"challenging fun!" or "a tale of the gauntlet!"

Vhailorx

Just got my iceman cover.

So 42 main nodes + 6 essentials.

My roster for this event capped out at imhb @280. I also have a functional winfinite, and a im40/4*thor. Elektra was my highest boosted 4* (5/5/3 @ 260ish for this event, 188 base).

My nodes hit level 300 in the first sub. Global domination started at 370 (goon) and ended at 413. My essential nodes were all 390+.

I used:
Mega-whales -- 4 times
IM40/4*thor -- 12-ish times (including 5/6 essentials nodes with boosts)
Winfinite -- 24 uses, including the last several mainline nodes
Imhb/if -- 1 time (in alpine tactics)
Everything else: the remaining 7 or so nodes.

I used about 30 health packs (only dipped into my taco vault to top up on healthpacks once at the very end).

Clearly the challenge was not impossible. And I really needed the iceman cover (still desperate to max one of the good purple/green 4*s) so I was well motivated.

My experience generally sucked though. I used cheap teams almost all the time. Basically had no other option, as all of global domination was more than 100 levels higher than my very best character. I had one character with 18k health, and several more with 12 or 13k. The ai characters were typically around 33 or 34k. So that's my 45k v. 110k for the ai. PLUS the ai also does something like 400-600 damage per match 3.

My options were bash my roster against board luck over and over again until I get incredibly lucky tile drops and win (a strategy that requires lots more health), or use gimmicky pve teams. I didn't get to enjoy my relatively deep roster, or experiment with fun team construction techniques. I just had to use the same few teams over and over again because nothing else available to me had any real chance of success at all.

Now all I need is 6 more iceman covers. That shouldn't take more than several months of rng tokens + a few 1k PvP rewards.

Escape2victory

Complete turn-off.
Got to Sim 20 and stopped after running several teams with no success. I've got a handful of the best 3* maxed plus 3 unlevelled 5* for my sins. Opponents roughly 100 levels higher than my 3* except boosted Loki who is still squishy. I'm tired after CW but still wanted to play casual Gauntlet like I normally do. Can't be bothered, it's just not worth the pain.

BlackSheep101

Perhaps we should back off of asking for guaranteed 4* covers in every PVE event. This might be what Demiurge thinks is an appropriate amount of difficulty for that level of reward...

Vhailorx

BlackSheep101 wrote:

Perhaps we should back off of asking for guaranteed 4* covers in every PVE event. This might be what Demiurge thinks is an appropriate amount of difficulty for that level of reward...

Why? When 3*s were the meta every pve event offered multiple covers for top 50 finishers, plus alliance covers. 4*s are the current meta and are released 1st the same rate as 3*s. Why are their covers STILL so hard to get. This is not a new problem. I have been pointing this out for at least the past 10 months.

theo199

Good for you. Lol.

halirin

Did you try using fun varied teams at all? I'm only halfway through, but I'm having pretty good luck tailoring the 3* team to the opponents. I just had a fun one with Switch, 3* Spider-Man, and cyclops to take out some level 343 baddies. I'm also making good use of Hood because he's awesome. Ooh, maybe my next team should be hood, kk, 3cap. Woulda killed for that team this time last year.

RoryQ

Forever using cheap teams, IM40 and Iceman whenever possible. I'm up to 26 and I think I'm done. Already over 70 levels ahead of my only champed 4*. I would push on but reward does not equal effort.

Vhailorx

halirin wrote:

Did you try using fun varied teams at all? I'm only halfway through, but I'm having pretty good luck tailoring the 3* team to the opponents. I just had a fun one with Switch, 3* Spider-Man, and cyclops to take out some level 343 baddies. I'm also making good use of Hood because he's awesome. Ooh, maybe my next team should be hood, kk, 3cap. Woulda killed for that team this time last year.

I messed around with some fun teams in the first sub, and I may double back and try some in alpine tactics. I had a surprising amount of fun using im40 + daredevil + Loki. Stunlock with all the blue. Then flood the board with red traps and use Loki to start shuffling tiles. Slow, but enjoyable, especially when you finally let the ai take a move, but bait it into a match4 red that contains multiple traps.

But forget about hood in global domination without using gimmick teams. Even champed he has what, 8k health? Forget about that when the ai has 32-35k health each and does almost 1k damage from a single match 3.

That's kinda the point. I would love to mess around with fun team combinations. But that isn't possible when more than 50% of the nodes are 120+ levels above the highest level character in my roster!

theo199

Trolololol

KGB

Apparently scaling on this event is going to be lowered tomorrow (see the bug forum).

Anyway congrats for running the Gauntlet on 'insane' difficulty.

KGB

veny

Getting my **** kicked by Red Hulk...
Its very nice after 3 years, 1000 hours+ played and full 3* roster. Plus, the reward are soo poor.
More and more i am asking why i still play this game - maxing out my 4* covers will take decades of hard work. I am not sure i am willing to spend m best years in difficult events just to get 500ISO... no wait, ***ing crit boosts!!!

irwando

My experience was similar to the OP - 3 Megawhales, mostly Winfinite for the other nodes, with a smattering of IF/IMHB thrown in. Finished all of Global Domination for the Iceman Cover (now 2/3/3). Overall pretty boring or frustrating when I lost due to luck (looking at you JG/HB/Thor node).

