I'm not buying shields. Ever.

HaywireII

dsds wrote:

3 hr shield is 75hp. An 8 hr shield is 150hp?. So in total you use 225hp. That a net loss of 75hp each pvp. Right you don't need hp to shield

You could potentially get 50 HP for top 250 alliance reward and 25 hp for top 100 ranking. So if things go well you can do a 3 hour and 8 hour for free. You just need a strong enough roster or enough luck/coordination for things to go well.

BlackSheep101

Net gain/loss depends on your placement and your alliance placement. If you only pull in 175 per event, you'll need to supplement from elsewhere if you're buying more than one shield. Luckily, there's: PVE, champion rewards, daily resupply, and DDQ prizes to help with that.

danielrandkai

I used to play PVE. Then I made the mistake of getting another cover for OML and Surfer and leveling them. Now I don't play PVE anymore because the scaling is bonkers. PVP is much more fair then PVE.

DrDoMe

I agree with the OP. Shield hopping is a gamble and stressful and not fun. Not to mention that if everything goes well, it's a minimum of 20 fights to get to 1000. PvP is just no fun.

Jarvind

DrDoMe wrote:

Not to mention that if everything goes well, it's a minimum of 20 fights to get to 1000. PvP is just no fun.

You don't have to do them all at once. I do a fight here and there throughout the event - by the time I reach the last 8 hours and it's time to climb for realsies, I'm usually starting from 500ish.

Pylgrim

Malcrof wrote:

i went from 0 to 1600 in under 2 hours today without a shield.. and since i am not caring about the season, i don't plan on shielding, so will end around 400 most likely, if you just want the progression, it is pretty easy to do really.

Not shielding isn't for any noble reason, just broke.

Malcrof, you have well-documented your bizarrely awesome luck with pulls and have a roster WAY superior to the people who've played around the same as you and as long as you have. You basically have a (minor) whale-level roster without having spent that much on it. This usually makes you appear dismissive in your comments seemingly saying "I can do it, you say you can't, boy you are just lazy/dumb". It may not be your intention, but that's how it looks which is double-jarring taking in account that your elite point of view was given to you mostly by chance. Please check your luck privilege.

ErikPeter

PvP is punishing and not fun, I know how you feel.

But then there's the time I needed a blue Hulkbuster cover for my 5/5/2 Hulkbuster--I fought tooth and nail and spent 1250+ HP in shields (and stress, let me tell you) and got to 1000 and claimed my first 4-star Champion.

Now whenever HB's powered up I get to 1000 without trouble. And PVP's fun and not punishing. By not buying shields. Ever. you are delaying your transition to the next tier, and prolonging your endless frustration with the "atrocious scam of a PvP system".

JamieMadrox

Depending on the slice you can end up well above 1300 without shielding. Even with the hits you'd take you can still score decently. You still won't place well, but as long as you're fine with that and having fun, who cares?

Blahahah

I stopped shielding back when Miles Morales got released.

Still hit 9k almost every season.

TLCstormz

I really do not understand how people can be so aloof.....

lukewin

Even if you're a 3* player, there's no reason you can't hit 1k with using only 1 shield. If you want to keep the points til the end of the event, you've got to play according to the shield schedule or use more than 1 shield.

I hit 1k for the longest time, and my 3* weren't even maxed at the time. When the max was 166, I was running lvl 140 3*. They were boosted to 200* and I could routinely take out max 4* teams. Climb to the 700-800s with true healers (to save healthpacks, to use when needed on the climb to 1k), swap to boosted 3* after you cross the 800 threshold. Use teams that are fast. Boost colors if you feel it'll speed you up. A few hundred ISO is a small price to pay, to avoid getting hammered and losing a bunch of pts, due to being unshielded for too long. I'd always shield 1 match from 1k. It seemed like I'd always get hit, and hammered, during the match that would get me over 1k. Better to protect the points, let the shield take the hits, have the time to line up a winnable match to get you to 1k, than keep going, hoping you can get to 1k before you lose more points than you can gain.

Skymedium

I gave up hope on reaching 1k as casual, even dreaming bout 1300.

I can get to 800ish fairly ok with a shield but the second it expires i'm screwed. Losing 100-150ish in just a few minutes and the it keeps going down.

Being casual is rough but thats just the way it is, i deal with it. Others should too.

