Is round 8 of Civil War effectively 4* gated?

Vhailorx

this thread is NOT intended as a criticism of the game design or a complaint about the devs.

From reading through threads here on the forum, and also discussing things with some teammates in in-game-chat, it seems like the only people have regular success in round 8 (and to a lesser extent round 7) of the civil war event (on both sides) are those with specific 4*s champed (or advanced 5*s rosters, but we already knew they broke the curve on PVE).

On the Team IM side, a champed IMHB seems like the minimum to reliably deal with 5* cap.

On the Team Cap side, a champed Thing seems equally essential. (Flaptain may also serve as a functional tank, given that he can pump out protect tiles fairly reliably. But he doesn't have the general utility of Thing. Ant man seems too squishy and not well designed to fight Boss IM46)

While both of these characters have useful abilities (especially IMHB), their single most important asset for this event is a giant stack of health. Without 30+k health, it's very very hard to survive long enough to implement any sort of strategy against the bosses.

Overall, I very much like the idea of a graduated difficulty curve, where only top tier rosters can compete for the very best rewards. It seems like a great way to have a single event serve the entire community (provided the earlier rounds provide sufficient rewards for the transition players. And that's certainly the case in this event with fixed 4* covers starting in round 4). But I do wonder whether it's a good idea to gate the final round(s) down to a single 4*. I don't have a problem with high health bosses that have massive match damage, but perhaps a slightly broader pool of 4*s would allow for more creative strategies and team designs, while still preserving the general 'rounds 7 and 8 are for 4* players' design philosophy.

(Note: Level 400+ 5*s are, of course, viable in Rounds 7 and 8 even without boosts. But that's basically true of any activity in the game, and affects such a small number of players that it seems unnecessary to consider them in detail in this post.)

TheWerebison

Don't need to have them champed, no. I beat round 8 Cap 4 out of 6 times with my 195 (boosted to 285) 5/5/3 HB, combined with a 171 Switch and 153 IF.

I will admit that without HB, though, I probably would've been hosed.

Smudge

Cap's beatable without boosted 4* characters at round 8, but it's dramatically less likely.

I took him down on my first attempt with 4* Thor level 270 5/3/5 (not champed yet), boosted/champed IM40, and 5* Phoenix 1/1/3 level 255.

That team was good for near 100% against Cap in round 7, and I'm 1/2 on him (about 30k damage the second time before wiping) in round 8. I'd try more, but I work third shift on the weekends and it's tougher for me to get into it and play, so I don't have much more to report back.

I've heard it's doable with only 3*s based on scattered reports here, but I've not tried it since I can rock the Thor/IM40 combo. For the record, my IMHB is still only 4/1/2 post-event covers, level 70 base (160 boosted), so I have not used him except on the required nodes.

Tryke

Beat round 8 Cap 4/6 times using KK/Hulk/CStorm, but it aint easy. Sometimes he just gets cascades and wipes you out, but it's a pretty effective team otherwise.

BlackSheep101

If you're limited to just 3*s, you'll probably want to get some kind of infinite engine going. Against Galactus that was Hulk/MoStorm/Cyc for me. You can probably use KK instead of Cyc to keep Hulk on his feet longer. It'll take longer but the aoe will help against IM's house party.

SpaceBearPig

I think my allience ended top 15 on cap side and i was top 5 all along kicking ims butt with 3*cap cap marvel and obw. Every match from im triggered energy absorbtion. A few more in my allience had success with it as well. Its all about figuring out the problem to beat these nodes. Dont be defeatist. No 4* required.

Vhailorx

SpaceBearPig wrote:

I think my allience ended top 15 on cap side and i was top 5 all along kicking ims butt with 3*cap cap marvel and obw. Every match from im triggered energy absorbtion. A few more in my allience had success with it as well. Its all about figuring out the problem to beat these nodes. Dont be defeatist. No 4* required.

No defeatism here. I can see how 3*s might beat these bosses with a clever strategy and a good board. But I can't see how it could be done sustainably (i.e. 5 or 6 times every 8 hours using less than 10 healthpacks).

For example: even with marvel triggering every round, how do you out out enough damage to drop a 60k boss? Marvel's red does less than 2k even at max covers.

I have seen a lot of kk suggestions, and she seems like a good way to mitigate the huge match damage. And Winfinite engines are also a clear possibility. But a bad cascade can drop any unboosted 3*.

(and note that I have imhb champed and finished round 8 earlier today. My post is not about sour grapes whining cos I can't compete. Just a discussion about design philosophy)

hodayathink

Vhailorx wrote:

SpaceBearPig wrote:

I think my allience ended top 15 on cap side and i was top 5 all along kicking ims butt with 3*cap cap marvel and obw. Every match from im triggered energy absorbtion. A few more in my allience had success with it as well. Its all about figuring out the problem to beat these nodes. Dont be defeatist. No 4* required.

No defeatism here. I can see how 3*s might beat these bosses with a clever strategy and a good board. But I can't see how it could be done sustainably (i.e. 5 or 6 times every 8 hours using less than 10 healthpacks).

For example: even with marvel triggering every round, how do you out out enough damage to drop a 60k boss? Marvel's red does less than 2k even at max covers.

