The other major move by NetEase is the establishment of a combat behavior trace system that targets gamers who cheat by remaining stationary and accumulating hero skill points. The passive strategy known as “Lord farming” by gamers that involves casting skill shots without actual gameplay has escalated with Season 6 and greater skill levels now maximised at skill level 70 and animated Lord titles as rewards.
Also introduced in season 6 was a professionalism of hero skills that made it a status symbol, as it added more levels of grind and reward badges, such that hero skills would become a status symbol and would attract significant investments as a main. This aspect, however, contributed extensively to AFK farming, where players would stay offline as their stats improved. This appears on online forums such as Reddit.
NetEase has issued an official statement on X (Twitter): “Recently, we’ve noticed that some players are exploiting matches by remaining stationary and repeatedly farming stats to gain hero proficiency points. This behavior disrupts normal gameplay and seriously affects the match experience of other players.” The measures taken for this gradually increase, with warnings ranging from permanent bans after multiple instances.
Players appreciate the suppression but are disappointed with the grind-heavy system, with comments such as “300+ hours per character is crazy” amid balance concerns. Players feel that rewards are somehow promoting farming, which has been previously experienced as a major issue for other shooting games as well. Since Marvel Rivals is expanding within the gaming arena, NetEase’s reaction is an indicator of better things, as grind fixes may also be required for maintaining interest.
