5-Star Rarity & Silver Surfer Announcement! (In-Depth)

Unknown

DayvBang wrote:

Punisher5784 wrote:

Sooooo since 5*'s can level up to 450, can we expect a Level-Up button?! It's silly that we are still holding down the button.

For five-star characters, the leveling button will be replaced with a circular gesture you make on the screen or with your mouse. Each circle adds 100 ISO.

Instead of increasing iso, is it possible to get a wheel to choose a level you want to jump to, which you can spin up and down then 'confirm'? This would be useful for all levels and also let people easily see the cost of getting to level x so they can plan things out.

Unknown

Funny to read through a bit of this thread and see so many with the same thought process I had upon opening it...

Saw the announcement and thought, "Well, they've finally done it, I might just have my reason to bail..."

Actually read their post and my thought changed to, "Whoa, did they hire a bunch of new staff?!"

There is so much right with this announcement, I might have to check my meds...



DBC

puppychow

Doc L wrote:

Adam Warlock is a good call, he should be right up there with the other 5*, especially when he has the Infinity Stones.

Anyone holding the Infinity Gauntlet should be a 7 character.

DukeUpdate

Seanossi wrote:

My main concern is the starting level of 255 and the impact upon PVE scaling. Has this been taken into account? I'm mid transition with most characters at lv94. How much impact would one Silver Surfer cover have on my scaling?

I agree. The implementation is all very well thought out, and the distribution levels of 5*s make a lot of sense.

As someone in the middle of the 3* transition, the only two things I am concerned about are:

1. Since I currently have every 3* between lvls 114 and 145, will randomly pulling 1 5* cover ruin the PVE experience because of scaling?

2. With an even bigger fight for PVP progression awards among the 4* players, will even 3* placement awards be so ridiculous that it is not worth trying for? It is very difficult now for people who need 3* covers to finish in the top-100 in order to get one (except by getting lucky by joining at the end of a small bracket), and the new fight for progression awards will only exacerbate that problem.

LordXberk

DukeUpdate wrote:

Seanossi wrote:

My main concern is the starting level of 255 and the impact upon PVE scaling. Has this been taken into account? I'm mid transition with most characters at lv94. How much impact would one Silver Surfer cover have on my scaling?

I agree. The implementation is all very well thought out, and the distribution levels of 5*s make a lot of sense.

As someone in the middle of the 3* transition, the only two things I am concerned about are:

1. Since I currently have every 3* between lvls 114 and 145, will randomly pulling 1 5* cover ruin the PVE experience because of scaling?

2. With an even bigger fight for PVP progression awards among the 4* players, will even 3* placement awards be so ridiculous that it is not worth trying for? It is very difficult now for people who need 3* covers to finish in the top-100 in order to get one (except by getting lucky by joining at the end of a small bracket), and the new fight for progression awards will only exacerbate that problem.

I think PVP for mid-3* players such as myself could be a wash. I think the placement will get harder and they should consider extending 4* rewards down into the t10 and 3* rewards to t150 or t200, but I think progression might get easier if vets are all chasing the 1300 token instead of quitting at 1000. Of course, w/ LINE and truces between alliances, maybe the points won't trickle down as much as I hope.

Wish the DDQ Vault was improved, but excited to try the 4* DDQ and get the 4* PVE.

slidecage

MrGaunt25 wrote:

DukeUpdate wrote:

Seanossi wrote:

My main concern is the starting level of 255 and the impact upon PVE scaling. Has this been taken into account? I'm mid transition with most characters at lv94. How much impact would one Silver Surfer cover have on my scaling?

I agree. The implementation is all very well thought out, and the distribution levels of 5*s make a lot of sense.

As someone in the middle of the 3* transition, the only two things I am concerned about are:

1. Since I currently have every 3* between lvls 114 and 145, will randomly pulling 1 5* cover ruin the PVE experience because of scaling?

2. With an even bigger fight for PVP progression awards among the 4* players, will even 3* placement awards be so ridiculous that it is not worth trying for? It is very difficult now for people who need 3* covers to finish in the top-100 in order to get one (except by getting lucky by joining at the end of a small bracket), and the new fight for progression awards will only exacerbate that problem.

