Sanctuary of Gargolyes Challenge Event - Feedback / Balance discussion

This thread is for discussing whether Sanctuary of Gargoyles event is well-balanced, or whether you think it need to be easier or harder.

This thread is NOT for general discussion of Sanctuary of Gargoyles event. For that, please see: 🪨 [MASTER] Sanctuary of Gargolyes Challenge Event – Guides, Discussion & Summoning Results



:bar_chart: Poll

  • I think Sanctuary of Gargoyles event is reasonably well-balanced overall
  • I think Sanctuary of Gargoyles event is too easy, and it should be harder
  • I think Sanctuary of Gargoyles event is too hard, and it should be easier
  • I’m not sure yet

0 voters

If you voted that the event is too hard, then please choose what do you think what is the primary thing that should be changed to make it more balanced ?

  • The boss stats are too high. They should be lower.
  • Just the last stage was to hard. Only it needs rebalancing.
  • The boss skills were too OP. They need to be tuned down in the event as a boss.
  • The Stonskin buff made impossible to kill the bosses. Remove this buff.
  • The event effect’s damage reduction is too high. It should be lower .
  • Other event effect’s made it difficult. They should reduced / removed.
  • Something else (please ellaborate in a comment)

0 voters

If you voted that the event is too easy, then please choose what do you think what is the primary thing that should be changed to make it more balanced?

  • The boss stats are too low. They should be higher.
  • The boss skill’s effects were too low. They need to be increased in the event as a boss.
  • Increase Stonskin buff which is triggered by the event.
  • The event effect’s damage reduction is too low. It should be higher.
  • Add new or increase existing event effects.
  • Something else (please ellaborate in a comment)

0 voters


:speaking_head: Discussion

  • If you think Sanctuary of Gargoyles is well-balanced, too hard, or too easy — why?

  • Are there specific, concrete suggestions you’d make to the game designers to alter Sanctuary of Gargoyles ? Or are there specific reasons you think they should remain unchanged?


Purpose of this thread:

To provide an aggregate place for the topic here on the forum; thus preventing there being a million threads popping up. And to provide an actual set of impartial votes rather than a #ideas-feature-requests which has no real voting.

In short, to neaten the forum and to give players and outlet for their thoughts on this event’s balance without bogging down the rest of the forum or the other Sanctuary of Gargoyles thread.

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There already is some discussion in this thread.

But thanks like always for the great polls. :+1:

And although I think, overall the event is balanced I can understand and also support that those bosses, especially in the last epic levels don’t work.
They are extremely hard to kill and on the same time their special are devastating.

I mean I won’t bother if nothing changes, and most of the time I also like a good challenge, but if there is too much frustration for too many people that’s not healthy for the game itself.

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@u2371 have asked for this topic so I have added it.

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There are many great threads and advices about this event on the forum, but ultimately, I feel that each Challenge Event should be player friendly.

When I was just starting out playing this game, I didn´t expect to be able to finish Epic and Legendary. But I hoped and expected to be able to do Rare, which I could, back then, even without ‘key heroes’ (mana controllers etc.)

I would urge that these new events are made with new players in mind as well, so they too can feel that they are part of the player segment, that have the focus of the developers.
Otherwise one risks loosing them, if they are left with a feeling of “I´m just not who the game is made for”.

I would like to suggest, that Rare and Epic are made less unforgiving, and Legendary will be the big challenge - that not all might be able to complete.

I am sure it is possible to cater to both the end game players, as well as the new players.

We are all in this together. :sailboat:

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My $0.02:

Once I understood how the stoneskin meter worked in Sanctuary of Gargoyles and that you could manipulate it to your favor, I found this event much more reasonable and was able to complete it, but it still wasn’t easy. But that’s fine, it’s a challenge event after all. But i have been playing a while and have a good selection of heroes that worked specifically for this event. That said, I think the last level presents a huge jump in difficulty that could be very hard to overcome for many, and players who have been playing a few months to a year (or even more, if they don’t have the ‘right’ heroes) may find it impossible to complete the last stage of epic or perhaps even rare in this event. So I voted ‘too hard’ and ‘the last level needs rebalancing’. I actually thought stages 1-9 were fine as is, and reasonably balanced.

