Top 10 placement.

ZBarJones

Since the while clearance level started I've noticed it's a lot harder for me to get in the top 10. I play on cl8 and finish all levels 4x in about 50 minutes and don't start again until an hour is left in the event. I really don't know how to clear them any faster. I tried dropping a level to see if it helped but it was the event Lockjaw was released so I don't know more people where playing to get the new covers or what. I used to finish about 4th or 5th but now it's taking everything i have to get 9th or 10th. I have 41 4* champions. Any suggestions?

bluewolf

Sure, get 5*s up and running.  Or bracket snipe.  Or try overgrinding.

The 5's came in again after scaling was changed.  4's are having a hard time keeping up.

Mordee

First just want to say sorry man.  I've seen your name in my rankings.  

If you are playing against a lot of 5 stars, means you must have leveled up some 5 stars, but not maxed or champed them.  If that's the case, then you are going up against a tough battle.  Thanos is a PVE god.  You have to champ this guy somehow to stand a fighting chance.

50 minutes is good timing, but with 5 stars you need to clear 30 mins or less.

I don't bother over grinding, that just takes up too much time.  I try to finish each sub with 3-5 mins remaining.  I usually start my final clears with 40-35 mins to go depending on the event.  Even with this, there are faster guys than me. 

ZBarJones

Mordee said:

First just want to say sorry man.  I've seen your name in my rankings.  

If you are playing against a lot of 5 stars, means you must have leveled up some 5 stars, but not maxed or champed them.  If that's the case, then you are going up against a tough battle.  Thanos is a PVE god.  You have to champ this guy somehow to stand a fighting chance.

50 minutes is good timing, but with 5 stars you need to clear 30 mins or less.

I don't bother over grinding, that just takes up too much time.  I try to finish each sub with 3-5 mins remaining.  I usually start my final clears with 40-35 mins to go depending on the event.  Even with this, there are faster guys than me. 

I have a few 5*s with like 9 covers but that's the most. So not close at all on champing any of them so im trying to finish out all the 4s first. I guess I'll just hope one person has one bad day and sneak into the topn10. Ha  

Calnexin

Give up on T10 until they open SCL 9 and 10.  You literally can't compete with 5* champ teams.  Top prizes are theirs until something more attractive comes along to bait them away from SCL 7 and 8.

Under the old system I was practically guaranteed a T10, often competing for T5.  These days I'm usually T50.

Borstock

I would recommend trying a different slice. You might find more favorable brackets. It makes a bigger difference than most think.

That said, the new format of the game is designed with levels in mind. Theoretically, someone moving from SCL4 to SCL5 should find themselves at a disadvantage when going up against teams almost ready to transition to SCL6... and so on. Until SCL9 and SCL10 open up, you're competing against competition that vastly outclasses your roster. There's no shame in that, but t10 just isn't a realistic goal anymore.

LavaManLee

One thing I've found helpful is not to start the first day of a PVE event until about 10/12 hours AFTER a slice has already started and join at that time.  You miss out some on the first day but the chances of being with a lot of whales/champed 5* greatly diminishes.  

I might be in a similar boat, currently half or so champed 4*, no champed 5* (6 covers is my best).  Can generally clear 4 times in 45 - 60 minutes but not much faster.

Good luck and let's hope D3 fixes this soon.

adamdivine

I agree with others that finding/trying a different slice may help. I have several 5* champs and still find at about 50% of the t10s that i see are 4* rosters. 

Rodolfo78

I'm 4*, and usually T10 in CL7/CL8. Basically you just need to commit to the monotony.

Trivial nodes: Thanos (either) for trivial nodes, boosted by Grocket if need be to ensure one-match finishes
Essential nodes: usually Grocket/Gamora, unless a good boosted char can trigger Thanos for you
Hard nodes: Grocket/Gamora/Medusa, aka Sim All-Stars, unless boosted char is really compelling

In short, use Grocket all the time for speed, prioritizing double-match-threes over match-4s... in latest sub with all the Hood, he was dead on my first move more often than not.

If using Medusa, match entanglement always if you don't have fists on the board already (since attack tiles and entanglement tile trigger your strike tiles separately). I've been playing around a little with C&D instead of Medusa during this event, which is interesting... don't match the early black to get your fists, then fire that cheap AOE, then purple 'em over and over. Seems like the speed can't consistently compare to entanglement+attacks+strikes, though.

Yeah, the repetitiveness is not great, but it's the game we play!

JackTenrec

My MPQ/life balance was immeasurably improved by completely abandoning all hope of ever hitting T10.  I might as well play the long game, because I'm convinced that I wouldn't enjoy the 4* - 5* transition at all.

