I Think I Hit a Wall

Kishida

Also, if you're skipping out on Lightning Rounds, don't. Read this: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=29586

Cloudblueyes

Plunk down $20-50 if u can afford it. I regret not doing it sooner, and lost several covers along the way, thinking I would stay F2P. Just get roster slots. Or don't , and know that you will lose LOTS of covers along the way.

If you aren't doing that, then definitely hoard ur LT and CP and heroic packs.

MarkersMake

bonham2 wrote:

Here is my roster - https://mpq.gamependium.com/rosters/Bonham2/

I have played 71 days officially. I have a bunch of covers that I can't roster yet including a full set of 2* Wolverine and a full set of 2* Ares (meaning enough to champion if I just had a roster spot available). I have Hoods, Steve Rodgers, Luke Cage, Winter Soldier, Thor 3*, Doctor Doom, 2 Cyclops, Sam Wilson, Daven 3*, Ragnorok, and 2 Black Widow 3*s that I can't roster. I think that's the thing that frustrates me the most, but I'm not spending $20 just to roster these characters. A new spot costs me 400 HP right now, and I can usually gain that much in a week.

Hi!

I'm you, about 2 months from now. I have about 180 days played, but you are moving faster than I did (excellent progress on your roster so far!).

You are on the right course, and you are right to be getting impatient. The 3* transition is slow, mainly because there are 40 3* characters, and they won't really be useful until they have about 10 covers. So, bide your time, be patient, hoard your ISO.

Some tips (that you may already know):
- as an F2P player, roster slots are your limiting factor right now. Or rather, HP is your limiting factor. Farm it wherever you can (top 50 finishes in PVE subs are doable for you, if you have the time).
- Check the character rankings (viewtopic.php?f=14&t=40430) and keep the 3*s that are worthwhile (top 20 for sure, plus Iron Man 40 who was recently revamped). Sell the rest. Selling Sentry for example is just fine - but not the Hood (stealing AP is an amazingly useful ability).
- hit all the DDQ events you can. Getting a free 250 (or 1000) HP has a huge impact on the roster crunch.
- on that note, DDQ is not random. The schedule is a regular rotation (https://mpq.gamependium.com/ddq/), so you can plan accordingly. I keep 1 or 2 "flex" spots on my roster for 3* character covers that I will never keep, but who are coming up in DDQ soon.

By way of comparison, I currently have 41 roster slots and new slots are 550 hp for me. I also have almost 700k ISO banked, and for the same reason as you - nowhere useful to spend it right now. My 3* roster is *just* becoming usable (10+ covers), so I'll be using that ISO to level a few of them in the next month or so. ( https://mpq.gamependium.com/rosters/MakersMark/ for reference)

With respect to keeping 2* characters and championing them; I couldn't afford the HP to keep a full roster of 2* characters without losing too many good 3* covers. So rather than keeping and championing a bunch of 2*s (and getting the HP rewards), I only kept OBW, Thor, Ares, and Daken (Thor, Daken, and OBW could do the Big Enchilada by the mid-70s and it's still my go-to 2* team).

I am going back and filling out my 2* roster for the champion rewards now, since: I have enough roster slots that I'm not in a constant HP crunch, 4* covers are rare, I have most of the 3* characters I want, and 2* covers fall like rain at this point.

I haven't got an alliance yet, since my playtime is highly variable (with 3 kids under 5, some days MPQ just doesn't fit in), and I don't think I'd meet the requirements for many of them. But I created my own alliance (of just me, lol) for the rewards - you are far better off finding a real one if you can.

So have fun, keep on keeping on, take it one day at a time, give 110 percent, leave it all out on the ice, and remember it's just a game. And enjoy it, even if the pace has slowed down some.

EDIT - roster, max, and keep, Juggernaut. He is the only 1* you need, as he can do the 1* DDQ node solo, so that you can complete all of the DDQ missions and get the 2k ISO bonus. I see you have 1* iron man, but juggs is more reliable. Also, at 6AP, both of his skills are incredibly useful when he's boosted, particularly in some PVE nodes where you need quick board shake or a killshot before a countdown tile goes off.

broll

bonham2 wrote:

I have 120k ISO. I can't spend it anywhere near as much as I get it. I'm just getting frustrated that I can't progress faster. I play DDQ every day and everything else I can. I am getting very impatient.

It takes about 120k for every champion. While hording it may be frustrating now, you're going to need it in the long run so hang onto it.

I personally bought covers with CP to get to my first 3* and once I did my scaling got a lot better, I started placing better in events, and I started getting more 3* rewards that helped me play.

