How to Maximize Bonus Heroes - Choose the Right Ones!
notamutant
Posts: 855 Critical Contributor
With the new bonus heroes feature, I thought having a discussion on the optimal way to use it would be appropriate. Additionally, a new optimal leveling strategy should be used, covers allowing. Here is my opinion broken down by tier.
3 stars: Unlike 4 stars, the chances of you max champing a 3 star eventually is pretty likely. For this reason, I suggest you favorite your lowest covered 3 stars. Pick maybe 3 of them to favorite. Try to do it evenly so you can catch up all your 3 stars to the same levels. That way, you will be less likely to throw away covers in the long run. If you don't have a 3 star champed already, and they aren't in the available draws, unfortunately, you are better off just focusing on those in the pack until they are at around the 200+ range.
4 stars: You might be tempted to choose older heroes to favorite so you can still pull additional covers for them. Don't do that at first. Choose the newest character in the 12 pack, assuming they are decent, and get bonus covers for them. You want to max cover them as early as possible. You will be pulling the most covers for them over the next 6 months to a year. The sooner you champ them, the less covers you throw away. Level them first as well. The oldest characters in the batch, unless they are good and near max covered, ignore them. No reason to favorite them. Once you have most or all of the good characters in the 12 pack from say 10th oldest to newest fully covered and championed, then you should go back and pick an older 4 star to get bonus covers. I suggest picking the best characters in the game for that (Iceman, Jean Grey, Nova, Hulkbuster, Peggy (once she leaves the packs)). Focus on the ones that already have the highest champion levels from that group. Only have two of them favorited, and make sure they are complementary (I.e. Nova and Iceman or Hulkbuster and Jean Grey). That way, you will be able to keep pushing them up to high levels and make them usable even when not boosted in PvP. You have to stick with this strategy until those characters are in the 350s before moving on to other 4s to get the most bang for your buck.
5 stars: This one is a bit trickier. You can take one of two approaches assuming you aren't fully in the 5 star tier yet. The first approach is just work on getting your two highest covered 5 stars finished so you can use them in PvP, and favorite those two. Only do this if they are top tier 5 stars (not worth using on Banner for example). The second approach is pick multiple 5 stars that you plan on using, and have 6+ covers for, and hope to evenly cover them so you can level them all at once. A third approach that might have mixed results, is focus on one five star at a time. Only do this if you are prepared to enter the 5 star tier with just one 5 star, so I don't really recommend it. If you are already in the 5 star tier, and have 2-3 max covered top tier 5 star, you are better off focusing on one 5 star at a time that is already champed, so you can keep adding champ levels. Remember, a level 470 5 star is much stronger than a level 450 5 star.
You will have to do much more careful ISO planning with the new feature, as you are more likely to pull extra covers for non-champed characters now. ISO will become even tighter than before. Every time a new 4 star is added to the 12 pack, you will be in another ISO crunch. Eventually it will slow down, but it will be much more intense for a while.
Let me know if anyone thinks my ideas are bad and I should feel bad, and would like to share better strategies.
3 stars: Unlike 4 stars, the chances of you max champing a 3 star eventually is pretty likely. For this reason, I suggest you favorite your lowest covered 3 stars. Pick maybe 3 of them to favorite. Try to do it evenly so you can catch up all your 3 stars to the same levels. That way, you will be less likely to throw away covers in the long run. If you don't have a 3 star champed already, and they aren't in the available draws, unfortunately, you are better off just focusing on those in the pack until they are at around the 200+ range.
