4* cover math

TxMoose

CrookedKnight wrote:

fmftint wrote:

Time to cover them doesn't really matter when the iso flow can't keep up

I disagree, covers matter far more than ISO for the 4* tier (Captain Falcon excepted) and the game's current ISO flow is enough to handle bringing them up to usable levels. If you want to max every one you're going to have problems, but there are quite a few you should never ever need to bring up far enough that it will make a big dent in your resources. Honestly, the shift to a 4* meta has actually helped my ISO situation.

I'm with crookedknight here. fighting fistbusters over and over again and looking specifically at his red ability. as long as you have 5 covers, there really isn't much difference between level 200 and level 270. if all 5*s are that way, I can see taking the good ones up to 220 and eventually maybe 240, but 270 is just too much diminishing returns to me. that said, I'm commenting on something that is still a loooong ways off for me to worry about, but just something I noticed in those I've been hitting.

Eddiemon

mjh wrote:

mjh wrote:

At 1 every 5 days (0.2 covers/day) that equals 1,105 days. That's 3 years. That's how long it will take for them to start cycling

Yes, I am quoting myself because this fact has been on my mind since I made this thread. I am surprised no one else is bothered by this.

Possibly because your math is wrong?

Covers don't cycle after 13 per character, they cycle after 3 per character. So a year to cycle.

And given how the game progresses reward-wise I wouldn't be extrapolating even a year into the future. In the last 12 months we have had DDQ, dual 4* progression rewards for PvE, 4* DDQ and now a 5*. So I have no idea what I will be able to accumulate in the next 12 months.

mjh

Eddiemon wrote:

Covers don't cycle after 13 per character, they cycle after 3 per character. So a year to cycle.

Ah, you are correct and I am bad at math.

All things considered, isn't 1 year way too long to wait for covers to cycle?

mohio

@above - also, the reward of this 4* DDQ is a legendary token and not a certain color cover of the "required" character. Whether you cover your favorite 4* or not is going to come down to a lot of luck now, since quite a few 4* rewards are being converted into legendary tokens. You can certainly get lucky and end up with more of the ones you want than you would have otherwise, or you could end up same as always with "average" token pulls.

As Eddiemon mentions, I fully expect D3 to come up with more ways to get us 4* so the transition isn't as long as it is now. Just in the past few months they've added the 2000 cover in Simulator, 1300 progression in PvP, and will soon be adding an additional progression in PvE. They also expanded the rewards for 4* releases to double what they were initially not too long ago. They talked about also adding another legendary token at 10k for season score progression. So, seems kinda silly to do this "4* math" when the variables change regularly.

Just a footnote - I am a bit concerned with some of the "guaranteed" covers turning into legendary tokens. While this is kinda nice since you will have more shots at 5*, it also means it could take much longer to cover any SPECIFIC 4*, depending on your token luck. Hopefully 4* PvPs aren't too far away (IceIX said at least another season or two away though), and they can start giving out more 4* in placement rewards. If not we're just going to see this thread again in another 4-6 weeks with 3 more 4* diluting the pool and no additional ways to obtain them.

TxMoose

mohio wrote:

Just a footnote - I am a bit concerned with some of the "guaranteed" covers turning into legendary tokens. While this is kinda nice since you will have more shots at 5*, it also means it could take much longer to cover any SPECIFIC 4*, depending on your token luck. Hopefully 4* PvPs aren't too far away (IceIX said at least another season or two away though), and they can start giving out more 4* in placement rewards. If not we're just going to see this thread again in another 4-6 weeks with 3 more 4* diluting the pool and no additional ways to obtain them.

a million times this. I've only recently gotten to the point where I'm comfortable taking a shot at 1300, knowing that it will cost me some hp for hops. <have not gone for it yet but will be for the first time in in blue shifffffft>. really bummed about them moving off of the set cover there because it is highly unlikely it will pull a top ability in the game (px blue, hb red/black, thing, xpool, jean, even need one more xf black) and much more likely to pull something not really worth the hopping hp (starlord, electra, IW, falcap, MFer, xf green/yellow, px yellow, etc). lots of inbetween characters too but I had been planning on only spending the hp on the top guys first. get them up and running and then start filling out the rest.

