Is pvp a massive waste of time?

Dauntless74

Been playing this game for three years or so and haven't played pvp for a long while. Decided to dip back in it this weekend for No Good News. What a waste of a weekend. Played it as much as I could, maintaining a top 30-50 place with the odd attack against me. Today, however, the final day its just been constant attack after attack after attack. I'd play one game only to be attacked four or five times. I'd put my phone down to have some food and watch one episode of something I like only to log back on and see hundreds wiped off my score. Battle back up, using health packs on various teams only to be wiped back down again. Battling upstream. A few hours to go and I'm way outside the top 100 with no doubt many more hundreds to be wiped off my score as I write this. I don't mind paying to play this game, I'm a vip member, but I don't see any I should constantly give this game all my money on health packs and/or sheilds just to achieve a half decent position. Isn't the time, money and effort I'm already putting in enough? Now I remember why I gave up on pvp in the first place. Anyone else feel disheartened by the pvp mechanics?

Dormammu

Is pvp a massive waste of time?

Without shields? Yes.

Huntah86

I play every PVP to t25 or t50 T worst in SCL8 and samething with PVE. What team are you using for PVP? If its not a decent enough team to help defensively and youre not using shields then you cant really expect to have a strong placement. I completely get the frustration though, before I champed my Peggy Id be lucky to finish t100 and usually struggled to climb past 600. But if you dont wanna use shields or have a strong team to try for decent placement then its still great for progression rewards, iso and exp. Even if you hate PVP at least getting the 10 CP should be a goal.

Ludaa

Sounds like you earned a bunch of xp and iso this weekend playing pvp. You're playing in a manner that will only yield frustration if going for placement. For many of us, PvE is the waste of time, but it fuels our iso needs. PvP can be great fun

Decide what your goals are and ask the forum how best to attain them with the roster you have.

Jarvind

I mean, if you want t5 placement for those 4-star covers, you can't get there without 5-stars or at least very strong boosted 4-stars, and you'd def need to shield hop a lot in the latter case. That's just something you'll need to accept off the bat. Unlike PVE, PVP actually rewards having a strong roster, so you're always going to be at the mercy of megawhales with 500+ Black Bolts that can just wreck your team in a few turns.

In general, once the event gets down to the last 12 hours or so, it becomes a constant bloodbath since loads of late climbers come out of the woodwork to get a decent ranking and get away with a 3 or 8 hour shield for the whole event. As a result, once your score gets to around 600, you'll start seeing attacks flood in because you're worth decent points. I'm speaking from my experience using boosted, champed 4-stars - that reasonably safe float point will obviously adjust up or down based on roster strength.

You have a few options to deal with this:

A) Do the same - start late and try to climb to where you want to be in one shot. This works because people won't bother queuing you for a decent chunk of your climb, since you started with no points and thus aren't worth many. You'll still need a shield at the end unless you end your last match with less than a minute to go, but 3h shields are cheap.

Use more shields.

C) Try to bracket-snipe a fresh bracket towards the end of the event. This'll require some coordination on LINE and what-have-you.

D) Don't play PVP, or at least not competitively.

I'm not saying it's a great system - it definitely isn't - but that's pretty much how it breaks down. Personally, I usually hit 900 and then pop an 8-hour shield (the last 3 hours are utterly ridiculous in terms of incoming hits). I probably could make 1200 with some judicious shield hopping but it's just more work than I'm willing to do for a goofy mobile game. That usually gets me the three 3* covers and a handful of tokens and ISO, which isn't a bad deal in my book.

kennn712

A 30-40 minute climb to 575 for 10CP is definitely not a waste of time.

However, reaching the next worthwhile progression rewards at 800/900/1200 can be a massive slog (which I usually tend to stay away from)

STOPTHIS

It depends on what your goal is. With a good boosted crop and little luck, an hour and half or so in PvP to get to 900 is a better return on investment than your average day of PvE. And I say this as someone who prefers PvE. It can be stressful though, especially if you're not using shields. But it's one area that if you know what to expect and plan accordingly can be a great area for resources.

I wouldn't be against a rework of the matchmaking and points system though.

jredd

if you have one of the boosted 4* and a strong 5* you should be able to get to 900 and stay there with about 2 hours of work and 1 shield if you play it right. so no, not a waste of time per se.

