Polarity's Guide on Going From 1* to 3* (Updated: 1/22/15)

kalex716

I wouldn't buy any covers till you've got a couple of your hero's abilities at 5 stars and you're starting to win/get covers in colors you don't want.

If you do it before then, you'll be kicking yourself when you are getting walled off on the one or two left you need, meanwhile you keep getting excess ones in the color you spent cash on.

NorthernPolarity

Cuchulain46 wrote:

locked wrote:

yup, never ever spend HP on a cover unless it's a rare 3*** cover that really makes a skill useful, you haven't got it in ages and you have 35+ roster slots, and also some 3 - 5k of spare HP.

I understand the idea behind this statement, but I don't know that I fully agree with it. I was capped at 9 covers for **thor and 6 for **storm for over 2 weeks. With 25 roster slots and no character progression in weeks, I bought 3 covers for my existing 2*'s. I pumped some ISO into them and managed to place top 50 in every event except final simulator basic in the last week. This was completely due to new key covers. The investment resulted in several hundred HP, thousands of ISO and some useful 2* and 3* covers and about 15 recruit tokens.

It was worth it for me.

I wrote the guide from a mostly F2P perspective (10 bucks spent on roster slots only), so the guides a little weak on what to do if you have floating hp. I remember that HP was very hard to come by, so I couldn't afford to spend HP on rosters and expand my roster fast enough to keep up with my cover acquisition. I guess it boils down to how much those extra 3 covers do for you placement wise. I'm curious about what you would have won without those 3 covers and compare that to how much you won with the 3 covers: I'd be surprised if that difference is worth as much as the 1500HP you spent on those 3 covers. 2* cover acquisition has been decreased significantly though, so it might be more important to buy covers now than it was before. Something to think about though is that 2 weeks of no new covers for your 2*s isn't exactly a rare occurrence. From my experience, most of the 2* roster growth comes in sudden spikes around the event tokens for the current PvE event. I remember getting a majority of my thor covers from tokens in the hunt back in the day, so i wouldn't be discouraged just because of that as you're still expanding your roster horizontally throughout this period.

Unknown

NorthernPolarity wrote:

I wrote the guide from a mostly F2P perspective (10 bucks spent on roster slots only), so the guides a little weak on what to do if you have floating hp. I remember that HP was very hard to come by, so I couldn't afford to spend HP on rosters and expand my roster fast enough to keep up with my cover acquisition. I guess it boils down to how much those extra 3 covers do for you placement wise. I'm curious about what you would have won without those 3 covers and compare that to how much you won with the 3 covers: I'd be surprised if that difference is worth as much as the 1500HP you spent on those 3 covers. 2* cover acquisition has been decreased significantly though, so it might be more important to buy covers now than it was before. Something to think about though is that 2 weeks of no new covers for your 2*s isn't exactly a rare occurrence. From my experience, most of the 2* roster growth comes in sudden spikes around the event tokens for the current PvE event. I remember getting a majority of my thor covers from tokens in the hunt back in the day, so i wouldn't be discouraged just because of that as you're still expanding your roster horizontally throughout this period.

I had no significant 2* heros with which to compete and the fact was I wasn't able to reach HP rewarding tiers in competition. That also meant less iso and one standard recruit token as a reward. Unfortunately, the 2^'s available haven't been usable ones for me, so even if I had been able to push to the bottom of cover reward I would have ended up with an unwanted cover (aside from recent red ares). Even the new event is offering a purple obw, while I could use the cover to up max lvl, it would also make her less useful by pushing her ap cost higher, I'd probably sell it instead.

I realize that using HP to buy covers is lower priority, I was just suggesting that you do need to evaluate the situation individually, I've already gotten 350 hp from personal rewards since, I feel it was worth it in my circumstance.

BTW, terrific guide

NorthernPolarity

Cuchulain46 wrote:

NorthernPolarity wrote:

I wrote the guide from a mostly F2P perspective (10 bucks spent on roster slots only), so the guides a little weak on what to do if you have floating hp. I remember that HP was very hard to come by, so I couldn't afford to spend HP on rosters and expand my roster fast enough to keep up with my cover acquisition. I guess it boils down to how much those extra 3 covers do for you placement wise. I'm curious about what you would have won without those 3 covers and compare that to how much you won with the 3 covers: I'd be surprised if that difference is worth as much as the 1500HP you spent on those 3 covers. 2* cover acquisition has been decreased significantly though, so it might be more important to buy covers now than it was before. Something to think about though is that 2 weeks of no new covers for your 2*s isn't exactly a rare occurrence. From my experience, most of the 2* roster growth comes in sudden spikes around the event tokens for the current PvE event. I remember getting a majority of my thor covers from tokens in the hunt back in the day, so i wouldn't be discouraged just because of that as you're still expanding your roster horizontally throughout this period.

