Access Granted: S.H.I.E.L.D. Clearance Level 9 *Updated (9/20/17)

Nick441234

Tony Foot said:

nick_chicane said:

 On a week long event, wheres the incentive to play it at all if you have no chance of any decent placement rewards?

How do you think the rest of us that don't finish T10 get motivated for events? 50+CP does it for me. Then I get the 5*s and I finish them. I regularly see you near the top why do you think you deserve it constantly if you don't have a strong enough roster?

I'm not talking top 10. Over the course of a week, I doubt even top 50 would be achievable without the 5* character. Why would anyone want to grind for a week without any chance of a top 50 finish? I grind because, right now, I know I will likely finish top 20, if I'm very lucky, top 10. I honestly couldn't be bothered to if even top 50 was out of reach for me. 

fmftint

Crazy people...
I can't place Txx so I'm going to throw away 3-7 days worth of resources

Then wonder why they can't keep up with iso needs

Nick441234

I'd still do 3-4 day events. 7 day events are so exhausting though! I'd rather just take a week off from the game than grind just for progression rewards. 

Bowgentle

nick_chicane said:

I'd still do 3-4 day events. 7 day events are so exhausting though! I'd rather just take a week off from the game than grind just for progression rewards. 

What's exhausting about a 7 day event?
Just treat PVE as a 365 day event that randomly spits out covers.

One sub per day, every day, for your whole MPQ life.
Play, or fall behind on resources.

It is what it is

jackstar0

I think even the small extra CP available from CL9 is drawing a lot of top players. They know that's the "currency" that brings the most value and to get the most you gotta go to 9. Lower than that should see dilution of the player pool to a reasonable extent that hopefully it's not as terrible for you. 9 is certainly approaching "work" over "play" though.

granne

This week's boosted list isn't friendly for me, so I dropped down to SCL7. I'm enjoying the 5* node, since it's the only chance my 5* s have had to be anything but a meat-shield. I have all except DD and Cap rostered, but none have many covers. I'll enjoy getting to use them all.

Dragon_Nexus

Bowgentle said:

Dragon_Nexus said:

Bowgentle said:

Dragon_Nexus said:

I'm curious actually.
The levels in CL9 suggest your roster would go beyond simply boosted 4*s and nudge into the realm of high level or champed 5*s.

And at that point...is getting a single 4* cover for a top 50 placement really an effective reward?

Those kinds of posts always crack me up.

My 4s are getting to 370 the same way yours are, one level at a time.

Of course every 4* cover matters.

Yeah but if you have champed or even high level 5*s, do you still need to slowly level up your 4*s?
I'm honestly asking.

Buffed 370s are better than level 480 5s, yes.
I'm running 350+ 4s in PVP over my 460 5s whenever i have boosted ones for the week.
They're crazy.

Oh wow.
I wasn't being flippant or anything, I was genuinely curious. I simply assumed that a maxed 5* would stomp on PvE through match damage, with powers just making things faster. Even if the enemies were level ~500

I guess it's like the old days when 4*s weren't boosted but 3*s were and a boosted 3* team could hold its own against a level 270 4* team. So I shouldn't really be surprised.

Freelancer

The 5* essential could have been so good if it wasn't worth points, something tough to tackle during the downtime from the opening and closing grinds and during PvP shields.

Or, if it just straight up replaced the 2* essential in SCL 7/8/9 instead of adding 7 more clears for placement hunters.

zodiac339

Freelancer said:

The 5* essential could have been so good if it wasn't worth points, something tough to tackle during the downtime from the opening and closing grinds and during PvP shields.

Or, if it just straight up replaced the 2* essential in SCL 7/8/9 instead of adding 7 more clears for placement hunters.

Points are fine, but it would have been nice if it were non-rechargable. Just exhaust the points and move on.

stewbacca

Phumade said:

Now you guys can all experience what 5* pve scaling looks like.  Scl 9 is no different than 5* roster based scaling

100% this, and that's why some of us weren't placing top 10 despite having 10 champs...  you can't beat it, go to scl8 till you can.. there is no need to make it easier, you have choices... 

Bloody_Marvel

I have no problem with the difficulty level of the other nodes, but the 5* node is outrageously overpowered.

My highest level boosted character is Carol at 406. SL5 is still at 255 (haven't put any Iso-8 into any 5* yet), and my second highest is 381 (HB).

