PvE Guide v1.1 (Updated January 2016)

tempestuousfury

I have a quick question.

For the sub events, is it a good idea to simply play a mission to get into the bracket and then wait for the rubberbanding for a few hours, or is it better to wait a few hours and then join? I suppose just joining and playing and waiting 14 hours for rubberbanding is another option.... Anyway, I'm curious about this.

Thanks in advance!

CallTheStorm

Same question as tempestuousfury.

I used to hit all the missions every 2.5 hrs when the points were refilled. And the first 2 days I could keep Top 2 position.
But I was always be passed in the last 2 hrs, and roughly just stayed in top 10. It happened several times.
So what the better strategy for entering Top 2 in the end?

mohio

Jimmy Whisper wrote:

My question(s) is: Why is it that the leader of most event brackets I'm in has sub lvl 85 characters and several level 6 2* with maxed covers? What's the advantage with this kinda roster?

Let's say every character is at level 40 (since that is a 3* with 1cover seems like a good place to start). If this player has all the buffed characters then that 3* is going to be level 70 or 130 with the 90 level buff and the 2*s will be level 80. The opponents this guy faces however are at the levels he would face with his very weak level 40s roster. With limited covers this guy usually just overpowers the opposition with match damage and the occasional weak power. If he actually has a lot of covers for his chars then they are almost max 2* level guys facing off against very weak opponents so he can win quickly and easily.

tempestuousfury wrote:

I have a quick question.

For the sub events, is it a good idea to simply play a mission to get into the bracket and then wait for the rubberbanding for a few hours, or is it better to wait a few hours and then join? I suppose just joining and playing and waiting 14 hours for rubberbanding is another option.... Anyway, I'm curious about this.

Thanks in advance!

I would not join early without the intention of doing the 2.5 hour grind cause those early brackets are pretty hardcore (i.e. Filled with lots of grinders). I typically wait until about 12 hours left in the first sub since that gives you enough time to rubberband up to the global leaders (or pretty close at least) if you do the 2.5 hour clears til the end. I would do this for every sub in fact or even wait longer sometimes, but if you really want to grind for the top progression reward then you might need to join the rest sooner.

CallTheStorm wrote:

Same question as tempestuousfury.

I used to hit all the missions every 2.5 hrs when the points were refilled. And the first 2 days I could keep Top 2 position.
But I was always be passed in the last 2 hrs, and roughly just stayed in top 10. It happened several times.
So what the better strategy for entering Top 2 in the end?

Honestly I think the answer is joining the right bracket, which I think means waiting to join until a little later. Also it sounds like people are just out-rubberbanding you at the end, so maybe you're starting your final grind a little too early. If you're in a more relaxed bracket though, there will be less competition for those top 2 so your earlier grinding should give you a good cushion going into the end as long as you can keep up with the guys trying to catch you. There's no better strategy than playing each node once every 2.5 hours then as many times as possible in the last 1.5 hours or so to score the maximum amount of points, so just keep doing that and just try to time your last run better and win fast.

Unknown

Thanks for this! Only playing PvE and it can get though to keep up if you lack certain Chars

Unknown

I'm not sure I understood this correctly. Is it possible to illustrate nods vs stacks with screenshots? Also, from what I understood, it's good practice to discipline yourself and just do the missions every 12 hours and then grind the last 2 hours.

But from your post above, you said:

"There's no better strategy than playing each node once every 2.5 hours then as many times as possible in the last 1.5 hours or so to score the maximum amount of points, so just keep doing that and just try to time your last run better and win fast."

So which is it? I have been playing about a couple of weks and have finished at rank 12 in Heroic Oscorp (damn!) by grinding every 2.5 hours as much as I can. Is this bad? should I just have regulated myself?

kolonel

corroded wrote:

I'm not sure I understood this correctly. Is it possible to illustrate nods vs stacks with screenshots? Also, from what I understood, it's good practice to discipline yourself and just do the missions every 12 hours and then grind the last 2 hours.

But from your post above, you said:

"There's no better strategy than playing each node once every 2.5 hours then as many times as possible in the last 1.5 hours or so to score the maximum amount of points, so just keep doing that and just try to time your last run better and win fast."

So which is it? I have been playing about a couple of weks and have finished at rank 12 in Heroic Oscorp (damn!) by grinding every 2.5 hours as much as I can. Is this bad? should I just have regulated myself?