Nick441234

I wait until my slice has flipped 4 times, and then join. I got a top 10 and 2 C&D covers just last week, with a 4* roster. Its just about making sure you let all the 5* players get out your way first. 

Jarvind

At the risk of repeating what others have said: 

Unless you wait several flips (and thus give up possibility of getting all progression rewards) it's almost impossible since you will be competing with lots of 5* rosters. All 5*s are far more powerful than CL8 enemies, and Thanos in particular provides an insane speed advantage. You might be able to manage it on a week when 3* Thanos is boosted, using Rocket & Groot + another Guardian, but even then it'd be tough to match, not to mention healthpack-intensive.

I just ignore placement in PVE and make sure I get the progression rewards. Even if you hit progression and stop immediately it's often good for t100, which doesn't have terrible rewards.

Rodolfo78

Sorry, one more thing: consider going up to CL8 for new releases. Maybe my Lockjaw bracket was an aberration, but it seemed like a lot of 5* rosters were dropping down to CL6/7... those brackets have the same placement-based cover availability, and big rosters have an even larger advantage there. I got 3 Lockjaw covers with surprising ease in CL8.

bluewolf

Rodolfo78 said:

Sorry, one more thing: consider going up to CL8 for new releases. Maybe my Lockjaw bracket was an aberration, but it seemed like a lot of 5* rosters were dropping down to CL6/7... those brackets have the same placement-based cover availability, and big rosters have an even larger advantage there. I got 3 Lockjaw covers with surprising ease in CL8.

My 4 star roster had my first top 10 new release for Lockjaw.  I'm not quite sure why.  Less desired covers are easier too, if you want them....I T10'd for Sandman in Strange Sights a couple weeks ago.  This event (Carol)?  Very hard.

TheAlphateam

I don't even bother trying for placement. 

I'd just wish they'd get rid of it all together. Make PVP for those who want to push for a spot in the rankings and let PvE just be more casual. 

cpeyton3535

TheAlphateam said:

I don't even bother trying for placement. 

I'd just wish they'd get rid of it all together. Make PVP for those who want to push for a spot in the rankings and let PvE just be more casual. 

It is casual if you just don't worry about placement.  Forget it's even there.  That's the hard part.  I told myself I was just going to go for progression in the current event.  That lasted for the first 2 days and now I'm grinding again b/c t10 is (surprisingly) within reach and I have no willpower.

Anyway, point is you can take it easy and focus on progression and still get some additional rewards for placement even though you aren't trying.  In that context placement rewards are free stuff so why get rid of them?

Richyyy

I'm in a similar position to the OP - top-10 used to be attainable if I really pushed and timed my grinds right, but since they went to CL scaling the same efforts have me floating around within the top-50 but not in actual competition for top-10. It's hard to switch my mindset to just ignoring placement, because 5 clears is still a lot and now there's no real competition to it. You're just meandering along picking up whatever iso, covers, CP or whatever they've left along the path.

It's just asinine that SCL 9 (and ideally 10 as well) wasn't part of the change. Maybe they assume that people who've reached that level have already invested so much time that they're not going anywhere, but this has to be alienating a meaningful part of their player-base. How hard can it be to create a level for the 5* players so that they're not swamping the people on the tier below?

Jaedenkaal

cpeyton3535 said:

TheAlphateam said:

I don't even bother trying for placement. 

I'd just wish they'd get rid of it all together. Make PVP for those who want to push for a spot in the rankings and let PvE just be more casual. 

It is casual if you just don't worry about placement.  Forget it's even there.  That's the hard part.  I told myself I was just going to go for progression in the current event.  That lasted for the first 2 days and now I'm grinding again b/c t10 is (surprisingly) within reach and I have no willpower.

Anyway, point is you can take it easy and focus on progression and still get some additional rewards for placement even though you aren't trying.  In that context placement rewards are free stuff so why get rid of them?

This is my strategy. I aim for max progression, and if I have extra time I'll spend a little here and there staying in t100 or maybe stretching to t50. Other than that I just don't care.

The sanity I've saved myself is priceless.

atomzed

Agree with the many people who said this:- ignoring placement has make MPQ more fun. i just play as and when i can, eventually getting green ticks for all the nodes. i play around with different teams for fun. 

I have a 5* roster and i don't even try to hit top 10 for PVE because it's too much for me to play on clockwork timing. 

kidicarus

Yes, faceroll pve has made it harder to place, because more and more people are clearing optimally.  It used to be the case where I could join a few hours after a bracket flip and still make top5, but if everyone is clearing optimally due to the ease of doing so, then the only option is to join as close to the flip as possible.

Try to join a line pve bracket group so that you know when a new bracket opens in your preferred slice.

bluewolf

Well, SCL9 is here.  We'll see what happens and if placement opens up (it should).