So I would recommend that along with DDQ. Also only use HP on roster slots, you're gonna need a TON. If you aren't there yet they eventually start costing 1000 HP per slot and there are 40 3*s and about 40 4*s at this point.

bonham2

Again, thanks everyone. I am only spending HP on roster slots. I'm playing every event I can and gaining HP everywhere it's possible. As for championing my 2*s, I naturally went to the ones I have because those were the ones I got the most early on (Moonstone & Captain Marvel specifically). This was before I started reading about character rankings. My plan now is to bring them up to 144 to get all of the champion rewards and then sell them. I will probably replace them with Ares and 2* Wolverine (since I have tons of covers for them just sitting). I appreciate the advice. I have stopped wasting ISO and continue working on my 3* transition.

As for money, I might do the $10 VIP (which definitely seems worth it), but I won't spend $20 on 2-3 roster spots. That's just dumb IMO.

Rodolfo78

MarkersMake wrote:

I haven't got an alliance yet, since my playtime is highly variable (with 3 kids under 5, some days MPQ just doesn't fit in), and I don't think I'd meet the requirements for many of them. But I created my own alliance (of just me, lol) for the rewards - you are far better off finding a real one if you can.

Good advice, Markers, but this piece made me sad. There are thousands of very casual public alliances you can join, who will have absolutely no requirements for you to worry about. If you do a little hopping to find an active one, your rewards will get meaningfully better (particularly ISO, where a free 1000 daily would be a cinch). You'll also get some occasional free command points when a random alliance mate chooses to spend on the game, and get to request much better TUs than you'll get by killing Ares and Daken for literally the 10,000th time.

Finally, if you ever hit max progression on a PvE event, post it in one of the mercenary threads in the alliances subforum here... it's often easy to find a high-scoring alliance with 18 or 19 members that's looking for a temporary member to improve their overall score. (True for PvP too, but that's probably not happening for you yet.)

DarthDeVo

bonham2 wrote:

Should I spend my CP on 3 star covers? Just suck it up and stay the course?

There are lots of people (even a few on this thread so far) that will tell you to never spend CP on 3* covers, but honestly it all comes down to preference and individual circumstance, if you ask me. In general, I hoard them because at Day 132 I really don't have space on my roster for any extra 4* or 5* characters that would probably be limited to just one cover for the next few months.

But I have used them in order to buy one or two covers at a time in order to champ a character that had a cover in my queue that was expiring. To me, it made more sense to use the CP, champ a character and get the Legendary Token than selling the cover for 500 ISO. After opening a few LTs and running into the aforementioned scenario (getting a 4* with one cover that was ultimately just eating up an open spot on my roster and I had to sell), I'm hoarding the LTs for now. They'll come in handy... some day.

Perfect example: Unless I magically pull a in the next 4 days for my 5/2/5 Hulk, I'll be spending 20 CP to buy that last cover, because I've got a green one expiring. I also have a that will expire in 9 days, but she's only 1/5/2 right now, and there's no way I'm spending 100 CP just for that cover. So it will probably be the first time I'll have to sell a dupe cover for a 3* because they aren't champed or at least close to champing, that I can recall anyway.

By and large, I try not to spend them unless absolutely necessary. And what I deem absolutely necessary you may not, so it's all good. It is pretty good advice to just hold onto them for later, though.

EDIT: I should probably mention something very important though, and that's if you champ a few 3* characters ahead of everyone else on your roster, it will tend to mess with your MMR and scaling. It's getting a little better for me now that I have 7 champed 3*, with another three coming very soon, and some more 3*'s making their way into the Level 100 territory, but it can make it harder to get placement and progression if you level up too soon. Something to take under advisement.

MarkersMake

Rodolfo78 wrote:

Good advice, Markers, but this piece made me sad.

Thanks for the advice, Rodolfo (and also for the PM on the same topic, aesthetocyst) - I'll check into it.

I think after a decade or so of MMORPG guild-related experience, I might have projected some of those experiences onto my expectations for MPQ Alliances .

Rodolfo78

MarkersMake wrote:

(and also for the PM on the same topic, aesthetocyst)

aesthetocyst is a frickin' beast on this forum. This place has high volume posters, and high quality posters, but he's got them both going on. If he's PMing people behind the scenes too, that's nuts.

aesth, you're either a super-cool dude IRL, or... very much not. Which is it?

Hyposphere6234

Keep on going and save the ISO, when you're collecting those 3* covers and levelling them up you'll be glad that you had. I wish I had 120,000 ISO, right now I need around 220,000 just to max my last 3*s plus the extra 37,500 to champion those five. I don't even want to go into the mathematics on the amount of ISO that I invested in the other thirty-five. Trust me when I say that the 3* covers will come, it took almost a whole year to get my twelve and thirteenth 3* Cyclops covers but they eventually arrived, by then I was too busy trying to get the ISO to max and champion other characters.

