Leveling weaker characters for buffed tournaments

NorthernPolarity

My strategy for leveling characters up to this point was to build a core 2* team (O. Widow / Wolvie / Thor) in order to farm events and dump iso into buffed, 3* characters for the current events so that I can do well in them and eventually transition into a 3* roster. However, with the looming nerfs to Thor and Wolvie, it seems like I don't have much time before my current core team becomes obsoleted, and so I feel like I need to transition sooner so that I can have a decent 3* team when this happens.

The current issue I'm facing is whether or not I should invest into the buffed characters for the Divine Champions tournament. I'm looking at pumping my 25k iso into either ares and rags so that I can have a extremely annoying thor / ares / rags team, but these characters seem like poor long term investments (I would rather focus on 3* characters than a 2* ares, and rags has been neutered and doesn't seem like a good candidate for a core 3* character). As a result, it seems like I should just ignore leveling these characters and focus on whatever characters I would expect to be core team members.

And so, I have two questions for you guys:
1. How have you been balancing leveling buffed characters vs characters that are just good in general?
2. What characters should I focus on leveling for my core roster in the future? The only character that I'm confident on leveling is Punisher (who replaces Wolvie after the nerf). Hulk seems amazing on defense as a deterrent, but I've been extremely unimpressed with him on offense. I'm scared of leveling Spidy due to the looming nerfs.

Roster for reference (Day 46)
O. Black Widow | 3/5/5 | L85 (85 max)
Thor | 5/5/3 | L85 (85 max)
Wolverine (astonishing) | 5/3/5 | L85 (85 max)
The Hulk | 4/4/5 | L81 (141 max)
IM40 | 5/5/3 | L80 (141 max)
Ares | 4/4/5 | L67 (85 max)
The Punisher | 3/5/5 | L65 (141 max)
Ragnarok | 5/3 | L51 (89 max)
Daken | 5/5 | L45 (69 max)
Spidey | 3/5/2 | L43 (102 max)
The Hood | 2/2/0 | L38 (38 max)
IW | 2/0/2 | L34 (66 max)
Moonstone | 5/3/3 | L31 (69 max)
IM35 | 5/5/3 | L30 (50 max)
M. Storm | 5/4/4 | L30 (50 max)
Wolverine X-Force | 3/2/0 | L30 (87 max)
M. Black Widow | 5/5 |L30 (40 max)
GSBW | 3/2/3 | L28 (77 max)
Doom | 3/1 | L28 (41 max)
Wolverine (Patch) | 2/2/2 | L15 (51 max)
Loki | 0/3 | L15 (38 max)
C. Mags | 2/1/0 | L15 (28 max)
C. Storm | 1/3/3 | L8 (38 max)
M. Hawkeye | 5/5/3 | L6 (85 max)
Capt | 3/5/5 | L6 (85 max)
Bullseye | 5/5 | L6 (69 max)
Bags | 5/3/2 | L6 (61 max)
Marvel Now Mag | 3/2/3 | L6 (45 max)
C. Hawkeye | 5/5 | L1 (40 max)
Juggs | 5/5 | L1 (40 max)
Venom | 5/5 | L1 (40 max)
Yelena Belova | 5/5 | L1 (40 max)

Unknown

Right now I've been just leveling whoever is featured in the current tournament if there's something I think that I can get from the said tournament. It's just really hard to predict who will remain viable after the rebalancing so you might as well go for the immediate gain. What I do is play in the tournament for a bit and if it seems like I have a good shot at winning something I pump more Iso 8s into the featured characters.

Spoit

Phantron wrote:

Right now I've been just leveling whoever is featured in the current tournament if there's something I think that I can get from the said tournament. It's just really hard to predict who will remain viable after the rebalancing so you might as well go for the immediate gain. What I do is play in the tournament for a bit and if it seems like I have a good shot at winning something I pump more Iso 8s into the featured characters.

Yeah, I'd suggest this.

NorthernPolarity

Spoit wrote:

Phantron wrote:

Right now I've been just leveling whoever is featured in the current tournament if there's something I think that I can get from the said tournament. It's just really hard to predict who will remain viable after the rebalancing so you might as well go for the immediate gain. What I do is play in the tournament for a bit and if it seems like I have a good shot at winning something I pump more Iso 8s into the featured characters.

Yeah, I'd suggest this.

