The Simulator - Dec 30 - Jan 7

Unknown

dkffiv wrote:

Not sure about the complaints on the Gorgon node, the previous 2 (Ares Hood and Mags) are way more dangerous. The Groot Daken node on normal is a little dangerous too.

Scaled Groot needs to be either stunned or chunked down or he becomes the greatest pain in the **** of all time. Just cascades and huge strike tiles and full health from 3k-.

Unknown

I had R&G heal with like 100 HP left and went back to 12K, though since I didn't have a stun ready for Hulk that was probably a good thing because I wouldn't be able to handle Anger if R&G went down while my strike tiles are up, though I certainly didn't plan on letting him heal.

atomzed

GrumpySmurf1002 wrote:

Still my favorite event other than Gauntlet. The scaling pricing people out limits the grind and makes the strategy of team composition and node management important.

Agree. Despite not grinding optimally (missimg several refresh) for the hard subs, I still able to RB back to second after 2 full clears.

The Sims is much better for mature rosters.

And because the essential character is patch, it's easier to do full clears without using health packs.

I hope i can keep up with top 50 to get 2 covers.

atomzed

Phantron wrote:

Am I the only one trying to do Berserker Rage with 8 green AP and wonder why it's not working?

Elektra is the MVP for the Gorgon node. Thank you for wasting AP on Ballet of Death instead of Debiliating Slash or Ambush, Shadow Step instead of Awaken the Hand, and Double Double Cross instead of Gorgon's Gaze. Although I beat those nodes pretty comfortably, any of Gorgon's move resolving would've turn an easy victory into something very ugly, and I have Elektra to thank for it. I can see the fight go like this:

It only goes to show how underwhelming Elektra is. I target Gorgon, and DD then finally Elektra.

As long as i don't bring any one with strike tiles, the purple AP they get generally becomes useless.

The *only* use for Elektra, is possibly to use the shadow step to tank a super damaging move. Say, thanos have a 8 AP skill that does 10k dmg. Then Elektra shadow step will be very useful.

Until then, I will laugh at her when k see her.

fmftint

atomzed wrote:

Phantron wrote:

Am I the only one trying to do Berserker Rage with 8 green AP and wonder why it's not working?

Elektra is the MVP for the Gorgon node. Thank you for wasting AP on Ballet of Death instead of Debiliating Slash or Ambush, Shadow Step instead of Awaken the Hand, and Double Double Cross instead of Gorgon's Gaze. Although I beat those nodes pretty comfortably, any of Gorgon's move resolving would've turn an easy victory into something very ugly, and I have Elektra to thank for it. I can see the fight go like this:

It only goes to show how underwhelming Elektra is. I target Gorgon, and DD then finally Elektra.

As long as i don't bring any one with strike tiles, the purple AP they get generally becomes useless.

The *only* use for Elektra, is possibly to use the shadow step to tank a super damaging move. Say, thanos have a 8 AP skill that does 10k dmg. Then Elektra shadow step will be very useful.

Until then, I will laugh at her when k see her.

Glad that worked out for all of you... I got hit with everything BUT Elektras attacks. Strength of the Hand, Billy club, Ambush, Debilitating Slash

Unknown

I'm having a slightly odd PVE experience (warning: this goes on for a bit):

I've chosen slice 4 in every PVE since end times were implemented. In theory, it's the best time for me, since I'm in eastern time. But since they started forcing you into brackets, it got worse; I'm starting most subs 7 hours behind, since I don't stay up to the end, plus it's always a very competitive slice. So for this one, I wanted to try something different.

In theory, Slice 3, with the 6 pm end time, would be ideal, since I could play fully after reset, and would at least have the half-hour before the end (after I get home from work) to grind down a sub. But that half-hour isn't really a lot of time, and I'd have a 6 am sub that I wouldn't be able to play for the last 7 hours of. So it kind of made sense to just go with slice 4 (midnight). And that's why I chose Slice 1.

Slice 1 is completely illogical in some ways. 9 am I've been at work for 45 minutes. But it made sense if you looked at it a bit sideways; the first sub ends New Year's day (not at work); the second ends 9 pm (perfect end time); only the last is a problem, and it's only a big problem for the last 45 minutes. Hopefully that won't interfere with top 50, which is usually as well as I can do when an event ends during the workweek. I got at the very end of a bracket, but that's usually not a problem this early.

Except top 50 doesn't look like it'll be my battleground. I did a couple partial clears before bed; was #1 in the easy sub, barely, #3 in the hard, and expected to wake up in 30-50th place. I woke up in 2nd and 5th, repectively, and a couple pre-work partial clears got me back up to #1 and #3 and I think #4 overall. While it's early, of course, I"m usually doing lousy (comparatively) early and end up climbing up to viable later in a PVP. This looks right now like I might have to put in less effort to get top ten than I did to get top 150 in the last one, and this one has a new character.

