demiurge - I beg you - help us 4* transitioners

Banacek555

This is a direct plee to demiurge - will you please acknowledge that there is now a need to provide opportunity for a daily reward of 4* cover and even monthly 5*

If you can't provide this then me and probably 1000s more will take 5 years or more to even come close to be able to fully cover your 40+ 4* characters and another 5 years for 5*.

10 years! I'm crying inside just thinking about this.

Impossible to finish top 5 in PVP regularly, impossible to finish 900 points regularly, impossible finish T100 in PVE regularly on release of new character and ZERO chance for a guaranteed 5*.

Your revamp DDQ was perfect opportunity to address all of the above and you didn't take it.

I urge you - please - allow us to transition and have daily 4* cover and monthly 5* cover.

I don't want to be here in 10 years time with still just 1 cover for half my roster!

revskip

This is hyperbolic. In exactly a year I was able to complete the transition to 4* land and in just 402 days I have 12 champed 4*s and 6 more sitting with maxed covers just waiting for ISO.

The majority of my 4*s are in the 10+ cover range with only the newer ones sitting at 6 or less covers. I almost never hit 900 in PVP (6 times total) usually shooting for the 575 mark and often hitting as high as 725. In PVE I am in a top 100 alliance which helps a lot with 3* covers and gives me an extra new release cover but rarely hit higher than top 20-50. Right now I am so ISO starved that I haven't pulled tokens or CP since December because I get more 4* covers from random heroic and vault pulls than I can possibly level before their covers expire.

Could the 4* transition be quicker sure, but you really are laying it on pretty thick with the 10 year bit.

Zeta_zero

Yeah I haven't even hit 2 years yet (day 704) and I don't spend a lot of money (maybe $60 total since I started, maybe) and I have 11 4*s champed and a half 10 covered oml.

DapperChewie

25cp each pve for full progression. They usually have 5 pve events or so every 2 weeks, so let's say 10 per month. That's 250cp/month.

2cp/day from pve hard nodes. On 48hr nodes this is double so it balances out. That's 60/month.

10cp every 3 days from pvp for hitting 575, which is not super difficult. So 100/month there.

And depending on where you are for daily resupply, 10-25cp every 25 days. Let's say it's 10 cause you're still early, and round it off and say that's monthly.

So that's 420cp/month just for playing pve to progression and pvp to 575. This means 21 LTs/month, plus one every 5 days for DDQ, which makes it 27. Add in the 2cp/day you'll be getting from the new ddq, and that's 60/momth, so 3 more LTs. That's 30. Or, one classic legendary draw per day.

Thats not counting extra cp and LTs from champing, ad rewards, token draws, and doesn't take 4* covers earned from pve progression or shield sim pvp into account.

The 3-4 transition is long and often painful, but it's basically the endgame at this point. And it's much faster than it ever was.

Banacek555

Thank you - a very thorough response and agreed.

But I guess my original complaint, in a roundabout way, is why 4* cover obtaining is not mirroring 3* now there are more 4*

Every PVP, PVE, DDQ is still weighted towards 3* covers as overriding common get - I'm just highlighting that 4* is no longer the "Rare" character now that 5* is here and should naturally mean the movement of reward structure which hadn't happened.

Trilateralus

Not sure what y'all are doing to get 4* so fast but after 3 years I have exactly 2 champed 4* and 1 at 12 covers. The 3 oldest 4* in the game. Short of spending money or playing for hours a day I'm not sure how to speed that up. I shouldn't have to treat MPQ as a second job to make progress, new avenues for gaining 4* covers would be very welcome.

revskip

Trilateralus wrote:

Not sure what y'all are doing to get 4* so fast but after 3 years I have exactly 2 champed 4* and 1 at 12 covers. The 3 oldest 4* in the game. Short of spending money or playing for hours a day I'm not sure how to speed that up. I shouldn't have to treat MPQ as a second job to make progress, new avenues for gaining 4* covers would be very welcome.

In my case it is mostly spending hours a day. I've spent some money almost all on roster slots (I did spend a stark on Howard because I love the character) but mostly just grinding PVE for a year (~two and half hours a day + another 15 minutes for DDQ). Which in turn leads to a lot of CP which in turn becomes a lot of 4* characters (and the occasional 5*).