4 stars: You might be tempted to choose older heroes to favorite so you can still pull additional covers for them. Don't do that at first. Choose the newest character in the 12 pack, assuming they are decent, and get bonus covers for them. You want to max cover them as early as possible. You will be pulling the most covers for them over the next 6 months to a year. The sooner you champ them, the less covers you throw away. Level them first as well. The oldest characters in the batch, unless they are good and near max covered, ignore them. No reason to favorite them. Once you have most or all of the good characters in the 12 pack from say 10th oldest to newest fully covered and championed, then you should go back and pick an older 4 star to get bonus covers. I suggest picking the best characters in the game for that (Iceman, Jean Grey, Nova, Hulkbuster, Peggy (once she leaves the packs)). Focus on the ones that already have the highest champion levels from that group. Only have two of them favorited, and make sure they are complementary (I.e. Nova and Iceman or Hulkbuster and Jean Grey). That way, you will be able to keep pushing them up to high levels and make them usable even when not boosted in PvP. You have to stick with this strategy until those characters are in the 350s before moving on to other 4s to get the most bang for your buck.
5 stars: This one is a bit trickier. You can take one of two approaches assuming you aren't fully in the 5 star tier yet. The first approach is just work on getting your two highest covered 5 stars finished so you can use them in PvP, and favorite those two. Only do this if they are top tier 5 stars (not worth using on Banner for example). The second approach is pick multiple 5 stars that you plan on using, and have 6+ covers for, and hope to evenly cover them so you can level them all at once. A third approach that might have mixed results, is focus on one five star at a time. Only do this if you are prepared to enter the 5 star tier with just one 5 star, so I don't really recommend it. If you are already in the 5 star tier, and have 2-3 max covered top tier 5 star, you are better off focusing on one 5 star at a time that is already champed, so you can keep adding champ levels. Remember, a level 470 5 star is much stronger than a level 450 5 star.
You will have to do much more careful ISO planning with the new feature, as you are more likely to pull extra covers for non-champed characters now. ISO will become even tighter than before. Every time a new 4 star is added to the 12 pack, you will be in another ISO crunch. Eventually it will slow down, but it will be much more intense for a while.
Let me know if anyone thinks my ideas are bad and I should feel bad, and would like to share better strategies.
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Comments
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I think that your strategy all depends on where you are in your progression. I've got all but Thanos champed in the 3-star realm; he's a 2/5/4 on my roster, so he's close. Most of the rest are LVL 200+ I picked Dr Strange as my only 3-star favorite because I want to get him up and he's great and making the PvE goon nodes go by much faster. My son, who started a couple of months ago, has a half-dozen three stars on his roster, and most of them only have one cover. He went with the 3-star that he has the most covers for (Dr Strange, oddly enough, as a 1/0/2) because he wants to make that character stronger. He also picked Deadpool because he really wants the Whales cover for his currently 1/0/0 Deadpool.
As for four stars, I picked only Peggy because she's a 3/3/3 on my roster and I really want to get her champed before I change to anyone else's covers. I have maybe 15-16 of four stars champed, and I'm working on getting Drax champed (LVL 213 after pumping lots of ISO into him, but I just got my 13th cover for him.) My son has a few one cover four stars, and one of them is Peggy, so he also chose Peggy. He's very unlikely to get a four-star, but an extra Peggy would really help him.
Five stars, I chose Dr Strange because he's a 2/1/3 and Old Man Logan because I really want a Yellow cover (he's 3/0/0 in my roster). My son picked Thanos because "he has the most health." but he's nowhere near getting a five star. The odds of getting an extra 5-star are extremely low anyway, but I put some down...just in case.0 -
Personally, I went for:
3* - Strange and Thanos - only ones below level 200 out of my 3*'s
4* - Carol and Medusa - these are the 4*'s I would next want to champ regardless of this new change anyway
5* - OML and Thanos0 -
I don't see why you need to choose Carol or Medusa as a bonus hero. Since they're in the tokens already, you're going to get plenty of covers for them through normal drawing.
Instead I'd just take your best, highest level character and take him to the moon. I have a level 296 Iceman. I'm going to favorite him and just keep piling on.0 -
Orion wrote:I don't see why you need to choose Carol or Medusa as a bonus hero. Since they're in the tokens already, you're going to get plenty of covers for them through normal drawing.
