New player questions

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Unknown
edited December 2013 in MPQ General Discussion
Hello everyone. I lurked in the forums today and found so many useful information. However, I have some questions about the game that some of the more experienced players will probably be able to answer. I like the game a lot, but it is plagued with microtransactions in every single step and I am not willing to spend more than I would on a AAA title, so for now I am a casual player which means I play a couple hours each day (more now that is vacation time) and I spent some money already, but only for roster slots so far because I felt guilty throwing away some characters. So here are my questions.

1. How does the cost of slots progress? It started at 50 and it jumped up 50 every 2 slots until it got to 150. There I purchased 4 slots (I think) at that price and I thought that was the ceiling. But now it got to 200. Does this ever stop?

2. Is there a formula that determines the damage of each ability after the character gains a level. I tried to follow the changes, but after some time I still don't don't what is going on. Some times the damage gains a X buff, then nothing and then a Y buff. Nothing makes sense. Not being able to know what to expect from a character after 20-30 levels is so frustrating.

3. When my heroes are downed I noticed Hulk takes significantly longer (~45min) to start healing than other characters like Iron Man (Model 35), despite having less max health. Why is that?

4. In an effort to make some room in the roster I consider selling some of the 1* characters. Since I started playing a few days ago, I rely mostly on Iron Man (35) to be the hard hitting character until I get my hands on some stronger characters, so he has to stay. Who, in your opinion is the 2-3 most useful 1* characters for later and worth keeping?

5. I found out that healing takes a long, loooooong time in the game. Almost like they care so much for your health that they don't want you sitting in front of the screen for more than 30-60 min. icon_e_smile.gif Other than the drops (forget the name of the item) that fully heal a character, I am not aware of other ways to heal them. Yet, the drops are extremely rare, nor can I see them being sold anywhere. Am I missing something?

Comments

  • Narkon wrote:
    Hello everyone. I lurked in the forums today and found so many useful information. However, I have some questions about the game that some of the more experienced players will probably be able to answer. I like the game a lot, but it is plagued with microtransactions in every single step and I am not willing to spend more than I would on a AAA title, so for now I am a casual player which means I play a couple hours each day (more now that is vacation time) and I spent some money already, but only for roster slots so far because I felt guilty about throwing away some characters. So here are my questions.

    1. How does the cost of slots progress? It started from 50 and it jumped up 50 every 2 slots until it got to 150. There I purchased 4 slots (I think) at that price and I thought that was the ceiling. But now it got to 200. Does this ever stop?

    There are a max of 40 cover slots currently (and only 30 different characters currently). The cost increases, the last slots cost 400HP each, IIRC.
    Narkon wrote:
    2. Is there any formula that determines the damage of each ability after the character gains a level. I tried to follow the changes, but after some time I still don't don't what is going on. Some times the damage gains a X buff, then nothing and then a Y buff. Nothing makes sense. Not being able to know what to expect from a character after 20-30 levels is so frustrating.

    I'm not sure offhand. There are difinately people looking into this sort of thing though.
    Narkon wrote:
    3. When my heroes are downed I noticed Hulk takes significantly longer (~45min) to start healing than other characters like Iron Man (Model 35), despite having less max health. Why is that?

    Again, not sure. I speculate that it's partly level dependant, and possibly dependant on how much damage they take below zero.
    Narkon wrote:
    4. In an effort to make some room in the roster I consider selling some of the 1* characters. Since I started playing a few days ago, I rely mostly on Iron Man (35) to be the hard hitting character until I get my hands on some stronger characters, so he has to stay. Who, in your opinion is the 2-3 most useful 1* characters for later and worth keeping?

    Common consensus appear to be IM35, Modern Widow and Modern Storm. Juggernaut can be a very useful 1* hero as well. The rest can be safely sold for space, given that you can get them again fairly easily.
    Narkon wrote:
    5. I found out that healing takes a long, loooooong time in the game. Almost like they care so much for your health that they don't want you sitting in front of the screen for more than 30-60 min. icon_e_smile.gif Other than the drops (forget the name of the item) that fully heal a character, I am not aware of other ways to heal them. Yet, the drops are extremely rare, nor can I see them being sold anywhere. Am I missing something?

    You get 5 health pack base, and they replenish every 35 minutes if you are below 5. So, stockpiling them is of limited use. (Mostly useful for big pushes at the end of tournaments, when you don't want to be limited to just 5 quick heals.
  • Hey there!
    I'm not experienced by any means, but I'll give it a go icon_e_biggrin.gif
    The "tips and guides" section of this forum is also a good place to find some useful information!
    Anyway:

    1. Dunno how it does progress or if it will ever cap. I'm currently sitting at 27 slots and it takes 350HP to buy a new one icon_cry.gif
    2. No idea... I guess it's character specific. I bet you can find some useful info in the "Characters and Skills Compendium" topic in the "Character Discussion" section of the forum.
    3. I think it's character specific, but I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure that Wolverine (and maybe Daken?) heal a lot faster than everybody else.
    4. I found Modern Black Widow pretty useful even in high level PVE battles for her amazing stun. Honestly I'd try to keep em all... you never know when you're gonna need em (the ongoing tournaments, one reserved for avengers and the other for female chars, are a pretty good example for that). I wouldn't sell anything you put ISO into for sure.
    5. Those are health packs, and when they drop below 5, will regenerate automatically one every 35 mins I think, which is way faster than any high-leveled hero. They can also be bought for HP (50 each, 200 for 5), but it's not worth it, unless you are making an extremely important push in some event. A common trick at the beginning to get free heals is to play the "kidnapping" or "tall, dark and nasty" missions in the prologue (3rd chapter) and use the provided spiderman to heal. You are going to outlevel that pretty fast though.

