I've had a very different experience with the transition to the 5* tier, but I'm also in a very different situation so it's not exactly comparable. I started off with one champ 5* - Black Bolt. Black Bolt pairs very well with many, many characters, so I ran BB and a boosted 4* (I had a pretty full 4* roster at the time, and it's only gotten better since.) I played this way for a few months until I maxed out Black Widow. BB and Widow pair together very well, so I champed her too. I then fully covered Dr. Strange, but since Stephen doesn't play very well in PVP, I decided he wouldn't be a great 3rd 5*, and stopped pulling Latest as soon as he was fully covered. I resumed pulling Latest after, as I wanted Thanos. Once I got Thanos, I then fully leveled all my 5*s (in for a Penny, in for a Pound,) which at the time included OML and Strange. I champed Strange, as his build wasn't great (4/5/4,) but have yet to champ OML since he's very usable at 4/5/4. I'll get around to it when I can spare the extra 20k Iso. I don't have an extra cover for either.
So when I had one champ 5*, my scaling went up appreciably - I stopped seeing 4* teams with any regularity and generally just saw a 5* with one 4* or two 5*. My PVE scaling went up too, but I expected that. When I champed Widow, I saw a lot less 5/4 teams and saw pretty much just 5*s. I didn't notice much difference if any in PVP when I got my 3rd 5*. The PVE difference wasn't huge, either.
As far as PVP climbing went, I could generally climb to around 900 (in S4) with a boosted 4* team before taking more than a few hits. Adding Bolt increased that to around 1050ish, depending on the time and other things. With Bolt/Widow I could make it to 1200 before shielding unless it was particularly "hot" out. Thanos/Black Panther has impacted this a little - I now take more hits since BB/BW isn't as scary, but I still think I can do this (also, I now have Thanos/BP too, so I'll switch to them when I get high in points.) I will definitely say it's helped my HP income a lot - I spend a lot less on shields, and have to hop less. Also, I can get a much higher total though I've yet to score higher than T10 (well, I got T5 once in a fairly lazy bracket.)
The downside of this is you wipe a lot more with 5* teams - the match damage is so much higher that a bad cascade will destroy your team. You also consume a lot more health packs. I frequently climb to a good float point evening, then climb to shield the next morning. Sometimes I dig into my Tacos. If I don't have much time to play, I will climb as far as I can get and shield.
In general, I would say you can play with 5*s as long as you don't level them past 390 or so - I noticed the PVP scaling kicking in at around 400. My advice would be to be careful with the 5*s you champ, at least until you have two good ones. You will want your first 5* to be one that plays well with others - Bolt, Thanos, even OML. I believe Hawkeye is too squishy (don't have him yet,) and Strange definitely is (he rocks for PVE, though.) Widow can be devastating, but she's too slow to be a good deterrent - she really needs a good accelerator (like Black Bolt.) I'm honestly not sure who else - maybe 5* Cap and IM? GG? PHX?
Anyway, your second 5* should play well with the first. After that, you can do what you want, but unfortunately this is the best way to deal with the scaling and not have an awful time of PVP.
laughingMAN said: I'm a free player that has more or less unoptimally backed himself into a corner as well. Genuine question tho: If I've already got a single 5* at level 450, would it vault me into a new MMR if I just champed it? I would like to be able to respec, but pvp just barely playable for me right now (I seem to be able to see both champed 5 teams and mixed 5/4 teams). My other closest 5s are at 405.
Fightmastermpq said: Come on Ducky, this is neither a tip nor a guide, but a General Discussion about transitioning to the 5* tier.
Ducky said: ***Moving this over to Tips and Guides as it has become an advice thread on how to cope with 5* life***
Dragon_Nexus said: Jarvind said: - Also, that easy-to-beat 4* team you miraculously found? Yeah, check that guy's roster: he's got megachamped 5*s! What gives? Ah, yes, he's trying to bait you into hitting him so he can get an easy retal later. So now you have to inspect everyone's roster because any easyish team could be a "trapcake." Oh my God, I didn't even know that was a thing...Ugh...see, this is why I haven't poured one single iso into any of my 5*s.
Jarvind said: - Also, that easy-to-beat 4* team you miraculously found? Yeah, check that guy's roster: he's got megachamped 5*s! What gives? Ah, yes, he's trying to bait you into hitting him so he can get an easy retal later. So now you have to inspect everyone's roster because any easyish team could be a "trapcake."
DAC169 said: Dragon_Nexus said: Jarvind said: - Also, that easy-to-beat 4* team you miraculously found? Yeah, check that guy's roster: he's got megachamped 5*s! What gives? Ah, yes, he's trying to bait you into hitting him so he can get an easy retal later. So now you have to inspect everyone's roster because any easyish team could be a "trapcake." Oh my God, I didn't even know that was a thing...Ugh...see, this is why I haven't poured one single iso into any of my 5*s. Sad to say that I'm only a 4* player and I knew "trapcakes" were a thing. Every now and then I'll see teams of non-boosted 3*s and/or non-boosted level 220-250 4*s that are hiding teams of level 400+(even champed) 5*s waiting to come down on 4* teams hard.
@Jarvind, I recently champed 5* Black Panther, my first and only fully covered 5* at the time. I knew it was foolish and I would regret doing it at the time, but I kept getting "lucky" and getting more of his covers that I hated selling, so I finally said F-it, and champed him. My PvE scaling went up, and now I have all the same problems you describe in PvP. Only I don't yet have a second champ 5*. My OML has 12 covers and my Thanos just got covered yesterday, so I'll try to get ISO into him as soon as I can, but it's surely been an adjustment.
I've never been big into PvP so it's not too bad, but I used to be able to get to 800-900 pretty easily, and that's where I'd contently stop. Now I'm having trouble even hitting 575 without spending all my health packs. It feels like I went to being a medium fish in a small pool to being a micro fish in a large ocean.
I am on Line and I do use it to socially interact with my PvE alliance-mates and coordinate how we're doing Boss Events, that sort of thing. While I'm not in any PvP channels, my mates have made arrangements in the past for me to merc out for PvP-end occasionally when I score high enough. And even that is typically more than I like to do (sometimes I don't even bother). I definitely have no interest in using Line to coordinate my blarglebarging as you described with your intergalactic game. I feel ya. No thanks.
Anyway, totally agree with your posts here. I'm another cautionary tale to anyone else. DO NOT JOIN 5* LAND unless you really mean it. LOL
Ok, Ducky made a good point regarding the thread devolving into a thread on advice on how to transition to the 5* tier... so I made it's own thread on that. I copied what I had here, edited it a bit to be more general and gave it some nice tags. Feel free to post your own experiences and advice there.