I feel bad for anyone without an extremely high roster or who can't Winfinite. I hope they do fix the scaling before it ends to give more folks a shot.

chamber44

KGB wrote:

Apparently scaling on this event is going to be lowered tomorrow (see the bug forum).



KGB

Hmm. Burying this in the Bugs forum seems to be in keeping with their overall communications strategy.

Warbringa

I can't make it past node 21 with Switch and IM40 feeding frenzy. Obviously I could if I Whale them but no sense in whaling so soon since everything after will be nearly as impossible. The selection of boosted characters is terrible and the scaling is stupid. Gauntlet used to be my favorite event. The devs ruin everything the touch....

Smudge

Warbringa wrote:

I can't make it past node 21 with Switch and IM40 feeding frenzy. Obviously I could if I Whale them but no sense in whaling so soon since everything after will be nearly as impossible. The selection of boosted characters is terrible and the scaling is stupid. Gauntlet used to be my favorite event. The devs ruin everything the touch....

Yeah, scaling is definitely aimed at better rosters than yours and mine. They clearly never should have released the 5* tier, or at least should have gone about it differently.

Side note, for that node, I used 4thor, Loki, and Blade. Worked pretty well. Looking at your roster, lazy Thor might work in a pinch for 4thor. I came really close despite the squishy hit points with daredevil, hood, and obw, but I couldn't seal the deal after witch got off her nuke.

Kaazz

Not even going to enter 2nd gauntlet. Took everything I had just to finish the first one. I have no 5* chars, and no maxed 4*. All my chars are 156 and below. By the end of first gauntlet, I was facing teams higher than my boosted chars!

No way can I even hope to finish the second one, let alone the third.

If their intent was to stop people from playing the game, they succeeded.

bluewolf

In approx 30 min the game will update, and scaling will be drastically reduced. It is stated as a developer error, that it is so high. Just be patient....

Miztiq

Unpopular opinion, but I actually enjoyed it (pre-patch). Full 3 star roster (2/3 champed), sprinkling of 5s and no usable 4s. No winfinity. Global was about 320-365.

Whaled twice, once early in Global when i hit something intimidating, then discovered I only had one whale left, which forced me to slow down and get creative. 2nd whale on Eddie essential (only 1 cover and last node left)

Found it challenging enough to be interesting. Would rather do that than repeatedly grind easy nodes any day.

I think it's easier for 3 star rosters because there are so many strategic options available.

I do think there should just be one bigger prize for each node though to match the sense of achievement of winning the hard ones - going back and grinding for small prizes just doesn't fit with the idea of running a gauntlet.

newton999

You don't need Winfinite to clear the Gauntlet...

I played until sim 36 prepatch with Loki (lvl 234) et Patch / OBW.
Patch green et black Loki and you're safe most of time.
Postpatch, it was easier.

But it's true i was happy to play IM40 / Iceman lvl 209 / X23 lvl 230 when one of those was in front of me.

And i whaled only the Venom Essential.

Very long but a "puzzle" game this time.

Vhailorx

Miztiq wrote:

Unpopular opinion, but I actually enjoyed it (pre-patch). Full 3 star roster (2/3 champed), sprinkling of 5s and no usable 4s. No winfinity. Global was about 320-365.

Whaled twice, once early in Global when i hit something intimidating, then discovered I only had one whale left, which forced me to slow down and get creative. 2nd whale on Eddie essential (only 1 cover and last node left)

Found it challenging enough to be interesting. Would rather do that than repeatedly grind easy nodes any day.

I think it's easier for 3 star rosters because there are so many strategic options available.

I do think there should just be one bigger prize for each node though to match the sense of achievement of winning the hard ones - going back and grinding for small prizes just doesn't fit with the idea of running a gauntlet.

That's a fine opinion. What 3* teams did you use to get through?

For myself, the scaling was just a bit beyond what I think is a reasonable challenge for my roster. After the downward shift, my final nodes in global domination are around 370. Alpine tactics is finishing up around 300. For my roster with nothing past 280 in the event, that's a fair challenge that lets me mix and match from the entire top of my roster.

But before that, with enemy level in the 380-400 range for almost all of global domination, I have very few options. I could grind sustainably with winfinite or fistbuster or im40/4*thor, but anything else was more likely to wipe than succeed. and with only 10 healthpacks it's impossible to sustain many wipes.

carrion_pigeons

As a player without any usable 4*s, Patch, OBW, and Loki were by far my most useful characters in this Gauntlet. That team will get you pretty far and is relatively easy on the health pack budget. Just farm enough black and green to get a bunch of protect tiles to nullify match damage and AP-steal your way to victory.

Was also very happy to use Hulk against teams with characters like Carnage and IF. Patch/Hulk is a good combo for the essentials if your essential character sucks (like mine did for everyone but Loki).

Also used a semi-winfinite team of Hood/Magneto/GSBW a few times to decent success.