Unholy Outlaw PvP Tournament - March 10th to 12th

Gigas Breaker

Didn't shield this tournament and defended my way into top 10.

Unknown

I only needed top ten, but with an hour to go, I was in such a soft bracket that I plowed my way up to 700 points for 1st place without getting attacked once. My IW was only 1/1/0, so I guess that's good, not that I see myself ever finishing or using her. Fun stuff!

Unknown

I pushed to 12th at 512 points, and stopped and 3 hr shielded. Even though my IM40 isn't max cover, i don't really care for him so i'm just in it for that 2500 ISO, the 1 yellow cover, and 100 HP.

Unknown

I was in a pretty apathetic bracket so I got to 800, didn't bother shielding, stopped looking at 1hr to go and ended up first. My IW is now 5/0/1... so she's still completely useless (and will remain so no matter what covers I get. Go-go 4* heroes.)

Unknown

I'm sure if I was cover constrained I'd feel differently about it, but the move to higher ISO rewards for Top 25 is a nice bonus. 3000 ISO plus 150 HP (500 prog reward + placement) for minimal output isn't bad for a few hours' work.

Unknown

Powered my way up the ladder, unexpectedly to the top of my bracket.

Played leapfrog with the bracket leader and ended up on top. Woot!

So, now, after not possessing an IM40 at all 10ish days ago, he now joins my rapidly-becoming-crowded pile of level 85 3***s (I really should do something about that soon). But then again, I could still bring DD (meh) and Doom (okay?) to 85 before finally moving forward.

Also..... Punisher 5-green Judgment + 100% Rainbow damage bonus + 60% Blue/Purple damage bonus + OBW Espionage = Holy tinykitty

Unknown

This was the first PvP I've tanked completely in a while. The noon finish isn't good with my work schedule, but I already had IM40 max covered (in need of respec though) so I couldn't really get motivated for this one. Would rather spend my time on maintaining top 200 in the Hulk PvE.

I think I'm starting to get burned out on MPQ. Even the new PvP with Hood as the reward barely piques my interest. I have Hood covered the way I want already. I may play in that one to farm ISO and get some HPs out of it, but couldn't care less about the rewards.

Unknown

I couldn't do anything in this tourney.

The game thinks I should always face guys that have fully leveled 3*** teams of Hulk Spider-man/orMagneto with their fully leveled Hood or at least a really high leveled hood.

Unknown

Lyrian wrote:

Powered my way up the ladder, unexpectedly to the top of my bracket.

Played leapfrog with the bracket leader and ended up on top. Woot!

So, now, after not possessing an IM40 at all 10ish days ago, he now joins my rapidly-becoming-crowded pile of level 85 3***s (I really should do something about that soon). But then again, I could still bring DD (meh) and Doom (okay?) to 85 before finally moving forward.

Also..... Punisher 5-green Judgment + 100% Rainbow damage bonus + 60% Blue/Purple damage bonus + OBW Espionage = Holy tinykitty

You should really focus on leveling some of your 3*. A level 85 3* is actually weaker than a 85 2*. The tipping point is around 100. 120 for real good separation from the 2* and when you finally max them, they truly shine.

Unknown

spider-prime wrote:

I couldn't do anything in this tourney.

The game thinks I should always face guys that have fully leveled 3*** teams of Hulk Spider-man/orMagneto with their fully leveled Hood or at least a really high leveled hood.

Did I push you out of first? Your name look familiar. I find when I join brackets first place is usually some underleveled team. Had to take this one down, first non Lightning round win since the first patch tourney. Won a few Hood lighting rounds since.

Unknown

The buffs showing the effective level shows the by design a level 141 3* is about equal to a level 115 2*. A properly balanced 3* has more HP but has less damage than their 2* counterpart which is why it takes longer than expected before the two balances out.

This doesn't include 3* who are obviously out of whack, like Magneto, who simply has more HP and does more damage as well, or Patch, who is clearly meant to do a ton of damage at a considerable cost. Note that 3* generally have better conditional damage. For example, Punisher's Judgment assumes there's a pretty good chance your own strike tiles gets destroyed by it (it seems like it can even hit whatever strike tile you just generated in the tile destruction part) which is why if they do stay up, they will do more damage than a comparable 2* ability. Some conditional damage are much easier to fulfill (like Judgment), while some are actually pretty bad (like Summon Demons).

Unknown

entropic01 wrote:

Lyrian wrote:

Powered my way up the ladder, unexpectedly to the top of my bracket.

