New 2* -> 3* Transitioner. Thor and Ares?

spudzo0

I am just starting to collect a fair amount of 3* covers and am getting ready to start putting some iso into them within the next month I think. Mind you highest covered 3*s only have 4 covers and they are Hood and Steve Rogers, but I've got a good system at getting at least 1 3* each day along side the DPD. My question is, should I still focus on maxing out 2* thor and ares (currently both need 2 more covers plus Iso to be maxed) or should I continue my strategy of using my iso to get more chances a 3* covers. It may be worth noting my current maxed 2*s are OBW, Daken, and AWolvie, all of which are optimally covered.

Thanks.

PvPMore

Thor and Ares 2* are pretty useful, i would def max them out. Especially since your 3*'s are only at 4 covers max.
Just my simple opinion.

Unknown

spudzo0 wrote:

...using my iso to get more chances a 3* covers...

I hope you are not wasting your Iso to buy standard tokens cause your gonna need it badly to max those 3* characters. Finish Thor and Ares, they are in my opion top2 and 3 in All-2* teams. You are a long way from having a usable 3* team so you are not going to regret it.

spudzo0

ChrisUnbroken wrote:

I hope you are not wasting your Iso to buy standard tokens cause your gonna need it badly to max those 3* characters. Finish Thor and Ares, they are in my opion top2 and 3 in All-2* teams. You are a long way from having a usable 3* team so you are not going to regret it.

Do you have any advice on other ways to accrue more chances at the 3*s? I have a tough time in PVP right now, usually only hitting 350-450 and getting only top 250 rewards. I can hit the occasional PVE progression 3*, but the events take to long to finish and I find myself not wanting to wait for the next event before I start popping iso into recruits so I can glimps the gold.

Mikaveus

ChrisUnbroken wrote:

spudzo0 wrote:

...using my iso to get more chances a 3* covers...

I hope you are not wasting your Iso to buy standard tokens cause your gonna need it badly to max those 3* characters. Finish Thor and Ares, they are in my opion top2 and 3 in All-2* teams. You are a long way from having a usable 3* team so you are not going to regret it.

I agree with ChrisUnbroken. Don't spend anymore ISO to get standard tokens. Believe me, you'll get enough chances at 2* covers through regular gameplay.

My team is now 3* strong, but the 2* characters I've hung onto are: Ares, CStorm, MNMags, OBW, and Wolverine. I had Cap and Thor, but once my Lazy versions were covered, I jettisoned them as well. Fully covering/leveling Ares and Thor will be ISO well spent in the meantime.

Unknown

spudzo0 wrote:

Do you have any advice on other ways to accrue more chances at the 3*s? I have a tough time in PVP right now, usually only hitting 350-450 and getting only top 250 rewards. I can hit the occasional PVE progression 3*, but the events take to long to finish and I find myself not wanting to wait for the next event before I start popping iso into recruits so I can glimps the gold.

Basically this game is a marathon, not a sprint. It can take you till day 150 - 200 to even have a team of maxed 3*. It just takes that long. If you'r willing to spend money you can speed that up considerably of course. 2* Characters are the gateway to Transitioning, so having a good set of them will help you tremendously. Try running OBW Ares/Thor in PVP, that alone is a deterrant for weaker teams. If you are dedicated you can reach Top5 in PVE with your Roster, thats threee Covers and a lot of HP for Roster Slots. Other than that try joining a Sub Alliance of a top 100 Alliance. They build ppl up.
Two of many good threads in this forum worth reading:

Rookie Mistakes
http://www.d3pforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=18326

Polarity's Guide on Going From 1* to 3* (Updated: 1/22/15)
http://www.d3pforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3939

I especially recommend the last one.

Cheers

spudzo0

Thank you ChrisUnbroken. I've read both of those threads, multiple times at that lol. I understood that Iso would become extremely precious in the 3* stage but was getting a little impatient is all. I will cease expending it into tokens now though and focus on maxing ares and thor. Thanks a ton for the advice.

morph3us

spudzo0 wrote:

I am just starting to collect a fair amount of 3* covers and am getting ready to start putting some iso into them within the next month I think. Mind you highest covered 3*s only have 4 covers and they are Hood and Steve Rogers, but I've got a good system at getting at least 1 3* each day along side the DPD. My question is, should I still focus on maxing out 2* thor and ares (currently both need 2 more covers plus Iso to be maxed) or should I continue my strategy of using my iso to get more chances a 3* covers. It may be worth noting my current maxed 2*s are OBW, Daken, and AWolvie, all of which are optimally covered.

