Prodigal Sun Scaling

Unknown

So who else is staring at 249 nodes after a clear...? These scaling issues are getting out of hand... EotS scaling was spot on in that it wasn't IMPOSSIBLE, but still hard for developed rosters... Maybe I'm just burnt out? But I may be sitting this one out. Good thing Iron Fist isn't one of my favorites!

Unknown

Goons are always at higher levels. They can't move the board so get a boost.

tanis3303

I'm sure mine will be at least that, I have all of the boosted characters maxed out. I've gotten used to it tho, 4-Thor can one shot just about anything, and with Hood boosted I can get the AP for her even faster. What's frustrating is competing against the 2* guys that you know aren't facing nearly as deadly of foes. Not knocking the 2* guys, kudos to them for grinding it out, just wish we could bracket ourselves into pockets with similar scaling to keep competition a bit more even.

orbitalint

tanis3303 wrote:

Not knocking the 2* guys, kudos to them for grinding it out, just wish we could bracket ourselves into pockets with similar scaling to keep competition a bit more even.

You sure about that? There aren't many casual players with maxed out rosters. If we went like that, those 10 spots for the purple IF would be brutal.

In theory, I prefer a mix because roster depth comes into play at the end of subs, regardless of scaling. I'm sure it'll work itself out when you're doing your 3rd and 4th clear to end this sub and a 2* team doesn't have a viable D,E and F team available to continue to clear nodes for points when out of healthpacks.

Unknown

According to my recollection and everyone else on the forums, the scaling for PS is always crazy. It's a hard event, even for PvE rosters. I think one of the problems is that most of the characters who can handle goon tiles also generally aren't that good for other stuff. Cap and Loki are notable exceptions, but other people like Doc Oc and She-Hulk aren't exactly powerhouses. You could probably make a case for DD being decent against goons as well, but still, with massive Maggia strike tiles, it only takes 1 Threaten and an incidental match to down someone, even if no other ability goes off.

Unknown

If you have Loki, let the goons put down 2-4 high dmg strike tiles then just flip them. let the game do the work for you.

tanis3303

orbitalint wrote:

tanis3303 wrote:

Not knocking the 2* guys, kudos to them for grinding it out, just wish we could bracket ourselves into pockets with similar scaling to keep competition a bit more even.

You sure about that? There aren't many casual players with maxed out rosters. If we went like that, those 10 spots for the purple IF would be brutal.

In theory, I prefer a mix because roster depth comes into play at the end of subs, regardless of scaling. I'm sure it'll work itself out when you're doing your 3rd and 4th clear to end this sub and a 2* team doesn't have a viable D,E and F team available to continue to clear nodes for points when out of healthpacks.

Haha, no, its probably a terrible idea! But it would make me feel better to know that the people I'm competing with are also fighting lvl 395s

SnowcaTT

Well, that's a bummer. Enemy of the State was lots of fun, playable for me - could do every node, some were very difficult and easily could wipe my roster, but could do them! Made T50!

Perhaps it was because Wolverine locked out X-force for first few subs, have my X-force at 233.

And that has KILLED my chances for this PVE, apparently. The first easy maggia nodes are full of 140's: that's the level of my next highest character after X-force. Third node has three x 180 and is "normal". You know, three characters higher level than any of mine but one could be if I maxed it. Horray! Must use one character every single node or have no chance!

Maybe scaling should consider an average of characters, or perhaps even average of top 10 leveled characters. Making it so every node must be your best roster, and then boosted as you go along? Not much fun.

Unknown

I noticed the starting level of my nodes seemed a little high, but there's a lot of oddball stuff in this event with nodes being out of order, like those really easy Sentry nodes lurking in the back. If they were up front I don't think it would seem so bad. This event gets bad in a hurry though when the beefy heroes start showing up, locking you out of using some of your best options while they smack around your B-team.

Switchman wrote:

If you have Loki, let the goons put down 2-4 high dmg strike tiles then just flip them. let the game do the work for you.

At best this is a high risk/medium reward strategy. For one thing you have to plan on controlling the board while you rack up the 11 black for Trickery (which could also be used for a Surgical Strike, but that's a different conversation). Then you have to be really careful when you're allowing those countdowns to pop. You can easily take thousands of points of damage if one of them causes a cascade. That's a lot of work and risk for a move that's only going to get you protect tiles, which aren't helping you win any faster, and will instantly get cancelled out if another Threaten pops after Loki's blown his big move.

I'm not saying this won't work at all, and if you're running Loki anyway with Patch or something then sure, what the hell, but there are better and safer ways to deal with Muscle. Even OBW, who is far more readily available than Loki, is a good option. She can steal a lot of blue in a hurry with Espionage if she's tanking blue (and steal even more with Recon) and keep all those countdowns from popping in the first place.

ZootSax

SnowcaTT wrote:

Well, that's a bummer. Enemy of the State was lots of fun, playable for me - could do every node, some were very difficult and easily could wipe my roster, but could do them! Made T50!