    Cheers!
  • Hi and welcome.

    1) they go up to at least 400. But they do give out HP fairly frequently once you are able to hit some progression rewards in tournaments. Look for HP awards in the prologue events too. Later on you can earn quite a bit of hp by playing.

    2) not that I know of, sorry

    3) these vary widely, not sure why. Cap is another that takes forever to get back on his feet, iirc.

    4) keep in mind that they often run events that feature various characters. But to answer your question, storm, widow, Juggernaut if I had to pick three. Venom would be my fourth. IM fifth. Other opinions on this WILL differ.

    5) check out the Venom missions in the prologue. They give you Spidey to use in some of those, and he can heal.
  • Wow, I wasn't expecting a reply (3 actually) so soon. You really prove that this is an awesome community.
    I tried the Venom missions for healing for some time, but when you want to heal a character with high health it is not efficient because Spiderman has way lower stats and all the damage is taken by your "recovering" character. So the amount you heal at the end is not that much and a bad run can drop you back to where you were.

    You all have my eternal gratitude. Well... not eternal, but at least for as long as I am around. icon_e_smile.gif The fact that you get back your health packs so soon makes the game a completely different experience.
    I wish to all of you in the forum Happy New Year.
  • With regard to your 2nd question, in general, the damage of an ability increases when the tile damage of that character increases. So, when Iron Man's red tile damage increases, his red ability damage increases. A specific color's tile damage only increases every 2-3 levels, so that's why you don't see the damage increasing every level.
  • Twanbon wrote:
    With regard to your 2nd question, in general, the damage of an ability increases when the tile damage of that character increases. So, when Iron Man's red tile damage increases, his red ability damage increases. A specific color's tile damage only increases every 2-3 levels, so that's why you don't see the damage increasing every level.

    Hmm, I see. I missed that. I may start keeping track of a character's progress and see if I can find a formula.I just have to solve this.
  • Eddiemon
    Eddiemon Posts: 1,470 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Narkon wrote:

    3. When my heroes are downed I noticed Hulk takes significantly longer (~45min) to start healing than other characters like Iron Man (Model 35), despite having less max health. Why is that?

    4. In an effort to make some room in the roster I consider selling some of the 1* characters. Since I started playing a few days ago, I rely mostly on Iron Man (35) to be the hard hitting character until I get my hands on some stronger characters, so he has to stay. Who, in your opinion is the 2-3 most useful 1* characters for later and worth keeping?

    5. I found out that healing takes a long, loooooong time in the game. Almost like they care so much for your health that they don't want you sitting in front of the screen for more than 30-60 min. icon_e_smile.gif Other than the drops (forget the name of the item) that fully heal a character, I am not aware of other ways to heal them. Yet, the drops are extremely rare, nor can I see them being sold anywhere. Am I missing something?

    3. From my observation the *** grade of the character is the determining factor. Then max hp. So a 1* will recover quicker than a 2*. Comparing a 1* to a 3* hulk the hulk will be snails pace.

    4. Black widow, storm, iron man, venom are my 1* team. Black widow's stun and AP steal are great opponent control. Storms red and green abilities are great board control. Iron man will be your damage guy and tank till you get Thor or wolverine together. You can get initial wolvie and Thor covers from some of the prologue missions. Venom is mostly for dark avenger events.

    5. The trick to healing is using a 3* spider man. You won't have one yet without dropping money on the game, but you are loaned one for some of the prologue missions. Replay those missions with your beaten characters and focus on healing.
  • Eddiemon wrote:
    3. From my observation the *** grade of the character is the determining factor. Then max hp. So a 1* will recover quicker than a 2*. Comparing a 1* to a 3* hulk the hulk will be snails pace.

    4. Black widow, storm, iron man, venom are my 1* team. Black widow's stun and AP steal are great opponent control. Storms red and green abilities are great board control. Iron man will be your damage guy and tank till you get Thor or wolverine together. You can get initial wolvie and Thor covers from some of the prologue missions. Venom is mostly for dark avenger events.

    5. The trick to healing is using a 3* spider man. You won't have one yet without dropping money on the game, but you are loaned one for some of the prologue missions. Replay those missions with your beaten characters and focus on healing.

    Thanks for the info. Actually, I was lucky to find a cover of Spiderman (yellow ability), but without the blue it can't do anything outside Venom missions.

    Another question I forgot to post is about the selection of characters to take on missions. When the mission requires a specific character, I noticed a small red crystal on the portrait of some characters. Until now I thought this was to show which character was required, but apparently this is not the case, since I was able to start a mission without selecting any of those characters. Why are these crystals there?
  • It means they are boosted in some way. Typically, this has meant their health, tile damage, and ability damage has been increased by some percent, often 50, 80, 100, 150, or 200%. They changed from displaying a number to showing the crystal so they could get more creative with boosts, but we've yet to see anything fancier than that as far as I know.
  • Thank you.