Perfectly summed up right there.
As it is, I’ve sworn off SL. I deployed my way to the Glacius mimic skin and I’m out. Wasted potential with the ball bustingly messed up AI.
Nice. Be thankful yours was a 30 win skin, and not the 100. The worst are the guest ones that are beat Gargos 5 to 15 times
I am going for all of the skins that you don’t need Gargos for. I will do them after he is toned back down
Yeah I wanted the Shago one that’s 100 but I can’t do it, at first I thought I’d just grind out Gargos on normal but I can’t even beat him. Its not worth it.
This sums it up perfectly.
After 4 attempts… I gotta say, I sort of agree. Granted, I’ve been playing on Challenging because I want that stage, but my losses to C.Gargos were identically brutal as first loss to N.Gargos. Killer Guardians, 25% Nanobots, maybe better consumable choices(?), but man, it’s rough. It seems like the AI in general has a tendency to fall for flipout>command grab, so maybe RAAM+Snake+something to help guarantee Kryll?
Considering the stage is locked behind whether or not you can slay the almighty gargoyle, I wouldn’t mind a de-buff to the AI. It looks like one that won’t lag to hell on my fossil rig (which are rare).
What killed me my first playthrough was the realization that SL Gargos has some bizarre moves that playable Gargos does not. I kept getting hit with his st.HK pillar-made-halfscreen-projectile, then tele-dunked with what looked like a HK Reversal and Izuna Drop as the same move. I was confused, then dead.
So far, with 4 buffs removed, I’ve managed a total of 50% of his first lifebar… with all 3 characters.
In short, I feel you, brother.
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I think the main problem for some players trying shadow lords is that they aren’t playing the game in the way it was designed to be played, we are rushing in with our characters, just to get collectables, or jumping to Gargos just for the challenge without actually going through the mode, trying to learn and experiment with certain buffs/guardian combinations to find what suits your character and playing style…
I’ve watched more than a few streams and players are going in with no buffs, whatever guardian is fed, and trying to use VS/Online/Ranked fighting approach in “very hard/hard missions”… Not sure how many people that has commented thus far had beta access, but one thing I figured out while I did was I need to use the right items, buffs, and guardian partner for different challenges, We are being prideful and trying to minimize help from items when what we should be doing is using any and every advantage we can…
example:
Why apply 150% more damage for projectiles for three days on TJ?
Has anyone tried Vampire Bat in combination with the 15 sec unblockable moves buff, while already applying the full instinct and double shadow artifacts?
There are a few more subtle combination of buffs, guardian & artifact combos that really make a huge difference… It also does take some practice to determine the most appropriate character, time and challenge to apply these scenarios…
The point of the mode is for you to be able to play it over and over finding new ways to fight, each time perfecting our strategy, The AI is meant to be unpredictable & frustrating etc, I think most players are approaching it as 1 - gain 100% unlockables, 2 - Run through all difficulties, 3 - Beat Gargos (No Buffs - Some Buffs - All Buffs)
There lies the problem and source of most frustrations
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I played the hell out of the early release build and know how to play KI yet I’m still struggling.
I can’t speak for everyone because there are surely some people who are rushing in uninformed but I have killer guardians and the best consumables and Gargos is still nearly unbeatable for me.
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trust me bro, it can be done, do you know what I’ve learned also… again I’m speaking for myself but my main is Jago… bread and butter, go-to, trust him with my life… BUT, to beat Gargos especially, takes a team of three or atleast Two really good characters… that’s where I fall short, Aganos & Omen/Shago/Rash are probably my next choices, but im no where as good with them as I am with Jago, that means im doomed, because unless I can use three Jago, im probably not scratching Gargos with anyone else, thus its made me seriously go back to the drawing board and be more serious with my secondary choices… which when I finally do gain success, will make me curious to try more and more combinations, and improve on more characters to do so… I believe this is what this mode is all about and it’s soo exciting to me, try my optimistic approach, take the challenge as a challenge to be motivated to get better… not saying your not a killer player already but there’s always better…
also just the killer guardians & best consumables alone may not of helped you so far, maybe its about finding a better combination of buffs that will be your key to victory, just keep going, take your time, exhaust every possible angle and you’ll have fun on the road to beating that winged monkey demon
For example even if you don’t main fulgore using the unblock able hype beam consumable would be a great addition to a final gargos fight
yea, I’ve been using Fulgore, and I’m thinking Aganos will be my final choice but I’m trying out right now
Omg dat aganos unblockable super punch though? The infinite shadow payload? Unblockable full screen club yeah aganos sounds like he can really abuse the consumables
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yep, also regenerative armor, on top of his own
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The issue some have is why are some of us struggling on “a mode designed for beginners” . No experienced player should be using perfect guardians on this level to pass it. We are not talking about the godlike or the challenge mode. Just that normal mode is alot harder than it should be.
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I haven’t been able to play the new SL mode, but I watched Max play on Challenging last night on stream (the absolute minimum difficulty you can pick to earn the Astral stage).