Villains, Slayers and the Circus Rare difficulty all seem to be of reasonable difficulty to me. But in addition to Gargoyles Epic 10, i feel Villains and Slayers Epic stage 10 specifically also have this same problem. The jump in difficulty at the last stage is huge due to much higher stats of the bosses. Of the new events, the last stage of Circus Epic and the Challenge Festival seem to be ‘on par’ with the difficulty of the old events.

What’s interesting to me also is that it seems like very little has changed at the very top with those who choose to compete. it’s basically the same teams and same strategy every time, even with the new mechanics.

but for the rest of us, i feel like the last stage on a few of the new events could really be toned down a notch.

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Last couple stages were crazy difficult. Been playing 7 months and hadn’t seen Gargoyle event before. Once I figured out the stone skin I was able to finally finish but it was very difficult for my heroes and I couldn’t have succeeded if the three epic crew I was using with my two legendaries had not been limit broken. I would have liked more explanation on the stone skin and how it worked. Maybe less health boost from stone skin would have been helpful. It was fun to finally win.

I did not struggle to complete the event, but I also haven’t struggled to complete content in this game. First ninja tower and one aether quest have been my biggest struggles since Knights of Avalon 3 years ago).
I’ve been playing for three years so I have a solid roster even though I’m f2p and don’t have access to everyone.

Gargoyles is easily the toughest challenge event. The stoneskin really limits your ability to blast through the enemies, but I still found to be that to be the most effectively strategy because of how hard those enemies hit.

New players (let’s just say year 1) won’t be able to complete or at least probably won’t. I don’t feel too bad there because I couldn’t complete every event in my first year and they’re clearly growing.

Those that have been around longer I generally feel should be able to complete. There are a few reasons why they may not.
Poor hero options comes to mind. You may have bad luck. You may not prioritize the correct portals. You may not prioritize the right heroes. Now these prioritizations might just mean you prioritize heroes for something other than challenge events. Why else is someone leveling Khagan?
Treevil was huge for me here. Could I do it without him? Probably. Same way I completed without Franz. But if you’re missing Treevil, and emblems on these heroes, and aethers it starts to add up in a way you can’t overcome. Can you prioritize for next challenge event?

The other thing is “skill”. I’m not saying everyone who didn’t complete lacks skill. I have liked the new mechanics here and in towers that change the conventional wisdom. “Just use Proteus” is the oldest advice in this game and I fear too many relied on it. I see folks talk about their rainbow teams they used in challenge events and wonder if they even understand the elemental reflection?
Does everyone understand the stoneskin effects? It certainly took me quite a few levels to figure it out.
Do people understand how to make it through challenge events in the first place?

I wish I knew how to help those who didn’t complete better.

All together, the event probably is too hard. Or at least the rewards for completion come too late compared to the struggle. I wouldn’t have a problem with the difficulty if you got 10% of the rewards with each stage or say had most of them by the last level (similar to how ninja tower rewards are).

If anything I would tone down the attack of bosses in those last stages. If they can’t one shot you, that’s a great start.

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I don’t mind challenging… But my roster today barely got through the event… Last years roster would have been toast. And i have a good roster.

I agree, there’s usually a big difference in difficulty at the last level. I feel they’re doing that on purpose to encourage players spending gems to finish? After all, you’re so close, and you managed all the other levels, but it will all have been for naught if you don’t make that last one…

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Initially I didn’t really like the mechanics but that was from a pretty selfish perspective of thinking I’d need to use a lot more items….and I’m super sensitive on item use…

So on Thursday I was pretty grumpy about it all.

Then over the next few days I started to understand it more and the competitive part of me kicked in. I worked a few things out and started to play the levels different and ended up inside the Top 300 across all 3 difficulties.