Thanks.

Honestly, I don't think you're ready to transition yet. 3*s don't really become viable until you have at least 9-10 covers for them. An undercovered 3* character in PvP is an even softer target than most 2*s. I'd definitely max out Ares, plus or minus Thor. Having a reasonably deep 2* roster is fairly critical to supporting your 3*s in the transition period. Take your time, the covers will come.

Roswulf

Definitely max Ares- Ares/OBW is the single strongest 2* team out there for PvP, and only challenged in any circumstance by Storm/Mags. I've got a wide range of 3*, with as many as twelve covers, and Ares/OBW is still my default team without question. His Green is an utterly ludicrous source of damage.

Thor is somewhat less powerful, but still serves a crucial niche and is 100% worth maxing. Again, the best partner is OBW. For one, Thor is buffed much more frequently in PvE than his villainous counterpart, and a buffed Thor is stronger than an unbuffed Ares. Second, while Thor is slower than Ares, he is more reliable on the DDQ Survival node, which is going to be an indispensable source of 3* for the entire transition. Thirdly, sometimes you've burned all your health packs and Ares is out of commission- Thor is the next best thing.

nimvin

I don't uunderstand the love of Ares over Thor. He is definitely better on defense, but when climbing he's a healthpack wh*re. His yellow is self damaging and his green gives free AP to the enemy. I have won numerous fights with Thor against Ares because he gave me the last 2 or 3 green i needed for CotS. I climbed with Thor almost exclusively then set Ares for defense.

On a side note, i have every 3* character and under except venom and yelena. I have maxed every character 2* and under except Bagman Moonstone Bullseye and ms. Marvel. They all get used, especially now with the DPDQ. There is no purpose to not keeping all of them. Some of you say you need the roster spots but so many have come back and said they had to relevel them and that's the insanity i don't understand. I have spent money on the game. Total of $60.00 most of which came from gift cards. Most of that went into alliance roster spots then it got refunded so its been sitting in my account waiting for use on shields and char slots. Is it unreasonable to believe everyone can spend that yes. But i have been sitting on it. Its not doing anything but increasing. I have rarely shield hopped. I dont have the roster for it yet. My xf is close but i have no t4or. No elektra or starlord either. I just play all the events, grind all the pve progression rewards and typically top out at 5-600 in pvp, usually enough for a top 100. If you're new and not spending then obw, thor/ares are your bread and butter. Wolv has great chemistry with obw so shouldn't be ignored. At least 2 of these chars can be fully covered in two weeks worth of lightning rounds. Log in grind til the seed teams are gone. Level them with iso earned and unneeded covers sold.

Its not hard but it is a grind.

orbitalint

nimvin wrote:

I don't uunderstand the love of Ares over Thor. He is definitely better on defense, but when climbing he's a healthpack wh*re. His yellow is self damaging and his green gives free AP to the enemy. I have won numerous fights with Thor against Ares because he gave me the last 2 or 3 green i needed for CotS. I climbed with Thor almost exclusively then set Ares for defense.

So, it's been a few since I used him but I used him because he was infinitely faster, had a full set of three usuable to great abilities and the best 2* finisher with green. At 4/4/5, getting that yellow to resolve means huge damage for minimal damage taken when played mid match. Soak up all yellow tile matches and itll recharge him no worries.

Lastly, play it right with obw recon and you even have a quick kill weapon for support or an obw with no drawback for 6 green and 8 purple. Best feeling was to down the only green user with green and you can spam green the rest of the match.

Many more ways to win and was faster. Definitely the most strategic 2* to play, which was always fun. Even my 3* team is annoyed when I climb to have him get even 6 green.

Unknown

orbitalint wrote:

nimvin wrote:

I don't uunderstand the love of Ares over Thor. He is definitely better on defense, but when climbing he's a healthpack wh*re. His yellow is self damaging and his green gives free AP to the enemy. I have won numerous fights with Thor against Ares because he gave me the last 2 or 3 green i needed for CotS. I climbed with Thor almost exclusively then set Ares for defense.

So, it's been a few since I used him but I used him because he was infinitely faster, had a full set of three usuable to great abilities and the best 2* finisher with green. At 4/4/5, getting that yellow to resolve means huge damage for minimal damage taken when played mid match. Soak up all yellow tile matches and itll recharge him no worries.

