Last week, I did an examination of how many games of For Honor it could take you to get maxed-level, heroic gear in For Honor, and it was … a lot. In fact, that number could have been a lot higher, as I counted only the number of games in Dominion, because that was the most profitable in terms of Steel earned, and I only counted the number of games it would take you after you reached Reputation 3 and after you got all the pieces of gear required.
As many people pointed out, though, I left out Daily Orders (challenges that net you bonus Steel). While some people would call this ignorance, I left it out intentionally. Because, although Daily Orders can give you up to 600 Steel per day, which goes a long way toward acquiring and upgrading gear, it is a fundamentally flawed system that doesn't provide a truly reliable and enjoyable way of gaining steel.
Besides the fact that Daily Orders often require you to play multiple games for completion (anywhere from 1-5, I'd wager, depending on the specific challenge), adding to the total number of games needed for max gear level, there are two main problems with them: many of them require you to play games against the A.I., (I don't know about you, but I certainly didn't shell out $60 to be forced into boring bot matches), and the fact that elimination and skirmish modes were lumped together into one matchmaking queue. This means that, if I had a Daily Order for Elimination, I'd have to queue for Elimination or Skirmish, and I'd, more often than not, get Skirmish.
Last night, though, Ubisoft responded to fan feedback and decided to split those modes into separate matchmaking queues. Not only will this create a better user experience for those who just want to play the mode they want, but it's a step toward decreasing For Honor's Pay-To-Win factor because it makes earning Steel through Daily Orders slightly easier.
Now, they still have to deal with the problem of A.I. matches. Die-hard fans will defend this, but it's really indefensible. I'm paying $60 for a multiplayer-focused game, where player-versus-player is the premier aspect, and you're telling me that, in order to keep pace with people who can afford to spend more, I have to play bot matches, which in any game, and For Honor is no exception, is an inherently worse experience. Now, I understand that there are certainly normies out there or people who get ladder anxiety, so to speak, but there should at least be an option for people to opt out of A.I.-focused Daily Orders.
I get that For Honor is a skills-based game, first and foremost. But Heroic Gear gives players an overall advantage, making it so, all skills being equal, the person with the highest-level Heroic Gear will win. For Honor has a long way to go to correct that image, but separating Elimination and Skirmish modes was a positive first step.