Played leapfrog with the bracket leader and ended up on top. Woot!

So, now, after not possessing an IM40 at all 10ish days ago, he now joins my rapidly-becoming-crowded pile of level 85 3***s (I really should do something about that soon). But then again, I could still bring DD (meh) and Doom (okay?) to 85 before finally moving forward.

Also..... Punisher 5-green Judgment + 100% Rainbow damage bonus + 60% Blue/Purple damage bonus + OBW Espionage = Holy tinykitty

You should really focus on leveling some of your 3*. A level 85 3* is actually weaker than a 85 2*. The tipping point is around 100. 120 for real good separation from the 2* and when you finally max them, they truly shine.

I'm fully aware of that. My strategy had been to build a semi-decent roster of mid-leveled 3*** characters to avoid the issue of having 3 great characters and then absolutely no one else if those three weren't the best in any given scenario. The recent trend of effective powered-up characters in PvE has really shown the value of this course of action.

That being said, I am sitting on: 85 Ares, CMags, Hulk, IM40, OBW, Patch, Punisher, Psylocke, and Spidey; with all of the 3***s capable of reaching 100+ and some 141.

I keep trying to tell myself when enough is enough and finally start moving north of 85. Of course, as I mentioned above, I keep looking at Doom and saying "One more cover..." /sigh

NorthernPolarity

Lyrian wrote:

entropic01 wrote:

Lyrian wrote:

Powered my way up the ladder, unexpectedly to the top of my bracket.

Played leapfrog with the bracket leader and ended up on top. Woot!

So, now, after not possessing an IM40 at all 10ish days ago, he now joins my rapidly-becoming-crowded pile of level 85 3***s (I really should do something about that soon). But then again, I could still bring DD (meh) and Doom (okay?) to 85 before finally moving forward.

Also..... Punisher 5-green Judgment + 100% Rainbow damage bonus + 60% Blue/Purple damage bonus + OBW Espionage = Holy tinykitty

You should really focus on leveling some of your 3*. A level 85 3* is actually weaker than a 85 2*. The tipping point is around 100. 120 for real good separation from the 2* and when you finally max them, they truly shine.

I'm fully aware of that. My strategy had been to build a semi-decent roster of mid-leveled 3*** characters to avoid the issue of having 3 great characters and then absolutely no one else if those three weren't the best in any given scenario. The recent trend of effective powered-up characters in PvE has really shown the value of this course of action.

That being said, I am sitting on: 85 Ares, CMags, Hulk, IM40, OBW, Patch, Punisher, Psylocke, and Spidey; with all of the 3***s capable of reaching 100+ and some 141.

I keep trying to tell myself when enough is enough and finally start moving north of 85. Of course, as I mentioned above, I keep looking at Doom and saying "One more cover..." /sigh

Catchall characters that work well in all situations do exist though: ive been using punisher mags for all my matches in the past month, and theyve never let me down. It seems like d3 is now only buffing old 3*s by 25 levels, so i think its better to have a couple of versatile maxed out 3*s that you can bring to any fight (cough punisher cough), since they wont be buffed to an insane level anymore.

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

For example, Punisher's Judgment assumes there's a pretty good chance your own strike tiles gets destroyed by it (it seems like it can even hit whatever strike tile you just generated in the tile destruction part) which is why if they do stay up, they will do more damage than a comparable 2* ability. Some conditional damage are much easier to fulfill (like Judgment), while some are actually pretty bad (like Summon Demons).

I think he can't shoot his tiles. What (I think) happens:

1 Shoot an area, tiles destroyed.
2 Area filled with new tiles.
3 Strikes generated at random locations.
4 Board checked for existing matches.

So it can create the sword in a triplet that will get removed right after -- or a few steps later in the cascade.

I don't think the strikes are created before the area destruction, watching the screen closely suggests the way written above.

Unknown

pasa_ wrote:

Phantron wrote:

For example, Punisher's Judgment assumes there's a pretty good chance your own strike tiles gets destroyed by it (it seems like it can even hit whatever strike tile you just generated in the tile destruction part) which is why if they do stay up, they will do more damage than a comparable 2* ability. Some conditional damage are much easier to fulfill (like Judgment), while some are actually pretty bad (like Summon Demons).

I think he can't shoot his tiles. What (I think) happens:

1 Shoot an area, tiles destroyed.
2 Area filled with new tiles.
3 Strikes generated at random locations.
4 Board checked for existing matches.

