A Noob's Adventure in the Brave New World of MPQ Today

dr tinykittylove

So there are already plenty of guides and excellent advice out there for new players. But there probably aren't that many vet players exploring all the major changes to the mpq landscape that have taken place in the past few seasons - roster costs, token odds, daily deadpool, levelling cost, scaling, mmr jetc.

Maybe this belongs more in the tips and guides section, but that seems a bit presumptious and I'd like a bit of feedback and discussion on others' experiences, both vets and noobs. Comparisons with the Goode Olde DaysTM welcome.

A little background: cut for rambling

Since the mmr changes, I'd been noticing odd rosters attacking the low level teams I like to use on seed teams - there were 1*s, 1 cover 4*s, low-level 2*, all things we were presumably not supposed to encounter anymore with a strong 3* roster. Tanking was dead, right?

I worked that part out, and started wondering, with the discussions on forum on the difficulty of transitioning

- is it still possible for a new, f2p player to progress at a reasonable pace?

Short answer: Yes.

For reference, my new account is A N00b, Day 67, currently sitting in alliance Hobo Fire.

I'll break down how I did it in a couple more comments for easy discussion.

dr tinykittylove

The Beginning
Starting over was tough. Never mind going from being able to pick from any character in the game to a lonely level 1 im35/mbw/mstorm... they couldn't handle many enemies and needed healing all the time!

Except wow, 10 health packs! Pretty rad! Plus low level characters heal pretty fast too. You can actually get in a fair bit of play before you need to heal. The real hard part - building your infant roster.

I started like everyone else, working on the prologue to collect necessary resources like your basic 1* covers and standard token. That worked until I finished my first pass through the first two prologue missions and went back for the additional rewards.

But you know... I play quite a lot of pve on my real account. I think if I had to face The Dance of the 20-iso Fairy any more than I already do, I'd ragequit the game already.

So... once I got a reasonable number of covers on my 1*s, I started dipping my toes into pve and pvp.

Pve was a wash. You can fight a few trivial nodes, the end. No point, like the prologue.

Next, I waded into pvp to take on the seed teams and fellow noobs. You can actually get the 2* progression at 200 quite easily with level 15 1*s, using the loaner as tank and support.

As you build up your 1*s with more covers, you will be able to push your way to 400 for the event token and hp. You won't keep the points to be sure, but that really doesn't matter at this stage.

Building your starter roster

Open all your standard tokens. You need to cover these 1*s as quickly as you can.

Im35 (553), juggs(55), storm(535), hawkeye(55)

Level im35, mstorm and juggs to 40 so that juggs can help tank for both im35/storm. You don't want to use headbutt unless really necessary. Keep hawkeye underlevelled - I only had him up to level 20 for a long time before I finally sold him.

Use various combinations of juggs/im35/storm for pvp. It's worth playing to 400 for the hp, then add a couple matches in the end to increase your score, and a little sim will get your season 10-pack with no trouble.

Hawkeye is fragile and you want him to tank as little as possible, but once you have him fully covered, Juggs/im35/hawkeye will get you 1 taco token every single day. Ninjas? Muscles? Ultron? He will zap them all for you.

Time to start working on those 2*s!

Note: You may be really lucky and find a 3* or even 4* in your tokens. Unless it's deadpool, harden your heart and do not roster them. Let them wait in your queue. 14 days is a long time.

dr tinykittylove

Opportunist note on noob brackets. The first week or two are awesome. You get great placement rewards with awful scores, both pvp and pve, for about a week or two and then poor N00b was banished to tinykitty vet brackets for doing too well.

Enjoy and take shameless advantage if you get a noob bracket - you can never have too much hp or covers at this stage. Don't roster your winnings unless you want to play the next pve or if you need them for ddq.

If the reward for the next pve is a good character, I'm willing to play at least to the progression cover, otherwise I'm happy to get the progression event token and/or hp and quit. A little pve is helpful for tokens and iso.

GurlBYE

dr tinykittylove wrote:

Opportunist note on noob brackets. The first week or two are awesome. You get great placement rewards with awful scores, both pvp and pve, for about a week or two and then poor N00b was banished to tinykitty vet brackets for doing too well.

Enjoy and take shameless advantage if you get a noob bracket - you can never have too much hp or covers at this stage. Don't roster your winnings unless you want to play the next pve or if you need them for ddq.

If the reward for the next pve is a good character, I'm willing to play at least to the progression cover, otherwise I'm happy to get the progression event token and/or hp and quit. A little pve is helpful for tokens and iso.

Question about your alliance.

Is it a high placing one?

if it is it defeats the experiment mainly because new players often don't have a chance to get into those unless they force themselves into public ones that place decently and don't get removed.

I mean have you seen the alliance forum? Some are more intense then job applications.

dr tinykittylove

GurlBYE wrote:

Question about your alliance.

Is it a high placing one?

if it is it defeats the experiment mainly because new players often don't have a chance to get into those unless they force themselves into public ones that place decently and don't get removed.

