The Hunt for the Falcon - April 18 - 27

Unknown

I liked this one a lot more than the last two. That last heroic and the rerun of red ISO were absolutely brutal. This one at least had subs to keep us engaged.

Unknown

Anyone else think the Falcon looks a lot like Koko B. Ware?

Unknown

Ben Grimm wrote:

I liked this one a lot more than the last two. That last heroic and the rerun of red ISO were absolutely brutal. This one at least had subs to keep us engaged.

I liked it quite a bit as well. I love having subs: it gives me reason to actually play outside of the last two days. I made a crapload of iso and HP over those 10 days and got a total 27 Heroic/Event tokens thanks to personal placement, alliance placement and progression rewards.

Compare that to Unstable iso which gave barely any rewards at all.

The only problem, but I'll admit it's a huge problem, is the absolutely ridiculous scaling. I got up to 390 on the last day, without having a useable Spiderman. Tinykitty that.

Unknown

WolfmanX25 wrote:

The only problem, but I'll admit it's a huge problem, is the absolutely ridiculous scaling. I got up to 390 on the last day, without having a useable Spiderman. Tinykitty that.

I was able to avoid that. The highest I saw on an essential node was I think about 115-120, so I got more upside than downside on this one.

kensterr

Ben Grimm wrote:

WolfmanX25 wrote:

The only problem, but I'll admit it's a huge problem, is the absolutely ridiculous scaling. I got up to 390 on the last day, without having a useable Spiderman. Tinykitty that.

I was able to avoid that. The highest I saw on an essential node was I think about 115-120, so I got more upside than downside on this one.

Just wondering how players like yourself managed to get your PVE MMR so low... I'm in the same boat as wolfman... almost close to 400 for some nodes

Unknown

Crazy run at the end. Falcon is interesting but the yellow is really giving Daken some competition...

Unknown

kensterr wrote:

Ben Grimm wrote:

WolfmanX25 wrote:

The only problem, but I'll admit it's a huge problem, is the absolutely ridiculous scaling. I got up to 390 on the last day, without having a useable Spiderman. Tinykitty that.

I was able to avoid that. The highest I saw on an essential node was I think about 115-120, so I got more upside than downside on this one.

Just wondering how players like yourself managed to get your PVE MMR so low... I'm in the same boat as wolfman... almost close to 400 for some nodes

1. Be sure to take damage
2. Get your team wiped out occasionally
3. Never, ever heal in PVE
4. Never stunlock.
5. Focus on Essential nodes.

EDITED to ADD:

6. Don't grind nodes - hit them once or twice per refresh
7. Don't stress out about sub placement - I was top 100 in most of the subs; but about #5 overall
8. Only repeat essentials or (maybe) a few high-point value non-essentials

Unknown

kensterr wrote:

Just wondering how players like yourself managed to get your PVE MMR so low... I'm in the same boat as wolfman... almost close to 400 for some nodes

Start subs late (with 25 or 13 hours left). Don't grind down nodes chasing 4/4 rewards. Only hit the 'essential' nodes (ones that have required heros) for point farming. Don't heal in-match.

Mine got a little higher than normal because I was trying to help my alliance win at the end, but typically I never see enemies above level 190. Usually my 'essential nodes" range from level 60-110.

Unknown

Ben Grimm wrote:

kensterr wrote:

Ben Grimm wrote:

WolfmanX25 wrote:

The only problem, but I'll admit it's a huge problem, is the absolutely ridiculous scaling. I got up to 390 on the last day, without having a useable Spiderman. Tinykitty that.

I was able to avoid that. The highest I saw on an essential node was I think about 115-120, so I got more upside than downside on this one.

Just wondering how players like yourself managed to get your PVE MMR so low... I'm in the same boat as wolfman... almost close to 400 for some nodes

1. Be sure to take damage
2. Get your team wiped out occasionally
3. Never, ever heal in PVE
4. Never stunlock.
5. Focus on Essential nodes.

