PVE Node Points

ZorroRooster

I'm sure this has been discussed/covered/explained in depth but I just wanted to voice my aggravation with the point system for PVE. I clawed my way to the first spot in the most recent sub for Enemy of the State. It's been a slow process, taking the better part of a day. I log back in this evening to find that I'm not in first, not even in the top 10. Which in and of itself is fine. I didn't have some insurmountable lead and oodles of points. What I'm taking exception to are the two players currently in first and second. Not only were they nowhere in the top 50 this morning that I could see, they are now a good 7k ahead of me in points. How does this happen? The nodes decrease in value if you continue to beat them in rapid succession. How could they have finagled so many points so quickly? I might be able to catch up a bit, but certainly not 7k by sub end. I'm just frustrated and confused.

EDIT

And why in the world is the opposing team getting extra AP beyond what they've matched every turn. That's ****. Wolverine should not be able to use Adamantium Slash on me if I've purposefully and strategically been doing my best to make sure he is unable to match red.

Unknown

Your main point annoys me as well. No good answer for that.

To your sub point, or edit note, that because there's a goon or NPC on the enemy team racking up AP. either knock them out early, use a hero that steals/depletes AP, or try boosts to knock out the enemies first. Or, you know, other options... Have fun!

ZorroRooster

So the goons generate AP every turn? I understand it, but it's still frustrating. But not more than the first point.

Argon Flame

*This is my understanding of how the system works - happy to test these theories at some point*

The way the system is set up it penalises you for grinding nodes early.

Enemy of the State Subs are all around 24 hours long

That means you have at most almost 3 refreshes of points given the 8h Drop in time.

If at [t=0] you finish a node the following things happen.
You have "X" points where X is the value of the node.
Your node is depleted by 1/6 of its original value (now 5/6 of X)
The timer means that every 8h you get back 1/6 of X.

If you grind again immediately
You will gain 5/6*X points [Giving you a total of X + 5/6 X]
Your node will be depleted again to 4/6 of X

Now if you wait 8h [t=8] for the next completion the node will only have regenerated by +1/6*X (to 5/6*X)
So you will again get 5/6*X points [Total X + 5/6*X + 5/6*X = 2*X +4/6*X]
Node will drop to 4/6*X points
If you grind again you only get 4/6*X this time [Total 2*X +4/6*X + 4/6*X = 3*X +2/6*X]
Your points will be at 3/6*X
You have done 4 node clears

+8h [t=16] later node will have regenerated 1/6*X again.
If you now start grinding out the node:
5th clear: 4/6*X
6th clear: 3/6*X
7th clear: 2/6*X
8th clear: 1/6*X
For a grind clear of 1*X+4/6*X

TOTAL Points = 5*X for 8 Clears

Compare this with not grinding more than once:
1st clear, t= 0, Pts = 1X
2nd clear, t=8, Pts = 2X
3rd clear, t =16, Pts =3X
then you start to grind
4th clear, t=16, Pt = 3X +5/6*X
5th clear, , Pt =3X +5/6*X + 4/6*X = 4X +3/6*X
6th clear, , Pt =4X +3/6*X + 3/6*X = 5X

You now have the same number of points but have only done 6 clears and your node still has 2/6*X value remaining.

Unknown

The second point has been covered, as has the first, but I thought my noob-ish point of view might be helpful. I am most definitely no PVE pro, and admittedly didn't think I could succeed at it for a loong time, until I figured at least a bit of it out (thank you forumites, and my first good alliance). That said, the high points from a relative neophyte's eye view:

I wouldn't even bother contemplating your rank until just before the sub ends.

In a typical sub-event, I play my first round, I'm in some ridiculously high position because I'm early (4, 6, 11, whatever). I leave the game for a while (6 hours+ of sleep), and I'm 153, 182 or some bizarre number. I hit my refreshes at somewhere around 8 hours, and all of a sudden, I'm rocketed back up to another relatively high spot (27, 35, 41, or something). I should note here, my roster is not strong enough to beat all nodes, so there's that, and I tend to get beat up, so factor in some healing time as well. In other words, far from perfect 8-hour refreshes, but respectably close.

It's not until the final wave of refreshes, close to the end, that I have a reasonable idea of where I'll probably end up. Tonight, I started my final "push" in 41st, and ended up 16th. IAH, I could have pushed harder and likely made top 10, but I got frustrated and a bit bored slogging through ninjas with various wounded heroes for 20 ISO... I should also note that the difference between me and the 1st place player could easily be figured out in my head based on the nodes I didn't run with a bit extra for closer to perfect refreshes.

I don't know if it's a good system, but it is the system at the moment... again, through the eyes of someone else who doesn't completely understand it, but does get it enough to make it work.

Hope this helps!

DBC

Unknown

You know the typical manga where people are pretending to be fighting and then at the end they go through 3 form changes? That's how the end of a PvE sub works. Unless you're doing something totally crazy like grinding the node 5 times before the last 8 hours your method of clearing is not likely to have a significant impact on the overall score. As the last 8 hours wind down you'll see people start going into their second or fifth gear and it's really amazing how fast and much some guys can grind in a relatively short time and completely blow away the competition. You've to regularly finish top 5 to even be at a point where you can appreciate how insane the 4 guys who are ahead of you (or lucky, if it's a scaling issue) are.

Quantity is overwhelmingly dominant in the last 8 and really even last 12 hours because if you can grind everything 6 times with 12 hours to go (about 4-5 hours off the optimal pace), only a handful of players can possibly even match your score. The guys who pass you up from nowhere generally did an incredible number of nodes.