I mean have you seen the alliance forum? Some are more intense then job applications.

My current alliance is a public alliance that I found using the random search function. There are lots of alliances out there that do all right outside of top 100.

Any group that gets top 250/500 in events will help supplement your hp/iso flow by a lot. Just scout around until you find one that looks ok, make sure you have points in the current event that are not embarrassing (eg. everyone has 1k and you have 300), and you're good to go.

If you get kicked (which happened to poor A N00b often especially during the 1* period), just find another alliance.

Hobo Fire is in the top 250 and gets extra 50hp per pvp.

These public alliances are a resource that is available to everyone willing to search in game. No forum interview or Line required.

TLCstormz

They are few / far between though, and could take several hours / days to find. And then NOT get booted from. lol

dr tinykittylove

TLCstormz wrote:

They are few / far between though, and could take several hours / days to find. And then NOT get booted from. lol

Really? What kind of ranking are you looking for? I hop around frequently and haven't had much difficulty. Look at alliances with 18/19 people, ranking within top 250/500 for season/pvp. Have points in the current pvp that are not 0. That's all.

Top 100 alliances of course will boot you unless you already have some kind of contact/arrangement - eg you can put up massive pve points. Nobody likes to support someone who's not pulling their weight in a competitive situation. And even though the ranks look close, the average score needed between top 100 and top 150 is very, very different.

wiz_biz

thanks for posting! i know i've noticed another thread on A N00b's adventures previously and thought it was really interesting to see how much the game has changed since i started. and now i actually have a reason to note some of the major strategy changes - it took me a year but i finally convinced my sister to stop crushing candies and pick up MPQ, and some of my advice is a little out-dated so i've really appreciated a current perspective.

question - in the noob PVE brackets, does scaling get too out of control to be able to do almost full clears with limited low-level rosters (assuming essentials will likely be missed)? my sister's is obviously pretty limited but now at least has rainbow coverage with mostly 2*s, but levels ranging between 15-25..i'd advised her not to pump much iso into the 1*s, and her 2*s are level maxed with only 1-3 covers. she also managed to pull a cyclops black and rostered him so she's got a level 40 in there that may impact some of the scaling, but not sure if at that stage it's negligible...so basically just wondering if she should be jumping in to PVEs yet with expectations of decent placement in the baby brackets?

thanks again for the posts, and best of luck to A N00b!

dr tinykittylove

wiz_biz wrote:

thanks for posting! i know i've noticed another thread on A N00b's adventures previously and thought it was really interesting to see how much the game has changed since i started. and now i actually have a reason to note some of the major strategy changes - it took me a year but i finally convinced my sister to stop crushing candies and pick up MPQ, and some of my advice is a little out-dated so i've really appreciated a current perspective.

question - in the noob PVE brackets, does scaling get too out of control to be able to do almost full clears with limited low-level rosters (assuming essentials will likely be missed)? my sister's is obviously pretty limited but now at least has rainbow coverage with mostly 2*s, but levels ranging between 15-25..i'd advised her not to pump much iso into the 1*s, and her 2*s are level maxed with only 1-3 covers. she also managed to pull a cyclops black and rostered him so she's got a level 40 in there that may impact some of the scaling, but not sure if at that stage it's negligible...so basically just wondering if she should be jumping in to PVEs yet with expectations of decent placement in the baby brackets?

thanks again for the posts, and best of luck to A N00b!

I've been having a lot of fun with my noob roster! So much I'm torn between focusing on my main account and working on A N00b. Glad someone is reading these things.

In all pve brackets, scaling is the same, set to your roster level. It's the scores needed to rank well that is differernt.
Tell her to try clearing everything she can, do the refreshes and see her ranking at the end of the first sub. In a noob bracket you can easily get top 100 even if you don't have one essential and don't grind the end.

For the roster, the more covers you have, the more effective your team is.At her current stage she should concentrate on covering her 1*s - easier to get covers, and 2*s with 1-3 covers are pretty useless. Baby steps. Stop sinking iso into the 2*s until you can get some more covers, keep them at the same level as the 1*s so she can use both as needed.

One 3* shouldn't be a problem, but if she finds scaling getting tough, then level up those 1*s to match the 40 levels. It's a worthwhile investment that will let her take on all the different game modes. Try walking her through ddq for the 500iso, then the 1st wave node - both are achievable with 1*s and the daily taco will provide hp, iso, 2*s, health packs and maybe 3*s - all very useful to a new player.

Blahahah

N00b adventures.

Reminds me of when I was a wee lad, fighting Doom in the bottom of buildings, getting 1 shot by juggernaut, being foolish enough to focus my iso on Venom and a jugs of my own only to find I can't use them most of the time...

Now I am aged but not much wiser. Looking back, its nice to see people getting back to basics again. My girlfriend just started playing and she's all about the Ares and Thor team (those were the first 2 she got), where as I went through my adventure with the MNMags, cStorm, and mHawkeye. Its weird watching her play and seeing her react differently to stuff.

