Upcoming Versus Matchmaking Test

Unknown

Felt about the same to me, ran into a drought of 25+ around 650 or so same as usual. After pushing past 725 or so started encountering the max level teams again. Was in slice 4, played from about 730AM PST - 10AM today.

Unknown

Name: HydrusZ
Roster: Thor, Daken, Patch, Spiderman, HT, XForce all at 135
Team: Thor, Daken, Hood (120) - All max covers
End time: 4PM EST (last slice?)

I feel that the only difference between this and the PVP events of the past season was that in Divine Champions I started seeing 166s at 600 points, while previously it was at 500 points. My highest score was around 730, which I was able to get by finding unbuffed teams. Between 650 and 730 I was seeing tons of maxed 4*s. I don't feel like it was any easier to find teams of my level, in fact most of the teams I beat after 600 were significantly higher level. I did not shield, and felt like I was attacked the same amount as usual. So my only observed change was the wall moving from 500 to 600.

Unknown

Name: Grizzlegom
Top of Roster: Modern Thor (166 boosted to 249), Devil Dinosaur (166), GSBW (166), Captain America (166), Daken (166), XF (166), Hulk (153), Patch (153)
Fought majority of my matches with Modern Thor/LDaken/Patch
Event Score: 742

I didn't notice a difference. The climb to 600 was quick and painless. Getting from 600 to 700 was annoyingly painful as every team was worth 15-19 points (side note, I find myself to be extremely annoyed with this section. I'll use skips until I find a fight that's worth at least 17 and virtually every time, I go into the fight with it being worth 17, and I come out and get closer to 13). Started seeing maxed XF/4hor teams at about 700. Others in my alliance reported not seeing that until 800 but I saw it right as I crossed 700 as per usual.

Unknown

Name: Papa07
Front page-ish: 12 @135 (with 12 or 13 covers) - BP,Blade,Cap,Daken,Falcon,Hood,Hulk,HT,Patch,Psy,Sentry,Thor
Team: Thor (boosted@203) with (early) Storm (141) and Blade (135) or (late) Hulk (135) and Patch (135)
Final score: 582 (Peaked over 650) - Slice 5

Points were a little easier to get. Climbed to 500 against all 94s (or boosted at 141), but instead of points being 25 starting at 200 and shrinking to 17, the points started around 30 or 35 and shrank to 25-27 as I climbed. Once I got to 500, the 3stars started getting mixed in, but with plenty of Ares/Thor and Storm (all at 141). Past 600, I started seeing some 166s (and boosted 249) but no 270s, just some underleveled 4stars.

It seemed the wall was pushed back a little, but I personally did not push as hard as during the season. Better still, my matches were being made against people with more points than me, rather than someone 100 below me. That was a refreshing change.

Elayne

I just started Category five and seeing a huge difference in opponents

Name: Elayne169
Roster: Xforce 168, 12 max three starts at 155
Team: Storm (Max covered but level 90 pre buffed) Daken 166 Patch 166
End time: 10AM EST

At under 100 points I am being offered people with nothing higher than 40 on their roster or maybe one or two max two stars and 1 to 3 covered three stars

at 106 points I was just offered a replacement node worth 21 points with the top character on their roster a one cover fury and then a level 50 one star iron man and a 2 yellow covered mohawk storm at level 50 then nothing higher than 43.

I do have a 42 point node from someone with 3 maxed 2 stars at 94 but then it dros down to 83, 68 and 57.

Normal placement in pvp is 750 to 850 points and in top 25.

Bowgentle

Divine Champions felt like a normal PVP, maybe a bit more mixed opponents, but that's due to buffed Ares I think.

Category 5: completely different.

I just went from 0 to 300 on nothing but 2* opponents, even found one 1* team.

First page of my roster:
Maxed Fury, Thor, Xforce, 16 maxed 3*s after that.
I haven't tanked in over 2 months, and was used to getting maxed 3* teams after seeds.

Category 5 feels like I got a complete reset of my MMR, as if the game doesn't know who to match me with, so I get a natural difficulty progression.
Which is how it should be.