For the tournaments that involve a single buffed character (like ares or hulk), you need two solid characters to pair with them, and while O. Widow / Wolvie works now, I'm not sure if that will be the case when wolvie gets nerfed. One thing I've noticed in the Ares tournament was that defense becomes a lot more important in this new system due to the increased pool of people that can attack you, so those 2 support characters become increasingly important in that they are the main deterrents for attackers.

Since I have a maxed punisher, the only prizes I want from this tournament is the red wolvie and loki covers (which aren't a high priority I think): would you still pump iso with only these two incentives?

Unknown

I'm pretty much in the same boat on this tournament. What I plan to do is play to rating 500 (for 50 HP) which I'm pretty confident I can do with just my existing cast, and then if it seems like competition is actually weak enough to hit the Loki covers I'll put more Iso 8s into the relevent characters. I don't need the Loki covers but it'd be nice to have them if it looks feasible to go for it. I doubt I'll get close since my characters aren't very good for this tournament, but you can't know for sure until you try and I figure by the time I hit 500 rating it'd be obvious whether I can go for it or not.

Unknown

I would like to level the punisher and farm iso for this tournament.

He's a decent replacement for wolverine 2* and he is my first 13 covers 3* character too

If the top prize is yellow wolverine or blue invisible woman, i would give a go,
but green IW and red Wolverine lacks the incentive to get first place for me..

Unknown

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Spoit wrote:

Phantron wrote:

Since I have a maxed punisher, the only prizes I want from this tournament is the red wolvie and loki covers (which aren't a high priority I think): would you still pump iso with only these two incentives?

In your shoes, I wouldn't dump too much ISO into the Divine buffed heroes. OBW will continue to be a strong support character with or without the upcoming balance changes. I like Hulk for defense, high health, and board control, but that's just my preference. I'd level up him or Punisher instead.

Trying to make a run for a 4* Wolvie cover in a tournament where there's a lot of parity (tons of teams with buffed and maxed Thor/Ares/Storm out there) is a dicey proposition. Retaliations are going to be brutal, as no-one can field a team that will scare anyone off. You'd probably have to drop tons of HP on shields to have a shot, and all for a single cover that won't be of short or even medium-term benefit to your playable roster. I've got a fully playable 3* roster and lots of the buffed characters at max, and I'm only planning to farm up to the 1000 50 HP reward because without dropping tons on shields it's a major **** shoot.

Unknown

I level up characters that I'd still use even after their buff ends or they get nerfed.

Unknown

This tournament seems extremely hard to break away. As long as the team has 2 out of 3 of (Thor/Ares/Storm) maxed you're not going to be able to get a clean victory with any reliability.

Unknown

I do not feel as if I can participate fully in this tourney. I have an 85 Ares, but Storm is at 36 missing 2 covers and Thor is at 56 missing a yellow cover with impending nerf. I just do not see investing ISO into those characters being a good decision. 85 Wolfie and OBW are fine, just not buffed and easy prey to 3 buffed covers. Might just ride this one out and hit 400 for the HP award on the last day, even though I would greatly covet a red and green Punisher cover to finish my first 3**. Still not sure Punisher is worth the ISO either, he is at 35. 2/1 Rags, 1/1 Loki.

Maybe there will be Lightning Rounds or that new PvE event to distract me.

Unknown

Leveling buffed characters always prove to be beneficial for me, although in the divine champion tourney, they only buff each char by 100%.

I personally never level 2* characters beyond 77 and level 3* chars beyond 99 as i always can manage to beat higher level chars.

But if i were you, i would wait for the next episode first before leveling up.

It's very likely that punisher will get buffed but we'll never know.

Unknown

Chimaera wrote:

I do not feel as if I can participate fully in this tourney. I have an 85 Ares, but Storm is at 36 missing 2 covers and Thor is at 56 missing a yellow cover with impending nerf. I just do not see investing ISO into those characters being a good decision. 85 Wolfie and OBW are fine, just not buffed and easy prey to 3 buffed covers. Might just ride this one out and hit 400 for the HP award on the last day, even though I would greatly covet a red and green Punisher cover to finish my first 3**. Still not sure Punisher is worth the ISO either, he is at 35. 2/1 Rags, 1/1 Loki.

Maybe there will be Lightning Rounds or that new PvE event to distract me.

85 Ares or Thor is all you need to at least place decently, since they can both win very quickly, especially with boosts. The buffs in this tourney are not as extreme as some others. My main team is Ares/OBW/Punisher and it works fine; the Punisher slot is pretty much interchangeable with Wolverine or whoever else.

