Want to be less horrible at PVP

Ouroboros9999

This may be better covered elsewhere, and if so, I'd happily read those threads if you'd provide the link.

I'm in the 2* to 3* transition right now with only a few covers for my 3*, not really enough to make them useful on a regular basis, but I finish the DD every day and am building up covers slowly but surely.

I'd like to focus and improve on doing as well as possible during this transition, so at least I can get some hp for covers. Right now I can get to about 200 points before I hit 3* leveled characters and stall out. I'm hitting all 3 nodes and working them as much as possible, skipping OP battles, but I feel like I should be doing better. I have all the useful 2* characters at 94.

I'm open to any and all suggestions.

TxMoose

truthfully it has always been pretty hard for pure ** rosters to consistently finish t100 in pvp. I tried like heck to hop with **s several months ago and it just did not work at all. you might try and push up as high as possible about 4-6 hrs from event end and then us an 8hr shield, but t100 requires at least 650+ in the lower events (i.e. webslinger), and sometimes up to 700-800. so if you can't see yourself getting there, its not worth the hp on shields yet. there are ** guys in my alliance who push early, shield, and push again ~1day out, then shield again and they have been hitting 600-750 and usually finishing t100 in their bracketw, but they are spending some hp on that - not sure its worth it for spidey/doc ock rewards. personally that realization that it was going to take a loooooooong time to get ***s up and running and that my **s weren't going to cut it - that is when I plunked some cash down for covers for a couple of key *** guys. that investment has served me well. they aren't the best pair now, but I get t100 regularly and when I really want to I can usually sneak up to 800, sometimes t25, and hit 1000 once. so, either be patient, or spend some smart money.

udonomefoo

Yeah, you're in a rough spot of the transition. There are basically two things you can do:

1. Join early and get up as high as you can, then quit and don't look back. You should be able to at least get to the 300 pt token reward if you start early so you're not getting hit while playing. Don't be afraid to use the skip button. 10 iso is nothing in the scheme of things. If you have a good match queued up on one node and the others are too hard, make sure you at least use the free skips before playing the one good match.

2. Join late and hope to get lucky. Join in the last 40-60 minutes of the event and hope you get lucky and drop into a new bracket. I did this for a while when I was in your position and it worked sometimes and not others.

Good luck!

puppychow

I second the join late suggestion. Save your 10 heals for a one hour push. Keep playing til you run out of heals. If you're fortunate to land in a fresh bracket, you'll get top 100 reward hopefully. If not, you haven't lost anything either.

slidecage

puppychow wrote:

I second the join late suggestion. Save your 10 heals for a one hour push. Keep playing til you run out of heals. If you're fortunate to land in a fresh bracket, you'll get top 100 reward hopefully. If not, you haven't lost anything either.

this happened before the major increase in pts and only works now if you buy a shield.

Unknown

Based on my experience... firstly, you can't rely on the game and it's EZ bake ovens who do the matchmaking to make it fair.

Start by getting a good 2 star 94 level roster. Then work as much as you can, and get your 3 star guys covered but save iso for upgrades - don't upgrade them as you go. Why? because you'll have 110-120-130 teams getting tuned by 166 teams. When you have a couple of characters fully covered, with iso to upgrade them fully, then do it.

Primarily, especially with this trend to buff numerous characters, in my view, the best bet is to have a stable of fully upgraded 3 star characters, with as many other 3 star characters upgraded to 120 as you can. This gives you a core team of bad ****, with a secondary group of characters who you can fall back on as well as help you with PVP tournaments as a crew of "featured" characters who are well buffed. If the game allows a guy with multiple level 270 4 star characters to beat you, you can't control that.

I've found that with a stable of a half dozen fully loaded 3 star characters with a bunch of other 120 level 3 star people is the way to go. With the advent of 10 health packs you only need a few fully loaded 3 stars. But seriously. Sit on a good 2 star roster until you can fully upgrade a couple 3 star people. You'll get your **** kicked otherwise.

Ouroboros9999

I've heard to level your 3* to 94, so they'll be useful when buffed for events, etc. is this still true? I've read Northern Polarity's thread on going from
1 -->3 but this part wasn't that clear.

GrumpySmurf1002

Ouroboros9999 wrote:

I've heard to level your 3* to 94, so they'll be useful when buffed for events, etc. is this still true? I've read Northern Polarity's thread on going from
1 -->3 but this part wasn't that clear.