Two months? Seriously, stop buying Standard tokens. You're going to earn several hundred for free over the space of a year even with casual play. I'm at the back end of the 2* to 3* transition and in two weeks time I'll be "celebrating" my two year anniversary. (Ssh, I'll trade you those 120k for my TV.)

Pylgrim

MarkersMake wrote:

Rodolfo78 wrote:

Good advice, Markers, but this piece made me sad.

Thanks for the advice, Rodolfo (and also for the PM on the same topic, aesthetocyst) - I'll check into it.

I think after a decade or so of MMORPG guild-related experience, I might have projected some of those experiences onto my expectations for MPQ Alliances .

Rodolfo's advice is spot on. Whenever a person has had to leave our alliance for personal reasons, we've made the alliance public and after booting a few 1* players that ask for TUs the moment they join without even saying hi, we usually find promising players such as yourself. Many of them have gone to become superstarts in our team with time. I suspect there are many alliances that do the same.

bonham2

Just an update...I have mostly every 3* rostered (probably missing about 5-7). I have them all maxed out as much as possible. I now have 265,000 ISO-8 stocked up since you guys told me not to spend it. I also have 172 CP just sitting and a bunch of legendary tokens.

Mechahamster

I spent my CP on covers for my 3 s

I thought, why save them up for something useful in the far future, when I can speed up getting to that future instead.

bonham2

Someone in this thread mentioned using CP to champion 3*s in order to avoid letting covers go to waste. I'm waiting until then to start using my CP on covers.

Mechahamster

If you're at the point where you could potentially have 3 covers going to waste then that might be a useful way of spending them. But if you're hanging on to your CP when you only have a handful of usable 3 stars imho those CP can also be spent on deepening your roster at the level you're playing at. Get about 15 fully covered and useful 3 stars so you always have a decent team to put out even in heroics, and allow yourself to swap teams so you're not stuck waiting for health packs on your star team. Then start saving CP for tokens while filling out the rest of your 3 roster from progression, tokens and DDQ.

DarthDeVo

Mechahamster wrote:

I spent my CP on covers for my 3 s

I thought, why save them up for something useful in the far future, when I can speed up getting to that future instead.

I ended up being a little bit of a hypocrite and using about 100 CP to champ Kamala Khan to avoid letting a cover go to waste. Initially I wasn't going to spend that much CP just to avoid letting a cover go to waste and posted as such earlier upthread.

But, I got to thinking about it and I basically came to the same conclusion as you. I figured that I could either champ KK and earn that CP back in less than a month and that any potential subsequent covers could go to her champ levels, or hold on to that CP that I will eventually use at some point in the far future. I finally decided that it was better to make the progress now than put it off for later. I don't think I'll end up regretting that move.

For the most part though, I still like to limit buying covers to only one or two at most.

bonham2

Update on day 138...I now have 7 championed 3 stars and I am broke. I have 7,000 ISO left after I just championed my 3 star. I'm glad I stopped wasting my ISO on standard tokens. I also now have like 10 4 star covers sitting in my unused pile that are going to go to waste. I have been giving priority to 4 stars that I have multiple covers of (Wasp, Venom, Wolverine, Thing, Iceman, Professor X, Ant-Man). I also rostered a 5 star Hulk that I think I want to get rid of. He's pretty worthless with only 1 cover.

carrion_pigeons

Very nice progress. From here on you will benefit from trying to build a farm, so focus on getting as much HP as you can and rostering everyone. Your path into the 4* tier will depend on a lot of factors over the next year or so, but it will eventually speed up a lot once you don't have to sell covers for lack of roster space.

Phumade

bonham2 wrote:

I'm just getting frustrated with the slow progression.

Welcome to the club. Progress is measured in weeks and months. 2* players generally have an iso surplus, but once you have 2 or 3 3* champions you will acquire covers much much faster than you will get iso., So save your iso for when that day comes.

bbigler

bonham2 wrote:

All right. I'll listen to you guys. I'll stop buying standard tokens.

Someone mentioned prologue before. I completed that a while ago. I play every single event that I can. I complete DDQ every day as long as I have the required character. I play the PvP events until I at least get all of the possible HP. I'm just getting frustrated with the slow progression.

This game isn't for everyone. If you can make long term plans, stick to them and enjoy the slow and steady progression, which slowly improves gameplay and variety, then you'll like this game. Many people here are very analytical and patient. So, decide if you're that kind of person.