What good is buying a shield if....

BKnitting

Your place on the leaderboard is going to drop anyways? When I bought my shield I was in 83rd. An hour later I'm at 87th. Why then spend any money in getting a shield if your place is just going to drop? Seems like I wasted my money. I bought the shield to stay under a 100 but if I'm going to lose places anyway they really don't do anything.

Unknown

well i guess it all depends on how much you are willing to drop...

so ask yourself, would you prefer to drop only a few spots? or would you prefer to drop 10+ spots... if it's the first option then buy a shield, if you prefer the second option don't buy one

Unknown

Because it's likely to drop even more without one? Sure if your future self told you that you're still going to fall out of top 100 while shielding at 83rd then you shouldn't have bought the shield, but since we can't check the future like that it's a weighted risk. Usually I expect to drop one tier below if I shielded relatively early (say >8 hours left), so if I did shield at 83rd I wouldn't expect to hold top 100, so I wouldn't do that in the first place. As the time left in the event becomes less you'll have more confidence but of course it'd take more work to ensure that your score held on for so long in the first place. Also, you don't know how much further it'll drop, because in terms of placement 83rd and 87th is as good as each other so if you only dropped 4 places that's likely a pretty good deal for your shield because you'd almost certainly drop more than that if not, assuming the cover you won was of any use to you.

NighteyesGrisu

the shielding mechanism would be seriously broken if shielding could protect your placement...whoever finishes his first match in a bracket wins

OnesOwnGrief

Stop unnecessarily spending HP on shields like that. If you're at 83rd then there's a large gap between you and the top, leaving yourself open to getting passed up easily. Seriously, stop doing that.

BKnitting

I see what you guys are all saying, and it does make sense. I guess I was just looking at it differently. I can't compete against the high level as I'm one of the ones with s couple 2 * top level and no three * top level so I was hoping to hold on to an under 100 placement for a decent cover rather than the cover at 101.

Unknown

BKnitting wrote:

I see what you guys are all saying, and it does make sense. I guess I was just looking at it differently. I can't compete against the high level as I'm one of the ones with s couple 2 * top level and no three * top level so I was hoping to hold on to an under 100 placement for a decent cover rather than the cover at 101.

It's fine to only shoot for top 100 if the cover is a useful one but you got to be aware there are limitations to shields. Shielding at 83 and expect it to hold 100 might work if it's in the last 10 minutes. Until then, there are far too much movement in points to expect that to hold up. You can just look at the leaderboard and I'm pretty sure you'll see the 5 guys above and below you are probably within 20 points if not less. That's one game and just way too risky. It'd only make sense if you're pretty desperate for the cover, perhaps because it's say a cover for a character you do not have or maybe it's a color that you do not have that you got to take a gamble. I'm sure there are cases where a shield at 83rd did hold up with more than an hour left to the event, but that's certainly not something I'd risk on a regular basis. In the long run it's indeed just a waste of HP as you're likely to just fall out of top 100 anyway, not to mention the cover might not be anything that'd have any immediate meaningful value compared to an extra 75 HP.

OnesOwnGrief

I would advise doing DPDQ for tokens, 3* draw rate has been good per week. Shield less and conserve that HP to buy covers/roster slots as needed. If you can reach the first HP reward in PvP then you'll still get a gain. If you can reach the second then even better. Do PvE's that give HP rewards per sub and don't spend money on health packs. They may seem small but they add up over time. I was able to purchase a couple covers for 3 stars last month despite not playing everyday and rarely participating in PvE.

MarvelDestiny

Shields protect your points, not your placement.

Infrared

The only thing the shield protects is your score. So it helps to get familiar with the scores that usually end up in your desired placement range, and consider whether yours can beat that before using the shield. Other factors are the time remaining in the event, and what the top scores are. If there are many high scorers in your time slice, those points can trickle down. That makes it easier for everyone to score higher and get the progression rewards, but it also means you will need more points to rank well.

GrimSkald

Infrared wrote:

The only thing the shield protects is your score. So it helps to get familiar with the scores that usually end up in your desired placement range, and consider whether yours can beat that before using the shield. Other factors are the time remaining in the event, and what the top scores are. If there are many high scorers in your time slice, those points can trickle down. That makes it easier for everyone to score higher and get the progression rewards, but it also means you will need more points to rank well.

This. Also keep in mind that a good average placement score can vary by slice - some of the slices are much more demanding than others. In my experience slices 3 and 4 are the hardest, but that can definitely vary by whom you're stuck in a bracket with.

You can shield hop too - I used to shield hop occassionally when I had a 2* roster. Generally just one hop to get a bit higher score if it meant a top 100 placement. In general, the advice here is really good - learn when shielding will get you that 3* (which is the only thing that matters, really) and save your HP for that point.

Unknown

Buying a shield protects your points, not your ranking.

If someone scores more points than you, then obviously they're going to get a higher rank than you.

Not sure if serious.

BKnitting

I was serious, but only because I had some kind of brain issue where I was thinking the concept of the shield was different from what it actually is. With my brain back in its proper place and not 4 feet lower than it should be
and help from you guys, I know how it works now.

MarvelDestiny

Everybody has questions BK, glad we could help!