afraid of leveling my 4* characters!

Unknown

I pretty much spend most of my time playing PvE events than verses, I personally find it less stressful since i don't have to worry about someone attacking me mid hop and losing points.

The recent (current) Enemy of the state event did not buff any of my higher level 4 star characters, which in an odd way was actually a good thing. In fact it pretty much didn't buff any of my maxed out 3 stars either besides Daken and Falcon.. As such scaling on the event for me was bearable. Generally fighting things around the 150 to 170 mark on the nodes not counting personal scaling effects... It was a lot less hassle than the last PvE event I did where I had 4Thor buffed to lvl 270 (from 170) and a few of my 3 stars to the 240 ish mark...

It was nice that I kept my Electra at lvl 70 and she got buffed to 160, so she was lower than most of my 3stars, as a result most of the nodes remained at a lower level than previous events, yes I have taken into consideration community scaling has gone now.

With the way the PvE events scale in tandem with your roster, it sets a very odd situation where people like myself become reluctant to level up their characters past a certain point.

I have a second account on steam which I occasionally play, on this account I have kept all my characters capped at lvl 94, I do not take any of 3* stars I have on this steam account past lvl 94. Its odd that on this account which has less than half the roster of my main mobile account, I have more fun with, simply because everything is easier! Enemies have lower health and I can if I tried, get as many points on this account as my main account.

It's strange that in most other games as you get more powerful, a game tends gets easier as you have more access to more abilities etc, whilst also maintaining a challenge. However in this game in PvE, you don't get that feeling past the 2* range. Yes you get more tools with 3* star covers and characters, however the game gets significantly more difficult... I'm not sure this remains the case with maxed lvl 4*, but judging what I have experienced lately with buffed characters, I'm leaning towards thinking it gets worse!!!

For a game which gets some revenue from selling HP and iso, it's really odd to find one in the position of not wanting to get ISO to level up your characters because the game gets significantly harder than your increase in level.

In a way what I am saying is that for PvE events all the nodes should be standardized for all players! Not scaled relative to your strongest character in your roster. This does pose a problem if veteran players are placed with new players, because they will be outscored with ease. So you have to come with a better way to bracket people according to their roster strength/level.

Each event should have nodes ranging from 40 all the way up to 270 for all players! Progression rewards should be updated to include 4 stars, which would require you to complete those nodes that feature high lvl 270 enemies. When you have this, it gives players more of an incentive to level their characters to be able to deal with these higher nodes. In this scenario, I would not want to keep my 4* stars around lvl 166 because it wouldn't allow me as much chance of success against the lvl 270 nodes. For 3* transition players, there should be nodes that go up to lvl 166 they they would need to clear to earn 3* progression reward character/cover, and the process repeats itself for 2* progression players... This way it gives all players of all levels from beginner to veteran more of an incentive to actually use iso to level their characters higher. Cause the current system pretty much guarantees anyone who only plays PvE events will not level their characters pass a lower level so the game doesn't get relatively harder for them.

I literally have a few of my alliance members regretting leveling past lvl 94! Especially those who do not play verses events much, if at all. I suspect many of them who have past 94 probably won't level their 4 stars beyond 166 when they are able to.

I know what I write here isn't really anything new and it has been mentioned in many other forms in various other threads, but I just wanted to collect my thoughts on the matter and the current state of the game.

It's just odd that I don't want to level my 4* stars to lvl 270 because I know the PvE Events will get relatively harder than it is currently for me at 170.

Unknown

be very afraid...4* take so long to get correct and on top of that you can use boosted 3* in PVP in place of them for the most part

Turbosmooth

Thank you for this thread. You saved me a lot of typing.

I have the same concern. I have forced myself to not level any 4* above my 3* which are currently at 150. So I was going to cap all characters to 166 eventually. I figure this will give me more balance in PvP which is where more of the 4* covers can be had. I was able to get PX blue and Thing green recently in PvP, but it was tough.
My heart is in PvE and using mainly 3* (+PX).
Is there more out of PvE balance going from 150 to 166? Or am I safe for just wanting better odds in PvP?

