The Gauntlet: Dec. 10 - Dec. 15

loroku

ark123 wrote:

Yep I did buy covers - specifically, I bought 2 yellow covers to bring my patch from 4/4/3 to 4/4/5 (later I got another green to respec). Using Patch as a clutch I went on to perform really well in pve, regularly, and when it finally hit 166, I started not being attacked as much in pvp, which allowed me to join a top100 alliance - IMHO there is no better character to max first than Patch (after that, LDaken if you find the covers, or LThor) . After learning about tanking and focusing on learning the specifics of pvp, I started showing up in the top 25 semi-often. I would do PvE religously (still do), after learning exactly the best approach to each format by researching past events in the forums. That's how you're gonna get most of your hard covers for a while - from sub tokens in pve. Just keep it up. Before you know it you'll be maintaining 700 on pvp and top 10-5 in pve, which allows you to join a top 50 alliance. From there on, you'll be getting more HP than you're spending, which means you can buy critical covers when you have to. Learn how to use shields. Talk to people in the forums (most people here are really nice). Even if you don't have an alliance, slave over PvE and offer your services as a merc - that's how I first got into a big time alliance (5D), which eventually lead me to my current kickass alliance.

I've sunk a total of 50 bucks in the game.

Edit - it should be said that I have an unhealthy level of competitiveness when it comes to PvE. Skrulls is the first alliance I've been in where I wasn't the lead score of the alliance by more than 20-30% points over second place. Bear in mind that 3* covers do come from PvP. PvE is a lottery with nice prizes, but PvP needs to be your bread and butter if you want to progress in the game.

Thanks for the advice. I think the difference is that I am not even close to your level when it comes to commitment to the game, nor do I plan to be. That's not a dig - I am sincerely impressed with your progress - but I think the game would be even less fun for me if I played that much. For example: I'm not going to join a top X alliance, ever, because my alliance has all my friends in it. So that's where I'm going to stay, unless somehow they all did the same - which they also won't, because they are even more casual than me. So the main key - alliance-hopping for the best rewards - isn't something I'm interested in, nor will I be. So that cuts my legs out from under me already, sadly, since alliance rewards are SUPER stingy. (We're more like top 1000 / top 2000 right now.)

Also, the two key 3*s I don't have any covers for are Patch and Deadpool. All the other good ones I have at least 1 cover, but those continue to elude me. When it comes to how to play PvE using the exact best approach, you've lost me on that. I'm sure there are secrets to this game I don't understand, and this is as someone who plays a lot, in my opinion - I would consider myself a non-casual player, honestly, especially compared to the actually casual players I know. But that's nothing compared to your level. If this were WoW, I'd be LFR, but you'd be bleeding-edge Mythic Raiding.

I do play PvP when I can, but - for example - I completely forgot to play Balance of Power. I realized long ago you can't really play PvP unless you play at specific times, so unless I happen to remember to play at the exact right time, I end up missing it. The new time structure is awesome for me because it gives me more chances, but I ALSO have been not trying so hard recently because I feel like I'm losing so much ground with all the new characters swamping me out, so in the last few weeks I've missed several because I hate feeling like I am tied to a clock - which I am in PvP. Because of how this game works, it's MUCH better to miss a PvP entirely than to play and get points and NOT place in the top 25. Points in PvP = evil, because that means you have to play harder matches to get the same number of points next time. So I only play when I know I can place. (And I remember.) PvE is similar; progression rewards are too hard, so placement is really the best. Which means you want to minimize your playtime, not maximize. The moment you start to play a PvE, you have to keep playing. So start as late as you can so you can play as little as possible. It's messed up, but that's how the reward structure works in this game. Which honestly suits my new casual approach anyway.

The thing is, I see a lot of posts with the "just keep it up" attitude - and that's nice, it really is. But it's also wrong. Because every time there's a new character I lose ground, and I am not making it up fast enough. "Just keep it up" means I am going backwards - along with anyone else who isn't already ahead. "Keeping it up" means I am jogging in place while the end of the race gets further away. So yeah, I have decided not to try so hard. Thanks for trying to help, though - but I see it as a inherent problem with the structure of the game. The way this game is structured, new characters hurt players - but they're also the coolest thing about the game, so of course they're going to keep pumping them out. Until they can fix this game so that this isn't true, I will never do anything but lose ground. So why try?

squirrel1120

Just completed my first gauntlet. Woot Woot!

