5* node in PVE

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Comments

  • TriSentinel
    TriSentinel Posts: 139 Tile Toppler
    Medusa/Lockjaw/Blackbolt have me at a loss for strategy. 

    Any ideas or is is everyone else just as dumbfounded?
  • TPF Alexis
    TPF Alexis Posts: 3,826 Chairperson of the Boards
    In SCL7, C4rol and my own Medusa (both just a few levels past champing) handled them pretty well, even with Ock just being a punching bag. I could probably take them with those two in SCL8, but I have no idea for what to do in SCL9.
  • himatako
    himatako Posts: 269 Mover and Shaker
    Medusa/Lockjaw/Blackbolt have me at a loss for strategy. 

    Any ideas or is is everyone else just as dumbfounded?
    I beat that node twice with Mr. F & IM40. You basically keep recharging and stunning them, while dealing damage with Mr. F's Imaginaut and IM40's red. I only have blue and black cover for DocOck so I sometimes use his black for stun & strike tiles. Guess the point of this fight is to use DocOck's green to win the match?
  • BlackBoltRocks
    BlackBoltRocks Posts: 1,187 Chairperson of the Boards
    I've been using Carol with Xpool (5/3/5) for hilarity, with AP boosts for the higher levels. Get out a Photonic Barrage and Countdown for What; if even 3-4 countdowns survive to 0, one match-3 is doing upwards of 12k damage. If need be, use Executive Decision to pop a Photonic Barrage or Doctopus's Reactor
  • himatako
    himatako Posts: 269 Mover and Shaker
    I've been using Carol with Xpool (5/3/5) for hilarity, with AP boosts for the higher levels. Get out a Photonic Barrage and Countdown for What; if even 3-4 countdowns survive to 0, one match-3 is doing upwards of 12k damage. If need be, use Executive Decision to pop a Photonic Barrage or Doctopus's Reactor

      
    Thank you so much for this! Managed to beat the level two more times with this suggestion, though I went with 3/5/5 Xpool instead. I don't think he will survive long enough to use his red anyway, so I went with maximizing his black and purple. Once Carol's black CD is out, it's basically free damage + buff strike tile every turn. I could deal 20k dmg with Ock's blue :D
  • TriSentinel
    TriSentinel Posts: 139 Tile Toppler
    Those are great suggestions, I’m in love with M4rvel, her tile boost is the most useful power in the game. Using her with Xpool means you get a self healing human(?) shield and loads of CD tiles. Great combo!
  • finlanderboy
    finlanderboy Posts: 44 Just Dropped In
    Why is D3 putting the new 5 stars as required characters?

    I find this antagonistic.  I do not feel anyone in the latest 5 star packs should be required characters because they are so much rarer to get. 

    Give us time to get the characters before you require them.  
  • jamesh
    jamesh Posts: 1,600 Chairperson of the Boards
    Why is D3 putting the new 5 stars as required characters?

    I find this antagonistic.  I do not feel anyone in the latest 5 star packs should be required characters because they are so much rarer to get. 

    Give us time to get the characters before you require them.  
    Probably for the same reason they tended to use latest 4* characters more often as essentials when the vintage 4*'s were vaulted: it is easier for newer players to cover them.  You've got a ~ 5% chance of receiving a cover for a particular 5* character from a latest legends token, compared with a ~ 1% chance from a classic legends token.

    Sure, the reverse is true for long time players, since they've had more opportunities to collect the old characters.  But there are enough aspects of the game that give veteran players an advantage.
  • finlanderboy
    finlanderboy Posts: 44 Just Dropped In
    jamesh said:
    it is easier for newer players to cover them.  
    Daredevil is not easy for anyone to cover right now. 

    Plus new players should be on the lower SCLs.  The essential 5* node should be for the veteran players.  
  • jamesh
    jamesh Posts: 1,600 Chairperson of the Boards
    jamesh said:
    it is easier for newer players to cover them.  
    Daredevil is not easy for anyone to cover right now. 

    Plus new players should be on the lower SCLs.  The essential 5* node should be for the veteran players.  
    The 5* node is available in CL 7, which is playable by people who are just starting to build champed 4* characters or have a strong 3* roster.  They'll likely be earning CP at a decent rate, but have few 5* covers.  So for a player like that, it is reasonable to ask how difficult it is to get their first cover for a specific 5* character.

    With that frame or reference, Daredevil _is_ one of the easiest 5*'s to acquire (along with Doctor Octopus and Spider-Man).

