Is it better to wait to join an event later?

paralistalon

I joined the Iso-8 event at least a day late due to being out of town, and I noticed it said the event only had 580 participants at first. It later filled up to 1000, but it leads me to assume that you get assigned to whatever the most recently created bracket is. I have noticed that the level of competition is less... I'm in the top 10 without too much grinding. The enemy levels have also only gotten up into the low 100s, and I haven't faced any 230 teams yet. I don't know the exact system, but I would think that you could take advantage of this by joining a major tournament on the last day to be put in a very casual bracket and only have to grind like mad for that one day to ensure a top finish. The only downside is you miss the extra Iso and tokens from the repeating stages and you miss the higher progression rewards.

Unless I'm totally mistaken and just seeing patterns where there are none, lol.

Unknown

Brackets are determined by time that you join - it's why I always wait at least an hour to join a bracketed tournament. Usually the first few brackets get filled by the heavy hitters.

Unknown

I personally find it better to forego the start of events and join later, for softer brackets and less grind. So I've missed a few days of storyline in this one, but I can handle that - if it means it will be easier to finish higher. I wouldn't say it's totally foolproof - people can have the same idea of course - but it has worked ok for me in the past.

Unknown

It depends on the type of event though. Generally you seem to get a less competetive bracket, the later you join. For PVE you probably won't get all the progression rewards though (even though they're hard to obtain for a lot of people even if you join right away). I think it's still better to join earlier (not right away) though, since you're able to get more ISO in the end.

For most PVP events it's pretty safe to join later, since most of the grinding seems to happen within the last 8 hours of the event anyways.

Lightnings rounds and the elite tournaments it doesn't really matter, since they're not bracketed anyways. Even though in lightnings rounds you seem to get easier seed teams when you join right when the event starts. Which helps a lot if you just grind to the 100 progression reward for the ISO.

KidInsomnia

PVE, though, you have to deal with the fact that difficulty can increase community-wide.

I've never been in whiffing distance of top 5, so I'm happy joining about an hour late, playing a decent amount without mindlessly grinding, and securing a pretty regular spot in the 15-45 level. If I waited too long, I wouldn't be able to turn around a full run through of the Hard level stuff, I don't think.

Unknown

I always lay back and wait. You will 1) get an easier bracket 2) you will have more people with high levels of points to attack for 40+ points (and they mostly likely won't retaliate).

In the past, the higher progression awards were more robust and encouraged you to early entry to build your point totals. But now, all that is worth your time is the 500 level. Which is easily had in 1 1/2 hours of play.

Unknown

To me the sweet spot is about 15 hours before the end.

Unknown

Beyond that joining immediately is likely to put you with the crazies, there isn't a big difference on time of joining. in fact the few times I joined right away I somehow avoided all the crazies (maybe because they're waiting to join later). Obviously, if you have no plan to play until later you might as well join later.

Unknown

I think you should join an event when you have a good chunk to time to play. If you join - complete one mission and then leave for 8 hours - you will come back and find yourself near the bottom of the roster and I find myself less motivated to push for a good spot when it seems like I am so far behind. I like to start - play an hour or two (get myself to top 10-top 25) then take a break. so when i come back i might be at top 50 or top 100 but at least i'm in spitting distance of competing for a decent reward. lol - not sure how much sense this makes but this is how i like to play and keep myself interested.

Unknown

Yep. I almost never join a sub-event until just over enough time to do 3 full clears (in this event, about 18 hours or so). My second clear is usually at a bad time (right when I wake up) so it's just hitting the big missions once each. I join the second sub-event with enough time to do 1 full clear (4-6 hours before the end) with enough time for one full recharge of health packs if needed to hammer out the last hard mission an extra time or two.