Unstable ISO-8 - Oct 17 - 24

loroku

mags1587 wrote:

loroku, the nodes won't be the original nodes, but new ones. Scaling usually gets a reset with the end of sub-events which this PvE doesn't have. (the switchover doesn't count)

Ok, so this is interesting: many of the original nodes are back, but the essential nodes are new. Also some of the nodes from the last one are still there (guess they appeared at 12 hrs past?).

Also: BLEH!!! Another two Muscle node?!?! Those are even worse than Thugs. I can still barely handle the level 27 two Muscle node in the prologue! That's definitely going to slow down progression.

Also, yes: the scaling on the repeated nodes doesn't seem to have gone down. The hard ones started out of my range and now they are just funny.

jsoetrisno

"Iso-8 Heist" level and those Deadly category levels = the right way to suck all available hero points and spoil the mood.
Am not touching that "Iso-8 Heist" anyway, it's just too ridiculous.
I guess not everyone have achieved high level of Cap; and even with high level of Cap, one has a very high chance to be zeroed in just a few scratches with that kind of monstrous enemy's level.
What's the reason putting this event in such way? Because the new 2* character?

Unknown

loroku wrote:

mags1587 wrote:

loroku, the nodes won't be the original nodes, but new ones. Scaling usually gets a reset with the end of sub-events which this PvE doesn't have. (the switchover doesn't count)

Ok, so this is interesting: many of the original nodes are back, but the essential nodes are new. Also some of the nodes from the last one are still there (guess they appeared at 12 hrs past?).

Also: BLEH!!! Another two Muscle node?!?! Those are even worse than Thugs. I can still barely handle the level 27 two Muscle node in the prologue! That's definitely going to slow down progression.

Also, yes: the scaling on the repeated nodes doesn't seem to have gone down. The hard ones started out of my range and now they are just funny.

Like Spoit pointed out earlier, since there is only one main event the difficulty does not get reset because the new nodes that appear in the main event aren't part of a new sub. Although having the difficulty reset on every sub creates its own problems (heavily favors grinding at the end), this event is a good example of why they went with that path because the alternative is even worse.

Unknown

jsoetrisno wrote:

"Iso-8 Heist" level and those Deadly category levels = the right way to suck all available hero points and spoil the mood.
Am not touching that "Iso-8 Heist" anyway, it's just too ridiculous.
I guess not everyone have achieved high level of Cap; and even with high level of Cap, one has a very high chance to be zeroed in just a few scratches with that kind of monstrous enemy's level.
What's the reason putting this event in such way? Because the new 2* character?

If that's the 3 DAs with very high level, I'm not touching that one because they're all level 395 even though I have all the relevent characters maxed.

What do the levels look like for someone who just joined? I'm curious if the scaling is community or personal based, because if it's community that means you could join and be screwed from excessive enemy levels before you even had any points. Sure there's rubberanding but rubberbanding doesn't help if you can't win!

rbdragon

I must qualify my statement with the fact that my roster is fairly decent, with several maxed 3* ad X-Force at 175 with 5-3-4 build...

My current scaling:
Iso-8 Hoarders: 209 - 209 - 209

Ms. Marvel: 72 - 72 - 72

Heist in Spain: 236 - 237 - 237

Daken and Yelena: 139 - 140 - 139

Iso-Heist: 278 - 279 - 278

Battle in Brazil: 162 - 163 - 162

Stolen Goods: 156 - 157 - 157

I'm not sure how my scaling stacks up against everyone else, but it's no cakewalk for sure...which is exactly why I'm enjoying it. I like that it's challenging. If I always win, it gets boring. If I always lose, it gets too frustrating. This is a good balance between the two...but if I were still early in my transition and saw these levels I don't know how much I'd play it...

CrookedKnight

It looks like the difficulty does reset, at least somewhat - Hoarders dropped from 345 to 142 at noon.

Unknown

I guess it's kind of good that Ms. Marvel rewards are in Unstable ISO-8, since the players who seem to be doing well in this PVE are the ones with low scaling (i.e. people who are in the early 2* stage), the same people who can probably make the most use out of a new 2* character. That said, Ms. Marvel will likely be required for the next PVE so...

squirrel1120

DrStrange-616 wrote:

This just went from hard to nearly impossible. I'm just barely starting my transition from 2* to 3*. Only have 4 maxed 2*s and most 3*s have one cover. I'm getting wiped out often and early in this latest node. I just can't keep up with threaten and pistol shot. I haz a sad.

