Another week comes to a close and another week of Paragon has been played. So, how did it go this week? Really mixed.
It was all going well up until the beta and XP weekend kicked off. Then, on Friday morning at about 4AM, I was starting to wonder if I really was just absolutely terrible at this game. Six matches, six losses. I was in a RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE.
When you’re trying to stay awake just to finish a match it’s not pleasant. One game this week lasted 1 hour and 25 minutes and the clock had ticked over to 6:25AM. Yep, lost that one as well.
So, what’s going wrong? A number of things – some of my own doing, some not. Epic recently updated the in-game deck-builder to make it a little easier to use when trying to figure out what upgrade cards to use. It’s a real improvement! However, I actually had a really good deck sorted prior to the update. Wanting to test out the new stuff, I thought it would be a good idea just to wipe it and start over. Yeah, that was a mistake.
The new Deck Builder
It took a couple of days to get a new deck that suited my more aggressive Gadget playstyle sorted. I want her to be tough and less breakable, but getting a balance between damage, health and armour has not been easy. It’s working as intended now, and she’s a lot better in the end-game, but it took some experimentation. I lost quite a few games while testing this.
The other main problem is players without any balls. Some Paragon players are so eager to quit. On Thursday night, I played six games, all of which were lost. Not one single game reached the conclusion. For some reason, players seem to think that there is no way back, even if the other team is only levelling slightly faster in the first 30 minutes of play. If they see the opposition kill count ticking up then the surrender button is pushed.
After a good sleep last night to calm down and remove the RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE, I jumped back in today to see if this was a really common problem. Sadly, it is. I have literally just come out of a game where two players wanted to quit after about 20 minutes. Each side had the same amount of towers down, the opposition was levelling slightly faster, and it was up to our team to stop them pulling away.
After two “surrender” messages came up, I couldn’t hold back and politely typed “more killing less quitting please”. I got no response, so either they were all on a PS4, which could be possible, or they were too embarrassed to fire back a witty retort.
After about another 10 minutes the game was still quite evenly matched and, again, “surrender” pops up. I was incensed at this point. I went back this time and said, “FFS, just play to win and stop quitting.” Again, no response. I was thinking at this point “what tossers”.
The dreaded “Surrender” message.
Time to knuckle down. I am not one for ordering folk around and I am no Paragon expert, but someone needed to take control. For the first time since I started playing, I started to issue some orders. Our Inhibitor was down, so I said “I’ll defend the lane, you all push left. Keep them busy”. What happened next was amazing. They did what I asked!
Things started to change in the match. Our inhibitor returned, and it was time for everyone to pile in and take down two of the opposing inhibitors. At this point, our teams were matched in character levels. It was evening out.
Their left and right inhibitors went down in quick succession and our Super Minions were dashing up the two lanes. Their third middle inhibitor was next, and that fell quite easily. The opposition were concerned about our Super Minions attacking the core at this point.
All three inhibitors were down, all three of ours were still active. We had effectively caught up and turned the game around. We won!
After numerous “surrender” attempts by my other teammates early on, and by sticking in and getting on with the job, victory was ours. This ended my run of losses.
Now, I don’t know what has happened to some players these days, but the willingness to just throw in the towel and quit is alarming. Are the kids these days expecting to be winning all the time? Do they think it’s just easier to give up? It has taken me by surprise. Where has the fighting spirit gone?
Would Winston Churchill have said, “We will fight on the beaches for a bit then we shall always surrender!” No, he wouldn’t. Come on, Paragon players: show some fighting spirit.
I’ll be back soon with another Paragon update. Keep on fighting!
Published: Apr 30, 2016 10:23 pm