mohio

TxMoose wrote:

mohio wrote:

Just a footnote - I am a bit concerned with some of the "guaranteed" covers turning into legendary tokens. While this is kinda nice since you will have more shots at 5*, it also means it could take much longer to cover any SPECIFIC 4*, depending on your token luck. Hopefully 4* PvPs aren't too far away (IceIX said at least another season or two away though), and they can start giving out more 4* in placement rewards. If not we're just going to see this thread again in another 4-6 weeks with 3 more 4* diluting the pool and no additional ways to obtain them.

a million times this. I've only recently gotten to the point where I'm comfortable taking a shot at 1300, knowing that it will cost me some hp for hops. <have not gone for it yet but will be for the first time in in blue shifffffft>. really bummed about them moving off of the set cover there because it is highly unlikely it will pull a top ability in the game (px blue, hb red/black, thing, xpool, jean, even need one more xf black) and much more likely to pull something not really worth the hopping hp (starlord, electra, IW, falcap, MFer, xf green/yellow, px yellow, etc). lots of inbetween characters too but I had been planning on only spending the hp on the top guys first. get them up and running and then start filling out the rest.

I honestly don't know how I'm going to approach it yet. So far picking which events to go for 1300 based on covers I need has been great to both keep my HP reserves reasonable as well as keeping me from burning out on PvP. With the change to legendary tokens, I theoretically need that every time. Unless scores really balloon, I don't think I'll be able to hit that every event without spending too much HP. As it is I have XF, 4hor, IW, Starlord, and Fury more or less completely finished. Kingpin needs a single black cover, HB needs 3 red covers (ugh!), and there are quite a few others with some maxed abilities (either 5 or 3 depending - Prof Blue, Carnage red, Ant-man something (3/3/3 so something's maxed surely), Elektra Purple, maybe others). So, certainly odds are in my favor of getting something decent from a legendary token, but it's still gonna feel bad those times I open one of the many covers I don't need.

CrookedKnight

I think the legendary tokens are going to be very helpful to people who don't have many, if any, well-covered 4* characters, much more so than a rotation of guaranteed covers. We've all seen the math on how long it's going to take to cover 4*s through the rotation. Hit every 1K target and a decent number of 1.3Ks, and there's still a long long stretch where even though you're making progress none of those covers are bringing anybody into your A Team, as IceIX called it, because a 4* power needs 4-5 covers to be really good. Throw more chances for token luck into the mix, and now you have a better chance of getting a run of covers for a few characters, accelerating your ability to advance someone to a usable level.

TxMoose

thing is only half of the someones at a usable level are actually usable. have never seen IW, starlord, antman, or Elektra in pvp and I've been chasing 1K off an on for several seasons now. most prevalent by far are hb, px, jg (and px has no defense), and are starting to see xpools. those are what my queues are telling me are worth chasing, and not even all of their abilities are worth it. you still see the stray xf, 4thor, fury, carnage and I think thing and kp might be used more too as they get covered more (my opinion - I'd use em), but the rest have no (or severely limited) uses in pvp (based on my queues). 75% chance of it not being worth the hp. but. 5% (and later 10%) chance of starting something huge.

Unknown

Right now the pvp rotation is terrible. #1 is nearly impossible most of the times unless you try your luck with last minute bracket shenanigans, and the ones transitioning to 4* not always will be the ones hitting 1300, so 1k is the only viable reward. This means one Cover per character every full rotation.

Adding a guaranteed 4* every 5 days on DDQ plus the two 1k on pvp in the meantime plus one top pve progression average means those will now have double the 4*s they would have with pvp only. Unless you need few 4*s chances are it's more than welcome, plus any 5* that come by.