Venom Tournament Discussion

Unknown

Whew, finally made 1000 rating after trading blows for most of the day... Now I can sit back and let everyone beat me up for a bit!

Unknown

Agent Coulson wrote:

Whew, finally made 1000 rating after trading blows for most of the day... Now I can sit back and let everyone beat me up for a bit!

What kind of team are you running?

Unknown

Zathrus wrote:

Agent Coulson wrote:

Whew, finally made 1000 rating after trading blows for most of the day... Now I can sit back and let everyone beat me up for a bit!

What kind of team are you running?

Wolverine 2* and Ragnarok, most of the high-level opposition is Thor/Storm and I can usually take those down with minimal health loss.

The problem isn't with which team to run though - anything that kills fast is good - it's that there's a lot of activity, so it's hard to chain wins together without being hit back. So if I'm pushing for a participation reward, I'll get to within 100 of it, and pre-load my board with my next 4-5 targets and spend boosts to blitz them as quickly as possible. It's the same strategy I use for the end of lighting rounds, except there's less people trying to do the same thing in the middle of a tournament.

The other thing is to be patient enough to let the rest of the pool get high enough to be worth taking points off. Early on in a tournament, it might be possible to hit the 400-500 rewards but then you're at the top of the table and "out of gas" because you're taking a lot less points per win. That's when it's time to let some other guys overtake you, so you can use them to fuel your next surge. Getting participation rewards is about making several short surges, whereas to place at the end you need to be constantly fighting the last 30-60 minutes.

Unknown

I broke 1000 twice, only to have losses set me back 40 points. It's ****. Once you go into a battle, it should freeze your score. Now I'm getting hammered and am in the high 800s.

Unknown

Toxicadam wrote:

I broke 1000 twice, only to have losses set me back 40 points. It's tinykitty. Once you go into a battle, it should freeze your score. Now I'm getting hammered and am in the high 800s.

If you're talking about how you can enter a battle at 980, win 25 points but miss out on the 1000-point reward because you got hit during the battle, then you have my sympathy, it sucks whe that happens. Of course, if the program applied losses afte twins, then you would take a bigger hit after scoring you prize , as the hits would be applied to your higher rating.

If you want your score to be frozen so that you can't lose rating from bring attacked - this simply won't work. It leaves the system open to all sorts of abuse - in particular, two or more accounts farming each other - and would just lead to rampant points inflation. This means that the rewards thresholds would have to increase, and that would force you to play longer if you wanted to get any prizes.

My previous suggestion (can't remember which thread,this was in, sorry!) to keep a separate tally of your highest attained score gets around this, as points are still awarded based on current rating, so no change to current system and no inflation. But if you managed to score 1000, or 1100, or 1400, at any time during the competition, then that's your score at the end. It still gives an advantage to later players (scores do inflate,a bit over time), but that's balanced out a bit by taking more incoming hits.

Unknown

Just had it happen three more times. With the last time I get hit back 120 points, all all my retaliations are for half the points they hit me for. FCC that.

Just wasted three hours of my life and and 120 gold points with nothing to show for it.

Unknown

I agree that freezing while attacking is a bad idea, but how about freezing while being attacked. Getting attacked by 5+ people within a minute is demoralizing. Do what other asynchronous games like Clash of Clans do and give shields upon being defeated. Something like a 3 minute shield would be good enough. I'd be happy even with a 1 or 2 minute shield. It sucks having finished a battle only to come out and see you've been attacked by like 5 people at once.

Unknown

Agent Coulson wrote:

Wolverine 2* and Ragnarok, most of the high-level opposition is Thor/Storm and I can usually take those down with minimal health loss.

That seems like an odd pairing. Wolverine's green and red abilities are useless because you need to feed Ragnarok. Are you just keeping Wolverine around as self-healing filler?

Unknown

Toxicadam wrote:

Just had it happen three more times. With the last time I get hit back 120 points, all all my retaliations are for half the points they hit me for. FCC that.

Just wasted three hours of my life and and 120 gold points with nothing to show for it.

Ouch. Was the 120 on heals? If so, I know that this advice is too late, but running out of heals is a good sign that you are overextending. Longer pushes don't work nearly as well as you start to rack up retaliations from the people you hit at the start of your push, and they hurt you more as you've been upping your rating in-between.

