Tanking advice

Unknown

Not able to find the answer to this, but I'm sure it's in here somewhere. However, as a 2-3 transitioner getting t100 in pvp helps build my 3* characters. It's almost impossible for me to get much higher than 350 points. I hear at this level tanking is important to get back to teams with beatable levels. I've tried a variety of taking methods, but not sure which ones are truely benefiting me. A few questions I have are as follows:

When tanking is it better to retreat or to actually get downed?

Which players are better to tank against, high lvl characters, or players with more points than you?

How do you tank without losing more points than you gain?

I have heard to tank in simulator. Does this effect all PvP bracketing or just simulator?

Currently I've been keeping a low score in simulator and tanking there. Only lose about 3 points on average per loss. Also get to where a win will get me 40 points. Then, when a new PvP starts, I tank immediately. Seems like there has been no difference yet compared to last season.

Any advice?

Arondite

How are you transitioning and can't break 350?

With just a healthy 2 star cast you should be hitting 450-500 easily. Who are your 2 stars?

Unknown

My 2* I have maxed are Thor, wolvie, obw, mags, johnny storm. Just finally got mystic above lvl 94. Seems if I try to power through and get to 400 I'll hit the 166 wall. Can spend hundreds and not get a playable team. Last event I had to fight last 2 hours to keep my 350 I already had.

This new season I've started trying to tank and lose a bunch of matches before I even start fighting to win and doesn't fix my problem down the road. Tanking later in the event just makes me stay around the same score just end up wasting health packs.

wingX

I also a 2-3 transitioner, my highest 3* is only a Blade with 5 covers. So I now just mostly focus on getting as many good 2* to max level, so that they can take turn fighting in PVP thus minimise health pack used. Now I mostly just play till getting 400 to get the gold token and HP, and now don''t really bother too much on getting 3* rewards unless I really want the covers as it is really hard. I played till 300 plus point before start encountering 3* high level teams.
For your case, I think you can use Thor and OBW to tank and try to get cStorm covers and get her to max level to combo with 2* Mag and with that you can have 3 teams to use for pvp, play with 2 teams first and then used Thor and OBW as last team before letting your teams rest.
Somethimes I can get 400 plus point but rank close to 200.

IamTheDanger

My advice, level max Ares if you can. Ares + OBW + featured character can usually get a player to 450 or 500 no problem. MN Mags + C Storm + featured works well too, but not a very good defensive team.

Unknown

Thanks guys I'll try those teams. Just started getting ares covers don't have enough to max him yet. Any wisdom on the tanking? I've been going through old posts and getting mixed reviews on it. Some say that it is out dated and devs have made it not worth it. Others say it still works.

Arondite

Deadpool-69 wrote:

Thanks guys I'll try those teams. Just started getting ares covers don't have enough to max him yet. Any wisdom on the tanking? I've been going through old posts and getting mixed reviews on it. Some say that it is out dated and devs have made it not worth it. Others say it still works.

Tanking is a waste of time really. It may get you one or two more winnable matches, but since you're being matched "down" they're worth hardly any points. No point in it.

Just play MnMagneto + CStorm + Featured all the way up til they can't push any longer, then play one more match as Ares + OBW + Featured (so that you leave them as your defensive team). Shield if necessary, wait for your health packs to regen and repeat.

Unknown

The shield is the problem with me. I've been spending all my HP on roster slots. I've got 26 right now. When does it become the right time to spend hp on other things?

Unknown

It's not a bad idea to save 75 HP per PVP for a shield if you can guarantee yourself a 3* cover, but I'm not sure you're there until you can field 2 top notch teams. Also, a lot of it depends on the time bracket you choose.

It used to be that it was better to be downed than retreat (perhaps due to hitpoints lost?) but this info may be out of date. When tanking against much higher ranked players you lose less points. Also, you lose less slightly points if you lose when you have less points. Eg, at 600 vs a 600 team, you'll lose about 16 points. 400 vs 400 you'll lose about 13 points. 200 vs 200 you'll lose 6 points.