Technically... you aren't 'starting the transition' from -> play, you are still working on a 2* roster. As someone pointed out to me when I first started participating in forums here, that 'transition' phase only really starts when you have 3* characters that have become as good as, or better than those in a full 2* roster. It doesn't start the day you save your first 3* cover to your roster. Unfortunately the game continues to get harder to get into a max 3* character, especially free2play, and I definitely feel your pain. Along my own path to my current roster, I have been locked out of competitive play in several events, and many, many a node.

The good news is that when you finally achieve a full 2* roster, much of pve will be a lot easier. When usable, classic storm and MN Magneto are an amazing pve duo. Now that 2* hawkeye has been buffed, he's a great addition to that team, as is OBW as her blue is a life-saver (in multiple ways). baby-cap is great for dealing with special tiles, including countdowns. Plus, when you can use him, being able to use the new and improved baby-daken with his blue will make many nodes fall easier. (of course, the caveat here is that the nodes where he's on the other side really are going to be MUCH harder). It depends a lot on who's buffed or who's usable on restricted roster events, but almost every 2*

I think the best piece of advice I can give to someone at your place in the game meta right now is: Look into the top tier 3* characters, and only worry about saving them a place in your roster until you have a place for the usable 2*'s. The exception, perhaps, being the pve reward character so you'll have them for the next event, but keep in mind that you don't necessarily have to save them afterward either. If I had it to do all over again, I would have gained more from selling off spiderman, daredevil, loki, doom, ragnarok, etc, and picking up another 2* to max. Having baby-torch to add to team compositions would have helped me SO much more (daily) than any of those who have only ever had a niche use. I don't think I've ever used Rag except in his featured events... and even then, its only until he gets his face smashed enough to switch back to the loaner, since a low covered featured character certainly isn't worth health-packs. Why has he had a place on my roster instead? Over value of under covered 3*'s. You will get to the transition faster and easier being able to field more viable teams than you will by having more single cover 3*'s, and I think you'll get *through* that transition faster as well. Having almost a full cast of 2* toons will make gaining covers from pve a simple matter of having the time to devote to get placement. Of course... I'd probably still skip on saving moonstone or bagman. Until they get buffed, they almost as bad in regards to being dead weight. Many will say the same about bullseye as well... but I've always liked the bugger. heh.

Good luck, happy hunting... and enjoy your 2* characters. You'll be using them for many months.

Unknown

rbdragon wrote:

I'm not sure how my scaling stacks up against everyone else, but it's no cakewalk for sure...which is exactly why I'm enjoying it. I like that it's challenging. If I always win, it gets boring. If I always lose, it gets too frustrating. This is a good balance between the two...but if I were still early in my transition and saw these levels I don't know how much I'd play it...

278 on Iso 8 Heist is challenging. 395 is... something else.

Unknown

I would not waste my health on those lv270 Daken nodes........I'll get those Ms. Marvel covers anyway and i sure won't max this 2* in a short time

I would rather save my boosts for more important events

Dragon_Nexus

Glad this event is for a 2* character, because I'm rapidly hitting the point where I don't give a damn about this stupid, boring, frustrating, over levelled **** event.

Went into a board against Daken and those two Mafia guys. Almost no blues and almost no yellows on the board. So what happens? Butt load of strike tiles I can't clear away, butt load of Pistol countdowns I can't clear so after a few rounds, pistol was hitting me for 5,500 damage each time, they get a huge cascade that wipes me out. Before I even have enough AP to use an ability.

So screw this event, it's tedious, boring and way too much of a grind. And it's not like maxing out a 2* character is even that difficult.

Why does D3 always introduce a new character in the worst events? It's always this **** or it's the Hard Prologue events that are also a grind.

Unknown

Dragon_Nexus wrote:

Glad this event is for a 2* character, because I'm rapidly hitting the point where I don't give a damn about this stupid, boring, frustrating, over levelled **** event.

Went into a board against Daken and those two Mafia guys. Almost no blues and almost no yellows on the board. So what happens? Butt load of strike tiles I can't clear away, butt load of Pistol countdowns I can't clear so after a few rounds, pistol was hitting me for 5,500 damage each time, they get a huge cascade that wipes me out. Before I even have enough AP to use an ability.

So screw this event, it's tedious, boring and way too much of a grind. And it's not like maxing out a 2* character is even that difficult.

Why does D3 always introduce a new character in the worst events? It's always this **** or it's the Hard Prologue events that are also a grind.

Goons should not generate AP when they can move the board. Their moves are generally quite strong even without the free AP.

If there are very few tiles of a certain color, the goons won't generate AP of that color and won't be able to use any of their abilities. By very few, I mean '3 or less' (impossible to engineer these situations reliably but 0, 1, and 2 definitely all work), and the only way you're ever going to see this is usually after a Surgical Strike. So another fix could be just increase the number of tiles needed before goons can generate AP of that color to say, 6.

