Heavy Metal vs Smash Hit

GrumpySmurf1002

Devs made changes, so rather than having experiences lost in the announcement thread, post whatever/any changes you've noticed. Much like was done in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=26893

I left 3 different polls within a poll, so choose everything that applies to your experience.

I'll start:
Slice: Four
Roster: XForce 208, Thor/Cap/Hood/Grocket 166, 11 others ranging 125-163. Fury at 5/2/2 and lvl 124, Thor is 4/1/4 @ 94
Usual PvP Placement: Top 25, avg score 900-950
Experience:

So far so better. Only climbed to 175 thus far, but mix of opponents is considerably improved. Yes, I've seen a few max teams, but also a few 250+ Hulk with sub-110 partners, and a few 2* teams + loaner. Have yet to see an attack, which is also different, but it's early and I may not be high enough yet. I think the changes are enough to make the experience feel normal, but challenging. Of course, I said the same thing posting early the last time, so we'll see how the next two days progress.

Edit: Climbed above 400 this morning. Had a few attacks come in, but everything under -15 (thanks to the new change). Definitely fewer than what I saw in Heavy Metal. All these 20k Hulks aren't helping matters, but changes are definitely an improvement over Heavy Metal

JamieMadrox

Slice: X
Roster: 240 X-Force, 220 Goddess, 166 Hulk, Patch, Loki, Cmags, LCap, Daken, Sentry, Torch, Hood, Punisher, Thor, other characters that aren't used/lower level.
Usual PvP Placement: 1st, avg score 1500+
Experience: So far much better than Heavy Metal. It's still harder than the old system, but I was able to make it to 420 on my first set of health packs last night. The I did a lazy climb to the 600s before bed. Stayed unshielded over night and won more points than I lost. Today I was able to make it to the 800s for my first shield, 990 for my second, and 1094 for my third. Doing 4 matches each hop, but health pack usage is higher than normal. It hasn't been as easy as it used to be, but I'm not going to rage at the devs or quit in despair yet.

Arimis_Thorn

I'm struggling to stay above 300 points. Granted I don't have any 166's (but a handful in the 120-150 range) and my XF is only 131 and not fully covered. The best team I really have right now is Hulk/Patch/Laken, but that means that my Hulk is either dead or very very low after every match. With Hulk's health boosted in this PVP, even with the 4 I'm giving them, it's not triggering Anger. However, all of my attacks seem to trigger the enemy Hulk, though they rarely seem to have Anger fully covered. Still hurts though.

So it's possible that the new system is better and my current roster is just not developed enough to enjoy it. That or I haven't hit upon the best team comp with what I've got.

simonsez

After 1 seed, I'm finding no reasonable fights. After first "real" fight, I left it with no XF. Later, after next "real" fight, my GT left it with 1,500 health remaining. Would love to rotate in some other characters, but walking around with a "kick me" sign isn't an option I want to go for. This is way more work than fun.

MarvelMan

IGN same as here.
Slice: Five
Roster: XForce/SheThor 270, Hood/Cmag/Hulk/Patch/Laken/others(who dont matter) 166, Fury/IW fully covered at 70
Usual PvP Placement: Top 25, often T10, avg score 950-1k
Experience: This sucks

After one seed I saw 290/166Hood/270XF, then 290/270XF/270PX and a 260/166Laken/166Patch. All were 24-28 points. yay. I hit 1st and third....and stopped. Got hit twice even at just 80pts (NEVER seen that before). One for a 2pt loss (26 avail for retal) and a 28pt def win.

Ill play a bit more since I (semi) care about season standing...but if the fights offered stay the same I wont be bothered to play to my typical points as Id be forced into my "A" team for ALL fights. No chance to use roster depth and experiment during the "climb" means no fun. Just grind.

