The Simulator - Dec 30 - Jan 7

Unknown

After 14 hours of inactivity I went from +20K over #3 to -10K behind #3 and +30K over #10. I'm not sure what my lead over #10 was before this started, but in retrospect it had to have been more than 40K. Of course, since this is a normal block of hours as opposed to the end of the event, one would expect the numbers to be higher had this been the final 12 hours. So while I don't see the #10 guy making up 40K, some people certainly can make up 40K in that time, just probably not the #10 guy.

Unknown

My bracket has been rather kind. Sitting at #1 almost 50k points ahead of 2nd and still some rubber-band left in my Hard sub. Time to break out the victory cigar?

over_clocked

Want to reiterate that I won't deny 2nd place to anyone trying for it in our bracket, but I can't stop playing for the rest of the event right now (no one in top 10 can't it seems) since everyone below keeps grinding as well.

Have yet to taste new Doom's power on purple (he has been Summoning Demons fine) because his mate Moonstone guarantees I Surgical Strike purple tiles and blow up all traps. If you don't have XF with at least one black cover (even 1 black cover destroys all tiles of enemy's strongest colour), I recommend purple tile hog teams, Bullseye for 2*s, Spidey, Patch, Blade for 3*s, and, of course, oBW always works as purple denial too. Also maxed Hailstorm.

Deadpool/oBW are eviiiiil. The almost failsafe Mystique/MMN strategy is very vulnerable to overscaled Espionage so no surprise that I wiped on that node more than on any other.
Sentry is a bag of nerfed tricks.

ZeroKarma

Moon Roach wrote:

ZeroKarma wrote:

If scaling is based on the boosted essential, then I'm very glad that I never had the chance to level up Sentry. Thus far, he is a meat shield that lets me gather red, green and yellow for X-Force and Thor. That has value in itself. I haven't used a single AP for him.

I saw you in my bracket Moonroach! I thought, how cool to have a well-known forumite in my bracket. Just stay there in 3rd so I can relax!

You and #2 are so far ahead I haven't been trying for the top since about day 2. I'm doing enough to stay comfortably top 10 and get 3 covers, and that's it. It's not like anyone else in Roaches (except my other account) is trying hard in this event, so there aren't any alliance rewards to push for.

I haven't slowed down at all thankfully. Those essentials in the Hard node are keeping me on my toes. I'm 20k up on third at the moment, but I'm still not willing to put the game down. Need that Blue! I'm pretty sure that lead would have dissipated at this point if I'd taken a break in the last day. At least I got in my 8 hours of sleep.

Hope the rubberband helped some people in the bracket get their Patch.

Moon Roach

Ooh, atomzed, I see you're now at #7 with #10 6k behind. Think you'll keep top 10?

Wolveroach is way back at #67.

But last time I checked Moon Roach was #4, with a 20k lead over #10. With less than 4 hours to go, and a 3am finish here, it's another late night just to make sure of top 10.

Gods, then I've got to get up at 6 for work. I think I'll take a bit of a break after this and play less. Yeah, I can do that. It's easy.

atomzed

Moon Roach wrote:

Ooh, atomzed, I see you're now at #7 with #10 6k behind. Think you'll keep top 10?

Wolveroach is way back at #67.

But last time I checked Moon Roach was #4, with a 20k lead over #10. With less than 4 hours to go, and a 3am finish here, it's another late night just to make sure of top 10.

Gods, then I've got to get up at 6 for work. I think I'll take a bit of a break after this and play less. Yeah, I can do that. It's easy.

Today has been a day of long meetings,so couldn't do much nodes. Manage to do some 4 hr before so that out me 10k clear.

Fortunately the shard ending is at my local evening time so I can hit the nodes in the final closing hours. That should be enough to keep my top 10 *fingers crossed*

Unknown

Ground heavily before I went to sleep and got to about 36k up on #10, still in third, still well behind #2. Woke up early, at 5 am, and couldn't get back to sleep because of game stress, was ervous to open up the ap, but was still 30k up on 10th (and still comfortably in third). Spent 90 minutes grinding all of the normal sub except the Gorgon node (which I did once) down to not quite 1, but close enough to, and, with 2.5 hours left in the event, was in second (which I'm guessing Teef will take back from me) and 42k up on tenth.

I think I'm done, or at least close to. I don't think that I can lose that big a lead in a little over two hours, even at the end of the event.

Unknown

42k clear of 2nd, 57k clear of 3rd with 11hrs left. If somehow I fail to get that 4Thor blue cover now I might just quit gaming in general and become a monk.

ZeroKarma

This is the most stressful period of playing that i have ever experienced. I'm up 22k on third place with 30 minutes to go and I'm still agitated. This will be the first time that I have finished top 1-2 in any event. If it's like this every time, I have no urge to try again. Regardless of the new character.

I did break the rule people mention about not boosting in PvE. At least, I think that's a rule. I boosted heavily throughout the last essentials, not because I couldn't beat the nodes, but because boosts cost and cost and you can't buy your first blue Lady Thor!

teef1

Ben Grimm wrote:

Ground heavily before I went to sleep and got to about 36k up on #10, still in third, still well behind #2. Woke up early, at 5 am, and couldn't get back to sleep because of game stress, was ervous to open up the ap, but was still 30k up on 10th (and still comfortably in third). Spent 90 minutes grinding all of the normal sub except the Gorgon node (which I did once) down to not quite 1, but close enough to, and, with 2.5 hours left in the event, was in second (which I'm guessing Teef will take back from me) and 42k up on tenth.