Instead I'd just take your best, highest level character and take him to the moon. I have a level 296 Iceman. I'm going to favorite him and just keep piling on.
I want to get those ones finished first and will then switch to the likes of Iceman/Peggy/Rulk/etc.0 -
I chose 3thor because he will spit out my 13th rulk cover as a champion reward in a few levels. So then I just tried to get Peggy covers (4/2/5)... Once those 2 are done, I'm either going for quake (3/3/3), hulk buster (5/1/3)or nova (1/5/2). I understand the idea of trying to favorite the new characters, trying to get double covers... But I'm focusing on specifics right now.
OML is my only 5* favorite. 0/1/1 is lonely looking0 -
haven't chosen a 3 star favorite (all but 7 champed and Thanos is the only one not max covered)
chose X-23 as a 4 star favorite because I only need one cover and she's already level 250
chose Black Widow at 5 Star because I use her more in PVE than other 5's (1/2/1)
edit decided instead to just favorite all three stars who are champed but can't normally be pulled0 -
Orion wrote:I don't see why you need to choose Carol or Medusa as a bonus hero. Since they're in the tokens already, you're going to get plenty of covers for them through normal drawing.
Instead I'd just take your best, highest level character and take him to the moon. I have a level 296 Iceman. I'm going to favorite him and just keep piling on.
You might be able to get away with not favorite-ing them and still cover them quickly if you pull enough LTs. But I think mutants point is a good one. Carol and Medusa will be in the LT pool for a long while yet. And you will get a bunch of covers for them. So getting them champed as early as possible will be a significant boost to your efficiency. Moreover, those two characters are exceptionally good, and champ levels are nothing to sneeze at in the long run, so getting as many champ levels as possible while the getting's good is perfectly reasonable advice.0 -
I don't think its a tier based strategy but playtype. The decision is; if its better to spike or go wide. Maxd top tier chars or a full roster barely champed.
For PvP both arguments can be made:
- having a champ toon is a better advantage than a loaner. champramping. Focus on only 1 BH, then rotate.
- loaner will do fine with max champ peggy/bobby/jean/thunderbolt. top five pickem. creme de la creme, your best will always grow at least a 5% rate even as the newest fade out and are replaced.
For PvE it is more of a matter of where in the transition you are.
- You can hit progression with just one cover and so being able to change your BH so easily really does help you roster as needed. if you do not have the req'd, read the monthly sneak peak and set BH according to need.
-Clearing in time to rank requires stage specific team sets;having a quake/dr S&O/medusa to neutralize kishu/goon/symbiote/D.A./etc stages. Focus on where your getting bogged down and correlate that to your BH. get the pieces to overcome that double don/kingpin node or get through a day of venom bomb and still have hlthpakz. Paying attention to toons in the crypt or soon to fall out of the pool.
ALSO:
I think an important consideration is the 2->3->4 character award trees. Farming your twos and bonusing 3*s not in the pool will help your roster. Hulkbuster starts with hawkeye out of standards. push it with IM40, and maintain growth with your 4*BH.
I don't know if for 5* you want to BH your 5/2/5 classic; your 1/3ing a .75% chance. or is it better to go for an almost 6% chance of getting Tchalla? if you set a latest and rip classics theres less parity in sense of reward; spending your horde and getting banner free doesn't SEEM as good as getting banner from a classic and a free Thanos! do 5*players even open classics?
I am enthusiastic about this roster sculpting: a conundrum dressed as a nerf wrapped in a ramp put inside a Puzzle quest game.0 -
5* - i went with the one I need/want the most (in this case OML but I am considering Bolt as well). So far out of 20 Classic pulls I got one extra 5*. So I am ahead of the curve (actually got Captain, 2xBolt and Silver Surfer in 20 pulls plus the bonus one - so 25% of my pulls were 5*.... not happening again). And I think this strategy is best for players not in the 5* land yet.
