How best to advance

statnut

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

I like to think I'm in the transition to four star-ville. I have one maxed 4 , 18 maxed 3 and 6 maxed stars. I have all my three stars fully covered. My biggest problem is in getting four star covers. I have yet to reach 1000 in any PVP despite what I think is a strong roster. Even 800 proves to be a challenge. And Top 10 in PVE has been fleeting, unless I have to put in hours and hours of work. For example, Venom: Heroic. My bracket still has about 8 hours to go. I've reached the highest progression rewards. I currently rank 37. #10 in my bracket has a score of 52698. That seems insane to me, because that means they've done each node 5 or more times.

So with all that sad, any advice for me? I'm currently sitting on two Deadpool and one IM40 cover and debating which of them to champion. Iron Man would require 119,063 to max and champion while Deadpool requires 106,395. I have 104,742.

chamber44

IM40 by a mile.

halirin

Champ a few more 3*s with an eye toward having two good champs for PvP boosted each week. Think about synergies and timing, and that should help you start getting to 1000 sometimes. Win *4 ddq when you can. Get the cp from pve - unless you're willing to go crazy you won't be getting your 4*s from Pve placement.

udonomefoo

Your maxed 4 has the lowest hp of any 4*, and his offensive ability isn't good enough to make up for it. Don't count on him helping you in pvp unless he's boosted. Focus on your 3's for a while longer. Hit pve for cp.

statnut

Ok well then my next question is, 700 days in, at what point can I start to expect things to improve. Because I'm starting to feel a little stuck.

padei_panda

If not already, the best advise is to join a T100 PVP alliance. (I wished I had done it earlier!)

My one is super, requirements are:
1. Score 850 per PVP event (and around 9500 in the season)
2. No requirement for PVE unless there is new char, then score must be 1.25x CP progression
(the aim is to get T100 in PVE for the new cover)

Some alliances take 800 per PVP event, and though you mentioned you are struggling, the alliance can provide tips to get you there (plus I feel you can get there too with some effort and hp). With the alliance reaching T100, you are given some 3* covers to champ/further your progress with 3*

Then I play PVE for 4 clears a day, which gives me the CP reward. (this is my avenue to get the 4* covers). I do not count on ranking high in PVE for the 4* cover rewards.

I am at day 765 now and managed to cover max and champ IMHB and 4Thor at day 730 and 735 respectively. And with IMHB boosted this week, I was able to score 1000 in PVP for a 4* cover! That's something I did not think I could ever do.


NB. Definitely champ IM40... he is an excellent investment!

MrCrowley

I count XFW to be roughly equal to a boosted champed 3s.

His hp is so low and playing defensive any 3s roster can take on your team. It does not scare off anyone.
I know because I was in the same situation as you.

The way I dug myself out of it was to use line chat coordination and shield hops to get to 1k and even 1.3k.

I used mostly XFW + IF for quick kills.

The problem with this tactic is that your "safe float" score is going to be low. That means your climb will be long. (maybe from 350...400 -> 800)

Basically you need to get early points to a level where you can still keep most of them, and then climb to 800 and shield. Queue up 3 weak teams and bash them (cupcakes if possible) and then re-shield - repeat until end of event. Dont start climb too early, so that you will have enough targets.

Time shard 4 gets you the best chances of getting the progression based stuff like the 4s cover and 25cp, but forget about rank rewards if you go for that.

You will need hp for shielding, which might mean you cant go for the big prizes all the time if you dont pay for hp.
Also, accumulate your DPDQ tokens, so that you can redeem many of them when you go for critical covers and want a long climb. The tokens give heal packs quite often, so even something like 6 tokens saved can get you 5-10 health packs extra.

MrCrowley

Oh, and I have now IMHB, JG and XFW all champed. I basically take 1.3k+ PVP score in every event I go for.
BUT... I buy some hp, and use shields.

Polares

statnut wrote:

Ok well then my next question is, 700 days in, at what point can I start to expect things to improve. Because I'm starting to feel a little stuck.

When you manage to level your first top tier 4 (IMHB or Rhulk are probably the best candidates for this because both of them are very strong with 3 partners) or when the new SHIELD Clearance goes live (hopefully, I don't really know if this is really going to be good).

Starting the 3->4 transition is really hard. Levelling your first top tier 4 now with almost 40 4s is very very difficult, you need to be lucky with your pulls. Most of the people in my alliance that were in your same situation benefited greatly from events like CW where they could get 3 IMHB covers.