I'm not sure how the people I curbstomped on my way feel about "hitting the 270 wall at 100 points", but for me this is a huge improvement.

Even better would be to just let me start at 650 because that's where things get interesting, though.

WilsonFisk

My experience, and my roster are pretty much identical to what Bowgentle said above me.

Overall, I'm liking this change. Feels like a good difficulty progression, and doesn't take as long to get into the top tier scoring range.

ShanePHallam

My progression didn't seem too much affected in Divine Champs, might be due to boosts, etc, but I had a pretty easy time getting to 550 or so, and then I hit a wall of 166s, most with boosted Lazy Thors (My top character levels are 135 in level,) Though, I didn't hit Thoress at that point which is nice as usually there are some 270 teams tossed in around there.

I'll start Cat 5 this afternoon and edit my experience.

rixmith

Just started Category 5 (selected the slice that ends on Friday at 5PM MST).

My Roster: 9 or 10 Level 3's at 166. X-Force at 166. Then a couple of 3*'s at 142.

First experience: I had three seed teams, then saw a whole lot of 1*'s and low level 2* and 3*'s. Then I saw a node that had a loaner Storm, a level 43 Mystique and a Level 40 1* Hawkeye. I clicked on the roster and noticed that this player had many 3*'s over level 100 including a maxed out Hulk. So now I'm wondering whether this means I just got the team he used when beating up a low level node, or whether at this point in the event (I have 145 points, ranked 23) I'm seeing a team that was randomly composed from his lower level characters.

I have no complaints getting some easy matches to start the event (although I took some amazing from a maxed Juggs/Venom opponent), but do feel a little bad at how lopsided these matches are. Unless they are going to see some low level characters of mine to retaliate against instead of the team I used...

All in all, it is intriguing so far.

CrookedKnight

Okay, the opening rounds of Category 5 got kind of weird. I started out seeing mid-range to maxed 2* opponents, so fairly normal, but between 350 and 400 points I slammed into a temporary 166 wall. Straight from 94s to 166s and even 200+ 4* opponents. And once I cleared 400 points it was back to 94s and mid-range 3* teams. Very strange.

rixmith

I'm now just past 400 and it feels like the first 200 points were 1* opponents, the next 200 were 2*'s and now I'm firmly in the 3* opponents. Maybe I'll get past the wall that CrookedKnight mentioned and get back to 2*'s, but it does feel a little bit early to hit 166's. I'd think that the 2* cover progression at 500 should be pretty reachable for 2* rosters, so 400 seems a little early to hit the wall. But maybe that will change as we get closer to the end time.

GrumpySmurf1002

Just started Category-5. Seed teams, followed my Max Thor or Max Patch/Hulk teams immediately, though at least worth 35-40 points.

At 280, found Ares, followed by max cMags-sneaky XForce (5/5/3 lvl 170)

Edit: This is slice 4. Got up to around 600 yesterday, fighting through mostly teams with a total of about 480 levels (ex: Storm 169 - Thor 166 - Spidey 150). One or two 270 XForce, but they were rare. Definitely different than normal, where usually I can find the 2*s up to about 500.

Unknown

Hey d3. I was playing the category 5 versus event and met near maxed 3* teams at 100 points. This usually doesn't happen until at least 400 points. Also, even if i skip, i usually find another near maxed team, whereas before, i could skip once or twice and find a team i can beat without burning through my health packs after every other battle. Just some info to help you out.

simonsez

I'm in S4 for Cat-5, and the matchmaking I experienced was pretty damn awful. Up to 300, it was an odd mix of 2* teams. Some maxed, some grossly underleveled. No consistency at all. Then at 300, it was right into maxed 3*/4* opponents. This is pretty much the most unpleasant non-gimmick PvP I can recall.

Pylgrim

Me: Player for close to 400 days
Roster: 170 X-force, 3 maxed 3*s, and every other 3* (except the newer ones) between 100 and 150

The only difference I noted is that now instead of having the climb to 300 include lots of seeds and 2* teams, now it includes lots of **** 3* teams. On the positive side, I'm getting more 30+ matches than previously when they drained out even before I reached 300. Around 5-600 I start seeing maxed teams, so that part hasn't changed.