GothicKratos

The general consensuses on tanking is that it doesn't really help anymore (thought there are still some people that hardcore tank). I personally feel like it's a bit of a confirmation bias thing - they do good when they tank so it must be working - and not actually something that has a dramatic impact. Essentially, what you would do is go into an event (some people say you need to do at the beginning of the PvP and some people say Shield Sim works) and take a team of three people that you won't use (3*s with little to no covers, 1*s, etc) and retreat three times in a row - this leaves them at very low health - and then join a fourth match and lose on purpose. Some people say the retreats effect your MMR, some say it doesn't - either way it's really the fastest way to suicide your team. After you lose four to five matches, go into the PvP and skips a few nodes, and you should see some "reasonable" nodes for a few matches.

As for the overarching question of how to do better, what everyone's been saying is on point. You just need a better/deeper roster. Wolverine/Daken are great for sustained climbing up to around 250. From there you can Ares/oBW to like 350-400. From there you'll want to Magneto/Storm until you can't play anymore and you'll pop a shield. If you have enough HP to shield again, wait a good hour or two for everyone to go through your retal nodes and for you to be out of everyone's queue and use +3 All AP, +3 Blue/Purple AP, and Damage Boosts or Crit Damage Bonus boosts and play one or two matches for a final bit of score. If you don't have the HP for the original shield, make sure to play out your last match with oBW/Ares, since they are the best defensive team - it doesn't matter as much if you're shielding.

My last tip would be not to join an event as soon as it starts. Normally this will get you lumped into a bracket with the hardcore players and the top alliances in that time slice. I personally play in the last hour of an event because it's almost always entirely new players and a rather empty bracket, so good placement is easier. This does generally limit me to about 300 points per PvP, but if you wanted to try and hit higher marks, you could likely join in the last two or three hours and get the same results with the above suggestions of teams.

[EDIT]: What covers do you have for Mystique?

Unknown

Mystic I have 1 3 4

She isn't as good as obw at this level for stealing ap, but her black will do about 2600 while transformed. I've been one cover short to max daken out ever since I finished the prologue it's been extremely frustrating. Might have to do bad this time around on pve just to finally get his last one. Didn't place high enough to get cyclopse last time anyway/don't have the roster space.

Thanks for the info. Will try to get my storm up to speed only have three covers since I first posted this. I've been ignoring people saying this since the beginning with how easy I take her down in PvP, but obw suprised the heck out of me so I'll give storm a shot.

GothicKratos

Deadpool-69 wrote:

Mystic I have 1 3 4

She isn't as good as obw at this level for stealing ap, but her black will do about 2600 while transformed.

I actually asked because there is a combo with her and 2* Mags to generate tons of AP/cascades with her Blue and Mags Purple. I'm not sure if 3 Blue is enough to do it reliably, but you could try it.

Deadpool-69 wrote:

I've been one cover short to max daken out ever since I finished the prologue it's been extremely frustrating. Might have to do bad this time around on pve just to finally get his last one. Didn't place high enough to get cyclopse last time anyway/don't have the roster space.

He has a chance to drop every fight in PvP, also. I've gotten most of my 2*s via Heroic Tokens and PvP drops.

Deadpool-69 wrote:

Thanks for the info. Will try to get my storm up to speed only have three covers since I first posted this. I've been ignoring people saying this since the beginning with how easy I take her down in PvP, but obw suprised the heck out of me so I'll give storm a shot.

The AI plays her really badly but her Yellow makes for some annoying comebacks, her Green is great for cascades/AP generation, and her Blue is just amazing, especially with Mags' Purple to feed her Blue - even on tough nodes a set of three Blue/Purple Boosts can make it rather easy and you can throw in the +3 All AP boosts too if you feel the need. My usual go to team for tough nodes in PvE is Storm/Mags/Hawkeye and in PvP it's Mags/Storm/Loaner - you can really beat just about anything with boosts.

Good luck.

Unknown

Don't know if this was my problem the whole time or what, but I waited for an event to have less than a day left and just played all the way through to 350 points. Ran out of health packs but there are still easy teams to beat. Not sure when I recharge if it will be the same. This has been the easiest climb I've ever done. Is it possible that my problem has been waiting in between playing. Used to play 100 points at a time, then wait hoping the mmr of everyone in my grouping would catch up hence making teams easier. That never really worked.