Taking it easy

Beer40

Giving respect where its due, I got the idea from this thread https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/67512/tales-from-scl3#latest

I bounce around SCLs in PVE depending on how much time I want to spend grinding an event. I always used to play in SCL8, but lately I've found I enjoy SCL7 more. I don't like giving up progression rewards but its the price to be paid for less time spent playing each day. 

Well, in the last event I finished 101. Right, no Lockjaw. All because of a slip up(?) on Sunday where I didn't green check everything. One "bad" day in an event cost me the new character cover.

I'm not grinding the **** out of SCL7 or 8 just to get a Lockjaw cover. Sorry, its not worth it to me. So I went down to SCL4. I've only played one node so far, the opening one where you fight level 65 Juggernaut (I think it was 65?). Anyway, I'm not getting **** for rewards in this event and that's ok. I still need about 1,000 points to get the PVP Heroic 10 pack so I'll spend some time there for the rest of the season. And this event is going to be a breeze, which is a very welcome change of pace. 

Long story short: I made a good decision. Sorry in advance for any SCL4 whiners that complain if I take away a top 100 spot from you.

Calnexin

Sounds like a harsh bracket.  I completely missed clears 5-6 on the first sub and squeaked out with 20th, only overclearing one node.  If you're starting right when the event starts, next time try getting into a slacker bracket early.  You still probably won't get top 10 in those, because there's enough people hunting them for top placement, but the overall competition is much lower.  

I've been doing slice 1, but starting the event around 8-10 pm EST (ie, sacrificing 13-15 hr of the first sub).  The overall competition is lower, and I probably could have gotten T100 with just 4 clears per node.

Dormammu

As a 3 & 4-star player I've found SCL 7 is the sweet spot between rewards and 'easy mode'. The three easy nodes are a cakewalk with two disposable 5-stars and Thanos, as enemies never go higher than level 23. After that, enemies start at around level 140-150 and go up to around 250ish. This really isn't too difficult unless the developers do something nasty, like putting Ares/Juggs with two feeder goons, and even then the first couple of clears are no problem.

I'd never consider dropping as low as SCL 3 or 4. That's not where I belong and I'd be frustrated if I was a 2-star player and seeing a bunch of 4-star players taking placement rewards they don't need as badly as I do. Also, at that point, the meager rewards aren't worth my time and I'm probably better off doing something else - like learning a foreign language, or something. 

Blindman13

I'm sure it would vary depending on your roster, but has anyone tried to measure the time savings in SCL7 vs. SCL8?  My feeling is that it's not an earth shattering amount. For someone trying to get top placement I can see where 5-10 minutes can mean the difference between 1st and 11th.

My main objective is earning enough ISO to get the rest of my 4*s champed, so I play SCL8 because it has slightly more ISO in the progression rewards. I don't pay for placement, but I do try for 6 clears for the XP, so I usually make max progression and finish somewhere between 50 and 150. FOr me a 10 minute time savings when spread across the whole day is not really noticable.

I don't feel like the time savings I would get in SCL7 would be worth the less ISO to me. That said, if someone were to say they can do 6 clears in one hour on SCL7 vs. two or more on SCL8, I may have to reconsider.

Dormammu

Blindman13 said:

I don't feel like the time savings I would get in SCL7 would be worth the less ISO to me. That said, if someone were to say they can do 6 clears in one hour on SCL7 vs. two or more on SCL8, I may have to reconsider.

I can do 5 clears in an hour in SCL 7. I can't do that in 8.

Calnexin

Blindman13 said:

I'm sure it would vary depending on your roster, but has anyone tried to measure the time savings in SCL7 vs. SCL8?  My feeling is that it's not an earth shattering amount. For someone trying to get top placement I can see where 5-10 minutes can mean the difference between 1st and 11th.

It will vary by player, and there's a plateau - for maxchamp 5* there's only a marginal difference between 7 and 8.

I'm about mid-lower tier 4* - 37 champs between 270-300.  The difference at my particular power level is significant - SCL7 I clear the easy nodes with 1 match usually, and I don't generally have to use a single health pack for the hard nodes.  SCL8 takes me 2-3 matches on the easy nodes and for the more difficult events I'll go through all 10 packs at the front and 5 more at the back.  SCL8 takes me about 1.5 hr for the first 4 clears.  SCL 7 takes 30-45 min, depending on who's boosted (Rocket was FAST). 

carrion_pigeons

I don't usually bother clearing, but if my schedule lines up right, I can do 4 clears of SCL 7 in a little under 2 hours.

3 hours of MPQ in a day is pretty much hahaha yeah no most of the time though. 

