PvP. I can barely finish progression.

Dragon_Nexus

A few seasons ago I'd hit the final progression reward either on the event before the final one, or about 300 points into the final one.

In this season I've had such an awful run I've finished the final event and need to grind the shield sim because I cannot get over 800 comfortably any more. Back in the good old days I'd struggle around the 950 mark. Sometimes I'd manage to break through to 1000 in that small gap between winning and getting stepped on so I'd walk away with a nice 4*. It would get frustrating sometimes when I'd be at 950, win 60 points but took too long and lost 90+. But if I tried a bit more it would usually work.

I haven't hit 1000 consistently in months. I think I hit 1000 once this season...maybe. It might not even have been that many.

Now I struggle to hit 800. I pick slice 4 where all the high scorers are mostly due to progression but also due to the time zones. I've picked slice 4 for months now and things have just gotten worse.

You need one of two things for PvP now.
1) At least one of this week's boosted 4*, preferably two.
2) Level 300+ OML.

That's it. I spend so much ISO skipping the level 300+ 4* characters worth between 25 and 35 points just waiting for something worth 40+ only to find it's level 360 Cyclops paired with level 358 Jean Grey.

It's getting so tiresome now. And honestly I'm wondering if it's worth it. Past the 10--pack the only thing I'm really busting my hump for is the CP. I'd be better off doing PvE.

I used to enjoy PvP because I had a chance at a 4* cover and really you just needed a good 3* roster to compete to that level while all the 4* guys went beyond to the 1300 and up range, and that suited me fine. Now all the 3*s are utterly worthless in PvP. If you find boosted 3*s, that's an easy win for you 9 times out of 10 because they hit like a toddler.
So I've gone from struggling to get a nice useful 4* cover to just about managing to grab the 3* cover to give my guys one more level...whoopie.

TL;DR Thanks for nerfing all the 3*s, Demiurge. Also if you don't have OML or this week's boosted 4*, you might as well set your expectations on the floor.

Trelocke

I've stopped playing it altogether. Between the pairing system being broken (I can lose 200+ points while fighting for 25? Really?) and every aspect of the game being such a grind and drain on health packs, I simply had to choose. PvE is nearly as frustrating with the outrageous scaling but at least I don't have to worry about losing points I gained toward progression.

jgomes32

PvP is deeply broken. Not losing progression points would be enough to make it somewhat enjoyable.

Best i can do is reach 725. And every time i'm close to cross 800 i'm hit for -100 during the fight...

FierceKiwi

Yeah PVP has always been a broken mess and always will be (hint PVP doesn't work when you have the AI playing as the other P). It's only gotten worse with the introduction of 5* and OML in particular. What used to be a "Hey should we be concerned about all these cracks in the window?" has turned into "What's all this broken glass doing laying around this big open hole in the wall?"...of course it's as likely to be addressed as the national debt is because as long as the whales whale everything is fine and once they stop it's time to flick the lights off and call it a job done (I'd say well done but even the devs aren't delusional enough to buy that.)

Alsmir

I'm not going to bother with progression rewards anymore. All I wanted is to hit 800 for 3-star cover (I'm a new player).
First day I ended with ~550 points. Lost 130 during the night. Grinded in the morning to get to 660, then run out of health packs.
Lost 120 in 2 hours. Then I was winning some, loosing some, finished the day with 600.

Today in the morning I was at 540 with 2 hours untill the end of event. I decided to give it one last try and spent 1 hour before work, playing games. Nah, doesn't matter that it's 6 a.m., after getting to almost 700 I got defeated twice, loosing 80 points. Run out of health packs at 650.

I feel that it's impossible without buying shields and if I have to buy shields I might be better off buying hero tokens.

ammenell

Dragon_Nexus wrote:

I used to enjoy PvP because I had a chance at a 4* cover and really you just needed a good 3* roster to compete to that level while all the 4* guys went beyond to the 1300 and up range, and that suited me fine.

thats still the way i see pvp.
exactly my experience.

