What's the best way to exploit bracket sniping? (PVE)

The Herald

Any advice?

I'm not going to sit out of PvE like I was wondering about (because it won't achieve anything positive), but playing the game "as intended" is pointless.

I played my **** off through The Hulk to get Rank 167. My girlfriend jumped in towards the end of the event because she wanted a Hulk cover and is now cruising into top 25.

How do we abuse loopholes and exploit the sorry state of PvE for maximum advantage with minimum effort?

simonsez

The Herald wrote:

I played my **** off through The Hulk to get Rank 167. My girlfriend jumped in towards the end of the event because she wanted a Hulk cover and is now cruising into top 25.

How do we abuse loopholes and exploit the sorry state of PvE for maximum advantage with minimum effort?

I would assume she's in a noob bracket, and you're not. Bracket sniping is barely a thing now in the new format.

MushroomGenius808

I'm guessing "playing one's **** off" is pretty subjective. What'd u score to give you 167th place? Got a screenie of the top of your bracket?

The Herald

simonsez wrote:

The Herald wrote:

I played my **** off through The Hulk to get Rank 167. My girlfriend jumped in towards the end of the event because she wanted a Hulk cover and is now cruising into top 25.

How do we abuse loopholes and exploit the sorry state of PvE for maximum advantage with minimum effort?

I would assume she's in a noob bracket, and you're not. Bracket sniping is barely a thing now in the new format.

Very possible, but I'm going to give it the old college try.

If the devs insist on punishing us for playing their game it's down to us to find out how to harm their system.

The Herald

MushroomGenius808 wrote:

I'm guessing "playing one's **** off" is pretty subjective. What'd u score to give you 167th place? Got a screenie of the top of your bracket?

You're not wrong there. For starters, the 166 people above me played harder than I did

Also, I got a bit demoralised day 5, played less day 6 and 7 (when my girlfriend started playing and waltzed it).

It's the disparity that nettled me.

I made top 200 with 91783.

Last check her breaking the 37000 reward had her in 26th place.

fnedude

So I "sniped" The Hunt, and got to#73 after joining the last day. I earned ~10k pts (not bad for 1d play).

#1 player was 55K, so he obviously played from at least Day-1 (since it was a 4d event).

I'm in the "vet" bracket because I have 6 champed 4*s.

So I don't think "sniping" works if you have a high level roster. As the vet players all got lumped together.

The Herald

fnedude wrote:

So I "sniped" The Hunt, and got to#73 after joining the last day. I earned ~10k pts (not bad for 1d play).

#1 player was 55K, so he obviously played from at least Day-1 (since it was a 4d event).

I'm in the "vet" bracket because I have 6 champed 4*s.

So I don't think "sniping" works if you have a high level roster. As the vet players all got lumped together.

We're both 3* players, although I am a ways ahead of her. I seem doomed to vet status because I play more X_X

madsalad

Do you not used the bracket post in the Tournament forum? It's good for knowing when one slice fills and the next bracket opens. Then you can get into a fresh bracket a day or two into the event.

The Herald

madsalad wrote:

Do you not used the bracket post in the Tournament forum? It's good for knowing when one slice fills and the next bracket opens. Then you can get into a fresh bracket a day or two into the event.

I do not, for I am n00b. Thank you for the pointer

Also as an update, I cracked and jumped in. The boosted character list is tasty

Sluggo

I wouldn't call any of this an exploit, just basic strategy if you're looking for top 100s:

Step 1: Never, ever join a bracket right at the start of an event. Wait a few hours before joining, maybe an entire day if it's a 7-day event. Brackets get less competitive as they fill up and new ones start.

Step 2: Stay away from the more competitive slices. Slice 4 seems to be the most competitive (I suspect because it's so EST-friendly), and slice 3 seems to get a lot of traffic as well. If you're joining brackets late and are still having trouble getting top 100s, try a different slice.

Step 3: Profit!

revskip

Bracket sniping still has a place although not nearly as relevant as in the previous format. I use it mostly just to keep out of the death brackets that occupy the first and second flip of a time slice. The people in those are super committed and tend to inflate the score that is necessary for top 5, top 10, 20 etc.

It is also possible to time them to the end of a sub to get a leg up. If you wait until a flip happens near the end of the sub (last hour and a half) you can grind all the way to 4 clears and have a big leg up on everyone who joins in on the next sub. Doing this requires some outside coordination though since you need to know exactly when the bracket fills to jump in.

Finally if you don't care about any of the rewards for the first few days of the event you can sign up right after a flip several days in. Again requires some outside game communication but if you have access to that info you can get in a fresh bracket on a later day and just grind from there. This is best in longer 7 day events, but even in a 3-4 day event if all you care about is placement and you have someone feeding you info on when the slice fills you can easily snag some top rewards with only a day or two invested in grinding. Of course that also means missing out on the ISO and other rewards available earlier in the event.

ammenell

The Herald wrote:

If the devs insist on punishing us for playing their game it's down to us to find out how to harm their system.

easy, dont play as much.

i consider a single clear and grinding for both cps in a node almost to much.
after grinding away for a year and only being interested in 4*s now, I rather sit back and wait until they change the reward system.

im too far gone to just stop playing.
but before I spend money for this game again, I rather sell my roster

The Herald

Want a top 10 finish in a 7 day event? Play the last 2 days for 43987 points <.<

Bowgentle

The Herald wrote:

Want a top 10 finish in a 7 day event? Play the last 2 days for 43987 points <.<

Ignore placement, play PVE for ISO and CP.

KGB

The Herald wrote:

Want a top 10 finish in a 7 day event? Play the last 2 days for 43987 points <.<

This sounds about right.

I joined the Hulk event on day 7 with 12 hrs to go, scored 26K points (4 full clears + max clears of easy nodes) and finished 18th. 10th place only needed 40K (so day 6 join would have done it). I picked up 250 HP (top 10 in last day, top 50 for event + hitting 25500 score) in addition to 3 Colossus covers (only so I can roster him for upcoming PvE essential).

Sniping works. Not sure about Vet vs Noob brackets. I don't see how they can exist in PvE after day 2 because there is no way there are enough Vets joining on day 3ish to fill a bracket. They'd have to leave lots of empty space in Vet brackets (ie only fill them up 95% before opening a new one) from prior days.

I'm solidly in 3* land (20+ 3* characters soft capped over L100 but none champed plus a bunch of Champed 2*). My PvE strategy (Slice 5) is as follows:
- If I have all 3 essential characters I join mid way on day 1 (last 12 hrs of slice) or day 2. This always gets me a T100 finish plus the 25 CP progression.
- If I have 2 essential characters I join day 2. This gets me the 25 CP progression and a reasonable shot at a T100 finish if boosted characters are good ones and I have them.
- If I have 1 essential character I join 2nd last day (3 or 6). This gets me a T100 finish.

Note that T100 finish doesn't happen for new releases.

Also joining joining on later days really helps rack up the HP because you can easily finish T50 for the dailies and net 50-100 HP so you can score 200+ HP for an event (something that never happens when I have 3 essentials and join day 1). Sometimes when I am low on HP I just tank an event and join late to score lots of HP.

KGB