My 2 cents on the Test Your Metal (TYM) event | Forums

[Ashkendar]

So I (among what I presume many others) came back after Ubisoft finally launched dedicated servers, making the game playable and enjoyable for me.

I was exhiliarated when I found out there is an ongoing PvE event, namely TYM.
While I enjoy PvP and play it more often than not, winding down by just slaying some bots after a day of work (you know, wanting to just feel like a god instead of the back and forth that PvP is) is sometimes just what I need. And coming back I figured I should try myself vs bots before going into a proper PvP matchup as I haven't played in a long time.

Boy was I wrong.

After having beaten TYM just once in what must be more than 30 tries (is there any ingame statistic to verify my number?) and being hardcarried in that one try by a really good player I am hugely disappointed by the event. Let me tell you why:

1. In my humble opinion time limited events are something everyone should be able to take part in, beginners, long time veterans, bad players and good players. Is this the case here? No, absolutely not! The bots are extremely hard to beat (I am gonna say impossible for non veteran players) having more hp, movesets that no other heroes in the game seem to have and godlike reaction times on higher levels. Are they unbeatable? No. Will any player on the lower end of the skill spectrum spend more time dead than alive and being a burden to his team (you know, forcing mates to fight 1v2 out of a sudden) Hell yes.

So while any player surely can queue up for the event for most it simply isn't a viable alternative as you will be killed over and over without any positive impact on the game.

This leads to my second point:

2. Skill based matchmaking: I may be wrong here, but I get the feeling that this game mode matches players according to their skill levels (just like any other game mode). While this is a good way of matchmaking for any other mode in TYM it is horrible. Why you may ask? Look back at my first point and notice what I said about bad players not being able to enjoy the mode because they get roflstomped everytime? Mixing players of skill levels would allow them to at least be carried (at the expense of the good players but they might actually enjoy the challenge?) but like this you put 4 random low skilled people into a game having them run over by the bots over and over again. It's kinda like throwing toddlers into a lion pit.

3. Bugs and unfair bot tactics

While I know that these are probably not intentional those can ruin the game even more. I remember being on TYM 1 in round 5, the final round only to have it start off with the enemy (Apo) using her T4 feat calldown on me while I was still in the round start animation preventing me from moving and instakilling me (I played a Shinobi). Yeah thanks, I got totally outplayed there. Just dodge I guess? This happened several other times as well (the Shugoki being the worst and most noticable offender for some reason). Just now I ragequit, (for the first time) because I was laddercamped by the Kensei bot. He sat atop of a ladder knocking me down when I tried to get up there
and not moving anywhere else. Very encouraging to play against.

4. Making this thing a community event for steel and including it in orders

Now all this might be ignored by saying "Just don't play it".
I admit: I wouldn't. After my first 5 tries I said to myself "**** it" there is 0 fun in this mode I am not playing it.
Guess I didn't consider Ubis move to give me several different orders that include killing heroes, and then on top of it making it a community event for 2.5 million takedowns (2.5 million? are you serious?).

All of this leads me to believe that this can be very detrimental to what could be an influx in playerbase after the release of the dedicated servers.
Why? Well considering this makes veterans return and possibly attracts new players that shyed away due to ne negative P2P publicity the game had before those are bound to try out the new mode as one of the first things they do as a) its PvE (which is normally something easy and forgiving for new players) and b) its included in steel giving orders and c) it's included in a community event people will want to take part in (hence "community).
Now guess what will happen? The game will be spitting in their faces, taunting them with "salty" emotes and frustrate them from the getgo. This mode won't give them the feeling to slowly get into the game but the "you won't get anywhere" feeling.

What I suggest to change this?
Well it's pretty easy: make several levels of difficulty, you have shown that it is obviously possible to increase the difficulty with TYM II in comparison to TYM I. Why not introduce difficulty levels just like you did in the campaign. Easy, Normal, Hard, and maybe even realistic with no battle UI for those masochists out there. You won't be taking anything away from those players that like the challenge (the current level of difficulty should be hard imo) but instead you'll enable more people (including myself) to enjoy the mode and giving us the feeling to be able to take part in a community event instead of just leeching from it.

(Also: please gift me a new keyboard. my first RQ as stated above made me break it)
PS: I had to force my self not to include any swear words in this text.

[UbiJurassic]

Thanks for sharing the feedback, Ashkendar. I'll be sure to make a note of the suggestion you've made at the bottom.

To provide a bit more clarity to your points though, it should be noted that with Week 2 now active, the event mode is now harder than it was last week. It's certainly a mode that is not best suited for the inexperienced and will only increase in difficulty even further in Week 3.

Most of the bots behaviors should feel familiar to most players that have either played the campaign or played against the multiplayer heroes that these bosses are based on. However, being campaign bosses, they will have various moves that some players may not be familiar with or know how to counter. Additionally, as you win more rounds of the mode, certain attributes will change about them requiring you to adapt your playstyle as you go. For example, Week 1 Gudmundr would gain super armor on all his attacks by Round 3. This changes how you would want to approach him, as you could no longer use counter-attacking as a viable strategy without tanking some damage yourself.

