General strategy for the final steps of 3*

Unknown

Hi everyone,

I have a half dozen heros around level 140, and another half dozen that are playable and could be levelled up too. But I am wondering, given the recent changes in balancing, what the general approach to Levelling Up 3*s should be at this point. I can think of at least three broad attitudes I could take:

1) Since I now have enough ISO push two (or possibly three) characters to max level, do that immediately to create a team that can start winning PvP covers. I'm not sure how drastically that affects PvE play, if it will make my familiar 2*s useless from now on, etc.

2) Push a core group of four (or five or six) characters up in lock step, so that I have some variety to play with as the balancing tilts against me.

3) Bring up all my remotely playable 3*s to the 130ish range for maximum variety before inducing an irreversible rise in difficulty.

I suppose I am particularly interested in hearing from folks who think they made the wrong choice. All info on how balancing works now (based on our four highest level characters?) and what that has meant for your planning is appreciated.

Unknown

IMO don't push your 3*s past 133 or so. When they're boosted it won't make much of a difference if they're 200 or 240, and supports at 130 are about as good as 166 in the new pvp landscape.

4*s are a different matter, I'd say they're worth taking to 220 or so.

Don't max your characters. They will break your pve. Listen to a guy that spent the whole day getting his Fury 1-hit KO'd from headbutts.

Unknown

I would say level up all characters little by little. I have 3 at 166 and can't compete anymore in pve

AXP_isme

I've been trying to level a broad selection of characters together. I currently have about 30 3*s all at about lvl 133 or so.

On the plus side I almost always have a choice of boosted characters at about lvl190. That allows me to compete with the unboosted 166s in PvP.

On the downside I'm still 50-60 levels below a maxed boosted pvp team which is a reasonably big difference when games take this long. Second big drawback is that if I want to level everyone together it takes about 60k ISO to add one level to the whole roster (plus holding the level button gets really tedious) so progress feels really slow.

I wouldn't recommend this approach to everyone. It lets me compete on the margins of PvP, I can usually finish t100 if I put in the effort, and I don't have any extreme scaling problems in PvE. On the other hand the transition is long and painful enough as it is and this approach just makes it longer.

Tl:dr levelling everyone together has some good and some bad.

DFiPL

I leveled Groot to 140'ish, Storm to 130ish and Deadpool to around 119 early on. Since then, I've left them alone and am trying to get the rest of my 3* up into the 90-100 range. I haven't, traditionally, done much in PVP beyond chase the 3* token. This season has been a little different, with T25 finishes actually feasible.

However, I skipped most of Season XIV because of "the wall," so it's much more likely that the finishes are because I'm in a less competitive bracket than anything to do with my leveling strategies or scoring changes.

Mostly, PVE is where I focus, so I've been trying to keep my leveling such that I don't break things over there. So far so good, although I usually can't tackle the last node (sometimes two) of any given sub. It's ALWAYS been that way for me, though, so I suspect it has more to do with community scaling than personal. Even when I was in the 2* transition and had lower goon levels to contend with, the last node or two were typically way overscaled compared to the rest.

I'm going to progress cautiously from here with my 3*. I currently have 10 in the 100 range; 9 who are not in the 100 range but can get there once I have the ISO; 5 who will be able to reach the 100 range with another 1 or 2 covers and the concomitant ISO; and 8 who just aren't sufficiently covered to begin planning for leveling them to 100.

I'm not sure if I counted Quicksilver in that third group or not. I don't feel like re-counting.

But that will be my strategy. Level those guys to 100 (or so) and then go slowly past that to see if it affects scaling at all.

The bonus is that whatever my PVP competitiveness is *now,* it will only grow. My focus is on PVE for sure, though, so if you're looking to be PVP-competitive, take my words with a grain of salt.

Whub Whubz

Not really sure about all this talk about not being able to PvE with 166s, I transitioned fine starting with 2 166's and just saving iso for more 166s. Sure your roster depth lacks for a while but with 10 healthpacks soon this should be less of a problem. The essentials seem scaled harder overall, and juggs 1 or 2 shots most things.... The misinformation on this board is overwhelming.

simonsez

Whub Whubz wrote:

Not really sure about all this talk about not being able to PvE with 166s, I transitioned fine starting with 2 166's and just saving iso for more 166s. Sure your roster depth lacks for a while but with 10 healthpacks soon this should be less of a problem. The essentials seem scaled harder overall, and juggs 1 or 2 shots most things.... The misinformation on this board is overwhelming.