I had no significant 2* heros with which to compete and the fact was I wasn't able to reach HP rewarding tiers in competition. That also meant less iso and one standard recruit token as a reward. Unfortunately, the 2^'s available haven't been usable ones for me, so even if I had been able to push to the bottom of cover reward I would have ended up with an unwanted cover (aside from recent red ares). Even the new event is offering a purple obw, while I could use the cover to up max lvl, it would also make her less useful by pushing her ap cost higher, I'd probably sell it instead.

I realize that using HP to buy covers is lower priority, I was just suggesting that you do need to evaluate the situation individually, I've already gotten 350 hp from personal rewards since, I feel it was worth it in my circumstance.

BTW, terrific guide

Yeah, you definitely need to evaluate things on a case to case basis. Sucks to hear that you got unlucky with your 2*s.

NorthernPolarity

Updated with LazyCap.

over_clocked

Glad to see this is finally stickied.

NorthernPolarity

Added section on best way to spend real money on MPQ.

mischiefmaker

Nice addition! I'd make that header a bit larger since right now it looks like part of the 3* section.

I think Hood's critical cover is actually 4 blue, since that's the point at which you'll steal basically every turn, plus black and yellow are a fair bit less powerful than the other colors. 5 is nice but if you have 3 blue and hp to spend, I'd drop it at 4 instead of waiting. Same for CMags; 5 blue is way better than 4 blue, but 4 blue is pretty usable whereas 3 blue is much less so. If you're stuck in a PvE event, I'd drop hp on Spidey's blue as early as 3, especially if you have an IM40 or MMN to pair with him.

I'd probably spend hp on an L4 Hulk black before L5 BWGS (but then I consistently underrate BWGS, who I think is too slow and too squishy). L5 black is really good too. Maybe L5 yellow fat Thor?

Also, I'm quite sure that right now the best expenditure of hero points is to get yourself into a 15+ person alliance, which ought to guarantee you a cover every 2.5 days and probably some hero points too. I stopped recruiting a little while ago so I don't know what the landscape is like but I feel like someone who's active and willing to pony up for 2 slots is probably going to be able to find a home pretty easily. Seems at least worth a mention.

Unknown

What do you think of jumping into LRs for the 2* to 3* transition? I'm 2* right now looking to make my 3* roster not useless and I managed to get two Diabolical tokens this week from jumping into the Rags and Doom LRs that I was able to catch. Some of them I'll just get wasted in like the C Mags ones. Those ones tend to be nasty and have a billion people fighting for those covers, but I find getting in the 26-50 range is do-able for a 2* roster if you go into a Rags round. Those are so uncompetitive I got Top 50 with a minimum level Rags.

Unknown

noknuckles wrote:

What do you think of jumping into LRs for the 2* to 3* transition? I'm 2* right now looking to make my 3* roster not useless and I managed to get two Diabolical tokens this week from jumping into the Rags and Doom LRs that I was able to catch. Some of them I'll just get wasted in like the C Mags ones. Those ones tend to be nasty and have a billion people fighting for those covers, but I find getting in the 26-50 range is do-able for a 2* roster if you go into a Rags round. Those are so uncompetitive I got Top 50 with a minimum level Rags.

NP will probably have a better response for you but yes, do it (well you already started so keeping doing those). The lightning rounds truly show the beauty behind the progression mechanics in this game. If you have a good 2* team that you have been using and having success with in other PVP content then go for it. Even if you just get heroics that is fine. And you've already noticed some are easier than others. If all you're going for is diabolicals (a great way to start) stick to the easier ones or the ones that are at off times and less populated. Even getting a few specific covers of a villain you don't want can help you progress in other rounds. Doom specifically is not a super popular character to use but he is even more of a beast than usual in lr's.

And everyone else should at least be doing 2 battles in the lightning rounds.

mohio

noknuckles wrote:

What do you think of jumping into LRs for the 2* to 3* transition? I'm 2* right now looking to make my 3* roster not useless and I managed to get two Diabolical tokens this week from jumping into the Rags and Doom LRs that I was able to catch. Some of them I'll just get wasted in like the C Mags ones. Those ones tend to be nasty and have a billion people fighting for those covers, but I find getting in the 26-50 range is do-able for a 2* roster if you go into a Rags round. Those are so uncompetitive I got Top 50 with a minimum level Rags.

I was just thinking about this question myself earlier, so I'm interested to see the replies. I'm pretty much done with the 1*->2* transition (a little iso starved, and perhaps not the best builds yet, but max-covered Thor, C.Storm, A.Wolvie, Cap, and OBW) and started-ish on the 3* transition (have Punisher at 4-2-2 lvl 77 and lazyThor at 1-4-4 lvl 75). I've been using LRs to earn some easy iso then tank my MMR so I can place better in the longer PvP tourneys. The LRs have seemed too difficult to place well for me, but maybe when my guys are finally leveled up that won't be the case. Anyway, I too have been wondering when is the right time to try for placing higher in the LRs.