I had already suggested to less advanced players to cap themselves at 94. That would allow for the most fun in PvE and just disregard PvP. Once your characters get to level 125, your 2* roster becomes next to useless unless boosted. Only DPD/All-stars keep them handy.

puppychow

Pve scaling concerns is why I kept my max covered xf at 181. He is, in fact, my highest level character. You don't need a 270 to do well in pvp either; I've been breaking 1,000 points with no problem. That being said, the best approach is to level your characters in lock step, when they are decently covered. with lower cost of leveling characters (to a certain extent), you can level your 3 to 120 for cheap. Having multiple 120s is a more iso efficient approach than blowing all your iso to max one character to 166. and the 120 guys could be buffed for events if you're lucky.

I think 2 and 1 characters still merit slots on your roster, though, because you need them for DDQs and also some essentials. Furthermore, you could use those guys as fodder to grind the trivial pve nodes, and save your heavy hitters for the harder pve nodes. This saves you a lot of heal packs while you grind for pve placement.

In summary, yes you should level your 4 characters but not significantly above 166 to preserve your pve scaling. And if you can, raise your 3 to 120.

Unknown

Related question:

I have just reached the point in the game where I could level my first 3* above level 94. Are there a number of levels past 94 I can bring a 3* before it effects scaling or will it alter my scaling as soon as I get to level 95?

Lee T

I kept my 3* at 94 until they reached 13 cover, then I upgraded them to 104. Since I didn't see any significant change in scaling difficulty, I recently upgraded all my 3* that could to 104 (a bit more than 30 characters). So far so good.

The idea was to keep my 2* workhorses playable as long as possible until I had enough 3* to stop using them when not boosted. With three times as much 3*, they now have been replaced as workhorses in my roster.

I'm now considering slowly upgrading all my 3* one level at a time when enough of them will be fully covered. One day my 2* will stop being useful but I will have replaced a dozen 2* by more than forty 3*.

TxMoose

Grantosium wrote:

Related question:

I have just reached the point in the game where I could level my first 3* above level 94. Are there a number of levels past 94 I can bring a 3* before it effects scaling or will it alter my scaling as soon as I get to level 95?

I raised mine in tiers. I initially kept them at 104 then when that filled substantially I took the top guys to 120. when that filled nicely I took some to 140 and have just recently added 2 more 166s to my first 2 high characters. I had 2 up at 153/166 that I used for pvp but the rest were at 104 for a long time.

Malcrof

[quote="Lee T" One day my 2* will stop being useful .[/quote]

Actually.. some are always going to be useful.. Ares when Boosted, his green is massive! 2* Storm for sending team ups, OBW i still use in DDQ (even with quite a few 166's and dozens more over 140)..etc...

Don't count them out.. heck even Bag-Man has his uses, at least for team ups (switcheroo to nullify ninja/muscle tiles, snarky to add time to cages black and antmans blue, etc..)

Unknown

TxMoose wrote:

Grantosium wrote:

Related question:

I have just reached the point in the game where I could level my first 3* above level 94. Are there a number of levels past 94 I can bring a 3* before it effects scaling or will it alter my scaling as soon as I get to level 95?

I raised mine in tiers. I initially kept them at 104 then when that filled substantially I took the top guys to 120. when that filled nicely I took some to 140 and have just recently added 2 more 166s to my first 2 high characters. I had 2 up at 153/166 that I used for pvp but the rest were at 104 for a long time.

Thanks for the responses. Is there any particular significance to level 104? It has been mentioned in two consecutive posts. Or does it just happen to be 94 + 10?

Has raising the levels actually helped though? Has it made the game easier, harder (like the original poster suggests) or had no effect?

Unknown

Grantosium wrote:

TxMoose wrote:

Grantosium wrote:

Related question:

I have just reached the point in the game where I could level my first 3* above level 94. Are there a number of levels past 94 I can bring a 3* before it effects scaling or will it alter my scaling as soon as I get to level 95?