4* - initially i went for Carol and Medusa to cover them. But the limited selection (and one BH pull) got my Carol to max covers and Medusa to 5-3-3. I will not be targeting them anymore. Instead I went for 5 4* I want to get as high as possible - Hulkuster (already at 298), Iceman, Peggy, Cyclops and Rhulk. Why 5? To get a better chance at having "superchampion" (aka 300+) in a boosted week. I've decided not to target one as the other would suffer and a given 4* is boosted once a month or not even that.
3* - I went with over 30 of them (all champions) - all the ones that give me desirable 4* rewards. No rush in maxing them and I don't have a preference if I get a cover for Ant-Man or IW. That being said - I might target the ones just before lvl 223 (the second 4*) and switch to the others to get to that as well. I will still think about optimal approach.0 -
My picks at the moment:
5* - Spiderman and Thanos. Spiderman hit 4/4/4 Before I decided to switch to stockpiling Latest Legends, so I really only need one more cover of any color to be able to max him. Thanos is generally just awesome and I'd like a chance at some extra covers when I have my token opening party. I am considering putting Black Bolt on the list eventually as mine is only a paltry 2/1/0 and I would very much like more covers for him.
4* - Kate Bishop only. Mine is only 5/2/3 and I'd really like as many covers as possible Before she is exiled from the tokens next week.
3* - Thanos and Dr Strange as they are significantly below my other 3* champions and can use all the help they can get catching up. Have gotten two bonus Stranges already, so it's working out nicely so far.0 -
My picks, from a 4* player not looking to jump into 5* anytime soon.
5* Black Panther only character 2* and higher not on my roster & Black Bolt as he has a nice cover distribution (3/3/3) so the cover cannot go to waste.
4* Thor as she is at lvl 279 and the next lvl will be a LT. Once I get the LT from her I will change to another character who is getting a LT.
3* Loki as he is 1 cover away from LT. Will change to maximize what champion reward I am getting, as all characters are championed.0 -
I feel strongly about selecting only one favorite per tier.
With the new bonus system, you can plan on who to level very specifically.
Here's my logic, I have I think six 3 star characters that I need to champion still. Hood, Rags, Spidy, Thanos, Sam and someone I can't remember at the moment. Yes, I want to champion all six of them, but for me, The Hood is the most important of them, so he's my only bonus in the three star tier. When he gets enough to be championed, I'll change my favorite to Thanos and continue down the list. If I select all six, then I'm introducing my own level of RNG to something that I don't have to. Once everyone is championed, I'll change my single favorite in 3* land to the one that I want to boost the most.
Why favorite two five star characters, just pick the one that's most important to you and leave it there until you get what you want, then change it to the next one.
Again, selecting more than one favorite per tier only adds a level of randomness to something that doesn't need to be random, something you can more carefully plan out and adjust when necessary.0 -
this only works if you actually get bonus heroes. I got 2 on the day they were introduced. None since. I have only one character selected in each tier (OML, Peggy, 3Thor), and I haven't gotten one in almost a week. I started tracking them (beginning on Thursday of last week) because they were never happening. My general findings are that the legendary tokens are returning higher than normal rates of 5* (probably due to the vaulting of over half of the 4's) but bonus heroes have all but disappeared. I am well under the advertised return rate of bonus heroes, and some people in my alliance haven't even gotten a single one!0
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Crnch73 wrote:this only works if you actually get bonus heroes. I got 2 on the day they were introduced. None since. I have only one character selected in each tier (OML, Peggy, 3Thor), and I haven't gotten one in almost a week. I started tracking them (beginning on Thursday of last week) because they were never happening. My general findings are that the legendary tokens are returning higher than normal rates of 5* (probably due to the vaulting of over half of the 4's) but bonus heroes have all but disappeared. I am well under the advertised return rate of bonus heroes, and some people in my alliance haven't even gotten a single one!
I'll be honest, I haven't gotten a single one myself so I can relate. In theory though, I believe that selecting one per tier is the way to go.0
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