The unexpected impact of S.H.I.E.L.D. ranks on my ISO debt

DFiPL

The subject line unfortunately doesn't have enough room to describe more clearly what I mean, so here goes.

That S.H.I.E.L.D. ranks have had an impact on my ISO debt (and yours, no doubt) is completely expected. That's the point.

What I didn't expect is that within 36 hours of receiving that ISO, the difference between my 3* ISO debt and my 4* ISO debt would be under six figures. I only championed three 3* characters with the ISO I got, but at the same time, one of those champions got me a 4* cover from a Legendary token, and I got a She-Thor cover from the Oscorp: Heroic vault tonight. As a result, the increase in 4* ISO needs and the roughly 25% decrease in 3* ISO needs (I went from 12 champions-to-be to 9 but one of those 12 had been at level 130 while the other 11 were chilling at 125) means that my debt split is as close to 50/50 as it's ever been. One more 3* champion (and I'm halfway to being able to champion another), and the debt split will BE 50/50.

There's a 91k differential, currently. Essentially the difference between raising Invisible Woman to her current soft max or leaving her alone.

I knew S.H.I.E.L.D. ranks would be good for my progress, both in the sense of an immediate burst and in the sense of rewards just for doing what I do in the longer term, but I didn't expect the gap between my 3* leveling and my 4* leveling costs to narrow this much, this soon.

fmftint

No offence but you must be a rather low tier player.
At SHIELD rank 65 there's been very little impact on my iso debt which is currently 6.8 MILLION iso

DFiPL

fmftint wrote:

No offence but you must be a rather low tier player.
At SHIELD rank 65 there's been very little impact on my iso debt which is currently 6.8 MILLION iso

I'm at rank 53. That said, there likely IS a gulf between the rank 65'ers and those of us in the low 50s, just as there's a gulf between those of us in the low 50s and those ten or more ranks below us.

Here's the thing: I'm in an alliance with friends who, while they come together for boss battles, don't push for T100, let alone T50 or T10 in alliance PVE or PVP. I'm comfortable with that.

I don't play PVP in any serious way. Never have, never will. The extent to which I ever did was by playing maybe one season in three to have a shot at the 3* covers I needed via placement. I don't have the roster to climb to 1k or 1300 in one sitting. I don't have the patience to do what it might take to reach 1k or 1300 over three days, and I have no desire to spend on shields. I'm comfortable with that.

Where I'm at is 39 of 40 3* on my roster (I don't care to roster Sentry). Of those, 38 are at max covers (Iron Man is close to joining them). Of the 38 residents of Thirteenlandia, 29 are champions, and the rest will join them in reasonably short order. I champion one 3* about every two weeks or so under ordinary circumstances, but S.H.I.E.L.D. ranks may accelerate that some.

Where I'm at is 32 4* (I don't have Wasp, Spider-Woman, Chulk, She-Hawkeye or Nova, and I've not bothered with Devil Dino or Howard because of the infrequency with which covers can be obtained for them). Thirteen of those 32 are at 6+ covers, and a short handful are just a couple covers from Thirteenlandia.

I have five 5*, and while none are close to thirteen covers, most have at least two.

S.H.I.E.L.D. ranks took my 3* debt down to 875k. My 4* have typically had so few covers that my 4* ISO debt hasn't yet cracked the 1 million mark (though it's as close now as it's ever been at 786k). Recent success with the Crash of the Titans and the trickle of LTs from PVE and 3* champions have been a boon for my 4* growth, but because I can't devote the time to T10 PVE, I don't care to run the PVP treadmill, and I'm not in a top alliance, my avenues for 4* covers are largely from CPs and RNGesus.

All of which is to say, no offense taken, but we have different ideas of what constitutes "low tier." Am I behind where a more competitive player would be at day 755 or so? Yeah, probably am. The cry of "screw 4* covers, ISO is the problem" has rankled me because it has come from the vocal minority that are top tier PVP players in top alliances, and so don't realize that the flow of 4* covers looks very different to anybody who isn't willing to play the shield hopping game.

If the 4* spigot ever loosens, I have no doubt my 4* ISO debt will quickly overtake my 3* ISO debt.

And, to be fair, I need another 125k to softcap my 5* roster. The difference is I have no interest in leveling my 5* even an iota at this point. THAT'S a conversation for once I have a maxed 4* or two.

OneLastGambit

Just as a guide I'm rank 52 and although the iso debt has decreased by 400k or so I'm still...

Roughly 5m below my iso needs. Your needs are really dependant on two factors..

How many unlevelled but cover maxed 4* you have?

How many you want to level?


For someone like me (i want to level everyone on my roster) my iso needs are very high

Quebbster

Personally, I used the grandfathered ISO to fill a few holes in my roster - I got Drax and Peggy up to their current max at 209, and maxed out OML (my only fivestar above base level). On the fourstar front, now everyone is either at their current max or softcapped at level 180 - it takes 300K ISO to champ a fourstar from level 180, which I can easily make in two weeks if needed, so no cover needs to go to waste. I suppose my next priority is Phoenix, but it depends a bit on what fourstar covers come along. In short, I don't really have any immediate needs for my ISO, which is quite nice. I'll make sure to have a buffer for when I need to level someone up fast though.

Orion

I've spent over 1 million ISO this week, leaving me with a debt of 5 million.

Can we do this ISO bonus thing again next week?

GrumpySmurf1002

With characters I'd actually level, my true debt's probably ~2million after this lump sum payment.

I don't consider my level 111 Cho to be in iso debt. I consider it a waste of 41 levels of Iso that at least gives me a legendary token every 4-6 months.

DFiPL

OneLastGambit wrote:

Just as a guide I'm rank 52 and although the iso debt has decreased by 400k or so I'm still...

Roughly 5m below my iso needs. Your needs are really dependant on two factors..

How many unlevelled but cover maxed 4* you have?

None of my 4* are cover maxed. Some are close.

How many you want to level?

All of them, ultimately, but as nobody's cover maxed yet, it's a question of soft caps. For now, the focus has been on Crash viability. Once someone hits 13 covers, I'll get them maxed, but for now, the priority is tokens over levels.

For someone like me (i want to level everyone on my roster) my iso needs are very high

Mine will grow again, no doubt. For now, they're shrinking/shifting to the 4* side of the ledger.

Blahahah

I've had a sort of similar effect, but also sort of not similar as well.
My iso was fantastic but being that I have my team of 4*s already set (I miss 2500 HP for covers though) I had nothing to spend it on.
I had to throw together another combo to work towards, and then I invested a lot of it in Human Torch and Kingpin because why not.

Now I still have a ton of iso but no one I really care to level. I don't have much need to soft cap my 3*s or my 4*s. Not that it wouldn't help me to have a 270 XFDP, but I'm too OCD to not have someone go from flat to some round number of 200, 250, 270, or so on.

TxMoose

one more would get me everything that I really want done...done. 5tark, antman, kp, carnage and soft capping nova, moon and peg. maybe put a little into banner and ss. once I'm there, meh.

amusingfoo1

fmftint wrote:

No offence but you must be a rather low tier player.
At SHIELD rank 65 there's been very little impact on my iso debt which is currently 6.8 MILLION iso

No offense, but that's a pretty rude attitude to take.

My debt went down from 8.5M to 7.5M (just counting fully-covered characters). Then I pulled my 13th BSS this morning. Back up to 8.1M, as he's still 255. *sigh* (If I were to add in the partially-covered ones, it'd probably add about another 1.5-2M, mostly at the 5* level.)