[Level9Drow]

Well to be fair, Alicia, especially with the new Novera, is especially effective against mooks. If you noticed ALL I was doing was staying in the air as much as possible, removing the possibility for melee attacks. I did not want to touch the ground at all. And even then, the Hollow One shot guns would constantly stun and ground me, I would have to jump again when they reloaded. I also have the rare card for regen 100 after 3 seconds with her, so I would heal while escaping very fast.

 I grouped with you after all the losses at 45% - 50% getting dominated by mooks and chose her out of exasperation, lol. That was my first win for the day. I consider that the exception, not the rule.

[Quanrian]

Unfortunately, I am not sure how much of the changes I am seeing since I tend to play with newer players enough that it grounds the difficulty. Since the changes, I am not sure even PC players are hitting those higher percentages like they used to. I see two reasons why they might have pulled ahead. First, they simply are running better hardware and that can 'smooth' out the gameplay in subtle but important ways. Second, those really high percentage players tended to be dedicated group players and I do mean for very long periods of time so even after the increase they still remained quite high.

To me, it seems most people will cap around 50 and that's basically the equivalent to Hard difficulty if you solo. Realistically, most will start dying a lot just in the 30's. Ultimately, it boils down to if you want to win often or have a sufficient challenge for your skill level. If you want to win more often, grouping with extremely skilled players can actually work against you unless you can pull just as much weight as they can. Conversely, you might find yourself getting bored after a while because honestly at lower difficulties the game can be quite breezy.

[Level9Drow]

I'm fine with breezy. I have fun, kick ass as a hero, relax and earn rewards. As an older gamer I'm not enamored by "epeen" and am used to games that are more about fun then being high strung. Just because something is stressful and intense doesn't mean it's fun as well.

You know you mentioned a good core group. I often group with a few people who are fairly decent. We start getting many successes in a row and in the back of my head I think, "Wel crap, I know the ELO system is going to make me pay for this later. I'm going to regret all these wins." And I do, I hit 45% - 50% either with them or alone, then everyone gets jaded and upset, people at that point after hitting the "plateau" are more inclined to "call it a night" and leave group. And then as individuals, we're stuck for the next day on a losing streak.

It's strange, isn't it. It's more like paying a toll after winning so much. You know you will be punished after the wins and there isn't anything you can do about it. So then you log in just to take your lumps for your wins and there isn't any way around it. A very bi-polar system. At that point I just want to hurry up and lose to get back to the fun difficulty. It promotes jaded and apathetic effort at that point.

I can't stress this enough; you need to be able to control your own difficulty. Reduce the rewards for lower difficulties, I'm fine with that, it's fair. I'd rather slowly grind in comfort than rapidly leap ahead in constant aggravation. At the end of the day, what value does the rewards have if you aren't even having fun playing the game? This is why i left Overwatch. After the allure of the loot boxes, I left because all there is in that game is PvP, toxicity and tilting. I didn't care if I won the rarest skin from a loot box if I had to keep doing THAT every day.

BUT!!!! Q, I want to thank you for you awesome insight though. You are a very dedicated player with a very great attitude, much more than this cynic here. You are a delight to run with in game and don't let my opinion change your attitude. This is just my tastes, that's all. I express my feeling sbecause I love this game.