42 on the second try, phew. Hulk/BP/sentry weren't enough to bomb it as sentry isn't covered or leveled enough for me. I had a double sac tiles up (was going in with BP to use battleplan instead, but when it came time to cast only 2 yellow tiles were free). Only lost 2-3 wr tiles... probably would have pulled it off anyway, except 4hor's charge blues kept dropping together, and she literally stun locked my team till I died.

Winning team? Stormneto/ m.hawk. I thought I was tinykitty'd when I made the classic blunder of clicking iron hammer instead of windstorm, but the board I hadn't liked to start with turned in my favor so I could grab enough purple quick enough to fix it. Plus, if I had posted a video, I'm guessing there would be a meme captioned,

"the amount of speedshot tiles

is too damn high!"

Its nice when they actually resolve too. hah. Good thing they did, that's the only reason he was along for the ride.

Unknown

Holy **** I hate Loki on defense. The game keeps forcing match-4s on me. I'll make a simple match and then boom! Match 4 drops from off screen. His CD tiles then create insane cascades the likes of which I've never seen before and will never see again...until the next time the game forces me to match 4.

I'm on node 41 with Dino/OBW/Colossus. I skipped the first set of Essentials in sub 3 because my Captain Marvel is wiped and I'm out of health packs. I'm starting to use BP/Sentry/Patch a lot more as a heavy hitting team, when LCap and my 2* nightmare (CStorm/MNMag/MHawk) are out. I'm out of whales, but I don't think they'll do me much good since the final node can't use them anyway.

I don't actually have a Loki cover, so I kind of need to finish everything, otherwise I'm going to hurt going into Prodigal Sun, where I'm guessing he's the essential.

Also, I'm on day 146, and I have most of the big time 2* maxed and no 3* at 166, but that's on purpose for scaling. I have LCap, Hulk, GSBW and Captain Marvel cover maxed, with LCap needing 1 more for optimal spec. I've spent a decent amount on the game, but I didn't do it wisely early on, so I definitely could be doing a lot better than I am. These days I don't spend anything and I just try to play smarter. That's really the trick to doing well in MPQ as a F2P. You just have to think long and hard before putting ISO into a character.

loroku

Sword user wrote:

Oh wow, that was a bloodbath. I actually did much worse, sorry!

I'm so sorry to hear that!

Just to update: I finally did beat the node! I used 3* Cap. Marvel, 2* Wolvie, and Moonstone. Her pink is actually not bad when you know you're only facing exactly 1 color of special tile - in this case Daken's red strike tiles - and I used her over OBW because she's boosted which gave her way more HP. In any case, it was pretty much just luck this time: I managed to score a board with very little green and Ares never got more than 4 until I had the killing blow on him. I boosted myself three reds and there was a ton of red, so Wolvie got his red off twice - which was crucial since that's my #1 damage power with that group. It was still close but like someone said on the first page, it's just a matter of luck with some of these gauntlet boards. Keep playing them often enough and hopefully you'll just luck out, especially since you only need to win once.

Unknown

Sim 38 - Lvl 145 Loki, Lvl 145 Magneto and Lvl 146 Juggs

My highest leveled characters are cStorm at 134 and AWolv 134. One cover CapMarvel at 130. The rest are around 94. I do have deadpool but no whales.. I have one whales TU which im keeping for the last node... I really can't beat this level... Anyone got any ideas? i really badly need the loki cause i had sold my loki cover from daily reward and have none... Ive lost this node prolly 15 times already since yesterday

Thanks guys

Unknown

NooTs wrote:

Im assuming you meant mhawkeye ? I sell too many good cards.
who should i delete to make room for him ? Wanna drive here and just play the game for me too ?
Lmao sry guys, wish i joined the forums when i first started this game lol
My flaw is i think no card is useless if you bring the right back up it'll do wonders
is gsbw a good 3* to lvl ?
I havnt been lvling hulk for that reason. So his anger will kick more often
but punishers black over powers hulk atm so he'll die first and im left with big hp but a semi situational offensive game

2*Hawkeye, after changes, is now a part of the 2*Mag/2*Storm combo. very useful.

GSBW is not a good 3* to level.

