Unstable ISO-8 - Oct 17 - 24

Jetness

Thanks Phantron and loroku for explaining the strategy! I need to analyze whether the goons are worse than the dark avengers, and in these nodes, they are.

CrookedKnight

While Muscles are indeed incredibly dangerous, when I'm fighting them I almost always target the villains first, because on their own they can only hurt me with Tommy Gun, but if Yelena or whoever is still alive when a Threaten resolves, match damage can wreck me completely. Since they also have high HP, it's almost always a surer thing to kill the Dark Avenger who's moving tiles than to neutralize every single countdown they drop until I can land a killing blow.

Unknown

CrookedKnight wrote:

While Muscles are indeed incredibly dangerous, when I'm fighting them I almost always target the villains first, because on their own they can only hurt me with Tommy Gun, but if Yelena or whoever is still alive when a Threaten resolves, match damage can wreck me completely. Since they also have high HP, it's almost always a surer thing to kill the Dark Avenger who's moving tiles than to neutralize every single countdown they drop until I can land a killing blow.

Muscles also have a ton of HP and it's rarely feasible to kill them first, and Threaten goes from a game ending move to not that big of a deal when the opponent can no longer move the board.

Also Muscles keep Thugs from putting down a Pistol every single turn because Threaten costs more. Yes Threaten is a lot more dangerous, but once the goons are after a certain level, taking a Pistol every turn will quickly lead to a game over and it's a lot harder to stop a Pistol every single turn than a Threaten every other turn.

DrStrange-616

squirrel1120 wrote:

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....

snipped for brevity

Thank you, squirrel! I didn't realize and see that you are so right.

I have a long way to go before I'm actually at the transition. I have a long way to go before I have a truly solid 2* roster. I have a handful of heroes I depend on and it does make playing difficult. I was doing exactly what you warned against, caressing my shiny new 3* and saving ISO for them (for the next rare cover) and not pumping up a broader spectrum of 2*s. I socked away a fair amount of ISO (for me anyway) during the Anniversary celebration - thank you, D3P! - and wasn't sure what to do. Do I hoard for 3*s or do I spend it on MN Mags who I have covers for but sits at a lowly, unloved level? Do I max out CStorm or save it for the off chance I get another LThor cover? Etc.

I can see that need to walk before I run, and be willing to walk a loooong way. It's ok, even though it's a grind sometimes and can be frustrating. This is really only the second game of any sort I've ever played and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I'm a total newb. So, I really appreciate the thoughtful advice. This forum is godsend.

Thanks again and thanks to all who have helped newbs like me.

Unknown

Decided to take a shot at the 395 Daken + Bullseye + Thug node and just put Fury + X Force + Captain which turned out to be surprisingly uneventful since the AI was busy destroying all the Pistol tiles while I gathered enough AP to kill Daken. Took an Escape Plan, Star Spangled Avenger, Surgical Strike, and Avengers Assemble to take him out. The 350 Venom + Muscle node with same team went ugly because a Threaten tile went off and Venom started making 3000 damage match 3s and killed X Force in one round and I barely killed him before he got to make another 3000 match and then Captain cleaned up the minions. I think it was 1400 per strike tile from Threaten at that level. Didn't get the 1000 iso on either of them and probably won't be bothering with them again.

y2fitzy

Have had much fun on the goon nodes with Johnny Storm, spidey and Doc Ock. Johnny does big damage anyway, Spidey can stun when needed to delay a countdown and Doc Ock planting attack tiles all over the shop

Unknown

I've been running Lazy Cap/Lazy Thor/Falcon and it's been an effective team - I try and quickly get 5 blue to trigger redwing, and that can handle most of the CD tiles with this bunch, while Cap and Thor work on the goons.

y2fitzy

I think interest in this PVE may have fallen off a cliff in my bracket. As I have no patience, I joined pretty early on (within the first hour) as I'm a bit of a grinder, but had a busy Saturday as was at a wedding so missed an absolute stack of refreshes. Probably 18 hours plus with no nodes completed, was sat in the 400 odd in the bracket.

Since then, just doing the essentials and the odd easy-ish node (and still missing them when I was sleeping) and I'm up to top 60 odd. was only planning to ensure I got the Cap, and then see about hanging on for the Ms Marvel but feeling pretty confident now

loroku

Yeah, there is like a 3x or 4x difference in the amount of points you can get from an essential node vs. what you can get from a normal node. Anyone without Cap is screwed.