The first statement, of 12 hours followed by 2 hour grind was prior to a radical change in how nodes in pve refreshed. Prior to the timer bar being added, the points would reset back to the highest value every 12 hours.
With the timer bar, how points now continually refreshed, reaching maximum refresh after 2.5 hours after the first completion. So, your current strategy is fine.

mohio

corroded wrote:

I'm not sure I understood this correctly. Is it possible to illustrate nods vs stacks with screenshots? Also, from what I understood, it's good practice to discipline yourself and just do the missions every 12 hours and then grind the last 2 hours.

But from your post above, you said:

"There's no better strategy than playing each node once every 2.5 hours then as many times as possible in the last 1.5 hours or so to score the maximum amount of points, so just keep doing that and just try to time your last run better and win fast."

So which is it? I have been playing about a couple of weks and have finished at rank 12 in Heroic Oscorp (damn!) by grinding every 2.5 hours as much as I can. Is this bad? should I just have regulated myself?

I probably could have been more clear with how I worded that. All I meant is that in a vacuum the way to score the most points is to play every 2.5 hours (technically 2:24). Now as you suggest, it could potentially end up being bad for you. The reason for that is of course scaling. If you play that often and don't routinely lose on purpose (not even sure how effective this is at keeping your scaling down) you run the risk of making matches quite difficult for yourself late in an event. As you've been playing for a while now and read the guide, you know that the end of the event (or sub-event) is crucial and where you can pick up a large chunk of points. So, if by playing steadily throughout you make it so that matches are twice as hard (and therefore take twice as long) then it's possible you could be costing yourself more points at the end than you can make up by playing earlier.

As for nodes vs. stacks, nodes are just the term used for each "dot" on a map. Stacks is just a helpful term to visualize what is happening to the point values. Every time you beat a node the base point value decreases by 20% of the maximum, so previous users visualized that as 5 stacks, and beating a node removed a stack from it. Next time you're in the game, note what the point value is at full value, and then after you beat it. It should be 80% (although it could be slightly off due to rubberbanding changing the values, but the base value will have gone to 80%).

edit: stacks was also a useful concept before because there were some "2-stack" events, which only had full points, 50% points, and 1 point, and some 5-stack events, which seem to be what they've decided to stick with for good now.

Unknown

I probably could have been more clear with how I worded that. All I meant is that in a vacuum the way to score the most points is to play every 2.5 hours (technically 2:24). Now as you suggest, it could potentially end up being bad for you. The reason for that is of course scaling. If you play that often and don't routinely lose on purpose (not even sure how effective this is at keeping your scaling down) you run the risk of making matches quite difficult for yourself late in an event. As you've been playing for a while now and read the guide, you know that the end of the event (or sub-event) is crucial and where you can pick up a large chunk of points. So, if by playing steadily throughout you make it so that matches are twice as hard (and therefore take twice as long) then it's possible you could be costing yourself more points at the end than you can make up by playing earlier.

As for nodes vs. stacks, nodes are just the term used for each "dot" on a map. Stacks is just a helpful term to visualize what is happening to the point values. Every time you beat a node the base point value decreases by 20% of the maximum, so previous users visualized that as 5 stacks, and beating a node removed a stack from it. Next time you're in the game, note what the point value is at full value, and then after you beat it. It should be 80% (although it could be slightly off due to rubberbanding changing the values, but the base value will have gone to 80%).

edit: stacks was also a useful concept before because there were some "2-stack" events, which only had full points, 50% points, and 1 point, and some 5-stack events, which seem to be what they've decided to stick with for good now.

This makes it much clearer! Thanks so much for your guide! Now all I have to do is find an alliance that needs my PVE 'expertise' lol

Unknown

So firstly, this guide has improved my overall performance by a **** tonne so thank you so much helpful peoples

Now for the question, it's more of a clarification request really. I'm not entirely sure of what strategy to go with when approaching a new event. I know that if I don't intend to grind it every 2.5 hrs; it's best to wait 10ish hrs before joining a sub event. But I'm unsure where to go from there. I tend to unlock all of the missions, and then wait 2.5 hrs for the refresh; and then hit high paying nodes 2-4 times depending on how long until the end of the event/when I can play again. Once the event is coming to a close, I line up a refresh with a ~2hr window before the end of the event. I then just grind everything in descending point values until the event is over. Am I going about this the right way, or is there a more optimal way to go? I'm in that 2* 3* transitional period and I would like to have this mastered before the next Patch/Punisher reward PvE.