Or maybe having a roster with only two 166s means you're not at the point where you should be discounting the advice from those who've progressed much father than you.

TxMoose

I took the older advice (i.e. northern polarity's guide) and I have a leveled pvp team (166Lthor/142loki). I leveled grocket to 120 because I thought he would be much more used than he is (I would have undone that if I could, but its close to not mattering anyway) and everyone else is currently held at 104. this is where *** match damage is equivalent to **94s (although a fully covered *** at that level has much bigger abilities). I have ~25 at the 104 level and can perform pretty well still in pve (my **s are still very usable in pve). for quite some time after I took thor to 166, I did not use him in pve for fear of scaling issues. after ultron during EotS for IMHB I said screw it and started using him. my nodes have increased some and I'm really required to take thor into the last node or 2 in a clear, but when I can play 'normally' for me, its easy t50 and I ground one out for t10 when daken came around, so it hasn't totally screwed me. I'm getting close to the point of bringing a group of my 104s to 120. just need a few more covers on some top tier guys, but getting closer. I have enough iso to take about a dozen from 104 to 120 or I could max about I-1/2 from my 104 crew, but the best one ready so far is doom and I'd rather not screw my pve scaling for doom. there are others that I'd be willing to do if for though.

I'm really not sure if what I've done is optimum but I seem to be ok in all aspects of the game. t50 in pve, regularly t100 in pvp with an occasional t25. I even reached 1000 in pvp a few events ago. cost me quite a bit of hp in shields (loki/thor not the best hopping team), but hey, its a **** cover I wanted).

Whub Whubz

simonsez wrote:

Whub Whubz wrote:

Not really sure about all this talk about not being able to PvE with 166s, I transitioned fine starting with 2 166's and just saving iso for more 166s. Sure your roster depth lacks for a while but with 10 healthpacks soon this should be less of a problem. The essentials seem scaled harder overall, and juggs 1 or 2 shots most things.... The misinformation on this board is overwhelming.

Or maybe having a roster with only two 166s means you're not at the point where you should be discounting the advice from those who've progressed much father than you.

I have 8 166's now, yes you are more experienced then most of the new players, but your play experience is probably different from the later starters, most of the overpowered abilities and combos have been turned down since you started most likely, and we don't really have any consistent cookie cutter PvE combos as you Vets did that would really mess with scaling. I hope you enjoy yourself when they reduce scaling and you can get 2 shotted by juggs like everyone else. Sorry off topic from the original poster.
Continuing on; my favorite thing in the game is single session PvP so I transititioned to 166 pretty early, if you like PvP I would start saving and jamming them up to 166, if you prefer good PvE finishes spreading your iso seems to be the strategy, but what do I know Juggs sometimes doesn't 1 shot my dudes if i'm lucky.

Unknown

Whub Whubz wrote:

simonsez wrote:

Whub Whubz wrote:

Not really sure about all this talk about not being able to PvE with 166s, I transitioned fine starting with 2 166's and just saving iso for more 166s. Sure your roster depth lacks for a while but with 10 healthpacks soon this should be less of a problem. The essentials seem scaled harder overall, and juggs 1 or 2 shots most things.... The misinformation on this board is overwhelming.

Or maybe having a roster with only two 166s means you're not at the point where you should be discounting the advice from those who've progressed much father than you.

I have 8 166's now, yes you are more experienced then most of the new players, but your play experience is probably different from the later starters, most of the overpowered abilities and combos have been turned down since you started most likely,

No. If anything, Daken getting his blue ability made PvE harder than it used to be. That and the addition of characters like IF that WILL 100% ALWAYS hit you for thousands of points of damage regardless of what you do every time.
If you're facing a 395 juggernaut, Daken or Ares, your roster pretty much doesn't matter. You're rolling the dice and if it comes up cascades you're going to wipe. That's 3 health packs. So with 10 you get three tries.
Our knowledge of rosters comes from the fact that EVERY SINGLE PVE half or more of the top10 is nothing but people with underlevelled max covered rosters. If you doubt us you could just head to #1 on the alliances list on any given PvE event and check the Kick Azz and WE ARE GROOT alliances for 166s/270s. I guarantee you won't find many.