I raised mine in tiers. I initially kept them at 104 then when that filled substantially I took the top guys to 120. when that filled nicely I took some to 140 and have just recently added 2 more 166s to my first 2 high characters. I had 2 up at 153/166 that I used for pvp but the rest were at 104 for a long time.

Thanks for the responses. Is there any particular significance to level 104? It has been mentioned in two consecutive posts. Or does it just happen to be 94 + 10?

Has raising the levels actually helped though? Has it made the game easier, harder (like the original poster suggests) or had no effect?

104 is an average cap for with 8 covers (it varies depending on actual spread). It's also around the point where they're comparable in power to characters, so it's a decent holding spot if you want to use your roster in PVE.

OnesOwnGrief

Know whats odd, if a 160 boosted Elektra is less than most of your roster and you find PvP stressful. At least go get 1k Progression for more covers.

Lee T

Malcrof wrote:

Lee T wrote:

One day my 2* will stop being useful .

Actually.. some are always going to be useful.. Ares when Boosted, his green is massive! 2* Storm for sending team ups, OBW i still use in DDQ (even with quite a few 166's and dozens more over 140)..etc...

Don't count them out.. heck even Bag-Man has his uses, at least for team ups (switcheroo to nullify ninja/muscle tiles, snarky to add time to cages black and antmans blue, etc..)

I'm glad to hear that. OBW is also part of my DDQ survival team along with Mohawk Storm and 3* Cap, they replaced my longstanding team of Magneto Storm and Hawkeye. I still use this three from time to time to break a tough node in PVE and I either want or have to spare the featured. I also tend to use my 2* for the first three fights in PVP.

Unknown

Lee T wrote:

Malcrof wrote:

[quote="Lee T" One day my 2* will stop being useful .

Actually.. some are always going to be useful.. Ares when Boosted, his green is massive! 2* Storm for sending team ups, OBW i still use in DDQ (even with quite a few 166's and dozens more over 140)..etc...

Don't count them out.. heck even Bag-Man has his uses, at least for team ups (switcheroo to nullify ninja/muscle tiles, snarky to add time to cages black and antmans blue, etc..)

I'm glad to hear that. OBW is also part of my DDQ survival team along with Mohawk Storm and 3* Cap, they replaced my longstanding team of Magneto Storm and Hawkeye. I still use this three from time to time to break a tough node in PVE and I either want or have to spare the featured. I also tend to use my 2* for the first three fights in PVP.[/quote]
OBW is probably most useful 2*....combine with patch, or just to combat goons

DFiPL

Lee T wrote:

I kept my 3* at 94 until they reached 13 cover, then I upgraded them to 104. Since I didn't see any significant change in scaling difficulty, I recently upgraded all my 3* that could to 104 (a bit more than 30 characters). So far so good.

The idea was to keep my 2* workhorses playable as long as possible until I had enough 3* to stop using them when not boosted. With three times as much 3*, they now have been replaced as workhorses in my roster.

I'm now considering slowly upgrading all my 3* one level at a time when enough of them will be fully covered. One day my 2* will stop being useful but I will have replaced a dozen 2* by more than forty 3*.

Pretty much exactly where I'm at. All of my 3*, with the exception of Groot, Deadpool and Storm (3), all of whom I leveled as high as I could before I realized what a bad idea that might be, are at 104. Sentry is the only 3* character I have who CAN level to 104 who hasn't, yet (he's at 90), and Vision is the only other 3* character who isn't already at his or her soft cap of 66-89. As soon as all those cats hit 104, I'm going to start leveling them to 105 one at a time, then 106, etc.

TxMoose

qkumbredood wrote:

It's also around the point where they're comparable in power to characters, so it's a decent holding spot if you want to use your roster in PVE.

'comparable in power' can mean many things. in this case it means their match damage most closely lines up with **s at 94 for tanking purposes. a fully covered *** at any of the discussed levels in the 94-104 range will have more damaging powers than the **s, so will perform better. my experience was that my **s were useful until I took guys to 140. 120 makes it slightly harder, so it does affect scaling at that point. 104 didn't change much for me.