We have a 94 player in our alliance who is routinely putting up 600-700 per PvP right now. He's got some high-covered (11+) 3* in the mix for sure (no higher than level 94), but I'm not sure if he's using them or just using the boosted 2* to climb.

I can ask him, but he's not very talkative in chat.

JackTenrec

I'm in the same 2-3* transition and don't have any 3* characters with more than 9 covers. Unless you've got boosted 2* characters, you probably won't be able to manage a T100 finish -- I broke 750 points for the first time with the recent event that boosted 2* Daken and Wolverine, and still couldn't manage better than ranked 126. I would say play for progression, not placement -- 300-400 point rewards are like getting in another round of DDQ.

Ouroboros9999

How does your strategy change from Lightning round to longer events?

Ouroboros9999

Here's my lineup so far of 3/4*:

Ragnarok 89 3/2/2
Human torch 89 2/3/2
Prof x 86 2/0/0
She hulk 78 3/2/1
Storm Mohawk 76 4/0/0
Electra 70 0/1/0
Daken 66 0/1/3
Squirrel girl 66 0/3/1
Loki 63 2/0/2
Patch 63 0/0/3
Hood 55 2/1/1
Punisher 55 1/1/2
GSBW 63 2/2/0
Falcon 53 2/0/1
Quicksilver 53 0/2/1
Hulk 53 2/0/1
Rocket-Groot 53 1/0/2

I have others but with one cover so that's probably a good overview. HT was buffed and decent in a recent event. Other than that, it's going to be a while until they are usable. Not crazy about Ragnarok and his team-damaging attacks.

Unknown

tuscan panty raider wrote:

Based on my experience... firstly, you can't rely on the game and it's EZ bake ovens who do the matchmaking to make it fair.

Start by getting a good 2 star 94 level roster. Then work as much as you can, and get your 3 star guys covered but save iso for upgrades - don't upgrade them as you go. Why? because you'll have 110-120-130 teams getting tuned by 166 teams. When you have a couple of characters fully covered, with iso to upgrade them fully, then do it.

Primarily, especially with this trend to buff numerous characters, in my view, the best bet is to have a stable of fully upgraded 3 star characters, with as many other 3 star characters upgraded to 120 as you can. This gives you a core team of bad ****, with a secondary group of characters who you can fall back on as well as help you with PVP tournaments as a crew of "featured" characters who are well buffed. If the game allows a guy with multiple level 270 4 star characters to beat you, you can't control that.

I've found that with a stable of a half dozen fully loaded 3 star characters with a bunch of other 120 level 3 star people is the way to go. With the advent of 10 health packs you only need a few fully loaded 3 stars. But seriously. Sit on a good 2 star roster until you can fully upgrade a couple 3 star people. You'll get your **** kicked otherwise.

The problem with that approach is that then you're sacrificing pvp placement until you get fully covered characters... which will happen a lot slower if you're holding out on leveling your 3*. You do get the added bonus of having easier scaling for PvE, but PvP is where you get the most rewards.

I fully advocate leveling up your characters as you go... I have a platoon of 6 guys around level 137 (I level them all at once so the PvE scaling doesn't go completely nuts) and everyone else as high as I can get them, around 120 or so. I'm regularly placing top 100 and getting to 800 with only one 3 hour shield. I was never able to do that with a 2* roster. I even landed a top 25 in a crewsaders bracket in High Stakes because my blade was at level 137. I never would've been able to do that if I kept him at level 94.

If you want to do well in PvP, level your guys, it's as simple as that. You'll be beaten up by max buffed teams regardless, so you might as well give yourself every advantage you can get (unless PvE is really important to you, then do it the other way).

Unknown

slidecage wrote:

puppychow wrote:

I second the join late suggestion. Save your 10 heals for a one hour push. Keep playing til you run out of heals. If you're fortunate to land in a fresh bracket, you'll get top 100 reward hopefully. If not, you haven't lost anything either.

this happened before the major increase in pts and only works now if you buy a shield.

Slidecage, please stop posting things that are simply not true. Joining late still works perfectly fine (if you are lucky enough to find a fresh bracket ofcourse), you do not need to shield to place top100 in a fresh bracket. Sometimes people luck into a bracket that ends with less then 100 people, so anyone in that bracket got a cover.

