The Gauntlet - March 22-27

ragnarady

morph3us wrote:

Not nearly enough damage from 2* Cap's SSA, unfortunately Just out of interest, how much damage does it do, boosted?

Only 952 damage, I can't call it "boost"

Arimis_Thorn

Yeah I need a new team comp or a hell of a good board to start. I've been focusing on Patch first. Should I focus on Gorgon instead? His red is straight up murder.

ClydeFrog76

Yeah, I did Gorgon, Mystique, Patch. Save up a few abilities for the latter because of his ridiculous regen.

Essential 17 just owned me. AI got two crits in one move and then busted out a Sacrifice strike tile that I couldn't match. Retreated quickly.

*sigh*

jffdougan

Any suggestions using my roster for the Fury/Xavier/Cage node, at levels 158/9?

Easiest to search the vamanos pest alliance, although my note worthies in the L100+ range are Patch, Daredevil, MoStorm, LThor (1/3/3).

morph3us

Arimis Thorn wrote:

Yeah I need a new team comp or a hell of a good board to start. I've been focusing on Patch first. Should I focus on Gorgon instead? His red is straight up murder.

Definitely focus on Gorgon first. Leave Patch until last, if you hit him first, his regen will slow your tempo enough that any of the three will get their abilities off. The other advantage of leaving Patch until last is that it allows you to build up enough AP to alpha strike him down, or at least stunlock him.

Unknown

There's no reason to ever attack Patch first because he will comfortably regen whatever match damage you do. It's true that match damage doesn't matter much to high level enemies, but it's still free damage. It's a judgment call whether you want to use your moves on Patch first once you've enough to down him, but definitely don't put your match damage on him at first. I usually leave Patch alone because you never know when a Berserker Rage can turn the game around in your favor, and the worst outcome from a Berserker Rage (outright losing a game) isn't likely much worse than just taking an Awaken the Hand or Debiliating Slash (which can usually cause you to outright lose the game), and since there is literally no upside for taking any of Gorgon's moves, you might as well leave Patch until after Gorgon.

Arimis_Thorn

morph3us wrote:

Arimis Thorn wrote:

Yeah I need a new team comp or a hell of a good board to start. I've been focusing on Patch first. Should I focus on Gorgon instead? His red is straight up murder.

Definitely focus on Gorgon first. Leave Patch until last, if you hit him first, his regen will slow your tempo enough that any of the three will get their abilities off. The other advantage of leaving Patch until last is that it allows you to build up enough AP to alpha strike him down, or at least stunlock him.

Yep, managed to beat it with MNMags, CStorm and SG (with a punishing TWO covers!) Was able to get a Windstorm onto Gorgon and then get off a Magnetic Flux while he was out. That parlayed into a Lightning Storm, another Windstorm and another Flux.

So yeah, lucked into a hell of a good board plus boosts.

ZootSax

ragnarady wrote:

morph3us wrote:

Not nearly enough damage from 2* Cap's SSA, unfortunately Just out of interest, how much damage does it do, boosted?

Only 952 damage, I can't call it "boost"

I don't recall the exact number off the top of my head, but I believe when 2-star Cap is boosted to 270, he does less than half of 3-star Cap's damage at 166. It's pretty woeful...

Arimis_Thorn

YES!! Hulk Bombed my way to the Zblade green! This is my first ever Gaunlet completion! I really didn't think it was possible. So jazzed

Unknown

Vankysher wrote:

Man-Thing wrote:

raisinbman wrote:

Peej13 wrote:

How. The. Hell. Do. I. Beat. 37?

Hulk can get angry off the attack tile, if not apply patch

Thanks raisinbman! Hulk + Patch + Black Panther got the job done. Much appreciated.

Any advice for #39? I'm looking at Red Magneto/Cyclops/X-force, all at level 299. Can't use Hulk/Patch, X-Force or Storm/Magneto. I also don't know how many whales I have in the chute, but I'm trying to save them for the essential nodes b/c my Ragnarok & Squirrel Girl are seriously under-covered & under-leveled.

Ditto though mine are only 163/164 since I'm still running a **** 2* roster.

