Anniversary Tokens - Combined Arms and Venom: Heroic

Unknown

loroku wrote:

loroku wrote:

Results so far (including my first two tries which technically won the bet): top 15, top 15, top 20.

So far I've started: after about 10 or 15 minutes in and then played the whole time, last 15 minutes, last 40 minutes.

Finally able to start in the last 5 minutes. After one game, saw my rank was... 19! /cry So I tried another game super quick, and managed to finish in time! Rank said 4! (Did another game just to be sure - yeah, that was it.) Got my reward: top 10! /cry 0 for 4 so far, but don't delete that Daken yet.

Another factor to consider is that it's easy to say "try in the last 5 minutes" but actually kind of hard to do in real life. Things have to time out pretty perfectly, considering this is a pick-up-put-down sort of game and missing a 5 minute window is easy to do. Just under 36 hrs to go so I'm sure I'll get a few more shots. I'll keep updating. But yeah: just starting in the last few minutes doesn't really guarantee anything because lots of other people are doing that, too. But Thing is still right in that it's better to have a ~20% chance to RNG my way into a token than a 0% chance to get it from actually participating the way we're supposed to.

Makes me wonder if too many people are trying to jump in at the last minute to get a soft bracket. People are onto the meta! Maybe try joining in the middle to throw people off? Or convince them that joining in the middle is the new meta get everyone else to join then and then join at the end anyways. Sorry, clearly there is not one single 'best' way to do it. Don't skip out on any iso farming you might have done by joining too late.

scottee

Cryptobrancus wrote:

loroku wrote:

loroku wrote:

Results so far (including my first two tries which technically won the bet): top 15, top 15, top 20.

So far I've started: after about 10 or 15 minutes in and then played the whole time, last 15 minutes, last 40 minutes.

Finally able to start in the last 5 minutes. After one game, saw my rank was... 19! /cry So I tried another game super quick, and managed to finish in time! Rank said 4! (Did another game just to be sure - yeah, that was it.) Got my reward: top 10! /cry 0 for 4 so far, but don't delete that Daken yet.

Another factor to consider is that it's easy to say "try in the last 5 minutes" but actually kind of hard to do in real life. Things have to time out pretty perfectly, considering this is a pick-up-put-down sort of game and missing a 5 minute window is easy to do. Just under 36 hrs to go so I'm sure I'll get a few more shots. I'll keep updating. But yeah: just starting in the last few minutes doesn't really guarantee anything because lots of other people are doing that, too. But Thing is still right in that it's better to have a ~20% chance to RNG my way into a token than a 0% chance to get it from actually participating the way we're supposed to.

Makes me wonder if too many people are trying to jump in at the last minute to get a soft bracket. People are onto the meta! Maybe try joining in the middle to throw people off? Or convince them that joining in the middle is the new meta get everyone else to join then and then join at the end anyways. Sorry, clearly there is not one single 'best' way to do it. Don't skip out on any iso farming you might have done by joining too late.

This is why I started not posting several of my strategies on the forums. When even a small-medium size group do some of them, they become less effective.

Unknown

scottee wrote:

Cryptobrancus wrote:

loroku wrote:

loroku wrote:

Results so far (including my first two tries which technically won the bet): top 15, top 15, top 20.

So far I've started: after about 10 or 15 minutes in and then played the whole time, last 15 minutes, last 40 minutes.

Finally able to start in the last 5 minutes. After one game, saw my rank was... 19! /cry So I tried another game super quick, and managed to finish in time! Rank said 4! (Did another game just to be sure - yeah, that was it.) Got my reward: top 10! /cry 0 for 4 so far, but don't delete that Daken yet.

Another factor to consider is that it's easy to say "try in the last 5 minutes" but actually kind of hard to do in real life. Things have to time out pretty perfectly, considering this is a pick-up-put-down sort of game and missing a 5 minute window is easy to do. Just under 36 hrs to go so I'm sure I'll get a few more shots. I'll keep updating. But yeah: just starting in the last few minutes doesn't really guarantee anything because lots of other people are doing that, too. But Thing is still right in that it's better to have a ~20% chance to RNG my way into a token than a 0% chance to get it from actually participating the way we're supposed to.