Unknown

So after reading this guide, I am still a bit confused and would like some clarification. So is a node a series of missions within a sub-event? If I wanted to rank highly in the overall event, would the best strategy be to tank a number of times to increase your bonus? How exactly does tanking increase the amount of iso one can obtain?

Unknown

Spider-Dude wrote:

So after reading this guide, I am still a bit confused and would like some clarification. So is a node a series of missions within a sub-event? If I wanted to rank highly in the overall event, would the best strategy be to tank a number of times to increase your bonus? How exactly does tanking increase the amount of iso one can obtain?

A node is each individual fight. So the fight "Tall, Dark and Nasty," the first fight in the current PVE is a node.

Tanking, losing on purpose to very slightly reduce the effects of scaling, does not increase the amount of points you earn but it can potentially make your fights easier. This is important because the last few hours of the event are when the enemies will be at their highest level and you want to make sure you can still defeat them without costing yourself too many med-kits or boosts. It can save you some ISO if you would have had to use boosts in the last fights but now don't need to but it will not increase the amount of ISO you receive.

Pylgrim

D0C70RF4U57 wrote:

Spider-Dude wrote:

So after reading this guide, I am still a bit confused and would like some clarification. So is a node a series of missions within a sub-event? If I wanted to rank highly in the overall event, would the best strategy be to tank a number of times to increase your bonus? How exactly does tanking increase the amount of iso one can obtain?

A node is each individual fight. So the fight "Tall, Dark and Nasty," the first fight in the current PVE is a node.

Tanking, losing on purpose to very slightly reduce the effects of scaling, does not increase the amount of points you earn but it can potentially make your fights easier. This is important because the last few hours of the event are when the enemies will be at their highest level and you want to make sure you can still defeat them without costing yourself too many med-kits or boosts. It can save you some ISO if you would have had to use boosts in the last fights but now don't need to but it will not increase the amount of ISO you receive.

Does this work by retreating from a fight, or you have to wait until they beat you?

Accident-eLe

Rule 4: Always let a stack fully refill
In a 5 stack then the first mission is worth 100%, the second 80% and so on down. Each mission individually regenerates in the stack after the refresh interval has expired.The whole stack is not renewed at once. So If I complete missions at 1:00, 1:10, 1:20, 1:30 and 1:40 the stack will be empty at 1:40. With a 12 hour refresh There will be one mission in the stack at 13:00 worth 20%. A second mission will arrive at 13:10 and the top mission will now be worth 40%. And so on up until 13:40 when the stack will be full and the top mission will be worth 100% again.

Rule 5: One stack at a time
you are better off always completing all the mission you intend in a stack before moving to the next node.
Lets number the nodes 1-12. If you had started on node 1 and played it 3 times, then moved on to node 2 and never came back, then 12 hours after you finished playing node 1 you could come back and start into node 1 again because it would be back on 100%.
Whereas if you had done node 1 once for the big score, bounced through other missions, then hit node 1 again, done other missions and then node 1 again, you could find that it is 13-14 hours after your first attempt at node 1 before it is at 100% and ready to be played again.
In a 2.5 day event you generally have 12 hour refresh which allows you to comfortabley complete every sub event 4 times and not really have to stress about time until the final clear. But if you are adding 2 hours to that refresh time by not playing disciplined you end up having 56 hours of 'fixed' playing time and only 4 hours of flexibility instead of the 10 hours of flexibility you would have had. [/quote]

I am confused by these two points. So you recommend that we crush a node to the ground; however, we are expected to have to wait extra time to get the full return of our situation if we do that? (i.e. a stack of 5, we go 5, and even though it says that it is full cleared in 12 hours, we have to actually wait 12 hours + the time it took us to complete nodes). Furthermore, when we crush a stack over and over we are going to be getting a diminished return because the difficulty increases depending on # of clears? Is this concept meant for people who don't have the luxury of playing for every "full point" amounts rather than the "hardcores"--or is this a universal concept and I misunderstood?

Eddiemon

Accident-eLe wrote:

I am confused by these two points. So you recommend that we crush a node to the ground; however, we are expected to have to wait extra time to get the full return of our situation if we do that? (i.e. a stack of 5, we go 5, and even though it says that it is full cleared in 12 hours, we have to actually wait 12 hours + the time it took us to complete nodes). Furthermore, when we crush a stack over and over we are going to be getting a diminished return because the difficulty increases depending on # of clears? Is this concept meant for people who don't have the luxury of playing for every "full point" amounts rather than the "hardcores"--or is this a universal concept and I misunderstood?

