New characters : sharing an experience

babinro

Before (Hulkbuster and new MMR) :

- Push for top 10 pve but happily accept top 50 for every event
- Would selectively buy a couple of covers for chase characters (Xavier, 4Thor, 3x purple for Iron Fist, 1x Red + 1x Black for Cyclops)
- Push for best possible placement while no more than one 8 hour shield and one 3 hour shield (with few exceptions on characters like Iron Fist)

Expenses : Stark Salary only during the occasional sale. One shortly after 4*Thor, another after Xavier.

Now :

- PvE unchanged
- Cover purchase habits unchanged
- PvP mostly unchanged but now I try to finish events with a single shield. Either one 8 hour or one 3 hour (still applying chase characters as the exception)

Expenses : Unchanged. There hasn't been a sale and I had enough HP remaining from Xavier's Stark Salary purchase to cover max HB without an additional purchase.

Unknown

puppychow wrote:

I think once enough players run the HB/IF combo SOLELY, and D3 stops selling covers again (like in the xf/gt era), THEN D3 will mutilate and neuter HB so completely as to make him weaker then IM40. Watch. It's gonna happen this year.

Honestly, HB is strong, but probably fine as a 4*. It's really IF's IFoKL that needs the second nerf. He just enables way too many broken combos. At 6AP it'd still be good enough that he's top tier. That said, I could see them nerfing both, either nerfing overzealously or being deliberately manipulative to get us to get newer 4*.

Unknown

I've only spent $50 and that was after I spent my HP into Iron Fist who was immediately nerfed (got a one week rental) but they couldn't refund the amount without deleting the character, which I wasn't going to do because it was clear the nerfed IF was still top tier, so I didn't have enough to max out Master Plan which I identified as the next broken thing. At that point I figure since I've been consuming resources for so long without paying anything maybe it's time to spend some money. Although it wasn't obvious at that time, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have played PvE as long as I did without having Master Plan, so I can't say that's a bad investment. It was certainly fun abusing Master Plan and it kept scaling barely in check.

Like Ben Grimm I've always been indifferent to PvP but I still did PvP on the side for the easy covers. With the weekly boost changes PvP actually sees a decent amount of variety. Sure the top team is probably always (boosted black guy) + IF + featured or (2 boosted guys) + featured but you see a good amount of variety along the way, and occasionally an oddball The Hood or Prof X or whatever team makes you sweat a little even if they're technically easier than the top team of the event. I don't find PvP interesting, but it's not insulting and I'm fine with doing my community service to 800/1000 and then getting knocked down. If the prizes are good I might even play more. I've always been a primarily PvE guy, but the lack of any new event and double down on scaling and poor selection for enemy choices makes me think there's no way PvE can be salvaged any time soon. Additionally PvE is still far too time consuming except when you've something broken like a pre nerf X Force on your side. I've usually stayed ahead of the broken character game but currently I'm behind (don't want to max out IMHB because he seems a very likely target for nerfs) and just the sheer time amount needed for my usual finish is too much. I'm usually tie for 1st in the first clear on my sub, which means I finished every node once before anyone else, but it'd still take at least 30 minutes to do every node once, and 40+ minutes is not unusual, and this is at the beginning of an event before any community scaling kicks in that undoubtedly makes every node take much longer to beat later.

Wonko33

arktos1971 wrote:

I wanted to share my experience and see if many players were feeling the same lately.

Before (Hulkbuster and new MMR) :

- I was making sure I would play the PvEs so that I could get all 3 colours.
- Would buy all covers needed to max characters.
- Would shield hop enough to place T5 no matter what.

Expenses : 1 to 2 Stark Salaries a month

Now :

- Still do my best in PVEs, to rank as high as possible, but won't lose sleep over a PvE. I rarely rank T10/T5 anymore, so I am missing 1 colour.
- Gave up on the "non new release" PvEs as the scaling is so ridiculous I wipe too often and can't play the game at all other than that.
- Don't buy missing covers and don't use the new characters if they aren't levelled enough.

Expenses : nearly F2P (except for roster slots)

What about you ? How has your gameplay experience change over the last couple of months ?

Similar to you

I use to :
-finish top 25 in PvP more often top 10 , some top 5
- top 100-50 alliance
-Finish top 5 in PvE
-Top 25 in season there at the end
-Completed 2 simulators to 2400 ( to see if I could and help season rankings)
-As many Lightning rounds as I could
-All DPD
-Bought maybe 150-200$ in HP , hard to remember the 5$ ones but 2 x 50$ for sure

Now:
-Play PvP very casually, not at all or to 400. Sometimes more if I want some covers ( had only 3800 last season)
-Play old reward PvE casually
-Play new release PvE for top 50
-DPD
-Never pay for anything anymore, I earn enough HP for new slots

loroku

Back when I first started I spent a tiny sum because I quickly realized that this game would be impossible without spending at least a small amount. Back when you start, HP is so scarce and the covers come so fast and quick that you need roster slots immediately - that's how they get you at first to buy in (classic FTP). But I didn't mind because the game was fun and it was a tiny sum for such a good game.

Later during a sale I bought a bit more just to have more roster slots so I wouldn't have to throw away 3*s so much since they're always required for PvEs. Once I did that, I've never had to buy more HP for roster slots, although I pretty much regret that purchase now. It was a decision based on the fact that the game ALWAYS gives you new characters faster than you can get roster slots (until you're in the top 5% or whatever) so you have to spend to keep up. Classic FTP move - and I mean that in a very bad way.

Never spent money again. My playing has definitely slowed way, way down in the last few months, since the constant onslaught of new 3* characters has pretty much crushed my dreams of ever actually transitioning to 3*s. Gave up entirely on PvEs - my previous bread and butter - since the rewards are 100% NEVER worth the massive effort you have to put in. Only played one PvP since they made the game slower. These days I just hop into a few DDQs - although most aren't worth it since most characters aren't worth it - and make sure I get the daily log in bonus (which also aren't worth it once you get past day 200 or so) and credit to my alliance.

I get the feeling that the designers are still just flailing about, trying to decide what works and what doesn't. And the game is drowning. The thing is, it's such a good core game - the match game itself is 100% awesome - but the reward system is so amazingly unrewarding that it sucks all the fun out of the rest of it. A buddy of mine and even longer-time player than me told me recently he wished there was a way to play this game without getting rewards, since the game was fun but getting yet another worthless 1* token was actually sucking the fun out of playing. I think he's right.

TxMoose

loroku wrote:

These days I just hop into a few DDQs - although most aren't worth it since most characters aren't worth it - and ...

wow. a *** cover not worth 20 minutes of play. sounds like you need to find a game you enjoy more. you don't seem to be enjoying this one at all. I think many are in your position and that's unfortunate. life is to short to spend time on stuff you don't enjoy.