Makes me wonder if too many people are trying to jump in at the last minute to get a soft bracket. People are onto the meta! Maybe try joining in the middle to throw people off? Or convince them that joining in the middle is the new meta get everyone else to join then and then join at the end anyways. Sorry, clearly there is not one single 'best' way to do it. Don't skip out on any iso farming you might have done by joining too late.

This is why I started not posting several of my strategies on the forums. When even a small-medium size group do some of them, they become less effective.

Eeeh. How many people are reading through these threads, a couple hundred at most? I doubt there's any practical effect if you consider how many people either already knew or came up with this idea.

loroku

ark123 wrote:

scottee wrote:

Cryptobrancus wrote:

Makes me wonder if too many people are trying to jump in at the last minute to get a soft bracket. People are onto the meta! Maybe try joining in the middle to throw people off? Or convince them that joining in the middle is the new meta get everyone else to join then and then join at the end anyways. Sorry, clearly there is not one single 'best' way to do it. Don't skip out on any iso farming you might have done by joining too late.

This is why I started not posting several of my strategies on the forums. When even a small-medium size group do some of them, they become less effective.

Eeeh. How many people are reading through these threads, a couple hundred at most? I doubt there's any practical effect if you consider how many people either already knew or came up with this idea.

Yeah, honestly that's why I tried NOT doing it at first; all it takes is about 2 dozen people trying this strategy to guarantee that it's a raffle draw. But not doing it is still WAY worse than doing it, even if everyone knows about it.

Cryptobrancus: people are definitely aware of the meta. I don't know how many, but my own strategy for PvP that could sometimes get me top 150 results even a few weeks ago has been crushed. Honestly I don't know if it's just that TONS more people are playing or tons more people are just playing smarter, but it's really hard at the low end these days to rank or get placement rewards. Either that or D3 has monitored the forums and changed the game on us to stymie our strategies, which is possible but less likely.

scottee is ultimately right, because at its heart this is a PvP game, and in order to win more you need to not share your secrets. We are all competing, even if technically a 2*-ish player like me isn't really practically competing with the old timers on this forum. But these forums are generally pretty open and in the end, when more people know about strategies it just makes us all come up with new ones to counter the ones that everyone knows. So it all sort of evens out in the end.

Update: missed the 5 minute window thanks to real life! Ended up missing the whole thing. "Farming ISO" for me just means "playing once" so it's not really a huge deal if I miss it. "Playing once" is far and away the optimal strategy for me playing lightning rounds; the time-per-ISO drops way off after the first game.

Spoit

scottee wrote:

Cryptobrancus wrote:

loroku wrote:

loroku wrote:

Results so far (including my first two tries which technically won the bet): top 15, top 15, top 20.

So far I've started: after about 10 or 15 minutes in and then played the whole time, last 15 minutes, last 40 minutes.

Finally able to start in the last 5 minutes. After one game, saw my rank was... 19! /cry So I tried another game super quick, and managed to finish in time! Rank said 4! (Did another game just to be sure - yeah, that was it.) Got my reward: top 10! /cry 0 for 4 so far, but don't delete that Daken yet.

Another factor to consider is that it's easy to say "try in the last 5 minutes" but actually kind of hard to do in real life. Things have to time out pretty perfectly, considering this is a pick-up-put-down sort of game and missing a 5 minute window is easy to do. Just under 36 hrs to go so I'm sure I'll get a few more shots. I'll keep updating. But yeah: just starting in the last few minutes doesn't really guarantee anything because lots of other people are doing that, too. But Thing is still right in that it's better to have a ~20% chance to RNG my way into a token than a 0% chance to get it from actually participating the way we're supposed to.

Makes me wonder if too many people are trying to jump in at the last minute to get a soft bracket. People are onto the meta! Maybe try joining in the middle to throw people off? Or convince them that joining in the middle is the new meta get everyone else to join then and then join at the end anyways. Sorry, clearly there is not one single 'best' way to do it. Don't skip out on any iso farming you might have done by joining too late.

This is why I started not posting several of my strategies on the forums. When even a small-medium size group do some of them, they become less effective.

And then when people do reveal the secrets to playing hard, it turns out it's something obvious that "everyone" was already aware of, but just didn't think it was worth the paying hard

loroku

Results so far: top 15, 15, 20, 10, 15

Started: 10/15 mins in (played whole time), last 15 mins, last 40 mins, last 5 mins (2 games finished), last 5 mins (1 game finished)

0 for 5! This time I only managed a single game before time ran out but that game (which was hilariously worth 28 points, btw - more than a seed team and therefore should have put me into a good spot) put me at rank 15. Wheeee. Glad I didn't do a 25 pointer or I would have come in top 20 instead. (Tried a second game but didn't finish in time.)