As I said previously, level your Hulk. As you can see in this event, there will still be opportunities for a Level 114 hulk to get angry. Yes, punisher screws it up but what can you do? At this point, we're trying to salvage your roster.

fmftint

Koko81 wrote:

Sim 38 - Lvl 145 Loki, Lvl 145 Magneto and Lvl 146 Juggs

My highest leveled characters are cStorm at 134 and AWolv 134. One cover CapMarvel at 130. The rest are around 94. I do have deadpool but no whales.. I have one whales TU which im keeping for the last node... I really can't beat this level... Anyone got any ideas? i really badly need the loki cause i had sold my loki cover from daily reward and have none... Ive lost this node prolly 15 times already since yesterday

Thanks guys

Do you have OBW maxed? I beat that node easily with OBW/C Storm/Marvel. And you won't be able to use that TU on the last node since the enemy team's DP locks it out

Unknown

Managed to do 42 on the first try with Hulk/Sentry/BP.

Now all that's left are the sub 3 essentials. Didn't realize She Hulk was going to be one of them. I have her at 5/2/1, but I haven't put a drop of ISO in her. Somehow managed to first essential with OBW/Ares. Still waiting on Cap Marvel to heal before I try hers, mostly because I hate going against Loki.

Unknown

Started getting hard around global 33...AKA I can no longer outrace the enemy(Krutacking Falcon). Got an Avengers Assemble teamup used on me that resulted in a raging tempest to kill the enemy, luckily. Now's the point where I wait for health packs and pray to the Goddess...

Unknown

fmftint wrote:

Koko81 wrote:

Sim 38 - Lvl 145 Loki, Lvl 145 Magneto and Lvl 146 Juggs

My highest leveled characters are cStorm at 134 and AWolv 134. One cover CapMarvel at 130. The rest are around 94. I do have deadpool but no whales.. I have one whales TU which im keeping for the last node... I really can't beat this level... Anyone got any ideas? i really badly need the loki cause i had sold my loki cover from daily reward and have none... Ive lost this node prolly 15 times already since yesterday

Thanks guys

Do you have OBW maxed? I beat that node easily with OBW/C Storm/Marvel. And you won't be able to use that TU on the last node since the enemy team's DP locks it out

Yes and ive tried her over and over its impossible and honestly becoming really annoying...

Unknown

raisinbman wrote:

NooTs wrote:

Im assuming you meant mhawkeye ? I sell too many good cards.
who should i delete to make room for him ? Wanna drive here and just play the game for me too ?
Lmao sry guys, wish i joined the forums when i first started this game lol
My flaw is i think no card is useless if you bring the right back up it'll do wonders
is gsbw a good 3* to lvl ?
I havnt been lvling hulk for that reason. So his anger will kick more often
but punishers black over powers hulk atm so he'll die first and im left with big hp but a semi situational offensive game

2*Hawkeye, after changes, is now a part of the 2*Mag/2*Storm combo. very useful.

GSBW is not a good 3* to level.

As I said previously, level your Hulk. As you can see in this event, there will still be opportunities for a Level 114 hulk to get angry. Yes, punisher screws it up but what can you do? At this point, we're trying to salvage your roster.

I feel leery dumping iso into another 2* not sure I'll be using him enough after this event. Might just give up now and focus on season 9

Sword user

loroku wrote:

Sword user wrote:

Oh wow, that was a bloodbath. I actually did much worse, sorry!

I'm so sorry to hear that!

Just to update: I finally did beat the node! I used 3* Cap. Marvel, 2* Wolvie, and Moonstone. Her pink is actually not bad when you know you're only facing exactly 1 color of special tile - in this case Daken's red strike tiles - and I used her over OBW because she's boosted which gave her way more HP. In any case, it was pretty much just luck this time: I managed to score a board with very little green and Ares never got more than 4 until I had the killing blow on him. I boosted myself three reds and there was a ton of red, so Wolvie got his red off twice - which was crucial since that's my #1 damage power with that group. It was still close but like someone said on the first page, it's just a matter of luck with some of these gauntlet boards. Keep playing them often enough and hopefully you'll just luck out, especially since you only need to win once.

Yeah, I just tried the node with my suggestion (I didn't have a chance last night to do a proof of concept, that was my bad). I went in with +3 blue/purple, 94 mmg/94 OBW/134 AWolfie against 147 Ares/148 Storm/147 Daken. It was a little hairy when Ares got off Sunder, but I had 2 heals ready for that situation, and I used Wolfie's yellow regeneration. Managed to get a board with 4-matches I could give the AI without feeding their abilities (once Storm was dead, I could give them black). I left the fight with a win, but it was tricky, and bad board/cascade would have changed everything.