Fighting 3 level 415 characters is a nice challenge.
Level 440 will require frequent healthpacks, which I'm OK with.
At level 465 success is dependent on a good starting board.
Level 490 is pure RNG and a **** ton of luck.
Level 515 is a guaranteed wipe every time.

Having champed 5*s will probably shift that progression down one or two levels.

I can't wrap my brain around why SCL9 would be intended for players with level 480+ 5* rosters, because there is ample evidence that it's not supposed to be.

1. There will be an SCL10 in the future (and no, there won't be 6 star characters for a long long time, if ever).
2. SRs are still capped at 125 (anybody with 480+ 5*s will long have hit that cap).
3. SCL9 becomes available at SR 65 (when you've probably just champed your first 4*s)
4. All other nodes in SCL9 are challenging, but far from unbeatable with 4* champs. The 5* node is impossible to beat.

Nick441234

Well day 3's 5* node has finished me off. I can beat it 4 times, but after that, their health gets too high for my roster to cope with. 

Due to that, its going to take me down to SL7 from now on. That makes this 5* node change a really poor move from the devs because my roster is a SCL8 roster, the rest of the nodes I can handle. I'm in this for placement though and not being able to clear the 5* node 6 times will hurt my placement. That takes me down into a CL that I should not be in and will now be taking away rewards from people who should be in that CL.

acescracked

Jarvind said:

RemoDestroyer said:

Might make me a bad person and it might not be good for the game but I'm a little amused at how soft cappers and those who were/are so against the 5* game got hit by cl scaling and now a 5* essential.

They thought they were such hot stuff for placing well with no rostered or low level 5*. Now they almost can't compete for placement.

It feels like justification for rostering and leveling my 5*s. And now I'm enjoying pve more than ever before.

To be fair, CL-based scaling is very recent, and before it became a thing, softcapping was a valid strategy. I hated 5*s and sold them, and of course CL based scaling was released with no warning like two weeks later. If I'd known it was coming i would've toughed it out.

"Valid" strategy is bit of a stretch. It helped nominally in one game mode and made the other game mode close to unplayable.

5* rosters took the the top spots in new character releases in pve & a softcapped roster is fodder in PvP.

Nick441234

Tony Foot said:

nick_chicane said:

Well day 3's 5* node has finished me off. I can beat it 4 times, but after that, their health gets too high for my roster to cope with. 

Due to that, its going to take me down to SL7 from now on. That makes this 5* node change a really poor move from the devs because my roster is a SCL8 roster, the rest of the nodes I can handle. I'm in this for placement though and not being able to clear the 5* node 6 times will hurt my placement. That takes me down into a CL that I should not be in and will now be taking away rewards from people who should be in that CL.

Give it another try/slice? We do seem to be having completely different experiences for placement in the same CL8. Perhaps we both need to do more testing to see how it impacts because you would easily be T10 on my board as I'm not able to do the 5* node and will still get T20 and can see huge gaps in the scoring.

It will take a few events to settle down and people find their place.

Just looked my T20 goes from 78 down to 58k, so it's created a much larger split than I ever usually see and the top 5 go:

73107
73095
72670
72644 and then it really starts creating gaps
68623

This is one of the easier events as a lot of the nodes are goons (including the 5* node). Cant you even imagine how horrible the Dark Avenger events are going to be? 

Bloody_Marvel

OJSP said:

It's to make the players who have those high level 5*s beat the others who don't have high level 5*s. I think this handles the competition quite reasonably. Those who can beat lvl515 regularly with the least time will win the bracket. I just hope it doesn't discourage other players to move to SL8 or lower. Personally, I find the time requirement and resources (boosts and health packs) required are significantly more than CL8.

Because not everyone can play optimally and I can see players deciding to move back to CL8, hopefully that makes some placement rewards more attainable for players without 5*s and keeping the brackets populated. If there is lack of participation, the levels might be adjusted in the future. It still needs to be challenging enough to allow roster strength to be the deciding factor for placement.

I imagine CL10 would simply cap the opponent's level at 550.

And there's the issue... If you stand no chance at winning the 5* node, and you're playing for placement you have no choice than to play below your level.

I know I won't be playing SCL9 again until either those levels have been lowered significantly, or I have at least 3 champed 5*s, including the required 5* (which is probably at least 4-5 months away).

Rick_OShay

Bowgentle said:

nick_chicane said:

I'd still do 3-4 day events. 7 day events are so exhausting though! I'd rather just take a week off from the game than grind just for progression rewards. 