The only thing (IMHO) worth spending on during a push is AP boosts, and they cost Iso. I can understand spending HP on heals to target the 500HP award, but it's a big gamble and if you succeed your net gain is lower.

If you don't mind me asking;

What's your team?
Are you using AP boosts?
Are you filling your 5 battle slots with suitable opponents before you push?
Important - are you attacking a lot of lower rated people during your push? That's a good way to get smacked back for a big hit.

Looking at the leader word ATM, the problem is that there appear to be very few opponents rated 900+, so hitting 1000 is going to be tough. It might be worth checking the rankings later, you want to see most of the top 10 at 1000+ ideally as that means plenty of targets in the 900-1000 range. Either that, or kill faster if you can.

Unknown

cepage wrote:

Agent Coulson wrote:

Wolverine 2* and Ragnarok, most of the high-level opposition is Thor/Storm and I can usually take those down with minimal health loss.

That seems like an odd pairing. Wolverine's green and red abilities are useless because you need to feed Ragnarok. Are you just keeping Wolverine around as self-healing filler?

Not at all - Feral Slash and Thunderclap are an amazing combo engine. Aggressively target red matches in the early game, then green if no red. You want at least 6 red, more if the board is empty of green. As soon as you get 6 red, start using Feral Slash to make Strike tiles, then spam Thunderclap. You'll start to get auto-matches of green tiles, which you use on Feral Strike, then keep spamming Thunderclap. If you do it right you'll set off a chain reaction that can sweep the enemy team.

Like all combo strategies, them skill comes from knowing when to start your engine and when to stop it. Sometimes it's better to just play a Feral Strike or two and bide your time (while tile matching for heavy damage while Wolverine tanks). Sometimes the board has a lot of disconnected green and you want to Thunderclap early to start matching them.

Note: at time of writing, my Wolverine is L83 and Ragnarok is L66, and Imhave kept Wolverine at higher level throughout. The strategy might be different if Ragnarok is much more developed than Wolverine. But most people are going to get Wolverine first.

Hmm, we really need to start a thread to share builds...

Unknown

Agent Coulson wrote:

Not at all - Feral Slash and Thunderclap are an amazing combo engine. Aggressively target red matches in the early game, then green if no red. You want at least 6 red, more if the board is empty of green. As soon as you get 6 red, start using Feral Slash to make Strike tiles, then spam Thunderclap. You'll start to get auto-matches of green tiles, which you use on Feral Strike, then keep spamming Thunderclap. If you do it right you'll set off a chain reaction that can sweep the enemy team.

Sorry, I probably don't understand exactly how Feral Slash works. The description says you only get 1 strike tile for every 5 AP you get, so it seems like the early-game build up is slow. By the time you are getting traction from Feral Slash, it seems like I could have triggered Modern/Classic Storm's green ability, which is a game-ending combo loop.

Unknown

cepage wrote:

Agent Coulson wrote:

Not at all - Feral Slash and Thunderclap are an amazing combo engine. Aggressively target red matches in the early game, then green if no red. You want at least 6 red, more if the board is empty of green. As soon as you get 6 red, start using Feral Slash to make Strike tiles, then spam Thunderclap. You'll start to get auto-matches of green tiles, which you use on Feral Strike, then keep spamming Thunderclap. If you do it right you'll set off a chain reaction that can sweep the enemy team.

Sorry, I probably don't understand exactly how Feral Slash works. The description says you only get 1 strike tile for every 5 AP you get, so it seems like the early-game build up is slow. By the time you are getting traction from Feral Slash, it seems like I could have triggered Modern/Classic Storm's green ability, which is a game-ending combo loop.

That's a good point, and I need to go level up my Thor and Storm so that I can compare. All I know is that it works for me!
Also, it's red that ignites the combo, the green throws more fuel on the fire.

When I'm on a push, I'm using AP boosts and can have 4 Strike tiles on the board before I do anything else. That's over 300 bonus damage to every Thunderclap, Feral Strike, or tile match I make, and I can follow that up with 3 Thunderclaps. This frequently triggers a green cascade (and more Feral Strikes) and a turn 1 kill, sometimes via a 5-green tile match to extend things. So I've got speed when speed matters.

Even without using boosts, it's usually easy to get 6 Red and 6 Green early, and if not, then even one green match means I'm matching for more than my opponent while regenerating with Wolverine, so I can buy time on a bad board.

I think that the difference is that Thor/Storm produces a constant damage output while Wolverine/Ragnarok can starts slow but escalates quickly. Again, I need to do more testing.