EDITED to ADD:

6. Don't grind nodes - hit them once or twice per refresh
7. Don't stress out about sub placement - I was top 100 in most of the subs; but about #5 overall
8. Only repeat essentials or (maybe) a few high-point value non-essentials

Same here... but #7 overall.

Pretty much my entire play... minus #2. I usually lose a few, but do you intentially tank some matches?

Unknown

Sweenz wrote:

Pretty much my entire play... minus #2. I usually lose a few, but do you intentially tank some matches?

Intentionally? I don't. It just happens every so often, especially in some of the goon missions when it got a bad board, and I'd just let it happen rather than retreat. Even at the levels I was facing, one shot from the sniper could take out anyone I was using.

Unknown

Ben Grimm wrote:

Sweenz wrote:

Pretty much my entire play... minus #2. I usually lose a few, but do you intentially tank some matches?

Intentionally? I don't. It just happens every so often, especially in some of the goon missions when it got a bad board, and I'd just let it happen rather than retreat. Even at the levels I was facing, one shot from the sniper could take out anyone I was using.

Maybe breaking winning streaks is also good for keeping your scaling down. Cannot do much harm to lose once in a while.

Unknown

Emeryt wrote:

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/616175154626457012/9C1B951849D4A88F70DA607E319F5CE7D5040B38/

Taken after event ended.

Gratz to Retribution! It was a pleasure watching You grind Your way up, doing so many points in a couple of last subs!

the scAvengers are more than happy for taking the bronze - once again me fellow members showed much dedication! Well done!

As for 5dv - You just have to get use to this second place most of the time

We are fine with it, the rewards were just as good and Retribution put up an amazing effort to win. High fives all around.

Unknown

I'll sometimes throw a team into a grinder if tthere's a gap when I'll be playing. I might clear a sub 4 hours before close, send in a team to die, the health pack them up and shore up points before closing. I do heal in subs and scaling stays manageable, but you're probably better off not. I make sure to take enough damage on some nodes to chew up healthpacks in any case.

Unknown

Lol locked I just saw your comment no I actually did use bagman his yellow is rather good for goons lol

over_clocked

what who where?
I used cStorm MMN Hood against goons myself

Unknown

lol your rate comment locked. I only used bag man in that last stretch. I rubberbanded the whole event and did maybe one clear or two clears of each sub to keep up with leaders before grinding last day to get top 2

over_clocked

oh sorry lol, my memory isn't what it used to be. we all could use less grinding... since we said bye to prog rewards a few events ago anyway!

Unknown

Ben Grimm wrote:

kensterr wrote:

Ben Grimm wrote:

WolfmanX25 wrote:

The only problem, but I'll admit it's a huge problem, is the absolutely ridiculous scaling. I got up to 390 on the last day, without having a useable Spiderman. Tinykitty that.

I was able to avoid that. The highest I saw on an essential node was I think about 115-120, so I got more upside than downside on this one.

Just wondering how players like yourself managed to get your PVE MMR so low... I'm in the same boat as wolfman... almost close to 400 for some nodes

1. Be sure to take damage
2. Get your team wiped out occasionally
3. Never, ever heal in PVE
4. Never stunlock.
5. Focus on Essential nodes.

EDITED to ADD:

6. Don't grind nodes - hit them once or twice per refresh
7. Don't stress out about sub placement - I was top 100 in most of the subs; but about #5 overall
8. Only repeat essentials or (maybe) a few high-point value non-essentials

I mostly concur with this.

You can't really lower your PvE MMR realistically. The best you can really hope for is to keep your PvE MMR level and slow down the scaling as much as possible.

Addendums to your points:

1) Take damage: Best outcome: Someone gets downed or severely damaged. Acceptable outcome: Everyone takes 25% of max health damage. Worst outcome: Everyone takes less than 10% of max health in damage (which is almost guaranteed to cause a scaling boost).