What's exhausting about a 7 day event?
Just treat PVE as a 365 day event that randomly spits out covers.

One sub per day, every day, for your whole MPQ life.
Play, or fall behind on resources.

It is what it is

Remember when you said you gave up on posting meaningful and helpful posts?
THIS proves you still do!

Rick_OShay

OJSP said:

Bloody Marvel said:

....

I'm not saying you're wrong and I'm not trying to change your mind, but if a lot more players think the same way, it will make competition easier in CL9 for the next event. We can't really predict how it's going to be with just one event, so try not to ignore CL9 completely and check with others who play CL9 about placements. It is potentially less stressful to get t50 in CL9 than to get t10 in CL8. If you can normally get t5 or higher in CL8, then I agree that the rewards in CL9 is not worth the added stress and time commitment.

Agree here, I played CL8 like usual this time since I was afraid of how things will go in CL9 with the new scaling. But, I may just go ahead to CL9 for the next event even though 5* Peter is low covered. We may get quite a few CL9's drop back down to 8, and all I need is T50 to improve my earnings over what I normally get in cl8 (even if I'm assuming 1 or 2 clears of the 5* node are impossible). I'll try to measure the additional time required too, even though I doubt optimal play will be possible for me regardless of which CL I choose.
I guess we'll see, just as others are thinking similar things and feeling out the changes. 

DarthDeVo

mexus said:

So, one event without the required 5* done.
I played in CL7 and can honestly say that top 50 is impossible even on optimal play.

What's best:
Going down to CL6 to secure a good placement?
Going up to CL8/9 for the progression rewards?

Since top 50 seem rough without the required 5* my eventual play in CL9 would be a bit more laid back, maybe aiming for top 100 on a play style that doesn't force me into a 1 hour sitting. I'd take  node here and another node there.
In CL6 I'd compete for placement which would require scheduled play.

What sounds like the better alternative?

SCL 6 has no 4* in progression, and only rewards 4* covers for first place, if I'm not mistaken. 

With SCL 9, you'll get a 4* in progression and more progression rewards all around. But you'll likely tank on sub and overall placement rewards. 

It's a decision I'll have to make myself soon enough, as I only have a little over half the 5*s rostered. I'll probably stick with 7 though, that seems to be the overall sweet spot for rewards versus time invested. 

DarthDeVo

I ended up going SCL 8, slice 4. I'll probably try SCL 9 eventually, but it sure wasn't gonna be on Venom Bomb. 

I held out as long as I could for a flip, but unfortunately joined at 988. I'll probably land T20, as that initial sub point disparity will probably be too much to overcome. 

First two days of the 5* node weren't too bad. I used my one-green-cover 5tar-Lord with my 3/5/4 Level 250 G4ocket and champed Medusa. I had to use a health pack or two, but never wiped. 

Then came day three. 

Beat Doc Ock/Sandman/Venom twice, then kept wiping no matter what I tried. I fell to about 31st place, so decided to come back to that node later. I cleared C4rol and Cap's node, then decided to try subbing out C4rol for Medusa, since she's boosted. I got my final two clears, then finished everything else optimally in about 9th or 10th place for that sub. Not looking forward to three more clears of it. 

In general though, I do like the challenge in principle. I didn't when I kept wiping, but it forced me to rethink my strategy a bit, which isn't a bad thing. 

It will sting a bit when we get to the first event I don't have the required 5*. I've got a little over half of them at least rostered, so it's only a matter of time. It's been a long time since I haven't been able to play a required node, and I pushed pretty hard to fill out my roster for that very reason. I'd be lying if I said that doesn't feel like a bit of a step back in my progress, which is somewhat demoralizing. 

I think most of us are aware of just how dismal the prospects of pulling a particular 5* is from Classics. I hope they either change the odds to that "mistake" we had for a few hours when Daredevil was released, or they continue with something like the Cosmic store, although not with its own special token. Just three classic 5*s with improved odds featured on a rotating basis, with at least one of them being the required for the current event. 

Nick441234

Thankfully, I'm only missing Silver Surfer, Black Bolt & Daredevil so my pain will be minimal in terms of the required 5* node. 

I am finding there is a big spread of points though in SCL8 for this event. Whether that changes in the next event when people who went to 9 decide they cant hack it, will be interesting to see. Interestingly though, theres a 20k difference between me in 5th and 20th spot. I really thought not being able to clear the 5* node would kill me for placement, but right now, seems everyone else is being killed by that node too.