A Bittersweet Milestone

Omega Blacc

Day 311 Player here.

I probably play an unhealthy amount of this game, but I love it.

Fully carded X Force at 203, Seven 3* heroes fully carded (3 of those maxed), seven more 3* heroes maxed when buffed for events. I worked very hard for those cards.

I found myself not caring about the Rocket & Groot event or the latest Mohawk Storm tourney. Not that I didn't need the cards they offer, but because those awards do very little for me right now. Those awards won't get those characters to useable levels for me anyway. I am officially Iso-starved. I don't know if I'll be doing much shielding going forward. Just depends on the reward.

I'm glad to be at this point (I guess entering the so-called 4* transition) but, wow, what a daunting task ahead. I'd like some advice from the vets as to how they approach this area of the game.

Right now, I'm attempting to do a little hoarding. So far I'm sitting on 24K Iso and 815HP. I also have 13 2* cards waiting in the wings. I want to level my Patch next, but he needs 82K Iso. How are you guys handling this?

Unknown

2 words... Lightning rounds. If you grind those when they are available you get a ton of ISO. Unlike normal PvP you never feel the urge to use boosts (or shields obviously) so it's all extra ISO.

When you do them be there at the start to get as many seeds as possible then just continually pick out the lowest points gain target you are offered. You want sheer volume of matches, all with +30 ISO. I normally go to 250-300 which eis generally enough for top 100 getting some more ISO and a heroic (which is realistically more ISO).

Other things are to avoid using boosts unless absolutely needed and if they run double ISO events consider climbing early, shoving in a tank team, re climbing, rinse repeat as much as you are willing.

You can also farm shield simulator if you are inclined to. Get points, retreat/lose a load of matches to get back on easy targets, win a bunch of matches etc.

Unknown

I'm a little behind you at day 290...I have a maxed xforce, maxed hood and maxed doom and that's it. I have several other max covered 3 stars but have no need to level them since I wouldn't really use them anyways. I set a plan before each season of what I want to accomplish and stick to that. Like now, I am trying to max my 4* thor but need 9 more covers, but that's the plan so I won't be leveling 3 stars until that happens, hence I've saved almost 280k ISO so far. If you have an xforce already, I wouldn't spend ISO on patch but that's me. Whatever you decide, just have a goal and stick to it, it spares you from feeling like you did the wrong thing or wasted ISO or so...that's what works for me.

Omega Blacc

EpicBeastmode wrote:

If you have an xforce already, I wouldn't spend ISO on patch but that's me.

I totally understand the reasoning behind this, but my ultimate goal is to be able to throw different looks at people and develop situational rosters. My thoughts are to extend gameplay by switching between maxed characters. Some aren't scary, sure, but if an opponent is pressed for time they probably don't want to deal with two 166's and a buffed feature.(I usually run XForce +166 Daken + Feature but it's getting stale). I built my roster off of constant PvP and shielding, but as characters get vaulted and my roster grows I find myself in tourneys where the rewards mean little to nothing to me.

I had the most fun I've had in this game in months grinding goon nodes with Steve Rogers / Invisible Woman + Falcon + Blade. My scaling gave me "Deadly" nodes and I was finishing them completely unscathed (most runs LOL). I like to have options in any event. I realize this will be slow and expensive.

Besides, I think a well executed Patch Bomb is the most amazing display of sheer power the game offers. I don't spam it, but it's a lot of fun.

A maxed Doom sounds awesome to play, btw.

Omega Blacc

bonfire01 wrote:

Other things are to avoid using boosts unless absolutely needed and if they run double ISO events consider climbing early, shoving in a tank team, re climbing, rinse repeat as much as you are willing.

You've just given me reason to enter tourneys when I don't needs the rewards. I'll give this a shot for sure. Thanks.

SnowcaTT

Just over day 300, my 5/4/1 X-force is maxed at 213. I've been saving plenty of HP now that I feel roster spots are beyond the price of paying for, so I'm purchasing an X-force cover every season and a half, currently almost 2000 HP saved. I still think you need to use HP to shield at the end of events - primarily to keep T100 for yourself and alliance, get two 3* covers and be happy.

I don't think you can compete for a 4* cover with 3* covers, I know some will disagree. I have many 3*'s that could go max, instead I evenly leveled - I put 25 to 127 (10 covers). This season I moved two of those to 140 just to give me a better Sim team with X-force, but I have no intention of moving any up to 166 (15 of them have 13 covers, only about 5 have optimum covers, only about 2 of those are the "good" ones).

Why move more into 3* land when it won't do much good immediately? Like others have mentioned - LR always. I get 30-40K a week in LR's. I'm sitting on 175K after a couple of weeks - plenty to move two characters to 166, but I'm waiting to buy another X-force cover and drop it there. Don't "waste" ISO for now on 3*'s, build the 4*'s to get the 3*'s. And I think this is D3's plan: make the game 4* relevant, the only way to earn more 4*'s and the best way to increase your 3*.

I'm terribly tempted to buy the 4hor covers and level her - but there are so many calls for nerfs out there that it has made me hesitate until there is loud action by the company that they won't do this (by saying they won't, by saying 4*'s should be the "best" in the game, by releasing another character on the power level of X-force/4hor). I think much of the complaining done is by folks who have come to realize this - the game is 4* now, and the only way to efficient way to do so is use cash. Some have gotten their 4* army without cash, and some have gotten it with cash.

And it will get stale, if you want to play with the best it is going to be only a couple of characters. My "fun" is the climb before 600 (well, before 400 now) - where I get to use a large variety of those 127's.

Unknown

To me the stale part is the climb, I don't care about the diversity, it is just a hinderance for me to have to defeat all the 2 stars because they pose no challenge. The actual stimulation derives from the possibility of losing to xforce and thor regardless of how many times I have to face them because a good cascade by them or a bad board for me will mean I will most likely lose very violently. That feeling never presents itself during the climb because the outcome is almost a foregone conclusion. For instance, I sit at 993 in this current pvp with one shield hop left to get red thor, facing the "wall" has been the funniest part because if I lose or don't win fast enough, I will get gang banged back to the 800s or more. I have an option of xforce and thors for nearly all my nodes...exciting that I could crash and burn or come out victorious this one last battle. sure it can be frustrating but I don't see why I would keep playing if there was never any real threat of losing or a challenge existing....that truly would be stale to me.

mohio

If you have a PvP team that can get you to 1000 pts (and xforce pretty much means you do. I've got alliance mates with just maxed 3* getting there) then leveling 3* is pretty much just a personal thing. You really don't need to level more 3*, but maybe there's a few you really like, or some might help more in pve. I've got 6+ maxed 3* but I don't regret dumping a bunch of iso into blade, and I'll probably do the same for cage next time his tourney comes around. It gets stale using the same teams ad nauseum, so I like having other options for different situations.

Anyway to sum up my advice, give yourself a big goal and push for it. If I were you that would be 4hor. So I would push hard for 1000 every time she is there as the progression reward. It'll be a long time until you get enough covers for her so maybe look to a few others too. Cmags is recently released from the vault and he's both fun to play with and a great partner for both x force and hood, maybe try to max him out too? Lastly, daken/xforce are a great climbing team (it's what I use mostly too) but depending on the featured you often need to bring someone else to get better color coverage to take down those 4hor/xforce teams more quickly at high points when speed matters.