Unknown

the majority of my alliance has given up on going in on PvE due to max characters. At some point this HAS to be addressed. In the mean time...

PvP>PvE. that's how I see it. PvE will get you little rewards that are good for building your roster - especially on the ISO side of things, but the covers and HP you want are better to find on the PvP side of things...which is why my alliance is mostly PvP at this point.

The current boost system has made thigns weird. HAving a large usable roster is best IMO, but on defense, having max characters is still a big deal, especially if they get buffed.

If you don't have any maxed characters, get all the 3* you can to at least 120, I'm almost done myself, just Beast and Colossus are floating around 95, but the rest of my covered 3s are at 120 with the ones I use more frequently higher. Once you've established a roster that can compete in the new 'boosted' PvP, then the strong characters you have (the Steve rogers, 3hor, Blade, Cyclops, KK, etc) I'd start marching to 166 for defensive purposes.
- Unreall

Chirus

I just picked up my 7th max 3 star this morning. With a maxed x force, 6 maxed three stars, I was able to play PvE pretty competitively for this iso brotherhood event using mostly iron fist (166) and Luke cage (140-150). This morning I finally put him up to 166. I still used my maxed x force and less than ideal goddess (199) built 445 for several hard nodes and still scraped by. Right now I'm holding 3rd for the overall event. So while there may be increased difficulty, I just don't see it as being so hopeless as everyone else is making it out to be. Plus I can play competitively for PvP whenever I want, so it's easier for me to find a merc spot for PvE since they also benefit roughly 1k points in PvP from me during that time as well. I'll have my cake and eat it too, thank you.

Edit: To the original poster, what I would do is pull up any weekly boosted toon you can to 120, once that's done, if you have any iso left, push the good ones to 166. You'll probably know innately which ones are good by looking at the team comps you keep seeing over and over again. Both IF and Cage are good starters. Hulk, Patch are also great for the last burst climb. You can always ask here for more and I'm sure you'll get some help.

TxMoose

Unreallystic wrote:

PvP>PvE. that's how I see it. PvE will get you little rewards that are good for building your roster - especially on the ISO side of things, but the covers and HP you want are better to find on the PvP side of things...which is why my alliance is mostly PvP at this point.

this is especially true with the new scoring in place where the 800 progression cover and a possible **** at 1000 is within reach for many many more than they were. I'm still a pve junkie - if nothing else for the hp for sub t50 placements, which is hundreds of hp a week if you play consistently. plus some covers and tokens and match iso - it adds up, but with pvp being hp negative now, that hp needs to come from somewhere.

stowaway

I had two characters at 166 and was ready to start leveling a bunch more. Then the rotating buffs were introduced. My roster looks a lot different than it would have if that hadn't happened. I've found (somewhat arbitrarily) that 151 is a place I can bring characters and take advantage of the rotating buff while saving enough iso to level two or three characters the following week.

I think "level your characters together" was always fine advice; but in the current landscape, it's absolutely the best advice.

TxMoose

stowaway wrote:

I had two characters at 166 and was ready to start leveling a bunch more. Then the rotating buffs were introduced. My roster looks a lot different than it would have if that hadn't happened. I've found (somewhat arbitrarily) that 151 is a place I can bring characters and take advantage of the rotating buff while saving enough iso to level two or three characters the following week.

I think "level your characters together" was always fine advice; but in the current landscape, it's absolutely the best advice.

I agree once you're ready with a big group this is the way to go now. I bought some covers on thor/loki to accelerate the process with pvp finishes and it has worked for me, but again, that was right before weekly buffs were introduced. it was real effective before the buffs were implemented, but has done ok since.

