Championing and ennemy levels

mpiter

Hello everyone,

I am in the 3* to 4* transition.

The RNG was generous with me wit C4ge covers.  I reached 13 covers while my best other 4* only had 6 covers.  I remembered reading in this forum that championing a first 4* would significantly increase the enemy team levels, so it was not advised to do it without good 4* companions.  I therefore gave Luke Cage 4* his thirteen cover without intention to champion him to avoid scale level.

I was surprised to see an immediate increase of the enemy levels in the last PVE simulator last week.  I had to face two full-4* teams at each stage and one or two other 4* character in other teams while I had been used to face mainly 3* characters before completing C4ge.  That drastically increased the fight difficulty because C4ge is my only good 4*.  So completing a 4* character without championing him clearly scaled up the other teams.

I received a 14th cover soon after completing C4ge (5/4/4). I hesitate to champion him in fear to face another scale up problem.  My questions are:

1. Championing C4ge would actually increase a second time the enemy team levels?
2. If the answer to the previous question is "yes", should I do it anyway now, or should I do it the last day of the cover accessibility to avoid to lose it but to enjoy a sub level of the enemy teams for another 10 days, or should I sell the cover?
   

My other 4* are Carol (1/2/4) being my Hero Bonus :-), IW (1,1,4), Wolverine (4/1/1), Nick Fury (1/3/2), Agent Venon (1/2/3), SL (2/3/1), Blade (3/0/2), IF (0/3/2), and others with less than 6 covers including Wasp (2/1/1) who does a marvelous work with C4ge and Carol.  As you can see, I am far away from having a real 4* team.

A bonus question would be "Should I make Wasp my Bonus Hero?" since Carol is still in the LT but not WASP, and Wasp completes so well Carol and C4ge.

Thanks in advance for any piece of advice.

Jaedenkaal

The simulator team compositions are pre-determined and have nothing to do with your roster. Even a player with only 1* characters would have to face Medusa, Carnage, and Punisher (all 4*s) in that last Simulator mission.

The difference is the levels of those characters. A championed 4* character like Luke Cage is much higher level than the 3* champions you are likely to have, and so he -might- increase the level of some fights above what you can reasonably handle.

To answer your questions directly:

1) I don't believe a level 270 championed Luke Cage will increase your scaling beyond what the level 270 un-championed Luke Cage was already doing.

Either of those options does boost your scaling compared to a 13 cover Luke Cage at a lower level, especially if your 3* champions aren't very far along, but as far as I can remember from my first 4* champion, it's not a significant bump compared to the huge power that most fully-leveled 4*s bring. 

Additionally, if you have the weekly boosted 3*s championed, they will be boosted up to a comparable level (even a level 184 3* champion will be boosted up to level 270, for example)


2) Raising him to 271 with that 14th cover will not boost your scaling by any significant amount.

Bonus: Personal preference, but you're right, Wasp does have pretty good synergy with Cage, and you're unlikely to see many more Wasp covers without making her your bonus hero, so that's probably as good a choice as any.

bigsmooth

I think you might have some misconceptions about the nature of scaling. Scaling only affects the levels of the teams you are facing, not the characters in them. The enemy levels are based on the average level of the characters at the top end of your roster, and this includes their levels from weekly or event boosts.

PVE Simulator is unlike other events because there are many nodes with 4* enemy characters and they change each time that the event is run; because of these reasons, many players find it more difficult than other events. Fully covering C4ge should not have affected your scaling, unless you also leveled him up. It's just a coincidence that you hit a tough event right after getting his 13th cover.

If you champion C4ge, it will likely increase your scaling, but it may not be a huge jump, depending on his current level and the number of 3* champs on your roster that are boosted in a given event.

I personally would suggest that you might want to wait on championing him since you are not close to having another 4* to pair with him. Cage is good, but I find that he needs to be in the right team to be truly effective. I would sell the cover, or use it to re-spec him if needed.

