I didn't want the Torch...

NorthernPolarity

Dunkelgrau wrote:

babblefate wrote:

... it makes me wonder if I should get rid of 3* cap to free up a slot? Or give up 2* cap. I've been toying with the idea of selling my Jugs since I hardly ever use him anyway...

If devs were being rational, and treating 3* gold characters identically with their 2* counterparts, then getting rid of 2* cap would just be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, they've already shown a penchant for distinguishing 2* and gold covers in events in terms of Essentialness and boostedness, and will probably continue doing so for some time. If your 2* roster is somewhat light on playables, keeping 2* Cap around can be useful because he's reasonably useful when boosted for PVE events, and can be something of a powerhouse when well-covered (so his countdowns can overwrite enemy countdowns). I lvled him to 30 and he was useful for a while, but I haven't used him in a long time since getting Tier-1 2* heroes leveled and covered (Thor, Wolv, Storm, OBW, Ares, Mags, Daken - some combination of those are better than Cap even if he's boosted and they are not).

If your Cap red or blue powers are at or near 5, he can just trivialize certain pve matchups where the mooks use slow-but-powerful effects, or matchups that rely on tile buffs, like bullseye. If your 2* cap is still far from useful, and you have some promising 2* heroes, then it's probably ok to drop 2* cap for 3*.

3* Cap you should keep because he, like most 3*'s will be a gating character for PVE nodes, and having him will help you get more prizes easier.

While this is true for essentialness and limited roster events such as Heroic modes, this doesn't really apply to boosts. With the current boost structure, a 2* cover would be boosted to an effective level 40 levels higher than what they're currently at (so level 85 would be boosted to 125), which is still not as strong as a maxed out 3*. For example, in the unstable-iso event we just had, 141 LazyThor was still stronger than 85 2* Thor, so there was no reason to use 2* Thor over LazyThor. Therefore, the only time this likely matters is when a 2* character is required for a node (unlikely), or the only version that can be used in a limited roster event (Heroics). I suppose a random PvP tournament could also require the 2* version, but that seems unlikely since it would just also feature the 3* roster, unless it was a 2* only tournament.

over_clocked

Speaking of which, were there ever any 2* only tournaments? I only remember 3 or so 1* only tourneys.

Unknown

Ghast wrote:

Dump him. 2* Cap is one of the most common pulls from heroic and event tokens. He is the character we usually get when we really want something else.

LOL! Yep, that's argument enough for me!

simonsez

babblefate wrote:

Apparently I finished within the top 101-200 and got Human Torch, despite me leaving the game alone for the last few hours. I was at #180-ish and was expecting to be pushed back into the 202-300

I'm still trying to figure out how the events work, and this has me really confused. I ended up going from around #120 to #230 in the last few hours, all the time waiting for points to be available in some doable missions, and it never happened. Am I doing something wrong, or can different brackets yield wildly different experiences like this?

Unknown

simonsez wrote:

babblefate wrote:

Apparently I finished within the top 101-200 and got Human Torch, despite me leaving the game alone for the last few hours. I was at #180-ish and was expecting to be pushed back into the 202-300

I'm still trying to figure out how the events work, and this has me really confused. I ended up going from around #120 to #230 in the last few hours, all the time waiting for points to be available in some doable missions, and it never happened. Am I doing something wrong, or can different brackets yield wildly different experiences like this?

Nodes deplete in "stacks," so a node might have 1000->800-600->400->200 points if you play it five times in a row (plus some additional points depending on how far you are from the leader). The trick is, each time you play, a stack gets added eight or twelve hours from the time you play a node (twelve in the most recent event). So (disregarding the additional points, which is what we refer to as "rubberbanding") if you play a node with 1000 points at 10:00 AM and again at 10:15 AM, it will have 800 points at 10:00 PM and 1000 points at 10:15 PM

simonsez

So does that mean that if you plan on pushing hard during the final hour of an event, you should stop playing 13 hours from the end? Does that maximize the points you'd have available? It seems pretty confusing (for a newb at least) to try to figure out how to best balance the needs to score points, and to have points available to score.

Unknown

simonsez wrote:

So does that mean that if you plan on pushing hard during the final hour of an event, you should stop playing 13 hours from the end? Does that maximize the points you'd have available? It seems pretty confusing (for a newb at least) to try to figure out how to best balance the needs to score points, and to have points available to score.