Perhaps it was because Wolverine locked out X-force for first few subs, have my X-force at 233.

And that has KILLED my chances for this PVE, apparently. The first easy maggia nodes are full of 140's: that's the level of my next highest character after X-force. Third node has three x 180 and is "normal". You know, three characters higher level than any of mine but one could be if I maxed it. Horray! Must use one character every single node or have no chance!

Maybe scaling should consider an average of characters, or perhaps even average of top 10 leveled characters. Making it so every node must be your best roster, and then boosted as you go along? Not much fun.

To be honest, it doesn't sound like x-force has really affected your scaling all that much--it's just this event. For example, my max characters are level 94 and the first and third nodes you referenced are levels 106 and 135, respectively for me (for what it's worth, both are shown as "normal", but that seems to mean very little, as I've seen "easy" nodes with level 250+ non-goon opponents).

ClydeFrog76

longshot82 wrote:

Goons are always at higher levels. They can't move the board so get a boost.

I understand the need for Goons, but I will never ever ever agree with their hit point pools and damage output. In no context whatsoever does it make any sense at all.

Going on what the devs said a little while ago while trying to explain the new hit point levels of newly released characters and how hit points aren't just about how much life they have, but more about how hard it is to take them down, how on Earth does it make sense for a lowly human thug (Muscle), no matter how beefy they are, to have in excess of 12K hit points? It doesn't. It never will.

Chirus

ClydeFrog76 wrote:

how on Earth does it make sense for a lowly human thug (Muscle), no matter how beefy they are, to have in excess of 12K hit points? It doesn't. It never will.

Unless...those thugs are secretly citizens of Asgard!

orbitalint

ClydeFrog76 wrote:

Going on what the devs said a little while ago while trying to explain the new hit point levels of newly released characters and how hit points aren't just about how much life they have, but more about how hard it is to take them down, how on Earth does it make sense for a lowly human thug (Muscle), no matter how beefy they are, to have in excess of 12K hit points? It doesn't. It never will.

I would take what the devs said in the context of playable characters. They don't scale above 94/166/270. So they design them asking about how hard should it take to down the character given their skills and vaguely their canon.

Put any goon at 94/166/270 and I promise a character team of equal level can down them with ease. I guess I don't see an issue when it's a difficulty throttle control rather than character design. They don't have a chance otherwise and we'd steamroll the nodes faster than we do now.

Unknown

2nd Punisher node is as lvl 165 after a clear. Lvl 94 roster.

Scoregasms

daibar wrote:

2nd Punisher node is as lvl 165 after a clear. Lvl 94 roster.

Do you not have hood for the essentials? Without ISO, he's at 130, but I imagine he's higher than that probably? This pve with Hood and Sentry pretty much screw my starting sub levels since they both outstrip my top character levels by 60+...

Unknown

Scoregasms wrote:

daibar wrote:

2nd Punisher node is as lvl 165 after a clear. Lvl 94 roster.

Do you not have hood for the essentials? Without ISO, he's at 130, but I imagine he's higher than that probably? This pve with Hood and Sentry pretty much screw my starting sub levels since they both outstrip my top character levels by 60+...

Ah yes, thanks, I forgot to mention that.
Boosted levels:
Hood 143
Ares 139
Daken 139
Sentry 119

Unknown

Just play Cap/Falcon you will get out of a lvl 240 goon node without taking any damage. If youre scared boost purple/blue and red/yellow March blue watch Redwing cover tiles then use your shield to stop the left overs.

Unknown

I haven't bothered with the last two nodes for a while and, given the fact I am top 30, I would suggest most other players aren't either.

Scaling to the point that players aren't doing the levels. Interesting new twist. Though as others have said, from memory this event was always odd with it's difficulty.

simonsez

hermanbloom wrote:

I haven't bothered with the last two nodes for a while and, given the fact I am top 30, I would suggest most other players aren't either.

Geez, how do you guys find brackets like this? I've done 3 full clears like clockwork, and I'm sitting in 74th place.

Unknown

Oh I've had plenty of death brackets in my time, but now I am more pvp I join a pve event a little while after the brackets has opened. Seem to do fine that way.

But then I am never gunning for top 20 or whatever. Don't have the time or patience for that in pve anymore

That being said, many others in my alliance are reporting pretty much the same positions with the same workload.

Unknown

simonsez wrote:

hermanbloom wrote:

I haven't bothered with the last two nodes for a while and, given the fact I am top 30, I would suggest most other players aren't either.

Geez, how do you guys find brackets like this? I've done 3 full clears like clockwork, and I'm sitting in 74th place.

Ditto, the difference between mains is insane sometimes. I think it time to stop playing PvE seriously as the time invested vs reward compared to PvP does not bear thinking about. You do 40-50 games in a PvP and I have already nearly clocked up that this Event with even starting the final clear which will be some 40 odd games.