Meet Rocket & Groot - Feb 3 - Feb 8

squirrel1120

How can I say anything Idk, personal experience? Aside from boosting +3 combo color and +3 all to get out a power before turn 1 is taken(quite valid with A.wolvie), there is always a pretty decent chance hood is just going to sap your AP away before you can use it. In your listed example, its only slightly better since none of the hood nodes seem to have any reason to be chasing purple. I listed what I did because there is no chance you are going to lose because he stole your AP so long that a power never came out. Bad boards definitely happen in any composition, I just feel that the TU strategy has less of a chance for failure due to the specific annoyance of Dormammu's Aid. I'd just personally rather bring TU's and TUap that he cant steal, instead of something I likely paid resources for, with a decent chance he'll just sap it away. The number of times I've had the latter happen is just too darn high. I don't think I've once uses a single +tuap before facing hood, so its been nice to see it going somewhere instead of just sitting there, and in combo with some great alliance TU's, has been pretty darn effective. Beyond my own play time, I've seen countless people post the same war story of boosting color ap, and having it all sapped away before they could use it, resulting in a loss. Its not like it isnt a thing at all.

The method of bringing characters with fast, low cost abilities shouldn't be discounted either... Its a lot easier to make 3 matches in a short time to get over a 6ap ability cost than it is to make 'who knows how many' to get off a 9ap ability.

dkffiv

raisinbman wrote:

squirrel1120 wrote:

After reading through comments, I'm just glad I was able to finish clearing the sub fully twice. It seemed a bit harder than I remembered, so I'm not sure if they bumped up the scale just a touch to increase separation at the top, or if I just didn't remember getting almost wiped by nodes marked trivial to easy.

From an above comment, I disagree about AP Iso boosts being effective. It can just as easily backfire where he steals all of them instead of you getting an early power off. I've suggested to alliance members that they bring strong damage teamups, +TUap boosts, and focus on getting that the teamups off since he doesn't steal that AP. It also helps you from getting wiped by some of the silly teamups they give the AI on these. That, 'Oh, I'm doing good' feeling that turns into a wipe because you didn't pay enough attention to the fact that hood/don/muscle comes with polarizing force, which hits decently hard without any threaten strike tiles on the board, or that jugs/Muscle x2 comes with magnetized projectiles, kinda the same deal. Not a huge problem if you prevent it, but if not... ouch.


My combo for anything hood so far has been Loki at 5/4/4, and its worked ok thus far. Forcing the ai to match-4 into colors they don't need has actually stolen enough AP to get some powers off BEFORE hood has gone down, which is quite a change from when he was 5/4/2. Patch/Obw/Loki getting hood down quick with a Berzerker rage has twice meant mopping up the rest of the node pretty darn quick due to OBW's synergy with strike tiles and ability to extend CD's. Quite fun to play.

How can you honestly say AP boosts aren't effective? MagStorm/Magstique on turn 2/3 is a serious threat, regardless of Hood.

Yes, bad boards exist if that's what you're trying to say.

If I'm playing seriously I always AP boost against Hood. I can't even remember the team I used to use against him, probably Xforce Mags Loki. I'd bring 4hor Xforce Loki now.

I don't need anything other than a blue DD to finish mine so I'm going easy on this one. I'll play as efficiently as I can but I'm refusing to waste ISO on boosts. I downed Hood ultra fast with Falcon Blade Daken but couldn't match the goon tiles due to terrible placement and wiped to a Threaten / Tommy Gun. Tried again with Patch Psylocke GSBW and barely won. Hood got off two Twin Pistols before I could get 9 green ap (6 green within first 2 turns then couldn't buy one after that) but Psylocke and GSBW eventually took him down. Dear god pyslocke sucks.

Accidently went into Jugg node with Xforce Daken Blade before realizing it was 200+, luckily got out with only Xforce dead.

Unknown

squirrel1120 wrote:

How can I say anything Idk, personal experience? Aside from boosting +3 combo color and +3 all to get out a power before turn 1 is taken(quite valid with A.wolvie), there is always a pretty decent chance hood is just going to sap your AP away before you can use it. In your listed example, its only slightly better since none of the hood nodes seem to have any reason to be chasing purple. I listed what I did because there is no chance you are going to lose because he stole your AP so long that a power never came out. Bad boards definitely happen in any composition, I just feel that the TU strategy has less of a chance for failure due to the specific annoyance of Dormammu's Aid. I'd just personally rather bring TU's and TUap that he cant steal, instead of something I likely paid resources for, with a decent chance he'll just sap it away. The number of times I've had the latter happen is just too darn high. I don't think I've once uses a single +tuap before facing hood, so its been nice to see it going somewhere instead of just sitting there, and in combo with some great alliance TU's, has been pretty darn effective. Beyond my own play time, I've seen countless people post the same war story of boosting color ap, and having it all sapped away before they could use it, resulting in a loss. Its not like it isnt a thing at all.

