How to keep things interesting while hoarding

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VizMantis
VizMantis Posts: 280 Mover and Shaker
in MPQ General Discussion
I usually spend my CP/LTs as they come, but as a result of the increased rate of covering characters due to vaulting, I find I'm out of ISO and forced to hoard while I refill my supply.  Obviously, the game is still fun, but I lose some motivation when I'm not building up new characters.  I'm still pulling non-legendary tokens, but champ levels for 2 and 3*s doesn't do much for me.  

I know some of you go for super long stretches hoarding to complete 5*s.  What keeps you going during those long months of fasting?
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  • vinsensual
    vinsensual Posts: 458 Mover and Shaker
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    I like to pretend one day I'll snap and just open all my stash.  Because realistically, grinding and waiting another 4 months for Doc Oc to rotate out seems so mind numbing. 
  • Bloody_Marvel
    Bloody_Marvel Posts: 209 Tile Toppler
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    I don't hoard. I collect. ;)

    There's plenty I can still spend hard earned Iso-8 on. All my 5*s are still at the base level of 255.

    I kinda find it fun to see the numbers climb steadily, and updating the counts in my sig helps keep me interested.
  • Hadronic
    Hadronic Posts: 338 Mover and Shaker
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    This is easy. When you are hoarding you sometimes feel the itch to open. When that happens I usually open one token, pull an inevitable riri I can't use and very quickly lose the itch and go back to hoarding.

    Basically just reconfirm to myself why I hoard to begin with.
  • Cactus_Jack_87
    Cactus_Jack_87 Posts: 210 Tile Toppler
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    I've been hoarding since Feb. 1st, and I'm currently up to 3200+ CP. I've been waiting for the right 5* vault to roll along, and I'm going to open until I get a new 5* fully covered. That's my main motivator, especially after it worked so well when I did it with the Thanos vault. A good chunk of my alliance has been hoarding with me, and we have a weekly update on our FB page about our goals, our CP income, and when we're going to cash in. I've still managed to champ 3/4 of the current 4*s in the vault, so if it wasn't for hoarding, I would just have had to sell dozens of wasted covers due to ISO shortage. There's a good chance that I'll finally cash in for the inevitable Homecoming release in a couple weeks.
  • mpqr7
    mpqr7 Posts: 2,642 Chairperson of the Boards
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    vinsensual said:
    I like to pretend one day I'll snap and just open all my stash.  Because realistically, grinding and waiting another 4 months for Doc Oc to rotate out seems so mind numbing. 
    I'm in the exact same boat. It's the worst.

    I've been focusing on my 3* champion farm. I'm about to rotate out a few characters from max champed (keeping them) to restarting championing them at lv 167 etc. That and my 2* champ farm.

    But yeah 4*s only grow from heroic tokens, event tokens, 3* champ rewards and progression rewards, so it's slow. And 5* growth. I never win 4* placement rewards.
  • GrumpySmurf1002
    GrumpySmurf1002 Posts: 3,511 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Before last anniversary I hoarded every token I got (even Standards!) for more than 6 weeks, saving for the HP sale to buy the slots to start the 2* farm.   By comparison, LT/CP saving is easy.  

    The easiest part about it though is knowing this is the only path through meaningful 5* progression, so it has to be done.
  • LordXberk
    LordXberk Posts: 252 Mover and Shaker
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    What I don't seem to understand is that the devs have repeatedly said they don't want players to hoard; however, it seems that they're perfectly content to keep the status quo which basically forces us to hoard.  They could fix this super easily by splitting up or rotating the characters in the Classics, but they have chosen not to.  Why?

    Also, starting the hoard is the hardest part, IMO.  Just got my CP back over 1k and have ~40 Latests saved.  I think that the current set of characters in the Latests actually make it easier to hoard, since 2/3rds don't seem particularly worthwhile.
  • bbigler
    bbigler Posts: 2,115 Chairperson of the Boards
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    I've been hoarding LT and CP since Nov 2016, which is the same time I started champing 4*s.  What?  That doesn't make any sense, right?  Well, it's all about ISO and I didn't have enough, so I naturally saved those pulls because I didn't want any waste.  Once I "caught up" with leveling up my characters, which took 3 months, I started opening 5 - 10 Classics a week.  My ISO production was able to keep up with this Classic opening rate until a month ago when I had a large ISO debt with my 4*s. 

    So, again, I've completely stopped opening any Legendary tokens while I catch up my 4*s.  The good news is this: I've been hoarding for so long that I'm getting close to the magic number of 260 pulls in order to fully cover the latest 5*s.  So, with this method, I've accomplished this:

    Since Nov 2016:
     - Champed 17 x 4*s with 3 more in the pipeline
     - Hoarded 100 LT and 1900 CP = 176 LL pulls

    My plans now are to dump all ISO into the latest 4*s for the next 7 weeks and then open my hoard before Hawkeye leaves, which should be up to 260 pulls by then.  I then champ the remaining 4*s but leveling up 5*s will have to come afterward.  I then plan to softcap my 5*s to 370 and see how PVE and PVP is.
  • Fightmastermpq
    Fightmastermpq Posts: 995 Critical Contributor
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    LordXberk said:
    What I don't seem to understand is that the devs have repeatedly said they don't want players to hoard; however, it seems that they're perfectly content to keep the status quo which basically forces us to hoard.  They could fix this super easily by splitting up or rotating the characters in the Classics, but they have chosen not to.  Why?

