PVP without the featured character

pinky

These days it seems PVP is all about the featured and weekly boosted characters. if you have a well covered, high level roster of boosted guys, then you're in the running. otherwise, the chances of scoring or finishing decently seems bleak.

So I was just wondering, how high have you guys managed to reach when your roster does not have a well covered and high level (say, above 140) featured character? is it even possible to compete for placement rewards or to get the 800 or 1000 progression reward?

for eg, for this cyclops event, I happen to have an unusable cyclops (lvl 40, 1/1/2). I seem to have great difficulty climbing even with my other 2 166 blade and patch. my shortfall is that my roster only has maybe 5-6 high level 3s, and when those are not boosted pvp seems impossible.

NickHewitt12

I got to 1128 and came 8th on the Thing PVP with a loaner Thing. It's definitely more about the other two characters you bring to the fight, but having a usable featured is never a bad thing.

morph3us

It depends also on how common the featured character is.

For 4* PvP events, the vast majority of the player base is running a loaner featured character, since most people won't have had a chance to significantly cover or level that character. In that case, you'd get far with just the loaner.

Otherwise, your ability to progress with just the featured loaner depends on two things: how old/new the featured character is, and whether their ability set/health is likely to affect the match significantly.

The oldness/newness of the featured character obviously matters to an extent, as the older the character, the more likely other players are to have them optimally covered, and levelled. You're far more likely to see a lot of max level Patches etc running around than Scarlet Witches. Commonality is important, not only in terms of the featured character's power level, but also in target selection. If it's not common to see the featured as a loaner, you're far more likely to be selected as a target, if you're running the loaner.

The power level of the featured character obviously matters too. When the featured is Falcon, or Doc Oc, it probably matters a lot less than when the featured is 3* Thor, KK, or Cage, for instance, since a weak featured character mostly just provides an extra health pool to chew through. Cyclops, unfortunately (in your case), is a very strong featured character. At level 290, Optic Blast is doing 7359 damage at five covers, and Full Blast is doing up to 14035 damage at five covers. There's not a lot that will stand up to that sort of damage, and so you're at a significant disadvantage if you don't have the featured at a usable level.

It's possible to compete for placement/progression rewards, but it's far more difficult. Shielding and shield hopping becomes a lot more important in that circumstance.

Sickboy254698

As long as you shield hop after you get to about 750 you can hit 1000 with two lvl 166 heroes and the level 70 featured hero. I did it during the Falcon event because Falcon is a turd and I will never recruit him. I've probably sold at least 15 Falcon covers for ISO.

IlDuderino

Running a level 70 loaner is like carrying a neon flashing sign saying "Hit Me" when you get above a certain point threshold.

Even where the featured is a terrible character, the loaner means a much shorter match. Exception is where virtually no-one will have a useable character, e.g. first Thing PvP, as in this case you won't stand out from the majority who also carry a loaner.

puppychow

whenever Antman pvp comes out, we'll see how much using loaners matter in placement. chances are, most players will choose a 3-colored loaner over their 1 pink covered antman.

Linkster79

Like Morph3us said it really is all about what the featured character is.

I don't have a Cyclops in my roster so will have to use the loan character, however I will join with about 60 minutes left to go and hope for the best. All the big hitters will hopefully have already finished or shielded leaving me in the feeding frenzy with everyone else. Will be lots of 38 point matches and with a bit of luck can get to 400-500 for a top 100 finish and a token at progression.

dr tinykittylove

puppychow wrote:

whenever Antman pvp comes out, we'll see how much using loaners matter in placement. chances are, most players will choose a 3-colored loaner over their 1 pink covered antman.

And then the crazy pve grinders will come out and be all "fear my 5 cover antman rawr"...

gravel

Nicholas Hewitt wrote:

I got to 1128 and came 8th on the Thing PVP with a loaner Thing. It's definitely more about the other two characters you bring to the fight, but having a usable featured is never a bad thing.

The Thing PvP was kind of an aberration. Newer 4* means most people won't have many, if any covers. I had 2 green, 3 after the 1k progression, so I was much better off using the loaner, with his yellow passive, even at a lower level. If it's a 3* that's been around a while, a loaner will definitely lead to many more attacks. As far as how far you can get with a loaner, it depends on the rest of your roster and how much you want to spend on shields.