The method of bringing characters with fast, low cost abilities shouldn't be discounted either... Its a lot easier to make 3 matches in a short time to get over a 6ap ability cost than it is to make 'who knows how many' to get off a 9ap ability.

That's fine if you believe that personally and you somehow(????) have enough TeamUPs to support this every go round sure, but - Like CrookedKnight says:

CrookedKnight wrote:

Normally I do try to avoid boosting against Hood, especially if he has a rainbow team, but when he's being fed yellow like he is in these fights, your only hope of avoiding a turn 3/4 Twin Pistols nuke is a fast nuke of your own. In that situation boosting isn't so risky because he's already getting free yellow no matter what.

Or dkffiv:

If I'm playing seriously I always AP boost against Hood.

I can either boost and get stolen from Hood(which would still probably work quicker than no boosts), or I could risk using less efficient characters and get Threaten'ed/Twin Pistol'ed. I'd agree with you if, say, I could just put Hulk in the front and have him absorb Twin Pistols but that move is too krutacking strong. With either strategy I either win smoothly, or Hood kills (a) character(s).

I understand what you're saying, which is why I try to avoid 2*BWs in PVP, but sometimes it just can't be helped. It's not like this is PVP where we can just bring in our own Hood to neutralize him.

sc0ville

I wouldn't use a +all or +red/yellow ap against hood but I definitely use +green/black and +blue/purple (there's literally zero downside to blue/purple, he can't use those colors at all with goons on his team, and him stealing black isn't worth worrying about either).

Normally I use +2green/black against hard nodes, but for hood I use +3 because I assume he's going to steal at least one, and I still want to be able to fire off a turn 3 xforce to down him.

dkffiv

sc0ville wrote:

I wouldn't use a +all or +red/yellow ap against hood but I definitely use +green/black and +blue/purple (there's literally zero downside to blue/purple, he can't use those colors at all with goons on his team, and him stealing black isn't worth worrying about either).

Normally I use +2green/black against hard nodes, but for hood I use +3 because I assume he's going to steal at least one, and I still want to be able to fire off a turn 3 xforce to down him.

On that Mags/Hood node in TaT I was using all 3 boosts. Rush a 4hor blue stun on mags if possible or try for a surgical strike/xforce/smite to down him, whichever the board enabled.

FierceKiwi

sc0ville wrote:

I wouldn't use a +all or +red/yellow ap against hood but I definitely use +green/black and +blue/purple (there's literally zero downside to blue/purple, he can't use those colors at all with goons on his team, and him stealing black isn't worth worrying about either).

Stealing Black is definitely something to worry about when Tommy Guns are flying all over the place.

Unknown

If you're serious about winning you'd always use boosts against The Hood because even without an AP pump, his threat value goes up the longer the fight lasts. The first 5 or so turns are probably the only turns he can't reliably steal from every color that matches the criteria so this is your best shot at taking him down. On an average board there's usually some color you can grab 2 matches to form a 3 match move with boosts. That color is also the one he likely cannot steal since you're removing 6 tiles of that color so there probably won't be enough left. Not having that third match matters a lot because there are no real good moves at the 2 match territory, but waiting for tiles to replenish to make a third match gives a lot of time for Dormammu's Aid to do its work.

Now I can see argument for taking it easy, but since The Hood comes with yellow pump in pretty much all the scenarios I just boost anyway because the threat of a turn 3/4 Twin Pistols is just way too much.

FierceKiwi

I'm pretty serious about winning but I'll almost never boost in PvE much less against PvE Hood.

sc0ville

dkffiv wrote:

sc0ville wrote:

I wouldn't use a +all or +red/yellow ap against hood but I definitely use +green/black and +blue/purple (there's literally zero downside to blue/purple, he can't use those colors at all with goons on his team, and him stealing black isn't worth worrying about either).

Normally I use +2green/black against hard nodes, but for hood I use +3 because I assume he's going to steal at least one, and I still want to be able to fire off a turn 3 xforce to down him.

On that Mags/Hood node in TaT I was using all 3 boosts. Rush a 4hor blue stun on mags if possible or try for a surgical strike/xforce/smite to down him, whichever the board enabled.

Yeah, I don't really have a serviceable 4thor to work with. I could see it being worth it with her, especially on that node.

Scoregasms

What level are folks seeing for Hood in Meet R&G so far? In the last node (A Rocket and a Hard Place), he was at 190 (Normal Difficulty) in my most recent pass which was maybe a few hours ago, not high enough to warrant AP boosting. The above is referencing that crazy node in TaT, which I absolutely boosted since he was at 395 for me to grind that one down.