Unknown

So far Smash Hit feels better. I'm getting more difficult match ups than Teenage Riot, but not quite as quickly as I was in Heavy Metal.

stowaway

The matchmaking is somewhat easier. Fighting the Hulk is harder.

woopie

I'm only liking it more because boosted IM40 hits harder than boosted Hulk and boosted Hulk takes a lot of damage to trigger anger which again makes it easier for me

tanis3303

IGN Tanis3303
Slice - 3
Roster - 270 XF/Fury/Thoress, 20+ 166s
Usual PvP Placement - Depends on if I need the rewards, but i usually try to hit 900 points at least.
Experience: This is brutal, but a little more tolerable than Heavy Metal

So far, Smash Hit has been more tolerable than Heavy Metal, but I think this has a lot to do with the fact that my Hulk is maxed out. My M40 is only at natural level 100, so in Heavy Metal I think I had a giant "FREE POINTS!!" sign over me because I had one of the rare non-maxed M40s out in the wild. I've only climbed to just over 200 points, but so far, no incoming attacks, so apparently people are finding easier prey than 290 Hulk, 270 XF/Thor. Hopefully this is a result of some manner of tweaks they made resulting in a slightly less irritating experience and not just because I happen to have the feature character maxed. I'm reserving full judgement until I climb closer to my usual point range, but from what I'm hearing, its not looking friendly out there.

esoxnepa

PvP is like a game of chicken right now. No one wants to step over 500 points until they are ready to start their push and shield hops.

I am not seeing the 1* level weaker teams we are suppose to be seeing. I saw a couple of them while under 100 points, and I'm not sure they weren't bait teams.

I dislike how it eliminates the ability to play with non-top tier, non-top level characters. Before, you could enjoy your whole roster up to around 500 points. That may not sound like much, but it gave critical variety and diversity on what I could play. Now, it's play your top teams or just stagnate at 300, until everyone starts the climb.

fmftint

Jamie Madrox wrote:

I'm not going to rage at the devs or quit in despair yet.

Didn't you do that last week?

KrazyKeylime

stowaway wrote:

The matchmaking is somewhat easier. Fighting the Hulk is harder.

the only thing he has going for him is his anger. so leave him for last and don't let them trigger. deny red and green when able then when you have enough ap combo one shot him. lvl 3 red on your hulk maxed should deal about 4k alone. or chip away at his health with match damage you can use some strike tiles but make sure it is lower then his anger threshold otherwise you not have a good time. if you can't bring him down in one swoop stun him then unload what you got.

stowaway

KrazyKeylime wrote:

stowaway wrote:

The matchmaking is somewhat easier. Fighting the Hulk is harder.

the only thing he has going for him is his anger. so leave him for last and don't let them trigger. deny red and green when able then when you have enough ap combo one shot him. lvl 3 red on your hulk maxed should deal about 4k alone. or chip away at his health with match damage you can use some strike tiles but make sure it is lower then his anger threshold otherwise you not have a good time. if you can't bring him down in one swoop stun him then unload what you got.

The strategy isn't difficult. . . it's the amount of health he has. It just makes each match take a lot longer than I'm used to (in addition to having to wait until I can kill him all in one go). It also seems like a lot more people have their own Hulk than had their own IM40, which makes sense really.

Unknown

I am personally embracing the terrible changes made to pvp. It allows more time for me to avoid playing MPQ. I think the development team is onto something.....

Unknown

fmftint wrote:

Jamie Madrox wrote:

I'm not going to rage at the devs or quit in despair yet.

Didn't you do that last week?

Reports of his departure have been greatly exaggerated.



Back on topic:
My roster: 269 XF/Goddess, 180 Fury, 19 maxed 3*. Hulk at 130, IM40 at 80 (5/5/2) and 40 (5/5/1)

This feels better than Heavy Metal, but it still feels ridiculous to me that once I cleared my three seed teams these were the first four fights I was offered:





Yes, I was offered a maxed XF/Daken/Hulk for a whopping 20 points. I totally understand that at higher point totals where there simply are not enough fights around to give you a fight that is worth more than you'd lose if they retaliated (and yes, I understand with the new lessening of point losses, you can retal back and forth with someone and each gain points for a long time). But at 70 points to be offered that team for another 20 points seems flawed.
It irks me because I know there are people in my bracket, unshielded, who were at 300 points or so, with 94 rosters. Under the new matching system I could not queue them regardless of how much skipping I did. They've gotten the special treatment from Professor X.

I've crossed 500 but have been attacked down a bit below that now. Normally with 30+ hours to go, I'd be up to 6-700 already and maybe get attacked once or twice in the next 20+ hours. I've seen more attacks below 500 than I did in likely the entire time in Kamala's Teenage Riot (where I crossed 1k before shielding, and without being hit).

So I will agree that it is better. Maybe in the way that getting poked in the eye with a finger is better than with a sharp stick.

