buy champions, I cannot save up to upgrade my mastery and buy champions at the same time.

I don't care if upgrading your mastery will never stop costing BE, it is just that the cost increase feels way too harsh.

///EDIT: Most of the time, if I didn't have enough BE to upgrade my mastery I could get 1,700 IP to trade in for a mystery champion shard. Most of the time it was enough to upgrade my mastery. At the most it took two shards to get 500, which was still 3,400 IP. Which is still less than 3,900 BE. It would make a lot more sense to me for it to have been raised to 1,700 BE to upgrade your mastery, because it was around the cost to get enough blue essence to do it in the first place.

23 Comments

gibedepusib0ss8 votes

I'm definitely with you. It feels like a system designed to be grindy and encourage the buying of RP. I also don't like how this splits the playerbase; new players must buy champions at full price (while earning WAY less blue essence than they would have IP in previous seasons) or buy a random champ shard and hope it's someone that looks cool to them, and players with all the champions will probably be choosing between buying the new champ or upgrading their mastery since an upgrade costs over half of a 6300 champion. Basically no one wins, rewards will come slower, and the feeling of progression has been nerfed heavily. I guess you could say the added difficulty adds to the feeling of progression, but honestly, who would think that doing more work for the exact same rewards we've always gotten would be a positive experience?

LeafyGreen1 votes

The original purpose of my post wasn't trying to say we don't earn essence fast enough to buy new champions at the same rate we could before (because it has been proven multiple times that BE is gained faster than IP, it just doesn't feel like it because if you play less you don't level up as fast), it was just that it takes a lot longer to buy them because if I choose to raise my mastery it cuts my progress in half.

It never felt this way before to me, because the mystery shards were only 1700 IP and more often than not, I gained enough BE to upgrade a mastery shard because it was only 500 BE beforehand. Now, It costs a lot more for no reason.

OilegibtKoile1 votes

You fail to realize that you should be more decisive about what you do with your BE. You are responsible for your own decisions. If you really want a new champ go for it. If you want to get 1 champ to M7 go for it. But don't expect to get both simultaneously as this is not how saving up works.

LeafyGreen1 votes

I would be fine with that if you weren't do both simultaneously before and now you can't.

R31W1NG1 votes

lol, proof my ass.... you only have better BE gain during events. As you don't earn BE per win(only 50 BE per day) and disenchanting shards only earns you 1/5 the champ cost and now only saves you 2/5 of the champion price you gain BE far slower than you did IP. The system was a disguised fk you to the player base.

ModValeeva8 votes

At least you didnt have to spent 3.9k BE on a mastery 7 for a champion that cost me 450 BE Sivir ....

thats nearly 10x the price.

LeafyGreen3 votes

I feel ya, I got Annie at rank 6 right now so I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

nomeensno2 votes

Worst part I have 4 Sivir shards right now, and already had M7... then there's the 8 or so champs I have mastery tokens for and no shards..... RIP

Mr Dalloway6 votes

Pretty much everything to do with blue essence and leveling is poorly thought out and anti-fun.

Partybringer4 votes

The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking a champions mastery

Rins Thigh Socks3 votes

{quoted}

The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking a champions mastery

☝️ The intent ☝️ is to provide 👉👨 players with a sense of 💪 pride 💪 and 🏆accomplishment 🏆 for 🔓 unlocking 🔓 different 😎 heroes 😎 As for 💰 cost 💰 , we selected initial values based upon 📊 data 📊 from the Open Beta and other 🔧 adjustments 🔧 made to milestone 💰 rewards 💰 before 🚀 launch 🚀. Among other things, we're 👀 looking 👀 at ⚖️ average ⚖️ per-player 👨 👩 credit 💸 earn rates 📈 on a daily basis 📅, and we'll be making constant adjustments 🔧 to ensure that players 👨👨 have challenges 😤 that are compelling 😍, rewarding 💰, and of course attainable 🏆 via gameplay 🎮 We appreciate the candid 👀 feedback, and the passion 😡 the community 👨 👨 👨 has put forth around the current topics here on Reddit💻, our forums 🌐 and across 🌐 numerous 🌐 social media outlets 🌐 Our team 👨👨👨👨👨 will continue to make 🔧 changes 🔧 and monitor 👀 community feedback and update everyone as soon 📅 and as 📅 often 📅 as we can. 👍

sounds like an EA excuse to me, bud.

Partybringer1 votes

that was the joke

Rins Thigh Socks3 votes

{quoted}

that was the joke

Hey man, there was zero context to hint you were joking.

¯\(ツ)/¯

gibedepusib0ss2 votes

{quoted}

The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking a champions mastery

lol

Aeszarck3 votes

Before preseason, IP and BE were separate, though they were linked in that players could buy Hextech Mystery Champion Shards to convert their IP into BE. IP's primary function was to unlock Champions and Runes, its secondary function was to unlock cosmetics (like name changes, Chromas, and for awhile, Summoner Icons). BE's primary function was to unlock Champions, its secondary function was to unlock Mastery Levels (aka cosmetics). With Rune prices going away in preseason, IP was going to have one primary function, unlocking Champions.

