Roster Advice for a Newer Player

TxMoose

Started playing about Thanksgiving and I got hooked early on - before I even knew the depth of the game. After a few weeks of hacking around the prologue casually I discovered the PvE events and have done well for a noob in the last couple of events. Once i started PvE and LR's I started getting lots more/better covers and decided to spend some $ on roster slots (currently at 25 slots) since I anticipate playing regularly moving forward. My current roster is:

70 Elektra 1/-/-
70 4or 1/-/-
60 **Thor 5/1/3
54 **Hawkeye 3/2/3
50 IM35 5/5/3
48 Bullseye 4/4
43 ***Captain Marvel 1/1/-
43 Daredevil -/1/1
43 Dr Octopus 1/-/1
43 Loki 1/-/1
43 ***Storm 1/-/1
40 *BW 5/5
40 Beast -/1/1
40 ***Cap Am -/1/-
40 Falcon -/1/-
40 Gamora -/1/-
38 **Storm 2/3/2
38 **Ares 2/2/2
37 Moonstone 2/3/2
33 **Daken 1/3/1
31 **Cap Marvel 3/1/3
23 **Magneto 2/-/1
22 **Wolverine 2/-/-
21 **Cap Am -/1/2
19 **BW 1/2/1

Sorry if I got some abbreviations messed up or if I didn't present it right. My noob analysis is that my most useful current players include: **Thor, **Hawk, IM35, **Bullseye, *BW, **Storm, **Ares, Moonstone, **Daken, and **Cap Marvel. Those are the players I pull from for the low seed bots in the LR's and the PvP events (mostly the ones who aren't buffed in the current PvE event) - I just wait till the end and try and get as high as I can until I hit actual teams (usually level 94+). I can finish top 200 or so in most events (PvP and full PvE) and top 20 in the PvE subs. So, I have a couple of ** Human Torch covers that I'd like to try and use but I'm unsure what to discard. My weakest characters are Cpt America and Wolverine, but I hesitate to discard them - I just like Cap and Wolvie seems to be a stape on many rosters. Moonstone seems to be on everyone's 'least fav' list but she and Ares (with Daken) are what got me through the Dark Avengers PvE event - but that may mean her usefulness is done for a while? I also have the 2 **** and 11 *** characters with minimal covers - no idea what I should do with those. I'm working on leveling up my best ** characters now (recently got OBW and need to level her some) and will throw a little iso into a second cover on a *** character since it's fairly cheap to do so. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Unknown

Wow you spent the time to write all that out? In light of your ambition I'll attempt to help the best I can.

At this point in the game having an even leveled roster will most likely benefit you the best. Remember each character has it's value due to the fact ANY of them can be powered up during a PVE event.

The ** Thor, Captain, Storm, Daken, Magneto and Ares are all solid investments when you're in the ** transition phase. Ideally (and this is my opinion) Thor and Daken come first but Storm/Magneto are a great combination but lack any healing abilities or high health. Stick with Thor and Daken.

You'll want Daken 5/5/3 and Thor 3/5/5 Unless you would rather spam red/yellow then you can use 5/5/3 for a faster Thor.

Remember that if you level 3 characters you'll have a solid team but the goal is to have at least 2 sets of 3 chars that run well together. Storm/Magneto - Ares/Original Black Widow (OBW) - Thor/Daken

Roster slots come before anything. You NEVER want to dump a *** cover because you skimped out and wouldn't pay a few $ to keep him.

Join an active alliance and grind PVP endlessly to gather all the ** covers available and collect more ISO.

Last but not least don't forget to collect all the rewards from the original prologue gameplay. There is a lot of HP, ISO and covers to be collected.

You can find me on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/JaredLeeGarrison and in game my name is 3uphoria. Message me on FB if you have any other questions. I'll help the best I can.

DaveR4470

I was in your shoes not long ago. Now... I'm in slightly less underpowered shoes.

Here's my two cents:

(1) I will doubly amplify what 3uphoria said: DO NOT SKIMP ON ROSTER SPOTS. I have 32 and that's not enough. Save all your HP for roster spots. Don't shield; don't buy covers.