I think PVP for mid-3* players such as myself could be a wash. I think the placement will get harder and they should consider extending 4* rewards down into the t10 and 3* rewards to t150 or t200, but I think progression might get easier if vets are all chasing the 1300 token instead of quitting at 1000. Of course, w/ LINE and truces between alliances, maybe the points won't trickle down as much as I hope.

Wish the DDQ Vault was improved, but excited to try the 4* DDQ and get the 4* PVE.

there are only 500 people in PVP making 3 stars down to 200 40% gets the cover that is way too many covers to be given out. ALSO if you jump late if they push it to 200 you will get the 3 star 100% of the time.

like to see them do
Top 2 get 4 star
Top 10 get 3 3 stars
top 50 get 2 3 stars
top 150 get 1 3 stars

that is about the highes i think they would go

Unknown

I think I've committed to sticking around through the anniversary, so I guess another season past this one, but this may be the thing that drives me fully into retirement. The 4* transition just hasn't been any fun for me, so, unless that gets a lot better, the 5* transition on top of it might just be it for me.

I haven't decided either way yet, and there's still time to make up my mind, but this sounds like the final push in that direction. Though I might stick around for DDQ in any case.

Raffoon

aesthetocyst wrote:

So, if no other 5* were released, one should expect 12-18 months of very productive play to cover a 5* without whaling packs. And it would take a lot of packs to speed things up appreciably. Scores of packs to make a dent. Hundreds of packs to make an attempt at whaling.

Actually, they mentioned that the rate of 5* drawing would increase as the first 3 5*s were introduced. So, 10% for a 5* then 15%, as the new ones are released.

TxMoose

Raffoon wrote:

aesthetocyst wrote:

So, if no other 5* were released, one should expect 12-18 months of very productive play to cover a 5* without whaling packs. And it would take a lot of packs to speed things up appreciably. Scores of packs to make a dent. Hundreds of packs to make an attempt at whaling.

Actually, they mentioned that the rate of 5* drawing would increase as the first 3 5*s were introduced. So, 10% for a 5* then 15%, as the new ones are released.

if that's true, would be best to save all legendaries until it hits 15-20%, then you have a real shot at them. my guess is they won't increase quite that much, but I don't know that.

GrumpySmurf1002

DukeUpdate wrote:

1. Since I currently have every 3* between lvls 114 and 145, will randomly pulling 1 5* cover ruin the PVE experience because of scaling?

Doubtful. You'll see an uptick for sure, but it shouldn't be game breaking.

Back in the day, when I jumped from 94 to 140+ with a few characters, the scaling change was negligible. The biggest thing is if you lean on the 5*, and he dominates, that will hurt your scaling way more than just owning him.

Malcrof

So.. Ultron, Surfer, JG for final node in the upcoming Gauntlet?

JVReal

nwman wrote:

So I assume this is nerf proof?

What reaction will a theoretic whale have that spends 20k plus to max SS, that is nerfed?


I'd be hoping for a chargeback at best. Hiring extra security at the least.


We get lawyer threats and worse for $30 charges at my work.

I can't imagine they would have a reason to give the money back. You cannot directly purchase a 5*. You cannot buy the covers, only the iso to level them. You can buy 40 packs, but you are getting 40 other items for your money. With 4* people could spend $$ for HP to directly buy covers for a very specific character. You cannot do that with 5*. The best they could do is refund the iso used to level him/her.

That's just my take.

I was initially nervous about 5*, but I do like how they are releasing it. My big concern is that now I have to stop leveling my 3* roster (of which only about 9 are 166) so that I can level max my 4* roster up to their current covers to compete in the weekly DDQ.

Kudos to those of you that had hoarded your DDQ tokens... you will now have a legendary token to put those taco tokens towards.

TxMoose

Malcrof wrote:

So.. Ultron, Surfer, JG for final node in the upcoming Gauntlet?

still whalable.
edit:

JVReal wrote:

My big concern is that now I have to stop leveling my 3* roster (of which only about 9 are 166) so that I can level max my 4* roster up to their current covers to compete in the weekly DDQ.