I could be wrong. It could get much tougher as time goes on. And it may be more because I joined the slice almost 24 hours after it started than because Slice 1 is that much easier. But I'm looking at a week of not having to stay up late to grind, a hopefully relatively easy top 10 finish, and maybe never doing slice 4 ever again.

Unknown

Ben Grimm wrote:

I'm having a slightly odd PVE experience (warning: this goes on for a bit):

I've chosen slice 4 in every PVE since end times were implemented. In theory, it's the best time for me, since I'm in eastern time. But since they started forcing you into brackets, it got worse; I'm starting most subs 7 hours behind, since I don't stay up to the end, plus it's always a very competitive slice. So for this one, I wanted to try something different.

In theory, Slice 3, with the 6 pm end time, would be ideal, since I could play fully after reset, and would at least have the half-hour before the end (after I get home from work) to grind down a sub. But that half-hour isn't really a lot of time, and I'd have a 6 am sub that I wouldn't be able to play for the last 7 hours of. So it kind of made sense to just go with slice 4 (midnight). And that's why I chose Slice 1.

Slice 1 is completely illogical in some ways. 9 am I've been at work for 45 minutes. But it made sense if you looked at it a bit sideways; the first sub ends New Year's day (not at work); the second ends 9 pm (perfect end time); only the last is a problem, and it's only a big problem for the last 45 minutes. Hopefully that won't interfere with top 50, which is usually as well as I can do when an event ends during the workweek. I got at the very end of a bracket, but that's usually not a problem this early.

Except top 50 doesn't look like it'll be my battleground. I did a couple partial clears before bed; was #1 in the easy sub, barely, #3 in the hard, and expected to wake up in 30-50th place. I woke up in 2nd and 5th, repectively, and a couple pre-work partial clears got me back up to #1 and #3 and I think #4 overall. While it's early, of course, I"m usually doing lousy (comparatively) early and end up climbing up to viable later in a PVP. This looks right now like I might have to put in less effort to get top ten than I did to get top 150 in the last one, and this one has a new character.

I could be wrong. It could get much tougher as time goes on. And it may be more because I joined the slice almost 24 hours after it started than because Slice 1 is that much easier. But I'm looking at a week of not having to stay up late to grind, a hopefully relatively easy top 10 finish, and maybe never doing slice 4 ever again.

I'm also in slice #4. I joined about 15 minutes after the event started. I went to bed as #7 (no grinding nodes down. I played 1 set for as many of the nodes as I could without buying HP). I woke up to being #15, I've cleared only 2 essential nodes this morning so far in Hard. I'm now #11 overall, #3 is HARD and #13 in easy. Hopefully the event will hold as such so I won't have to grind so much.

Marty17

slycookies wrote:

I'm also in slice #4. I joined about 15 minutes after the event started. I went to bed as #7 (no grinding nodes down. I played 1 set for as many of the nodes as I could without buying HP). I woke up to being #15, I've cleared only 2 essential nodes this morning so far in Hard. I'm now #11 overall, #3 is HARD and #13 in easy. Hopefully the event will hold as such so I won't have to grind so much.

Yeah, roughly in the same boat as now I'm stuck with a conundrum of shall I play to gain more points or leave it in case it gets overly difficult(?)

Unknown

Marty17 wrote:

Yeah, roughly in the same boat as now I'm stuck with a conundrum of shall I play to gain more points or leave it in case it gets overly difficult(?)

I'm playing as I would for a normal event right now, just in case. Though not expending the precious HP for health packs if I run out/need them.

Unknown

Okay, so Sentry wasn't dead weight this time and I managed to do the Hard essentials. But since Elektra is now Deadly(lol!) I may not be able to do anything besides the triple-goon node soon. Even then, Caltrops is gonna scale hella crazy....

My only real strategy in some of these hard nodes is boost AP, get as much AP as possible and strike tile/nuke the enemy(Panther Rage, Sentry Red, Daken Daken). But that's IF I can last that long!

Unknown

Caltrops does 1746 damage per player on level 395. Haven't stepped on any for a while, but that was mostly luck. I boost green/black for Nightstalker and hope it drains the right colors. Thankfully, there's a physical limit to how many moves the AI can do per turn with goons and since the goons team has a ton of AP they may choose to use moves that aren't Caltrops.

IReallyHatePVP

raisinbman wrote:

Okay, so Sentry wasn't dead weight this time and I managed to do the Hard essentials.
...

*Judge SLAMS gavel down Hard*

This is incredible! Is the witness stating that the Essential nodes have rotated to Sentry?

*Crowd murmurs among themselves*
*Judge bangs gavel again*

Does anyone have any evidence to corroborate this testimony?