Epic and Legendary I would agree that having the right heroes mattered but Rare it really just felt pretty similar to any other event in terms of play and items.

I ended with quite a lot of flasks and a lot of items left so I can’t hugely complain.

It felt like the Slayers event and the rage bar. Once you’ve sussed it out and you just play the levels slightly differently it gets a heck of a lot easier.

I agree with the above “Just use Proteus” is a massive crutch now. I don’t think you can just put of 2 Proteus and near auto-play it. Is that a bad thing? Yes & no I guess.

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Competing is one thing, but I think all events should reward effort, also for newer players (who have to be even more strategic and persistent to survive, given limited options). The useful rewards theoretically in reach for us are only the completion rewards. (The lower level tier rewards are a joke :rofl:.) Struggling through lots of levels for nothing is not rewarding or motivating at all.

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Completely agree. I personally had no issue completing the event on any difficulty, and made top 100 rare/top 500 epic, but I built specialized challenge event teams with fully emblemed and limit broken heroes - though I don’t have Cillian nor Franz who would’ve made my life much easier.

Players who don’t compete have no reason and shouldn’t be forced to do so.

Rare and epic should be achievable with rare and epic heroes, not specific, paywalled rare and epic heroes on steroids.

I understand that some players like a challenge, but I found this event more annoying than challenging. And to me, the challenge is competing against other players, not the satisfaction of beating a somewhat difficult stage.

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As far as difficulty goes I think it is still behind CoK which is the hardest of these type of events I think. It is however up there in being punishing to a bad board for non competitive or more starting out players.

Under normal circumstances those players would be able to spam items if need be in rare and epic to get through at least. The stoneskin does stop that as an option. I think with thought behind roster though it’s manageable even without the top heroes in each segment. Options such as counter attack and mana control are still available.

I don’t think there’s too much you can do with stoneskin to help newer players without making it too easy again for more experienced players.

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This ivent is my most hateful. Even nit finished. My nerves cost more. This game become more and more ■■■■■■.

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The stone skin was the biggest head scratcher in this and 100% agree that it would give headaches.

What I quickly discovered across all levels was as long as you went into the last level with all your items it didn’t matter. You could still blast through the stoneskin with items and specials. The difference was playing it so you arrived at the bosses in that position which is slightly different then the speed runners would normally do.

A couple of epic 10 runs I landed a special short because I was still in the mindset of firing Wilbur on the opening board to blast mob wave 1 quick with tiles. So there had to be an adjustment made to counteract that.

I think where Stoneskin became a problem was from the players not attacking the event like that and just plodding to completion like they normally would and 100% agree that was going to be a frustration.

I don’t have the solution but I guess that challenges should be challenging?

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It’s no secret that for most experienced players, almost all previous events were auto-battles. This time we had to move both fingers and brains. And it really became a test even for the owners of top heroes, but difficult does not mean impossible.

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You’re a faster learner than I am. :joy: I stayed with that way more than twice. Eventually, I almost played it as if I just went for completion and ended up with a much better score.

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I’ve been finishing Top 500 in epic for about 18 months now. I’d hope I’d learnt a thing or 2 about it all by now :joy:

Sometimes you just need to walk away and think about it but of course you do have to understand what you are thinking about to arrive at a solution

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I - barely - made the top 500 too.

Usually, I pick either rare or epic depending on the mats I need the most, but for some obscure reason, I had the great idea to go for rare, even though I don’t need rings whatsoever. To add insult to injury, it was a gross overkill, as I unnecessarily replayed stages and ended up inside the top 100.

Eventually I got some good boards in epic and decided to give it a shot, so I kind of had to rush through it. It wasn’t pretty. :joy:

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I don’t try for scores on challenge events, so this is the first one in a long time that has been at all challenging. I liked it. I had to sleep on it, come up with a different strategy, and try again. FWIW I’m an F2P player, so I don’t have access to a lot of flashy paywalled heroes.

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