The change to PVP which put 10 CP at 575 helped a lot and actually inspired me to actually play some PVP. Before the change I almost never went past 300 or so and that was only to get the seasonal 10 heroic pack.

The thing with free to play games is you either spend time or money to get to the end game content. As it stands now 4* are the end game content. 5*s are there to spur spending from the whales but aren't really meant for the FTP crowd.

DapperChewie

Trilateralus wrote:

Not sure what y'all are doing to get 4* so fast but after 3 years I have exactly 2 champed 4* and 1 at 12 covers. The 3 oldest 4* in the game. Short of spending money or playing for hours a day I'm not sure how to speed that up. I shouldn't have to treat MPQ as a second job to make progress, new avenues for gaining 4* covers would be very welcome.

I just passed the 3 year mark a few days ago. I have 17 champed 4s, and 5 more with 13 covers.

I don't consider mpq a second job, I play it when I'm in the bathroom and when watching TV. But if you only put 20 minutes a day into it, you're not going to hit everything you need to get here you want to be.

Simple answer is, if you want something, you've generally got to put the time into it in order to get it.

Play every pve to full progression. DDQ every day. You don't even have to play pvp if you don't want to. It doesn't take all day, maybe a couple hours total. If you've been playing for years, it means you like the game enough to play 40 matches or so a day. And that's what's needed to really hit that 4* transition and not get stuck.

I know how you feel. Getting those first 4s champed took forever. But as you continue to champ more 4s, youll find that you'll be doing it faster and faster . it gets better.

DFiPL

I'm not in a top 100 alliance. I don't get covers for alliance placement in either PVE or PVP. The 4* covers I get are through LTs and PVE progression.

Since August, I've gone from having just seven 4* characters with 7+ covers to 9 champions, 2 max-cover 4*, and 16 4* between 7-12 covers. That's an increase of 20 characters in the 7+ range in six months' time, and that's without being able to hit 900 or 1200 in PVP or getting extra goodies from alliance performance (aside from stuff like Civil War).

The 4* transition could be faster, sure, but it's light years ahead of where it was, and they continue to improve that facet of the game. Ten years? To cover 4*? Nah.

To max-cover all 5* in the game, maybe. But that's a different ball of wax. If it's the 4* transition you're concerned with, it's in a good place right now. It could certainly get to a better place! But where we're at now is a far cry from where it was a year ago, when most of the 4* characters on my roster were 1-3 cover shinies who sat there but didn't really do much for me.

Looking at my roster now, the characters with 3 or fewer covers:

1) Carnage. By choice! I've sold so many because I just don't like how this character operates. But eventually I had the HP to (for now) give him a dedicated roster spot. So, eh. Still only has one cover, though.
2) Riri Williams. One cover. New'ish release.
3) Spider-Woman. One cover. That was from PVE progression. Don't think I've ever actually pulled her.
4) Captain Marvel. New'ish release. Two covers.
5) Howard the Duck. Had a few covers for him his first run, but sold them off because I really didn't feel like keeping a low-coverage character around for a year in case I could get more covers later. Like Carnage, last Duck Season I wound up with enough HP to give him a roster spot that wouldn't be immediately threatened. Two covers.
6) Medusa. Two covers. New'ish release. I don't hit 900 in PVP and my one effort to hit 2000 in SHIELD Sim got rebuffed, so I'm at RNGesus' mercy on this one.
7) Nova. Two covers. Another character I just don't see very often.
8) Gwenpool. Three covers! I'd like to have more, but I legitimately have not been able to pull them.
9) Wasp. Three covers! I know she gets run down hereabouts, but I've said before that I think a lot of 4* character hate derives from "can't win a match in two turns if I can't shield hop with them they're worthless." I like her! I just didn't get any covers for her at launch, and then when I finally DID get her, I got three covers in pretty quick succession.

Those are also basically all recently-rostered characters. Folks I've had for a while have seen solid growth, especially since this cycle I've had actual success with the Crash of the Titans.