Well things have changed so that bit probably needs a re-write.

In the old days missions had a set refresh time where they would regenerate regardless of where in the stack they were. So if there was a 6 hour refresh and you completed one mission from the stack, it would replenish 6 hours later. If you completed two from the stack the stack would regain one 6 hours after you had completed the first mission and another 6 hours after you had completed the second go. If your first and second mission from teh stack were 10 minutes apart then 6 hours 10 minutes after you completed the first mission the stack would be full. Whereas if you waited an hour between first and second missions in the stack it would taks 7 hours form the first attempt for the stack to be full again.

Tha balancing act here was that while you could complete all 5 missions in teh stack and let it refresh, the 5th and 4th attempts weren't worth many points

That has all changed with the new version complete with timer. Mission from teh stack used to refresh concurrently, where now they are consecutive. So you do one mission and the stack if full 2.5 hours later, but you do 2 missions and it is full 5 hours later. So now 'grazing' every 2.5 hours would be optimal.

ScrubJay

I've gotten top 2 in the last 3 PVE's after usually scoring top 20-50 or so in the past. The strategy that's worked for me, besides hitting nodes every 2 and a half hours has been to make a push in the last hour of a sub and immediately hit the new sub. With my roster spent, I usually can't clear the new sub the first go round but I at least hit the essentials and some of the easier nodes. It sometimes gets me in trouble with getting a harder subevent and sometimes I lose out on some HP for top 10 finish but the goal is more points for the main bracket.

loroku

Eddiemon wrote:

Well things have changed so that bit probably needs a re-write.

I actually made an update of your guide and even since I wrote that, things have changed. They are changing things constantly with PvE. Generally speaking, though: grinders will always win out in the end.

Unknown

Not sure, if this has been covered in the discussion around.
I'm not to sure about what is really impacting the personal scaling for a PvE.
I can read a lot about growing up a 3* to 166 will ruin scaling for PvE (yes, it becomes more difficult), but i don't get all the rules behind that.
Will the next lvl 166 3* ruin the scaling even more? So, if i get another char, i might never or rarely use in PvE, to 166, will PvE be even harder? Is it somehow bound to my average level of chars in my roster, which would have the same impact as mentioned before? Or is it like highest level char only, meaning i can do below and at same level, as i wish, without any further influence on PvE?

Eddiemon

Meutrich wrote:

Not sure, if this has been covered in the discussion around.
I'm not to sure about what is really impacting the personal scaling for a PvE.
I can read a lot about growing up a 3* to 166 will ruin scaling for PvE (yes, it becomes more difficult), but i don't get all the rules behind that.
Will the next lvl 166 3* ruin the scaling even more? So, if i get another char, i might never or rarely use in PvE, to 166, will PvE be even harder? Is it somehow bound to my average level of chars in my roster, which would have the same impact as mentioned before? Or is it like highest level char only, meaning i can do below and at same level, as i wish, without any further influence on PvE?

I believe it is still grinding that is causing the problem and not personal rosters.

I have a pretty sweet collection of 166s and on a bad day my opponents maybe hit 250 at the end of an event in the highest value rounds that don't require a special character. I've never seen a 300 character, nevermind a 395.

I'll normally end up 2 covering a PvE, but that has to do with work and the fact that I can't do more than 3 sets of nodes in a day due to work. But it hits a nice balance between getting rewards and not letting things scale out of control.

Eddiemon

loroku wrote:

Eddiemon wrote:

Well things have changed so that bit probably needs a re-write.

I actually made an update of your guide and even since I wrote that, things have changed. They are changing things constantly with PvE. Generally speaking, though: grinders will always win out in the end.

No, they don't. A grinder can win one, two maybe even 3 PvE events. Then they get on here and complain that level 395 opponents are unfair.

Different grinders can win different events. But unless they are willing to dump real money on health packs and boosts, grinding is a terrible long term strategy. But it works great in the short term and helps spread the rewards around.

Once your enemies go above 300 you can't regularly clear enough nodes and you drop out of the running.

There are a lot of things you have to balance in this game, and there isn't one absolute rule. That's part of its charm.

Unknown

Is it at all clear how long personal scaling will follow you around if you've been guilty of grinding some PvEs in the past? Will tanking in an event or skipping an event entirely affect your overall PvE personal scaling? I try to play most of the events in moderation and have been having reasonable success when it comes to getting progression rewards, but it has been a while at this point since I have actually placed well enough in a PvE to get a placement reward.