Also I think it's funny that the 2x Muscle node has steadily decreased in difficulty. Because it's TOO HARD and people are constantly dying! Yeah, I knew better than to attempt that one.

Unknown

loroku wrote:

Also I think it's funny that the 2x Muscle node has steadily decreased in difficulty. Because it's TOO HARD and people are constantly dying! Yeah, I knew better than to attempt that one.

The advantage of that one is that muscle is slow enough that Falcon can shut him down almost single-handedly. Throw in Yelena matching muscle's CD tiles on a regular basis and I've barely been taking any damage in that one.

Marty17

The Iso 8 heist mission is now bordering on impossible, just infuriating that matching purple + green benefits them, which unsurprisingly the board is predominantly filled with.

Vankysher

Marty17 wrote:

The Iso 8 heist mission is now bordering on impossible, just infuriating that matching purple + green benefits them, which unsurprisingly the board is predominantly filled with.

I don't think I've bothered touching that node after my "Heist in Spain" debacle.
Just hitting the essential nodes along with a few of the other nodes to attempt my slow climb to top 100.

Unknown

flnn1 wrote:

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...

Was 2* Torch needed in PvE after they introduced him? I don't think I ever saw 2* being essential and I don't remember how he was handled.

Unknown

loroku wrote:

Yeah, there is like a 3x or 4x difference in the amount of points you can get from an essential node vs. what you can get from a normal node. Anyone without Cap is screwed.

Also I think it's funny that the 2x Muscle node has steadily decreased in difficulty. Because it's TOO HARD and people are constantly dying! Yeah, I knew better than to attempt that one.

Yeah, for that one you have to down Yelena fast. Good thing she's pretty squishy. Once she's gone, the Muscles on their own aren't anywhere near as bad. That said, I did just lose about 10k of health on a turn even after Yelena had gone, just from letting too many Threatens get out and then have the AI dropping the cascade from hell on me through CD tile removal. Ouch.

Unknown

Nivrax wrote:

flnn1 wrote:

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...

Was 2* Torch needed in PvE after they introduced him? I don't think I ever saw 2* being essential and I don't remember how he was handled.

I am reasonable sure he was an essential in the Hunt after he was introduced and even with a huge level boost was just a wet blanket.

CrookedKnight

He was, yeah. That was the very first PvE I played and I distinctly remember being annoyed at not having him.

Marty17

Vankysher wrote:

Marty17 wrote:

The Iso 8 heist mission is now bordering on impossible, just infuriating that matching purple + green benefits them, which unsurprisingly the board is predominantly filled with.

I don't think I've bothered touching that node after my "Heist in Spain" debacle.
Just hitting the essential nodes along with a few of the other nodes to attempt my slow climb to top 100.

The reason I'm going back to it is for the 1,000 , otherwise I'll avoid that node & just grind the essentials. Just feel it's a waste in not obtaining that reward.

fmftint

y2fitzy wrote:

I think interest in this PVE may have fallen off a cliff in my bracket. As I have no patience, I joined pretty early on (within the first hour) as I'm a bit of a grinder, but had a busy Saturday as was at a wedding so missed an absolute stack of refreshes. Probably 18 hours plus with no nodes completed, was sat in the 400 odd in the bracket.

Since then, just doing the essentials and the odd easy-ish node (and still missing them when I was sleeping) and I'm up to top 60 odd. was only planning to ensure I got the Cap, and then see about hanging on for the Ms Marvel but feeling pretty confident now

My bracket has definitely slowed as people are reaching
Sad thing is I'm going to have to keep grinding to stay in contention for Xforce
Placed 6th currently

Unknown

scaling seems to be getting out of hand as community scaling is back and all these 2* teams with a +90 lazy cap grind like mad. Would be nice if you don't start first few days of a pve with 300+ opponents while 2* teams have lvl 100 opponents. And this is with touching nodes maybe 1 clear once/day. I mean I love doing 50k damage to clear a node as much as the next guy . . .

D3 - wanna fix the scaling issue once and for all in R64 please?

loroku

Whoa, we hit another 24 hr mark and the nodes didn't change! How strange. Do they just not change 1/2way through? I wondered how they would handle the 24 hr cycle in an event that lasted 6.5 days.