When to take first 4 star character to 270?

lemieux2005

Hello,

I’ve finally reached the point in time where I have both the isos and covers available to take my first 4 Star Character, Hulkbuster, to level 270 (it is currently at level 180). However, I’m really debating whether I should risk taking it to 270. Hulkbuster is certainly one of the best characters in the game, and it would certainly become my go to character. However, I am highly concerned that that a level 270 character, especially when they are the boosted character for the week, would significantly increase my scaling and cause more bad than good.

To provide you with some background information, I rarely if ever take part in PvP due to my roster. I play in a very active PvE alliance where I aim for and earn the 25 Command Points in almost every event. I also aim for top 100 in each new character release PvE. In the current Venom Bomb event, the final node of Brooklyn Bridge has Carnage, Venom and a Demolisher at levels 241-242.

My current roster is as follows:

5 Star Characters – I have five 5 star characters on my roster with all of them being level 255. Silver Surfer has the most covers with six.

4 Star Characters – I have every 4 star character on my roster. I currently have two (X-Force and Hulkbuster) that sit at thirteen covers each. My Hulkbuster is currently my highest level 4 star character at level 180. I have a handful of other 4 star characters that have between nine and eleven covers, but are not higher than level 135.

3 Star Characters – I have every 3 star character on my roster, with twenty nine of them championed. My highest level 3 star character is at level 184.

I realize that at some point in time I will have to start leveling my 4 star characters. However, I am concerned that if I only take one character to 270, it would cause great imbalance. When I leveled my 3 star characters, I tried to level them all evenly, and never had less than ten characters at max level. Due to the iso cost with 4 star characters, and also due to my lack of covers, that strategy does not seem efficient for my 4 star roster.

Instead of leveling Hulkbuster to 270, I could use the isos to level another four to five under-covered 4 star characters to the 160-180 range, or I could level approximately three of my under levels 3 star characters to 166 and champion them. I don’t want to get completely passed up by rosters with many championed 4 star characters, but yet, I don’t want to completely throw off my scaling which could make reaching the 25 Command Point benchmark in each event significantly more difficult. Sadly, I don’t know if taking Hulkbuster to 270 will help or hurt me.

Additionally, I also have a Hulkbuster cover sitting in my queue, and when I level Iron Fist one more level, I will receive an additional Hulkbuster cover.

I would appreciate any advice.

Bulls

You have already 5 chracters at lvl 255 so taking one 4* to 270 won't make a signifacnt change. My brother recently (After 3 hb covers from CW) took his first 4* to 270, aside of that he has five 5* chars at 255 and 38 championed 3* (highest at 188). As this looks really similar to your roster I'll let you know his carnage node lvls as soon as he gets to it.

thisone

My roster is similar to yours, I champed my hulkbuster though. I've seen a minor bump in pve scaling, more likely due to my performance in events though.

On the flip side leaving fist buster on defence has been a decent defensive deterent. I get attacked a lot less than I used to in pvp sub 600 points, in sim sub 1700 points and during LR.

I'll be champing 4* thor next as her rewards cycle is coming up in the daily rewards.

I'm unsure whether hb boost will affect my scaling. Will be interesting to see, I will update later in the week.

TxMoose

since you have multiple 3s boosted every week and a big stable of 5s at 255, I don't think a 4* or even 2 at 270 will make any significant change to your scaling (5 levels for 1, 10 levels for 2). the scaling thing gets out of whack when they're boosted, but then you have a level 350+ character to deal with the scaling. both hb and xfw play well with 3*s - hb is great with fist/hood and xfw is great with mags and either loki or fist. I'd definitely do hb and see how it goes, but if you don't have any other 4* close, I'd consider doing xfw too. 5-10 levels in pve is negligible when you have a 270-something to deal with it.

note that next week imhb is boosted for EotS. if you're really worried about scaling, wait. but if you really want to experience a huge step-up in power, max him. also note that hb is not the most sustainable character with the self damage - kk can help there, but the purple/green is typically fist with hb. you can play around with it as you wish - hard to go wrong.