I have seen a lot of kk suggestions, and she seems like a good way to mitigate the huge match damage. And Winfinite engines are also a clear possibility. But a bad cascade can drop any unboosted 3*.

(and note that I have imhb champed and finished round 8 earlier today. My post is not about sour grapes whining cos I can't compete. Just a discussion about design philosophy)

With that team, I think you're using Steve's red, not Carol. Thinking about it, it would be Steve's red to do damage, OBW to steal and heal, and either Carol's black or Steve's blue to stun if he actually gets to do HPP, so you can still hit him. And collecting blue and red should be easy since he charges those.

Vhailorx

I see, I thought "cap" was just double typed in error, but the team is lazy cap + marvel + obw.

Thevipper

On caps side in r6 with a 1/1/1 boosted lvl 140 thing and champed 2*mags and storm is getting it done but not guranteed i need a good board and i need atleast 22 blue to stun the adds when they come while stoping yellow for as long as i can maybe adding lvls to thing might help me more but thats all i got. That works for me so far and were still 1.1 mil points away to get that token

SpaceBearPig

hodayathink wrote:

Vhailorx wrote:

SpaceBearPig wrote:

I think my allience ended top 15 on cap side and i was top 5 all along kicking ims butt with 3*cap cap marvel and obw. Every match from im triggered energy absorbtion. A few more in my allience had success with it as well. Its all about figuring out the problem to beat these nodes. Dont be defeatist. No 4* required.

No defeatism here. I can see how 3*s might beat these bosses with a clever strategy and a good board. But I can't see how it could be done sustainably (i.e. 5 or 6 times every 8 hours using less than 10 healthpacks).

For example: even with marvel triggering every round, how do you out out enough damage to drop a 60k boss? Marvel's red does less than 2k even at max covers.

I have seen a lot of kk suggestions, and she seems like a good way to mitigate the huge match damage. And Winfinite engines are also a clear possibility. But a bad cascade can drop any unboosted 3*.

(and note that I have imhb champed and finished round 8 earlier today. My post is not about sour grapes whining cos I can't compete. Just a discussion about design philosophy)

With that team, I think you're using Steve's red, not Carol. Thinking about it, it would be Steve's red to do damage, OBW to steal and heal, and either Carol's black or Steve's blue to stun if he actually gets to do HPP, so you can still hit him. And collecting blue and red should be easy since he charges those.

Yeah pretty much just deny yellow and boost blue purple since you can only match with her a few times. Hell i downed him even without boost. Its weak against cascades of course but you cant stop luck.

Before cap marvel dies unload all black on im or stun his drones to keep pinging him with lazycap.

If you get enough yellow to fire of lazycaps protect tiles hes hiting you very soft and its all a deny game (has happened). However you will lose health packs. But there is 8 hours of buttkicking to be done so spread the love.

favabear

I've been able to beat IM with 3* a handful of times, but I would note that you don't have to be beating him a lot to win if your alliance is actively contributing. Most of my group is struggling to beat him regularly but we're still on track to complete the round...though not with a ton of time to spare.

HaywireII

Captain Marvel, IM40 and GSBW (first two champed, last at 140) made a great team against Cap through the entire event. They were all boosted and Marvel generated a lot of AP before she would go down. I also used a lot of health packs but I got all of the Team Iron man rewards with a 3* team.

Lemminkäinen

My lvl 306 OML + Hood and Ironfist have failed in killing IM maybe six times throughout the whole event. I was the point king in our alliance. BUT, the second in points is a three-star player (no fully-covered four-stars and his closest is IMHB who cannot be used against IM). There are various things that work in the three-star land.

Ctenko

Round 7 Cap beat me all of Twice, through luck.

Round 8 Cap is dropping me 50% of the time, and when he does kill me I take a good 40k health off him.

180 Im40/ 174Captain Marvel/ 172Black Widow is Serving me really well. All Champed. I have no maxed 4 stars, and only One with 13 covers. And That's an X-Force. Pretty much useless here.

Fights are tough, but possible.

Iron Man is presenting even less of a challenge since we flipped to him. SWitch, KK, Hawkeye, has been doing phenomenal. Even onto Round 6 now. He's usually dead around turn 6. Doesn't even call his little Robot pals.

He'd be easier with a thing though, and Cap would be easier with a Hulkbuster. Just wish mine wasn't a 1/1/5. So SO useless, without his red.

Vhailorx

So it sounds like 3*s players have found some strategies that worked at least well enough for this event after all. (mostly via liberal use of strong passive powers like Cap. Marvel and KK)

Awesome! More positive news about Civil War. Now if we could just fix the scaling issues on the Gauntlet. . .

Ctenko

Vhailorx wrote:

So it sounds like 3*s players have found some strategies that worked at least well enough for this event after all. (mostly via liberal use of strong passive powers like Cap. Marvel and KK)

Awesome! More positive news about Civil War. Now if we could just fix the scaling issues on the Gauntlet. . .

I would also like a fix on the scaling of the sub nodes to CW. Cause uh... I can't even fight the bosses anymore.

Natsufan01

Penance Stare!! Downed round 8 cap a couple times using 3* cap marvel for black generation, my 5/0/5 level 130 imhb and my level 90 GR eith only 2 black. If you have 3 or 4, you can reliably down cap. Keep GR safe at all costs. Use his black as late as you can and as many times as you need to