Lastly, play it right with obw recon and you even have a quick kill weapon for support or an obw with no drawback for 6 green and 8 purple. Best feeling was to down the only green user with green and you can spam green the rest of the match.

Many more ways to win and was faster. Definitely the most strategic 2* to play, which was always fun. Even my 3* team is annoyed when I climb to have him get even 6 green.

Yup, agree about the faster thing. I love Ares more than Thor because he's faster and more fun to play. Timing of where to cast his green or yellow needs a more strategy than Thor, but that's what makes it's fun. Of course OBW as his partner is a must to make the "2*-only" gameplay more fun. Usually my team for DDQ is Ares-OBW-Daken.

Unknown

Using ISO for to kens is a bad idea. I'll give you a little bit of advice to get up to 600 points in pvp, try and make doubles of your existing 2*s only the ones that you use the most like obw, storm and ares if you can to save on health packs and so you can advance faster in pvp and pvp. Try to advance during the last four hours of you event go up to maybe 300 points then take a brake and then sprint as high as your roster will take you then if you want shield up and wait up the rest of the event you might make top 100 and earn a 3*cover if not you gat some hp at least. Good luck

Unknown

There is a point where you have all the 2*s you want at 94 and none of the 3*s at a viable point to level them where starts to build up. DO NOT give in to the temptation to spend it on standard tokens. Save it for leveling your first 166. I am well over 1,000,000 in debt on characters I could level, and I'd give quite a bit to get back any iso I spent on tokens.

Thor and Ares are pretty good. Especially now with DDQ requiring a bunch of 2*s. I have considered selling my Thor when LazyThor became better than him in every possible way, but have yet to do so and don't really regret it.

PeterGibbons316

nimvin wrote:

I don't uunderstand the love of Ares over Thor. He is definitely better on defense, but when climbing he's a healthpack wh*re. His yellow is self damaging and his green gives free AP to the enemy. I have won numerous fights with Thor against Ares because he gave me the last 2 or 3 green i needed for CotS. I climbed with Thor almost exclusively then set Ares for defense.

I've always felt the same way. I love how Thor's red feeds his yellow which then feeds his green. Ares feeds your enemy. I will say that Ares is fantastic on defense though, because you don't care about the damage he does to himself. And, I have to also agree that when combined with OBW you can run Ares 2k down on hp, just make sure your heal with OBW's blue before you Sunder so you don't really lose anything. Still, I've always preferred Thor to Ares.

Vhailorx

OP,

Let me add to the chorus advising you not to spend iso on tokens. You will need the iso for 3*s later on, and the token drop rates are so low that you will never actually build any 3*s using that strategy.

As a general transition strategy I would advise:

(1) Level the following 2*s (ideally in this order): OBW, Ares, Daken, Thor, Storm, MNMags. Those are the essential 2*s that will retain value for you well into 3* land. Additional 2*s that can be useful include mHawkeye, 2* Wolvie, Torch, and maybe Ms. Marvel.

(2) Other than those 2*s, don't spend iso on anything. Horde it, you will want several hundred thousand iso saved when you start getting 3*s to level. So that means ignore other 2*s and ignore stop leveling your 1*s. In fact, once your 2*s reach the 70s, drop all 1*s except Juggs.

(3) try to avoid selling any 3*s The transition phase takes forever and generally gives you a random sampling of 3*s. It can be very hard to build up and well-covered characters without maintaining a large (and sadly useless) bench of 1-5 covered 3*s. This sucks. It's the biggest money sink in the game. If you can (and want to) spend some money on the game, this is the place to do it. Buy some HP and sink it all into roster slots to hold useless 3*s. If you stick with the game long enough to reach 3* land, you will be glad you did so.

(4) focus on PVE. It is especially valuable to figure out how to get multiple cover rewards from PVE. getting some 3* covers isn't hard, but getting 13 covers for one character is the trick. So almost anything that lets you get multiple covers from the same character is worth the effort.

(5) when I was in 2* land, Ares/obw could sometimes score 550-600 with some shielding. I don't know if that is still the case, but in general high end pvp is for 3* players. Don't worry too much about scoring well. get 400 to bank your hp, and don't bother shielding unless the top 100 cover is essential for you (ie an important cover for a good 3* for whom you already have several covers). Also learn which pvp slice works best for you (if you want placement, than slices 1-3 are probably the way to go, even if the end times are slightly less convenient).