Unknown

It's definetly possible to win a lr with two max 2 stars and the gifted villain.

Unknown

From experience, which LRs have been easy for you? I know that C.Mags is really hard and Rags is easy. Doom is somewhere in-between.

For the hero rounds, I'd imagine GSBW to be a good place to start. I really have no clue which other rounds would be do-able for a 2* roster to Top 50 in

mouser

From my experience the LRs tend to follow the popularity of the character. Also, only two of the characters have 3 cover colors, meaning people are more likely to have maxed the 2 color villains before the 3 colors. So from hardest to easiest:

CMagneto
Hood
Doctor Doom
Loki/Ragnarok - pretty even

The least competitive Lightning Rounds IMO are the 2am and 4am EDT ones (11pm and 1am PDT). The most competitive tend to be after business hours in the US. i.e. 8pm and 10pm EDT (5pm and 7pm PDT).

HailMary

noknuckles wrote:

From experience, which LRs have been easy for you? I know that C.Mags is really hard and Rags is easy. Doom is somewhere in-between.

For the hero rounds, I'd imagine GSBW to be a good place to start. I really have no clue which other rounds would be do-able for a 2* roster to Top 50 in

mouser is right on the money.

It's absolutely doable for a maxed-2* team with a sub-L30 featured character to place well in the LRs. If I weren't so shield-averse, I most likely would've had Top 8 placements in 2 of the 5-6 recent LRs I didn't tank. Getting hit for 30 points with less than 30 sec to go isn't fun.

CMags is the most brutal, because everyone wants him.

Rags & Loki are comparatively trivial, because nobody really wants them. I aim for 26-50 in those rounds for the Diabolical tokens, and it's honestly sometimes a challenge not to be bumped up to the 9-25 tier.

Doom is a bit dangerous, because you'll naturally meet a lot of high-level or semi-leveled Doom teams, and even sub-L100 Doom is ridiculous when buffed in Villain LRs. Taking this into account, I actually found that Hood LRs feel about the same as Doom LRs: Hood may be more competitive, but Doom LRs strip more health per fight, at least in my personal experience.

NorthernPolarity

Im a bit out of touch with how difficult it is to place in the diabolical token range for lrs. When i was grinding diabolical tokens, a. Wolvie and thor were still unnerfed and boosts were super cheap, so im not entirely sure how hard it is to currently get a token: hailmarys analysis looks good to me and is what i would expect now, so ill go with that.

NorthernPolarity

Added paragraph on LRs in the 2->3* section based off of the discussion in the comments. Added a future list of things to do. Random formatting fixes.

HailMary

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Im a bit out of touch with how difficult it is to place in the diabolical token range for lrs. When i was grinding diabolical tokens, a. Wolvie and thor were still unnerfed and boosts were super cheap, so im not entirely sure how hard it is to currently get a token: hailmarys analysis looks good to me and is what i would expect now, so ill go with that.

Whoo-hoo! I contributed to The Guide!

Funny that you used CMags R and Hood Y as examples. I got both from recent Diabolicals.

Re: 1 2* cover vs. 1 3* cover, I'd aim for the 2* if you need that specific cover, otherwise aim for the 2x 3* tier. If the 3* rewards are for a freshly released character, aim for those unless the 2* cover represents a significant ability upgrade.

mouser

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Im a bit out of touch with how difficult it is to place in the diabolical token range for lrs. When i was grinding diabolical tokens, a. Wolvie and thor were still unnerfed and boosts were super cheap, so im not entirely sure how hard it is to currently get a token: hailmarys analysis looks good to me and is what i would expect now, so ill go with that.

I loved how back in the "old days" the LR buffs tripled villain critical damage and environment tile collection. I would go into the danger room every time with my weak 2*'s and the donor 3* playing a game of chicken who would get critical tiles first. 9x critical damage and 9-10 per environment tile.

Ah, nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

NorthernPolarity

mouser wrote:

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Im a bit out of touch with how difficult it is to place in the diabolical token range for lrs. When i was grinding diabolical tokens, a. Wolvie and thor were still unnerfed and boosts were super cheap, so im not entirely sure how hard it is to currently get a token: hailmarys analysis looks good to me and is what i would expect now, so ill go with that.

I loved how back in the "old days" the LR buffs tripled villain critical damage and environment tile collection. I would go into the danger room every time with my weak 2*'s and the donor 3* playing a game of chicken who would get critical tiles first. 9x critical damage and 9-10 per environment tile.

Ah, nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

Oh lord, buffs affecting crit multipliers was so broken... I remember there was a short period of time where Classic Hawkeye was godtier because he could force crits on env tiles.