Unknown

Ouroboros9999 wrote:

Here's my lineup so far of 3/4*:

Ragnarok 89 3/2/2
Human torch 89 2/3/2
Prof x 86 2/0/0
She hulk 78 3/2/1
Storm Mohawk 76 4/0/0
Electra 70 0/1/0
Daken 66 0/1/3
Squirrel girl 66 0/3/1
Loki 63 2/0/2
Patch 63 0/0/3
Hood 55 2/1/1
Punisher 55 1/1/2
GSBW 63 2/2/0
Falcon 53 2/0/1
Quicksilver 53 0/2/1
Hulk 53 2/0/1
Rocket-Groot 53 1/0/2

I have others but with one cover so that's probably a good overview. HT was buffed and decent in a recent event. Other than that, it's going to be a while until they are usable. Not crazy about Ragnarok and his team-damaging attacks.

Unfortunately it might be a while longer until you're able to get above 300/400 points in PvP with that roster... There's just not enough good characters with a decent amount of covers there. Ragnarok is one of the worst 3* characters out there, but you can't be blamed for **** token luck. Keep playing DDQ, and shoot for 400 points in pvp with a couple of good 2* teams, like mHawkeye/MnMags/Cstorm or Thor-Ares/Daken/OBW (or rather good pairs of 2*, as in most PvP one spot will be taken by a loaner character... so MnMags/cStorm, Ares/OBW, Thorverine, etc.) until you get 9/10 covers on a few 3* that work well together, then level them and start shooting for more PvP points.

udonomefoo

Agree w/everything Jack just said except his suggested teams won't work in pvp because you'll always have one 3* featured character that you have to build around. Mags/Storm is your best bet, especially when the loaner has a black power so they can tank some damage.

Yesterday when I said to join early, what I meant was to join an early bracket, but not necessarily start playing right away. Join and run through the seed teams and then wait a while. Let everyone else run up some points. There will be more opportunities for you to take advantage of rosters similar to yours that have already made the 400 point climb and just more available points overall in the bracket. You're not shooting for top placement so it really doesn't matter if you don't start right away when the bracket opens.

Covers are much more important than levels for your 3s, so you've got a ways to go. However, if you have the iso, I personally don't think it's a bad idea to level them up as you can up to 94ish. It will help when you have the featured character in pvp and they're level 120 instead of 70.

I hate team damage, so Rags and Sentry are the only 3s I have that are sitting down around lvl 50.

Daredevil217

I wanted to create a new thread asking about my own leveling conundrum. But I guess since this is my first post, I can't create new threads.

I'm on day 418. I would say I'm a 2* player who could transition to 3* whenever I want. I have the ISO and Max covers for some mid to top tier people, to level 14 people to 166.

However the fact that my roster is as good as it is makes me scared to level up. I was consistently getting top 100 (the occasional top 25 and top 150 as well) with just soft-capped level 94's. Though lately the new MMR has me getting bombarded in the last minute at times, which is making me consider taking the plunge.

I've never spent a single HP on a cover, shield, or health pack, and have done well, so am finding it harder to justify leveling guys. I just feel like there are a lot of drawbacks (limited roster, PVE scaling, longer matches, longer healing time, longer climbs, need to use shields, harder PVP opponents after seed teams, etc.).

I don't know how many of these are true and how many are urban legends, but the fact that you can't go back makes it scary.

I guess what I want to say is that you can do well with a 2* roster. I usually just join 2 or so hours before the event ends and climb as best I can. I've still gotten some top 25s doing this under the new MMR and have been knocked from top 50 out of the top 200 in the last two minutes. I usually can get around 700 pts as well. One thing that helps me but will hurt you is roster diversity. Having every 2 and 3* in the game means I will always have several buffed people to choose from. And can ride them at the end for some semblance of defense.