Beer40

Dormammu said:

As a 3 & 4-star player I've found SCL 7 is the sweet spot between rewards and 'easy mode'. The three easy nodes are a cakewalk with two disposable 5-stars and Thanos, as enemies never go higher than level 23. After that, enemies start at around level 140-150 and go up to around 250ish. This really isn't too difficult unless the developers do something nasty, like putting Ares/Juggs with two feeder goons, and even then the first couple of clears are no problem.

I'd never consider dropping as low as SCL 3 or 4. That's not where I belong and I'd be frustrated if I was a 2-star player and seeing a bunch of 4-star players taking placement rewards they don't need as badly as I do. Also, at that point, the meager rewards aren't worth my time and I'm probably better off doing something else - like learning a foreign language, or something. 

I disagree with this but am not going to argue about it. I'll just explain my POV. Slice times simply don't work for what I want to get out of the game. If I want to chase placement the only slice that works is 4. And that's really only on day 1 of the event. Every other day something will pop up during my clears and push me off the optimal pace. That's irrelevant of what SCL I choose. That's actually a good thing for me though, because I have lots of little amounts of time throughout the day, rather than one big block of time at any point. So I'm pretty much free to play however I choose. I only mentioned placement, because as sub-optimal as I play, I still end up in the top 100 usually in SCL 7 and 8. So it seems to reason, that by going to SCL 4 that I'll end up in the top 100 there too. To the other point, I think the rewards are meager at all SCL. I understand there's (supposedly) logic in place behind that for the long term health of the game. I accept that as fact and am ok with it. And because I can accept that, it doesn't matter to me what SCL I play in because I'm playing to play, not to reach an end goal. I still remain a valuable member to my alliance (max progression in PVE every event since the alliance formed + 300+ points every PVP event), I'm still progressing, and I have more free time. 

So yea, disagreements, but I'm not the least bit sorry or feel like I'm wasting my time. Its actually quite the opposite.

Dormammu

@Beer40 I'm not saying you did anything wrong or immoral. The game doesn't restrict players of a certain SHIELD level from choosing what clearance level to play so you're free to choose your SCL. I have no idea what your roster even looks like. I was speaking in regards to myself as a 4-star player. From the perspective of a 2-star player on the placement bubble (51st, 102nd, whatever) I'd feel frustrated that the rich are getting richer and stealing food off my plate. It would be like playing on a high school baseball team and taking second place because the Yankees decided the major leagues were too hard.
 

Spudgutter

Dormammu said:

@Beer40 I'm not saying you did anything wrong or immoral. The game doesn't restrict players of a certain SHIELD level from choosing what clearance level to play so you're free to choose your SCL. I have no idea what your roster even looks like. I was speaking in regards to myself as a 4-star player. From the perspective of a 2-star player on the placement bubble (51st, 102nd, whatever) I'd feel frustrated that the rich are getting richer and stealing food off my plate. It would be like playing on a high school baseball team and taking second place because the Yankees decided the major leagues were too hard.
 

Not the best analogy, even the lowest paid baseball players are raking in the cash.  As long as there is only a marginal incentive going up per level, and there are a ton of different people with different stories, i don't really think we should judge anyone who drops down a few levels.

Firstly, no one is getting rich off of the scl4 top 10 rewards.  Even if you snag first place, that is three covers for she hulk, three elite tokens and an heroic token.  To get that same reward minus the heroic in scl7, you would need top 20.  

Secondly, I'm not a fan of presuming who is owed what.  Just like with a couple of people going to the extreme measure of hitting the hard node a bunch of times to stay ahead of the competition in scl8, if someone drops to a lower level for higher placement, then so be it. Until they design against this option, we have to accept that it is ok in the eyes of the devs, because it is such a minor facet of the population. 

Lastly, and this is probably an unpopular opinion on the forums, but to me, if you are basing your success solely on always getting the top placement (in pve), you may be playing this game incorrectly. I always look at pve as a marathon, not a sprint.  Ive seen people burn themselves out because they drive to get top 10 in the most difficult situations, for rewards that will come in slowly over time anyway.  If someone with a two star roster is killing themselves to get first place in scl4, and is then upset that a 4 star roster beat them out of it, I'd be willing to bet they wont make it to 1000 days, while that 4 star player is already at that mark.

Borstock

Beer40 said:

Long story short: I made a good decision. Sorry in advance for any SCL4 whiners that complain if I take away a top 100 spot from you.

Careful what you wish for.

Dormammu

Spudgutter said:

Not the best analogy, even the lowest paid baseball players are raking in the cash.  As long as there is only a marginal incentive going up per level, and there are a ton of different people with different stories, i don't really think we should judge anyone who drops down a few levels.

Firstly, no one is getting rich off of the scl4 top 10 rewards.  Even if you snag first place, that is three covers for she hulk, three elite tokens and an heroic token.  To get that same reward minus the heroic in scl7, you would need top 20.  