(2) Out of your roster, I expect you'll be able to (eventually) fully cover the 2* Thor, Daken, and probably Moonstone pretty quickly. (I seem to get tons of Moonstone covers that I don't want. Wish I could give you some...) That would be a pretty good trio to use. 3/5/5 for Thor is the best. I run a 3/5/5 Daken as well -- but that's mainly because I use Wolvie with Daken a lot in PVP, and Daken's blue is super awesome when Wolvie is feeding him strike tiles with his green. But I digress.

(2a) In case you hadn't guessed -- I also agree that you should focus on Thor/Daken first. 2* BW is good, too. Max out her black, then pair her with Daken and let Thor tank. That's a killer 2* lineup.

(3) Play a lot. Always play a couple of rounds of PVP. Always play a couple rounds of as many lightning rounds as you can.

(4) Covering up your 2*s is slow. Covering up your 3* is INSANELY slow. Enjoy making visible and tangible progress while you can, because you're going to reach a point where getting one or two useful covers a month is a big deal. (Unless you're willing to pay a ton of money to shortcut things.)

(5) Have fun.

p.s. I'd sell Bullseye if you don't get enough HP for another roster spot before the Johnny Torch covers expire. The shield isn't worth it in the long run. But that's just me.

TxMoose

Thanks guys.

1) So, on the PvE nodes I can't survive much in the Hard sub any more. The first sub round I did ok but the second and third here I don't survive much, so I'm concentrating on the Normal nodes. If I start with my "B" team and play them until they drop, then plug my "A" team in to try and finish the harder ones toward the end, does it help reign in the scaling some? This last one is killer - first day on Simulator I blew through Normal and finished Hard nodes but there is 1 node (Simulation 6 - Mag/Falcon/Deadpool) here on the last day that I cannot survive any more. Deadpool always gets in the way of focusing on the other 2. There is one node on Hard (#1) that I am playing just for overall pts but obviously it isn't getting me anywhere fast.

2) This is my 3rd PvE and they seem to be getting progressively harder. Is that for everyone or did I just have more effective teams for the others? Dark Avengers I had Ares/Moon/Daken - it was a race for Ares yellow and Moon's red (with the covers I had) and I did well enough to earn Elektra (and I had DocOct and Loki, but limited covers on them) which helped me in the Hand PvE. My only buffed players here are **Thor, **Bulls, and **Mag (I end up playing Hawk more than Mag).

3) In PvP's my strategy so far has been to wait until the last hour and speed up as far as I can until I hit real teams. They jump from the teens/20s to the 90s with no ramp up at all. I read where some lower level guys get in early, get through the lower bot teams, stop at the high ones and then get beat back down and then go again. Will you actually get beat down enough to finish more matches? With my teams in the 30-50 level, playing the 94 level teams aren't in the cards.

Thanks again.

Unknown

I have a similar question, although I'm much greener as I've only been playing for a week or so. I would have created a new topic, but it seems I can only piggyback since this is a new account.

I've played about half of the prologue, going back and replaying levels to farm HP but not for any other rewards. I did pretty well in the last PvP and PvE event, I think I had over 800 points (I only remember being tantalizingly close to the 900 point level for the next reward) in the PvP at one point before I got taken way down to 650 or so. I've spent all my HP on roster slots and have 10 now, and need another 450 HP to get another 3. I've tried to read as much as I can on roster/team management, but I have a couple of questions of where I should go from here.

My roster - a lot of these guys were spec'd out before I read up on character progression stuff. I have ISO8 from the last lightning round to level with, so some of these guys will be built up more towards their level max:
****Nick Fury (escape plan)
**Ares 4/0/1 level 25
**Magneto 2/1/1 level 20
**Thor 3/0/1 level 18
**OBW 1/0/1 level 15 - haven't used her yet, just collecting covers before I start to level her.
*Iron Man 35 4/5/4, level 27 - used that damn 4th blue cover before I noticed the 13 power cap and the huge cost
*Modern Storm 4/4/4, level 24
* Classic Juggernaut 3/2 level 14
*Classic Hawkeye 5/5 level 15
*Modern Black Widow 4/4 level 15 - made the same mistake with her ability as I did with IM. I'm planning on selling and respec'ing her to 2/5 when I have the covers

In the queue for the next 4-7 days:
*** Sentry
**Classic Storm
**Astonishing Wolverine
**Modern Hawkeye
and a couple of MBW covers to respec.

I've already sold off a **Ms Marvel and **Moonstone in favor of Magneto and either Juggs or Ares since I only had one cover of each and they weren't very helpful at the time.

