Meet Rocket & Groot - Feb 3 - Feb 8

Unknown

Anyone know if in the 2nd sub event, we need storm for the essentials?

The Gunslinger

CrookedKnight wrote:

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.

Just to back this up, I'm in slice 1, and the 2nd sub opened roughly 3 hours ago. The #1 guy somehow already has ~13k in this sub alone. I'm curious to see what his total is by the end of the sub.

FierceKiwi

Phantron wrote:

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.

I still see little reason to boost. It's 50/50 at best whether Hood will even use TP or goons will just drop more Threaten/Pistol/whatever tiles. Just let someone expendable take the hit when it happens.

CrookedKnight

I ground those nodes into dust this morning and I don't recall a single Threaten or Covering Fire being placed until Hood was dead, even in the fights where I couldn't get any powers rolling and had to fight him with match damage. It was a long, long sequence of Sniper Rifle and Tommy Gun tiles being placed, punctuated with Twin Pistols every 3-4 turns like clockwork.

The Gunslinger

Hashin wrote:

Anyone know if in the 2nd sub event, we need storm for the essentials?

Yep, Mohawk is needed.

Moon Roach

The Gunslinger wrote:

Hashin wrote:

Anyone know if in the 2nd sub event, we need storm for the essentials?

Yep, Mohawk is needed.

In one of the essential nodes. You still need Star-Lord for two of them.

TxMoose

CrookedKnight wrote:

I ground those nodes into dust this morning and I don't recall a single Threaten or Covering Fire being placed until Hood was dead, even in the fights where I couldn't get any powers rolling and had to fight him with match damage. It was a long, long sequence of Sniper Rifle and Tommy Gun tiles being placed, punctuated with Twin Pistols every 3-4 turns like clockwork.

yes - I played that node many times and it varied widely how the AI used the AP. Sometimes Hood would hog it and use it for twin pistols but sometimes the goons would hog it for their countdowns (I breathed easier when the countdowns came up). Don't know the programming mechanism there but the AI's use of the AP varied widely for me the different times I played the node. If Hood used, I barely finished it or wiped. If goons used, it usually wasn't too bad.

orbitalint

TxMoose wrote:

yes - I played that node many times and it varied widely how the AI used the AP. Sometimes Hood would hog it and use it for twin pistols but sometimes the goons would hog it for their countdowns (I breathed easier when the countdowns came up). Don't know the programming mechanism there but the AI's use of the AP varied widely for me the different times I played the node. If Hood used, I barely finished it or wiped. If goons used, it usually wasn't too bad.

The way it has been explained in various places, maybe by the Devs at some point, it essentially rolls an x sided die where x = the number of abilities that could be used in that color. Each turn, it does this for every active ability. So, that's why you'll see it save up for abilities sometimes when one is available with lower AP requirements. It rolled to use the higher ability that turn and saved the AP.

The biggest issue, I've seen, is when 2 characters share a color and the computer has enough for the lower AP ability already. At that point, you are playing with diminishing odds of them saving up for AP 3 or 4 turns in a row. Your luck runs out and it rolls the lower AP ability eventually. It is also why you see odd behavior in these situations since it doesn't make sense unless you knew about this mechanic.

Unknown

The only node I am having issues with is the very last node of part one with Hood and goons.

I don't see that boosts are required to beat these nodes reliably. There just needs to be some strategy involved in how to approach the nodes. Running a tank, AP stealer, and a damage dealer should work fine? Like Thor, OGBW, and Torch?

FierceKiwi

^Hard to say without knowing your characters and the levels you face. I'd ignore AP steal since you can't steal faster than Hood will gain. Speed is the key. Daken/Wolvie works pretty well at generating lots of fast damage add in someone tanky to take hits.

Unknown

Fineberg wrote:

The only node I am having issues with is the very last node of part one with Hood and goons.

I don't see that boosts are required to beat these nodes reliably. There just needs to be some strategy involved in how to approach the nodes. Running a tank, AP stealer, and a damage dealer should work fine? Like Thor, OGBW, and Torch?