    I managed to pull my first Daredevil cover from a legendary token this week, just in time for the new story event.  I doubt I'll be that lucky when we roll round to an event requiring one of the older classic characters I'm missing.
  • throughsilver
    throughsilver Posts: 38 Just Dropped In
    I decided to try for a Daredevil so I could do the 5* essential. IN 68 pulls, I got one DD (he was pull #65). Gotta love that RNG...
  • broll
    broll Posts: 4,732 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited October 2017
    jamesh said:
    it is easier for newer players to cover them.  
    Daredevil is not easy for anyone to cover right now. 

    Plus new players should be on the lower SCLs.  The essential 5* node should be for the veteran players.  
    I got him 2 of him with 10 LTs, that was pretty easy...
  • Phumade
    Phumade Posts: 2,496 Chairperson of the Boards
    I decided to try for a Daredevil so I could do the 5* essential. IN 68 pulls, I got one DD (he was pull #65). Gotta love that RNG...
    before you condemn rngesus,  lets us also know how many dock ock and peter parkers were in those 68 pulls.
  • throughsilver
    throughsilver Posts: 38 Just Dropped In
    Phumade said:
    I decided to try for a Daredevil so I could do the 5* essential. IN 68 pulls, I got one DD (he was pull #65). Gotta love that RNG...
    before you condemn rngesus,  lets us also know how many dock ock and peter parkers were in those 68 pulls.
    I wouldn't dream of condemning our lord and saviour. DD wasn't my first 5*; I had maybe three each of Doc and Spidey. I'd say 7 or 8 5* in all. 

    Point was about the randomness of the picks; he was the last of my ledges before I dug into CP. So 5* are 1:7. 68 pulls would in theory get me 9 or 10 5*. In a way I am lucky I got one DD, even though I might expect 3. But RNG being what it is, I could have got 0 DD or 68 DD.


  • SgtStrongbad
    SgtStrongbad Posts: 1 Just Dropped In
    Arphaxad said:
    5* node s scaled way to high. Until you open up the ISO8 vaults and let us level up our 5*, you need tone these down a bit. Or make them worth ZERO points. Having placement effected so drastically will turn MPQ into a Pay-To-Win game, and cause players to leave.
    One idea is to split the difference... first thru third beat gets points, fourth gets 2 cps, fifth gets 25 HP, sixth gets a legendary token.

    In my alliance I see a difference in member placement depending on who has the 5*s, but our alliance remains T50 and my personal placement on SCL7 has actually gotten better since the SCL9 intro. 

    Placement in a broad sense shouldn't be terribly affected, players with many powerful 5*s will gravitate toward SCL9, the rest are in a mixed bag of other players who don't have all the 5*s or some are more powerful than others.  Some events you'll do better and some you'll so worse, it's a game and over time you'll gain those 5*s especially if they introduced a LT as a reward in the 5* node.
  • dark jurai
    dark jurai Posts: 13 Just Dropped In
    jamesh said:
    The 5* node is available in CL 7, which is playable by people who are just starting to build champed 4* characters or have a strong 3* roster.  They'll likely be earning CP at a decent rate, but have few 5* covers.  So for a player like that, it is reasonable to ask how difficult it is to get their first cover for a specific 5* character.
    Yeah, this is total nonsense to me. I'm a 3* roster and trying to build into 4*. Before the 5* node was introduced, I could compete for top 20 in CL 7 if I really tried, and occasionally, I could pull off a top 10 and snag a 4* cover. With the 5* additions, it's pretty much over. There are a little over 30 people in my current event who have Silver Surfer. If I go as hard as I can now, I'll be lucky if I get a pair of Mystique covers. What's the point?

    I really liked being able to compete before, so I'm really disappointed with how the 5* node is playing out for me. I don't see why I should need a 5* roster to try and build a 4* roster. It's kinda ridiculous.

    Is it because the 5* people are just farming CL 7 for ISO? I just don't get it. Something is incentivizing these people to play in a bracket that is much too low for them, and the 5* node is just giving them an obscene advantage.
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,817 Chairperson of the Boards
    jamesh said:
    The 5* node is available in CL 7, which is playable by people who are just starting to build champed 4* characters or have a strong 3* roster.  They'll likely be earning CP at a decent rate, but have few 5* covers.  So for a player like that, it is reasonable to ask how difficult it is to get their first cover for a specific 5* character.
    Yeah, this is total nonsense to me. I'm a 3* roster and trying to build into 4*. Before the 5* node was introduced, I could compete for top 20 in CL 7 if I really tried, and occasionally, I could pull off a top 10 and snag a 4* cover. With the 5* additions, it's pretty much over. There are a little over 30 people in my current event who have Silver Surfer. If I go as hard as I can now, I'll be lucky if I get a pair of Mystique covers. What's the point?