With that in mind, it definitely can be daunting for a new player to attempt completing the mode without a solid team to back them up. The mode is intended to be a challenge for players, hence why it's called "Test Your Metal."

[Vakris_One]

If you're having a tough time with TYM I recommend using the Highlander. His celtic curse mixup confuses most of the bots and they end up getting hit allowing you to then follow up with kick cancel into caber toss which is a guarranteed hit on all of the bots - they don't believe in rolling away from it, for now. Rinse and repeat for the win. The only one that can dodge it sometimes is Runa (the Valkyrie) so just make sure to delay it enough against her so you catch her. Ragnar (Raider) and Seijuro (the green Orochi) in particular are ridiculously easy to destroy with Highlander's guard crushes as both of them mostly just throw out predictable attacks and telegraph their GB attempts like giant glowing neon signs saying "Ima GB u now."

Second best class to use is the Shugo as long as your parry game is on point. After any parry just light + headbutt. He literally puts most of them into OOS from just a single parry. Then charge up a side heavy and let rip for huge damage on the OOS bot who can't dodge far enough away from it. Refresh your health any time you need to by throwing them against a wall and doing demon's embrace - note: this won't work on the Shugo bot (Kizan) because he gets the rocksteady feat from the 2nd or 3rd fight onwards, meaning he doesn't get stunned by wallsplat. Him you'll just have to put into OOS + charge unblockable heavy him to death.

If you're on PC feel free to add me and I can help get you some salty bot tears. My Uplay id is: Vakris_One

[Okita_Soji..]

I agree that it is not beginner friendly and sorry but it is nice that way. I like the harder challenge of the AI. I play vs level 3 bots all the time in dominion or tribute and they never come close to winning, barely do the bots get past 500 points in a game. I'm an average player and I'll go 10-1 in pve then feel good and go into pvp and I'm 5-5. Quite humbling, the normal tricks that work on AI don't work on humans and vise verse. Two different ways of playing. Same goes for this mode, TYM, some bosses I can all out attack and some I have to play it safe. Learning their new moves was fun in the 1st week as they have crazy UB attacks which I haven't seen in a long time.

For players my level or that I get paired with I think we can handle them as I think are like level 4 or 5 bots. Sure some games I see players that it says are on par with my skill get wrecked. I lost my first 3 games last night. I was second in score and kills and I was paired with one good teammate. He and I would kill our foes but the other 2 usually died before either of us could help. We ended up loosing the games each in the last round. It was nice fighting back to back in 2v2 or 2v3 scenarios. Then some people left and partnered with new help my side won the next 5 games. Getting used to how they fight is definitely different than humans. They don't really use cheap tricks or spam moves. Apollyon did tri to blow me up at the start of a round, but I saw it and rolled out which did fire me up to crush her. I haven't lost to her since my first few encounters as I didn't know those UB hit so hard and got tagged.

Excited to play this more this week and can't wait to see if I can handle them in week 3. Last night was the first time I lost a game in TYM. They do test you and I think that is good. Maybe if they keep this mode they could make the difficulty selectable so new people can play it. But if you play the campaign you should be somewhat familiar with them just more health. Keep trying it.

[Veerdin-Wraith]

I'll chime in here with some thoughts of my own on Week 2:

It feels, to me, that many of the "strengths" the enemies now have are very unfair. Gudmundr in particular has ludicrous amounts of HP past round 2! It's one thing to make a character tough, it's quite another to make them impossible to take down under normal circumstances! Attacks that should be able to at least take a chunk out of him are about as effective as hitting the guy with a wet noodle! This wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't already a massively defensive character. Once he's powered up a bit, Gudmundr becomes almost impossible to hit under normal means, and when you do hit him, it's almost always not worth it.

Pair that up with his hyperarmour burst, and suddenly you're trading hits with somebody who could probably survive a point-blank nuclear strike and who can half a Heavy's HP in one combo. And as if that wasn't bad enough? They always, always pop revenge the moment their HP gets even a bit low.

The only way I've been able to reliably beat some of the bots in Week 2 has been, if I'm honest here, by cheesing them. Getting lucky with a Demon's Embrace on Shugoki, kicking them off ledges (of which there are very few) and good old fashioned ganking. Some of the characters are fine - Ragnar, for instance. He hits hard past round 3 but he's not "unfair" per say. You can still kill him. But Gudmundr absorbs hits so much he might as well be a literal Panzer tank.

Pair this up with the bosses constantly running away to boost themselves, popping revenge multiple times in one fight (I've seen Gudmundr pop revenge twice during a 1v1 before, it takes that long to kill him) and reviving eachother, and suddenly it goes from "challenging" to downright annoying and frustrating.