This is why some people is skipping the 3-4 transition and is trying the 3-5 transition. If you are lucky and you get 6-7 OML or PH covers, you can use that 5 as the top tier 4 I was mentioning. So you start building your 4s when you already have a usable 5 :S

Calnexin

Do you not have a 1*? If not, you're missing out on 2.5k Iso/day. It's a pretty easy get for 1 roster slot.

GrumpySmurf1002

Polares wrote:

When you manage to level your first top tier 4 (IMHB or Rhulk are probably the best candidates for this because both of them are very strong with 3 partners) or when the new SHIELD Clearance goes live (hopefully, I don't really know if this is really going to be good).

I think Iceman, then 4Thor are the best candidates 1st max 4* for the early transition. Both greatly benefit from IM40 acceleration, with the long stuns that can help shut down match damage and increase sustainability. And IM40 is a bit faster than SWitch-RHulk or Fist-IMHB combos.

That said, there are 3* rosters out there hitting 2k, so 1k in PvP is plenty doable with the right slice and knowing how/when to climb and shield hop.

statnut

In terms of four stars, here is where I am cover wise

Nick Fury - 11 covers
Ant-Man - 9 covers
Hulkbuster - 8 covers
Star-Lord - 8 covers
Thing - 8 covers
Chulk - 6 covers (I'm so lucky!)
Cyclops - 6 covers (sadly no red)
Deadpool - 6 covers (no red)
Elektra - 6 covers
Thor - 5 covers
Mr. Fantastic - 5 covers

The rest are 4 or less. Thinking that Thing or HB will be the next to get some ISO in anticipation of their next Crash of the Titans. Thoughts?

DFiPL

statnut wrote:

In terms of four stars, here is where I am cover wise

Nick Fury - 11 covers
Ant-Man - 9 covers
Hulkbuster - 8 covers
Star-Lord - 8 covers
Thing - 8 covers
Chulk - 6 covers (I'm so lucky!)
Cyclops - 6 covers (sadly no red)
Deadpool - 6 covers (no red)
Elektra - 6 covers
Thor - 5 covers
Mr. Fantastic - 5 covers

The rest are 4 or less. Thinking that Thing or HB will be the next to get some ISO in anticipation of their next Crash of the Titans. Thoughts?

I'd look at giving Ant-Man some love. His and scale with levels, so leaving him at 70 is minimizing the impact that 8 of your 9 covers have.

Thing is worth putting some ISO into, but you have some time on that front as his next Crash is at least a couple months away. For reference, I beat the Crash with 2 and 1 with Thing (mine was 2/3/1 then, 3/3/1 now) and yours is 2/4/2, so it's in a comparable spot. Get him up to 130 or so (that'll cost about 22.3k ISO) and he ought to be in a position to win that fight.

Ant-Man comes up in Crash before Thing does, though, so I'd definitely prioritize him over Thing if you haven't yet been able to win the Crash with him.

Your HB is in an interesting spot. Mine isn't able to win the Crash at 2/1/2, level 111 (cap for those covers). You've got more black covers, which don't directly deal damage, but which CAN enhance his red. You can get him to 130 for about 20k ISO. I think that's worth doing, even if you're ignoring the Crash and just building the character.

Detour for reference's sake: I'm tossing around '130' because that seems to be the point at which 4* start to be feasible to win on a regular basis. There are exceptions, to be sure; if you get the right build on someone, you can win at lower levels, and characters like Professor X and Invisible Woman can win if you simply have their invisible power.

But I'm looking at my 4* who have been able to, and thus should be able to continue to, win the Crash:

Nick Fury (4/4/3 currently)
IW (3/1/5)
Elektra (2/2/2)
Ant-Man (4/2/1)
Star Lord (2/4/4)
Professor X (3/5/0)
Thing (3/1/1)
Iceman (0/2/2)
X-23 (1/3/1)

What stands out to me is that Elektra, Professor X and IW are all at 125, while X-23 is at 115. None of my other 4* at 125 or lower have been able to win.

Everybody else who's won? 130+. So that seems to be the minimum viable level for most 4*, at least from personal experience.

Back to your roster: Of the characters you listed, looking at their builds, the ones I'd expect to be the most viable for Crash with more levels are the HB and Thing you mentioned, but also Ant-Man. I'd probably rank them HB > Ant-Man > Thing. That happens to be their order in the Crash, with sufficient gaps in between to earn the ISO each needs, but that's probably also your long-term utility for them based on their current covers.

