Thoughts on race season 8

This was the first season that I really decided to go for the top. I made the attempt in race season 6, but burned out more than a week before the end, and I wasn't nearly as skilled back then. Over the course of the season I continued to improve on my skill and routine, even with horrendous ping half of the time due to some issue with the internet company.

I enjoyed the 40 minute descent champions, although at first it was hard to hit top. I like the shorter duration, as what burned me out in previous seasons was the long duration of the signature races (I believe race season 6 was 135 minute fixed seed solo). For the first 5 weeks I did scion, until I discovered how OP blood of summer was, and made top 20 on my first try. By the end of the week I was able to kill gravicius nearly every time.

While blood of summer made the race quite fun as witch, I feel that this item is extremely overpowered. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it, with the ability to grab two for 40% increased AOE, 2 max frenzy charges, 8% MS per charge (pretty much permanent 40% MS boost), and 40% area damage on top of that. I believe that either this unique should be re-evaluated for next season, or the other uniques should be given bonuses that can compete with BoS.

At first, I despised endless ledge. However, after discovering marauder rarely makes top and helping a guildie with his marauder build for descent champs and other races, I decided to give it a try. I went with a spectral throw/fire trap marauder with higher life, and this turned out to be a winning combination. I hit top 3 marauder extremely easily when my ping isn't on the fritz, mainly due to the ability to survive discharges. I used the same build in regular races (with molten strike and spec throw) for the more difficult races/high ping races, with excellent results. This marauder build earned my my only demi of the season (I came close more than 50 times this season, but usually a top racer like terrex or goratha grabbed the top spots).

I know many people call "hacks" on people that do consistently well in races, but the truth is that your race routine is what matters the most. I do nearly the same thing for every race, and I achieve approximately the same race position every time, even with terrible RNG.


I feel that 12 minute bursts still need to be swapped to fixed seed. While maphacks don't have as much of an impact on the longer races, here it is pretty obscene, with a wrong turn usually costing me an entire level. I managed to grab good points in these by playing the less played classes (for example I still hit top 20 rangers at level 5 in one race), but I really think these races need some work.

I was pretty excited about the race rewards this season, and after seeing the screenshot of alt art saffells I really wanted to use it. Unfortunately when I removed it from the tab and equipped it, it turnef out to be far too bright even int he darker areas, and the sun reflecting off of it just made it a poor match for all of my gear. I ended up selling it to get my MF char on standard started up. I think the concept of crating the alt art taming is pretty cool, but I really feel like those race reward slots were a bit wasted for players that were unable to go for the thousand.


I was very tired at the end of the race season after attempting to do every race (I only missed two during the main season, and skipped the final day of races to sleep).

Special thanks to Jstq and Shashko for giving me a run for my money at keeping my top spot. If it weren't for you guys I wouldn't have been able to stay as motivated for this season. Didn't manage to beat jstq in the end, but I am very happy with the place that I earned.

Another thanks goes to those who re-rolled for additional prizes, as those guys are the true top. I would not have been able to get as high as I did if they had kept going.

Also, while I did well in races, I am not the most amazing racer ever. Anyone can hit top if they do a large number of races and do decently in them, which is pretty easy to do as long as your schedule permits.

In all, this was a very good season.

Congrats on 2nd in season demis, definitely well deserved. :D

Maybe it's me being biased since this has been my best season so far but I really enjoyed it. I like the feeling of being one of those characters that will get announced if I die in a race (though I'd definitely prefer not dying in any race haha). Also I got two demis this season out of sheer luck since other racers weren't racing (absolutely couldn't believe it when I got a demis in vanilla descent just for hitting 20 on ranger).

I've raced in the previous two seasons but I used to have that "alright let's get this over and done with" attitude towards racing and was motivated only by the rewards. Despite all the issues with this season, this is the season that got me enthusiastic about racing and I suspect that it did so with a lot of other players too. Yes, blood of summers is absurdly op. Yes bow rangers need a buff. Yes, suspected cheaters and cheating software will need to be addressed. But for all it's worth, there might just be a silver lining.

horrible shit season. it's surprising how bad ggg is at developing and caring about their game. whenever you think "theres no way things get worse than this" ggg manages to fuck up even harder. if you actually believe there is any hope or future for racing at this day you are delusional

i'd rather see racing removed from game if ggg has absolutely no interest in improving it.