A 2-star player can't compete with a 4-star player for placement, so it is a good analogy. As for the rewards, 'rich' is a matter of perspective. Any amount of She-Hulk covers are probably going to be more rewarding and help advance a 2-star player far more than a 4-star player.

But your point is well taken and I stated as much earlier: there's nothing restricting a player from playing any SCL available to them.

But that doesn't mean its not frustrating. There have been posts here from SCL 7 players stating they get frustrated when 5-star players drop down and 'steal' top placements. It's no different in SCL 3 or 4.

RTA3000

SCL 4?!? Seriously, stay out of the lower ranks field and battle your own. I'm Level 72 n I've got a weak -never paid for any IAP, no 5* champ and only 1 4* champ - roster and still managed to get 90 in SCL 7 with only max 7 per node. There's no excuses, what u did was pathetic, considering many of u in the forum talk about having  so many 4* and 5* champs anyway n want to play down the ranks, boo hoo hoo!

shardwick

Dormammu said:

Spudgutter said:

Not the best analogy, even the lowest paid baseball players are raking in the cash.  As long as there is only a marginal incentive going up per level, and there are a ton of different people with different stories, i don't really think we should judge anyone who drops down a few levels.

Firstly, no one is getting rich off of the scl4 top 10 rewards.  Even if you snag first place, that is three covers for she hulk, three elite tokens and an heroic token.  To get that same reward minus the heroic in scl7, you would need top 20.  

A 2-star player can't compete with a 4-star player for placement, so it is a good analogy. As for the rewards, 'rich' is a matter of perspective. Any amount of She-Hulk covers are probably going to be more rewarding and help advance a 2-star player far more than a 4-star player.

But your point is well taken and I stated as much earlier: there's nothing restricting a player from playing any SCL available to them.

But that doesn't mean its not frustrating. There have been posts here from SCL 7 players stating they get frustrated when 5-star players drop down and 'steal' top placements. It's no different in SCL 3 or 4.

That's not always true though. Someone may be a 4* player with a huge and robust roster but if they don't play optimally then they just aren't going to beat a 2* player that does play optimally but has a weaker roster. At the end of the day the only two things that matter, outside of the occasional game crash anyway, are having the essential characters and playing optimally.

Beer40

shardwick said:

Dormammu said:

Spudgutter said:

Not the best analogy, even the lowest paid baseball players are raking in the cash.  As long as there is only a marginal incentive going up per level, and there are a ton of different people with different stories, i don't really think we should judge anyone who drops down a few levels.

Firstly, no one is getting rich off of the scl4 top 10 rewards.  Even if you snag first place, that is three covers for she hulk, three elite tokens and an heroic token.  To get that same reward minus the heroic in scl7, you would need top 20.  

A 2-star player can't compete with a 4-star player for placement, so it is a good analogy. As for the rewards, 'rich' is a matter of perspective. Any amount of She-Hulk covers are probably going to be more rewarding and help advance a 2-star player far more than a 4-star player.

But your point is well taken and I stated as much earlier: there's nothing restricting a player from playing any SCL available to them.

But that doesn't mean its not frustrating. There have been posts here from SCL 7 players stating they get frustrated when 5-star players drop down and 'steal' top placements. It's no different in SCL 3 or 4.

That's not always true though. Someone may be a 4* player with a huge and robust roster but if they don't play optimally then they just aren't going to beat a 2* player that does play optimally but has a weaker roster. At the end of the day the only two things that matter, outside of the occasional game crash anyway, are having the essential characters and playing optimally.

That is a true statement, as so eloquently stated here:

RTA3000 said:

SCL 4?!? Seriously, stay out of the lower ranks field and battle your own. I'm Level 72 n I've got a weak -never paid for any IAP, no 5* champ and only 1 4* champ - roster and still managed to get 90 in SCL 7 with only max 7 per node. There's no excuses, what u did was pathetic, considering many of u in the forum talk about having  so many 4* and 5* champs anyway n want to play down the ranks, boo hoo hoo!

Very well spoken, sir. 

Spudgutter

RTA3000 said:

SCL 4?!? Seriously, stay out of the lower ranks field and battle your own. Level 72 n I've got a weak -never paid for any IAP, no 5* champ and only 1 4* champ - roster and still managed to get 90 in SCL 7 with only max 7 per node. No excuses, considering most of you whingers have lots of 4* champs anyway, boo hoo hoo!

I had a buddy who i played COD4 with 10 years ago.  At the beginning of a match of hardcore(where you can be killed by friendly fire, for those that don't know) he would immediately kill everyone on his team and spend the next minute with a penalty respawn.  When people asked him why he would do that, his response was "It's my 60 dollars, I'll play the game however i want.  I'll pull it out of the machine and scratch my key on it if i want."  He may not be right, but he wasn't wrong, either.   

