PVP tanking? How?

Magic
Magic Posts: 1,199 Chairperson of the Boards
edited September 2014 in MPQ Tips and Guides
Hi,

I am trying to grasp as much as possible about strategies suggested on the forum and tanking eludes me. Can you please explain it like to a six years old?

What happenes to me is I get to 500-600 points in PVP and start getting hit by some unbeatable teams (lvl166 or a bit lower, seldom 2* 94). I am on the brink of transition - got all the required 2* (well - OBW is work in progress as I am late bloomer with her so she is not yet usable) - Thor, Ares, Wolverine, Torch, Storm. In 3* department - nothing wort mentioning - only lvl 89 Sentry (highest number of covers and highest level). I struggle to get the needed covers to develope any kind of 3* game. I've read that by tanking you can get great defensive scores (which would be a nice change to my -100 points every couple of hours). I just don't understand how.

Comments

  • Trisul
    Trisul Posts: 887 Critical Contributor
    You just have to lose a lot. AFAIK retreats don't directly affect MMR, but are useful for losing rating and for eating health out of your team.

    I'm not sure if MMR is affected by defensive wins/losses, but you can try winning with a really weak team in pvp (best versus a seed team) to bait some defensive losses as well.
  • Magic
    Magic Posts: 1,199 Chairperson of the Boards
    I figured that it means loosing on purpose but I don't see a reason why. Even without tanking (so leaving my best defensive team) i get hit for -100 points in couple of hours. Getting the points back to the previous level is a difficult grind that is not always sucessful (plus I don't get higher than before).
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    MMR decides which teams you get when skipping. To get teams you can actually beat, it's better to lose a lot at the beginning and reduce your MMR value. It's obvious why you need to lose at the beginning - to avoid losing more than a few points every time. Also, tanking doesn't make sense if you're not also shielding (to avoid losing your hard-won points). Hope this helps.
  • Magic
    Magic Posts: 1,199 Chairperson of the Boards
    So you are suggesting I should lose at the begining of the event and start playing with real team later?

    I might try it. So far I was hitting the event hard, getting my progression awards (700 points was my best approach... it didn't last long) and playing along, trying to gain back some points after many defensive loses and getting some awards. But usualy i don't get the covers so my progress is very slow. I don't use shields (I will when the cover I want is a reward but Ororo is not, so not this event) as I try to preserve HP points for roster spots (currently 26 and nobody to cut unless I start cutting 3* and I don't want that).
  • GrimSkald
    GrimSkald Posts: 2,660 Chairperson of the Boards
    I enter an event, win one or two fights, then do some tanking. How many points you lose when you lose your fight is based on your own total, it's really negligable when you're under 100 (1 or 2 points. Seriously.) However I don't know if that will help you with your specific problem - once you get particularly high in an event the game broadens your enemy pool to include people who would normally be too high for you. I get this myself - I'm in the 2*-3* transition (I can generally field a 150ish 3* mixed with 2*s,) and I get to fight similar teams until I get to about the mid 600s. Then I can generally either pick on a team similar to mine and get 20ish points, or take on a full-blown 3* team and get 30-40 points.

    I believe what happens is the game has trouble finding opponents for you as you progress, so it starts widening the pool. It does get less prominent later in the event, but I generally make much more extensive use of "skip" the further in I go. Tanking may help, but probably only so much.

    Now if you start seeing 3* teams much earlier, that Tanking will help with.

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