Taganov

I can definitely relate to OP's experience; totally turned me off PvP for some time, until I came to understand that for 90% of players, decent placement is impossible. Now that my expectations are essentially nothing, it's great! I play for progression. I hit 575 and I'm out, which usually nets me a T200.

halirin

Taganov wrote:

...until I came to understand that for 90% of players, decent placement is impossible...

Agreed. It's so unfair, 99% of players don't even get T10! And like half of everyone can't even get to the top 500!

BearVenger

Another thing to consider with PvP is the amount of time your team is "exposed" to opponents. If you spend a few hours of nonstop gaming, with every match you play, your team gets put back on the top of the pile for other people to challenge.

As long as your score is low, people will skip you for higher-value teams (A team with the same amount of points as you will be listed as 38 points). As you climb, your value relative to your opponents grows, and you'll be challenged more often. People would rather play against a team that gives you a lot of points for a win and takes few for a loss, rather than the other way around.

So, if you play a 2-hour stretch in the last 8 hours or so of a tournament, you'll be incredibly popular with other people who are also trying to climb over you to get points. You likely may end with fewer points than you started with and feel like it was all a waste of time. If you start a day sooner and lay off during the closing scramble, you'll still take some attacks, but not as many. You'll be able to climb to a good progression price (like the 10CP or the second event token).

As was said above, even if you don't place in the top 25, which may not be possible to do without champed 4*s, ISO for skips, HP for shields, or health packs; you may still be able to climb up to 10CP, which will help buff out your 4*/5* roster. Even 2* covers give out rewards that can flip into a pair of 4* covers (this weekend, a SHIELD Intercept Heroic Token gave me a 4* and a bonus 4*). That's pretty decent.

It feels pretty awesome to place a higher tier, but, honestly, the difference between t25 and t200 in lvl 7 PvP is 500 ISO, which is less than 5 PvP wins. The big gains come from playing over time. The game is set up to make you feel like you're always behind The Joneses, but if you can get out of that mindset, you will feel less wasted.

Trilateralus

Short answer- yes.

GoTron88

It's all about managing expectations and understanding where your roster stands. Definitely no need to play for hours on end given how much position jockeying happens in PvP.

I have about 30 champed 3★ and no useable 4★ yet. I can casually hit t100 and hit t50 in scl7 with a bit of effort. Trying to get t20 is nigh impossible and not worth trying, since I don't ever use shields. Usually I hit 400 points for the hp, and every now and then can push for 575 for the CP.

Last event laid out perfectly how I normally play. Jumped into the event and spent about an hour yesterday getting my 400 points. Usually that will get me t100 so long as I don't get attacked too much. Had time tonight to check on my status about 1.5 hours before event ended, found myself at rank 103 with 10 health packs. So I did another 1 hour run, got to 650 actually (which I rarely do), finished off at rank 35 and logged off. Came back about 10 mins ago to see I got attacked a bunch, lost 117 points but still ended up at rank 49. Quick way to get a few Psylocke covers and tokens.

Coubii

I would say no.
Depends on how you play.

I never use shield. I only burst at end of pvp event. Usually go around 200-400 pts.
Then I receive some iso, some token. Rarely some good covers (Once per season I could expect a glim of a chance to get a 4*). I touch some alliance reward, mainly elite token.
Then grind as fast as possible the simulator to get 2K. And at the end season, if needed, I grind just a bit to get the 10pack goal at 4K points.

That leave me enough time to play as long as I want on pve.

Magic

It can be frustrating but is not waste of time.

1. CP at 575 is great for overall progression
2. Cover at 900 is attainable and it's the best way (next to PvE progression cover) to acquire the specific cover you need. To get there you need a shield or a pair of boosted 4* (not speaking about 5* game). In Hawkeye even I found it the easiest to progress in a long time. Why? Cyclops and Kate Bishop who were tearing the opponents and were not inviting the hits at the same time. This is key to get to 900 without shields.
3. You get plenty of XP for playing it (along with ISO and some 2* covers).
4. It's the best place to obtain the tokens that have a chance of bringing in a bonus hero (remember that in most PvE we have vaults and they don't give bonus hero).

The key is managing expectations. Forget about placement (if you need it - try sniping the bracket with 10-20 minutes left). Set obtainable goals and enjoy the grind.

Daiches

mexus wrote:

Dormammu wrote:

Is pvp a massive waste of time?

Without shields? Yes.