I just got through this with Cage, Storm & obw. I boosted purple and black by three. You just have to play defensive and make sure to secure purple within the first moves so you can start feeding/preventing powers. I have my obw at three purples so I can launch it pretty quickly. By the way, I'm currently capping my roster at 94 till I secure more 3 covers so my cage is not fully covered. However, he's still a star

AaronTheLuigi

Nevermind, Stormneto/OBW carried my sorry kitty across the node. Apparently the strategy for any Gauntlet node is to get a really, really, REALLY fortunate board.

Are guys supposed to be curb-stomped at the end?
Node 32 (Storm/Doom/Fist) wiped me four times clean before I got fortunate, and now I can't fathom how to get around Cage/Fury/Xavier on node 35.
They're 144 each, and nobody on my roster has been able to do anything besides maybe kill Fury before Cage punches me into the emergency room.

Pongie

Rag is only going to be essential for this event right? The next one will be someone else? (likely blade, daken and squirrel girl)
I need to free up a slot to temporary get squirrel girl so that I can get the blade cover. Currently debating who to drop from my roster. The candidates (lower end and least covered) are

lvl 40 daredevil 0/1/1
lvl 40 spiderman 2/1/0
lvl 40 ragnarok 2/0/1
lvl 45 mystique 1/1/1

including these two 4* as well

lvl 70 elektra 0/0/1
lvl 70 thor 0/0/1

I leaning on ragnarok, since I don't think he is playable at all. But if he's going to be an essential next event, I will need to keep him. Next preferrence is daredevil or even elektra (is she any good?).

Nylarx

What 1* and 2* do you have? maybe we can cut one of them instead

Pongie

Only 1* is juggs.
2* are all maxed and these are my main line up at the moment (daken, ares, obw, thor, wolverine, storm and mags).

The other 3* I have are punisher, doom, hood, iron fist, thor, storm, cyclops, torch, black widow, loki, cage, rng, mag, deadpool, patch, blade, and hulk. But these are covered (between 5-10) at lvl 50-102 and I would consider them useful. I see alot of people hate 3* storm, but she is one of my higher covered ones and her black is a powerhouse for me at the moment.

morph3us

Pongie wrote:

Only 1* is juggs.
2* are all maxed and these are my main line up at the moment (daken, ares, obw, thor, wolverine, storm and mags).

The other 3* I have are punisher, doom, hood, iron fist, thor, storm, cyclops, torch, black widow, loki, cage, rng, mag, deadpool, patch, blade, and hulk. But these are covered (between 5-10) at lvl 50-102 and I would consider them useful. I see alot of people hate 3* storm, but she is one of my higher covered ones and her black is a powerhouse for me at the moment.

Rags is unlikely to be an essential character for quite some time. He'll rotate back in eventually, but I'd say you have quite a few events before it happens again. Blade is going to be essential for the next PvE.

Also, I would agree, 3* Storm is really underrated, she's a high tier 3* support character.

Vhailorx

morph3us wrote:

Also, I would agree, 3* Storm is really underrated, she's a high tier 3* support character.

I think she is properly rated by the community. She isn't considered trash-tier like beast or Doc Oc, and 2 of her 3 abilities are above average (black is probably very good), but her health is so low, and her yellow is pretty terrible. She just can't compete in the current 3* land and is appropriately considered low-tier as a result.


But back on topic: How do people feel about this gauntlet overall? Tougher than previous ones, about the same?

As usual, nodes 37 and 40 were quite challenging, as were the global domination essentials for anyone without a well-covered featured character. Iron Fist/Cage is clearly the standout enemy team that I don't want to face when overleveled. And xavier also demonstrated his general utility. He really does have to be dropped as quickly as possible, lest an unlucky match-5 and subsequent cascade obliterate your team.

Also, this gauntlet proved yet again that ap-denying characters (i.e., loki/hood in 3* land, obw in 2* land) are essential for reliably tackling overleveled opponents.

morph3us

Vhailorx wrote:

morph3us wrote:

Also, I would agree, 3* Storm is really underrated, she's a high tier 3* support character.

