Roster advice request #198,763

squirrel1120

So, my schedule has changed pretty drastically to the point I am almost never available to play at the end of pvp events. I've been reluctant to shield because I still want to add roster space for characters, and I'm sure not paying for it. As a ** player, I've finally had enough event wins and lucky draws to get a few characters which could surpass my 2 ' s. I've held off on leveling them too far ( 3 @ 107atm), but at that level they aren't deterring even other 2* players from attacking and winning against me in pvp. The problem I find without a shield and not playing the event end is that I've finished 7 of the last 8 events at top 200, more specifically exactly 107th or 108th every time. It used to be that I could climb to 600, go to sleep and just stay in top 100, but that just isn't happening anymore.

I'd like to avoid tanking (just time constraints), so running into a wall of 166 any earlier than I am now (550-600pts) is my biggest concern with leveling more. I'm also iffy about making a few toons strong and having my pve scaling increase even more.

So I was just wondering what the community thought about how high characters should be to rather deter fellow 2* players. Even just a few less attacks per event would let me stay top 100 again, without having to break even on hp each event. (No, a top 100 alliance isn't an option)

Current roster:
Hulk 5/2/5 107/153
Lcap 4/4/2 107/127
Patch 4/3/3 107/127
Punisher 5/4/1 100/130
Ares 4/4/5 94
OBW 3/5/5 94
Cap 3/5/5 94
Tinydaken 3/5/5 94
Mnmags 3/5/5 94
C.storm 5/5/3 94
Tinythor 3/5/5
A.wolvie 5/5/3 94
Spidey 4/4/1 93 117
C.torch 2/5/2 93/114
Psylocke 2/4/3 93/114
Mostorm 3/2/4 93/114

I've added tinytorch to the lineup but he sits at lvl 15 till he's covered.

I have ~57k iso atm, so not even enough to finish hulks soft cap (87k). Thoughts on the situation? Really looking to climb as I have been, but then having one stronger team that can be left up on defense to slow the bleed off of points in the last 2-3 hrs of pvp. My gut tells me a couple 3* @ ~120? Hulk/patch? Hulk/punisher? Patch/ punisher? One of the 3 with a 2*? I know I think twice about hitting 100 patch/ obw before a fight, but when I'm worth 35+ points even 2* teams will take mine on and win consistently...

squirrel1120

*crickets chirping*

Well ok then.

Unknown

Out of your roster, for defense you've got a few options: I'd recommend Punisher & Ares, or Hulk & tiny daken (maybe respec to 5/4/4) or Hulk & cStorm

Punisher & OBW used to be the main team I used in PVP when I was transitioning to 3 stars, add in Ares for shield simulator climbing.

I wouldn't recommend Patch for your defense team since his berserker rage can give the attacker a huge advantage.

You also lose big points when people you attacked early in your climb, retaliate when your score is much higher, so the shields can possibly avoid those 40 point losses. I'd definitely recommend opting to shield if it'll help you land covers for top tier characters like the Hood, LThor, Ldaken, Black Panther; otherwise roster slots are the right choice.

As for pve scaling, once you find a good defense combo try levelling up Hulk or Punisher 5 or 10 levels and see how that affects PVE enemy difficulty.

Trisul

I'm in a similar transition phase as you, and I highly advise you to focus on manipulating bracketing as much as you can, by 1) tanking and 2) changing up your event start times.

I bet you can finish top25 in pvp events with your current scores just by getting into a favorable bracket. It's THAT important.

Finishing out of the top 100 isn't good progress. If you join a bracket and it looks rough, it may be to your favor to give up and try and finish with as low a score as possible.

Depending on how long you must keep your team up before the event ends, you might consider reversing Red Panda's defensive advice and opt to pick a vulnerable but volatile defensive team in an attempt to get lots of defensive action. If you can bait lots of teams to attack, you might even gain some points before the end of the night. It might even affect your MMR positively (not sure about that though).

squirrel1120

I brought Punpun up to 107, and after the first half of my climb I parked him on defense with 107 hulk in the BP event. +37 in defensive wins, with only 2 losses in the batch. The same dude lost to the team twice, poor sucker. May very well have been a fluke... but I haven't see anything like that since the days of my 1* transition when I'd run m.storm/m.BW and then later on m.storm/obw. Generally I don't get to play the event ends, but today I did so I squeaked a 94th place. If I'd made my normal climb to 600ish, and came back to a +37 instead of a -59 or something, that would have been a treat indeed.

I appreciate the advice. It may actually be time to change my focus to pvp. I changed jobs to something with a much earlier start time, and no breaks through the day, so my pve scores have been marginal at best anyhow.

Unknown

Hulk & Punisher overlap on all their colors, so it can be easy for an attacker to deny the colors for their skills if you pair them together.

My suggestion to pair Punisher with Ares, yellow becomes an extra color to deny and with several cheap skills it's hard to know who to attack first.

Regarding Hulk & daken, since you have 5 black covers, when hulk gets angered he'll cause enemy team damage, which can be beefed up with friendly strike tiles. Daken can be hard to kill without powers & strike tiles. Overall the pair might slow down some attackers or encourage a skip.

Hulk & Ares/Hulk & cStorm can work on defense but aren't the most intimidating pairs. OBW with Ares or Punisher won't get skipped but MIGHT pull off an upset with a lucky cascade.

The last team you use and win with in PVP will be your defense team, so try setting up some of these pairs if you go unshielded for a hour or 2 and see which works best with the featured character.

Good luck