Open 2* Challenge: Show Transitioners How It's Done

scottee

There's been a lot of posts from those in the 2*-3* transition that it is too hard to progress. Since Deadpool is helping out with his daily 3* covers, I thought the forum could help out as well.

Challenge: In this thread, to show transitioners what is possible, we post feats that can be accomplished using only 2* maxed rosters.

Rules:
- Only 1* or 2* characters allowed. No 3*, even if underleveled.
- If a 3* is featured, use the loaner.
- Each post must list tips for how it was accomplished. The goal is to help, not brag.

Anyone may ask questions about a particular feat, for the purpose of helping people out.

First feat is in the next post...

scottee

Feat:
Today, I wanted to see if the Deadpool daily challenge was possible with only a 2* roster. (I know owning 3* would be necessary to unlock the last node.) I cleared every node unboosted, including the main survival node, with OBW, 2* Cap, and CStorm, with all having more than 60% health after the 5 nodes. (The essential node subbed in MoStorm.)

Tips:
-Save up AP on waves 1 and 3.
-As others have noted, finish nodes 1 and 3 with an ability or match 5, so the enemy heroes can’t move the board or use abilities when they jump in.
-Save up 30 green with CStorm. Rattling it off 3 times in a row generates over 60 AP.
-Manage the countdown tiles with OBW blue if needed at first, but eventually with Cap blasting each away.

scottee

Feat:
Because I wanted weak teams in to semi-tank in the Squirrel Girl PVP event, I decided to see how hard it was to be a 2* player. I pushed to 633 pretty easily. I walked away and didn't shield, but could have put up an 8-hour shield till the end. This should be good enough for top 100.

Tips:
-I used MnMags/CStorm/loaner for the first half of the climb, into the 300’s.
-The rest of the way I used loaner/OBW/(Thor or Ares). Mostly Thor, as he’s easy to run multiple matches in a row.
-Play in bursts where you use all 5 health packs. Don’t worry about losing points. People will take you down. Come back with 5 health packs and attack the retaliations for big points, as most have probably climbed to much higher than you, giving you more points than listed, and you probably won’t be worth attacking back again.
-Don’t be afraid of 3* rosters, especially if they’re not maxed. Same goes for underleveled X-Forces. That usually means they don’t have the proper covers.
-Skip until you get opponents who are at LEAST 25 points. That gets harder once you get close to 600, but wait till it’s at least close to make it worth it. The more points they’re worth, the less likely they are to retaliate.

If you want to get even higher, hop doing one boosted match before putting another shield up. A 2* roster cannot stay unshielded for long without getting slammed, so 1 match only in between. (and be fast!)

DaveR4470

I think the Squirrel Girl PvP event was an outlier for some reason. I got, like, 150 more points in that event than I ever have gotten before or since. (With a 2* roster.)

Feat:
I accomplished the all-2* survival clearance too, but with Cap/OBW/Daken (all at 94, all 3-5-5)

Tips:
- OBW needs 5 black covers. With 5 black, the world is your oyster.
- Put Daken last. He's just there for emergencies anyhow, and to give you a reason to match green. He won't tank anything anyhow.... Lazy (expletive) psychopath...
- Your focus is blue/purple/red, in that order, and prioritize green if those three aren't available.
- Stockpile as much as you can of blue/red; pop OBW's purple steal whenever it's available.
- Your goal is to manage OBW throughout the entire survival node. If she's low on health, use your blue heal. Make sure Daken feeds her some strike tiles. When in doubt, match a color that OBW is tanking to get the double strike from her level 5 black power.
- Cap's yellow shields are useful when you eventually accrue enough to use it. (You're trying to tank with OBW as much as possible, and she's a bit fragile for a tank, so every little bit helps.) Otherwise, hold Cap's red on hand to nuke enemy countdown or strike tiles. Use his blue stun where necessary, but try and save blue for OBW's heals.
- If there's a key enemy (or the last enemy in a round) lined up, AND he/she's down to 2000 hp or less, AND you've got at least 2 strike tiles out, poke Daken with a stick and make him do Chemical Reaction. If he doesn't finish them off, you're probably only one matched tile away.
- scottee's general tips are also good -- ending rounds on an ability or match-5, etc.

Post-graduate work:
Not really relevant to an all-2* challenge... but if you have Rocket & Groot with strong blue, those I Got A Plan strike tiles work reeeeeeaaaaaaly well with OBW. If you can get two of them off -- not the easiest thing in the world to do, but possible -- you can get fantastically huge cascades. (I think my record was taking out a 4200-point Captain Marvel with one match. Not too shabby!)

nimvin

Don't forget that just because your roster is all 2* doesn't mean you don't have access to strong 3* powers. Ms.marvel or 1*storm can accrue a lot of team up ap relatively quickly to pop those off in quick succession.

jffdougan

Despite people talking about climbing to 600 with a 2* team, I find myself running into 3* teams at level 130+ around :00-350 points.

scottee

jffdougan wrote:

Despite people talking about climbing to 600 with a 2* team, I find myself running into 3* teams at level 130+ around :00-350 points.