Unknown

Does PVP "bracket"?

I hopped into the 8pm slice of Cyclops yesterday roughly 10 hours before it closed, hit my first 3 nodes, then with an hourish left, I just pecked through things, still placed top 100 with loaner Cyclops and got a HT (placed somewhere in the 60s) and was kinda surprised because I only hit 300ish points overall.

Buret0

pinky wrote:

These days it seems PVP is all about the featured and weekly boosted characters. if you have a well covered, high level roster of boosted guys, then you're in the running. otherwise, the chances of scoring or finishing decently seems bleak.

So I was just wondering, how high have you guys managed to reach when your roster does not have a well covered and high level (say, above 140) featured character? is it even possible to compete for placement rewards or to get the 800 or 1000 progression reward?

for eg, for this cyclops event, I happen to have an unusable cyclops (lvl 40, 1/1/2). I seem to have great difficulty climbing even with my other 2 166 blade and patch. my shortfall is that my roster only has maybe 5-6 high level 3s, and when those are not boosted pvp seems impossible.

It also depends on how good the required character is.

When level 290 Cyclops is doing over 7000 damage with red and over 14000 damage with black, you aren't going to be in the running without one.

I did just fine without a usable Captain Marvel, mostly because even at max she wasn't hitting nearly as hard as someone like Cyclops. My The Thing was 0/0/3, so I just used the loaner, but I think 97% of the people I ran into were just using the loaner.

san

IlDuderino wrote:

Running a level 70 loaner is like carrying a neon flashing sign saying "Hit Me" when you get above a certain point threshold.

Even where the featured is a terrible character, the loaner means a much shorter match. Exception is where virtually no-one will have a useable character, e.g. first Thing PvP, as in this case you won't stand out from the majority who also carry a loaner.

This.

I look for anyone with a level 70 loaner (or anything less than max), and I tend to check their roster to see whether they really lack one completely (in which case I hit, hit, hit), or whether they are just using the loaner at this point due to health packs (I do this sometimes, saving my good character for later matches, especially if they aren't full 166s yet).

Loaners are meant to allow people to play the game and get decent rewards (top 100 is still very plausible), not necessarily to compete for top spots. In the latest event, my 290 level allowed me to compete for top 5 - other times, I take my top 100 spot and am quite happy with that. Now, that took a while to build, and is one of the 13 166s I have now. However, I recall a time not too long ago when I had barely any - if you are in that category, simply keep going. This game is a marathon, not a sprint.

Unknown

san-mpq wrote:

IlDuderino wrote:

Running a level 70 loaner is like carrying a neon flashing sign saying "Hit Me" when you get above a certain point threshold.

Even where the featured is a terrible character, the loaner means a much shorter match. Exception is where virtually no-one will have a useable character, e.g. first Thing PvP, as in this case you won't stand out from the majority who also carry a loaner.

This.

I look for anyone with a level 70 loaner (or anything less than max), and I tend to check their roster to see whether they really lack one completely (in which case I hit, hit, hit), or whether they are just using the loaner at this point due to health packs (I do this sometimes, saving my good character for later matches, especially if they aren't full 166s yet).

Loaners are meant to allow people to play the game and get decent rewards (top 100 is still very plausible), not necessarily to compete for top spots. In the latest event, my 290 level allowed me to compete for top 5 - other times, I take my top 100 spot and am quite happy with that. Now, that took a while to build, and is one of the 13 166s I have now. However, I recall a time not too long ago when I had barely any - if you are in that category, simply keep going. This game is a marathon, not a sprint.

That would be me. I currently have only 2 characters that are covered well enough to be 166s, but lack the ISO. So I keep playing. Also, I don't level that way anyway. I level from lowest level character to highest level character, that way my entire roster grows. I do use the loaner fairly frequently when I'm recovering my main.

Linkster79

I got to 798 points with the loaner Cyclops before the big neon "Hit Me" sign lit up and was soon beat down 258 points within 5 minutes. Ah well was close but not close enough, looks like I will have to wait a bit longer to start building one. In my defenseman some crazy **** cascades certainly did not help me.