And then you have attacks that just don't make any sense. I don't know what the hell it is Runa does where she blocks your attack and makes you bleed, but as far as I can tell? There's no way to predict or counter it. You just bleed, no way around it. Then you have things like the bosses calling down arrow strikes or throwing fire flasks while in the setup animation and you have fights that can end before they even start.

[NinjaRonin85]

I like the event it really shows you what classes are weak, try using warlord in this event do your heavy and watch them lose 1 bar of health lol

[Veerdin-Wraith]

I'm fighting the vikings right now on round 6 as the Shugoki. And I have to say, being killed in 3 hits after popping a defensive buff? That doesn't seem... right to me.

[Vakris_One]

I'll chime in here with some thoughts of my own on Week 2:

It feels, to me, that many of the "strengths" the enemies now have are very unfair. Gudmundr in particular has ludicrous amounts of HP past round 2! It's one thing to make a character tough, it's quite another to make them impossible to take down under normal circumstances! Attacks that should be able to at least take a chunk out of him are about as effective as hitting the guy with a wet noodle! This wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't already a massively defensive character. Once he's powered up a bit, Gudmundr becomes almost impossible to hit under normal means, and when you do hit him, it's almost always not worth it.

Pair that up with his hyperarmour burst, and suddenly you're trading hits with somebody who could probably survive a point-blank nuclear strike and who can half a Heavy's HP in one combo. And as if that wasn't bad enough? They always, always pop revenge the moment their HP gets even a bit low.

The only way I've been able to reliably beat some of the bots in Week 2 has been, if I'm honest here, by cheesing them. Getting lucky with a Demon's Embrace on Shugoki, kicking them off ledges (of which there are very few) and good old fashioned ganking. Some of the characters are fine - Ragnar, for instance. He hits hard past round 3 but he's not "unfair" per say. You can still kill him. But Gudmundr absorbs hits so much he might as well be a literal Panzer tank.

Pair this up with the bosses constantly running away to boost themselves, popping revenge multiple times in one fight (I've seen Gudmundr pop revenge twice during a 1v1 before, it takes that long to kill him) and reviving eachother, and suddenly it goes from "challenging" to downright annoying and frustrating.

And then you have attacks that just don't make any sense. I don't know what the hell it is Runa does where she blocks your attack and makes you bleed, but as far as I can tell? There's no way to predict or counter it. You just bleed, no way around it. Then you have things like the bosses calling down arrow strikes or throwing fire flasks while in the setup animation and you have fights that can end before they even start.

If you parry Gudmundr's attacks he becomes pretty straightforward to kill. Parry > hit, throw out a GB on him every now and then. Rinse and repeat.

Runa's spear pin bleed is the Valkyrie's version of a deflect. Not many players use it because unlike Runa's inflated damage numbers the damage it dishes out in the normal game isn't worth the risk unless maybe you have a Shaman teammate who is ready to do a bite after the Valk deflect.

Bosses calling down arrow strikes is indeed a bit cheaty sometimes. I've seen Tozen call down an arrow strike from across the entire map on a player he has no way of getting line of sight on because 2 tall buildings were between him and the player.

[bob333e]

If you parry Gudmundr's attacks he becomes pretty straightforward to kill. Parry > hit, throw out a GB on him every now and then. Rinse and repeat.

Runa's spear pin bleed is the Valkyrie's version of a deflect. Not many players use it because unlike Runa's inflated damage numbers the damage it dishes out in the normal game isn't worth the risk unless maybe you have a Shaman teammate who is ready to do a bite after the Valk deflect.

Bosses calling down arrow strikes is indeed a bit cheaty sometimes. I've seen Tozen call down an arrow strike from across the entire map on a player he has no way of getting line of sight on because 2 tall buildings were between him and the player.

I confirm Tozen uses Arrow Strike from afar, literally from the other edge of the map. Also he and Ranja will use the longbow straight in your face. Happened with me, I captured the footage, have yet to share it. I survived. It's so funny.

@Veerdin-Wraith I have posted up a recent video on a thread in General Discussion where I kick Gudmundr's arse, as Vakris pointed out your best bet is a good parrying game and you'll put him down solo. Just be careful of his Revenge when it pops.

https://forums.ubi.com/showthread.ph...arry-amp-Parry

Gudmundr is a hard match-up because he'll take more time. I can see how less skilled players have trouble with him because they tend to try and rush him down because of his tanky HP, and it just won't work.

I'm very much looking forward to week 3. ^^ can't wait for the ultimate challenge.

[Ashkendar]

I agree that it is not beginner friendly and sorry but it is nice that way.

Nothing to be sorry about. And it is totally normal that people who are good at fighting vs AI get a challenge. But making this a timed event everyone wants (and is supposed) to take part in while not giving players at the lower end of the spectrum the ability to take part is simply a horrible move. (As for them this is just a "spectate my 3 members getting rekt by 4 bots" simulator).