More 3*s. Pros and cons?

CNash

carrion pigeons wrote:

I see this in my matchmaking: I almost never see 4*s, but once the seeds teams are finished in a pvp, the bulk of teams I see are level 300-330 5*s with all their colors at 1-3 covers. I don't have any characters that can compete with that, at all, but that's what's happening to the 3* tier. The number of players who are committed 3* players is dwindling, as most of them get dragged straight into a world of badly-covered 5*s instead of the 4* metagame.

Badly-covered 5*s are glass cannons, great for climbing but terrible on defense. And they get demolished by champed 4* players. It only takes a few of those losses for these badly-covered 5* players to think "hmm, maybe I should pay more attention to the 4* tier?"

Calnexin

bbigler wrote:

I suppose you have an issue with Black Widow being a 5* star then? (since she has no supernatural powers?) The game mechanics are more important than it making sense. They could release Jonah Jameson as the 1st 6* and I wouldn't care (but it would be really funny).

Yeah, 5* Widow doesn't sit well with me. Nor does OML, for that matter. I don't think Cap or Iron Man belong there, either.

The fiction is part of the experience for me. If the characters don't matter, there are other match-3 games out there I could play (or do something else entirely). Imagining Widow at the same level of power as the Phoenix breaks the fiction. It degrades that part of the experience.

My choice for the 1st 6* is Aunt May.

chamber44

CNash wrote:

carrion pigeons wrote:

I see this in my matchmaking: I almost never see 4*s, but once the seeds teams are finished in a pvp, the bulk of teams I see are level 300-330 5*s with all their colors at 1-3 covers. I don't have any characters that can compete with that, at all, but that's what's happening to the 3* tier. The number of players who are committed 3* players is dwindling, as most of them get dragged straight into a world of badly-covered 5*s instead of the 4* metagame.

Badly-covered 5*s are glass cannons, great for climbing but terrible on defense. And they get demolished by champed 4* players. It only takes a few of those losses for these badly-covered 5* players to think "hmm, maybe I should pay more attention to the 4* tier?"

nah - it just means that they should constantly push for CP and hope that RNG blesses them. This point has been made one billion times, but you could skip 4* land altogether if you get really lucky. and why shouldn't you? why spend the difficult-to-earn enough, most precious of resources - ISO - on a tier that won't ultimately matter?

Phumade

chamber44 wrote:

nah - it just means that they should constantly push for CP and hope that RNG blesses them. This point has been made one billion times, but you could skip 4* land altogether if you get really lucky. and why shouldn't you? why spend the difficult-to-earn enough, most precious of resources - ISO - on a tier that won't ultimately matter?

People make this mistake all the time. the 4* tier rewards are absolutely vital to 5* class rosters. People can spend to gain entry to 5* land, but 450 5* are cc teams to the growing army of dual champed 5* 460+ rosters in scl8.

If you don't have a stable of 4* champs to feed levels you'll eventually get stalled on the cp and LT drops that basically fuel 5* land.

Every 5* player I know who has dual 5* champs is basically backfilling their 3*/4* bench as fast as humanly possible.

carrion_pigeons

CNash wrote:

carrion pigeons wrote:

I see this in my matchmaking: I almost never see 4*s, but once the seeds teams are finished in a pvp, the bulk of teams I see are level 300-330 5*s with all their colors at 1-3 covers. I don't have any characters that can compete with that, at all, but that's what's happening to the 3* tier. The number of players who are committed 3* players is dwindling, as most of them get dragged straight into a world of badly-covered 5*s instead of the 4* metagame.

Badly-covered 5*s are glass cannons, great for climbing but terrible on defense. And they get demolished by champed 4* players. It only takes a few of those losses for these badly-covered 5* players to think "hmm, maybe I should pay more attention to the 4* tier?"

I feel like maybe you missed my point. Badly covered 5*s are glass cannons in the 4* world, but that's not what I'm talking about. Badly covered 5*s are pretty dominant in the 3* world. I've tried going after a 330 Phoenix with my roster, and I just cannot deal.

Skipping the 4* tier isn't about getting lucky. If you aren't putting effort into developing a 4* roster, skipping the 4* tier is becoming inevitable. A player who tries to develop his 3* roster will have a bunch of 5*s sitting at the top of his roster, once they start getting better covered, there stops really being any excuse for not using them in PvP. Leveling 4*s never even enters into the equation.

bbigler

carrion pigeons wrote:

CNash wrote:

carrion pigeons wrote:

I see this in my matchmaking: I almost never see 4*s, but once the seeds teams are finished in a pvp, the bulk of teams I see are level 300-330 5*s with all their colors at 1-3 covers. I don't have any characters that can compete with that, at all, but that's what's happening to the 3* tier. The number of players who are committed 3* players is dwindling, as most of them get dragged straight into a world of badly-covered 5*s instead of the 4* metagame.

Badly-covered 5*s are glass cannons, great for climbing but terrible on defense. And they get demolished by champed 4* players. It only takes a few of those losses for these badly-covered 5* players to think "hmm, maybe I should pay more attention to the 4* tier?"

I feel like maybe you missed my point. Badly covered 5*s are glass cannons in the 4* world, but that's not what I'm talking about. Badly covered 5*s are pretty dominant in the 3* world. I've tried going after a 330 Phoenix with my roster, and I just cannot deal.