Roster in spoilers due to size:

1. Juggernaut (Classic)
- Level 40/40 (5-5)

1. Black Widow (Modern)
- Level 1/25 (2-5)


2. Black Widow (Original)
- Level 94/94 (3-5-5)

2. Ares (Dark Avengers)
- Level 94/94 (4-4-5)

2. Storm (Classic)
- Level 94/94 (5-5-3)

2. Thor (Marvel NOW!)
- Level 94/94 (3-5-5)

2. Daken (Dark Avengers)
- Level 94/94 (3-5-5)

2. Magneto (Marvel NOW!)
- Level 94/94 (3-5-5)

2. Wolverine (Astonishing X-Men)
- Level 94/94 (5-5-3)

2. Hawkeye (Modern)
- Level 94/94 (3-5-5)

2. Human Torch (Johnny Storm)
- Level 94/94 (5-5-3)

2. Captain Marvel (Ms. Marvel)
- Level 15/94 (5-5-3)

2. Captain America (Modern)
- Level 94/94 (3-5-5)

2. Bullseye (Dark Avengers)
- Level 15/86 (5-5-2)

2. Moonstone (Dark Avengers)
- Level 15/94 (4-4-5)

2. Spider-Man (Bag-Man)
- Level 15/17 (1-1-0)


3. Thor (Modern)
- Level 94/166 (3-5-5)

3. The Hood (Classic)
- Level 94/166 (5-5-3)

3. Daken (Classic)
- Level 94/166 (5-5-3)

3. Iron Fist (Immortal Weapon)
- Level 94/114 (2-2-5)

3. Wolverine (Patch)
- Level 94/166 (5-3-5)

3. Blade (Daywalker)
- Level 94/166 (5-5-3)

3. Black Panther (T'Challa)
- Level 94/166 (5-4-4)

3. Magneto (Classic)
- Level 94/153 (5-4-3)

3. Luke Cage (Hero For Hire)
- Level 94/153 (4-4-4)

3. Captain America (Steve Rogers)
- Level 94/166 (3-5-5)

3. Loki (Dark Reign)
- Level 89/166 (4-4-5)

3. Deadpool (It's Me, Deadpool!)
- Level 94/166 (5-5-3)

3. The Hulk (Indestructible)
- Level 94/153 (5-3-4)

3. Cyclops (Uncanny X-Men)
- Level 94/127 (3-4-3)

3. Rocket & Groot (Most Wanted)
- Level 94/153 (2-5-5)

3. Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel)
- Level 94/102 (3-2-3)

3. Doctor Doom (Classic)
- Level 94/153 (5-5-2)

3. Human Torch (Classic)
- Level 94/166 (3-5-5)

3. Falcon (Mighty Avengers)
- Level 94/166 (3-5-5)

3. Punisher (Dark Reign)
- Level 94/153 (5-2-5)

3. Captain Marvel (Modern)
- Level 94/166 (5-4-4)

3. Black Widow (Grey Suit)
- Level 94/166 (5-3-5)

3. Daredevil (Man Without Fear)
- Level 94/153 (3-5-4)

3. Mystique (Raven Darkholme)
- Level 94/166 (3-5-5)

3. Psylocke (Classic)
- Level 94/142 (5-5-1)

3. Colossus (Classic)
- Level 94/127 (3-2-5)

3. Sentry (Dark Avengers)
- Level 94/166 (5-3-5)

3. Storm (Mohawk)
- Level 94/166 (5-3-5)

3. Gamora (Guardians of the Galaxy)
- Level 94/117 (5-3-1)

3. Squirrel Girl (Unbeatable)
- Level 94/153 (5-5-2)

3. Spider-Man (Classic)
- Level 94/166 (3-5-5)

3. Iron Man (Model 40)
- Level 94/153 (5-5-2)

3. She-Hulk (Modern)
- Level 94/166 (5-4-4)

3. Ragnarok (Dark Avengers)
- Level 40/78 (3-2-1)

3. Doctor Octopus (Otto Octavius)
- Level 66/114 (3-3-3)

3. Beast (Classic)
- Level 94/166 (5-5-3)

3. Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff)
- Level 89/89 (3-2-2)

3. Bullseye (Classic)
- Level 89/89 (2-2-3)

3. Vision (Android Avenger)
- Level 40/66 (3-0-1)

3. Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff)
- Level 40/114 (2-3-4)


4. Wolverine (X-Force)
- Level 94/111 (2-1-2)

4. Nick Fury (Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.)
- Level 94/131 (1-2-3)

4. Kingpin (Wilson Fisk)
- Level 70/70 (0-1-0)

4. Devil Dinosaur (Gigantic Reptile)
- Level 94/94 (1-2-2)

4. Elektra (Unkillable)
- Level 70/70 (0-2-0)

4. Invisible Woman (Classic)
- Level 94/188 (4-2-3)

4. Iron Man (Hulkbuster)
- Level 74/74 (0-1-1)

Also have a second 2/1/2 Wolverine and 5/2/3 Hood, but should sell them since I'll never have the ISO to level them.

