4* leveling strategy

Tatercat

I've had a strategy for some time where I would level my 4*'s as a group, as much cover caps would allow, and it's worked pretty well so, but now I've got an issue/internal debate. First, my situation:

I've 4 five stars, no more than 4 covers at best (none of them really "ready" yet, just mention this for the scaling consideration) SS:260 0/2/2, OML: 255 1/2/2, Phx: 255 0/2/0, Spidey: 255 1/0/0

I've currently got 6 four star characters at lvl 213:

JeanGrey: 5/3/5 (just got her 13 cover today)
Kingpin: 3/5/5
Thor: 5/5/3
XFW: 3/5/5
XDP: 3/3/5 (cover cap is 229)
IM HB: 5/4/1 (cover cap maxed at 213)

Also have Red Hulk and Antman, cover cap maxed at lvl 209. Even though those 1st four are ready go to 270, I only have 43,647 ISO. I was planning to continue my strategy of group leveling by stock piling ISO until I could take that first 5 (JG to XDP) to level 229. It would take a while, but I figured if scaling got crazy (or if the upcoming scaling change does something unexpected), I would have a solid base of "top guys" to handle it.

However, I got a 14th Kingpin cover this morning (another purple). And my Kingpin could benefit greatly from respec to 5/3/5 (so could my Thor too). Taking what I already have in ISO and figuring in the 12500 cost to champion a 4*, I would need to get around 178,879 ISO (or so) to get him there before it expires. I think that's possible in two weeks, maybe.

But even if I could pull it off, should I? He'd be up there by himself, so for good while, until I could bring up the others, or even one other. That could be weeks of me taking on higher scaled enemies with only Kingpin as a guy on their level, which would slow down the ISO train (slow it down even more). Could he handle it with only lvl 213's as back up? I'd love to max JG first if I did any, but there isn't time to do more than one.

Or should I just forget it and continue my current group strategy? My concern is that extra 4* is going to be growing more and more as a problem moving forward. (I've had to sell 3 HB red covers in the last month because of his cap, but it would really suck if to do for characters who potentially could be championed if the ISO was there.) At this point would it be smarter to focus on just max leveling a 4* one at a time instead of a group?

Thanks for any advice. I mostly play PVE, but I do midlevel play PVP for the extra rewards and ISO, if that's a consideration.

TxMoose

for pve play, I find myself using my 180 thor over my champed cyke. put her with im40 and any good green user (jean would work great, but could be rulk, kk or even storm or fist) and you can take down some nasty nodes (did that top node with hood/bulls/muscle with minimal damage today with im40/thor/ice). in pvp when she doesn't have im40 feeding her, she is a pretty slow character and not wildly effective in pvp. but man, when you can partner her with im40, its so good. maxing someone out to 270 really wouldn't impact your scaling much unless they're boosted (like this week for thor). I've played with kp boosted before (mine is at 180) and I'm not crazy about him overall. yellow is expensive and takes forever to get damage out of. if you can get black he's good, but if the board doesn't give up black, he turns into a slow, slow tank. with im40 change, thor has shot up my iso list ahead of xpool and thing - she will be my next after im40 is done. for pve I don't think you'd regret thor at all, especially getting to respec her. after maxing my 4th 4*, its a sloooow, loooong process, and I'm a complete iso **** - playing LRs and unboosted pve as much as possible.

I might be tempted to bring thor and jean up together and let the others come later. jean is great against goons with witch and can handle herself just fine in pvp. and they can work together as a pvp pair ok.

that said, bringing them up all together would give you a strong group. that xf/xp combo is a blast to play and I play my 172xf and 145xp with my 183cmags in TBE every day.

really your preference. if it were me I'd probably work on thor and jean together.

Tatercat

That 4*Thor/IM40/Kamala combo is very sweet indeed, one the main reasons I've love to get Thor's blue from 3 to 5 covers with a respec. In fact, one of the other options I was considering before today was going back to champ my lvl 101 IM40 because of that combo. He might be better "hidden" at his lower level tho, currently with the Kamala team, he's never exposed to the front line.

And that was one of my fears about Kingpin - great, brutal even, when he gets going, but he needs help to get to that point and it's always tough to get those black countdowns to go off for the big damage. Maybe with Thor at 5/3/5 (more blue stun) that might be feasible.

TxMoose

I'm champing my im40 now. after i finish him and thor, i plan on running him with thor and ice in shield sim next season. i ran cyke and ice in im40s event and pushed from 650 to 1100 on 2 healthpacks. he makes things so efficient its crazy. i don't mind exposing him that much because, when leveled, he has a very high pool of health. and his abilities, while expensive, aren't bad backup plans if you lose a guy, but not at as much at 101. and champed, i may consider running him if i had a strong red user or green user as a featured. and when he's boosted, he'll be pretty popular i think.

Pongie

Max the 4* one at time. That's what I'm doing. You have 5* recruited so a loan 4* maxed shouldn't cause much scaling, if any. Obviously your Jean is the first one to target, then start on your IMHB (even if he is level capped). You got 5 red and that's the colour that matters the most, followed by black. It's never a waste of iso when you're leveling IMHB.

Nest is really up to you. I also don't fancy kingpin but I haven't played much with Thor to give an opinion. XFW isn't that great too, but I do like XFDP. He benefits from champion too by being able to respec as needed. Pairing with kingpin or XFW, then max purple, with OML max black etc.