Doom or glory? [3* scaling experiment with a 5*]

DFiPL

The Hunt: Savage

The Savage Land: 33/34/34 on both.

Venom: 33/34/34 on both.
Venom II: 43/43/43 on both.
Venom III: 55/55/55 on both.

Bullseye: 137/138/138 on both; "Easy" on mobile, "Normal" on Steam.
Bullseye II: 158/159/158 on both.
Bullseye III: 168x3 on Steam; still working on beating Bullseye II on mobile.

The Plan: 88/89/88 on both.
Devil Dinosaur: 30/40/30 on both.

Hawkeye essential: 103/104/103 on both.

Beast essential: 103/104/103 on both.

Jean Grey essential: 96/97/96 on Steam; 112/133/133 on mobile.

As far as I can tell, that's all the nodes in this sub (save Bullseye III; I'll update mobile if I beat Bullseye II).

TxMoose

during the florida grind my levels on the last node (ares) went higher than I've ever had character team (non-goon) levels go before. beginning of the grind they were in the 320-340 range and my boosted jean/hb/hood barely downed one. px/witch/gsbw was my only option and they ground it down pretty well - down to 100 or so on 2 health packs. ended at level 360. if that's my only way to grind nodes, pve is going to cease to be fun. I used to really enjoy using 25+ characters to do a clear. its getting harder and harder to do that. but I've also had ss and oml on my roster for a month now. my only leveling activity recently at the top was leveling jean to 220. that may have influenced levels more than normal on this one since she got the big boost.

TLCstormz

Thanks for the reporting, ya'll.

slidecage

Mikey Boy wrote:

Watching this with interest, as I'm at the 3* level (several characters at L166), and have just got my first 5* cover from a Legendary. I guess I have 2 weeks to make a decision on whether to keep or sell him.

if you have people over 120 a 5 star will not hurt you that much its the 2 or 3 5 stars that will kill you. Never though about what might happen if i got a 2nd 5 star, now hearing the horror stories it might be awhile before i open up any more LG..

I say

1 5 star Try to have at least half or 75% of all your covers to 120 +
2 5 stars your going to have to have all of your covers Min 166 and some mid 4 stars
3 5 stars Max 4 stars

Unknown

slidecage wrote:

if you have people over 120 a 5 star will not hurt you that much its the 2 or 3 5 stars that will kill you. Never though about what might happen if i got a 2nd 5 star, now hearing the horror stories it might be awhile before i open up any more LG..

I say

1 5 star Try to have at least half or 75% of all your covers to 120 +
2 5 stars your going to have to have all of your covers Min 166 and some mid 4 stars
3 5 stars Max 4 stars

^This,^ at least from my experience.

My first 5* made things "interesting" for my 130s.

PvE essentials were a bit harder, "Easy" nodes not easy, "Normal" modes doable, but painful (like, 3 guaranteed HPs painful), had to skip TONS of fights in PvP, but not unmanageable.

The second 5*? In the immortal words of Bill Paxton, "Game over, man!"

DBC

Mikey Boy

Well, I'm thinking that my OML over might just have to turn into 2000 Iso for now...

rossmon

So my roster can be seen below, I have a mostly 120, with a few 140s almost fully covered 3* roster. I had surfer for about a day and a half. PVE was playable, PVP was not. I never used surfer in a match in either. I sold him and am having fun again. If I think of it as a duplicate 4* token with double ISO rewards, I'm not sad in the least. I'll get more down the road when I'm ready.

DFiPL

Been a little silent, I know, but I had less than zero interest in playing the Juggernaut Heroic. Especially for a test involving "how badly will a 5* screw your scaling?"

I'm a scientist, but I'm not masochistic.

I'll probably play the next Heroic since it won't be quite so Juggernaut-heavy, see what my rosters look like.

The Ghost Rider event, of course.

Then I'm thinking my next step should be to +5 my Steam levels to see if that creates any separation or if I'm still seeing (effectively) the same scaling at 120 w/ no 5* as I do at 104 w/ 1 5*.

fmftint

DFiPL wrote:

Been a little silent, I know, but I had less than zero interest in playing the Juggernaut Heroic. Especially for a test involving "how badly will a 5* screw your scaling?"

I'm a scientist, but I'm not masochistic.

I'll probably play the next Heroic since it won't be quite so Juggernaut-heavy, see what my rosters look like.

The Ghost Rider event, of course.

Then I'm thinking my next step should be to +5 my Steam levels to see if that creates any separation or if I'm still seeing (effectively) the same scaling at 120 w/ no 5* as I do at 104 w/ 1 5*.

5*s weren't included in the available roster, Scaling wouldn't have seen them

DFiPL

fmftint wrote:

DFiPL wrote:

Been a little silent, I know, but I had less than zero interest in playing the Juggernaut Heroic. Especially for a test involving "how badly will a 5* screw your scaling?"

I'm a scientist, but I'm not masochistic.

I'll probably play the next Heroic since it won't be quite so Juggernaut-heavy, see what my rosters look like.

The Ghost Rider event, of course.

