Speed Evil - Lightning Rounds. April 1 - 3, 2014

Unknown

Too Easy wrote:

ive noticed during the villian lighting rounds the 250 mark is usually enough to get the heroic token unless its a Hood or Magneto round...Hero lighting round is a different story

Yeah, 250 would be enough for top 100 in most cases during villain LRs.
I've only participated in 2 Hero LRs I think, and then only minimally due to MMR hell.
I really wish they alternated them weekly, instead of whatever the ratio is right now.
Whatever that ratio is, it does seem that villain LRs outnumber hero LRs by some margin.

Unknown

The off-time ones I usually play (I'm a big fan of the 6 am EST ones) usually 250 will get you a diabolical - but it's an incredibly narrow range; there may be 25-30 points or less separating 25th place from 51st. I usually end up having to do a retreat followed by a win to fine-tune my placement in them.

I'm primarily just playing for the diabolicals at this point - I just need 5 covers (multiples of 3 of them though), but for most of those I need at least top 8, and sometimes top 2. Given that those 6 am rounds I like so much are usually Doom (who I have maxed) and Ragnarok (who I need top 8 to get something useful for), I usually just aim for the diabolical, and I can usually do that with about 20 minutes at the start to climb up to 250 points, and 10 minutes at the end of the run fine-tuning where I land. I can consistently get one or two new covers a week doing that (I got my last Mags blue and my second purple Loki this week from tokens, plus a black Loki - I think my eighth - I sold).

I can't even imagine playing to win on these if I was maxed out. The times I've done that (I've won once, and top 8'd a few times) it's been such a tedious grind I wouldn't want to repeat it if I wasn't going to get something out of it. Most rounds I just fight the seed teams an put in a tank team; if it's an off hour and I have time I'll try for more than that, but the evening ones are brutal.

ZeiramMR

I'm in a similar boat Ben. I only have one cover-maxxed villain (Doctor Doom, the others are 1-3 away) and have been trying to get some Diabolical tokens to let others take the guaranteed cover positions. Unfortunately, three Thursday Morning Dooms in a row have ended up with a Doom cover. Two from Diabolical tokens, one from a last-minute defensive win that I couldn't fine tune ranking quickly enough.

Unknown

It is all over but the crying. That sobbing sound is me not getting any 3* after opening my stash of standard tokens hoarded over the last two days.

over_clocked

Well, I abused #2 and even hit walkyourpath at #1 twice (didn't make it in time being 35 seconds late on the second attack though) trying to secure top 1-2 in the latest Magneto round. I'm sorry, #2, but if I figure out the perfect build for Magneto, I won't be participating in Magneto rounds competitively for quite a while (until a need for respec arises or something).

Whoever helps me with the build deserves a Nobel or at least a Mutant Peace prize.
I have a 4/4/5 classic Magneto, lvl 96. I won all 3 Magneto covers, so if 5 blue is a must, I can go 3-way from here: 5-3-5; 5-4-4; 5-5-3.

Now I don't have other nukes so awesome as his purple, my highest leveled 3* characters are Psy, Punisher, Hood, Spidey, all of whom lack a nuke (Punisher is a stretch). Others include Ares and Thor**. Panther can be brought to lvl 102, but he only has 3 in black.
My Patch is 3/2/4 at the moment and only level 37, but if I pump every sliver of ISO into him, it's level 89 (quite usable in the current PvE I hope).

Magneto's purple does 5 980 damage at the moment which is quite useful for lvl 230 battles, I think I have no one else capable of such a punch.

Do I leave the purple at 5 or go for the spammable red? Compromise with 5-4-4? I often run Magneto-Hood-strike tile character/Spidey, so I can really benefit from both red and purple. Other things to consider are that purple only requires top 25 in Magneto rounds, while red is incredibly difficult to get.

Unknown

Of the five villains, C.Mags and Hood are top-tier characters, so their rounds are more competitive for the actual covers. Diabolic tokens give you a shot at C.Mags/Hood covers in Doom/Loki/Rags rounds, so 26-50 is where a lot of people are trying to end up. I've been in the midst of 30-40 people trying to finesse their way into 25 spots more than once, and it's rather intense. A defensive win at the wrong moment can screw you just as much as a loss, and the point totals are around 250-300, so a single match can move you quite a bit.

Unknown

I briefly experimented with 4 purple instead of 5 and I hated it. The damage difference really shows outside of LR. I put mine back at 5 red and purple and he is staying that way (and at his level) until I hear what they plan to do with the guy.

Unknown

locked wrote:

Well, I abused #2 and even hit walkyourpath at #1 twice (didn't make it in time being 35 seconds late on the second attack though) trying to secure top 1-2 in the latest Magneto round. I'm sorry, #2, but if I figure out the perfect build for Magneto, I won't be participating in Magneto rounds competitively for quite a while (until a need for respec arises or something).

Whoever helps me with the build deserves a Nobel or at least a Mutant Peace prize.
I have a 4/4/5 classic Magneto, lvl 96. I won all 3 Magneto covers, so if 5 blue is a must, I can go 3-way from here: 5-3-5; 5-4-4; 5-5-3.