Um....if you don't need boosts, and you only need strategy, I don't know how you do it out-racing Juggernaut(normally, or goon-pump), Hood doing 4k+ damage on turn 4.

Like, I don't understand this viewpoint. You can't STRATEGIZE against something/someone who's literally CHEATING(goon feeding AP, 15 covers, boosted levels) against you.

If I'm supposed to run a tank, okay, who tanks? Does this tank survive(usually no). As I said before, I'd gladly run Hulk if he actually would survive Twin Pistols/Threaten(s). I don't know how many health packs you have but I only have 5(6 maybe), many of which need to be spread out between events

Okay, I run an AP stealer - mystique doesn't have the covers she needs, my Hood is off-limits(LOL PVE), Hawkeye is lol, She-Hulk is lol, 2* Black Widow can MAYBE steal in time, but she's fragile. One false move.

Damage Dealer is fragile and can't outrace Hood.

I get it, Boosts aren't ideal. But there's no option for me to pay 200 HP to stun enemy characters for 3 turns at the start of the match so I'll use the tools I'm given.

Unknown

raisinbman wrote:

Fineberg wrote:

The only node I am having issues with is the very last node of part one with Hood and goons.

I don't see that boosts are required to beat these nodes reliably. There just needs to be some strategy involved in how to approach the nodes. Running a tank, AP stealer, and a damage dealer should work fine? Like Thor, OGBW, and Torch?

Um....if you don't need boosts, and you only need strategy, I don't know how you do it out-racing Juggernaut(normally, or goon-pump), Hood doing 4k+ damage on turn 4.

Like, I don't understand this viewpoint. You can't STRATEGIZE against something/someone who's literally CHEATING(goon feeding AP, 15 covers, boosted levels) against you.

If I'm supposed to run a tank, okay, who tanks? Does this tank survive(usually no). As I said before, I'd gladly run Hulk if he actually would survive Twin Pistols/Threaten(s). I don't know how many health packs you have but I only have 5(6 maybe), many of which need to be spread out between events

Okay, I run an AP stealer - mystique doesn't have the covers she needs, my Hood is off-limits(LOL PVE), Hawkeye is lol, She-Hulk is lol, 2* Black Widow can MAYBE steal in time, but she's fragile. One false move.

Damage Dealer is fragile and can't outrace Hood.

I get it, Boosts aren't ideal. But there's no option for me to pay 200 HP to stun enemy characters for 3 turns at the start of the match so I'll use the tools I'm given.

I think the people who say there's strategy are the ones where the AI randomly chose to use Threaten instead of a turn 3 Twin Pistols.

In the Simulator there was a node that was X Force with 2 green AP pump per turn. There's a strategy on that fight too, but most of the time you just died. The strategy comes from 'what if X Force mysteriously didn't use X Force', which can happen because it's either a Pyro or a Grenadier that was pumping the green and they could save up for the 10 green AP Rocket/Flamethrower instead of the sure thing with X Force. Of course not even boosts are guaranteed to be able to fight off this kind of advantage, but it's still better than without.

Unknown

Let me try to settle the dispute:

1) if you can beat a node using master strategy instead of boosts then by all means do so.
2) if you can't then decide if it's worth the iso and act accordingly.

As for me, nobody has ever accused me of being strategy-deficient, but there was no way I was beating that last hood node toward the end without at least a +3 p/b boost. Trust me, I threw everything but bag man at it. Sometimes i have to check my pride at the door and cheat just a little bit. It never hurts to be humbled once in awhile.

slidecage

CrookedKnight wrote:

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.

even if it wasnt you should not have a problem. i just did 8 hour and missed 4 nods and still got around 11k after the first round.

I hope daily PVE start next week if not the 8 hour refresh kill anything i will like on this game. 3 hour refresh Easy top 25.. im ranked 54th after the first nod with 90 mins to go and be lucky to hit top 100

hurcules

slidecage wrote:

CrookedKnight wrote:

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.

even if it wasnt you should not have a problem. i just did 8 hour and missed 4 nods and still got around 11k after the first round.