Unfortunately, in that last pass, I got a ridiculous first move cascade which ended up killing Hood before my first turn was even over (gotta love double criticals falling right into another Match 5, was fun to watch) and I was able to finish the fight without losing health which probably means this damn node will go above 200 in my next pass.

Once he gets above 230 ish is when I'll probably start needing Boosts if I start wiping to him, unless it's during my final grind, then all bets are off at that point. However, so far, DA hasn't been too oppressive for me (maybe I'm getting good boards so he can't steal the colors I want) and Twin Pistol's hurt, but isn't a one-shot by any means. Also, 8 hour timers pretty much means my next refresh is the start of my final grind (lol).

Roster Reference: 2 covered 4* (XF/4hor) at 192 and a smattering of max covered 3*'s (In Slice 1), though using Loki (130) for any nodes that aren't Goon only

P.S. Anyone else think the Jugs + 2 Goon Node isn't too bad, they aren't feeding him Red or Green (just Yellow and Blue), that node (A Tree Groots in New York) is currently at 152 for me.

Unknown

Anyone else noticing missing points?? I just crossed 3500 points twice in a row... I think it happened earlier too but I figured I didn't remember where I was.

Unknown

Mags/mystique/boosted OBW is all I'm gonna say.

It gets hilarious really fast.

Unknown

Scoregasms wrote:

What level are folks seeing for Hood in Meet R&G so far? In the last node (A Rocket and a Hard Place), he was at 190 (Normal Difficulty) in my most recent pass which was maybe a few hours ago, not high enough to warrant AP boosting. The above is referencing that crazy node in TaT, which I absolutely boosted since he was at 395 for me to grind that one down.

Unfortunately, in that last pass, I got a ridiculous first move cascade which ended up killing Hood before my first turn was even over (gotta love double criticals falling right into another Match 5, was fun to watch) and I was able to finish the fight without losing health which probably means this damn node will go above 200 in my next pass.

Once he gets above 230 ish is when I'll probably start needing Boosts if I start wiping to him, unless it's during my final grind, then all bets are off at that point. However, so far, DA hasn't been too oppressive for me (maybe I'm getting good boards so he can't steal the colors I want) and Twin Pistol's hurt, but isn't a one-shot by any means. Also, 8 hour timers pretty much means my next refresh is the start of my final grind (lol).

Roster Reference: 2 covered 4* (XF/4hor) at 192 and a smattering of max covered 3*'s (In Slice 1), though using Loki (130) for any nodes that aren't Goon only

P.S. Anyone else think the Jugs + 2 Goon Node isn't too bad, they aren't feeding him Red or Green (just Yellow and Blue), that node (A Tree Groots in New York) is currently at 152 for me.

The levels are kind of low but The Hood with 2 yellow AP pumps is way harder than anything in TaT. I don't see the point to not boost on The Hood because if you care so little about the points, you might as well just skip the node completely. Twin Pistols even at mid 100s still hits hard and it scrambles the board which makes Dormammu's Aid more effective. I'm sure I can beat him without boosts but it's not worth the headache against such an unfair combination of villian/goon.

Unknown

I would just like to put it out there that the Rocket and Groot PvE is a doozey, but I am enjoying it. I feel like the level of difficulty is appropriate for 8 hour refreshes so if I wipe on a run I can retry it with the same team setup and not worry about health packs completely refreshing by the time the node refreshes completely. It also eliminates the amount of grinding towards the end.

Unknown

The nodes with Goon-fed Juggs/Hood are ridiculous. If I don't get a good board or not enough blue for OBW I can pretty much retreat once either Threaten resolves with Juggs/Hood still alive or if Hood is not dead after turn 5 (hitting me with Twin Pistols every 3 turns).

Polares

Do you think I will be able to get to 18000 progression reward without a StarLord ?

Right now I am shy of 6000 with the next refresh in two hours.

Unknown

ark123 wrote:

Mags/mystique/boosted OBW is all I'm gonna say.

Shush. Seriously.

Unknown

Polares wrote:

Do you think I will be able to get to 18000 progression reward without a StarLord ?

Right now I am shy of 6000 with the next refresh in two hours.

First node is worth the fewest points so you shouldn't have any problem hitting it.

Unknown

Have to say mystique in sub 2 is a breath of fresh air after the nightmare that was Rambo Hood.

CrookedKnight

Nobody should have any issues hitting the 18000 progression reward; this sub is worth an absolute boatload of points compared to Welcome To Earth and there are a lot of high-value non-Essential goon fights.