I literally just sent this almost word for word to a friend on pm. with 8 at 166 and 12 at 140, there are a few that need to be taken to 166 but my first concern is getting there on the ddq node. I only have a few ready for more levels but I feel like I should bump them up to whatever they can get to - problem is that is 70K iso right there just for the ones at 6+ covers. not sure the others have a chance, but interesting to see what its like when implemented.

simonsez

CrookedKnight wrote:

PvP: Per-event, this is a wash, since the guaranteed 4* at 1300 is being replaced with a 4*-or-better Legendary token.

Not a wash at all. If one needs the cover at 1300, you're willing to spend 500-600 HP in shields to get it. With a token prize on the other hand, if you have most of the 4*s covered already, you might not want to spend that much HP if there's an 80-90% chance that all you'll get is 1000 ISO. Sure, you've now got a chance at a 5*, but with a 5% drop rate, are they really worth 10-12k HP each?

GrumpySmurf1002

Random thoughts on the topic:

The legendary is certainly a double edged sword for me at 1300. Right now I've been picking and choosing when to make the effort/spend based on the character available. 9th XForce yellow? I'll stick to 1k thanks. Certainly will be nice to have the chance at SS and perhaps maybe the elusive KP covers, but I'm not sure it's worth the climb to 1300 every time out. Unless it's now comically easy because everyone and their uncle climbs for it.

Glad there's a 10k prize for season. Doing 13-14k a season and having no rewards after 7500 is a bummer.

At least 40-packs have a guaranteed 4* now. I'd kinda like to see 10-packs get the same type of mechanic, with a 70/30 3*/4* type distribution.

I had seen the Silver Surfer spoiler and thought "oh charged tiles, that'll be good for 4Thor." Still will in theory, but since his red makes hers laughable, guess it won't be required.

At least Surferbustering is color redundant. GreySilver or FistSurfering on the other hand....

simonsez

IceIX wrote:

Players will not be facing off against 450 Silver Surfers very soon. By the time that's any kind of regularity, 4*s will be buffed to be closer to a 5*s max power.

I don't understand this at all. If this is the plan, then why not save yourselves a lot of trouble and pain and not make the 5*s so meta-breaking in the first place? Is it just to induce a few folks to drop 5 figures buying tokens to max out their SS in a day? Don't mean that to be cynical, it's a legit business strategy, and the only thing I can think of that makes this make any sense.

optimus2861

slidecage wrote:

there are only 500 people in PVP making 3 stars down to 200 40% gets the cover that is way too many covers to be given out.

It's not uncommon these days for 1000 points to be T100, barring a fresh bracket. Anyone who can hit 1000 reliably probably doesn't need the 3* placement cover in the first place! I think this game is long past the point of worrying about distribution of 3* covers, especially as SS teams start dominating T100s in the short to medium term.

Anyway, I'll reiterate my thoughts that I posted in the character thread. SS represents an absolutely ludicrous power boost over the entire 3* tier, and most if not all 4* characters. Kiss good-bye to anything remotely resembling fair competition between the elites & the mere mortals once this guy gets out into the wild.

Unknown

Punisher5784 wrote:

Sooooo since 5*'s can level up to 450, can we expect a Level-Up button?! It's silly that we are still holding down the button.

At this point I would literally donate money for them to implement an add 1 level and level to the max of your available iso button

Unknown

Raffoon wrote:

Actually, they mentioned that the rate of 5* drawing would increase as the first 3 5*s were introduced. So, 10% for a 5* then 15%, as the new ones are released.

They did NOT say this.

They stated that once an additional character is added, the percentage will increase to 10%.

Edit: Well let me clarify. They did not state that the percentage would increase 5 percent per character released, but they did not specifically state that would continue with the third character, and the impression I got was that it will be a 90/10 split on the tokens going forward after the second 5 star character.

CrookedKnight

simonsez wrote:

CrookedKnight wrote:

PvP: Per-event, this is a wash, since the guaranteed 4* at 1300 is being replaced with a 4*-or-better Legendary token.

Not a wash at all. If one needs the cover at 1300, you're willing to spend 500-600 HP in shields to get it. With a token prize on the other hand, if you have most of the 4*s covered already, you might not want to spend that much HP if there's an 80-90% chance that all you'll get is 1000 ISO. Sure, you've now got a chance at a 5*, but with a 5% drop rate, are they really worth 10-12k HP each?

Fair point. I was thinking strictly in terms of how much it's helping, not whether it might hurt.