So I won the ****Nick Fury in the PvP (I think). Should I just sell him for the 1000 ISO8 since I won't be able to use him for so long? Or is he valuable enough to keep on my roster as dead wood?

Should I sell *Hawkeye who I don't use much? Should I sell *Juggernaut, who is fairly redundant to *IM35 and not leveled nearly as far? That would leave my only * characters as IM35, MStorm, and MBW. Then I can add **CStorm and **Wolverine to my roster. Is **Hawkeye worth adding? Is ***Sentry worth adding just because he's a three star? I've read that he was badly nerfed, but does that still make him better than a fairly leveled **?

Thanks for the help!

Pleefs

ramble wrote:

I have a similar question, although I'm much greener as I've only been playing for a week or so. I would have created a new topic, but it seems I can only piggyback since this is a new account.

I've played about half of the prologue, going back and replaying levels to farm HP but not for any other rewards. I did pretty well in the last PvP and PvE event, I think I had over 800 points (I only remember being tantalizingly close to the 900 point level for the next reward) in the PvP at one point before I got taken way down to 650 or so. I've spent all my HP on roster slots and have 10 now, and need another 450 HP to get another 3. I've tried to read as much as I can on roster/team management, but I have a couple of questions of where I should go from here.

My roster - a lot of these guys were spec'd out before I read up on character progression stuff. I have ISO8 from the last lightning round to level with, so some of these guys will be built up more towards their level max:
****Nick Fury (escape plan)
**Ares 4/0/1 level 25
**Magneto 2/1/1 level 20
**Thor 3/0/1 level 18
**OBW 1/0/1 level 15 - haven't used her yet, just collecting covers before I start to level her.
*Iron Man 35 4/5/4, level 27 - used that damn 4th blue cover before I noticed the 13 power cap and the huge cost
*Modern Storm 4/4/4, level 24
* Classic Juggernaut 3/2 level 14
*Classic Hawkeye 5/5 level 15
*Modern Black Widow 4/4 level 15 - made the same mistake with her ability as I did with IM. I'm planning on selling and respec'ing her to 2/5 when I have the covers

In the queue for the next 4-7 days:
*** Sentry
**Classic Storm
**Astonishing Wolverine
**Modern Hawkeye
and a couple of MBW covers to respec.

I've already sold off a **Ms Marvel and **Moonstone in favor of Magneto and either Juggs or Ares since I only had one cover of each and they weren't very helpful at the time.

So I won the ****Nick Fury in the PvP (I think). Should I just sell him for the 1000 ISO8 since I won't be able to use him for so long? Or is he valuable enough to keep on my roster as dead wood?

Should I sell *Hawkeye who I don't use much? Should I sell *Juggernaut, who is fairly redundant to *IM35 and not leveled nearly as far? That would leave my only * characters as IM35, MStorm, and MBW. Then I can add **CStorm and **Wolverine to my roster. Is **Hawkeye worth adding? Is ***Sentry worth adding just because he's a three star? I've read that he was badly nerfed, but does that still make him better than a fairly leveled **?

Thanks for the help!

First thing, NEVER sell a 3 star, even moreso a 4 star, even if they sit as "dead wood." (There are a few, but very few exceptions.)

I still tend to see you as still in the 1* stage, so the classic IM35(Jugs)/Storm/Widow is still viable as you play through the prologue to get the two star covers awarded there.You should sell Hawkeye * to clear roster space for Classic Storm, who you should be pairing with Magneto **. Between Jugs and IM 35, I lean more to Jugs, especially when they run the PVP where everyone is 270. Jugs is plain scary in that one. I keep both myself, but I didn't mind buying roster slots when I was in the early part of the game and they didn't cost quite as much as they do when you have 50+ slots. Modern Hawkeye you can sell for ISO now, as you'll see him pop up a lot down the road as your roster develops. You should try to get 2* Wolvie in your roster as you can get him covered well through playing the prologue. You really want to get covers for either Ares, Thor & OBW at this point.

Unknown

Thanks, Pleefs, that all makes a ton of sense.

I got a few lucky pulls from the lightning rounds today and picked up a **Daken and ***She-hulk. I've got a week to farm a lot of HP in missions so I don't lose them! Should I be trying to get all the rewards from the prologue missions, or should I save them for later when I need a cover or Iso8? The only missions Ive replayed so far are the ones that give HP.