So it can create the sword in a triplet that will get removed right after -- or a few steps later in the cascade.

I don't think the strikes are created before the area destruction, watching the screen closely suggests the way written above.

Well it definitely can be destroyed by the cascade triggered after the tile destruction. I'm just not sure if he can shoot the strike tiles he just created.

Unknown

pasa_ wrote:

Phantron wrote:

For example, Punisher's Judgment assumes there's a pretty good chance your own strike tiles gets destroyed by it (it seems like it can even hit whatever strike tile you just generated in the tile destruction part) which is why if they do stay up, they will do more damage than a comparable 2* ability. Some conditional damage are much easier to fulfill (like Judgment), while some are actually pretty bad (like Summon Demons).

I think he can't shoot his tiles. What (I think) happens:

1 Shoot an area, tiles destroyed.
2 Area filled with new tiles.
3 Strikes generated at random locations.
4 Board checked for existing matches.

So it can create the sword in a triplet that will get removed right after -- or a few steps later in the cascade.

I don't think the strikes are created before the area destruction, watching the screen closely suggests the way written above.

I agree with this and I pretty much use my 141 punisher at all times.

Unknown

In any case Punisher's strike tiles are IME pretty strudy and most of them stay around for long. While patchie's are extremely fragile and get washed away (the green ones, not the purples by too many effects. The red strikes from various sources are in the middle, they are not washed away but likely picked up soon by normal red collection.

Also the shooting appears to hurt the existing stuff way less than I thought it will and really just starts taking out when the whole board is infested with molotov artifacts. So Frank rulez.

Unknown

spider-prime wrote:

I couldn't do anything in this tourney.

The game thinks I should always face guys that have fully leveled 3*** teams of Hulk Spider-man/orMagneto with their fully leveled Hood or at least a really high leveled hood.

My recent tactic, which turned out to be working pretty damn well:

I start the tourney any convenient time, preferably at 8-11am CEST (I think it's middle of the night for the East Coast US), when US is asleep and Asia hasn't woken up yet. I grind my way up to 300-400pts, to become a tasty target. Then I put up my tank team, remembering to change the buffed character for the one given by the game (i.e. lvl15 usually), I play a couple of fights, when I'm killed I revive my poor lowlevel teammates and repeat, for a total of 3-5fights.
Then I wait for like 10hrs before the end of the tourney and grind my way again - first I get good points from retaliations, then I get easier opponents.
8hrs mark - shield on.

NorthernPolarity

Emeryt wrote:

spider-prime wrote:

I couldn't do anything in this tourney.

The game thinks I should always face guys that have fully leveled 3*** teams of Hulk Spider-man/orMagneto with their fully leveled Hood or at least a really high leveled hood.

My recent tactic, which turned out to be working pretty damn well:

I start the tourney any convenient time, preferably at 8-11am CEST (I think it's middle of the night for the East Coast US), when US is asleep and Asia hasn't woken up yet. I grind my way up to 300-400pts, to become a tasty target. Then I put up my tank team, remembering to change the buffed character for the one given by the game (i.e. lvl15 usually), I play a couple of fights, when I'm killed I revive my poor lowlevel teammates and repeat, for a total of 3-5fights.
Then I wait for like 10hrs before the end of the tourney and grind my way again - first I get good points from retaliations, then I get easier opponents.
8hrs mark - shield on.

A more time-saving way of doing this is to tank the LRs right after you grind the tournament. This achieves the same effect of tanking while earning more iso/hour than having to regrind your tournament points back.

Unknown

pasa_ wrote:

In any case Punisher's strike tiles are IME pretty strudy and most of them stay around for long. While patchie's are extremely fragile and get washed away (the green ones, not the purples by too many effects. The red strikes from various sources are in the middle, they are not washed away but likely picked up soon by normal red collection.

Also the shooting appears to hurt the existing stuff way less than I thought it will and really just starts taking out when the whole board is infested with molotov artifacts. So Frank rulez.

The Punisher is probably slightly overpowered precisely because his strike tiles turns out to be surprisingly resilient. I'm sure he was designed thinking 'what are the odds 3 randomly placed strike tile will stay up for long?', but for whatever reason the answer is apparently pretty good. I suspect this is because since the AI doesn't actually have any priorities in matching, strategically placed strike tile turns out to be no different to them versus randomly placed ones. But it's clearly intended the random nature of his green is supposed to be a limiting factor. It just doesn't seem to matter in practice though I doubt that's something that can easily be forseen.