Do Masters kill the future temporary leagues for you?

In another thread, that topic was touched on, but it probably should have its own one.

So far, I have pretty much exclusively played temporary leagues, because I like the fresh start, and feel that it's a good opportunity to try out new builds without twinking them. I'm also not a fan of legacy items, and I do enjoy the little challenges in the same way I enjoy achievements: they provide mini objectives and keep the game fresh; they're "something to do".

Sometimes, restarting every few months felt a bit like being trapped in a hamster wheel, but still, since it was always fun and I ended up playing way too much at the start of every new league, it was always worth it. Fun, at the end of the day, is all that matters in a game.

And that brings us to the new Masters system -- the new mechanic aimed at making the game less frustrating and tedious for mostly-solo players, which is the stated focus of this expansion. After two weeks, I can safely conclude for myself that in its current state it is anything but "not frustrating" for this mostly-solo player.

Case in point, I ran 27 maps in a row without encountering Zana even once, and I saw two other Masters in that time. Or rather, one: Haku the Master of Desynchronization, twice. A map takes me about 15 minutes, so that is about seven hours. At that rate (and I may not find her for another dozens of maps), it will indeed be a "multi-year grind" to get her to a higher level. You know, the thing we've been told it wouldn't be.

But anyway, the real issue for me is that I absolutely will not re-do the masters grind every 3-4 months, because it's not fun. For me, this means I'll play the Beyond successor at the end of the year into the next (since I have no HC masters), and then probably stick to Standard or Plain HC. I'm not totally decided on this yet, but if masters need to be re-leveled in temporary leagues (is that even an "if"?), I think that really destroys them for me, much as I love their other aspects. I don't really particularly like to play in Standard, either, which does present a bit of a problem for me.

How do you see this?

I totally agree. It doesn't seem possible for normal players to achieve 8 master's level in 3-4 months and doing all this grind all over again every new league makes me feel depressed. Masters progress should be saved for the next leagues.

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Who says that they will even be in future 3 month leagues? Maybe theyre only in the current ones because many players play them and few play the perm leagues so when these end people will have high lvl masters.

I dont even bother with masters in the challenge leagues because they dont last and i dont need the masters crafting there but in standard and HC where i actually do all the crafting. Challenge leagues to me are a good way of getting some orbs and items stored up and transferred at the end of them.

You do know, that if you have a lvl 3 Haku in the challenge league and a lvl 2 Haku on the parent league the higher level will transfer over at the end.

I too have always played the challenge leagues so far, ignoring standard/HC. But if we have to re-grind the masters with every challenge league, then I'm not so sure I'd play in any future challenge leagues. Especially if the special challenge league feature (like rampage) doesn't add anything to the game. Worst case would probably even be that they make masters show up less often once this league is over (like they did with corrupted zones), that would definitely seal the deal for me and keep me away from any future challenge leagues. What I hope is that the masters and hideout will become a shared thing between all leagues, but I'm not keeping my hopes up.

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Corodix wrote:

I too have always played the challenge leagues so far, ignoring standard/HC. But if we have to re-grind the masters with every challenge league, then I'm not so sure I'd play in any future challenge leagues. Especially if the special challenge league feature (like rampage) doesn't add anything to the game. Worst case would probably even be that they make masters show up less often once this league is over (like they did with corrupted zones), that would definitely seal the deal for me and keep me away from any future challenge leagues. What I hope is that the masters and hideout will become a shared thing between all leagues, but I'm not keeping my hopes up.

And take all the competition out of Challenge Leagues?
Sure would be fair if one guy has Master at level X right from the start and the next guy doesn't.

For example Elreons Rings/Amulets with -Mana Cost is pretty op in early game.

I recon casual player can bring masters to level 6 easily just playing the game. I wanted to go for lvl 8 with them but from the level of grind involved (Atziri shards sort of thing again) I can't be bothered. So I will just play the game and if I get some missions meanwhile, great. If not I won't be disappointed.
What can really kill temporary leagues for me are the mods.

Well first my only goal is beat uber atziri in 3 month allotment. Which you won't do with masters modded gear. Maybe the six socket guy but thats a terrible return rate on investment so I wont use him anyway. Don't care about points or flame avatars or anything else. So no masters have a insignificant bearing on my game play. Just lower lvling gear really.

Why can't people just ignore those damn masters ... There's no "need" to do them. Just play the old way if you liked it better ...

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Why can't people just ignore those damn masters ... There's no "need" to do them. Just play the old way if you liked it better ...

Because one of their chief purposes is to make the game more accessible for "casuals" (nothing in this game is even remotely "casual"), solo players, and everyone else. Crafting, socketing, linking was not more fun before -- in fact, it was frustrating as all hell --, which is the very issue that the masters system was meant to address. They are meant to be the fix.

It actually does address the situation, at least in a way, but not in the temporary leagues, you see.