Are 5*s useful outside the 5* tier?

carrion_pigeons

So I recently opened a 6th cover for Silver Surfer (2/1/3) and a seventh for 5* Iron Man (0/4/3) from the OML nerf compensation tokens and am wondering if there's any context in which these are useful to me beyond just a kind of dim future hope of joining the 5* tier someday.  Any ideas?  Roster is approximately current in the sig otherwise.

byc

Probably only for PvE.  If you find an especially weak matchup in PvP, there as well.

Dormammu

Don't level them, if that's what you're asking. It'll just make your PvE scaling that much higher. You should focus on champing fours before you start thinking about using fives.

carrion_pigeons

Dormammu said:

Don't level them, if that's what you're asking. It'll just make your PvE scaling that much higher. You should focus on champing fours before you start thinking about using fives.

I wasn't planning on leveling them, just asking if they had any use.  I've been largely disappointed with the performance of, say, an 11-cover 4* at my level, but I wanted to know if it was reasonable to think that level 255 5*s, with their naturally higher level, could compete with 3* realistically.

I ask because as I get more covers for these characters, my PvP experience is getting annoying: something like 90% of the opponents I see are playing with undercovered 5*s level to somewhere between 300 and 350, and I *cannot* reliably beat these teams with my current roster.  Every time I get a 5* cover for one of those characters, the problem gets worse, and I'm wondering if I should just toss the low-tier 5*s that are wrecking my experience or if there's a reason to use them.

Dormammu

I see a TON of under-covered and under-leveled 5-stars in PvP too. For players outside these forums I think it's common to get excited about getting a cover or two for a 5-star and immediately dump iso into them, thinking that's an attractive option when compared to 2-stars or 3-stars. As soon as they do, their PvP matchmaking and scaling go into overdrive and then all the sudden they have to use those 5-stars to have a chance.

The only real benefit to using them is match damage and a cascade from an enemy team that has two 5-stars can certainly be dangerous to a 3-star team. I've had my hits from those and suffered a couple of losses because of it, but for the most part when I see a 5-star with only one or two colors in PvP I start salivating. Now that I have some champed 4-stars they're even less threatening.

carrion_pigeons

Well, what do I do then?  My PvP experience has never been good, but at this point it's not even playable.  How am I supposed to adapt at this point?  Should I just retreat into DDQ for the foreseeable future?  Because that's pretty much where I'm at now.

KFloppy

I can only describe my own experience...I'm solidly 3*, but I have a 5* Black Widow 2/1/2 (my highest covers) that is strangely really useful in PvE paired with either 4*Cage/3*Strange or 3*Cage/3*IronFIst.  By useful, I mean that I will actually make use of BW's powers (especially purple), in addition to the increased match damage.

I've even played the 3*Cage/IF/5*BW in PvP Simulator before, and can do OK, but is not as good defensively as when I replace BW with SWitch.

I'd generalize it as: 5* is useful outside of 5* if it's got all 3 colors covered.  But I suspect this is only true for a 3* player like me.  If I make it to 4*, I expect that even my BW will become unused.

FokaiHI

I have leveled up 3 5*s to 360- PHX/ OML/ Thanos. I do have 25 champed 4*s though. I found OML useful before the nerf to save on health and use him as a meat shield. PHX is good for cascades when Switch is boosted. Thanos is just fun. It will depend on the colors you have, but I use my 5*s to avoid using health packs.

I do get wrecked by the 5* tier in pvp, but manage to still hit 900. Also, my pve scaling is tolerable.