Looking for input on my soft-capping strategy

Seasick Pirate

Since learning that PvEs take your roster into consideration when scaling the enemies, I've been soft capping my characters. I already had one fully leveled 3-star (GS Black Widow) but have ten other fully-covered characters around level 157. At this level, most characters cross a threshold in their hit points (8k or 9.5k) that I think can look scarier for defense than at level 155 with 7.8k health.

I'm not concerned with what characters tank which colors (should I be?) as I use a large variety of team compositions depending on who is buffed or my opponents, so that isn't a factor for me.

Also, I have Hulk leveled so that he has 9k health so that his Anger triggers easier. Is a fully-leveled Hulk be better as defensive deterrent? Or maybe 10k health is a good compromise?
Looking for input on my soft-capping strategy
How much do we really now about PvE scaling? Are those extra nine levels going to make things much more difficult than they already are?

Thanks for any help or suggestions with this. I'm not exactly swimming in iso (60k) but don't have many of the newer characters covered enough to be any good yet. Figured this would be a good time to max out some characters if it will help more than hurt.

ZeroKarma

Pirate,

I don't think anyone fully understands the system for PvE. I have been doing as you have and raised a number of characters to level 140, though they could go to 166 and above. I didn't write down what all of my levels for the previous Rocket and Groot PvE were, but I think that mine are lower this time around. The difference? The level of my Blade is low, and I don't have 4hor whereas the last time around I had a decent Deadpool to play with (Rocket and Groot low level). I think the boost on those characters is quite significant in affecting the levels that you see, pray that you unleveled Beast is featured!

For PvP, I don't think most top tier players really care if you are 157 or 166. At least in the past, with Sentry bombing it didn't make a lick of difference anyway. Hulk is not much of a deterrent except for the time it takes to beat him.

I think now that I have an X-Force that can do some damage, I'm going to start bringing my guys up to 166. It will take some time, but I am looking more from the perspective of faster kills and longer play than worrying about defense.

Alzulra

I'm still in transition purgatory so I can't speak to the levels thing (I had the same question, haha) but I can say that I wouldn't worry either way about Hulk. Anger can be annoying, but his high health is really his biggest advantage. Hulk can be defeated without too much trouble by an Ares/OBW combo (even if Hulk is significantly higher level) - use OBW to steal and heal while stocking up green, then hit Hulk with a giant onslaught that takes him out in one hit so anger doesn't even have a chance to trigger, or keep him stunlocked with Spidey/CStorm/Mystique/whoever. It might make people skip you at the very end of an event when they're scrambling for last minute points, but any other time, I don't mind a Hulk team.