Having the featured is a must if you want to get high progression and maybe my L114 Torch will help me out next time.

udonomefoo

Only thing I can add to this is that there is no reason your 1/1/2 cyc should still be at level 40. You might only be able to level him up to about 56, but for the tiny amount of iso that will cost it will do you a lot of good.

You prob still won't be able to get up to 800 with that, but it will be better.

san

downsouthman1 wrote:

That would be me. I currently have only 2 characters that are covered well enough to be 166s, but lack the ISO. So I keep playing. Also, I don't level that way anyway. I level from lowest level character to highest level character, that way my entire roster grows. I do use the loaner fairly frequently when I'm recovering my main.

Keep it up, you'll get there quicker than I did. I am almost at a year mark (yay, Devil Dino! x3), and have most of the 3*s mostly covered, though many not optimally.

In terms of levelling, it's really based on what you want to do. I levelled a couple to as far as I could, as fast as I could. The ones I focused on that got me most bang for my buck were patch (amazing during the 5 health pack era where that was a premium), deadpool (a very good scarecrow because of his red), blade (green/purple death) and hood (obvious reason). Once I got to top 100 consistently, I just continued to keep at it, using the loaner as an extra health pack. I actually still do this, even when I have a max level character (including in the cyclops event) - I do it because the computer on defence will still select your top character, and on offence, you minimize the chance of the top guy getting hurt early by seed teams and weak teams.

Unknown

san-mpq wrote:

downsouthman1 wrote:

That would be me. I currently have only 2 characters that are covered well enough to be 166s, but lack the ISO. So I keep playing. Also, I don't level that way anyway. I level from lowest level character to highest level character, that way my entire roster grows. I do use the loaner fairly frequently when I'm recovering my main.

Keep it up, you'll get there quicker than I did. I am almost at a year mark (yay, Devil Dino! x3), and have most of the 3*s mostly covered, though many not optimally.

In terms of levelling, it's really based on what you want to do. I levelled a couple to as far as I could, as fast as I could. The ones I focused on that got me most bang for my buck were patch (amazing during the 5 health pack era where that was a premium), deadpool (a very good scarecrow because of his red), blade (green/purple death) and hood (obvious reason). Once I got to top 100 consistently, I just continued to keep at it, using the loaner as an extra health pack. I actually still do this, even when I have a max level character (including in the cyclops event) - I do it because the computer on defence will still select your top character, and on offence, you minimize the chance of the top guy getting hurt early by seed teams and weak teams.

Does this mean that if I have a 166 cyclops but choose to use the loaner. When people hit me (either new or a retaliation), the AI will still choose the 166 cyclops and not the loaner for the fight?

Unknown

san-mpq wrote:

I just continued to keep at it, using the loaner as an extra health pack. I actually still do this, even when I have a max level character (including in the cyclops event) - I do it because the computer on defence will still select your top character, and on offence, you minimize the chance of the top guy getting hurt early by seed teams and weak teams.

Are you sure about that?

I was under the impression that for retaliation nodes, your team will be the team you won that match with (so if that was with the loaner, the retaliation node is also using the loaner).

While when you appear as a node in someone's queue, the ai uses the team you last won a game with. If you used the loaner in your last won game, that is waht the ai will use for you, even if you actually have said char fully covered and/or lvled.

ThatOneGuyjp189512

dr tinykittylove wrote:

puppychow wrote:

whenever Antman pvp comes out, we'll see how much using loaners matter in placement. chances are, most players will choose a 3-colored loaner over their 1 pink covered antman.

And then the crazy pve grinders will come out and be all "fear my 5 cover antman rawr"...

and the crazy whales(not naming names...*cough* colog *cough*) will be like "fear my 300+ whaled out Ant-Man"

emaker27

san-mpq wrote:

<snip> I just continued to keep at it, using the loaner as an extra health pack. I actually still do this, even when I have a max level character (including in the cyclops event) - I do it because the computer on defence will still select your top character, and on offence, you minimize the chance of the top guy getting hurt early by seed teams and weak teams.

The computer uses the exact team you win with. Back when tanking was a thing, this was a very important factor.

firethorne

How about kill 2 birds with one stone. Have the featured section for seasons as it is now. But, rework the simulator. Have multiple simulator events per season, running alongside the features, with a similar rewards structure to the features.

Simulator is bring anyone, no level boosts. Featured can have the featured & weekly characters boosted.