Oh, I did too. It helps to work on getting good at beating teams above yours. Everyone would love to only face level 94 teams, but that's just not possible if you want to place higher. OBW/Thor can beat any transition team, as most teams under level 166 are missing covers.

For OBW/Thor, your main goal is to not let the AI use any abilities. Focus purple first, then blue. But if the AI is close to getting enough for an ability, make sure they can't match that color. Then if the board is safe, you can gather yellow/green. But between denying and stealing, if you focus on preventing the AI from getting off abilities and healing with blue, you'll eventually have enough of Thor's colors to kill them.

For PVP pushes, it doesn't help to win a match fast if you're losing tons of health. Work on sustained pushes of getting several fights in between heals. Speed only matters at the upper echelons of PVP and shieldhopping. Transitioners should work on sustained pushes with minimal damage.

scottee

nimvin wrote:

Don't forget that just because your roster is all 2* doesn't mean you don't have access to strong 3* powers. Ms.marvel or 1*storm can accrue a lot of team up ap relatively quickly to pop those off in quick succession.

Yeah, and that's another reason to attack teams stronger than yours.

I purposefully didn't use TU's or boosts in my pushes though to see what was possible with the bare minimum that a 2* roster would have available to them.

Zen808

Feat:
Clear day 3 final DDQ surival node. Used Thor, OBW, and MHawkeye.

Tips:
This is actually one of my favorite 2* teams to run, just in general. For Day 3:

-I prioritized Blue, then Purple, then Yellow.
-Blue is for Anti-gravity Device, with its healing and CD timer stumping, and that's good enough for me.
-Purple is to get more Blue.
-Yellow is for Thunder Strike.
-Contrary to normal Thor usage, which focuses on Call of the Storm, with MHawkeye in the mix, I like to leave as much green on the board as I can. If you don't collect any Green during the goon wave, there's a pretty good chance to get at least one good cascade for Speed Shot. You'll also most likely have a CotS in your pocket for Round 2.
-Round 2 enemies also have tended to be low threat trios in DDQ, from my memory. Forgot what day it was, but I actually looked at SHulk / DD / Beast and said "I'm only gonna use a power because I had 30 AP already banked.

thanos8587

this is all well and good, but with the dpq, i know i can get a 3* cover and 2 10% shots at another in about 15 minutes.

why in the world would i now want to spend several hours, iso on skips, hp on shields and the aggravation to try for a single cover top 100 every 2 1/2 days?

pvp for me is 400 points and out. ill get my token my 25 hp and my season 10 pack. pvp is a boring grindfest. you all have fun. thank you deapool for saving my sanity.

btw, this IS a really good post and relevant to many 2-3* transitioners who want to know whats achievable with the proper amount of time and effort. for me its goodbye to pvp with no trace of regret.

Unknown

A little bit off topic but since obw is in nearly every team, squishy and needs to tank her colours for espionage, I highly recommend getting a second one if possible.
This made my life a lot easier while transitioning.

scottee

thanos8587 wrote:

this is all well and good, but with the dpq, i know i can get a 3* cover and 2 10% shots at another in about 15 minutes.

why in the world would i now want to spend several hours, iso on skips, hp on shields and the aggravation to try for a single cover top 100 every 2 1/2 days?

pvp for me is 400 points and out. ill get my token my 25 hp and my season 10 pack. pvp is a boring grindfest. you all have fun. thank you deapool for saving my sanity.

btw, this IS a really good post and relevant to many 2-3* transitioners who want to know whats achievable with the proper amount of time and effort. for me its goodbye to pvp with no trace of regret.

This is perfectly valid and transitioners need to think about cost/reward ratio for what they want to achieve.

Some thoughts:
-If PVP is your end game, then you should get involved and work on getting better in it now.
-600+ in PVP is often the threshold for getting into a top 100 alliance. That's then 6 covers per week, plus alliance rewards (more iso/hp). This also bumps PVE rewards.
-Once you're farther into the transition, even higher scores are achievable.
-PVP allows you to target multiple covers in a single hero. If you get top 100 and your alliance gets a cover, that's two for the same hero. More valuable that two for different heroes.

These benefits are also in addition to the Daily Quests. So you can get 7 covers per week, or 13. Yes, it takes more time and effort.