As for nimvin's Thor/Ares debate: Ares is better. that's not to say that Thor is bad, and in certain situations he is preferrable, but overall ares is better. He is just as good on offense and has more defensive value. He has awesome, and very fast, one target damage. And with the proper 4/4/5 build his yellow countdown will resolve most of the time (especially if you clear obvious yellow matches first), and it's quite efficient when that happens. Even better, use ares with obw and you can give him temp health to absorb the yellow self-damage!

MarvelMan

Id recommend starting to level CStorm/MNMags as well. Between that team (and Mystique when you get her) and Ares/OBW you will have some fun in PVE and PVP. Im very much into 3* world (4* really) but I love using OBW/Daken/Ares in the DPDQ. Having multiple copies is a good strategy, though the HP for the slots is probably not worth it. If you are willing to spend some $$, that is where to put it as you will want the slots later and can part with that second copy if push comes to shove.

For Ares vs Thor.....I liked Ares. You just have to know when to use him. It takes more thought. As mentioned above, you need to clear as much yellow before using it, and if youve done that maybe youve lost some health and OBW blue can top it off prior to using yellow. Then green is a finishing move. If there is only one green user on the opposing team, who is generally the power char, whittle them down while saving up green, then when you have enough wipe them out. The AP youve given is useless.

One thing that might just be preference, and is tough to force yourself to do, is to horde tokens. Like seriously horde them. Dont open a single Standard or Heroic for 2-3 seasons. Open all the event ones you want, but hold those Standard and Heroics. That way, you can open your whole stash during a single season and (hopefully) pull more covers for the same 3* chars.

Roswulf

As someone in the midst of the transitioning process, Vhailorx speaks the truth. I would suggest that in regards to in-season PvP, it can be productive to join as late as possible while still hitting the 300/400 progressions in hopes of snagging a bracket that never fills. A 2* roster managed well can easily hit top 100 if the bracket only has 200 players. It's a gamble, but its a better, cheaper and less time-intensive gamble than pushing for a "true" top 100.

And while it is a great source of covers, don't kill yourself over top PvE placement unless you enjoy grinding. I've taken to joining PvEs a day or two late to snipe easier brackets, and I've found that I can frequently coast to a top 50 performance without messing up my life schedule or tackling any really knotty non-essential nodes. Add in the progression, and that's three 3* covers for much less than half of the effort needed to grab the fourth.

Roswulf

MarvelMan wrote:

One thing that might just be preference, and is tough to force yourself to do, is to horde tokens. Like seriously horde them. Dont open a single Standard or Heroic for 2-3 seasons. Open all the event ones you want, but hold those Standard and Heroics. That way, you can open your whole stash during a single season and (hopefully) pull more covers for the same 3* chars.

It's an obvious point perhaps, but I'd probably hold off on this strategy until you have a reasonably-full-but-poorly-covered 3* roster. Every day the DDQ cover is for a 3* you don't have, you are missing out on a low-effort 3* cover, a load of ISO, and a Taco Token.

spudzo0

Vhailorx wrote:

OP,

(1) Level the following 2*s (ideally in this order): OBW, Ares, Daken, Thor, Storm, MNMags. Those are the essential 2*s that will retain value for you well into 3* land. Additional 2*s that can be useful include mHawkeye, 2* Wolvie, Torch, and maybe Ms. Marvel.

I currently have a full roster with mostly 3*s and the essential 2*s safe for Storm and Mags. Would you recommend getting rid of a couple of low tier 3*s to make room for mags and storm, or is having OBW, Daken, Thor, Ares, and Wolvie maxed good enough?

Roswulf

spudzo0 wrote:

Vhailorx wrote:

OP,

(1) Level the following 2*s (ideally in this order): OBW, Ares, Daken, Thor, Storm, MNMags. Those are the essential 2*s that will retain value for you well into 3* land. Additional 2*s that can be useful include mHawkeye, 2* Wolvie, Torch, and maybe Ms. Marvel.

I currently have a full roster with mostly 3*s and the essential 2*s safe for Storm and Mags. Would you recommend getting rid of a couple of low tier 3*s to make room for mags and storm, or is having OBW, Daken, Thor, Ares, and Wolvie maxed good enough?

Mags and Storm are definitely more valuable than low-covered 3*. Mags Purple into Storm Blue is stupidly good.

Wolverine however is a luxury once you have Ares and Thor up and running (reasonably powerful, lots of fun when boosted, but a luxury). Dropping him is a viable way to save on HP without selling 3*.