Congratulations on your success!

Sword user

Curiosity wrote:

I have hit an absolute brick wall on Sim38.

Loki/Jugg/Mags are L235 and I rarely make it past about six turns. Mags kills anyone with Blue and anyone other than Hulk with Red, and seems to get them off pretty quickly every time.

My options:
Hulk 5/3/5 L166
Punisher 3/5/5 L166
Patch 3/5/5 L166
Mags 5/3/5 L166 (though obv not this time)
Hood 5/5/3 L143
XForce 3/3/4 L138
IM40 5/5/3 L136
Grey Widow 3/5/5 L130
IW 5/5/2 L114
Storm 5/3/5 L110
Falcon 4/5/2 L110
Doom 5/4 L106
LThor 0/2/5 L102
Panther 5/4/2 L100
Daredevil 5/3/5 L100
LCap 2/5/5 L100
LDaken 1/4/4 L97
OBW 3/5/5 L94
2*Storm 4/5/5 L94
2*Thor 3/5/5 L94
Then a load of others without much in the way of covers or levelling. Like a 2/1/2 L66 DEADPOOL etc.

Any ideas? Just go for Patch/Hulk/Hood and hope I get lucky?

I guess if I were in your situation, I'd go with +6 boosts to blue/purple (+all/+individual), and a team consisting of Hulk/cStorm/Hood. I went into this node with them in the 210s with 204 CMarv/94 Hood (with 5 blue covers)/94 cStorm and won. Focused on blue and denying red matches. So, in your case, I'd try Hulk as my tank with the same group.

russreid91

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before, but something that may help with getting through the later nodes is not to do the essentials until the end. They just scale your levels, do all the necessary nodes including the final one first then do the last set of essentials and then the first set.

My final node with Deadpool 4Thor and XForce was only at 320. Now that I have finished off all of the essentials they are at 360. That 40 levels can make all the difference.

I also used Captain Marvel, LCap and OBW and full boosts to beat the final node. I got enough purple early that I could AR and keep Captain Marvel out front where she took a couple of big blows and ramped up her red which I then pumped into LCap. It also gave her black to stun and with Caps blue and OBW AR they didn't get off a move. Just whittled them down. I got a good board which is necessary. On a bad board or if you get bad cascades then you are done no matter what.

Good luck everybody,

russreid91

I can't remember for sure but I believe I brought OBW along on this one with XForce and Hulk. Aim for purple first and then hold her AR as long as you can. I have found that her steal can still be better then Hood's at times. Keep hulk out front for any big moves and hopefully anger into enough green for XForce. As has been said many times already you do need a good board. If it is a bad board or the AI gets a cascade it is pretty much done.

Sword user wrote:

Curiosity wrote:

I have hit an absolute brick wall on Sim38.

Loki/Jugg/Mags are L235 and I rarely make it past about six turns. Mags kills anyone with Blue and anyone other than Hulk with Red, and seems to get them off pretty quickly every time.

My options:
Hulk 5/3/5 L166
Punisher 3/5/5 L166
Patch 3/5/5 L166
Mags 5/3/5 L166 (though obv not this time)
Hood 5/5/3 L143
XForce 3/3/4 L138
IM40 5/5/3 L136
Grey Widow 3/5/5 L130
IW 5/5/2 L114
Storm 5/3/5 L110
Falcon 4/5/2 L110
Doom 5/4 L106
LThor 0/2/5 L102
Panther 5/4/2 L100
Daredevil 5/3/5 L100
LCap 2/5/5 L100
LDaken 1/4/4 L97
OBW 3/5/5 L94
2*Storm 4/5/5 L94
2*Thor 3/5/5 L94
Then a load of others without much in the way of covers or levelling. Like a 2/1/2 L66 DEADPOOL etc.

Any ideas? Just go for Patch/Hulk/Hood and hope I get lucky?

I guess if I were in your situation, I'd go with +6 boosts to blue/purple (+all/+individual), and a team consisting of Hulk/cStorm/Hood. I went into this node with them in the 210s with 204 CMarv/94 Hood (with 5 blue covers)/94 cStorm and won. Focused on blue and denying red matches. So, in your case, I'd try Hulk as my tank with the same group.