Yeah, unfortunately it's not obvious unless you really analyze it or someone explains it to you, but that's exactly what it means. The only wrinkle for a newer player is that enemies increase in levels as more players beat them, so if your team is low-level, sometimes if you wait until the last hour (when they give the most points) they become too hard to beat!

Unknown

simonsez wrote:

So does that mean that if you plan on pushing hard during the final hour of an event, you should stop playing 13 hours from the end? Does that maximize the points you'd have available? It seems pretty confusing (for a newb at least) to try to figure out how to best balance the needs to score points, and to have points available to score.

Basically I cycle through nodes, I just play the ones whose points have gone back closest to what they were originally. It's easier to figure out that way. This node originally had 1200 points to play and now is only 400? Nope, I'll play another node, or leave it alone for a while.

Unknown

I'm pissed because I grinded up to 13th place with 45 min left and then fell asleep and still got bumped back beyond the top 50 so I lost my black cover. Grrrr

Unknown

i'm amazed that no one yet mentioned that this guy is in luck. The Hollow point kiss event is awarding the green Ares for 600points
So he gets to have his Ares and flame on too

simonsez

babblefate wrote:

simonsez wrote:

So does that mean that if you plan on pushing hard during the final hour of an event, you should stop playing 13 hours from the end? Does that maximize the points you'd have available? It seems pretty confusing (for a newb at least) to try to figure out how to best balance the needs to score points, and to have points available to score.

Basically I cycle through nodes, I just play the ones whose points have gone back closest to what they were originally. It's easier to figure out that way. This node originally had 1200 points to play and now is only 400? Nope, I'll play another node, or leave it alone for a while.

One other question: why do the points drop in the nodes you aren't playing, when you beat a mission in another node? That doesn't seem to fit with what I'm understanding here...

Unknown

simonsez wrote:

One other question: why do the points drop in the nodes you aren't playing, when you beat a mission in another node? That doesn't seem to fit with what I'm understanding here...

All your points are modified by the rubberband modifier, which is bigger the further you're away from the overall leader.

As you complete missions at inflated values, this diference gets smaller, causing all your missions to be worth less. Hypothetically speaking, let's say you see a mission that's worth 2000 and another worth 1000 and let's say that's 5X modifier, you finish the 2000 one, and now you're 2000 points closer to overall leader so the modifier is reduced to 2X. The mission that used to worth 1000 is now worth only 400 (base 200 X 2).

The easiest way to tell if something refreshed is just clear something down to 1 as the last thing you do and when you see the value on that stack is no longer 1, that means eveything else has refreshed. I used the Captain required mission for this, though the choice of what mission to use is fairly arbitary.

uuddlrlr

I didn't see this mentioned yet, but in PvE, there are less opportunities for you to drop in rank. The only way for it to happen is basically through other players scoring more than you. Unlike in PvP, your score will never drop, due to you losing or quitting a battle, or another player winning against your team. So basically, ranks in PvE are more stable than in PvP.

ClydeFrog76

HailMary wrote:

You'll almost certainly get a lot of mileage out of that single McHottie cover.

McHottie?

Did I miss a memo?

Unknown

ClydeFrog76 wrote:

HailMary wrote:

You'll almost certainly get a lot of mileage out of that single McHottie cover.

McHottie?

Did I miss a memo?

Human Torch = HT

HT = Hottie.

The "Mc" part is because he is a white guy trying to be cool in the early '90's.

Unknown

MTGOFerret wrote:

i'm amazed that no one yet mentioned that this guy is in luck. The Hollow point kiss event is awarding the green Ares for 600points
So he gets to have his Ares and flame on too

Ahhhh, I wish it were that easy. My roster isn't too good and I haven't been faring well against my opponents. I think it's time to do some tanking because I was doing fairly well in the past few PvP so my opponents are now like what. Plus the fact that I've never even reached 200 points for PvP events. At this point, I can only dream.

HailMary

Ghast wrote:

Human Torch = HT

HT = Hottie.

The "Mc" part is because he is a white guy trying to be cool in the early '90's.

Tch, amateur.

1. Not a white guy.
2. Grey's Anatomy.