Thus, both IP and BE would be currencies primarily used for unlocking Champions, secondarily for unlocking cosmetics. Both currencies would accomplish basically the same things, so Riot merged them.

Why did Riot keep BE over IP?

Whichever currency they kept, it had to be connected to Hextech Crafting. Riot was not simply going to do away with its entire Champion Shard system because that would mean major changes to how Hextech Chests would work. Blue Essence was already connected to Hextech Crafting, so Riot decided to axe IP by converting all existing IP to BE and giving players more Champion Shards to disenchant in place of IP.

Merging the two currencies meant that whatever IP income that players got through playing matches and whatever BE income that players got through Hextech Chests and Honor Capsules were combined. Because prices for BE items (enchanting Champion Shards and getting Champion Mastery) were based on players earning very low amounts of BE over time, the BE prices had to be adjusted since players would be earning BE at much higher rates once IP was merged with BE. Champion prices feel relatively acceptable because the IP prices were just converted 1:1 into BE, and we earn BE at about the same rate* as IP.

The reason why Mastery costs feel so bad right now is because of the same reason why it was encouraged to spent money on Hextech Mystery Champion Shards before preseason. The BE value of each Hextech Mystery Champion Shard was higher than its IP value. By buying Hextech Mystery Champion Shards to get Champion Mastery, you were essentially making your currency go further.

Riot did the calculations; you were getting about 6.5x more IP than you did BE. That's why they chose to multiply your BE by 6.5 and it's also why they chose to multiply the Champion mastery prices by 6.5. (500x6.5=3250 BE, 600x6.5=3900 BE.) It should feel the same, but it doesn't, and that's because you no longer have the option to increase the value of your currency anymore by converting IP to BE. You're just stuck with BE with no way to make that BE more valuable, and that's why the mastery prices feel bad.

It's not all bad though! You're getting more Champion Shards than before, and it still only takes one Champion Shard to increase Mastery Level. Thus, you have a lot of chances to use your Champion-specific Champion shards to increase mastery. Additionally, since you're getting more Shards, you're getting more chances at being able to enchant them and get a Champion at 20% off. It just depends on whether you're willing to wait for the Champion Shard of the Champion you want, which can feel bad.

*I am not trying to get into a debate about the rate of BE earning. This is not the point of the post.

LeafyGreen4 votes

I don't really take using the champion's own shard to upgrade it's mastery since there is such a low chance of actually getting it.

When you open a box after leveling up, you don't get a base amount + the amount you can get from disenchanting a champion, the only BE you can earn is from disenchanting the champions you get out of it. So, you NEED to disenchant champions you 1. Already have (which is a problem because what if you want to save it to use it for their mastery rank?) or 2. Don't want.

This means if you want to use blue essence to get a champion for cheaper that you've earned through a box, you HAVE to disenchant other champions from boxes, unless you are gonna save up from the small amount we'll be getting from the FWOTD bonus coming up. And I'm not trying to bash the FWOTD bonus saying it won't be enough, it actually will help out a lot.

Feathermane3 votes

Who cares about mastery levels 6/7? It is meaningless. Just wait for the champion shard or don't even upgrade it.

Quepha2 votes

Because actual Blue Essence gains increased dramatically and Blue Essence stores at the time were multiplied by 6.5.

You also run into way more chances to find the right champion shard so you can more easily wait until that happens too.

Sonic Adventure1 votes

{quoted}

Because actual Blue Essence gains increased dramatically and Blue Essence stores at the time were multiplied by 6.5.

You also run into way more chances to find the right champion shard so you can more easily wait until that happens too.

This.

And I have honestly saved tons of BE from the shards.

Mastery was something added for the people that didn't know what to do with the extra BE. It's not for new accounts. It doesn't affect your gameplay, so please don't demand it as if it did.

nomeensno2 votes

Cuz #RITO

ENRAG3DCHICKEN2 votes

If only Risotto Games would listen to their player base . Why invest so many new things nobody likes and taking out things everybody liked before

NCBuckets2 votes

well obiously if you dont have blue essence you arent ACTUALLY good at the champion. personally i hate that it cost anything at all. skill at champion does not equal amount of blue essence. it pisses me off SO much.

flibitydoo1 votes

because they need something for the IP/BE dragons to spend their hoards of stockpiled currency on.

And here's the thing, the people who are going to buy the mastery ranks are: players that intend to only play that specific champ because they are maining that champ (aka they're not going to buy other champs because they won't play anyone else) or collectors who have played everyone and want to get max mastery rank on everyone (the ones who have a ton of currency because they play a ton).

The majority of casual players (the casual community is the majority, this rule applies to all games, so really it's just the majority of players) are just going to ignore the mastery rank up costs and instead unlock champs because at the end of the day, it's an emote, a cosmetic that does nothing to influence your gameplay (unlike say, a new champion would).

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