If you care about placing very high and getting Loki rewards, you could invest in CStorm, since her blue is a game-changer. Lv50 or so should be enough. The stun is more important than the damage for letting you grind unscathed.

Unknown

Celerity wrote:

Chimaera wrote:

I do not feel as if I can participate fully in this tourney. I have an 85 Ares, but Storm is at 36 missing 2 covers and Thor is at 56 missing a yellow cover with impending nerf. I just do not see investing ISO into those characters being a good decision. 85 Wolfie and OBW are fine, just not buffed and easy prey to 3 buffed covers. Might just ride this one out and hit 400 for the HP award on the last day, even though I would greatly covet a red and green Punisher cover to finish my first 3**. Still not sure Punisher is worth the ISO either, he is at 35. 2/1 Rags, 1/1 Loki.

Maybe there will be Lightning Rounds or that new PvE event to distract me.

85 Ares or Thor is all you need to at least place decently, since they can both win very quickly, especially with boosts. The buffs in this tourney are not as extreme as some others. My main team is Ares/OBW/Punisher and it works fine; the Punisher slot is pretty much interchangeable with Wolverine or whoever else.

If you care about placing very high and getting Loki rewards, you could invest in CStorm, since her blue is a game-changer. Lv50 or so should be enough. The stun is more important than the damage for letting you grind unscathed.

True, thanks I will ponder this. The 2 covers Storm are missing are yellows, whatever. If it looks like I am in a soft bracket and those missing Punisher covers are in reach I will probably go for it. Cannot tell yet at this time.

Short of making a new thread thanks for everyone who provide excellent info across the various threads for this game. I found this forum a couple of days since I started playing even though I registered like yesterday. I needed info on how I should build characters correctly and not ruin the game experience and this is literally the place.

Hats off to you all.

Unknown

I don't understand why people team up Wolvie with Ares. That means the AI will always have Wolvie do his Feral Claws and Ares will never use Onslaught, which is amazingly powerful. Is Feral Claws > Onslaught in your opinion?

Unknown

pumkin wrote:

I don't understand why people team up Wolvie with Ares. That means the AI will always have Wolvie do his Feral Claws and Ares will never use Onslaught, which is amazingly powerful. Is Feral Claws > Onslaught in your opinion?

Feral Claws is normally far superior to Onslaught. After character boosts, it's not as certain. Since the AI doesn't particularly try to setup instant kills with Onslaught (and if you got Thor they'll hold the green for Call of the Storm anyway), it's hard to imagine the AI using Onslaught effectively anyway.

I don't see how you can effectively grind in this tournament against any team that has a 85 Thor and Ares. You can win, but the damage will definitely add up unless you boost.

Unknown

pumkin wrote:

I don't understand why people team up Wolvie with Ares. That means the AI will always have Wolvie do his Feral Claws and Ares will never use Onslaught, which is amazingly powerful. Is Feral Claws > Onslaught in your opinion?

Often it's because Wolvie is one of their few max characters. I'm using Wolvie right now because I more or less have to.

NorthernPolarity

Phantron wrote:

pumkin wrote:

I don't understand why people team up Wolvie with Ares. That means the AI will always have Wolvie do his Feral Claws and Ares will never use Onslaught, which is amazingly powerful. Is Feral Claws > Onslaught in your opinion?

Feral Claws is normally far superior to Onslaught. After character boosts, it's not as certain. Since the AI doesn't particularly try to setup instant kills with Onslaught (and if you got Thor they'll hold the green for Call of the Storm anyway), it's hard to imagine the AI using Onslaught effectively anyway.

I don't see how you can effectively grind in this tournament against any team that has a 85 Thor and Ares. You can win, but the damage will definitely add up unless you boost.

I thought boosting was a given in the later stages of a tournament anyways.

Unknown

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Phantron wrote:

pumkin wrote:

I don't understand why people team up Wolvie with Ares. That means the AI will always have Wolvie do his Feral Claws and Ares will never use Onslaught, which is amazingly powerful. Is Feral Claws > Onslaught in your opinion?

Feral Claws is normally far superior to Onslaught. After character boosts, it's not as certain. Since the AI doesn't particularly try to setup instant kills with Onslaught (and if you got Thor they'll hold the green for Call of the Storm anyway), it's hard to imagine the AI using Onslaught effectively anyway.

I don't see how you can effectively grind in this tournament against any team that has a 85 Thor and Ares. You can win, but the damage will definitely add up unless you boost.

I thought boosting was a given in the later stages of a tournament anyways.