Well, that was my try hard to prove a point. Don't know how hard I'll continue to try since the results are not improving and it's admittedly a 1 in 5 shot to get anything anyway. I will keep updating but please keep in mind the idea that you can "just wait until X time and then it will be easy!" is not necessarily true. Only the top 20% get anything, folks - keep moving, nothing else to see here...

FaustianDeal

Keep trying - both strategies are viable. I have played whole rounds a few times and managed a 1st and a 3rd... one round was very quiet the other was viscious on attacks. I have also tried late (10-15 minute) entries and managed 2x 1st and a 3rd.

Mileage varies, but this reward structure more than makes up for the Venom: Heroic. (I didn't mind the rewards for it - this makes up for them picking/running that PVE altogether.)

Unknown

so it seems the amount of people reaching the 500 pt threshold for the progression reward is very very low any chance they are gonna adjust it to make it easier to obtain Ice? it was stated that more people playing would equate to more high pt totals earned per match and as was stated before this has not been the case, can we get a % number of how many people are reaching 500 pts per lightning round?

Unknown

We like to assume the faceless masses who don't even come to the forums can't figure out the ~best~ or ~optimal~ strategies, but enough people are going to try a strategy that if it works they will try again, and if it doesn't they will try something else. Listening to the crowd sourced advice may help you figure out good strategies sooner than some people, but there will always be people who happen upon a good strategy at random or figure them out without forum help so ...damn I have forgotten what my point was. Happy hunting!

Carnage_78

The lightning rounds are a struggle...but very exiting stuff!

I never played them for real before...I've been playing this game for only 40 days according to my Daily Rewards so I did not have a team to compete in them other than to get the low hanging fruit rewards...and I am realising that the ending of these events is quite a rush when you are close to your objective. Will I get hit at the wrong time? Will I finish this last fight in time? Where will I end up in the standings after it is all said and done? Good fun! (which is the point of playing really )

Unfortunately, I did not make it high enough yet to get back the Anniversary Tokens that I missed out on during the Venom Heroic (2) & Combined Arms (1)...3 rounds, 3 Top 10. Although, I did get a cover or two that I needed from the Standard Tokens so at least that is that even if I did not get a chance to get something better like the Anniversary Tokens would have given me...

It is a little disappointing that the solution put forward is basically very good for established teams (I am certain that they are getting a lot more than the 4 tokens they missed out on...and good for you all out there, one day I will get there as well) and will not allow a player like me that grinded for the tokens in the PvE to get back what they missed out on.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed this anniversary week as I got tons of Iso-8 to pump into my roster and I will be that much stronger when Season VII comes along...but a little part of me wishes that I got to see what those tokens would have given me...since I got among other things with the previous ones a Fury, Devil Dinosaur & some cool covers that upgraded my existing roster.

So here is to not complaining with my mouth full even if I am missing out somewhat on what I deserved...but got more than enough to compensate during the rest of the anniversary week...

I will get back out there & keep on fighting for the Anniversary Tokens in the Lightning Rounds as I came very close once (got hit at the last second by a very strong team that knocked me out of the Top 5)...and maybe I will get lucky!

Cheers to an awesome game that is this one! ... and frankly quite addictive as well ... so developers, keep up the good work & celebrate your one year anniversary with pride!

P.S. I wish I had some of the covers that some players are complaining about after getting them in the Anniversary Tokens...I am sure everyone can remember the days during the last year when those covers would have been priceless...

loroku

loroku wrote:

Results so far: top 15, 15, 20, 10, 15

Started: 10/15 mins in (played whole time), last 15 mins, last 40 mins, last 5 mins (2 games finished), last 5 mins (1 game finished)

Top 10 again. Started with 5 mins to go. BARELY managed to sneak 2 games in; I'm honestly not sure how the 2nd one counted.

Side note: one factor with the "beat the seed teams" strategy is that seed teams give a max of 25 points, and then less after that. I've noticed a lot of people who are last-minute hitting it are ending with like 30-something points when I have 25; that's impossible from two seed-team games, so I think they are queuing against actual players and getting like 30-something points in one go. (Either that or they already won twice and lost a game, but that seems unlikely.) Many of the top spots are 50-something in the last few seconds; again, you can't do that with 2 wins against seed teams, so I have to think they are getting two quick games against easy opponents. May try changing it up.