So what I got from this is that you got 2nd on the season ladder but only won a single actual demi.. one demi.. lol.

The season ladder really is a joke.

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SlixSC wrote:

So what I got from this is that you got 2nd on the season ladder but only won a single actual demi.. one demi.. lol.

The season ladder really is a joke.

Wheres yours from season 8?

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terrex wrote:

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SlixSC wrote:

So what I got from this is that you got 2nd on the season ladder but only won a single actual demi.. one demi.. lol.

The season ladder really is a joke.

Wheres yours from season 8?

I won 7 or 8 in less than 25 demi races. You do realize that this isn't my only account?

And in any case, it's irrelevant, the point is that the season ladder doesn't represent skill at all, it's purely a function of time-invested. Just like everything else in this game.

That's why it will never be competitive. Your time-investment matters infinitely more than your skill.

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SlixSC wrote:

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terrex wrote:

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SlixSC wrote:

So what I got from this is that you got 2nd on the season ladder but only won a single actual demi.. one demi.. lol.

The season ladder really is a joke.

Wheres yours from season 8?

I won 7 or 8 in less than 25 demi races. You do realize that this isn't my only account?

And in any case, it's irrelevant, the point is that the season ladder doesn't represent skill at all, it's purely a function of time-invested. Just like everything else in this game.

That's why it will never be competitive. Your time-investment matters infinitely more than your skill.

No I have no idea and I dont care in the least. I dont go on goose hunts.

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terrex wrote:

No I have no idea and I dont care in the least. I dont go on goose hunts.

Then don't ask you jokester.

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SlixSC wrote:

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terrex wrote:

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SlixSC wrote:

So what I got from this is that you got 2nd on the season ladder but only won a single actual demi.. one demi.. lol.

The season ladder really is a joke.

Wheres yours from season 8?

I won 7 or 8 in less than 25 demi races. You do realize that this isn't my only account?

And in any case, it's irrelevant, the point is that the season ladder doesn't represent skill at all, it's purely a function of time-invested. Just like everything else in this game.

That's why it will never be competitive. Your time-investment matters infinitely more than your skill.

while I didn't win much in the way of demi's, this was largely due to my playstyle. Instead of getting super stressed over trying to hit top in every race, I played it slower to enjoy my time racing and do it in a relaxed way (and still did quite good in every race even so) Also, the time investment is pretty true of life as well. A person who gets a perfect score in every course at college but only does 5 courses is not going to get the PHD, where the guy who invested 15 years might have more than one.

The individual race ladders are much more reflective of skill. The main ladder is just dedication.

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SlixSC wrote:

I won 7 or 8 in less than 25 demi races. You do realize that this isn't my only account?

And in any case, it's irrelevant, the point is that the season ladder doesn't represent skill at all, it's purely a function of time-invested. Just like everything else in this game.

That's why it will never be competitive. Your time-investment matters infinitely more than your skill.

I don't understand this complaint at all. Why shouldn't someone who put in a lot of time racing win his alt art demi? If anything the argument should be made that they could add a separate metric to award alt art demi's to the most consistent/best racers using only a smaller sample of their best races.

As it is, there are plenty of rewards for top racers who can't make every race with 7 demi's per competitive/sig race and 21 sig record alt art demi's (even if this season suffered from maphacking and terrible balance changes). If this isn't enough for top racers to want to compete, then there are massive self-entitlement issues here.

There has been plenty of constructive feedback from racers this season, not just the complaining and flaming, which unfortunately tends to stand out the most. I hope GGG listens to the feedback and fixes the glaring issues that have plagued this season.

Thank you, GGG, for the continued race support.

Oh, and grats mardukthewolf.