Now I don't have other nukes so awesome as his purple, my highest leveled 3* characters are Psy, Punisher, Hood, Spidey, all of whom lack a nuke (Punisher is a stretch). Others include Ares and Thor**. Panther can be brought to lvl 102, but he only has 3 in black.
My Patch is 3/2/4 at the moment and only level 37, but if I pump every sliver of ISO into him, it's level 77.

Magneto's purple does 5 980 damage at the moment which is quite useful for lvl 230 battles, I think I have no one else capable of such a punch.

Do I leave the purple at 5 or go for the spammable red? Compromise with 5-4-4? I often run Magneto-Hood-strike tile character/Spidey, so I can really benefit from both red and purple. Other things to consider are that purple only requires top 25 in Magneto rounds, while red is incredibly difficult to get.

Well played! I saw you charging and skipped you more than a few times to avoid giving you retals. Had a feeling I'd be a target at the end and shielded for 15 min. Got hit by you and 2 others for what would have been a -146, lol. It's all about ISO farming for me now that I got C. Mags to 5/5/3.

I played some with Mags at 5/4/4 and it's a good compromise - wouldn't fault anyone for sticking with that build. But if you like to play with strike tile characters, Mags' red at 5 is a revelation. Even at 4 his red is a game changer. Makes PvE against goons of any level an almost trivial affair, makes farming ISO from LRs way easier, and can't be misplayed by the AI. My alliance members talked me into it, and I must begrudgingly admit they were right all along. I'm a believer in 5/5/3 now. And, as you mentioned, if red gets nerfed hard it won't be as tough to get a purple to respec back.

over_clocked

Ghast wrote:

I briefly experimented with 4 purple instead of 5 and I hated it. The damage difference really shows outside of LR. I put mine back at 5 red and purple and he is staying that way (and at his level) until I hear what they plan to do with the guy.

U no 5 blue?
Magneto with 5 blue + high leveled Hood = all levels of awesome. Hood's crit multiplier is the highest among 3*s, which is x4,5. He does 1k - 2k damage easily when buffed with a simple match 5 with a crit.

Unknown

locked wrote:

Ghast wrote:

I briefly experimented with 4 purple instead of 5 and I hated it. The damage difference really shows outside of LR. I put mine back at 5 red and purple and he is staying that way (and at his level) until I hear what they plan to do with the guy.

U no 5 blue?
Magneto with 5 blue + high leveled Hood = all levels of awesome. Hood's crit multiplier is the highest among 3*s, which is x4,5. He does 1k - 2k damage easily when buffed with a simple match 5.

I got 4 red Mags covers from Standard tokens before I tried playing in the LRs. By the time I had him leveled enough to finish in the top 8, I already had a final red and 1 blue from daily rewards. I had a 5/3/5 build before Respec and adapted my play style to that. I built most of my 3* roster thanks to 2AP red attacks and a pre-nerf Wolverine.

Those were the days.

over_clocked

I guess you and your teammates are correct, walkyourpath. Strike tiles are everywhere so cheaper abilities really benefit from them.
I often defend the 5-5-3 build for mStorm and 3-5-5 for oBW myself, since speed is so important. I would still be able to kill things with purple at 3, but 8 red is easier to get than 10 purple, and 8 red gives me 4 board shake ups.
Also I don't want to fight for top 1-2 in a Magneto round ever again lol. I guess I'll respec to 5-5-3 (or 5-4-4 if too unwilling to give up the purple) a little bit later during the week, because I want to kill mooks with lvl 5 purple a while longer
Hopefully another good thing lazy characters bring is that older characters don't get hit too harshly.

Unknown

My Magneto is 5/2/3 and I'm planning on a 5/3/5 build. I can come up with a great excuse to max any of his skills, but red has the least - I've got others with reds I'm liable to use more often (Patch, Punisher); there are no real competitors for his purple, and his blue is one of those self-sustaining uber-powers that is a godsend with certain characters (like Patch) I like to use and is useful just on its own.

over_clocked

^ yeah lol, I heard the stories of a 5-0-0 Magneto being someone's best workhorse (0 cost abilities don't get any better than this).

mischiefmaker

walkyourpath wrote:

I played some with Mags at 5/4/4 and it's a good compromise - wouldn't fault anyone for sticking with that build. But if you like to play with strike tile characters, Mags' red at 5 is a revelation. Even at 4 his red is a game changer. Makes PvE against goons of any level an almost trivial affair, makes farming ISO from LRs way easier, and can't be misplayed by the AI. My alliance members talked me into it, and I must begrudgingly admit they were right all along. I'm a believer in 5/5/3 now. And, as you mentioned, if red gets nerfed hard it won't be as tough to get a purple to respec back.

