Fact or fiction--do max 4* characters affect PVE scaling?

vudu3

I think we've all know that a certain amount of PVE scaling is determined by your roster. However, I don't think I've ever heard how much of your overall scaling is directly related to your roster as opposed to personal or community scaling. Does anyone have any firm--or even anecdotal--evidence?

I have a level 225 X-Force and a level 200 Fury. I'm considering maxing them to 270 but I don't know how much it will affect my PVE scaling. Will it be just a few levels or will enemy levels increase by 45 level immediately? Has anyone with a max 4* character done any before-and-after checks? (e.g. check the enemy levels in a PVE node, add some levels to your 4* character and then check enemy levels in the same node again.)

Unknown

After comparing some roster with level 270s there's clearly another component based on how well you did on recent PvE events, so it's impossible to narrow it down to a single factor, but so far all the guys with maxed 270s seem to have significantly higher overall levels I find it hard to believe that is just happens everyone with level 270 are doing better in PvE overall compared to a 166.

Trisul

Rumor is that initial levels are determined by your highest leveled guy, with performance and overall roster strength playing relatively smaller roles in scaling.

I've soft-capped myself at 114 for this reason. Would have done it at 94 had I known it earlier.

Ducky

I have not seen my scaling change very much since I maxed and 4 . It's always been bad and maxing them did not make it any worse.


Edit: For reference, my IM35/Cmags node is 250/251.

Unknown

I'd say it's certainly a factor, but it's far from the only factor.

One thing I'm certain is a factor is the average level of your roster. I'm slowly replacing my non-awesome 2*s with fully covered lvl15s of them (like hawkeye and johnny)

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

After comparing some roster with level 270s there's clearly another component based on how well you did on recent PvE events, so it's impossible to narrow it down to a single factor, but so far all the guys with maxed 270s seem to have significantly higher overall levels I find it hard to believe that is just happens everyone with level 270 are doing better in PvE overall compared to a 166.

I don't play PvE much and had a month break too - but my nodes start much higher than ppl with 166s (I have 3 lvl 270s). Eg on current PvE the highest non-goon nodes were lvl 250ish from outset. So I'd say it seems to have a very large impact & maybe the number of 270s matters too.

And of course you get royally screwed the way scaling works because xf fury dino cannot breeze through 100 level higher enemies compared to max 3 stars

Polares

Fact !

After I leveled up XForce to 222, all my PvE scaling went up by at least 30-40 levels depending on the exact PvE event (there were no other factors as I leveled up XForce from 150 to 222 allmost in one big iso spending). This is another reason why I am not going to level up XForce more, he is completely fine at 222 and I don't want tougher fights in PvE.

Unknown

DuckyV wrote:

I have not seen my scaling change very much since I maxed and 4 . It's always been bad and maxing them did not make it any worse.


Edit: For reference, my IM35/Cmags node is 250/251.

I have X-Force Wolverine maxed (one maxed 4* only) and my IM35/Cmags node is also 250/251.
Coincidence?
I'd like to see anybody with not maxed X-Force Wolverine, is your IM35/Cmags node also 250/251?

Unknown

Berto_Y wrote:

DuckyV wrote:

I have not seen my scaling change very much since I maxed and 4 . It's always been bad and maxing them did not make it any worse.


Edit: For reference, my IM35/Cmags node is 250/251.

I have X-Force Wolverine maxed (one maxed 4* only) and my IM35/Cmags node is also 250/251.
Coincidence?
I'd like to see anybody with not maxed X-Force Wolverine, is your IM35/Cmags node also 250/251?

221 xforce here...my cmag/im35 node was 230-231

Unknown

My plan is to take my 4*s probably to 170 and stop. Right now, the bad of leveling them higher strongly outweighs the good.

vudu3

Berto_Y wrote:

I'd like to see anybody with not maxed X-Force Wolverine, is your IM35/Cmags node also 250/251?

My node was 240/241 by the end and as previously stated I have a 225 X-Force. But I also grind PVE pretty hard in general so my personal, non-roster scaling may be higher than most.

GrumpySmurf1002

My XForce is 173, so my 94 Falcon boosted +90 passes him. With that, my cMags-Im40-Don started around 190 and finished around 240. I took him up to 173 after I took Thor/Sentry to 141, and didn't notice a big difference by doing so.

From everything I can gather, the scaling is based on max character, top 5-10 characters, and previous PvE experience (presumably W/L, but maybe other stuff). It looks like max character carries the most weight, followed by the other two in descending order.