PeterGibbons316

FineBurgundy wrote:

Hi everyone,

I have a half dozen heros around level 140, and another half dozen that are playable and could be levelled up too. But I am wondering, given the recent changes in balancing, what the general approach to Levelling Up 3*s should be at this point. I can think of at least three broad attitudes I could take:

1) Since I now have enough ISO push two (or possibly three) characters to max level, do that immediately to create a team that can start winning PvP covers. I'm not sure how drastically that affects PvE play, if it will make my familiar 2*s useless from now on, etc.

2) Push a core group of four (or five or six) characters up in lock step, so that I have some variety to play with as the balancing tilts against me.

3) Bring up all my remotely playable 3*s to the 130ish range for maximum variety before inducing an irreversible rise in difficulty.

I suppose I am particularly interested in hearing from folks who think they made the wrong choice. All info on how balancing works now (based on our four highest level characters?) and what that has meant for your planning is appreciated.

What are your maxed characters you are planning on leveling?

Are you going to prioritize PvP or PvE? I've been finishing top 100 in PvP pretty consistently ever since I had about four 3* characters over 150, so depending on who you max you should be able to get there. I have been seeing some scaling issues in PvE recently, but I think largely due to my IMHB being buffed to level 275 or so. Yeah, the enemies are tougher with maxed 3*s, but my teams are stronger too.

Malcrof

If you have him fully covered, always keep Hulk 1 or 2 levels ahead of the pack for hulkbombing.

Arimis_Thorn

ArkPrime wrote:

Don't max your characters. They will break your pve. Listen to a guy that spent the whole day getting his Fury 1-hit KO'd from headbutts.

This simply is not my experience. I had leveled a few medicore 3*'s (Sentry, MoStorm, Hulk)to around 150 before I ever read the forums or knew about PVE scaling. Then I read the forums and was concerned that I'd screwed myself, but also read the advice to use appropriately leveled teams vs. the AI. That is, when I'm fighting goons who are level 30, I take in Juggernaut and my lowest leveled 3*'s. If fighting AI at 70-ish, bring some 2* 94 teams. They take damage appropriate to their match.

I now have 5 maxed out 3*'s, a handful in the 140's & 150's and another dozen or so in the 110-135 range. My PVE is not out of control. I mean I do run up against some stupidly boosted bad guys, but nothing I can't handle (eventually - and occasionally with Whales).

For example, in my current ISO-8 Lab: Canada 1 node, the AI are level 18. In Canada 6, Doom, Moonstone and Ares are level 217, but my Hulk is boosted to 240. Toss in Patch and Daken/Loki and it's a win.

All totally workable.

Unknown

I've been leveling my platoon of 6 3* guys, with everyone else as high as I can get. I'm sitting around level 135 with plenty of others around 120. I'm finally able to place higher in pvp events, a couple top 25s. My pve scaling is higher, but it's not terrible. On the last iso brotherhood node, the DA were sitting at level 226. It sucks, but it's not impossible with a little help from boosted chars and some luck.

I don't think I can grind for top 5 anymore though, unless I buy health packs, which is never going to happen.

Nooneelsesname

It depends on what your goals are. If you gave your ign and alliance you could get more specific advice.

All three of your strategies are viable and you can have success using any of them. I have 12 166s and am saving up to bring new ones to 166 one at a time. Other people do it differently and they're doing fine. The only thing that would be really wrong would be to do something like have Doc Oc and Sentry as your first 2 166s. And then follow them up with Psylocke and Spider-Man. If you're maxing or even-leveling 3* at the high end of the latest rankings, you're doing it right. Also, I would say you're not at the final steps of 3*. You're maybe at the end of the beginning.

Maxing your characters will not break your PvE. People's interpretation and analysis of our roster compositions is almost always wrong, but I don't feel like (re)writing a couple hundred words on the subject right now. Max (the right) characters.

Unknown

Save your iso. Use it week by week. Try to get your 2 primary supports for that week up to 140 and your featured for each PvP to 120. This will boost them to 200 and 210 respectively, which is solid for PvP. As time goes by and you have less need to move someone to 140, start moving your featureds for that week past 140. This is the long term strategy, assuming that the meta doesn't change again. It is better to have a boosted 200 than an unboosted 166.