TxMoose

1) So, on the PvE nodes it got to where I couldnt survive much in the Hard sub. The first sub round I did ok but the second and third here I don't survive much, so I'm concentrated on the Normal nodes. If I start with my "B" team and play them until they drop, then plug my "A" team in to try and finish the harder ones toward the end, does it help reign in the scaling some? This last one is killer - first day on Simulator I blew through Normal and finished Hard nodes but there is 1 node (Simulation 6 - Mag/Falcon/Deadpool) there on the last day that I couldn't survive any more. Deadpool always gets in the way of focusing on the other 2. There is one node on Hard (#1) that I am playing just for overall pts but obviously it isn't getting me anywhere fast.

2) This is my 3rd PvE and they seem to be getting progressively harder. Is that for everyone or did I just have more effective teams for the others? Dark Avengers I had Ares/Moon/Daken - it was a race for Ares yellow and Moon's red (with the covers I had) and I did well enough to earn Elektra (and I had DocOct and Loki, but limited covers on them) which helped me in the Hand PvE.

3) In PvP's my strategy so far has been to wait until the last hour and speed up as far as I can until I hit real teams. They jump from the teens/20s to the 90s with no ramp up at all. I read where some lower level guys get in early, get through the lower bot teams, stop at the high ones and then get beat back down and then go again. Will you actually get beat down enough to finish more matches? With my teams in the 30-50 level, playing the 94 level teams aren't in the cards. Or maybe I'm not looking at it right.

Thanks for the help.

Quebbster

Pleas don't copypaste your old posts as new threads. It just clutters up the forum.

Pleefs

ramble wrote:

Thanks, Pleefs, that all makes a ton of sense.

I got a few lucky pulls from the lightning rounds today and picked up a **Daken and ***She-hulk. I've got a week to farm a lot of HP in missions so I don't lose them! Should I be trying to get all the rewards from the prologue missions, or should I save them for later when I need a cover or Iso8? The only missions Ive replayed so far are the ones that give HP.

ramble, whenever you can, you might as well clear out the prologue missions until you get all the prizes. You'll have lots of opportunities during the other PVE and eventually PVPs as your roster grows, to get more covers and ISO.

TxMoose

Updated roster and question:

**** both level 70: 4or (2 covers)/Elektra (1 cover)
*** (all level 40-45, all 1-3 covers): Daredevil, Capt Marvel, Dr Doom, Dr Oct, Loki, SquirrelG, Storm, Gamora, Torch, Capt Am, Falcon, Sentry, Hulk
**: Thor (63, 13 covers), Daken (60, 13 covers), Hawk (54, 12 covers), Storm (51, 11 covers), OBW (50, 12 covers), Ares (50, 10 covers), Wolverine (50, 9 covers), Magneto (50, 8 covers), Capt America (45, 8 covers), Capt Marvel (42, 11 covers), Torch (35, 10 covers)
*: maxed IM35 and MBW

Have Luke Cage in waiting and need to make a decision within 2 days. Just got LThor from the PVE. About to get Rag on Daily Supply later today (day 60). Will have enough HP to open one slot once the alliance results are in on the SG PVE, but then my HP is zeroed. I assume LThor will be essential on the next PVE, so I'm assuming he is a must ASAP. My guess is I need to part ways with MBW for Luke Cage? And then, with Ragnarok, looking for opinions on options. IM35/Marvel/Torch? I considered dumping Dr Oct but alliance member didnt think that was good idea (for any ***). I won't build up enough HP by Rags expiration, so gotta make a decision.

I've stopped leveling my top guys and tried to bring everyone to ~50+ and currently saving ISO. Goal is to save and level 4 to 86/94 together (preferably Thor/Daken/OBW/Ares with Mags/Storm/Hawk coming after?). Reasonable? Right now the freebie PVP character is tanking many of my colors on my level 50 guys and I'm just clearing the seed teams at the end of the events. What level should I expect to start competing with the level 94 teams? I haven't really tried much yet.

Thanks for the help.

Vhailorx

Here are some general tips for the early stages of this game.

1. Don't EVER buy tokens or token packs. Save all your HP for roster slots. You will get covers way faster than you can roster them, and buying more packs will just make that problem worse without actually letting you get any 2* or 3* characters maxed and playable.