TxMoose

when I was where you are I was hitting pve hard and I didn't have ddq. hit your ddq every day you can and be consistent with pve and you'll get there - and I endorse getting your ***s up to 94ish. I chose 104 for my holding level. one day down the road you'll realize you have a dozen or more ***s that you have integrated into your ** play and once they're ready to go up to 120 or so, maybe consider taking a key pair higher. you'll get there if you stick with it - we've all been there.

wiz_biz

i'm right there with the last 2 posts...i sat there with maxed 94's for ages until DDQ came around and was getting so burned out playing those characters. but all you can do is figure out the best timing for you to join a bracket, play as fast as you can and take that money and run! then hoard, hoard, hoard that ISO. once i had enough 3*s covered to where i was deferring to them over my 2*s, i did a mass level up to 104, and recently did another mass level-up to 114 (i'm talking like 15+ characters at a time, so it took a while to save up for each wave). still impossible to get decent placement in PVP without some luck and auspicious circumstances but those progression rewards will definitely help you along. incidentally, i haven't seen any kind of unreasonable scaling in PVE with this approach...

Ouroboros9999

What time frame should I wrap my mind around for this transition? It'll help to know what to expect, since a lot of it is the luck of the draw with covers. Also how much do you think people average playtime per day?

Unknown

Well, allow at least 30 mins a day for DDQ, less if you don't have the required character. Maybe another hour for PvE node grinding and 30 mins to climb PvP and use the rest of your health packs. Provided you're in a decent alliance (say top 250/500 at least), 2 hours a day should get you on the fast track. I'm at day 250 and have played an average of an hour a day (some days I only play DDQ, other events I grind for 4 hours, like Ultron) I'm still a 3* transitioner, but have 43 roster slots with most heroes around either 137 or 120. I probably could have more if I played less casually, but I'm a free to play player... And I don't want to spend every hour playing MPQ.

Also really try to shoot for the 10 pack season reward at 4000 points. If you get around 300 points each PvP, you can make up any difference in the shield simulator at the end of the season.

wiz_biz

Ouroboros9999 wrote:

What time frame should I wrap my mind around for this transition? It'll help to know what to expect, since a lot of it is the luck of the draw with covers. Also how much do you think people average playtime per day?

i may not be your best source here, my play style is probably not considered optimal and i don't spend $ on covers and i'm in a **** alliance with friends. but i think i was sitting on maxed 94*s more or less when DDQ started (which was...maybe feb or march?), and very slowly collecting those 3* covers. i manage to play DDQ most days, might have missed 10 or so, and now have 23 3*s level-capped at 114. BUT i'm kind of a hoarder, never met a cover i didn't want on my roster, and like to keep my guys evenly leveled. that, mixed with my general impatience with long PVE events, inconsistent PVP results, (and let's be honest, a tendency to forget when i should stop doing life things to play) keeps me moving pretty slow. i'm sure in retrospect i would have expected to have a stable of maxed 3*s by now but i guess i'm just taking the scenic route and enjoying the sites. although with the PVP scoring changes, i'm consistently getting the 2 progression event tokens and right on the cusp of breaking the 800 wall so that will just be an additional source of 3* covers and hopefully move things along a little faster. and get me putting enough points on the board to finally start pulling those season 10 packs!

a lot of people will tell you to just focus on maybe 3-6 characters and get them fully covered up to 166. and that's probably the best advice if you're committed to working your schedule around PVP and bringing home that bacon, but if you do much PVE just remember it could make your scaling crazy wonky if you ever use your 166s in those events. but just focus on hoarding as much ISO as possible (DDQ and LRs!), getting as many event tokens as you can, and if you want to focus on a select few then perhaps start stockpiling your tacos and only cash them in on weeks your key characters are in the pool.

as far as hours a day...i won't even venture a guess as to what the crazies are doing. especially with 10 health packs. how deep your roster is along with how fast you actually play the game is a big factor...but if your focus is PVP only, it's not that bad - i doubt you could spend more than a few hours on a single event at this point, maybe 8-10 hours a week for PVP? but if you're doing it all, you're looking at adding in DDQ time, the LRs you can play, and time it takes to do a couple of clears a day in PVE. if you're feeling greedy. but man that is a ton of time. all depends on what you're looking for i suppose.

sorry, novel much...