PvP mid-tier wall

daveomite

I can confirm what lyrian said about the test.

I didn't do an actual test of it, just watched it, for both myself and my better half who also plays. She has a lower level team than me though, with I think 2* Thor and obw both at 50, etc. I have higher level characters, but no 141 yet. 115 HT being my best right now.

At 400+, there was clearly a change. Before that, may as well all been seed teams. Beyond 400, all of a sudden it was solid 85 leveled opponents. Once I cross 700, it starts to change again. By 750, at least 2 of 3 nodes keep cycling in 141 teams.

By 800, then that's pretty much all I see. For instance, I have about 820 in Top Gun, and wound up having to shield to heal as I got pounded by 141 teams 2-3 times back to back, as at the time I was right at 899.

The better half though, was just playing Top Gun next to me, giving me updates to how she was doing. Up to 400, she lost a few, won most, and was just working her way up. Then she crossed 400, and started telling me all she was seeing was maxed 85s. She kept cycling nodes until she found ones she could do, and finally got up closer to 495. She showed me her screen at least twice in the middle of all of the cycling of nodes, and showed me teams with two 141 in them.

Considering her roster is so much smaller, and so less leveled, that really surprised me.

Same type of thing happened to me in doctors orders though. I crossed 800, got close to 900, then it was like I opened the flood gates of people hitting me with 141 teams, and those became most of my only choices. I did similar there though, got beyond 800 and was in second, which i wanted top 5 for cmags, and just shielded and stuck. I finished in second, so it worked.

Anyway, just my views of what I've seen from both my perspective, and that of her perspective with her lower level roster.

Unknown

Yeah, points now outweigh MMR. MMR will only take you so far, then you hit those thresholds. I suppose the rationale is 1 star teams shouldn't be placing high enough to get 3 star covers and 2 star teams teams should be just breaking into the 3 star covers. It's a way to control progression and minimize tanking.

Unknown

My personal wall for the three star threshold in Shield Sim is right at 1200 currently

Unknown

Lyrian wrote:

This could also be possibly perceived as an anti-tanking measure as well. With a high enough rated team at a low event score, in a low difficulty-filter range, a tank team might simply be now invisible to others as the filtering system may simply exclude showing the tank team to others. Performing a "Ghast" maneuver to at least a moderate degree might be the only real way to passively tank an event now. (Note: Active tanking through retreating still works just fine, although limited by the filtering system restricting viewable opponents.)

From your analysis it seems like keeping a "seed-ish team" and whacking it with my loaner, level 15 DD, and level 15 Loki might allow passive tanking?

Unknown

Another wrinkle based on Lyrian's analysis... If I pull everyone's favorite strategy of "mStorm and OBW in the desert" instead of using my 3* roster does that give me protection from attacks from those above 400 points?

Unknown

Warrition wrote:

I see the same thing, and it's really frustrating. It's not just that all of the level 85s disappear; even worse, I literally see the same 5-10 141 teams. I've literally skipped fifty times in one 5-minute stretch, and seen the same 10 players over and over again, without any variation.

This. I get into the 800's and even if I spend 200 iso skipping opponents I just keep getting the same matchups - usually lv141 teams vs. my single lv125 and lv85 2* crew. I could keep pushing but each match is a possible loss against those teams, smashing my points, while not shielding makes me a nice easy target for the high level guys. This Top Gun event I've just got to 865 and put up a 1 day shield - no point trying to do more.

daveomite

gamar wrote:

Another wrinkle based on Lyrian's analysis... If I pull everyone's favorite strategy of "mStorm and OBW in the desert" instead of using my 3* roster does that give me protection from attacks from those above 400 points?

I'm not thinking so. Better half was running with loaner falcon, mStorm and obw, and kept getting people with +800-900 points in her node cycles, and was getting hit by people with +100 teams.

so, I would assume the "threshold" may work differently on the other side...I mean, you or I, as players, run into these walls. Our threshold marks probably stay consistent. But depending on who else is "actively" playing, you may start getting cycled into their nodes once you pass a certain mark.

I know yesterday in my first push in top gun, on my way to 800, didn't get one retaliation, but once I crossed 800, if I fought one node, I virtually got retaliated against immediately, leading me to think beyond a certain point, you get thrown in a pot with currently active players that can actively retaliate immediately, whereas, lower point players may see more non actives and seeds.

peanut_gallery

I've been seeing this as well. I sort of thought that the wall was at 500, but slightly over 400 makes sense. My strategy the past few PvP's has been to play all the low level teams until I start seeing maxed 2* lv85's. When I've exhausted the last nodes of the low level teams (so that all is showing is 2* Lv85's), I stop, which usually puts me between 475 - 490.

Then what starts is what I've called the "AI's Wild Ride." I usually field a Lv85 Ares and OBW + 3rd character, and the AI has started doing a rather amazing job on defense for me. By not playing after I hit that 490 wall, my score usually nets another positive 150-200 points through wins by the AI, but the swings are dramatic, based on when I check in (I could be up 50 then down 90 then down another 20 then up 100 again).

I usually spend my time not playing by tanking in the LR or Simulator, hoping that sets me up against more opponents that the AI can win against.

Then with 3 hours to go, my score is typically in the 650 range, due to AI defense wins, and I play all my retaliation matches to get another 200 points and shield, which usually is enough for a top 10 win my bracket (I usually start about 24 hours out from the end of the tournament, where the top scores are rarely over 900 points).

daveomite

I mentioned this is the Army of One thread earlier, but I noticed the "threshold" seemed to be slightly different in this one. I got to just under 500 before starting to get hits come in, then all of my nodes were showing teams with 141's - so, basically bypassed solid 85's fairly quickly. I kept pushing, finding whatever nodes I could at more normal levels to continue to 700, where again, some hits started escalating and I stopped at 705 and threw up a shield for a few hours to let things cool down some.

But what was odd was how it started off with your normal type “seed” teams, higher rated than in Top Gun, but still, lower levels overall. Then past 300, started seeing more normal levels, past 450 is where the 141’s started being the constant choices in nodes compared to in Top Gun, it happening closer to 800. May have been due to my MMR, or something else, just seemed like the thresholds were off is all.

Unknown

Could be that Punisher is just incredibly common, the last one punisher event was pretty darn hard to progress, pretty sure I did not break 1k.

Or they changed things due to the glitch so your just going to be hosed at lower thresholds so the 1100 may be out of reach again. I remember for 2 weeks where 600 was high and 750 was the max you could hope to get without getting basted and flash fried.

Only time will tell.

daveomite

Chimaera wrote:

Could be that Punisher is just incredibly common, the last one punisher event was pretty darn hard to progress, pretty sure I did not break 1k.

Or they changed things due to the glitch so your just going to be hosed at lower thresholds so the 1100 may be out of reach again. I remember for 2 weeks where 600 was high and 750 was the max you could hope to get without getting basted and flash fried.

Only time will tell.

ha... hadn't thought of putting it that way, meaning, blasted and flash fried. Sounds about as good of a way to explain it I've heard.

Unknown

Nah nah basted not blasted, as in basting a turkey with saucy juicy points then flash frying it for all it's worth.

daveomite

Chimaera wrote:

Nah nah basted not blasted, as in basting a turkey with saucy juicy points then flash frying it for all it's worth.

Yeah...you can thank my phone for that one, rather, my thumb hitting keys on screen. I didn't mean to include the l, but then, I think blasted works pretty well to in this instance.