We_are_Venom

lukewin wrote:

Even if you're a 3* player, there's no reason you can't hit 1k with using only 1 shield. If you want to keep the points til the end of the event, you've got to play according to the shield schedule or use more than 1 shield.

I hit 1k for the longest time, and my 3* weren't even maxed at the time. When the max was 166, I was running lvl 140 3*. They were boosted to 200* and I could routinely take out max 4* teams. Climb to the 700-800s with true healers (to save healthpacks, to use when needed on the climb to 1k), swap to boosted 3* after you cross the 800 threshold. Use teams that are fast. Boost colors if you feel it'll speed you up. A few hundred ISO is a small price to pay, to avoid getting hammered and losing a bunch of pts, due to being unshielded for too long. I'd always shield 1 match from 1k. It seemed like I'd always get hit, and hammered, during the match that would get me over 1k. Better to protect the points, let the shield take the hits, have the time to line up a winnable match to get you to 1k, than keep going, hoping you can get to 1k before you lose more points than you can gain.

I'll give you some examples of why I disagree with you

https://imgur.com/sxXfDxd

Once I cross the 800 threshold, this is what I get. I'm not complaining, but to say there's "no reason" I can't hit 1k when that happened less than 5 minutes after I unshielded is a little much. You can even see in the background my score of 482, and I lost 295 in the length of 1 fight after unshielding. That's ridiculous, but it happens a lot. This was the last time I used a shield and why I stopped.

Here's what I'm looking at when I check retal opportunities
https://imgur.com/NQdcIwf

After 800, that's what I'm getting. I'm not claiming 1k is impossible, and I don't think I even mentioned if at all in my post so I'm not sure why we are here, but a system where I can lose nearly 40% of my points in the span of 1 fight after spending HP in order to not lose many points, and to lose them to people with champed 5* I have 0.0% of beating, is an asinine system.

*Those are not from the same PvP, obviously. I did not take a picture of the attackers in first bump, but I did for mystique.
**Apologies for posting pictures of players names

Electrovirus

PeterGibbons316 wrote:

We_are_Venom wrote:

Pair me with teams in line with my roster I'll buy in. Limit whales to whale brackets, I'll buy in. I don't have any issues with whales whaling, good for them, but that shouldn't mean I'm forced to compete against them when my average roster level is 190.

They kind of already do this? The 5* MMR is so bonkers that whales can almost exclusively target other whales in PvP.

Not sure what you are so upset about.

They don't put whales in their own brackets

We_are_Venom

OJSP wrote:

We_are_Venom wrote:

I'll give you some examples of why I disagree with you

https://imgur.com/VYsIJ6C

Once I cross the 800 threshold, this is what I get. I'm not complaining, but to say there's "no reason" I can't hit 1k when that happened less than 5 minutes after I unshielded is a little much. You can even see in the background my score of 482, and I lost 295 in the length of 1 fight after unshielding. That's ridiculous, but it happens a lot. This was the last time I used a shield and why I stopped.

You broke your shield 10 minutes before the end of event? (Time left of the event was 6 minutes). Unless you have a really strong roster, you should avoid doing so. Even if we fight against a cup cakes team in the last 2 minutes of the event, an attack or 2 would still get through sometimes. I'll put the rest of my post in the spoiler, with some advice, should you feel like reading it..

If we break our shield, we'd be immediately visible to everyone. Those who play in the last hour of an event would take any matches they can get. If they see someone with maxed 4*s for 75 points and a 3* team for 40, but there's only 5 minutes left of the event, they'd probably attack the 3* team.

I noticed you've been attacked by someone on that list that I recognised, your team must be not intimidating, because unless they changed how they play PvP, they don't normally play much at all and have only recently maxed their 3*s.

It is possible that the equilibrium point for 3* players at the moment is around 600. So, anyone scoring higher than that would become a target to other players. Other players might have the same idea as you and decided to break their shields at the same time as you. What you need to do if you still want to try to reach 1000 is find a different routine.

I have a question: you mentioned you've passed the 800 pts threshold. What were you trying to achieve by playing the match in the last 10 minutes of the event? Did you have 3 cupcake teams queued to get you to reach 1000? Even the quickest player would probably only be able to play 4 matches at the most, while getting attacked by a lot of players (especially if they baked a cup cake or two along the way). Even if they got 3 70+ pts matches queued in the nodes, they'd risk losing a lot more (like you did).