Arimis_Thorn

j12601 wrote:

fmftint wrote:

Jamie Madrox wrote:

I'm not going to rage at the devs or quit in despair yet.

Didn't you do that last week?

Reports of his departure have been greatly exaggerated.



Back on topic:
My roster: 269 XF/Goddess, 180 Fury, 19 maxed 3*. Hulk at 130, IM40 at 80 (5/5/2) and 40 (5/5/1)

This feels better than Heavy Metal, but it still feels ridiculous to me that once I cleared my three seed teams these were the first four fights I was offered:





Yes, I was offered a maxed XF/Daken/Hulk for a whopping 20 points. I totally understand that at higher point totals where there simply are not enough fights around to give you a fight that is worth more than you'd lose if they retaliated (and yes, I understand with the new lessening of point losses, you can retal back and forth with someone and each gain points for a long time). But at 70 points to be offered that team for another 20 points seems flawed.
It irks me because I know there are people in my bracket, unshielded, who were at 300 points or so, with 94 rosters. Under the new matching system I could not queue them regardless of how much skipping I did. They've gotten the special treatment from Professor X.

I've crossed 500 but have been attacked down a bit below that now. Normally with 30+ hours to go, I'd be up to 6-700 already and maybe get attacked once or twice in the next 20+ hours. I've seen more attacks below 500 than I did in likely the entire time in Kamala's Teenage Riot (where I crossed 1k before shielding, and without being hit).

So I will agree that it is better. Maybe in the way that getting poked in the eye with a finger is better than with a sharp stick.

Funny, your match options look exactly like mine, except that my roster isn't nearly as developed as yours

Unknown

Smash Hit is awful, though that might be mostly because of the awfulness of Hulk's almost 20k. So slow.

Arimis_Thorn

And I officially hate this event. Can't tell if it's the new matchmaking or 20K Hulk everywhere. This absolutely sucks and is ZERO fun.

Unknown

I got offered a max Proffesor X, X-Force, and Hulk. So I killed them and went on to the next one. A nice juicy win for that one!

Unknown

Arimis Thorn wrote:

j12601 wrote:

fmftint wrote:

Jamie Madrox wrote:

I'm not going to rage at the devs or quit in despair yet.

Didn't you do that last week?

Reports of his departure have been greatly exaggerated.



Back on topic:
My roster: 269 XF/Goddess, 180 Fury, 19 maxed 3*. Hulk at 130, IM40 at 80 (5/5/2) and 40 (5/5/1)

This feels better than Heavy Metal, but it still feels ridiculous to me that once I cleared my three seed teams these were the first four fights I was offered:





Yes, I was offered a maxed XF/Daken/Hulk for a whopping 20 points. I totally understand that at higher point totals where there simply are not enough fights around to give you a fight that is worth more than you'd lose if they retaliated (and yes, I understand with the new lessening of point losses, you can retal back and forth with someone and each gain points for a long time). But at 70 points to be offered that team for another 20 points seems flawed.
It irks me because I know there are people in my bracket, unshielded, who were at 300 points or so, with 94 rosters. Under the new matching system I could not queue them regardless of how much skipping I did. They've gotten the special treatment from Professor X.

I've crossed 500 but have been attacked down a bit below that now. Normally with 30+ hours to go, I'd be up to 6-700 already and maybe get attacked once or twice in the next 20+ hours. I've seen more attacks below 500 than I did in likely the entire time in Kamala's Teenage Riot (where I crossed 1k before shielding, and without being hit).

So I will agree that it is better. Maybe in the way that getting poked in the eye with a finger is better than with a sharp stick.

Funny, your match options look exactly like mine, except that my roster isn't nearly as developed as yours

And sadly, this is the "it's better" part of it compared to Heavy Metal, where I didn't screenshot them, but they were pretty much all maxed 3&4* from the beginning. I'm happy that I can even find people with unmaxed characters in this. That's not good.

GrumpySmurf1002

So far my equlibrium point seems to be between 400-450. If I try to sit above that, I get smacked back by the max teams. That's about 50-100 points less than normal, which isn't too terrible.

Usually I can get from 500 to 800+ with no hassles. Heavy Metal I went 450 to about 650 with a ton of hassle. I'll settle for something in between this event, and hopefully Crotch Kick Madness (or whatever his event is called) is better.