PVP Questions

BoyWonder1914

Hey guys,

I'm a somewhat experienced player trying to move into 3-star land. I know its a marathon and not a sprint, and I got some good tips from you guys earlier on building my roster over time, but I've gotta admit that its very hard to be patient with this game where I am right now and not go for something when I feel I have the opportunity. I'm still saving Tokens and CP, but I can't resist the urge to try to get in on what PVP action I can. I know I can win at least a few matches when I give it a go, but lacking a really built out 3-star team, I hit a ceiling eventually. I'd like to understand how PVP works much better than I do currently, which is basically not much at all. This will definitely help me have a better idea on where (and how) to focus my efforts.

1) Scaling - I know there are "brackets" essentially, but from what I'm seeing it doesn't quite work the same way as it does for PVE. I'm sure the featured character has a lot to do with it, but are there any other factors such as your performance in the last few PVP events, other powered-up characters for the week on your roster, etc?

2) Grinding - I think I'm misunderstanding what this means. A lot of guides I've seen say don't do it in PVE moreso than for PVP, but I'm not really seeing how you're supposed to place well in either without doing it. For PVE, does it not count as grinding if you wait the full 8-hour refresh period? I finished 51st in Deadpool vs MPQ because I waited the 8 hours and did every mission I could in a stack for the full value of points while I could. In PVP scenarios however, the next match in the "stack" is never a predictable result. Is that a time that even applies in PVP, or does it just mean something different in that context?

3) Simulator and Versus Nodes - After playing through the various versus events and the Shield Simulator, what strategy are you supposed to use for attacking the nodes? Do you always go for the node with the highest point value? The most easily beatable team? The most recent team to attack you? Is it wise to continually play the same node over and over if its giving you the highest amount of points relative to others?

4) Knowing When to Quit - Generally I stop playing when I KNOW I can't win anymore at each node, but once I start getting attacked its hard to not retaliate. If I win, the node is usually back to its normal color (unless its been multiple attacks) and sometimes there's a team there that I have a good chance at beating. Is it worth it then to keep pushing, knowing that it could actually just lead to more attacks? If I've been beaten and every node against teams I stand no chance against, is it worth it to keep pushing anyway, or just walk away with my dignity? In certain Versus events where I've wanted it badly enough, I kept fighting back and losing, but eventually the matches got to be easier again.

Again, just trying to take my roster to the next level, and its hard to ignore PVP between refresh intervals and I have literally nothing else I can do with the game. There's a lot of rewards in the Shield Simulator that could REALLY help propel my roster, and I find it very tempting to just not say screw it and go for it, when I have a whole month to keep dusting myself off and trying again. Here's my roster for reference, its mostly up-to-date minus an almost champed Moonstone at 92 and a DD and Rags waiting in the wing:

https://mpq.gamependium.com/rosters/BoyWonder1914/

deadtaco

1) AFAIK scaling is not really in PVP. You are mostly matched based on the points you have accumulated. I am still in 2*-3* land and I try to hit the PVP early to get seed teams. I then stop when there are not any matches I think I can win and wait while others hit me on their way up.

2) Grinding - you are not grinding in PVE if you wait for the refresh. Grinding comes in as the event is about to close. You grind the nodes down to as few points as you can in order to get the most. In PVP you can play (grind) as much as your health packs allow.


3) In the sim or any PVP nodes you want points first. THEN you worry about if you can beat them. If I am going to get less than 40-ish points then I usually skip it unless I am in a drought and just can't find anything. If I see one that is worth 60+ points I will consider it hard about if I should try it or not. I have to feel really outclassed though before skipping it.

4) You may know this, you may not, I wasn't sure from reading. Red nodes are someone that beat you and took some points from you. You can retaliate if you want but in my experience you won't get many points for doing so. I have read that the person that beat you did so while building points and the number it gives you (like "12" for example) could be wrong if that person won a bunch of other matches after beating you. It might be worth a lot more. Anytime I try this however it never amounts to much more. maybe 10 more ("22" in this example, big whoop). A lot of times I just skip the red nodes as it doesn't cost you anything. Another good thing about them is if you get to a point where you skipped a lot of nodes because you can't find one that looks good, these red ones force a refresh of that node so that when you skip it (again, for free) you get another match up to look at and try.

Your roster is very similar to mine (I may have one more or less champed than you) and the sim gives out a lot of 2*'s. So do a lot of the versus events. If you get in when the event starts you can quickly build up some points and then slowly work your way up. This current season is my best yet, I am around 1500 overall so far. I am really trying for 4000 as you get a 10 pack of heroic tokens, which would help both our rosters. You will get beat and lose points, often towards then end of an event, which is super frustrating. I still wouldn't bother with shields unless you went on some fantastic streak and ended up possibly placing high in the rankings.

Smudge

I don't play PvP as much as I do PvE, but I've been around long enough to know a few things, and this forum tends to be fairly quiet compared to others, so I'll offer some info up for you and others can clarify/add/correct as needed. Apologies in advance for the wall of text!

First off, don't be afraid to dabble in PvP. You have a solid roster of 2* champions and should be able to make decent progress in both regular events and the SHIELD Sim. With a 2* roster, you'll eventually hit a wall where the only teams you can find are above your capabilities, but the likes of OBW, CStorm, 2* Thor, MNMags, etc. can hit well above their own level when played by a human versus AI.