Trilateralus wrote:

Not sure what y'all are doing to get 4* so fast but after 3 years I have exactly 2 champed 4* and 1 at 12 covers. The 3 oldest 4* in the game. Short of spending money or playing for hours a day I'm not sure how to speed that up. I shouldn't have to treat MPQ as a second job to make progress, new avenues for gaining 4* covers would be very welcome.

See, here's the thing. There's "spending money" and "spending money." I've spent a few hundred on the game over its lifespan, but that has literally all been purchases of $20 or less, and the vast majority have been $10 or less. I've never whaled a character, and for that reason, even when you could buy covers with HP, my 4* roster still sat undeveloped.

I'm about 5 months behind you, having taken a break when I quit out of pique at some point in the first year. And, yeah, for 2+ years, my 4* roster was pitiful. But I've seen remarkable progress in the last six months, and that's without progression covers in PVP, placement covers in either PVP or PVE, no alliance rewards to boost that progress, and trivial spending from a "pay to win" standpoint. I've got a handful of months' VIP under my belt, and the rest of my spending has gone toward roster spots.

More/new avenues for gaining 4* covers? Absolutely! Bring them on! I'm 100% with you on that. But I don't think "normal" 4* progress is this mystical "how in the world" thing these days.

DFiPL

DapperChewie wrote:

Trilateralus wrote:

Not sure what y'all are doing to get 4* so fast but after 3 years I have exactly 2 champed 4* and 1 at 12 covers. The 3 oldest 4* in the game. Short of spending money or playing for hours a day I'm not sure how to speed that up. I shouldn't have to treat MPQ as a second job to make progress, new avenues for gaining 4* covers would be very welcome.

I just passed the 3 year mark a few days ago. I have 17 champed 4s, and 5 more with 13 covers.

I don't consider mpq a second job, I play it when I'm in the bathroom and when watching TV. But if you only put 20 minutes a day into it, you're not going to hit everything you need to get here you want to be.

Simple answer is, if you want something, you've generally got to put the time into it in order to get it.

Play every pve to full progression. DDQ every day. You don't even have to play pvp if you don't want to. It doesn't take all day, maybe a couple hours total. If you've been playing for years, it means you like the game enough to play 40 matches or so a day. And that's what's needed to really hit that 4* transition and not get stuck.

I know how you feel. Getting those first 4s champed took forever. But as you continue to champ more 4s, youll find that you'll be doing it faster and faster . it gets better.

Spot on. I dabble with PVP more than I used to because XP and such, but 575/650 is still about as high as I'll ever push. I attempted 900 once for Peggy and got smacked down. I typically play SHIELD Sim to about 1700 or so and if I play a PVP event, it's only to 575 or, with the right boosted characters, 650. PVP is a part of the 4* game for me, but only to the extent of those 10 CP at 575.

The vast, overwhelming, majority of my 4* gains come from the Crash in DDQ and progression in PVE.

Eddiemon

revskip wrote:

This is hyperbolic.

Once they managed to get 'literally' redefined as 'figuratively', it was time for them to get 'impossible' redefined as 'challenging or easier'. It's a conspiracy I tell ya.

Nick441234

Banacek555 wrote:

If you can't provide this then me and probably 1000s more will take 5 years or more to even come close to be able to fully cover your 40+ 4* characters

What absolute rubbish. I've been playing slightly over 2 years, and I have every 4* rostered and 24 fully covered. This largely only from PVE play too. Yes, it requires putting time into this game but thats what should be expected. As for new characters, if you wait 5 hours to join the bracket of your choice and then clear each node 6 times, you will ALWAYS get at least one cover of that new character. Its the strategy I use and I've never failed to get at least one cover.

Quebbster

nick_chicane wrote:

Banacek555 wrote:

If you can't provide this then me and probably 1000s more will take 5 years or more to even come close to be able to fully cover your 40+ 4* characters

What absolute rubbish. I've been playing slightly over 2 years, and I have every 4* rostered and 24 fully covered. This largely only from PVE play too. Yes, it requires putting time into this game but thats what should be expected. As for new characters, if you wait 5 hours to join the bracket of your choice and then clear each node 6 times, you will ALWAYS get at least one cover of that new character. Its the strategy I use and I've never failed to get at least one cover.

