Softcapping PW:s?

Wintersmith

Is there any reason to NOT level your PW:s to max level? Scaling, harder nodes, harder matches on QB or events?

HomeRn

You're only making life harder on yourself in most cases - except in QB where you'll only find opponents within 5 levels of your PW of choice. However, higher level PWs generally give more ribbons and progress in PvP scenarios.

Barrelrolla

I am using a lvl 50 Sarkhan for QB.
I'm considering leveling him up to 60, but I have not yet decided.
The reason is from 50 to 60 is almost as much as from 1 to 50.
Making that push will increase my point gain by just 1 point, but will make me face level 60 opponents. While I had no issues facing lvl 60 opponents in NoP the games are generally slower because they have more powerful cards that slow me down, but that might be just because I am in gold tier, not sure.
Currently, I don't want to level him up more, because I'm pretty sure I get overall more points because of the shorter battles and if I level him up to test, there is no coming back

madwren

Until I have enough mana runes to level from 50-60, I tend to keep mine at 50. The dual-colored pws are a pain to level.

alextfish

The reasons not to level a planeswalker to max are:

* You might want the runes to level up a lower level walker. You can do 30+ levels on a level 1 walker for the same amount of runes as the final 10 from 50-60.
* Playing QB is faster when you're using a lower level walker. You gain fewer ribbons, but still 300 runes, so it makes grinding for runes faster overall, and grinding for ribbons not as much slower as you might think.
* Certain abilities get arguably worse at higher levels. E.g. Chandra's middle ability at level 1 and 2 can burn your own creature, useful for certain story mode objectives, but at level 3 and 4 it no longer targets and automatically hits all the opponent's stuff instead. There aren't many such abilities since the 1.3 patch though.

Wintersmith

My base pw:s are lvl 40 and Kiora is lvl 36. In Terrors in the Shadows event I've had up to and including lvl 60 opponents, so I'm at disadvantage from the start. Maybe one in ten matches is against lower lvl opponent. I still think I chose the right strategy by levelling my planeswalkers evenly instead of buffing only one to 60.

Skidoo

Wintersmith wrote:

Is there any reason to NOT level your PW:s to max level? Scaling, harder nodes, harder matches on QB or events?

I stopped leveling Kiora at 58 just to save on runes to invest in leveling other PWs. She costs over 10k per level at the end. The only thing I'm really losing out on is maxing her third ability, but does it really matter if I summon a 24/24 Octopus or 32/32 Octopus? By the time I can afford her third ability, the game is almost over, so either will finish the game or die just as easily against a hard removal card.

GregDreher

I only ran Nissa up to level 60, while holding three others in the 50-52 range and others at 40. When it comes to quick battles, I feel that, at level 60, I'm facing people who have put more time or money into the game, and are playing the mythics I'd like to have but haven't yet opened. Granted, the computer AI means you can still win, but it's not as sure a thing as it is with my lower level planeswalkers.