Pylgrim

So Ice, have 2 people got the progression reward at all? Since making the progression reward an Ann token was purportedly the "compensation" for the missed tokens in the previous events, I'm not sure that anyone has yet been compensated.

Unknown

So I tried the last minute strategy...but it apparently ate my first match(Top 20)? I'm gonna keep trying, but I'm running out of chances here....

loroku

loroku wrote:

loroku wrote:

Results so far: top 15, 15, 20, 10, 15

Started: 10/15 mins in (played whole time), last 15 mins, last 40 mins, last 5 mins (2 games finished), last 5 mins (1 game finished)

Top 10 again. Started with 5 mins to go.

Top 10. Started with 15 mins to go.

Couple observations. Based on my extremely small sample size, I noticed that 6 times out of 7 when I finish my first match, I'm already rank 15 or worse. (Once I was 6 I think.) I have been wondering if this was just poor luck - which is definitely possible - or if you are actually placed into a bracket based on something other than when you are victorious in a match and get your points. The thing is: I'm pretty slow, at least according to the forums. 5 mins is probably my average game time, and even these lightning rounds are probably 3 mins at best. I imagine a stronger roster enables you to win faster, generally (not to mention Sentry bombing, and simply the experience you have from gaining said roster), so I wonder if I'm just slower than everyone else in my group to win, which causes me to be placed lower if bracketing is dependent on, say, when a match starts. Not sure if there's anything to this, but just throwing it out there. Obviously the server knows when you hit "attack" because that's how shielding is done (as soon as you attack your shield goes down, as I understand it). And I have wondered how games that seem to start with 2 mins left can count - but then again, other games that start with 1 min left don't count. So I'm wondering if you are actually bracketed when you first hit "attack" BUT you don't gain points until you win / lose. If this is true, then once again the faster teams will have an advantage. I may try spending a few precious seconds looking at the top ranking rosters to see if they are always monsters or if some are like me.

ScrubJay

I've won 2 rounds so far and gotten top 5 in 3. I won one last night after playing the whole 90 minutes. I was on my way to that today until I got hit for 150 points with 10 minutes to go.

I've gotten 6 Devil Dino covers so far. He's at 1/4/3 right now. I can give up on the 2400 bonus token now that I have 3 in purple now.

Unknown

Yeah I just won one too. One cover of each of daredevil's powers.

1- What are the chances and

2- ****

Unknown

I've tried a few runs now, and so far the best I've done was 226, and that's coming from the very start. As soon as I hit 200 the first time I got hit for -126, then clawed my way back up. Actually won that one, too. Haven't made first since, but a couple 2's and 3's.

I have yet to see a winning player make more than 300 in one of my brackets.

loroku

So far: top 15, 15, 20, 10, 15, 10, 10, 15 (0 for 8)

Started: 10/15 mins in (played whole time), last 15 mins, 40 mins, 5 mins (2 games), 5 mins (1 game), 5 mins (2 games), 15 mins, 30 mins

I agree that anything started in the last half is pretty much impossible, because everyone is trying hard. At this point I'm just curious if it's possible for me to get in the top 5 over the course of the next 24 hours!

Unknown

Well I went ahead and sold the 2* daken, replaced him with a venom. Sorry the LRs are being unkind to some. All in all I found them to be tons of fun, though i will be sad that now I WANT a Goddess but know that I'll likely not have her completed by this time next year at the rate I acquire 4*s.

Unknown

Pylgrim wrote:

So Ice, have 2 people got the progression reward at all? Since making the progression reward an Ann token was purportedly the "compensation" for the missed tokens in the previous events, I'm not sure that anyone has yet been compensated.

Come on, stop being so greedy and trying to find something to be negative about. These LRs are the best events that ever hit MPQ. They more than gave back ann tokens. They gave out more than 4 tokens (For me it was 6 so far) and I am only a transitioning player. The progression token, even if it is at 200 points, is way more difficult to obtain when 80-150 pts secure T5 in most brackets. We should actually thank them from our hearts that they did not revert the rank rewards to normal ones after the first round's results. So many people got tokens from those 20 ppl brackets that I think they regret it a little now.