I hope daily PVE start next week if not the 8 hour refresh kill anything i will like on this game. 3 hour refresh Easy top 25.. im ranked 54th after the first nod with 90 mins to go and be lucky to hit top 100

As with 3hr PvEs, what matters more is the final hour (or two) grind-down when sub ends. You may rank 54th now, but if you can grind all the nodes down to 1 in the final hour(s), pretty sure you'll do better than 54th.

Unknown

FierceKiwi wrote:

^Hard to say without knowing your characters and the levels you face. I'd ignore AP steal since you can't steal faster than Hood will gain. Speed is the key. Daken/Wolvie works pretty well at generating lots of fast damage add in someone tanky to take hits.

You can't steal faster, but you can take them back. The problem is that there is only 2 good AP stealers in game - oBW, when she can tank colours, and Hood. And Hood is enemy here. If you need 1X or countdown to actually steal stuff, forget it and get stunner instead. In 2*, with Hood up to 240lvl I just used oBW + 2Storm + 2Magneto with b/p boosted, 2 purple matches or 3 blue and you can start stunlock, retreat if he gets Twin Pistol ready before that (or sacrifice oBW if you're sure you can do it after Pisols turn). For 3* I guess you want Mystique to do her board changing stuff, stun and down him with combo. Using TA boosts (which I bet most just have 30 stockpiled) is also good idea if you have 1* Widow stuns from alliance or overleveled nukes, he can't steal that.

As for boosting or not, I see buying boosts as buying Health Packs for Iso and AP boosts as buying shields, you use resources to gain advantage over others. If you could buy 3 health packs for 1k Iso when all your chars are down and you're on grinding spree for t10 or higher? I'd guess you would, and 1k Iso buys boosts for 8 matches. They make matches quicker and let you take less damage = clear more nodes. All AP boosts are same as shields, normally it's crazy to get them, but if it's last sub and you're fighting for 4* cover, I'd say spending few HP isn't stupid idea.

Unknown

orbitalint wrote:

TxMoose wrote:

yes - I played that node many times and it varied widely how the AI used the AP. Sometimes Hood would hog it and use it for twin pistols but sometimes the goons would hog it for their countdowns (I breathed easier when the countdowns came up). Don't know the programming mechanism there but the AI's use of the AP varied widely for me the different times I played the node. If Hood used, I barely finished it or wiped. If goons used, it usually wasn't too bad.

The way it has been explained in various places, maybe by the Devs at some point, it essentially rolls an x sided die where x = the number of abilities that could be used in that color. Each turn, it does this for every active ability. So, that's why you'll see it save up for abilities sometimes when one is available with lower AP requirements. It rolled to use the higher ability that turn and saved the AP.

The biggest issue, I've seen, is when 2 characters share a color and the computer has enough for the lower AP ability already. At that point, you are playing with diminishing odds of them saving up for AP 3 or 4 turns in a row. Your luck runs out and it rolls the lower AP ability eventually. It is also why you see odd behavior in these situations since it doesn't make sense unless you knew about this mechanic.

To add to this, the devs once said that if your character out front will be downed by the lower cost power, that is an override situation and the AI will always drop your front player rather than continue saving for the other power.

Trisul

What a pleasant PvE this is compared to the last.

The Gunslinger

Trisul wrote:

What a pleasant PvE this is compared to the last.

Couldn't agree more. Particularly this 2nd sub, which has been a cakewalk. However, the difficulty gets ramped up for the next sub, when DOOM is introduced. Summon Demons and Masterstroke, on repeat, all sub long.

Quebbster

The Gunslinger wrote:

Trisul wrote:

What a pleasant PvE this is compared to the last.

Couldn't agree more. Particularly this 2nd sub, which has been a cakewalk. However, the difficulty gets ramped up for the next sub, when DOOM is introduced. Summon Demons and Masterstroke, on repeat, all sub long.

I already reached the final progress reward and don't care about placement, so in theory I could skip the last sub completely.
I probably won't, but it's good to have the option.