    Also, starting the hoard is the hardest part, IMO.  Just got my CP back over 1k and have ~40 Latests saved.  I think that the current set of characters in the Latests actually make it easier to hoard, since 2/3rds don't seem particularly worthwhile.
    They don't want you to hoard because they want you to spend instead.  They want you to buy roster slots instead of hoarding until you have the HP on hand.  They want you to spend on ISO to champ a cover before it expires rather than waiting until you have the ISO on hand before you open it.

    Any change that reduces the incentive to hoard, but doesn't keep the incentive to spend in place is not a change that they will consider.

    And as long as they have a 2-week expiry period smart players will always hoard in certain situations where it makes sense to do so.
  • Warbringa
    Warbringa Posts: 1,292 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Lol, I am in the complete opposite situation.  I am hoarding iso (2,000,000) but am lacking decent 4* fully covered characters to use it on.  I could champ a couple of older 4* right now but none of them are great.  I would prefer to use that iso on newer, higher quality 4* and am only a few covers away from being able to do so.  I think I am 2 Iceman covers away (will buy through Heroic store), 1 X-23 away (coming in a month in Shield Resupply), 1 Coulson (yellow...can't seem to get that last one), and one Gwenpool cover away.  Right there would be four champs that would eat into about half of that iso hoard.  

    I did hoard last season, waiting for cage and spider woman to leave tokens since I didn't want to waste token pulls on either as neither was highly covered for me.  I think my hoarding will be determined by who is leaving the token pull.   Right now I am spending and opening everything because I want that last Gwenpool cover and I want Blade covers.  Better bet that I will hoard when I know characters like Agent Venom and Mordo are moving out of tokens  B)

    I think it is an interesting thing that most players are either iso poor or cover poor, rarely is there a decent in between medium.  
  • broll
    broll Posts: 4,732 Chairperson of the Boards
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    The more I hoard the less I feel a need to 'keep things interesting'.  Watching the number counts and tracking 4* gains from sources outside of tokens / planning for when to open hoards keeps me plenty interested.
  • msp2211
    msp2211 Posts: 47 Just Dropped In
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    I have been working on champing my vaulted 4*s, while trying to also champ as many new, good current 4*.

    I pulled all of my cp and latest for Thanos. It was not much, but, 660 cp and 9 latest plus everything earned in the 18 weeks he was in latest should have left me with more than the 7 cover Thanos i have. What it did give me was many 4*s fully covered and iso poor as Warbringa mentioned.

    1240 cp and 29 LL in 2 1/2 seasons is where I'm  at now. I have 33 champ 4* with 3 more fully covered. Hawkguy and starlod 3*s to champ too. I can refill my 2*farm.

    My question is: Is it better to be a 5* player, or a 4* player? Do i want to have 3 champed 5* that I'm forced to use on everything? Or, do i pull classic legendaries and have a few 300+ 4* champs? For those who have made the transition to 5*, is it worth it? I play a hybrid style and enjoy both PVP and PVE. 
  • BoyWonder1914
    BoyWonder1914 Posts: 884 Critical Contributor
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    Hadronic said:
    This is easy. When you are hoarding you sometimes feel the itch to open. When that happens I usually open one token, pull an inevitable riri I can't use and very quickly lose the itch and go back to hoarding.

    Basically just reconfirm to myself why I hoard to begin with.
    I essentially do this. I give myself a "1 bad pull" rule. If I can use the cover, I go ahead and pull another. If not, back to hoarding. I'm currently at 1495 CP. I was initially hoarding because I wanted to cover all the latest 12, but that didn't end up taking nearly as much CP as I thought. At this point I'm hoarding until I get a nice enough chunk of the latest 12 champed that my waste rate isn't abysmal.

    I've been giving myself a pull budget, and a direct cover budget. Everything above 1000 I consider my direct cover budget, and use it on people that get deadlocked at 5/5/_, or vaulted folks at 10-12 covers that I just get tired of waiting on. I finished my Peggy this way, Hulkbuster, Thing, Carnage, Drax, and Flaptain. I'm probably about to finish my Quake and 4 Star-Lord this way too, as they are at 4/3/3 and 5/2/3 respectively, with cover #11 coming in the next couple of days. After that my next project is Ant-Man, who's sitting at 2/5/2 while the game continues to spit blue covers at me. Eddie Brock and Spider-Gwen are REALLY big projects sitting at 6-7 covers, so I'll probably be trying to Bonus Hero them first. But once I get those latest 12 done, I can pull from my 1000 "pull" budget and hopefully get a decent amount of bonus covers for them along the way. 