2) Wiping a team: Yes, but it can't be a trivial team to the encounter. This is where a well diversified roster really helps out. Wiping a "B" team with a semi-focused effort at a node helps much more than retreats or outright tanking a node. The game can seem to differentiate whether or not a player "tried" to actually beat a node versus tanking.

3) Never heal: Disagree. Healing is okay, as long as full healing does not occur. Healing to avoid a wipe of an "A" team at a critical juncture is a necessary evil. See healing limits for point 1 above.

4) Never stunlock: Agree, in most situations. Stunlocking is okay once significant damage occurs or to same a bad start from a complete wipe. Stunlocking from the start of a match is very very bad, as no damage is inflicted on a team.

5) Focus on Essentials : Agree, but this is a given with event structure. If you want to place in the top 10, then you will need to focus on non-essential nodes at some point. Save the essential nodes for LAST, if you want to place very highly in brackets. Better yet, if possible, work on the non-essentials early in the final refresh and save the essentials for the final hours of a sub.

6) Don't grind nodes: Agreed. After the first wave of subs in the Hunt, scaling reached a point where full clearing was not needed to place highly. Without full clears of all nodes, rubberbanding takes care of catching up to the bracket leaders.

7) Don't stress over sub placement: Agreed, unless you are trying for top 2. As with point 6, the trap in the event was grinding to place highly in a sub in the first wave of the Hunt. 99% of the time, the top 10 in each sub was simply who completed the highest point node at the closest time to the sub event, without missing the cutoff. Top 50 placement, easily obtainable via rubberbanding and Essential nodes, is almost always sufficient for top 20 overall placement in the main bracket at the end of a main event.

8) Repeating node strategy: Covered in responses to points 5, 6, and 7.

I'll add two more points here:

9) Use health packs liberally, if not at crunch time on a sub: The game seems to be grant some form of temporarily leniency at slowing down scaling if at least one health pack was used recently, unless some form of stunlocking or "flawless victory" mechanic occurs. I believe the effect is short-lived however, at maybe 3 games at most before dissipating. If you are taking damage, then this really isn't that much of an issue. Remember, below 5 health packs, one regenerates every 36 minutes for free! Take advantage of this mechanic.

10) Play sporadically, if possible, in bursts: As a corollary to points 5 and 9, avoid simply gunning for the last 90 minutes of a sub, if possible. A full set of 5 health packs regenerates every three hours, like clockwork when used. When possible, play a few matches at random times and burn health packs when you are done playing, even if time would naturally heal a damaged roster. When the time comes for pushing at the end of a sub, a player will always have full health packs if the last time a health pack was used was more than three hours ago and you gain the scaling benefit of consuming health packs in point 9..

Unknown

It looks like trying for a high sub placement (in particular, top 2) has a rather adverse effect on your scaling, probably because you need to win a ton of games for that to happen if your sub is at all competitive. If you're not worried about top 2 placement overall, you might want to just settle for a lesser finish.

That said, I finished with 134K points at #3 and #2 had 135K points, so those points do add up.

In general, you need to decide if you have a realistic shot at top 2 overall early on (The Hunt was especially bad about this due to staggered brackets). You don't want to be the guy who ends up with #3 because that means your scaling will be nearly the same as the #2 without the corresponding benefits, assuming there are no alliance related obligations.

For what it's worth, my essentials were up to 330 at the end and all the hard non essential missions were 395s.

over_clocked

My essentials were lower. Never hit 230 even I think. Top of the world did hit 229-ish by the end. Bullseye III did hit 395 on the last day of the event, though. Not much 395 tinykitty otherwise. I got top 10 and I healed with impunity during the entire event (not every mission, but there).
Why buff oBW and punish the users? Logical thinking, never heard of it. As if they wanted us to respec oBW to 5-3-5 (rejoice, pasa). Which will never happen lol.