And even if you fail to get top 100 placement in the release PvE, it's not that hard to get that character's cover from the progression reward in the next PvE...

Nick441234

Quebbster wrote:

nick_chicane wrote:

Banacek555 wrote:

If you can't provide this then me and probably 1000s more will take 5 years or more to even come close to be able to fully cover your 40+ 4* characters

What absolute rubbish. I've been playing slightly over 2 years, and I have every 4* rostered and 24 fully covered. This largely only from PVE play too. Yes, it requires putting time into this game but thats what should be expected. As for new characters, if you wait 5 hours to join the bracket of your choice and then clear each node 6 times, you will ALWAYS get at least one cover of that new character. Its the strategy I use and I've never failed to get at least one cover.

And even if you fail to get top 100 placement in the release PvE, it's not that hard to get that character's cover from the progression reward in the next PvE...

That too. I'm also in a top 100 alliance so by the end of the event after the new character event I will always have at least 3 covers for the new character. If you put in the time on the game then top alliances will welcome you also so you'll benefit from those rewards too. The 4* transition really isn't that difficult.

DeltaAlpha75

And here i was totally expecting a complaint about not enough iso/hp.

I'm a more or less casual player, have 15 4* champed, more than enough waiting on the bench and no playable 5* and my only concern is how will I be able to collect all the needed ISO for my max covered 4* and hp for the new released 3/4/5*.

My guild is to low to get any remarkable rewards in PVE events, but with constant CP earnings I am wasting more 4* covers than I can level if I dont decide to hoard from time to time.

mdw532

Yeah. I am at day 291. I have 10 champed 4*, and 25 fully covered 4*. 4* covers is not a problem if you devote the time to PvE and PvP. It's all about the iso baby.

metallion

You're barely even tapping the wall into 4* land, once you break through the barrier you'll stop complaining about the lack of covers and start complaining about the lack of ISO instead

You don't need to treat this game like a second job to progress. I touch this game 3 times per day (on the way to work, on the way home, and before I sleep), 3/4 of my alliance look like they only play DDQ everyday, I only play PVE for new releases and focus more on PVP, I had my first 4* champ around day 900 and I'm up to 15 champs as of the start of this month. Like I said earlier, there's a very thick barrier between 3* and 4* land called the 4* transition. It's tough to bash this wall down, but once you break through it and step solidly into 4* land all the covers start flowing in.

You wanna see some pretty solid evidence on how it speeds up look at my posts in the roster progress thread. On day 915 I champed my first 4*, a lonely HB. 135 days later on day 1050 I added XFDP and XFW to the list, making it 3. 50 days later, anniversary happened. SHIELD Levels and Double ISO gave me a huge influx of ISO that allowed me to champ 5 in the span of 50 days, making it 8 champs. That was the point I smashed the barrier. I'm currently on day 1210 and I've already another 7 to the list to make it 15. Looking at the number of low covered (<5 covers) 4*s now, on day 915 it was 13, on day 1100 it was 8, currently on day 1210 I have 6, all of them newer characters (except Katie who I have absolutely no luck with). That number just keeps decreasing.

I mentioned how Day 1100 was the point I smashed through the wall called the 4* transition, but how does it affect roster progress speed? Simple, for a guy who focuses mainly on PVP, getting a wider range of characters allowed me to push to higher scores. If I get to 900 points every event (something I strive for now unless the boosted list sucks or I don't need the 4*, in which case I push to 850), it's 3 event tokens, 0.5 LTs and 1 guaranteed 4* cover per event. That's 15 4* covers every 20 days (less if you get 5*s), and another 30 chances at a 4* from event tokens, plus another 10 chances from the 10 pack progression reward. Even if you don't get 4*s, all the other covers can be used for champ rewards (assuming you are farming 2*s and all 3*s champed), so that's even more CP for LTs and ISO for leveling from the champ rewards. Furthermore, the more 4*s you champ as a result of doing better in events, the less likely you are going to get a useless 4* from LTs, so it's either even more champ rewards from 4*s, or progress in your unmaxed ones. It just keeps adding up, and soon you'll be complaining about the lack of ISO instead.