Long story short, as long as someone else is playing the way they want, with minimal impact on others, who are you to judge?

ZootSax

Dormammu said:

But that doesn't mean its not frustrating. There have been posts here from SCL 7 players stating they get frustrated when 5-star players drop down and 'steal' top placements. It's no different in SCL 3 or 4.

This is definitely true, but fortunately for the lower SCL's the balance to keep away higher rosters is that the rewards essentially stop your roster progress for any rosters above the 2->3 progression, so poaching placement in lower tiers is essentially pointless for higher rosters.  In the thread linked in the OP, I probably "stole" a single Kamala cover from a lower tier roster by finishing in the top 100, but if I played down in SCL 3/4 more frequently, I'd probably actually fall behind in my 3* champion progression from missing out on additional elite/heroic tokens for each sub in SCL 7 (not to mention iso, cp, etc) than I could possibly sustain by trying to dominate one of those lower tiers.   I won't lie, it was a fun break to play down there for an event when I wouldn't care about any of the 3* or 4* progression covers, but it's doubtful I'd even consider doing that again for months, if ever.  As nice as it was to bench my A-team for 4 days for some well-deserved R&R, PVE progression is my single best source of roster progression, so those 4 days in SCL only helped me get a breather; not actually improve my roster at all.

The complaint about 5* rosters dropping to SCL 6/7 is definitely similar, but the main difference is that the differences between SCL 7 & 8 aren't so much to make it unsustainable.   Presumably, opening SCL's 9 & 10 would go a long way towards rectifying this.  ...of course, rationalizing like this may not make the person who finished 101st in my SCL 3 bracket last event hate me any less, but such is life.

RTA3000

Spudgutter said:

RTA3000 said:

SCL 4?!? Seriously, stay out of the lower ranks field and battle your own. Level 72 n I've got a weak -never paid for any IAP, no 5* champ and only 1 4* champ - roster and still managed to get 90 in SCL 7 with only max 7 per node. No excuses, considering most of you whingers have lots of 4* champs anyway, boo hoo hoo!

I had a buddy who i played COD4 with 10 years ago.  At the beginning of a match of hardcore(where you can be killed by friendly fire, for those that don't know) he would immediately kill everyone on his team and spend the next minute with a penalty respawn.  When people asked him why he would do that, his response was "It's my 60 dollars, I'll play the game however i want.  I'll pull it out of the machine and scratch my key on it if i want."  He may not be right, but he wasn't wrong, either.   

Long story short, as long as someone else is playing the way they want, with minimal impact on others, who are you to judge?

I'm not here to judge, I'm here to respond, freely, apparently. If people want to desamate players way beneath their highly ranked roster that is their choice, they will get lower rewards and take the opportunity away from less rostered players, fair enough. I just can't help think of the phrase "pick on someone your own size".

Ducky

If only SCL tethering existed! 

Spudgutter

RTA3000 said:

Spudgutter said:

RTA3000 said:

SCL 4?!? Seriously, stay out of the lower ranks field and battle your own. Level 72 n I've got a weak -never paid for any IAP, no 5* champ and only 1 4* champ - roster and still managed to get 90 in SCL 7 with only max 7 per node. No excuses, considering most of you whingers have lots of 4* champs anyway, boo hoo hoo!

I had a buddy who i played COD4 with 10 years ago.  At the beginning of a match of hardcore(where you can be killed by friendly fire, for those that don't know) he would immediately kill everyone on his team and spend the next minute with a penalty respawn.  When people asked him why he would do that, his response was "It's my 60 dollars, I'll play the game however i want.  I'll pull it out of the machine and scratch my key on it if i want."  He may not be right, but he wasn't wrong, either.   

Long story short, as long as someone else is playing the way they want, with minimal impact on others, who are you to judge?

I'm not here to judge, I'm here to respond, freely, apparently. If people want to desamate players way beneath their highly ranked roster that is their choice, they will get lower rewards and take the opportunity away from less rostered players, fair enough. I just can't help think of the phrase "pick on someone your own size".

Quoting you from elsewhere in this thread

"There's no excuses, what u did was pathetic"

That's pretty judgey

Ducky said:

If only SCL tethering existed! 

Exactly. If this was a problem that needed fixing, I would hope that they would fix it.

broll

This is one of the benifits of the SCL based scaling system. Play at your pace not the devs pace. If the rewards aren't worth it drop down and get easier play for less rewards.  The only thing wrong with the system right now is that some of the gaps *cough*7*cough*8*cough* need to more drastic changes in their rewards to discourage everyone from doing it.