2. Don't bother leveling your 1*s up past 30 or so. By that time you should have 2*s that can do the job better, and that's a much better way to spend iso.

3. There are 7 or 8 2*s that it is worth maxing. In general, I would look to max black widow (original), ares, 2* daken, and thor first. Then worry about 2* wolvie, 2* storm, 2* magneto and 2* hawkeye. The first group of 4 are essential. They are the best 2*s and are basically necessary to have any chance of finishing top 100 in pvp (which is an extra 3* cover every three days). Wolverine is a solid all around 2*, but outclassed by the other red/green/yellow 2*s I mentioned. Keep him around and level when you have spare iso. Storm/MnMags/mHawkeye are the other team worth leveling. They are devastatingly powerful on offense and in pve (with these three at 94, you can easily most defeat 3x166 3* teams). But they have no defensive value whatsoever, and are fairly squishy to boot. When you have a obw/ares/daken/thor maxed, then focus on cStorm/mnMags/mHawkeye.

4. Once you have those 2*s listed above cover-maxed and leveled, stockpile all iso. You can collect more 2* covers if you like, but don't waste iso leveling them. it's not worth it and you will need that iso for your 3*s

4. Don't ever throw away 3*s if you can possibly avoid it. once you have playable 2*s (level 40+) throw away all 1*s, even those you have leveled, before throwing away a 3*. And also throw away any useless 2* (i.e. those not listed above) before dumping a 3*. This is even true for **** 3*s. save them as they might get reworked at a later date and become useful (case in point: Loki and Doom).

5. Patience! if you don't have HP for another roster slot, then don't open any tokens! Doing so will only cause trouble. save your tokens until you have roster space. Then open them judiciously until you have used up your roster space and save the rest. Covers expire in 7 days but tokens stay forever.

As for your specific question re: Cage and Lazy Thor. I would definitely do whatever it takes to keep both of them as they are 2 of the best available 3*s. And yes, lazy thor should be essential in the next pve.

Quebbster

I think the big question is: Which * and ** characters do you use? Anyone you don't use regularly is a prime candidate for losing.
I think losing Doc Ock might work out too since he is currently vaulted and likely to stay in there for quite a while, so you won't get more covers and once he gets out he's bound to be a reward again. Ragnarok may come out of the vault next week, so wait and see if they have given him any new powers. If he hasn't been retooled he's not much to keep, TBH.

TxMoose

Vhailorx wrote:

5. Patience! if you don't have HP for another roster slot, then don't open any tokens! Doing so will only cause trouble. save your tokens until you have roster space. Then open them judiciously until you have used up your roster space and save the rest. Covers expire in 7 days but tokens stay forever.

That is certainly starting to hit home. I got Luke from a PVE event token. Do those not expire either? I thought they expired a week after the event. I certainly could have waited to open a few days but I thought I would need to do it relatively soon anyway. But saving std and heroics - done and done. No more for a while. And I'll save the event tokens until the end of their timer if I don't have a slot open.

Quebbster

TxMoose wrote:

Vhailorx wrote:

5. Patience! if you don't have HP for another roster slot, then don't open any tokens! Doing so will only cause trouble. save your tokens until you have roster space. Then open them judiciously until you have used up your roster space and save the rest. Covers expire in 7 days but tokens stay forever.

That is certainly starting to hit home. I got Luke from a PVE event token. Do those not expire either? I thought they expired a week after the event. I certainly could have waited to open a few days but I thought I would need to do it relatively soon anyway. But saving std and heroics - done and done. No more for a while. And I'll save the event tokens until the end of their timer if I don't have a slot open.

The tokens themselves do not expire, so you can keep them unopened for as long as you want. If you keep it until the next time the event is run the featured characters will change to reflect the new event though - this could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your viewpoint. Any covers you get from opened tokens will expire after 7 days though, so you need to find a spot for Luke now.

TxMoose

so the timer on the event page where you redeem your tokens - that is only for purchasing your tokens, not redeeming? That is good to know. So that page just stays there until I claim the tokens received from the event? When I scroll through all the token pages, it will stay there?

Quebbster

TxMoose wrote:

so the timer on the event page where you redeem your tokens - that is only for purchasing your tokens, not redeeming? That is good to know. So that page just stays there until I claim the tokens received from the event? When I scroll through all the token pages, it will stay there?

Yes, it is only for buying. You can save the tokens as long as you want.