It was pretty crazy. First frame reactions with instant shadow moves that did 25% (I suppose he had a damage buff on him, though), breaks a ton of combos with counter breakers or mixups not being an option, and if the dice rolls don’t go your way, you’re donezo. I’d consider Max well above average in terms of fighting game skill, especially against fighting game AI because of all his Boss Rage stuff he does. If he gets massively dunked like that, I’d say there are some calibration issues going on here. Remember, you’re asking regular players to beat this boss to get the one unlockable they care about. And Max had done 4-5 hours of playing through the SL mode to get to that point, with no chance to try again unless he starts over.
There is no real practice that can be done against AI. There is “playing better” in some sense (ie, not doing silly things), but after a point, no amount of KI skill can help you beat a tuned AI. You can’t use better reactions. You can’t apply better mixups that would fool human players. They just play completely outside the rules. I like the crazy stuff Gargos was doing that regular Gargos can’t do… that stuff is great, because it really brings out the boss feel. But without Shadows AI being an option, you’re basically playing a complicated game of dice rolls, and it seems they are maybe rigged a bit too much against the player on non-Godlike difficulties right now.
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Honestly, that’s really what I want.
I complained about the AI a lot during the beta, but it seems here like they’ve tuned it up to Kyle difficulty, thus making it worse. Like I said in a previous post, I have perfect killer guardians for everyone and leftover epic items out the wazoo with my BEST CHARACTERS, but even still it seems like I lose at least one fight per turn no matter how I try to work it. I’m on Godlike, mind you, so I can understand that, but if this is on Challenging and Normal as well, that’s a problem.
Did they bump the difficulties up to Ultimate/Kyle? Because it honestly feels like I’m fighting Shadow Jago’s AI every fight.
They break as soon as they can and never fall for any counterbreaker attempts, they turtle as hard as possible and always tech your throws, and they even taunt just like Shago does when you’re farther away.
I’m fine with crazy souped up Gargos, but if the AI is the same throughout each difficulty, that needs to be tweaked.
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My thoughts exactly.
Get perfected on Godlike? Good. It’s supposed to make you suffer.
On Normal though? With a pocket full of buffs and some Perfect Killer Guardians? Something seems kinda odd.
If Challenging difficulty makes someone like Max sweat, it’s gonna he pretty rough on the average player.
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One of the things that keeps frustrating me is getting suggestions from the community on how to beat Gargos. While I appreciate it and know everyone is doing their best to help out and they are coming from a place of kindness with the tips, its a little irritating because the fundamental problem is with the difficulty being broken, not our ability to overcome the cheapness. Again, thanks to everyone who offers a hand and tries to help its more than appreciated however…
The people who aren’t struggling with the mode think its all good and offer help to those who are but no level of instruction is going to help a C+ player beat a AAA boss that’s been smoking meth all night and bench pressing the tons of salt excreted because of this broken mode.
What I wouldn’t give to be so good at this game that I couldn’t even see what’s wrong with this fiasco.
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This might be my favorite phrase I’ve ever read. Lol 
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I have faced Gargos twice so far, both times on challenging. The first time he had one buff removed, killer guardians, wolf hearts, but wasn’t rolling with my A list… and absolutely destroyed me. I would think I would at least make a dent, after all I wasn’t exactly flailing about with the other AI, but no he triple perfected me. The second time I brought my A list and removed all his buffs and I almost had him, got him down to his red bar with my first, took out half of that with my second, and for the third he decided to pop out a “who’s your daddy?” round and just destroyed me again without being able to make another dent…& my third was my main: Gargos!
And I’ll say this: I’m no scrub. On ranked I’m a killer and while my highest rank has been around 800ish I have fought against those in the top 32 and won a fight or 2, so I’m nowhere near incompetent.
If you ask me, this experience would be fine for Godlike, given my skill level. Challenging I would expect to usually take a guy and a half if he had a couple of buffs on, and normal maybe one guy with all buffs. That’s what I would consider fair and fun.
Aside from that from what I’ve played of the AI I see 2 major problems that I seem to deal with every time (and I’m sure I’m not saying anything new)
-
When either players’ health bar drops to about a third of the red bar the AI seems to ramp up its difficulty and starts giving perfect reads to counter anything thrown at it. I don’t know how many times I have been nearly at full health and then been completely shut out until I lost by an AI that was until that switch playing completely braindead.
That needs to be done away with. -
It seems like the AI breaks on random based on frame data, which is fine, but how about they put in a reaction delay, say about the length of time an average human would be capable of reacting to a break attempt, whether it be for breaking or being broken…or hell even a counter breaker attempt.
Make it commit to making a break as early as a human would, so that counter breakers would actually land.
Honestly I really think these 2 things would improve the AI soooo much.
…btw sorry for the wall of text
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I started referring to the danger health as “magic time”. The reason i say this is because they do some truly amazing things when you put then in danger. The blocking goes up to about 98%. They will shadow counter everything possible, and combo break on first frame. It is so bad that now I will drop a combo to avoid putting them in danger, if the combo ender will pit them in danger. The only time I put them in danger is if i know the next move is my ultra. Here is my tip: don’t put the AI in danger health unless you can ultra or finish the bar