Skipping the 4* tier isn't about getting lucky. If you aren't putting effort into developing a 4* roster, skipping the 4* tier is becoming inevitable. A player who tries to develop his 3* roster will have a bunch of 5*s sitting at the top of his roster, once they start getting better covered, there stops really being any excuse for not using them in PvP. Leveling 4*s never even enters into the equation.

But...........let's look at a hypothetical situation: 2 players with equal 3* rosters; 1 player works on his 4* tier and the other works on his 5* tier. At first, the player with some partially covered/leveled 5*s will have an advantage over the player with partially covered/leveled 4*s. But 4* progression is much faster than 5* progression; so over time, the 4* player will start to champ his 4*s and get the advantage over the 5* player who is still working with partially covered/leveled 5*s. It's clear that champed 4*s are better than partially leveled 5*s. Plus, the player with the champed 4*s will be able to accumulate LT and CP faster, thus allowing them to "catch up" in their 5* progression.

mpqr7

3* strange is great for PVE, especially against goons. Hopefully 3* Thanos has his uses as well.

carrion_pigeons

bbigler wrote:

carrion pigeons wrote:

CNash wrote:

carrion pigeons wrote:

I see this in my matchmaking: I almost never see 4*s, but once the seeds teams are finished in a pvp, the bulk of teams I see are level 300-330 5*s with all their colors at 1-3 covers. I don't have any characters that can compete with that, at all, but that's what's happening to the 3* tier. The number of players who are committed 3* players is dwindling, as most of them get dragged straight into a world of badly-covered 5*s instead of the 4* metagame.

Badly-covered 5*s are glass cannons, great for climbing but terrible on defense. And they get demolished by champed 4* players. It only takes a few of those losses for these badly-covered 5* players to think "hmm, maybe I should pay more attention to the 4* tier?"

I feel like maybe you missed my point. Badly covered 5*s are glass cannons in the 4* world, but that's not what I'm talking about. Badly covered 5*s are pretty dominant in the 3* world. I've tried going after a 330 Phoenix with my roster, and I just cannot deal.

Skipping the 4* tier isn't about getting lucky. If you aren't putting effort into developing a 4* roster, skipping the 4* tier is becoming inevitable. A player who tries to develop his 3* roster will have a bunch of 5*s sitting at the top of his roster, once they start getting better covered, there stops really being any excuse for not using them in PvP. Leveling 4*s never even enters into the equation.

But...........let's look at a hypothetical situation: 2 players with equal 3* rosters; 1 player works on his 4* tier and the other works on his 5* tier. At first, the player with some partially covered/leveled 5*s will have an advantage over the player with partially covered/leveled 4*s. But 4* progression is much faster than 5* progression; so over time, the 4* player will start to champ his 4*s and get the advantage over the 5* player who is still working with partially covered/leveled 5*s. It's clear that champed 4*s are better than partially leveled 5*s. Plus, the player with the champed 4*s will be able to accumulate LT and CP faster, thus allowing them to "catch up" in their 5* progression.

But I don't *want* to move out of the 3* tier in the first place. It isn't about which of 4*s and 5*s will be more effective at moving you out of the tier. The answer is 4*s, no question. It's about the fact that you can collect bunches of 4*s without impacting what teams you have that are most effective, assuming you ignore the tier, while the same is not true for 5*s. 5*s will eventually stop you from being able to compete with 3*s at all, unless you start selling off your roster.

This isn't just me. If you look at the average 3* player's roster, you will see it happening to most of them, and it impacts gameplay in PvP in a big way. I face rosters that aren't that different from my own, development-wise, but I rarely face actual 3* teams, even at very low points, even though all I want to do is play in the 3* tier. All I see are 5*s.

optimus2861

carrion pigeons wrote:

I feel like maybe you missed my point. Badly covered 5*s are glass cannons in the 4* world, but that's not what I'm talking about. Badly covered 5*s are pretty dominant in the 3* world. I've tried going after a 330 Phoenix with my roster, and I just cannot deal.

The grief I have with the badly-covered 5* in the 3* world is that they hurt. That ludicrous match damage of theirs, with one bad cascade, guarantees you eat one or more health packs, even if you'll eventually win the match since their powers are poor (Black Bolt is another matter entirely with that wretched passive of his. Auto-skip).

'Tis quite annoying having to skip through the 300+ 5* characters to get a match you can win quickly without suffering that match damage.

Phumade

optimus2861 wrote:

carrion pigeons wrote:

I feel like maybe you missed my point. Badly covered 5*s are glass cannons in the 4* world, but that's not what I'm talking about. Badly covered 5*s are pretty dominant in the 3* world. I've tried going after a 330 Phoenix with my roster, and I just cannot deal.

The grief I have with the badly-covered 5* in the 3* world is that they hurt. That ludicrous match damage of theirs, with one bad cascade, guarantees you eat one or more health packs, even if you'll eventually win the match since their powers are poor (Black Bolt is another matter entirely with that wretched passive of his. Auto-skip).

'Tis quite annoying having to skip through the 300+ 5* characters to get a match you can win quickly without suffering that match damage.

hahaha. I guess it really doesn't matter what tier or how old your roster is. No matter what level of play your at, there are baby seals to club and 5* baby whales to avoid.

Next time I see a 1 cover 5*, I'll be sure to extract righteous vengenance for thee!