Marty17

Am I right to assume that if I had 2 at max level (hence scaling to 200+) that no matter how many that I max levelled it would still be scaled to above 200+ (I mean it won't average of the level of the roster)?

puppychow

If you are in the 2 to 3 transition, I agree that using more caution in leveling up your guys beyond 94 is the wiser approach. As a 2 player, your priority should be placing high in pve events so that you could accumulate 3 covers. It could be top 100 for a single cover, or if you happen to have the required 3 & 4 essentials, you could aim higher for more covers.

If your 3 and 4 characters have very little cover, to me they are useful only as meatshields, to soak up some damage while you accumulate colors to fire off other character powers. Certainly there is some utility from that as a heal pack saver, so I wouldn't discount it. As long as your under-covered characters AREN'T the highest level characters in your roster, it shouldn't have much of an effect on your personal scaling.

puppychow

Marty17 wrote:

Am I right to assume that if I had 2 at max level (hence scaling to 200+) that no matter how many that I max levelled it would still be scaled to above 200+ (I mean it won't average of the level of the roster)?

That's too simplistic look at scaling. What matters is: a) your highest character level, b) AFTER FACTORING IN BOOSTS. So a max 270 might not be the highest level character in your roster, from the game's perspective, if another character is boosted even higher.

That being said, generally the higher your roster level the more likely your scaling will be higher. As an example, in Thick as Thieves event I am seeing nodes at 220s range for normal rating even though my highest character level is only 181 xf. However, the weekly buffed has boosted my 150 Lthor up to 244. So scaling for the normal rated node is being set at around 90% of my highest boosted character level.

Unknown

save your heavy hitters for the harder pve nodes. This saves you a lot of heal packs while you grind for pve placement.

Marty17

puppychow wrote:

Marty17 wrote:

Am I right to assume that if I had 2 at max level (hence scaling to 200+) that no matter how many that I max levelled it would still be scaled to above 200+ (I mean it won't average of the level of the roster)?

That's too simplistic look at scaling. What matters is: a) your highest character level, b) AFTER FACTORING IN BOOSTS. So a max 270 might not be the highest level character in your roster, from the game's perspective, if another character is boosted even higher.

That being said, generally the higher your roster level the more likely your scaling will be higher. As an example, in Thick as Thieves event I am seeing nodes at 220s range for normal rating even though my highest character level is only 181 xf. However, the weekly buffed has boosted my 150 Lthor up to 244. So scaling for the normal rated node is being set at around 90% of my highest boosted character level.

Right, so basically if you levelled a character, lets say a & it happens to be boosted too, you pretty much shot yourself on your own foot. Well, I guess I forever will see this ridiculous scaling on my PvE!

puppychow

Marty17 wrote:

Right, so basically if you levelled a character, lets say a & it happens to be boosted too, you pretty much shot yourself on your own foot. Well, I guess I forever will see this ridiculous scaling on my PvE!

The first thing you should do when a new pve event is available to is READ THE RULES. This section will tell you exactly which characters are featured/essential, reinforcements getting buffed for this event, and the weekly buffed characters. As a player, the ideal method of tackling pve is to build teams around these specific characters, and rotate them to save on heal packs. That's the ideal situation. However, to pull it off you need a diverse roster and that's why I would recommend people spending their hp on slots, in order to expand their rosters.

As far as leveling goes, it goes both ways. While your characters getting boosted will mean scaling is increased, your characters should be powerful enough to handle those nodes. It you can't clear consistently, then the issue may be how you constructed your roster.

Let's play the extreme scenario. IF you feel you made a mistake in maxing out a 4 , and everyone else on your roster is like half the level of the max character, you could simply sell the 4 . Yes, it's a desperate measure, but it could potentially realign your pve scaling, and put you in a position to place high in future pve events, and get iso, hp, cover rewards.