Subject to change based on future pulls, to be sure.

puppychow

udonomefoo wrote:

Your maxed 4 has the lowest hp of any 4*, and his offensive ability isn't good enough to make up for it. Don't count on him helping you in pvp unless he's boosted. Focus on your 3's for a while longer. Hit pve for cp.

I definitely agreed. Xfw is, unfortunately, a weak 4* compared to Hulkbuster, for example. You cannot really count on Xfw in pvp like udono said.

As for reaching 1k in pvp, this is definitely doable with your roster---depending on what the weekly buffs are. The key is to start pushing toward 800 on day 2 and start shielding overnight into day 3; then do shield hops until you reach 1k. I've hit 1.3 using solely 3* rosters. The key is to spend a lot of iso to find the right targets for you to hit while you're shielded on day 3. If you spend day 3 alternating between 3/8 hour shields and use 5-minute shield hops in between for 50+ each hop, you should be able to grab points and avoid hits and get the 200 points you need to break 1k.

puppychow

DFiPL wrote:

Back to your roster: Of the characters you listed, looking at their builds, the ones I'd expect to be the most viable for Crash with more levels are the HB and Thing you mentioned, but also Ant-Man. I'd probably rank them HB > Ant-Man > Thing. That happens to be their order in the Crash, with sufficient gaps in between to earn the ISO each needs, but that's probably also your long-term utility for them based on their current covers.

Subject to change based on future pulls, to be sure.

I agree that HB should be the priority. AM is kinda tough to play, while Thing is much more straight forward and easier to use. If OP doesn't plan to use AM much, aside from the crash event, I'm not convinced that I would do AM > Thing. Again, it depends on the expected usage of AM outside of crash.

DFiPL

puppychow wrote:

DFiPL wrote:

Back to your roster: Of the characters you listed, looking at their builds, the ones I'd expect to be the most viable for Crash with more levels are the HB and Thing you mentioned, but also Ant-Man. I'd probably rank them HB > Ant-Man > Thing. That happens to be their order in the Crash, with sufficient gaps in between to earn the ISO each needs, but that's probably also your long-term utility for them based on their current covers.

Subject to change based on future pulls, to be sure.

I agree that HB should be the priority. AM is kinda tough to play, while Thing is much more straight forward and easier to use. If OP doesn't plan to use AM much, aside from the crash event, I'm not convinced that I would do AM > Thing. Again, it depends on the expected usage of AM outside of crash.

Well, I'd reiterate, "based on current covers."

Thing is useful at 2/4/2, but he's mostly there to drop protect tiles if anybody else exceeds a particular "ouchy" threshold. if he were to get a 3rd cover in either red or green, I'd move him ahead of Ant-Man.

But if nothing else changes before their respective Crashes? That Ant-Man can win him a LT with that build. That Thing...might. Might not! Because the yellow procs based on teammate damage, and he'd have no teammates. Literally half his build is useless to him in the Crash.

That LT? Yeah, it's one LT in, like, a 6 month span, but that LT might give him a cover he can use for Hulkbuster. Or Thing. Or a red Deadpool (4). Or the 5* du jour. Who knows?

The point is that Thing, as currently covered, probably doesn't lead to progress. Probably doesn't get him to 1k/1300 regularly in PVP, probably doesn't win the Crash without another red/green cover, and while he might be useful in earning CP in PVE, he's not going to be a difference-maker there.

Of the three guaranteed routes to additional 4* progress two of them a leveled Thing probably doesn't reach, and the third...well, I'd bet he's reaching max progression in PVE already, but even if he needs Thing or Ant-Man leveled to start getting there, Ant-Man is as capable of helping with that goal as Thing is. Maybe more so, since he can be super useful against symbiotes, muscles and ninjas.

Ant-Man probably doesn't get him to 1k/1300 either, but he can win the Crash. Which, combined with PVE progression, covers two of the three guaranteed 4* progression paths.

statnut

Forgot to add, nick fury is at level 140, Ant-Man at 162, Thor and Mr fantastic at 111, x23 at 106 and hulkbuster at 90, if that matters at all. The rest are level 70.

statnut

FWIW, I need 58,005 ISO to get HB up to 168 and 60,313 to get Thing to 168. So it's pretty even.

statnut

Food for thought. My next Captain Marvel will net me a Red Thing cover, giving me 3/4/2. Also, should pick up 2-3 She-Hulk covers in the Howard the Duck Event, so I'm gonna spend the ISO to max and champ her.

CT1888

Wrt winning Crashes with low levelled characters, don't forget to look here:
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=48305
Very winnable with a 2/4/2 Thing at around level 100 for example.