Tales from SCL3

ZootSax

So, in a previous thread (https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/comment/714863#Comment_714863) I joked about dropping to a low shield clearance level for the hell of it, if I wasn't interested in the normal rewards in SCL7.  For this past run of Heart of Darkness, I knew I had no chance at a Lockjaw cover, couldn't use the blue Iceman and had no interest in rostering 3* Bullseye, so other than the 8CP, the higher clearance level rewards meant very little to me.  Therefore, I decided to drop to SCL3 to get a pair of 2* Ms Marvels for my farm and basically goof off.  While on one hand, I felt a little bad kicking puppies, on the other I was missing an essential character (and one with a wave node each round, no less), so it was pretty safe to assume that I would have no real impact on Top 10...and I didn't even come close to that.  I also only spent the same amount of time I usually spend getting the 8CP in SCL7, so while I got full progression in SCL3, I didn't go beyond 5-6 clears, except in the 48 hour sub where I did 6-7 on some nodes.

While all my observations are obviously anecdotal, it was interesting to view the leaderboards down there.  I saw one other roster like my own which had no business being in SCL3, but otherwise almost everyone in the Top 20 was either a late 1*->2* transitioner or an early 2*->3* transitioner (the one other roster with champed 4*'s was in 1st after 24 hours when they overcleared the first sub, but dropped and I never saw the name again once Sub 2 was under way).  The biggest observation was that while the Top 10 or so players clearly understood how to optimally clear, the vast majority of players I saw clearly didn't.  For instance, in the 48 hour sub, after I did my 5th clear, I was barely in the top 200, yet by the subs end I was in the Top 30, after only doing 6-7 clears (except for wave nodes) roughly on the proper schedule, but FAR from optimal compared to the usual top players in SCL's 7 & 8.

I ended up in the Top 50, but every one of the Top 20 looked like appropriate rosters for the SCL, which was nice to see.  I got a little over the final progression and it looked like hitting top progression was good enough for Top 50 in my bracket, give or take.

My two biggest take aways:

1) It is definitely not worth the increase in placement to drop as far down in SCL's as I did.  I admit, it was nice having what was essentially a vacation in PVE (which was primarily what I was looking for, to be honest), but if I were to do this with any kind of regularity, my roster progression would essentially stop.  While this could still be a problem for extremely high rosters in SCL5 & SCL6, I would be surprised if it was even a consideration below that.

2) The game really should have a "how to play story mode" tutorial for new players to explain the timing of clears.  When I checked the leader board ~12 hours after a new sub opened, there were never more than 2-4 players who were tied on score with me, even though I saw numerous rosters down the ranks who were missing one or more of the required characters, like I was.  This implies that many people were either over- or under-clearing right from the start.  While I'll be the first to admit that the PVE schedule doesn't work for a lot of people (probably the majority of people), in SCL's 6, 7 & 8 I'll typically see large numbers of people tied with me on score in the sub standings around the half-way point of a 24hr sub, with the final clears separating us from one another.  For there to only be a small few in the lower SCL implies that they don't understand how it's supposed to work, even if the willingness to play a significant number of clears is there.

Oh well, that's all for my ramblings.  I'll be back to my proper SCL again for Meet R&G...although it's nice knowing the option to drop ridiculously low is there the next time it's the wrong cover for a 5/X/X is the progression and it's a featured 3* I hate

DeNappa

1 or 2 events back I dropped down to SCL4; it was the one with the Sandman progression cover I think - I was kind of burned out and decided I didnt want the grind for a tiny addition to my 1- or 2-cover Sandman. So decided to go 'easy mode' for some easy progression CP. While I didn't really keep an eye out for optimal clears and all (I hardly compete for even top 100 myself ever), I did notice that I effortlessly finished top 50 or even top 25.

Lack of knowledge about the scoring system may be part of it, but chances are that a lot of people in lower SCL's have no interest whatsoever in doing 'optimal clears' and all.

evade420

3* bullseye is actually pretty awesome once you figure out how to use him, he is especially great on wave nodes.
If you do it right the board will constantly be filled with strike tiles

Phumade

the problem with 3* bullseye and quite a few of the chars that have similar conditions is that your roster has to develop around him.  I have a max champed bullseye but I cant use him because my mmr is in the 5* range.