It can be distressing also with shields.
This weekend I tried pushing for 900 points. I was at 835, shielded up for 8 hours, broke shield after 7 hours, won a battle (gained 19 points - hurray), and started a new battle. Won. During this time I was attacked by 4 players loosing 119 points. While I tried looking for a new competitor that wasn't way too strong for me I was attacked by another gang of players landing me on 700 something points, then I just gave up that push.

I would't say it's a massive waste of time though. But very frustrating when trying hard to be good.

That has less to do with shields than it has with having a bad strategy for hopping.

Queue up 3 targets that you know will be #d and worth a lot, unshield, hit those and re#. And don't waste time out while you are already getting hit.

Tony_Foot

Simply know your limits. I have 10 fours stars champed now. Even before I had any, 650-725 was easy enough with little game time. Push to 400, manage it over 2 days playing the odd game to stay around 400. Last 30-40 minutes push to whatever I could with my packs. I rarely shield unless I have to go early for a cover at 900. It's extremely rare I use more than a 3 hour in an event. I rarely get hit staying down low and climbing at the end.

If I have boosted and I want the cover I go 900, if I don't I'm happy with 750. There will never be a time I'm hopping through an event to hit 1200, never. I don't care that much about season placement and for me the expenditure isn't worth the rewards. I did hop in the cake era but it was easy, once I was at 725 getting to 1300 was the easy part. Now the effort isn't worth the reward. The targets and points past 800 for me are so small I just can't be bothered. Try and hit 9-10k for the season with perhaps 5x3hr shields for the season and take my progression from pve.

I am someone though who doesn't give a flying **** about the 5* game.

Polares

It is not a waste of time. Almost anybody in any layer of play can get to 575, and that is 10CPs (plus tokens, iso, etc). So that is definitely not a waste of time.

But, it is true that after that, strategy and having a good roster and sometimes a lot of luck make a big difference. PvP can really be frustrating sometimes, even at 5 land, because the unpredictability of the mode. You can do things in a certain way, work almost always, and then some days you fail, because ... well, just because (it is not just because, there are a lot of factors included here, so it is hard to write everything ). You can get attacked on you first hop, you can get attaced by one team or by three, you can attack a team for 75 and then finally is just 30 because he reached his goal and then didn't shield, etc, etc, etc.

I usually play for 1200, I usually get there, but I hate it. I really hate it. From 0-900 is more or less fun (if I am not playing for 1200, because I can play more relaxed, and use one shield while climbing), but playing for 1200 is not fun at all (for me). But obviously 25CP every 3 days is big, so for now I have to play it. I have considered playing just for 900 more than once, and now that my 5 roster is quite big and I don't need CPs as badly, I might do it, but of course, there are new and shiny new toys, and to get them we need CPs so who knows.

PS: I would really like to know some numbers about how many people play just PvE or just PvP, how many people play to 575 and how many play for more...

Tony_Foot

Polares wrote:

PS: I would really like to know some numbers about how many people play just PvE or just PvP, how many people play to 575 and how many play for more...

Yeah that would be interesting. I ignored pve, except on new releases where I would try to snipe. Progression came so much faster from pvp, then I got into cup cakes and all my time was spent on pvp and to be fair it was pretty low level game time. I'd like to know since the death of cakes how much that swapped in player number from pvp to pve. Until recently all I did was 575 in PVP which took about 30 minutes at the end and went for 4* in pve and full progression if I had spare time.

I now much prefer PVE over PVP, which is a complete 180 on where I was this time last year. I enjoy pve now, PVP is something I tolerate.

metallion

Like others said, depends on your play style. I'm the kind who can't stomach sitting down for 2 hours in one sitting clicking on a match 3 game, so I only do PVE for new releases now. PVP on the other hand I now join in the last 18 hours, play once on my way to work to 300, once on my way home to 600-700, and start my final climb to 900 about 3.5hrs before the end and shield up, nets me a t25 and 3 3* covers most times. If I know Im not going to make it, I just stop early. Takes me less just about an hour of gameplay across 18hours of real life time, for 5 LTs worth of CP and a couple more 4*s in about 20 days, pretty OK for me.

If you're not bothered by the top rewards, the CP at 575 is still a worthy target, doesn't take you long to get there for an easy 10CP.

Also worth mentioning is 4* progression rewards cycle in PVP on a slightly quicker basis, so if you can make it up regularly you get to cover them faster than from PVE.

Edited for typos. Posting with a phone is always a huge pain.

Daiches

mexus wrote:

Would the game get broken if you actually didn't loose points from being attacked?

No, but they would have to change progression goals to several ten thousands of points.