I think she is properly rated by the community. She isn't considered trash-tier like beast or Doc Oc, and 2 of her 3 abilities are above average (black is probably very good), but her health is so low, and her yellow is pretty terrible. She just can't compete in the current 3* land and is appropriately considered low-tier as a result.


But back on topic: How do people feel about this gauntlet overall? Tougher than previous ones, about the same?

As usual, nodes 37 and 40 were quite challenging, as were the global domination essentials for anyone without a well-covered featured character. Iron Fist/Cage is clearly the standout enemy team that I don't want to face when overleveled. And xavier also demonstrated his general utility. He really does have to be dropped as quickly as possible, lest an unlucky match-5 and subsequent cascade obliterate your team.

Also, this gauntlet proved yet again that ap-denying characters (i.e., loki/hood in 3* land, obw in 2* land) are essential for reliably tackling overleveled opponents.

Yeah, I agree about her health, probably should have been more emphatic about support. She's not good in isolation, and needs to have the right pairings to work. Absolutely shines in survival nodes. But she's nowhere near Hood/Loki levels as support.

As you say, back on topic: Strangely enough, it seemed easier to me, but it might just be that my roster is more developed. This is the first Gauntlet where I didn't need to boost (apart from one instance of +3 TUAP), and it's also the first Gauntlet where I didn't have a team wipe at all (although there were several very close calls, where I won with one man standing at a couple of hundred health).

I agree with you that AP-denying characters are absolutely essential when your opponents are overlevelled. It's probably also why the 2* teams are having more issues, as Loki and Hood are better at AP denying than OBW is.

Iron Fist/Cage are a clear demonstration of why you want to keep scaling in check. The attack tile/protect tile combination are manageable, provided that attack tile isn't spitting out too much damage per turn, but when IF is overlevelled, as per people's accounts, 1K+ damage per turn isn't manageable apart from via a stunlock.

Agree with you about Xavier. I also think Cyclops has proven himself to be a dangerous opponent (and a well rounded character), as all three of abilities have a very pointy end to them, having caught the wrong end of all three on my way through.

GuntherBlobel

dswan3rd wrote:

Arimis Thorn wrote:

Yeah I'm stuck on 41. I keep trying to go with CStorm + MNMags + Anyone remotely beefy, but the best I've been able to do is drop Hulk and get 4hor down to a couple thousand. Meanwhile, Devil Dino eats my face.

I do have a single Whales TU, though I need to make sure I have a full alottment of DP points to make sure it drops them all. I also have a 1* Widow's Sting that may help?

What team did you use for this?

I used Spidey (really anyone with a purple that was a higher level than my DP to tank for him), DP, and Blade. +3 to Blue/Purple and +3 to all colors, caught a lucky match 5 early on and was able to call "whales" before the enemy made a move at all (even a Dino prehistoric arms). If you have Deadpool and have been using him semi-regularly (at least 3-5 times a week), you probably have more than enough for an insta-kill (28K DP points). I got a DP cover from his first PVE and by the time I got his cover, I had enough for 3 or 4 insta-kills.

The Widow's Sting would definitely let you pound away at Hulk without triggering Anger - the overall non-whales (for someone with a mainly 2* roster) approach seems to be gather as much blue through abilities and boosts (and a friendly board) as possible, then stun away with Storm.

I pulled out the nuclear option: Venom. Devoured Devil Dino and Thor.

The Thor Devour was just insult to injury though.

SnagglePuss

Gah 2 nodes away from getting Green Blade

Currently being curb stomped on Essential 17. May have to boost this one.
I have been getting through by the skin of my teeth with a 2* and Rags tanking.... Don't even have Mags/Storm fully leveled so don't use that combo, so it's Rags/SG/Storm.

Usually i take down Doom first but Sentry /Gorgon are equally as annoying given enough time.
It's catch 22, go boost crazy but end up with a bad board... or pray for the lucky board!

ClydeFrog76

I did it!

Whale-bombed the last essential with a TU. Did the final node on my third try with Hulk, Steve and Hood. +1 to all AP, +1 R/Y, boosted Wind Storm TU that did around 4K to all targets. Took out Deadpool first, then Prof X, then X-Force.

My Blade is now max covered