*Phoenix thoughtfully scratches his chin...*

Unknown

IReallyHatePVP wrote:

raisinbman wrote:

Okay, so Sentry wasn't dead weight this time and I managed to do the Hard essentials.
...

*Judge SLAMS gavel down Hard*

This is incredible! Is the witness stating that the Essential nodes have rotated to Sentry?

*Crowd murmurs among themselves*
*Judge bangs gavel again*

Does anyone have any evidence to corroborate this testimony?

*Phoenix thoughtfully scratches his chin...*

No, I'm still in first set of nodes and Sentry isn't essential....I just meant he didn't die and do nothing unlike last time. Partly because the computer didn't do anything...collected lots of Black without a black user. I guess he could be later.

Side note: I'd use Blade if he weren't only level 66 Phantron, I haven't gotten too many blade pulls unfortunately. I know he's awesome tho.

evil panda

Imagine if the essential rotated to Mystique

Lystrata

slycookies wrote:

Ben Grimm wrote:

Except top 50 doesn't look like it'll be my battleground. I did a couple partial clears before bed; was #1 in the easy sub, barely, #3 in the hard, and expected to wake up in 30-50th place. I woke up in 2nd and 5th, repectively, and a couple pre-work partial clears got me back up to #1 and #3 and I think #4 overall. While it's early, of course, I"m usually doing lousy (comparatively) early and end up climbing up to viable later in a PVP. This looks right now like I might have to put in less effort to get top ten than I did to get top 150 in the last one, and this one has a new character.

I could be wrong. It could get much tougher as time goes on. And it may be more because I joined the slice almost 24 hours after it started than because Slice 1 is that much easier. But I'm looking at a week of not having to stay up late to grind, a hopefully relatively easy top 10 finish, and maybe never doing slice 4 ever again.

I'm also in slice #4. I joined about 15 minutes after the event started. I went to bed as #7 (no grinding nodes down. I played 1 set for as many of the nodes as I could without buying HP). I woke up to being #15, I've cleared only 2 essential nodes this morning so far in Hard. I'm now #11 overall, #3 is HARD and #13 in easy. Hopefully the event will hold as such so I won't have to grind so much.

Not sure it's slice related, really... this just seems to be a much, much less intense PvE. I'm in slice 4, started playing about 12 hours after it began, and I'm #2 in easy, T10 in hard, and T20 in main. I'm playing 90% of the easy nodes, and 2 (not 2%, just... 2) of the hard ones. Perhaps every 4 or 5 hours, and without double clears before sleeping. Considering I was initially aiming for T100, I'm not sure how much less effort to put in, to drop down further.

Might be because the event is run over NYE and could get harder from here on, might be because people are sick of grinding like trained monkeys, might be because the scaling is tinykittied and no one can play anything. Who knows! But it's one of the least 'effort required' PvEs I've ever played.

squirrel1120

I had a lot of apprehension about doing any of the hard sub nodes tonight. They all seemed harsh. Then I remembered someone posting in events past how nice a combo patch was with stormneto, and with Mags boosted, storm would be hidden. Gave it a try. It was so effective that I ended up smashing most of the hard nodes with the combo.

With patch tanking 4 colors it's easy to get him out front of big hits, and a BR or two before double wind storms... fun.

ScrubJay

I went to bed at #2 and 5, came back 20 hours later after sleep and work at around 25th place. Looks like nobody cares this time.

Unknown

squirrel1120 wrote:

I had a lot of apprehension about doing any of the hard sub nodes tonight. They all seemed harsh. Then I remembered someone posting in events past how nice a combo patch was with stormneto, and with Mags boosted, storm would be hidden. Gave it a try. It was so effective that I ended up smashing most of the hard nodes with the combo.

With patch tanking 4 colors it's easy to get him out front of big hits, and a BR or two before double wind storms... fun.

How do you do this...?

Unknown

raisinbman wrote:

squirrel1120 wrote:

I had a lot of apprehension about doing any of the hard sub nodes tonight. They all seemed harsh. Then I remembered someone posting in events past how nice a combo patch was with stormneto, and with Mags boosted, storm would be hidden. Gave it a try. It was so effective that I ended up smashing most of the hard nodes with the combo.

With patch tanking 4 colors it's easy to get him out front of big hits, and a BR or two before double wind storms... fun.

How do you do this...?

If your score is low your scaling is likely low too because there is a personal factor that goes in.

2 of my essentials are now at 395, though ironically I lost to the only essential that's still not at 395 yet from a 7K Chemical Reaction followed by a 8K Sniper Rifle. Talk about overkill.

Unknown

Btw I'll say what I say in every pve thread: mnmags+cstorm+patch will beat any node if you can get those two purple matches early.