How many covers should my 4*s have to be effective?

CT1888

Update: a month on and I'm looking for more advice. I know it's the long game, but I'm impatient, alright? I see more and more 4* teams and I'm finding it a bit harder to compete.
With the recent pulls from Championing, I've had a growth in 4* covers, and now sitting with (ones marked with stars have had covers added in the last month):
183 Wolverine 5/3/3
170 Fury 4/5/4
156 Thor 2/5/3*
152 Deadpool 5/2/0*
160 Iron Man 4/5/4*
145 Prof X 5/1/2
135 Elektra 4/5/3*
160 Jean 3/3/5*
118 Ant man 5/2/2*
94 Falcao 1/1/5*
94 Invisible Woman 2/4/1*
94 RHulk 1/3/1*
90 Carnage 2/2/0
100 Star Lord 2/1/2*
90 Thing 1/1/2*
70 Kingpin 2/1/4*
70 Cyclops 1/4/0*
70 Miles 3/1/1*
All the rest are 4 or less, I've got all the 4*s except Spider-Gwen and Dino.
In 5* I have 1 for each character except Jean, where I have 1 of each colour. My biggest 3* champions are at 175, 25 champed in total.

At this stage, is it worth putting the bulk of my iso into Hulkbuster and Teen Jean? Or would I be better placed putting it into the lower 4*s to make them usable for Crash,waiting for the 5th red in Hb and more purple for Jean? Or should I just save for the 120 CP to top out Hb?

I bought HP in the Google sale, so I'm aggressively chasing key covers at 1000 points (HB red recently).

I guess just now I feel on the cusp of 4*Ness, and I want to get in there before it passes me by, as I kinda always feel like I'm trailing a wee bit too far behind (I have no expectation of reaching the top, I'm day 555 and haven't dropped cash outside of the last two Google one off sales), and the 5* meta is becoming the thing.

So please advise me internetz.

Cheers.

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original question:
So the question is, when do these guys become really useful in pvp or pve, and when should I start pumping iso into them properly?
I was levelling then up bit by bit prior to the Championing getting announced, as I am quite bad at letting iso gather without spending, and I figured I'd leave a lot of 3*s at 153/140. For now, I'm trying to level up and champion a few more 3s, but I want to start thinking about the longer game, which covers to chase hard in pvp, etc.
I'm currently disinclined to send Wolverine and Fury ahead of the pack too far, given 3 black for Wolverine and the general current underwhelming vibe from most folks in the forum.
Any advice is much appreciated
Ta!

Magic

You have Prof X where he needs to be to run the Angels combo so there you don't need improvement (don't level him as you don't want his blue to be the strongest color).

For Jean Grey you need 2 purple and you will have all that's needed for her to be a beast in PvE and PvP. I guess there's your focus.

Wolverine needs 5 black, Iron Man - 5 red.

I don't know what is your 3* status. But unless you have over 10 3* maxed to 166 (or even championed) you should keep playing the 3* game and take it easy with 4*. You really need 10-12 covers (preferably 5 in the strongest skill) to use 4* on daily basis.

CT1888

Much appreciated.
My 3*s are pretty much there - 10 Championed, another 5 at 166 (all the usual beasts up around that level) then all but 2 cover maxed at a variety of levels.
I can reach 1000 in pvp reasonably often (though will see how that changes with the boosted character damage changes), so it's now about picking the covers I really want to chase, and spend the extra HP on shields if necessary.

Magic

Ok. If you are done with 3* transition - well done. Now the grind starts (actually it never ends)

I would say in order - Jean Grey, Hulkubster, IceMan, RHulk, Deadpool, Kingpin, Carnage, Thing, Ant-man, Thoress, X-Force (black), Fury. That is probably all I am actively chasing (unless I have them maxed covered.... still far to have iso and champion them). If Electra or Star-Lord are 1000 award I won't even push and use shield in PvP... no reason to.

In terms of Iso - take your time. It's good to have level them together (like pairs) when they play well off each other.

CT1888

I've updated the main post rather given my progress in the last month. Advice always welcome.
Thanks.

PeterGibbons316

To answer your original question, I think you need 10+ covers with 9 of them in the two strongest abilities for a 4* to be effective. A 3/3/5 IMHB for example is not going to be nearly as good as a 4/5/1, or 5/4/1.

Looks like you are definitely ready to start transitioning IMHB and JG though. JG turns into a PvE beast at 4 purple, so if you see that one pop up in the rotation fight like hell for it.

Cousin Simpson

Magic wrote:

I don't know what is your 3* status. But unless you have over 10 3* maxed to 166 (or even championed) you should keep playing the 3* game and take it easy with 4*.

To slightly hijack (sorry OP!), I've got 29 3*s championed, and all except Vision cover-maxed (he's missing 1 cover). Am I just flushing ISO down the toilet by continuing to 166 them, with the reasoning being that because ISO is so scarce and the 4*s so ISO-guzzling that you should scrimp and save if you're ready to move into 4* land? I do plan on two more 3* champs (level 40 Bullseye, because I want to experience his lulz in PVE, and SWitch, who's 153 5/3/5 because I'm just waiting for her next cover).

CT1888

No problem.
Bullseye is amazing fun, totally do it!
And Scarlet Witch deserves to be championed too.
I had a quick look at your roster, apart from being more useful in pvp, I guess the thinking is you'll get more out of the 4* in the long run, so that's where your attention should be. What I'm thinking about is put iso into the 4* then every so often bring up a 3* to champion as that will feel like quick progression (the amount of Iso required for my 4*s is quite daunting)

Tatercat

I found my 4*'s really starting being when I got them to lvl 209 (Prof X excepted for reason already detailed here). I've got about 7-8 of them there now, and as soon as I get some more covers for some of them, I'll push them up more as a group. (Some are cover capped there) Slow, yes, but it helps with scaling that I'm not just pushing 2 characters all the way to 270 to twist in the wind by themselves. I've got a frontline of actual teams ready to deal with anything. And with the increased number of 4* boosts each week, I've got at least two "killers" for each event or situation.