ScrubJay

My best team wiped on ISO-8 heist horribly. Apparently the game thought I should try harder, because right after that the levels raised by 30 each on the node.

I can take solace in the fact that judging by the scores in my bracket, nobody else is finishing that node either.

Unknown

There's no point in hammering nodes you're wiping out on this early in this thing, unless you're willing to put in the effort for #1, and in that case you probably need some serious therapy.

Given the event, I'll probably clear everything I can get on the first go once, keep hitting the four easiest nodes at any given time every three hours, and at the end I'll have at least one cover, good enough for any essential nodes. I am taking this week easy.

Jetness

For nodes that have 2 goons and one dark avenger, is it better to take out the dark avenger first so the enemy can't match tiles, or take out the goons first to stop the countdown tiles from appearing?

Any thoughts?

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

If that's the 3 DAs with very high level, I'm not touching that one because they're all level 395 even though I have all the relevent characters maxed.

What do the levels look like for someone who just joined? I'm curious if the scaling is community or personal based, because if it's community that means you could join and be screwed from excessive enemy levels before you even had any points. Sure there's rubberanding but rubberbanding doesn't help if you can't win!

Mine are just under lvl 300 despite having barely played in a month & no PvE grinding. I wanted to beat it once just for the iso (I did get the 1000) and after dying with max xforce squad I resorted to sentry bombing (unboosted) which worked just fine.

Unknown

Jetness wrote:

For nodes that have 2 goons and one dark avenger, is it better to take out the dark avenger first so the enemy can't match tiles, or take out the goons first to stop the countdown tiles from appearing?

Any thoughts?

It depends on who you're fighting, because if you've say a Thug, they will pretty much use a Pistol every single round and you want the DAs to have their turn because that's twice the chances they'll match away the tile. In general it is best to get rid of the guy who can turn the board, but make sure you've enough AP to deal with the minions. Another example would be say Moonstone + Spy. If you got any kind of special tile out then you can just keep on take the Gravity Warps while taking practically no damage, but as soon as Moonstone goes down that Spy is going to keep pumping out Silent Strikes which will hurt a lot even if she can no longer move the board.

Unknown

mikeydollar7 wrote:

Phantron wrote:

If that's the 3 DAs with very high level, I'm not touching that one because they're all level 395 even though I have all the relevent characters maxed.

What do the levels look like for someone who just joined? I'm curious if the scaling is community or personal based, because if it's community that means you could join and be screwed from excessive enemy levels before you even had any points. Sure there's rubberanding but rubberbanding doesn't help if you can't win!

Mine are just under lvl 300 despite having barely played in a month & no PvE grinding. I wanted to beat it once just for the iso (I did get the 1000) and after dying with max xforce squad I resorted to sentry bombing (unboosted) which worked just fine.

Yeah, I figure the scaling was going to go up significantly on its own anyway so I might as well get the progression reward out of the way earlier than later. I tried to get 1000 iso on those but didn't seem like it was worth the effort.

loroku

Jetness wrote:

For nodes that have 2 goons and one dark avenger, is it better to take out the dark avenger first so the enemy can't match tiles, or take out the goons first to stop the countdown tiles from appearing?

Any thoughts?

For what it's worth, I normally try to take out heroes before goons because heroes have good powers and do constant damage with matches. However, for these nodes, I do almost exclusively goons before heroes because the goons are all particularly nasty and the heroes are all particularly ****. The goons in these nodes do WAY more damage than the heroes - to the point that I have been ignoring the heroes completely to get those goons down ASAP. Thugs, Muscles, and to a lesser extent the Pyro / Grenadiers are your main targets; Thugs hit WAY too fast, Pyro / Grenades target the whole group, and Muscles are the worst goon in the game by a mile thanks to their jillion+ strike tiles they can pump out constantly. Yelena and Moonstone can be safely ignored completely (except try to deny red with Moonstone), and Bullseye is also easy to ignore but just be careful of the purple matching destroying your offense. If he's with only moderately bad goons I might target him first since he also has **** hit points. Daken sucks but I usually leave him until last and/or I have a couple of powers charged up because he regens so much it's better to kill him with powers. You can waste a lot of time on him if you're not careful. Hope that helps.

Vankysher

Wiped twice in a row on the "Normal" Heist In Spain node even after boosting a bit on the second attempt.
lvl 40 Lazy Cap 0/3/1, lvl 51 cStorm 5/5/3 & lvl 63 OBW 3/5/3 keep getting taken out by mostly match damage with all those strike tiles.
Frustrating as all get out as I only managed to down the thug on the 2nd try but being wiped by Venom the move right after.