So, if this all is an intended part of the change, I guess I'll give it a thumb up.

Unknown

Playing category 5. Hit a 166 wall at 100 pts..managed to break through and back to 94's..but it is jumpy and all over the place. Not a fan.

Day 104, max level character level 117.

Ludaa

IGN: Luda (just one "a")
Played to 300 in Cat 5 (Slice 5). I averaged maybe 700-1000k last season

My roster: 221 Xforce and 13 max 3 stars, day 357

I saw zero 1 or 2 star teams. Nothing but under-covered 3's for 17-24 points and an occasional 40pt with 2 166's. Looks like more of the same past 300.

I also ran across two players with rosters that didn't match up with their node team. As in I'm seeing a node with Storm/166 hulk/166LThor, but their roster shows an uncovered Lthor in the 70's as well as a lower hulk. I know the reverse can happen, where an older node might reveal someone to have leveled up since you queued them, but this? I should've taken pics.

Unknown

simonsez wrote:

I'm in S4 for Cat-5, and the matchmaking I experienced was pretty damn awful. Up to 300, it was an odd mix of 2* teams. Some maxed, some grossly underleveled. No consistency at all. Then at 300, it was right into maxed 3*/4* opponents. This is pretty much the most unpleasant non-gimmick PvP I can recall.

Pretty much identical experience here, same time slice too. I was getting level 30 teams up to around 300 before the heavyweights come out, and that didn't seem remotely fair to those guys.

morph3us

Event: Cat 5
Slice: 4
Me: Day 177 player, IGN same as my Forum username
Page 1 roster:
- Black Panther, 166, 5/3/5
- Captain America, 166, 3/5/5
- Thor (Modern), 166, 3/5/5
- Patch, 166, 4/4/5
- Rocket & Groot, 142, 4/4/5
Current score: Approaching 800 (with any sort of luck)

Feedback:
The climb up to 300 was markedly different. Seed teams first, then a really varied mix of 1*, 2*, and transitioning 3* teams. Some of the 1* and 2* teams were maxed, most were not (including one very newbie team with a level 1 IM35, and a level 15 MNMags - had to double check to see I hadn't weirdly hit another seed team; this was in the high 200s). 300+ was mostly maxed 2* teams, with occasional transitioning teams in the process. 400+ was all combinations of X-Force (200+) with either 4*Thor, or a maxed 3*. Subjectively, the early climb felt very easy until 400. It seemed like I hit the 270/166 wall sooner than I usually do (which is usually when I break 600 points).

It also felt like my equilibrium point was a bit different. I can usually park unshielded for the (Australian) night a little below 600, if I'm a fair way out from the end of the event, and expect on balance 20-40 points of losses overnight, but this time I lost nearly 100 points overnight. It also feels like I'm getting more incoming attacks (which I expect, being a relatively soft target with that roster) when I clear 500 points with the new system, compared to the old system. As rough point of comparison, the rate of attacks over 500 points with this test system seems comparable to the rate of attacks I'd expect with a score of over 600 points with the existing system. It kind of makes sense, though, it feels like there were a greater variety of targets being exposed to me on my initial climb, so it makes sense that I'm rotating in as a target more frequently too. Actually reaching my first shield point seemed a bit harder too (which is usually somewhere in the 700s) due to incoming hits, but I was still gaining more than I was losing until I broke 700.

Over 700, in terms of target selection, it feels pretty similar to how it does under the existing system with shield cooldowns. There's a very limited selection of moderate value targets at this stage (in the 20-30 point range), all with X-Force/Thor, or X-Force/166, due to the infrequency of people unshielding, due to cooldowns. It's hard to comment on the availability of high value targets at this point, given that no one has climbed to 1000 points at the time I'm posting this.

udonomefoo

Udonomefoo
Roster: 5 maxed 2s no 3s above 75

Category 5

I got maxed 2s right after the seeds with some 3s and xforce mixed in. Used all my health packs before I got to 200. Usually I can get to 500.