Unknown

Agent Coulson wrote:

I think that the difference is that Thor/Storm produces a constant damage output while Wolverine/Ragnarok can starts slow but escalates quickly. Again, I need to do more testing.

It would be the other way round. Wolvie/Ragnarok can get quick damage on the board, whilst Storm/Thor have to charge. But once they charge, they hit HARD.

Unknown

The Ladder wrote:

Agent Coulson wrote:

I think that the difference is that Thor/Storm produces a constant damage output while Wolverine/Ragnarok can starts slow but escalates quickly. Again, I need to do more testing.

It would be the other way round. Wolvie/Ragnarok can get quick damage on the board, whilst Storm/Thor have to charge. But once they charge, they hit HARD.

Ha, now I have to try it. Also wondering whether Ragnarok/Thor/Storm charges faster... Time to grind some ISO in between defending my ever-descending Venom ranking.

Unknown

Agent Coulson wrote:

Toxicadam wrote:

Just had it happen three more times. With the last time I get hit back 120 points, all all my retaliations are for half the points they hit me for. FCC that.

Just wasted three hours of my life and and 120 gold points with nothing to show for it.

Ouch. Was the 120 on heals? If so, I know that this advice is too late, but running out of heals is a good sign that you are overextending. Longer pushes don't work nearly as well as you start to rack up retaliations from the people you hit at the start of your push, and they hurt you more as you've been upping your rating in-between.

The only thing (IMHO) worth spending on during a push is AP boosts, and they cost Iso. I can understand spending HP on heals to target the 500HP award, but it's a big gamble and if you succeed your net gain is lower.

If you don't mind me asking;

What's your team?
Are you using AP boosts?
Are you filling your 5 battle slots with suitable opponents before you push?
Important - are you attacking a lot of lower rated people during your push? That's a good way to get smacked back for a big hit.

Looking at the leader word ATM, the problem is that there appear to be very few opponents rated 900+, so hitting 1000 is going to be tough. It might be worth checking the rankings later, you want to see most of the top 10 at 1000+ ideally as that means plenty of targets in the 900-1000 range. Either that, or kill faster if you can.

Yea, the 120 was on heals. I figured since I was going to get the 500, it was worth it. All my ISO winnings go back into buying boosts.

Yea, the main problem is that the top of the leader board is just at 1000. So, you have to attack lower levels tha you as you approach that mark. Then when they hit you, they are getting 40 points for their win and it's easy to fall back 100 points within minutes.

Thanks for your insights.

Unknown

You're welcome, hope it's useful.

If it helps, it took me at least 4 goes to hit my 1000, was hitting 980 regularly only to run out of steam, then finally got lucky and hit a few people without getting hit back in return until I'd already passed 1000. I hope you hit it next time!

Unknown

Agent Coulson wrote:

The Ladder wrote:

Agent Coulson wrote:

I think that the difference is that Thor/Storm produces a constant damage output while Wolverine/Ragnarok can starts slow but escalates quickly. Again, I need to do more testing.

It would be the other way round. Wolvie/Ragnarok can get quick damage on the board, whilst Storm/Thor have to charge. But once they charge, they hit HARD.

Ha, now I have to try it. Also wondering whether Ragnarok/Thor/Storm charges faster... Time to grind some ISO in between defending my ever-descending Venom ranking.

Ragnarok/Storm charge extremely quickly. Hence all the vitriol around these boards.

Unknown

Agent Coulson wrote:

You're welcome, hope it's useful.

If it helps, it took me at least 4 goes to hit my 1000, was hitting 980 regularly only to run out of steam, then finally got lucky and hit a few people without getting hit back in return until I'd already passed 1000. I hope you hit it next time!

I got to 1100, then when it went back to selection screen, it had ticked back to 1099. Cue frantic find an easy 1 point match and destroy them as quick as possible. Thankfully no one hit me, else it could have been another 30 or 40 mins of grinding back up! Annoying glitch that.

Unknown

Yeah. Made 1000+ over 5 times. Even showed points like 1007 after match. But got points lost between end match and get reward. Soo did not get the 500 gold. Till after 5th try. Got screenshots showing me over 1k after fight.

Unknown

Wow, just checked the leader board again and top score is still 1000, wonder if it's because there's no heavy competition for the top prize and everyone's grinding to 1000 and stopping?