    I really liked being able to compete before, so I'm really disappointed with how the 5* node is playing out for me. I don't see why I should need a 5* roster to try and build a 4* roster. It's kinda ridiculous.

    Is it because the 5* people are just farming CL 7 for ISO? I just don't get it. Something is incentivizing these people to play in a bracket that is much too low for them, and the 5* node is just giving them an obscene advantage.
    First, are you trying to join later for less competitive brackets?  That always helps.  Don't prejoin if you are worried about placement.

    Second, you are going to have a really hard time being T10 without good 4* champs, in general.  Anytime you do is lucky, in general.

    Hitting progression - while building the 3* champ roster - is a big boost for building your 4* roster.  Trying for 575 in PVP will also be big, and it's doable with 3*s if you time your climb right.  At one point, that was what I hoped for (and T50 is pretty easy if you are consistent).

    That said, it is absolutely a problem for players that there is a 5* essential without any reliable way to get even 1 cover of a 5* character.  Currently it would take (with even distribution) 2100 CP (105 pulls) to get one cover of every 5* in classic.  (ONE COVER.  ONE.)  That will go up to 2240 (112  pulls) in about 2 weeks.  And then in 6 more weeks 2380 (119 pulls).  Sure, you'll be swimming in 4* covers too.  But man.  Someone with a 3* roster is probably hitting in the neighborhood of 120 CP a week

    People with 5*'s will play where it makes sense for them at that time.  How much time do they have (this varies by event etc)?  The rewards are pretty flat among the SCL's.  If you don't want the cover for T50, why push for SCL9?  It takes a lot longer (5* or not) to push through those nodes.  Note that the ability to control your playtime when you have an advanced roster is more feature than bug; we are no longer beholden to scaling determining our levels we face, but we can now choose what our time is worth in exchange for which prizes.

    So, what incentivizes people to play at lower SCL's is not wanting to spend extra time grinding the game for not enough gain.  The better question to answer is:  why do the devs not offer more dramatic improvements in rewards between SCL's?  Obviously we all want better rewards.  The devs have a different opinion.  They want to offer just enough to entice people to play and, when they move up, feel like they are getting more for their effort.  

    If they offered better rewards, would players feel they are being left too far behind?  Consider if, say, Latest tokens were given to the top 20 players in SCL 9.  A lot more people would move up.  But you, in 7, would know that you played for 1/2 the gain in terms of covers that the players in 9 got.  The devs face the problem of the delicate balance of offering good rewards to top tiers without making the lower tiers feel like they are falling farther and farther behind.  

    Currently the spread of players among 7, 8,and 9 is fairly even.  It seems to have settled into 8 being the most played, then 9, then 7.  So that tells you something about how players feel about the rewards vs time (as well as where rosters in general fall).
  • fmftint
    fmftint Posts: 3,653 Chairperson of the Boards
    jamesh said:
    The 5* node is available in CL 7, which is playable by people who are just starting to build champed 4* characters or have a strong 3* roster.  They'll likely be earning CP at a decent rate, but have few 5* covers.  So for a player like that, it is reasonable to ask how difficult it is to get their first cover for a specific 5* character.
    Yeah, this is total nonsense to me. I'm a 3* roster and trying to build into 4*. Before the 5* node was introduced, I could compete for top 20 in CL 7 if I really tried, and occasionally, I could pull off a top 10 and snag a 4* cover. With the 5* additions, it's pretty much over. There are a little over 30 people in my current event who have Silver Surfer. If I go as hard as I can now, I'll be lucky if I get a pair of Mystique covers. What's the point?

    I really liked being able to compete before, so I'm really disappointed with how the 5* node is playing out for me. I don't see why I should need a 5* roster to try and build a 4* roster. It's kinda ridiculous.

    Is it because the 5* people are just farming CL 7 for ISO? I just don't get it. Something is incentivizing these people to play in a bracket that is much too low for them, and the 5* node is just giving them an obscene advantage.
    Put simply,  TIME! Nodes in CL9 take a lot longer to clear than 7 or 8