ScrubJay

I have switched to joining in the last hour and getting whatever score I can. Works great, I get pretty much the same progression rewards I do otherwise and also 2 or 3 3 star covers. Even got my first #1 finish on my birthday this season.

Shield hopping is not possible for me due to work and sleep needs, so realistically my ceiling is about 800 points.

Polares

PvP is so weird now. I am on the group of people who can comfortably get to 1300 (without using Line), because I have an 11 cover OML and the best 4s champed. I also play on the 4th slice.

In this slice it is very easy to see people with 3k+ points, even 4k. It is people who play using Line and of course they coordinate their attacks. I dare to say they are 'professional' players. In this slice you can find some cupcakes and people in general plays with etiquette over 1000 so you dont get hit that much (of course OML helps, but specially with the people that is still climbing who dont follow these rules)

If you want to play in this slice and get to 1000 you need at least the best 4s champed or if you have a 3 team, then you MUST use Line.

It is also true that now it is better to wait until the last 12 hours to try to get to 1000-1300. There are a lot of maxed champed 5s that stomp over any other team when climbing, so it is better to get some points (400-500 range), then wait until those guys climb (getting aome of the points you got), and then do your climbing after them.

mindsuckr

Have you considered switching slices? I normally play 1 and had to jump into 4 due to life issues and timing. In 1 I can usually fight up to between 800 and 1k before shielding. In 4 it was a slog to get up to 700 without getting beat down or finding hard teams. Try a different time and you may be pleasantly surprised.

Dragon_Nexus

mindsuckr wrote:

Have you considered switching slices? I normally play 1 and had to jump into 4 due to life issues and timing. In 1 I can usually fight up to between 800 and 1k before shielding. In 4 it was a slog to get up to 700 without getting beat down or finding hard teams. Try a different time and you may be pleasantly surprised.

I was going to ask for advice. If Slice 4 is consistently the big boys play area, no girls allowed, then I'll need to switch slices next season.

Like I said, I aim for full progression and the 800 point mark, preferably 900 since that's a more stable place to finish for the 25CP. I can usually reach 2000 in shield sim without much trouble, at least.
I'll give slice 1 a shot next time. I'm not greedy, I don't demand a high placement, but getting a couple of 3* covers out of it to try to claw back some power from the damn things after they got nerfed would be nice.

TimGunn

i gave up on pvp last fall. Only gotten worse since. Come join us in the PVE grind! Goon nodes are always fun!

Blahahah

I never really have this problem. Luckily, Ant man holds his own against the many 3* teams I still stumble across and my roster is just diverse enough to have at least one boosted 3* somewhere in there (except for one time this season, maybe). Maybe it's because my roster mostly hovers around 200 or so, so I'm not in 4* land quite yet, but I find that slice 6 and slice 2 are where I have the most success.

Slice 4 has become a slaughterhouse of Iceman and Jeanclops, so I tend to avoid it barring off-season. Scores stay low anyhow for the most part in my brackets because the top end keep chopping eachother around, and I got lucky with Drax covers so I was able to actually take first in that event (My first 1st place in a while) but that was in slice 6.

So my advice is just change up your slices, however if you feel burnt out feel free to go into PvE. Get some iso, get some covers, maybe come back when the meta shifts or for an event you really want the progression for. I hate PvE personally. Feels boring, don't like going off of timers, rather enjoy the cat-and-mouse points game of PvP. Still, even I have taken a break here and there to just fight the easier fights.

One benefit of being a PvP player: PvE scaling is always a bit too low and thus the nodes never get too hard. I hear people fighting against 395 goons and that just sounds scary to me. If my scaling ever gets above 300 I think I'd just stop playing PvE alltogether haha.

elusive

I've made a topic or two about this (and a lot of posts), since I'm essentially in the same boat as you. Everyone's likely tired of me whining about how I have a 3 star team but keep seeing 4 stars worth ~30 points as soon as I start a PvP. I can't even climb any more because the enemies are that much stronger than me (and they're not even worth an amount of points proportional to the effort involved!).