In short, patience is what you need in abundance. Once you break down that wall it'll get easier. 5 years to champ all the 4*s, maybe given how ISO acquisition rate still sucks, but definitely not 5 years just to cover them up

mpqr7

The 4* transition is relatively easy, especially compared to the 5* transition. You can get 4*s from the following ways:

* LTs (Classic and Latest)
* PVE Progression
* PVP Progression
**Edit: Forgot to add 3* champion rewards**

Not to mention top placement (which is basically impossible for me, so I didn't put it on the list). For someone who plays a few hours per day, that's generally around 5-10 four-star covers per week.

The 5* transition is much harder, because there's no guarantee that you'll pull it from a LT, and if you do, it could end up being a duplicate of a non-championed 5*, which is very frustrating and makes me want to give up whenever it happens. So with the same amount of play that gets you 5-10 guaranteed 4*s per week, you will get 0 guaranteed 5*s per week, and most likely an average of around 1-2 per month. Some months, I've gotten around 5 in a week, other months I've gotten 0.

waywreth

Like many have been saying, I'm in the same boat. I'm on day 498 and have 15 champed 4 and another 4 fully covered. It's really an issue of ISO not covers at this point. I have every character on roster (except Bag Man and 5 Panther), and play in a top 100 PVE alliance.

It's reached the point I can't use Heroic, CP, or Legendary covers that often, because I'll end up with a cover I can't use due to a lack of ISO.

Dragon_Nexus

Honestly I don't think 4* covers are quite the horrendous drop they used to be. I can earn 20CP quite quickly for a legendary token, I can get the 4* progression without much fuss in PvE and if the weekly buffed characters are good I can usually hit 900 in PvP.

My issue with the 4* transition hasn't been the acquisition of covers for a long time. My biggest issue is the mountain of ISO I'll need to champ one. I've had Nick Fury and Elektra sat on 13 covers for months, but to champ a 4* I need to think long and hard about who I'll sink that 380k ISO into since that stuff takes forever to earn. I'm thinking of trying to champ Fury simply because my GSBW is closing in on level 223 and I don't want to throw away a second free cover for him. But then, I also don't want to be short on ISO if that last Quake cover shows up.

Fixing the huge ISO shortage would help a lot. CL8 sould have gone further in how much ISO it was giving out to people.

GurlBYE

Yeah I understand this game is some peoples only outlet but multiple hours on a match 3 game a day isn't exactly normal play.

I think an average player hits lower than an hour, if that.

Forumites reaallly need to see themselves as an exception to the norm, not the norm.

The 4 transition still isn't "Easy" by any means.

Some of you are on day 400 and have like 15 champs.

I'm in the range of day 500+ (literally 527 today). (about 4 scattered months in there of just doing DDQ's but that was mostly mid 3 transition, pre-champing, other mobile games too, also generally other fun games.)

I've got 1 4 star champed and that happened maybe a week or so ago. (4 cyc)

I'll play this game an hour a day, 2 hours if im really into the pve event. Typically in that time range per hour.
Hitting the 575's etc.

the fact that 4's are released at least twice a month basis should give insight into why the transition is still hard.

You know how people complain about 5's going into classic because each one dilutes the chances of old 5's?

That's every single token that you get 4 stars from.
Heroics are embarrassing.
It takes over 40 pve's for a character to be a progression reward multiple times.
PVP isn't an option without 4's.

It's better, but still not great.
___
Anecdotally. It's also still luck based as hell.
I've had carnage since his launch event.

Mine is 5/0/5.
Realistically? it's more like 10/0/5
Hulk buster?
5/0/3

Saying "hey you're getting a 4 of some sort" is very different from covering a 4.
There's still no path, just a bunch of rng and one appearing every 40+ pve's.


ISO is inevitable.

If I had every 4 star fully covered, i'd be happy.
Champing is a bonus not a need.
Go after who you need to use.
Soft capping wasn't just to avoid scaling.