+1 for this. I had a 5/4/4 that I decided to go 5/3/5 with for the extra damage, and regret it now -- red is way harder to get in the LR, and most of the time I prefer the speed of blue/red to pair with Patch, who is most often Magneto's running mate. Also, spamming his blue means there's usually not even 9 blue tiles on board by the time I collect 10 purple, much less 13.

over_clocked

Can you imagine playing without Patch?
What if I pair Magneto with Spidey and Punisher for now? Spidey interchangeable with oBW/Hood, my Patch will have to wait maybe more than a week to be leveled to 89. I'll want to run Spidey for tough PvE battles when stunning the opponent early is the only option (Daken ughhh), Hood for almost anything else because he simply denies most damage except match damage. With Hood, Magneto is cheap in every department, so 5-3-5 is also spammable (but why spam red when you have a self-sustainable blue coupled with Hood's crazy crit multiplier and Punisher's not too shabby one as well?). Red doesn't destroy your own special tiles, does it? It's a bit too random for my liking and while more reliable on defense, no one cares about defense too much.

Unknown

walkyourpath wrote:

I played some with Mags at 5/4/4 and it's a good compromise - wouldn't fault anyone for sticking with that build. But if you like to play with strike tile characters, Mags' red at 5 is a revelation. Even at 4 his red is a game changer. Makes PvE against goons of any level an almost trivial affair, makes farming ISO from LRs way easier, and can't be misplayed by the AI. My alliance members talked me into it, and I must begrudgingly admit they were right all along. I'm a believer in 5/5/3 now. And, as you mentioned, if red gets nerfed hard it won't be as tough to get a purple to respec back.

Who do you run your 5/5/3 Mag with though? Patch or Punisher for the strike tiles? I can see how 5/5/3 is easily insane with Patch but much less so with Punisher (even though it would still be solid).

I personally run 141 Punisher/Hood/Mag with a 5/3/5 Mag. I am contemplating switching to 5/4/4 but since I don’t use Patch don’t really want to go full out 5/5/3.

This almost tempts me to dump my iso reserve into maxing my Patch as well though…

Unknown

Punisher uses red and green like Patch and has an additional black skill that no Wolverine uses. His strike tile damage at 9 AP is nothing compared to Patch's 'Rage at 5 green covers, but he compensates by not creating enemy strike tiles. Keep an eye on how much damage each of Magneto's red attacks do, though. Sometimes it is more cost-effective to use Retribution.

Magnetic Translocation + Retribution is a great PVE combo.

Unknown

@locked: grats for the triplet, that's not a simple achievement really. See the Mags thread for build discussion.

Unknown

entropic01 wrote:

walkyourpath wrote:

I played some with Mags at 5/4/4 and it's a good compromise - wouldn't fault anyone for sticking with that build. But if you like to play with strike tile characters, Mags' red at 5 is a revelation. Even at 4 his red is a game changer. Makes PvE against goons of any level an almost trivial affair, makes farming ISO from LRs way easier, and can't be misplayed by the AI. My alliance members talked me into it, and I must begrudgingly admit they were right all along. I'm a believer in 5/5/3 now. And, as you mentioned, if red gets nerfed hard it won't be as tough to get a purple to respec back.

Who do you run your 5/5/3 Mag with though? Patch or Punisher for the strike tiles? I can see how 5/5/3 is easily insane with Patch but much less so with Punisher (even though it would still be solid).

I personally run 141 Punisher/Hood/Mag with a 5/3/5 Mag. I am contemplating switching to 5/4/4 but since I don’t use Patch don’t really want to go full out 5/5/3.

This almost tempts me to dump my iso reserve into maxing my Patch as well though…

The strike tiles see a huge benefit with a spammable 5 red; doesn't really matter who you pair him with (Patch, Pun, Panther, Psylocke), but Patch at 5 green sees the most dramatic benefits and you can easily avoid the negatives of the enemy strike tiles.

Almost more important to me is the board clearing aspect to 5 red. His blue is amazeballs, but blue tiles will eventually dry up. Even 2 red matches means that you can clear 15 tiles from the board at will, is which almost always sufficient to get enough blues back on the board to start the pain train all over again. I'm now seeing alot of additional AP and damage from cascade matches as well. Lots to love there, and as mentioned above his purple is really conditional on having lots of blue on the board, which I've usually chewed through by the time I can launch his nuke anyways.

With Punisher and Hood, you'll probably be happy with 5/4/4 or 5/5/3. His purple at 4 is still a good one shot kill if you need it, given that you don't have a high direct damage ability with those other 2. But with Patch it's sooooooo butter. I just happened to get Patch fully covered before Pun (mine is still lvl. 50-60) so I'm already geared that way.

over_clocked

Well, I guess I'll respec to 5/5/3 with a purple cached for a week, will try Mags out with Punisher and support of choice. My Punisher is 4 in green, 2x 80 strike tiles. If the kill them all speed is hampered too much, will switch to 5/4/4 and leave at that for the time being (curse you Magneto for being so perfect/broken as to not having a suboptimal build!).
I remembered something also, while I don't have a usable Patch yet, I *love* playing with Spidey against enemy Patch, so 5 red is a winner here again.
Does Magneto only destroy basic tiles with red? Or enemy special tiles too? I never found that info, thanks everyone for the insights by the way.
/thread derailed much/