Mawtful

aesthetocyst wrote:

You have FIVE 5*s at 255? One of which is half-covered?

Someone with a half covered 5* is worried about taking their first 4* (one of the top of that tier) to max level. What is wrong with this game?

Argon Flame

I was in a very similar position to the one you were in:
All 5-stars (all at 255 only OML (5 covers) useful)
All 4-stars (most floating around the 180-130 level mark) - about 5 fully covered.
All 3-stars championed.

After the Civil War event I had potential to champion Ant-Man (2 extra covers) but not enough Iso.
Then the Iso increases occurred. So ended up selling two 2-star champs to bring me to enough Iso to champ my Ant-man.

Now I don't know whether its the current PvE ('hard' - Venom Bomb) if community scaling (my first run at the Essential nodes - 8-h into sub - all three were NORMAL difficulty not EASY the way they normally are) has been turned on, but, my team is getting hammered.

I haven't had a chance to wade much into PvP yet but will be interested to see how/if having a champ will have altered the matches offered.

Mawtful

aesthetocyst wrote:

Mawtful wrote:

aesthetocyst wrote:

You have FIVE 5*s at 255? One of which is half-covered?

Someone with a half covered 5* is worried about taking their first 4* (one of the top of that tier) to max level. What is wrong with this game?

Nothing is necessarily wrong this game. The OP is a thoughtful player and expressed himself well. He can see that progress is a one-way journey (well, short of the unthinkable process of starting over on a 4*, yikes). He is on the verge of taking an unprecedented step in his game, and I am happy to assure him there is no downside.

Go for it, Lemieux! And good for you on keeping those 5*s!

Oh, I agree that the post was well thought out and eloquent. My feigned ignorance was an effort to point out that this post should have never been needed. It really does boggle the mind that people need to be concerned about progressing the "wrong" way or time.

lemieux2005

Thank you everyone for the advice. The overwhelming response seems to be that I should take Hulkbuster to 270. I'm going to see if anyone else offers their thoughts over the next day or two, but likely level it to 270 during the middle of the next PvE.

Pants1000

I have a similar roster and play style. HB was my first 4 star to 270, which I did after the first Civil War event. One other difference is that I have leveled my OML to 330, the highest I can with 5 covers.

I don't regret leveling HB or OML at all. HB is a beast when he's buffed. Sure your scaling will be higher when he's buffed, but you'll also have a 30k health monster.

mckauhu

I have just recently started to champion my first 4* character (maybe too soon tough) GThor is level 246 at this moment. I'm still able to clear all pve matches so it doesn't bother me to champion GThor already...

Smudge

Your roster is pretty much equivalent to mine. You have 2 more championed 3*s than I do at this point. I have 2 max covered 4* characters: Thor and Invis Woman.

As soon as I got that 13th cover (for Thor), I pulled the trigger to 270. No regrets at all, never looked back. Hulkbuster is every bit as powerful as her. If you have the ISO, max him. You might see slightly tougher scaling when he's boosted (maybe ~20 levels higher) in PvE, but you won't regret it.

Lord_Pwasseidon

Can someone please tell me if 4 star champions fuel five start characters please thank you I need to know 

abominatrix

To the original poster, I will just add to all of the others. I took my first 4* to 270 with a roster similar to yours, but instead of my first 4* champ being Hulkbuster, it was Fury. I didn't notice any difference even the events where Fury was boosted; the enemies were slightly higher level, but as you'll find, *any* boosted 4* kicks some.... well, it's pretty powerful. Even Fury; boosted demolition is a sight to behold. And, of course, IMHB is significantly better than Fury.

To @Lord_Pwasseidon, no, 5* rewards do not come out of 4* champs. CP and Legendaries, but no 5*.

Lord_Pwasseidon

@abominatrix thank you