Could someone explain the PVE cooldowns?

donpidgeon

Sorry for this noob question, but I can't figure out how the cooldowns work in PvE...

I came back to this game after a 2+ year hiatus and apart from lots of new characters, I am confused on how the cooldown in PvE works as there seem to be some global cooldown added into the mix where ALL nodes suddenly needs to be recharged before giving full points. But there seem to be individual cooldowns on nodes also. I have tried to understand if there is some connection between everything, but if someone could just explain it to me it would be most helpful.

Daiches

PVE still works like it did 2+ years ago, except instead of a 2h36 minute refresh, it's a 24h refresh. Also it requires 4 initial clears to start the timer on a node.
The strategy is still the same for the rest. Start the timers asap at start of event/sub, grind the nodes as late as possible at the end of the sun (3 times)

jamesh

Also, nodes will increase in difficulty after each of the first four repetitions.  On the fifth and subsequent repetitions, they will remain at a fixed difficulty.  There are no global scaling increases that happen while you're not playing either.

And starting from the next event, the difficulty will be based solely on the clearance level you pick rather than on an estimate of your roster strength.

Orion

As they said above, you have to hit a node 4 times before the countdown timer of 24hr will start.  When you hit it that 4th time, the points drop by 1/3.   So you want to hit each node 4 times as soon as the sub opens for maximum refresh time.

Then, just before the sub ends, you want to hit each node 3 more times to drop the point value to 0.  Then of course when that sub ends and the next one begins, you do 4 more clears of the next sub.   So yes, that's 7 clears of all of the nodes at one time for optimum placement.

If you don't care about optimum placement, here are some other tips.   Each node has 6 rewards, so hit it 6 times to get them all.  Also, after 6 clears, you get 10 XP towards your next Shield Rank.   So a lot of people play "to checkmarks" (the green check appears on the node after 6 clears) to get maximum rewards and XP.   Also, to get max progression rewards, you have to hit each node 5 times.  It doesn't matter when you do this, so spread them out throughout the day if you don't have time to do everything at once.

donpidgeon

Thanks for the clarification and related hints. Most helpful.

zodiac339

Wave missions are slightly different, only requiring 2 clears instead of 4, and thus only increasing difficulty twice. Keep that in mind when playing for placement so you don't accidentally overclear the mission right away.

DarthDeVo

zodiac339 said:

Wave missions are slightly different, only requiring 2 clears instead of 4, and thus only increasing difficulty twice. Keep that in mind when playing for placement so you don't accidentally overclear the mission right away.

They also require only 4 total clears to get all the rewards, not six like the standard nodes. 

The current event we're in is also a good example of the initial loaner/required node. For some events, the initial node of a sub requires you use the featured characters for that event, in this case 4* Rocket & Groot, 3* Falcon and Moonstone. If you don't have those characters, the game will give you a loaner character. These nodes only require one clear before the timer restarts. And if I'm not mistaken, the enemy levels in the loaner nodes don't increase in strength. 

Daiches

Remember the PVP thread where people complained there was so much to learn to play it well? Obviously PVE is much easier and just pick up and play.

zodiac339

Daiches said:

Remember the PVP thread where people complained there was so much to learn to play it well? Obviously PVE is much easier and just pick up and play.

As far as understanding how to max your points, yes, it's easier. For PVP, there's:
1. Starting right away can get you up to 9 seed team, while starting a couple minutes later will pit you against players' defense teams, yet you can also start 6-8 or even more hours later and get a few seed teams.
2. Getting a feel for how long you can go before being hit by other players and losing ground, and that can change as you use stronger heroes and start being seen by stronger players.
3. How many fights you can do after breaking a shield, varying by what other players are on at a given time (hint: don't do more than one fight within 8 hours of the end)
4. BTW, 3 hour and 8 hour (and 24 hour if you go there) shields are on separate 8 hour timers.

For PVE, there's:
1. Do 4 clears at the start
2. Do 3 clears at the end
3. Do the first 4 clears as fast as you can
4. Judge how long the last 3 clears will take so you can finish with only a few minutes to spare.
5. Remember to hit the repeatable loaner mission daily (the particular story can make this part difficult since it can be attached to the sub or separate and may close with the sub. Enemy of the State closes when the first sub does for example, and isn't even inside that sub.)
6. Order of operations: clear the mission with the most points fist and least points last at the beginning, the least points first to most points last at the end. You just have to figure out which those are, which takes eyes.

PVP has fewer points, but those points are an art that multiple other people are painting over while you're trying to do it. PVE is a science that is unaffected by the randomness of what other people are doing to you. Also, several of the PVP points are so simple, they could probably have been consolidated. Separating added clarity.

Phumade

zodiac339 said

PVP has fewer points, but those points are an art that multiple other people are painting over while you're trying to do it. PVE is a science that is unaffected by the randomness of what other people are doing to you. Also, several of the PVP points are so simple, they could probably have been consolidated. Separating added clarity.

No the Art in PVE comes from recognizing when a boosted 4* is faster than a champed 5*.  Recognizing the grind strategy of the other T5 players to know if your racing a multitapper or optimal player.  Recognizing that 2* bullseye means bring non pink based powers.  Recognizing that a fast wipe or retreat is actually faster than trying to limp a match to victory.

T2 pve is just as hard if not harder than T5 pvp.