Need advice/venting on matchmaking difficulty

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I did look this up a bit alas I'm not very forum savvy. I've just today learned what MMR, tanking and some other things mean.

Basically I need help about how to enjoy this game better; I have 85 level characters at most, not really a hardcore player you see. When I'm in Human Torch event now let's say and I get
I'm 23 85 85
I get (and I'm not playing with the order/numbers)
57 141 141
80 141 141
83 141 141
90 141 141
95 85 141
45 141 141
23 141 139
114 118 120
132 85 141
53 141 111
62 141 141
104 141 141
(These are recorded directly what I see after the last games I played)

These are usually very good selection of characters too, so I'm not sure how to beat them. I get that these are assigned by my success and I'm not trying to brag here, evidently because I'm saying I can't beat these. I tried and losing 2 matches in a row in a tournament means losing all my healing cards, which I just did and completely got thrown off.

Not to mention this coming up (viewtopic.php?f=7&t=10239) even if I'd win, it would mean having my characters about 1/2 hp next game, which would be practically impossible to win.

I don't know if losing like this in a tournament means it will be easier next time. I've tried tanking, a lot, not sure if it still works or if it's changed. If you know a way to help, please advice.

Unknown

I've faced similar walls myself, and won a few matches using CMag's infinite turns, and then magically, I started seeing some 2* and even 1* teams along with the 3* teams. Not sure why that happened or if it's even true anymore (haven't played the last two PVPs), but try giving that a shot if you can. If you don't have CMag, try fully boosting to win those few matches.

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I used almost all of my boosts and unfortunately a winning spree didn't help, still need advice...

Unknown

Instead of fixing MMR the devs have taken away your ability to keep up. So in PvP you're left with two choices: pay up or be SOL

Unknown

Matchmaking seems to start you off hard and taper off somewhere around the 500 range for some inexplicable reason before picking up again at around 800.

Remember that early on your rating loss is negligible. Sometimes I just take a loaner + 2 of my lowest characters when below 300 points when every match up looks pretty bad and lose instead of paying the skip tax, and if that happens to give me better opponents that's even better.

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

Matchmaking seems to start you off hard and taper off somewhere around the 500 range for some inexplicable reason before picking up again at around 800.

Remember that early on your rating loss is negligible. Sometimes I just take a loaner + 2 of my lowest characters when below 300 points when every match up looks pretty bad and lose instead of paying the skip tax, and if that happens to give me better opponents that's even better.

Do you mean tournament? I get these opponents when I'm on 0, 25, 50 and goes all the way to 300+. It never picks up and I can barely make it to 300 points now. I used to get (**)s all the time which can be a little easy I admit, but matchmaking seems to expect that I should be able to win against 141s with my 85s ALL the time, not just sometimes or at the end of the tournament.

I will still try what you said, lose a few times with my lesser characters. Would retreating work?

Probably still need more advice by the way...if there's any left.

Edit: I just realized, few days ago (while I was still having fun) I decided to make a lil "donation" since it's steam summer sale and the DLCs were on 33% (also counting towards summer sale). I wondered now, if paying 6$ could have affected my bracket and the opponents I get...

Edit2: Also it's impossible(and I mean impossible) for me to get anything worthwhile from Lightning Rounds. How the hell am I supposed to beat a 212/173/173 with my 85 characters? It doesn't change whether I skip or lose, the levels are always like that (there are worse too, I'm just giving a random example) How could updates and game balancing go so wrong? Are casual players really expected to dig up forums like an archeological site to reveal minor tips about how to lose less? I don't want to whine but I'm not new to gaming and being clueless while constantly losing frustrates me.
If there are so many people playing this game, there must be something I'm doing wrong. Please help me find it, I don't mind losing a fair fight but there's no point if every fight is a "Toddler against Iron Golem"

Unknown

I'm in a similar boat. This new season seems to have kicked me up a gear because i was moderately successful, making the top 25 on a lot of events. My highest was LDaken at 128 with a hulk and hood at 100. I went from facing teams of mainly 85 with the odd 100-141 thrown in to starting against 141/141/212 sometimes. Every game now has 3x 100+ and i had to spend some money to get LThor up to 120 just to stand a chance. Even with OBW's healing i was still losing health on a match and needing to use health packs more than i liked.

With the healing changes i have given up. Takes all my health packs to get to a 100 and even then my team is dead and i'm left with 85's that have no chance.

Makes me regret spending money now tbh.

Unknown

Makes me regret spending money now tbh.

Exactly.

The game keeps changing so radically, it's almost like a person in the dev team is forcing others to bad decisions.

1: When I joined, it was a little before the Thor(**) nerf, and I saw that it would be neat to have it as the character stood out. I worked hard to get all covers, just as I got it all, nerf came. I was upset but understood that it's fair in terms of balance. Thor was my only level 85 at the time, my 2nd was black widow(*) and 3rd was some other 40-50 I don't even remember which... I suddenly started getting 85/85/85 kind of setups against me, so I figured it probably had to do with my new Thor 85.

I couldn't win any rewards anymore, was about to leave the game back then as well. I though "If I delete Thor, I'd get bunch of hero points,(deleting high level ** gave a lot of hero points if you remember), start anew and maybe work on getting covers instead of levels." In desperation I deleted Thor, but it didn't help of course.

2: Not to mention, sellling Thor was supposed to give me 600+ hero points, but only gave crystals because of another radical update, I lost again. Okay I was careless and didn't read up...but someone needs to give the casual players a break.
Like I said I only learned what MMR meant yesterday. Back then I was even more clueless. That's when I decided look things up, barely I scavenged some info about how to normalize it and got back on track. MPQ is an addictive game and even without paying I had fun and satisfaction.

3: So after a long while, not being rich, I decided to finally "donate" since there was a sale. Right after I do this, my girlfriend who worked for months to get OBW to 85, learns about the healing update. At the same time I get screwed(original post).

Yeah sure, some people are paying. Ignoring casual players to their dooms won't help the devs though. I'd guess casual players pay just as much as hardcore players, considering that they spend less time with game and care less, this is often connected with them being working/earning people, therefore able to bring money. By all means, if this is more profitable for you, whoever is publishing(I don't even know if the game is indie), let the devs screw the casual playes, making the gap between strong and weak even bigger while putting them in the same pit.

Like I said, maybe it's me but not everyone should have to learn every detail about game by reading it's forums. I played more than a thousand video games, most research I needed was on that "mining game where you built stuff" not a single one of them was this unforgiving to uneducated playing. I might stick around a bit more and try the advises, but if the game is not out of "beta" soon, I'll be making new reviews about the game. They can keep the 6$