No I mean like the character boosts on the featured character changes the normal tradeoff between a move like Feral Claws versus Onslaught. Normally nothing come close to Feral Claws in terms of damage done per green AP spent unless you literally lose the strike tile immediately after you placed it down. Still, you got four characters that the AI can usually make some pretty insane cascades with (Thor, both Storms, Ragnarok) that are boosted, so Feral Claws should be useful. Level 85 Ares/Thor seems like a lock (Ares is mostly to provide backup in case you lose Thor somehow), and after that I'd rather have a level 85 Classic Storm, but if you don't have her leveled up (I do not), Wolverine's not a bad choice. I guess he potentially can screw you up on defense on red, but if you got 12 red on defense, you're probably doing okay for that match already.

NorthernPolarity

Phantron wrote:

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Phantron wrote:

pumkin wrote:

I don't understand why people team up Wolvie with Ares. That means the AI will always have Wolvie do his Feral Claws and Ares will never use Onslaught, which is amazingly powerful. Is Feral Claws > Onslaught in your opinion?

Feral Claws is normally far superior to Onslaught. After character boosts, it's not as certain. Since the AI doesn't particularly try to setup instant kills with Onslaught (and if you got Thor they'll hold the green for Call of the Storm anyway), it's hard to imagine the AI using Onslaught effectively anyway.

I don't see how you can effectively grind in this tournament against any team that has a 85 Thor and Ares. You can win, but the damage will definitely add up unless you boost.

I thought boosting was a given in the later stages of a tournament anyways.

No I mean like the character boosts on the featured character changes the normal tradeoff between a move like Feral Claws versus Onslaught. Normally nothing come close to Feral Claws in terms of damage done per green AP spent unless you literally lose the strike tile immediately after you placed it down. Still, you got four characters that the AI can usually make some pretty insane cascades with (Thor, both Storms, Ragnarok) that are boosted, so Feral Claws should be useful. Level 85 Ares/Thor seems like a lock (Ares is mostly to provide backup in case you lose Thor somehow), and after that I'd rather have a level 85 Classic Storm, but if you don't have her leveled up (I do not), Wolverine's not a bad choice. I guess he potentially can screw you up on defense on red, but if you got 12 red on defense, you're probably doing okay for that match already.

Ah gotcha. One problem I see with thor/ares/wolvie is that black/blue/purple matches do absolutely nothing for you. I was considering going ares/thor/widow since thats who I have leveled at the moment. I feel like thor/ares is kind of redundant, but its definitely a good deterrent on defense.

Unknown

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Ah gotcha. One problem I see with thor/ares/wolvie is that black/blue/purple matches do absolutely nothing for you. I was considering going ares/thor/widow since thats who I have leveled at the moment. I feel like thor/ares is kind of redundant, but its definitely a good deterrent on defense.

Well for offense, since the boosted character's damage tends to completely dominate the outcome of the fight, I"m not too worried about the colors my boosted character do not have. I'm pretty sure Classic Storm at level 85 is superior as the third person, but seems like a lot of investment for just two tournaments for a character that's pretty average everywhere else. Still, whenever I go up against a level 85 Classic Storm, I sure wish she was my 3rd person.

You got to have Thor/Ares for the redundency, otherwise you'd have problem with Spiderman (he'd just stun Thor). You can't get away with the stun locks against Ares/Thor because you stun one and the other still has no problem instantly killing Spiderman most of the time. I tried using Spiderman a few times and it's just not worth it when there's always some kind of big red/yellow/green move that can knock out Spiderman. If there is only Thor or only Ares, I'd definitely use Spiderman.

Unknown

It's usually worth the ISO in my opinion, but with obvious caveats. Thor mk2, sorry, Ares is a better than average 2* character but obviously won't have the general utility of a level 100+ Hulk or Punisher outside buffed and filtered events. Just ask yourself which you want more. The main question is whether you want high placement awards and have time to get them - I still wanted Punishers, so churning Ares straight to 85 during Rage and Ruin made sense. Technically I still do, but not so many now, so from Divine Champions I'd rather land OBWs. I might try getting **Storm to 50 or so over its course, because that doesn't cost so much anyway, but there's no point really pushing her when my ideal bracket rank is 76. Especially when I have her blue at 2 or 3, I think.

*Storm, I dunno so much. 2xbuffing a squishy 1* for this tournament seems like a bit of a cruel joke, given she'll still be one-hit by almost anything anyone else does. But everyone should keep her around for some occasional forest looping cheese, anyway.