One thing I'd like to mention is that unlike in PvE (Story), you can skip teams that you deem too challenging or not worth enough points to bother with in PvP. I'm not sure if you were aware of that or not based on your post. It can lead to "skip jail" where you end up at a point total that the matchmaker cannot find any unshielded opponents outside of 6 or 7 teams, but it's still important to know. It's also important to note that your ISO bonus from a match declines by 10 ISO per skip until you cross 0 ISO gained... then you start paying 10 ISO per skip.

As to your specific questions:

1. Matchmaking in PvP is different from scaling in PvE. No one truly knows how it works except the developers, but they retooled it a few months ago to make matchmaking supposedly more "fair" for everyone. I think it still takes an average level of your top leveled 3-5 characters, takes into consideration how many covers ("power levels" in dev language) they have, then tries to seek out opponents of similar level, power coverage, and overall event point values compared to you. Once you get to a certain point level in the event, you will start to hit the wall where you will only find more powerful opponents. Boosted characters factor into the calculation, so if you have more boosted 2* characters from one week to the next, you might see higher leveled teams on the whole (or more opponents fielding boosted characters). As far as the bracketing system, the players are aware of two different types of brackets - newbie and veteran. If you consistently perform in the higher ranks of newbie brackets, you will find yourself placed into the veteran brackets against players with more working knowledge of the game and better rosters. If you perform poorly in those or just don't play them for awhile, the game will drop you into newbie brackets for an event or two before bumping you back up. Once you progress to veteran brackets, it's significantly tougher to drop back down for any length of time. I skipped a few PvP events at the end of the season two PvP seasons ago, and I had one newbie bracket where I placed first before being tossed right back into veteran status.

2. Grinding is a term generally reserved for PvE, where you hit all the nodes on the refresh timers and then play all the nodes repeatedly for the last couple hours until the sub closes. It can apply to PvP too, though. Grinding lightning rounds would mean just what it sounds like - playing LRs usually right after they open to hit all the seed teams, and then stopping or pushing to 250 points and shielding to maximize profit. Grinding a PvP event or SHIELD Sim is similar, but to grind SHIELD Sim for example, you hit as many teams and climb as high as you can before you hit the wall, then take a break, let other people hit you until your score drops enough that you stop getting hit, then repeat.

3. Nodes in PvP are completely different from PvE. Like I said above, MMR tries to pit you against similar teams around the same event point total as you. Say in the SHIELD Sim that you have your initial starting nodes worth 75, 75, 65, 50, and 40 points. If you hit one of the 75 point teams and win, that node will change teams after the match, be worth a different number of points (maybe 75 again with a different player's team), and the other teams in the other nodes will be worth fewer points, perhaps 65, 52, 42, and 35 (I'm just throwing arbitrary decreased numbers to illustrate how it works). As far as strategy, I will open every node to see which teams are queued. If it's a team that is worth a decent number of points, and by that I mean 40+, that I know I can beat easily with minimal to no need to use health packs, I'll hit that team. If there's a team I can fairly easily beat worth about 35 points, I'll take it. I don't usually bother below 35 points (75 is max). Because winning on one node necessarily decreases the points available on the other nodes, I generally stick to the same node. If I start encountering skip jail and see the same teams repeated, I'll cycle the other nodes to queue up a couple of the teams I'm seeing on the node I've been playing, but there's usually no way out of skip jail other than force-closing the app and trying to clear the server's cache of teams or just waiting a couple hours.

4. Retaliating is only worth it if the points are there! If you retaliate against someone and the node value is only 25 points, you're giving up more points than you're gaining. If I hit you and you lost 40 points, it means I saw your team for a good number of points once already. If you retaliate and gain 25 points, you are just putting yourself right back into my queue for the same large number of points, and you're going to lose another 35-40 for your retaliation against me. Now, if you get hit and don't retaliate until later, I might have climbed quite a bit and/or shielded, so it's safer and potentially worth more points than what the retaliation shows. As a 3-4* player myself, I hardly ever bother with retaliation strikes honestly. As to when to quit, if you're starting to get beat down between matches for more points than you're gaining in one match, toss up a shield or just call it quits and climb again a little later. If you hit skip jail where nothing seems enticing enough to hit, same story. It all also depends on if you're interested in the progression rewards, placement rewards, or both. There are strategies involved for both rewards, and I'm sure the guides or other players can offer more details on those.

I'm not sure how high you should expect to climb in SHIELD Sim with a primarily 2* team, but I'd venture to say you can probably make it quite a ways up that progression ladder with the solid 2*s you have champed. 1700-2000 points is likely a stretch, but even my mostly 3* team holds up enough to reach 2000 and then stop getting hit between 1600-1700 after I reach that mark.

Btw, unless you can muster up the HP and/or REALLY want him, you might want to skip out on Rags for now. That's my personal aside, but he's just not that great and isn't going to do anything to help your transition into 3* territory. DD has his uses especially when boosted, but Rags is beyond mediocre compared to the rest of the 3* characters. His biggest asset is the reward tree for championing him, and even that isn't enough for me to bother with him before others.