I don't know why this is a secret recipe where you can't even get the ingredients, but such is life.

Unknown

Scaling is also based on how you grind the nodes before you are about to clear the worst ones.

One other factor is the way you grind nodes.

I generally have a bad scaling at first, but end up having a better one than those who grind crazily and have a weaker roster than mine.

I'd say :

Basic Scaling is based on your roster but it will evolve a lot according to the way you play.

You need to skip the nodes which scaling looks too bad. Or, if you are about to go to bed, try to clear those nodes, and accept to lose. That may affect your scaling and improve it.

Lately, I've seen strange things happening. So these are just deductions.

Ducky

Berto_Y wrote:

DuckyV wrote:

I have not seen my scaling change very much since I maxed and 4 . It's always been bad and maxing them did not make it any worse.


Edit: For reference, my IM35/Cmags node is 250/251.

I have X-Force Wolverine maxed (one maxed 4* only) and my IM35/Cmags node is also 250/251.
Coincidence?
I'd like to see anybody with not maxed X-Force Wolverine, is your IM35/Cmags node also 250/251?

By the end of the sub my cmags/im35 node was 268 iirc. It had definitely increased from 251, I do remember that.

Unknown

I have started clearing the top nodes once (and not always even once), and just skipping them on later clears. It doesn't seem to have hurt my placement at all. I can still get top ten while skipping the wackier nodes. Maybe not top 2, but top ten is all I really care about.

Unknown

It would be nice if MPQ would explain scaling. However, that is not going to happen.

Therefore, it would be nice if they either (1) reset scaling each PVE, (2) change the 2.5 hours refresh timers to stop PVE's being scaled into oblivion, or (3) tone down community scaling caused by grinders (grinding should affect individual scaling much, much more than community scaling).

Unknown

stephen43084 wrote:

It would be nice if MPQ would explain scaling. However, that is not going to happen.

Therefore, it would be nice if they either (1) reset scaling each PVE, (2) change the 2.5 hours refresh timers to stop PVE's being scaled into oblivion, or (3) tone down community scaling caused by grinders (grinding should affect individual scaling much, much more than community scaling).

There are so many things they should change to make the PvEs "pleasant".

TaT is truly not cool. Many sleepless nights in one event...

For the PvEs with no rubberbanding, the timers should be set to 8 hours. 8 hours work, 8 hours sleep, 8 hours hobby time.

Hopefully this will change in December.

Unknown

The 4* seems to start with higher scaling and it also goes up at at least the same pace compared to a max 3* if not faster. It might feel easier as time passes mostly because there's a point where things can't possibly get harder. This is especially obvious in Gauntlet where your nodes hit 395 halfway through the final bracket so of course they can't possibly get worse at this point so you gain on everyone else relatively speaking because their nodes are still going up while yours are stuck at 395. In this event it feels like you've your usual starting point and then things only scale up by community scaling though, so while your Magneto node might start at 250 versus someone who started at 100, they'd only go up by say 30 levels over the course of the event. Now in this scenario the guy starting at 250 is going to have a relatively easier time because going from 250-280 isn't nearly as a big a change as going from 100-130. I think I started the sub with Magneto one shotting The Hood with any offensive move and almost always one shotting anyone under 8K HP with Magnetized Particles, and after he gained an extra 30 levels he's still one shotting the same guys so the fight isn't that much harder. Yes he gained a few more HP but it's not enough to take an extra X Force or Star Spangled Avenger so the fight still plays out roughly the same way as when he's 30 levels lower. Someone starting at a lower level might start with the luxury of being able to survive a Magnetized Particle and eventually find that to not be true, so you'll see the max rosters gain on those guys. But that's because the 4* is already used to Magneto one shotting anyone by turn 4.

Unknown

Ben Grimm wrote:

My plan is to take my 4*s probably to 170 and stop. Right now, the bad of leveling them higher strongly outweighs the good.

I don't like my 4 stars below my 3 stars. Or my 3 stars below my 2 stars. So when possible I keep them "organized". Just a little OCD thing I do.

The point?

My X-Force is level 167, and very happy.

Unknown

X-Force Level 270 - IM35/Cmags node is 250/251.
X-Force Level 225 - IM35/Cmags node is 240/241.
X-Force Level 173 - IM35/Cmags node is 190/191.

So it's safe to conclude that 4* char's level affect PVE scaling.
But of course this is only one of many aspect that affected scaling.