Then I'm thinking my next step should be to +5 my Steam levels to see if that creates any separation or if I'm still seeing (effectively) the same scaling at 120 w/ no 5* as I do at 104 w/ 1 5*.

5*s weren't included in the available roster, Scaling wouldn't have seen them

Which just means that playing would have been both masochistic AND a waste of time.

Figure15

Rostered a Phoenix before gauntlet making my top 3 average with surfer 226. Gauntlet sub 1 felt slightly harder, hitting the wall in sub 2 was definitely earlier and of course sub 3 had lvl 395 much sooner. In fact I don't remember having to fight 395s in the last gauntlet. I didn't have either 5* back then. Soft capped roster at 166.

DFiPL

Main:

Investigating Osborn: 33/34/34 on both
Daken: 43x3 on both
Rocket Men (loaner): 80x3 on both
Runaway: 55x3 on both

Sub 1:

Secure Perimeter: 33/34/34 on both
S.H.I.E.L.D. Research: 43x3 on both
ISO-8 Underground: 55x3 on both

Freedom of the Press: 126/127/127 on mobile; 162/162/162 on Steam. First time in this experiment I've seen Steam have a stronger node than mobile has, I believe.
Smash and Grab: 135x3 on mobile; 168x3 on Steam.
Rampage: 156/157/157 on mobile; 189x3 on Steam.

Wolverine essential: 123x3 on Steam; 102/103/103 on mobile
Professor X essential: 112/113/112 on Steam; 98/99/99 on mobile
Thor essential: 116/117/116 on Steam; 102/103/103 on mobile

So on the second tier of fights and on the essentials, Steam is scaled higher than mobile. Of course, OML is locked out on mobile, so MPQ is likely ignoring it for the purposes of scaling since this is an Heroic event. Will have to see what happens this weekend with Heart of Darkness.

DFiPL

Main:

Swords to Plowshares: 69/70/70 on both
The Big Bang: 112x3 on mobile, 138/139/138 on Steam
Ghosts of Russia's Past: 88/89/88 on both

Sub 2:

Knock Knock: 33/34/34 on both
Best Friends Forever: 43x3 on both
What's in the Box: 55x3 on both

Quinjet Prototype: 126/127/127 on mobile, 149/150/149 on Steam (and both of those were higher before I finished What's in the Box. Weird.)
Enhanced Interrogation: 135x on mobile, 168x3 on Steam
Overwatch: 156/157/157 on mobile, 189x3 on Steam

Wolverine essential: 104x3 on mobile, 120x3 on Steam
Professor X essential: 96/97/96 on mobile, 110x3 on Steam
Thor essential: 100/101/101 on mobile, 114/115/114 on Steam

DFiPL

The new PVE!

Main:

Three in the Hand: 43x3 on both

Unholy Alliance:

Unpleasant Surprises: 100x3 on both
Tracking the Source: 43x3 on both
Tempting Fate: 55x3 on both
Full House: 25-55 level range on both
Run from the Rider: 145/146/146 on both; listed as Easy on mobile and Normal on Steam
Hand in Hand: 87-98 on Steam, 87-110 on mobile. So we're back to the "mobile starts to get a little bit tougher" dynamic now that rosters aren't locked.
Target-Rich Environment: 175/176/176 on both

Not sure if mobile can handle that one, so after I clear it on Steam I'll compare the essentials (I don't HAVE 2 of the 3 essentials on mobile anyhow).

DFiPL

OBW essential: 117x3 on mobile, 100/101/100 on Steam

Wolverine (4) essential: 120/121/120 on mobile, 103/104/103 on Steam

Daredevil essential: level range 100-113 on mobile, 96-101 on Steam

Interesting.

GothicKratos

I posted this in another thread too, but it's applicable here, so;

For posterity's sake, my scaling in the current PvE, with one maxed 3*, a couple more close to max 3*s, and two single cover 5* characters is as followed;

• Daredevil Essential: 112-177 (wave node).
• X-Force Essential: 133.
• Black Widow: 137.
• Final Node Day Two: 156-179.

Not too unusual for me -- if anything, I noticed more of a dramatic uptick in scaling after leveling up my 3*s than anything I noticed attaining my 5* covers.

DFiPL

Well, that makes sense, if scaling is based on the top handful of characters. Your 255 (or 270 or whatever) is going to be static on your 5*. If you take some 3* from 104 to 166, that's a boost to your average level of about 40 levels.

I stopped tracking the scaling differential because at this point it looks like adding the 5* to my mobile roster gives me scaling roughly equivalent to that of my slightly more developed Steam roster. That's been the pattern the last couple of events. There's a difference, and it's a difference that would make it difficult for me to aim for placement rewards in PVE if I played my mobile account more heavily, but it's not so great a difference that I can't play at all.

Now, that said, I haven't looked at PVP yet (and probably won't until next season), so that's an unanswered question as yet. I PVP even more infrequently on mobile than I do on Steam, so I'll be curious to see if I end up in a n00b bracket or not once mobile dips those toes in.