As far as your bonus hero, I would probably stick with Carol as she is still in tokens and you're only at 7 covers. She is more self-sufficient than Cage and would be a better choice as a first 4* champ, as well.

mpiter

Thanks to both of you for your clear answers.  You were right, I did not understand the way scaling works.

I have all 3* characters.  This part of my rooster is composed of 25 champions out of 44 3* characters.  The levels of my champions varies between 167 and 178.  The weekly champ levels are therefore between 250 and 260.  I also have 9 1-cover 5* characters at level 255 (actually one has two covers).  As a consequence, the top of my rooster for an event is mainly composed of more than a dozen of characters with levels between 250 and 260.  According to what you say, my level-240 C4ge going to 270 and being championed should not lead to a significant change in scaling factor.

And you were right bigsmooth, I was misleading by the coincidence to receive my C4ge thirteenth cover just when a tough event started.  I am currently playing the Venon PVE event.  I am lucky because there are many goons.  I can use my C4ge L240 (5/4/4) with my unboosted 3* Dr. Strange L168 (5/3/5) and my unboosted 3* IF (3/5/5) without trouble.  They clear everything quickly with few damages for them.  If one of them is hardly hit and I do not want to heal him, I can use my low levels Carol and Wasp with C4ge for a change, or use the 3* boosted characters for quicker fights.  Basically, C4ge with 3* Strange with any good green boosted or unboosted 3* rule in the PVE events at my level.

While you convinced me about almost everything bigsmooth, I do not understand why not championing C4ge.  If the scale increase is low, being able to respect him to (5/5/3) or (5/3/5) depending on my opponent team seems a big bonus to me.  Now that you know that my roaster contains more that a dozen of characters with levels between 250 and 260 for every event, do you still think I should keep C4ge unchampioned?

Thanks again for your explanations.  They were helpful, and I see more clearly what to do.

Jaedenkaal

No, champ him. He'll barely bump your scaling at all compared to your lvl 255 5*s; and the extra hit points, damage, and respec will be worth it.

bigsmooth

I may have missed that you have already leveled him to 270. If that's the case, then yes, I'd champ him.

Jaedenkaal

He's at level 240 currently. I don't think the 30/31 levels will matter at all to scaling, and certainly not compared to the benefits.

mpiter

I will do that.  Thanks again

Jaedenkaal

Welcome to the forum

bigsmooth

Jaedenkaal said:

He's at level 240 currently. I don't think the 30/31 levels will matter at all to scaling, and certainly not compared to the benefits.

Agreed. mpiter, with Cage as your only 4*, I would go ahead and switch your bonus 4* to Wasp. She's probably his best partner, although Carol and Medusa also work with him pretty well. I would personally use him at 5/5/3 most of the time unless you have a red accelerator on your team. Have fun!

mpiter

I actually joined the forum a little bit more that two years ago.  I have spent a lot of time reading discussions, but I rarely comment because other users are much more experimented than me.

I also stopped playing for a while because I did not see one year ago how to carry out the 3* to 4* transition without playing several hours a day.  I had many 3* at level 166, and my roaster did not evolve anymore.  I came back to see the champion concept that I did not know.  That motivated me to play again championing my 2* and my 3*.  The Bonus Hero is alos a nice addition.

mpiter

bigsmooth said:

Jaedenkaal said:

He's at level 240 currently. I don't think the 30/31 levels will matter at all to scaling, and certainly not compared to the benefits.

Agreed. mpiter, with Cage as your only 4*, I would go ahead and switch your bonus 4* to Wasp. She's probably his best partner, although Carol and Medusa also work with him pretty well. I would personally use him at 5/5/3 most of the time unless you have a red accelerator on your team. Have fun!

That perfectly summarizes the conclusion I reached after reading your comments, and it is exactly what I have just done!

And even if it leaves violet out, I also like Carol with C4ge and Wasp because Carol yellow passive boosting special tiles when an allied CD reaches 0 is tremendous at my level if Wasp has 7 blue.  Carol yellow passive is activated almost every turn, and Wasp yellow changing C4ge protective into strikes tiles once makes them a war machine in waves or long fights.

I am impatient to test all this tomorrow