I would love to play restricted 3* vs 3* event once an offseason.  There are alot of awesome 3* combos that I can't use because my roster is scaled out.

broll

Responses to OPs by #
1.  I agree and this is IMO proof that if they widened the reward gap enough between the levels (especially 7 & 8 which are near identical now) it would solve a lot of the crying about people dropping down.
2.  Or how about they just make the game mode less tinykitty complicated... but in general they suck at any documentation on changes.  They give a pop-up once and unless you were playing to see that or come here you don't know.  I remember I was two or three months in before someone told me championing was a thing.  i was not focusing leveling up my 2*s to max because it didn't seem like there was any rush to get to 94.  Oh how little I knew, thanks forums!

JackTenrec

I screwed up and entered a low SCL for one of the releases (Vulture? Mockingbird?) and basically just went ahead and played like I would have played it anyway (4 clears with remaining clears before the end of the sub), because I needed the ISO.  I never clear optimally -- I usually do all the trivials first before doing the essentials in reverse order, and do 4 clears on the hard nodes as I go rather than unlocking all the way to the hardest node and doing the remaining 3 clears (to make 4) in reverse order.  I'm pretty sure I was first in every sub and overall, and never noticed other players tying me to indicate they were doing a similar pattern of clears.

I never did check my opponents' rosters, though. Maybe I had dropped all the way down to SCL 1.

shardwick

Bullseye single handedly saved my butt on sub 2. The game crashed on me during my last play of the hardest wave node, always super fun, and I thought that I was already running out of time so my chances of a top 10 finish in the event were low. Restarted, finished the wave node, finished 2* essential pretty fast, then did the 4* and I watched the clock. You know what? I think that I may actually be able to finish on time, I thought. Three plays of a 2 round wave node is doable, even a three round one. Wait, it's FOUR rounds? I don't remember it being that many! Oh hell I'm definitely done. But something happened, Bullseye heard my plight. Dude stepped up hardcore and gave a total MVP performance. He absolutely crushed the first play. Tick tock tick tock. Next one was quite a bit slower. He was hardly getting any matches because Ms Greedy over here Medusa kept killin' dudes with her attack tile. Finally finished, less than three minutes to go. Oh man oh man oh man. Tick tock. Snipe a dude, animation, tick tock, snipe another, animation, tick tock. Round three, about a minute left, goooooooo faster! Board is flooded with strikes. Round three goes pretty fast, last round of the wave node and probably not even 30 seconds. I break out my abilities for Bullseye to finish off the goons. I get to the points screen and sub 2 ends like three seconds later.

To quote the great Ron Weasley, "Bloody hell!" I'm more surprised that I didn't have a heart attack from the stress than I am that I was able to finish on time. Thanks, Bullseye.

ZootSax

evade420 said:

3* bullseye is actually pretty awesome once you figure out how to use him, he is especially great on wave nodes.
If you do it right the board will constantly be filled with strike tiles

I'll be honest: the 3* looks like he'd be a lot of fun to play, but only knowing Bullseye from the bad 1990's Daredevil movie and the Dark Avengers story in this game, when I saw they released a 3* Bullseye, I basically said "nope" and decided to skip him since I actively disliked the character.  Now that I'm not tight on hero points, I might eventually give him a chance, but we shall see. 

jamesh

But Bullseye was the best thing about the bad 1990's Daredevil movie ...

metallion

evade420 said:

3* bullseye is actually pretty awesome once you figure out how to use him, he is especially great on wave nodes.
If you do it right the board will constantly be filled with strike tiles

What I've been saying for the better part of 2 years. Ran him in DDQ TBE with 3*Cage and Panther everyday up till vaulting messed up my levels. It was always fun to watch the board fill up, and it was a really great feeling when i succeeded in making every single tile a strike for the first time. He still is in my top 3 of most fun characters to use after all this time.