Unknown

Wales Wales Wales to the rescue for 38 loool

Curiosity

Sword user wrote:

Curiosity wrote:

I have hit an absolute brick wall on Sim38.

Loki/Jugg/Mags are L235 and I rarely make it past about six turns. Mags kills anyone with Blue and anyone other than Hulk with Red, and seems to get them off pretty quickly every time.

My options:
Hulk 5/3/5 L166
Punisher 3/5/5 L166
Patch 3/5/5 L166
Mags 5/3/5 L166 (though obv not this time)
Hood 5/5/3 L143
XForce 3/3/4 L138
IM40 5/5/3 L136
Grey Widow 3/5/5 L130
IW 5/5/2 L114
Storm 5/3/5 L110
Falcon 4/5/2 L110y
Doom 5/4 L106
LThor 0/2/5 L102
Panther 5/4/2 L100
Daredevil 5/3/5 L100
LCap 2/5/5 L100
LDaken 1/4/4 L97
OBW 3/5/5 L94
2*Storm 4/5/5 L94
2*Thor 3/5/5 L94
Then a load of others without much in the way of covers or levelling. Like a 2/1/2 L66 DEADPOOL etc.

Any ideas? Just go for Patch/Hulk/Hood and hope I get lucky?

I guess if I were in your situation, I'd go with +6 boosts to blue/purple (+all/+individual), and a team consisting of Hulk/cStorm/Hood. I went into this node with them in the 210s with 204 CMarv/94 Hood (with 5 blue covers)/94 cStorm and won. Focused on blue and denying red matches. So, in your case, I'd try Hulk as my tank with the same group.

Thanks. Tried this and actually got it first time (admittedly off a friendly board). Many thanks.

Unknown

Ugh, Sim35 is just impossible. Carol will always be punching by turn 3 and lock up any strategy I have going. And CStorm/MNM is a no-go since OBW stops you from getting AP in those colors.

Unknown

russreid91 wrote:

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before, but something that may help with getting through the later nodes is not to do the essentials until the end. They just scale your levels, do all the necessary nodes including the final one first then do the last set of essentials and then the first set.

My final node with Deadpool 4Thor and XForce was only at 320. Now that I have finished off all of the essentials they are at 360. That 40 levels can make all the difference.

I also used Captain Marvel, LCap and OBW and full boosts to beat the final node. I got enough purple early that I could AR and keep Captain Marvel out front where she took a couple of big blows and ramped up her red which I then pumped into LCap. It also gave her black to stun and with Caps blue and OBW AR they didn't get off a move. Just whittled them down. I got a good board which is necessary. On a bad board or if you get bad cascades then you are done no matter what.

Good luck everybody,

This is something I forgot to mention. Generally essentials aren't as tough so I try to power thru the main nodes before anything else. Completely forgot that helps with scaling as well

Ugh, Sim35 is just impossible. Carol will always be punching by turn 3 and lock up any strategy I have going. And CStorm/MNM is a no-go since OBW stops you from getting AP in those colors.

Have her punch a renegerator or Hulk, then. I admit I got stuck on that node(you can't really power thru falcon/2*BW/CMarv). I got a lucky 2*Storm/2*Mag/2*Hawk board, used one blue boost IIRC

PS: I have 2.9 Whales saved up(meaning I'll have enough for 3 tomorrow?), what nodes would you recommend using them on, folks? It sounds like 38 is the biggest pain the the ****(42 is, too, but can't use it there)

Unknown

raisinbman wrote:

Have her punch a renegerator or Hulk, then. I admit I got stuck on that node(you can't really power thru falcon/2*BW/CMarv). I got a lucky 2*Storm/2*Mag/2*Hawk board, used one blue boost IIRC

Main problem is none of the regenerators have enough health to survive being punched, since lower max HP is the usual tradeoff for regeneration. Maybe Patch, but he's softcapped at about level 90 for me. Hulk could take the hits, but the stun the main point of having Hulk take big hits (Anger). I guess he could buy the most time out of anyone I have. At the very least he should be good at making Carol pay for any lasers she fires (assuming Redwing can't eat Anger countdowns since he triggers at the start of a turn?). I'll give it a go when my health packs come back.