Impossible to gain points in PVP?

Killa_Bees

First off, I love Marvel Puzzle Quest. I have spend quite a bit of money to buy hero points (back when you could use them for covers) and VIP mode. I've got a pretty good roster due to this, and I play the game a lot. However, the one thing that constantly frustrates me are the PVP events where it is impossible to gain points. Tonight I sat down to play for an hour. I just needed 71 points to get to 1000 in the "Stay on Target" event, so that I could get the Nova cover. I queued up some matches to get over 1000, but during those fights, I kept getting hit by other opponents. I'd score +30 only to come out and have a -51 waiting for me. One time I even lost 150+ points during one measly match for 29 points.

I played hard for this hour, just to try to get 71 points. I had 2 champion 4 stars (Cyclops/Thing) sitting next to my champion Bullseye for the event. I guess everyone who is attacking me (with my ~900 score) is getting rich off points and I'm lucky to find anything worth 30. If I can't sit down for an hour and play an event and get a positive score, it's going to drive me away from the game.

I know there's been a lot of discussion on the PVE scoring system, but I think we really need to evaluate the scoring system for PVP. Even when my defensive team is able to win a match against another player, I'll only get +5 or less most of the time. To make matters even more frustrating, after beating one of my early matches, my score showed over 1000 but I wasn't rewarded with the Nova cover. I guess it hadn't updated from the fact that my team was getting reamed while I was playing.

Is there any thought to making changes to the PVP scoring system? It's disappointing to get so frustrated with a game that I normally enjoy so much.

Quebbster

This is where shields come in handy. Get close to the Magic score, put up a shield, search for good matches with the shield up, then hit them fast when it's time to break shield.
Also, what Slice did you play? It's a lot easier to find high point targets in certain slices.

Killa_Bees

I do use the shields frequently, and getting to 929 was my 'magic' spot. I was just really ticked off that I couldn't gain 71 (actually lost about 75 net points) with one hour of grinding at it. I usually play slice 4 which isn't usually as bad. It's that one event each week where the end times are different that I play slice 2, which apparently is not the slice to play if you want to get 1000.

simonsez

Killa Bees wrote:

It's that one event each week where the end times are different that I play slice 2, which apparently is not the slice to play if you want to get 1000.

Yeah, you pretty much answered your own question. S2 is a wasteland. Stick with what works, even if the times are less than optimal.

Quebbster

simonsez wrote:

Killa Bees wrote:

It's that one event each week where the end times are different that I play slice 2, which apparently is not the slice to play if you want to get 1000.

Yeah, you pretty much answered your own question. S2 is a wasteland. Stick with what works, even if the times are less than optimal.

This. I usually pick Slice 1 for the Monday -Wednesday event, there's plenty of points there. The end time is not the best, but I'll just shield and go to sleep once I have scored enough points - I don't worry about placement.

ammenell

dont care for ending times, ever since i first got the 1k prog reward i always play slice4.

after that its a long, hard fall. placement rewards are a waste of hp for 4* transitioning
(now i get why some are swimming in hp to the point of actually buying cover packs)

udonomefoo

I tried slice 4 and didn't hit 1k. I didn't try that hard, but I was really surprised how much I was getting hammered even with my champ 4cyc. I started getting hit around 350 and it just never stopped. I usually play s5 which has less overall points, but no one hits me until I get up over 800.

May have just been bad luck, but it seems like I'm falling behind on 5*s enough that even people with no champed 4s aren't afraid of my best champ 4 team.

Found myself saying "I really want that Nova black, I'll just play a few more matches then shield earlier than normal and use multiple shields to get it if I have to" followed closely by "wait, why am I doing this again? This progression doesn't even feel like progress". Then I browsed imgur and watched netflix instead.

simonsez

Quebbster wrote:

I don't worry about placement.

Yeah, if I worried about placement, I'd be awfully depressed (in Bullseye, 1742 didn't make top50 in my bracket). I just look at it as an easier path to 1300.

mpqr7

S2 is great for placement, but awful for progression. I generally end up at the very frustrating 997 in S2, so close to 1000, and yet so far.

I almost always do S4, which is great for progression but bad for placement. I prefer winning a 4* and 25 cp (top progression) to getting some 3* covers and a few cp (top placement).

Crnch73

in my opinion, if you buy a shield, when you go to attack someone while still shield, it shouldn't break the shield until your shield-breaking-match is over. That way, you can't get hit for epic points while trying to get one more level. Think about it, a minimum shield is 75 HP. Not a huge amount, but also not tiny. If you spend 75 hp to shield, line up one last match to get that progression reward you want, you should be allowed to try for it without the trouble. Then, win or lose, once that match is over, you become open season for everyone else again. I'm sure people wouldn't care a ton of getting hammered by opponents as long as they got to that one last progression reward.

this should be the true value of shields

OneLastGambit

Crnch73 wrote:

in my opinion, if you buy a shield, when you go to attack someone while still shield, it shouldn't break the shield until your shield-breaking-match is over. That way, you can't get hit for epic points while trying to get one more level. Think about it, a minimum shield is 75 HP. Not a huge amount, but also not tiny. If you spend 75 hp to shield, line up one last match to get that progression reward you want, you should be allowed to try for it without the trouble. Then, win or lose, once that match is over, you become open season for everyone else again. I'm sure people wouldn't care a ton of getting hammered by opponents as long as they got to that one last progression reward.

this should be the true value of shields

That's actually a reasonable solution to the problem. That would ease a massive amount of frustration for progression players.

I do my best to use s1 or s3 and try even harder to climb when everyone is not playing, matches are worth less points but you don't get hit anywhere near as often so the climb is less stressful.

zodiac339

To me, progress and placement should be separate from each other. Progress should always be progress, always a gain, no matter how many points you lose for placement.

HaywireII

zodiac339 wrote:

To me, progress and placement should be separate from each other. Progress should always be progress, always a gain, no matter how many points you lose for placement.

This would be such a blessing. I really thought that with a champed Hulkbuster and boosted Iceman and X23 I'd be able to break 1K on Black Vortex. I had a strong start and climbed to 500 on the first day of the event. I got hit a few times but was able to get the points back easily. However once I got past 700 I started getting hit by champed and boosted Iceman and Jean Grey, usually on the same team.

I made tens of thousands of ISO playing the event but never broke 800 points. I get a 3* cover every day in DDQ in a few minutes but wasn't able to get one after hours of Versus mode play. I had HP ready to put up a shield for a hop to 1k but was unable to get close enough to 1k to put the shield up.

I had thought there must be a lull at some point but apparently there are enough people playing that no matter when I tried to climb there was always someone with a full team of boosted champed 4*'s that saw me as an easy 60 to 70 points. It's frustrating and takes the fun out of the game.

whitecat31

Killa Bees,
There is another player called XkillerBeeX who usually snipes in shard 4, and if people are mistaking you for him, you are going to get hit hard.