I think, if you climb earlier in the event, use your 1st shield around the 10 hour mark at 800+ and do 2 matches hops with 2 more shields, you should get to 1000. Perhaps your roster is simply not ready for shield hops. If you ever decide to buy shields again in the future, don't break it at the end of the events.

I only have a few early champed 3*, which is why it is frustrating to get attacked by 2 5* champs like I do. There was a recent PvP where Thoress was boosted and i was getting attacked by champed boosted Thoress, champed OML and 270 Nick Fury. Someone earlier posted about 5* MMR largely being matched together, but that SS/OML champ roster tells me otherwise.

I unshielded because I had dropped out of the top 100, which was the reason I shielded, to prevent that. It happened with barely any time left, but I cycled through the teams to find someone that would get me back should I win.

Totally forgot to edit out the other names!

We_are_Venom

OJSP wrote:

We_are_Venom wrote:

I only have a few early champed 3*, which is why it is frustrating to get attacked by 2 5* champs like I do. There was a recent PvP where Thoress was boosted and i was getting attacked by champed boosted Thoress, champed OML and 270 Nick Fury. Someone earlier posted about 5* MMR largely being matched together, but that SS/OML champ roster tells me otherwise.

I'm not too sure about these, but they could be the explanation of what happened.. could the first one occur during Divine Champions? at some point if we've scored high enough, we'd be offered 5-10 pts matches against players of all rosters. It's possible that they simply had no other opponents they haven't fought and you just happened to appear in their queue. Also, with the event's boost, your 3* Thor would be at least lvl 250? with your lvl 270 IM46, lvl 255 BSSM, and other characters, suddenly your roster has multiple characters over lvl 255, which practically widen your matchmaking algorithm.

And the second one (with the picture) happening in the Lightning Round? that SHIELD logo next to the points and the fact that Mystique was level 270 instead of 290 made me think so..

I unshielded because I had dropped out of the top 100, which was the reason I shielded, to prevent that. It happened with barely any time left, but I cycled through the teams to find someone that would get me back should I win.

That's a fair reason. Unfortunately, it's just too risky due to the reasons I mentioned before.

I think you are right on divine champions, my Thor was 245 I believe. BSS was added this week, so only IM5* on my roster at that time but you could be correct that it's pushing me beyond what my roster can truly handle. That thread topic regarding 5* scaling is numerous so no need to create that again.

The mystique PvP was identify theft at the end of June, not the lightning round.

Skybourne

Probably the wrong page for this, but who does the computer pick out of my roster for others to face in pvp events? I have some 1 cover 5 stars, and I hope its not those guys?!

lukewin

Now that you've explained more of your roster, unfortunately, your roster might not be ready to hit 1k. When I mentioned my 3* were 140, I had all 40 3* at 140, meaning I had a deep bench to make use of health packs from 800 to 1000.

Sounds like you were wanting to go for 1k and t100 at the same time. That might take a lot more shields, factoring in your roster. From reading the forums, or just trying to understand how the pvp system works, I think a lot of people set unrealistic expectations too soon. It takes time to build up a roster, to a point where a lot of things get easier. You used to be able to buy covers to speed up the process, but that went out the window when they changed cover purchases to CP only. Now you just have to put in the time, or buy multiple shields.

If you still want to play PVP and rank higher, I suggest possibly experimenting with different time slices. Some people don't finish t100 in s4 with scores that might be t25 or t50 in s1. If you truly are only playing for placement, try pushing your luck by joining very late and hoping for a new bracket.

Hendross

If you want to compete for the same prizes, shouldn't you play with the same people?

wymtime

Here is why I disagree with the OP. Shielding is not about supporting the game it is about helping you get the progression you want or need. I was around when there were no shields at all and in order to place well you had to stay up and grind the last hour of the event (1 time slice for all.)
For a 2* player they might use a shield to help secure a 10 pack for the season.
A 3* player might use shields to get to 800 for the 3* cover or when buffed to try and get to 1000 points for the 4* cover. The shield also helps get them 10k on the season for the CP.
4* players will use shields to get to 1000 or try for 1300 or to secure season scores for alliance rewards or season progression rewards.
Top PVP players use shields for personal goals i.e. How high can I score, or getting above
Overall HP is a game resource and can be used for roster slots and shields. If you use shields correctly they will help you achieve your goals. I currently have 9k HP and have only spent $20 on this game so I am not a whale but I hit 1300 regularly and it is because I progressed through PVP because at every stage I used shields.