I think I'm done, or at least close to. I don't think that I can lose that big a lead in a little over two hours, even at the end of the event.

Great battle, Ben! I did indeed pass you this morning for second, but you definitely have top ten guaranteed. I got a little comfortable with my position yesterday, and almost paid dearly for it. This will be my highest PVE finish ever and it feels great, but I'm not sure when I'll feel like putting in that level of effort again. My console games have been very lonely and could probably use some love now.

GrumpySmurf1002

ZeroKarma wrote:

I did break the rule people mention about not boosting in PvE. At least, I think that's a rule. I boosted heavily throughout the last essentials, not because I couldn't beat the nodes, but because boosts cost and cost and you can't buy your first blue Lady Thor!

If that's a rule, I violated it so bad they'll probably have to pass a law about it.

I had around a 20k lead after two subs, I was still up about 30k on 3rd this morning with ~11 hours left. I'll get to play the last hour and hopefully one refresh before then, so I think I'm good.

I'd say never again, but I know the next time Simulator comes around, I'll be right back to grinding.

Unknown

teef1 wrote:

Ben Grimm wrote:

Ground heavily before I went to sleep and got to about 36k up on #10, still in third, still well behind #2. Woke up early, at 5 am, and couldn't get back to sleep because of game stress, was ervous to open up the ap, but was still 30k up on 10th (and still comfortably in third). Spent 90 minutes grinding all of the normal sub except the Gorgon node (which I did once) down to not quite 1, but close enough to, and, with 2.5 hours left in the event, was in second (which I'm guessing Teef will take back from me) and 42k up on tenth.

I think I'm done, or at least close to. I don't think that I can lose that big a lead in a little over two hours, even at the end of the event.

Great battle, Ben! I did indeed pass you this morning for second, but you definitely have top ten guaranteed. I got a little comfortable with my position yesterday, and almost paid dearly for it. This will be my highest PVE finish ever and it feels great, but I'm not sure when I'll feel like putting in that level of effort again. My console games have been very lonely and could probably use some love now.

Good job on getting number 2. I've finished top 2 a few times and it's always stressful and a ton of effort, but it can be very rewarding. It also usually cures me of wanting to do it again any time soon.

Very happy to have this over with, but we don't have a rewards screen for some reason.

atomzed

Yeah, I just glad it's over for my shard. Was at number 5, and this is the least I have ever grind for a pve AND got top 10. But still it's tiring.

And now I can focus on Combined Arms, and can divert all the health packs towards it.

Unknown

2.5 days is too much time. And the progression of difficult is insane.

Unknown

Did anyone else have the levels in the normal sub completely crash at the end? I don't think I had an essential over about 60th level, and Simulator 01 was down to 15. Only the Gorgon one was over 100.

atomzed

Ben Grimm wrote:

Did anyone else have the levels in the normal sub completely crash at the end? I don't think I had an essential over about 60th level, and Simulator 01 was down to 15. Only the Gorgon one was over 100.

I didn't see that in my shard. My Gorgon node was still at around 120 or 160+.

but you were right in that the difficulty keeps dropping steadily... i observe that the level decline, much like what Phantron said.

Unknown

Last bit of major grinding last night & this morning to get the Patch. I pulled it off.

I got #9 or 10 in normal mode and I didn't even have Sentry.

Got my Luke Cage and Really lucked out with the tokens lady Thor and a Daredevil cover.

Marty17

Ben Grimm wrote:

Did anyone else have the levels in the normal sub completely crash at the end? I don't think I had an essential over about 60th level, and Simulator 01 was down to 15. Only the Gorgon one was over 100.

Definitely, it's ridiculously low to the point I was tempted to use my characters just for variety.

loroku

Haven't read the thread, just wanted to poke in and say that while I normally like the simulator, it was pretty horrid to require 3 different 3* characters. I don't remember if it's always been that way, but it feels like a mean thing to do. Unsurprisingly, at least in my bracket, the only people getting the 110k required for the final progression are also in the top 10-20+.

Also, I definitely hate the Groot node now. It's such a hard call on who to kill first (after Mags) between him and Thor. Thor can kill your team, but if Groot gets a lucky yellow... UGH.

Unknown

loroku wrote:

Haven't read the thread, just wanted to poke in and say that while I normally like the simulator, it was pretty horrid to require 3 different 3* characters. I don't remember if it's always been that way, but it feels like a mean thing to do. Unsurprisingly, at least in my bracket, the only people getting the 110k required for the final progression are also in the top 10-20+.

Also, I definitely hate the Groot node now. It's such a hard call on who to kill first (after Mags) between him and Thor. Thor can kill your team, but if Groot gets a lucky yellow... UGH.

Simulator has rotated 3 essential characters for AT LEAST 6 months & along with the Gauntlet tends to be the only PVE events where villain characters are boosted.