    So it's a very strategic game of patience, but when I get that unstoppable itch I do give myself a little rope with the "1 bad pull" logic. I usually use LTs if I have them though, since they let me pull and still keep my CP. 
  • Dragon_Nexus
    Dragon_Nexus Posts: 3,701 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Give yourself plenty of short term goals.
    Like, currently I'm champing Venom. 45k to go!

    Once he's done I'll work on the first 2* I get a spare cover for. I have six 2*s in need of re-champing. Spent all their sell value on champing 4*s, so I need to get them back.

    So I'll work on getting the 74k for each of them and ocne that's done I can start opening my legendary packs and maybe spending some of my 1200CP.

    Or...as is more likely the case...the first legendary I open will give me Coulson or Mordo and all my ISO will go towards them so I can champ 'em.
  • byc
    byc Posts: 297 Mover and Shaker
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    Nothing.  I like my assets to be liquid unless I am forced to use them.
  • LordXberk
    LordXberk Posts: 252 Mover and Shaker
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    Fightmastermpq said:
    LordXberk said:
    What I don't seem to understand is that the devs have repeatedly said they don't want players to hoard; however, it seems that they're perfectly content to keep the status quo which basically forces us to hoard.  They could fix this super easily by splitting up or rotating the characters in the Classics, but they have chosen not to.  Why?

    Also, starting the hoard is the hardest part, IMO.  Just got my CP back over 1k and have ~40 Latests saved.  I think that the current set of characters in the Latests actually make it easier to hoard, since 2/3rds don't seem particularly worthwhile.
    They don't want you to hoard because they want you to spend instead.  They want you to buy roster slots instead of hoarding until you have the HP on hand.  They want you to spend on ISO to champ a cover before it expires rather than waiting until you have the ISO on hand before you open it.

    Any change that reduces the incentive to hoard, but doesn't keep the incentive to spend in place is not a change that they will consider.

    And as long as they have a 2-week expiry period smart players will always hoard in certain situations where it makes sense to do so.
    I see what you're saying Fight, but wouldn't splitting up 5* Classics into multiple pools encourage less hoarding, but still keep the incentive to spend?  

    Hoarding not only lets me fully cover 5*s more effectively, but it allows me to not waste 4* covers bcs I can save the HP and ISO necessary.  If I was opening 5* Classic A, B, and C (or however they'd split it) more regularly, I wouldn't have the time to save ISO and HP necessary to roster/champ those 4*s and my incentive to spend would remain (or increase).  Am I missing something?
  • animaniactoo
    animaniactoo Posts: 486 Mover and Shaker
    edited June 2017
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    I only hoard against specific goals.


    While I was working on champing 3 stars, I held all my CP. Used HP and opened roster spots for any cover I got for a new character, but don't really put anything into developing them unless A) I have extra iso to be defined below* and B ) they're featured in the current PVE, DDQ Burrito Behemoth or Clash of the Titans.

    The moment I champed my last 3 star, I busted open all the CP, and went on a spree. I keep 240 in reserve in case I feel a desperate need to buy a cover for someone. In the meantime, I do go ahead and pull a cover every few days and soon as I've built up enough to do so in order to get my 4 stars more fully covered. That's been working out pretty well...

    Currently, I've just champed my 1st 4-star. And I've been hoarding DDQ tokens for MONTHS. I am 4 days away from being able to empty the vault and I plan to go on a gleeful little spree when I get there... provided of course, that I want the 4 stars who are in the vault that week, so it might wait a week or too.

    Once I see what I've got, I'll figure out what I'm doing with it, and then plan my next moves. I started a 2-star farm, mostly because I had a lot of HP built up - not on purpose, there just wasn't anything I felt was worth spending on - but I don't think I'm in a position to put ISO towards it until I get more of my 4* roster up to their max levels (or near them), on a cost/benefit basis. That may change with the DDQ vault hauls. We'll see.

    *Extra ISO defined as "Will not prevent me from reaching a goal, such as maxing a character's level before PVE is over and I can use the increased power, or covers expiring if I don't champ them first".
  • STOPTHIS
    STOPTHIS Posts: 781 Critical Contributor
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    I'm hoarding CmdPts, but I still open LTs. I find it gives a little Pavlovian response of getting a surefire 4 or 5* and helps me from wanting to use my hoard.

    It also gives me some shorter term motivation. I've gotten myself into a nice pace to champ 4* characters like I did before vaulting. Few days ago I pulled my 13th Mordo, so now I'm working on getting ISO to champ him. Then I know I'm getting a Ghost Rider in the daily resupply soon, so he'll be after Mordo. Riri is at 13 covers, Rocket is at 12 covers, and Gamora at 10. Chances are I'll still have something to work for after that. And if not one of them, I have 7 other vaulted 4*s that are fully covered and would love to be champed. Just depends on when the covers come.

    My other side project is leveling my 3*s. Might not be exciting if you're just getting into the 3* level, but characters like Strange, Thanos, and Hawkeye have passed a forth of my other 3*s thanks to vaulting. So now I'm making sure to bring the rest up evenly through bonus heroes. I also just recently maxed my first 3* (Black Widow) so I'm working on her dupe now.

    And there's always the 2* farm to tend to.

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