The problem is that the majority of players here (which I assume are whales, or at the very least hardcore players who spend a lot of time coordinating with each other and have strong 4/5 star teams) have crowed about how much they love the new matchmaking system. Me... I've given up on playing it because I can't even reliably get 500 points, much less 1000. How am I ever going to get a 4 star roster going if the carrot is on a stick that's five miles long?

Gari

So how do you guys not get kicked out of any alliance? Just curious.

Blahahah

Gari wrote:

So how do you guys not get kicked out of any alliance? Just curious.

Not every alliance is so hardcore that anything less than x amount results in a boot.
Likewise, not every alliance plays PvE or PvP exclusively. In fact, most alliances are casual and relatively small.

So I guess to answer, I'm not a **** to other people and show up every day to contribute my 10 iso to everyone's daily. For my alliance, that's usually enough.

658

Level your Surfer. A 360 Surfer plus Rulk, GT, or XDP will get you easily to 1300.

SnowcaTT

Dragon_Nexus wrote:

You need one of two things for PvP now.
1) At least one of this week's boosted 4*, preferably two.
2) Level 300+ OML.

I keep calling OML "the only character that matters"....and I am not kidding. His true healing, massive match damage (level 435 basically equals level 450 of other old ones), massive health despite these...he's just ridiculous.

PVP is awful. I was also one enjoying slowly improving my 4* roster - but RNG lets the 2*'s get 4-6 5* covers and that is all you need to DOMINATE a 4* roster. I finally had to level a 5* this season for the very problem the OP presents - 1K was getting difficult even though I have 7 max 4*'s (most of the good ones).

Even worse is that it doesn't matter if you -can- get a great 5* and start to get 1300...it is SO BORING. YOU SEE THE SAME CHARACTER EVERY SINGLE MATCH. It is -incredibly- hard for me to find any match that is not OML.

I've long advocated banning 5* from 3* PVP and making 4* PVP....but now I see how irrelevant 4* PVP would be, that middle character (even with a massive buff) could be a loaner for anyone with decent 5*'s and it wouldn't matter!!!

The 5*'s were a huge mistake for long-term game balance and play: the players told the devs this day one and the devs didn't care. They were a big money maker up front...and they'll kill the game as the RNG progression drives off the unlucky, and the boredom drives off the rest.

mpqr7

I can confirm that I used to be able to hit 1000+ regularly. Then OML arrived, and I could barely hit 800 points. But now that I have him, I can hit 1300 again. There is no middle ground, unless you have two boosted 4*s or at least some really good 4*s, like jg, ice, rhulk, etc.

SnowcaTT

mpqr7 wrote:

I can confirm that I used to be able to hit 1000+ regularly. Then OML arrived, and I could barely hit 800 points. But now that I have him, I can hit 1300 again. There is no middle ground, unless you have two boosted 4*s or at least some really good 4*s, like jg, ice, rhulk, etc.

Boosted 4*'s and outside communication, in my experience. Every time I broke 1000 with 4*'s only (even two boosted good ones), it was back down very quickly. The 4*'s are just little nothings to the god-hood of the 5*'s.

It's good to hear these type of stories...and deeply, deeply disturbing.

vinnygecko

ScrubJay wrote:

I have switched to joining in the last hour and getting whatever score I can. Works great, I get pretty much the same progression rewards I do otherwise and also 2 or 3 3 star covers. Even got my first #1 finish on my birthday this season.

Shield hopping is not possible for me due to work and sleep needs, so realistically my ceiling is about 800 points.

I've started to do this as well. I used to hit 1000 on a regular basis before OML came around. That was my slow way of transitioning to 4*s. I've gotten 1000 maybe 3 times since OML was introduced. I've pretty much given up on the progression rewards, and am just hoping for good placement when I join so late. Hardly ever get hit on my way up, except for the last 5 minutes or so. This usually gets me at least 800.

Bowgentle

Blahahah wrote:

Scores stay low anyhow for the most part in my brackets because the top end keep chopping eachother around, and I got lucky with Drax covers so I was able to actually take first in that event (My first 1st place in a while) but that was in slice 6.

S6, huh?
Is that the magical slice that only appears between midnight and 1 am?