I should show her your adventure

dr tinykittylove

Blahahah wrote:

N00b adventures.

Reminds me of when I was a wee lad, fighting Doom in the bottom of buildings, getting 1 shot by juggernaut, being foolish enough to focus my iso on Venom and a jugs of my own only to find I can't use them most of the time...

Now I am aged but not much wiser. Looking back, its nice to see people getting back to basics again. My girlfriend just started playing and she's all about the Ares and Thor team (those were the first 2 she got), where as I went through my adventure with the MNMags, cStorm, and mHawkeye. Its weird watching her play and seeing her react differently to stuff.

I should show her your adventure

Not playing optimally is a whole lot of fun! I would never have found out how wonderful 1* hawkeye was if I went with forum advice and sold him. Who else would let me defeat a level 200 Tetris Ultron with a 2/1/1 Beast and 1/0/0 Doom?

wiz_biz

dr tinykittylove wrote:

I've been having a lot of fun with my noob roster! So much I'm torn between focusing on my main account and working on A N00b. Glad someone is reading these things.

In all pve brackets, scaling is the same, set to your roster level. It's the scores needed to rank well that is differernt.
Tell her to try clearing everything she can, do the refreshes and see her ranking at the end of the first sub. In a noob bracket you can easily get top 100 even if you don't have one essential and don't grind the end.

For the roster, the more covers you have, the more effective your team is.At her current stage she should concentrate on covering her 1*s - easier to get covers, and 2*s with 1-3 covers are pretty useless. Baby steps. Stop sinking iso into the 2*s until you can get some more covers, keep them at the same level as the 1*s so she can use both as needed.

One 3* shouldn't be a problem, but if she finds scaling getting tough, then level up those 1*s to match the 40 levels. It's a worthwhile investment that will let her take on all the different game modes. Try walking her through ddq for the 500iso, then the 1st wave node - both are achievable with 1*s and the daily taco will provide hp, iso, 2*s, health packs and maybe 3*s - all very useful to a new player.

thanks, good info and thankfully, some i've already given her! out of curiosity, did you put much iso into your own 1*s? one of my own noob pitfalls was to level up all my 1*s to max and then turn around and kick them off my roster once i realized they were obsolete. that felt like such a waste, and now the game seems to throw 2*s at you with more frequency than the olden days so i'm not sure how to advise her as far as leveling them up since the 2* transition seems more abbreviated now...i was thinking maybe max them out around 25 even if they're near-fully covered, and at that point only consider going further if the 2* covers aren't coming in with enough frequency to be usable and to really start progressing into 2* territory...

and yep, i'm trying to get her trained in the ways of the DDQ and the survival nodes so she can at least bring in a taco a day, and i've been showing her how to dip her toes into PVP and simulator to grab the progression rewards and those random covers it throws at you...but yeah, was really just curious if i should temper her expectations regarding PVP placement while she's still such a little tike! i had to squash those placement dreams she had last night for the cage PVP, poor girl was so excited to be in T100 with like 4 hours left, and very few viable matches left to play without spending a ton on skips...soon enough i suppose!

dr tinykittylove

wiz_biz wrote:

thanks, good info and thankfully, some i've already given her! out of curiosity, did you put much iso into your own 1*s? one of my own noob pitfalls was to level up all my 1*s to max and then turn around and kick them off my roster once i realized they were obsolete. that felt like such a waste, and now the game seems to throw 2*s at you with more frequency than the olden days so i'm not sure how to advise her as far as leveling them up since the 2* transition seems more abbreviated now...i was thinking maybe max them out around 25 even if they're near-fully covered, and at that point only consider going further if the 2* covers aren't coming in with enough frequency to be usable and to really start progressing into 2* territory...

and yep, i'm trying to get her trained in the ways of the DDQ and the survival nodes so she can at least bring in a taco a day, and i've been showing her how to dip her toes into PVP and simulator to grab the progression rewards and those random covers it throws at you...but yeah, was really just curious if i should temper her expectations regarding PVP placement while she's still such a little tike! i had to squash those placement dreams she had last night for the cage PVP, poor girl was so excited to be in T100 with like 4 hours left, and very few viable matches left to play without spending a ton on skips...soon enough i suppose!

When you have 2*-3* usable, sure, don't put iso into your 1*s. But for someone who is just starting out, they have literally nothing else they can use. Invest that iso and it will make your game, including the later parts of prologue, a lot easier and pay for itself. Level 40 will be enough to win enough to build your 2* roster with.

For pvp, yes, once she's out of newbie brackets the only way to get top 100 is to gamble on late brackets. But she should ignore the 3*s for now anyway and focus on building her 2* roster.

A lot of new players make the simple mistake of assuming a high level single cover (like buffed antman or the buffed 3* of the week) is better than their fully covered 1-2*s and sell them off. Covers make powers more effective - a fully covered 2* team at level 70 laughs at level 146 antman and level 100 lazy thor with 4 covers in pvp.

Have been busy this week, but I'll be making a post on the 2* transition soon, I hope.