How are you making up for under-covered 5*s in the required nodes?

Sim Mayor

As someone who is transitioning from 3* to 4* play (<5 champed 4* characters), I'm fortunate enough to have at least one cover of each 5* character, and stubborn enough to have kept them after seeing what that does to my enemies' level caps. That's all finally gonna pay off now that we have 5* required nodes.

However, it also means that I'm trying to do those 5* nodes with under- or barely-covered characters (between 1-3 for most of them). I'm playing in SCL8, and my goal is to get at least 2 wins in these nodes each day to get the best rewards and a few extra points toward progression.

I got off to a good start with Star-Lord in that I had 4 covers for him, a champed G4mora and 11 covers on my 4* Grocket. This allowed me to start each fight with double-strength strike tiles, and a bit of blind luck with blue tiles let me keep 2 out of 3 enemies stunned and gain special tiles each time. Ock was my only headache, and that just meant I always hit him first.

The new one is giving me a bit more trouble though. I have a 1/1/0 5* Spidey, and I had to figure out who else to bring along who has great synergy on their own so I can just treat his powers as bonus damage whenever I get to use them (and yes, I have a champed C4rol, but my Medusa is too weak to be worth it right now).

That got me thinking that there should be a running discussion for each new 5* req where people can compare how they make up for their barely-there required character. Who's with me? I'll go first:

For Daken, Bulls3ye and Pistol Pete (don't judge me!), I got demolished on my first attempt due to the sheer number of special tiles that were being put out. Round 2 I used a champed Spider-Woman / Scarlet Witch combo, meaning I had every color covered but yellow. Switch was a battery for Swoman's purple to control those 4k damage pistol tiles until I could kill off the goon and start switching to the damage ability. Spidey stepped in occasionally with a red or green biff, since his powers still did more damage per AP than either of the others. It was a bit grind-y, but I got through both fights without having to use any health packs. Dunno if it'll work for a third attempt, though.

OK, that's me for today. Who else had a good experience / idea to make up for not being swimming in 5* covers?

byc

I do what I pretty much always do.

C4rol + Wasp, set Carol's yellow to 5 and lower green to 3.

Or C4rol + 5* 375 Thanos.

BiffQJ

I'm in a similar situation as you are with most 5*s rostered but significantly under covered and four champed 4*s. I got lucky, though, because I have C4rol champed (she was featured in the event last time) and Riri champed (featured this time). The combination of those two gives me every color but purple and I've gotten pretty lucky with boards. I also have subbed in my lvl 190 Medusa every now and then. Good luck!

Dormammu

With Riri boosted in the current PvE I'm just letting her do all the work.

It's not like there are many options if you're dealing with under-covered or non-leveled 5-stars... you use your fours.

aa25

Don't be too fixated to your 4*. The boosted 3* this week is a solid set. 3Fist+3Cyke is a solid nuker or you can run IM40+3Groot. Not sure how big is your 3* Carol, but she is a great asset for an over-scaled now like this. Again pair her up with 3*Cyke and just shoot his laser eyes all days.

Also, consider using AP boost to get things rolling faster if needed. Don't worry too much about rainbow team. If the board starts off bad, just retreat and try again.

Jaedenkaal

I have a 0/1/0 Spidey, so he's not much help aside from being a 12000 HP punching bag. I've just been using Riri (champed and boosted) and IM40.

aa25 said:

Also, consider using AP boost to get things rolling faster if needed. Don't worry too much about rainbow team. If the board starts off bad, just retreat and try again.

This seems like excellent advice, given the stated main goal of getting the token and CP rewards.

Other chance would be to try a stun-lock team and keep the AI down as much as possible. Switch, Daredevil, and Captain Marvel might work. The damage on the team is a bit low, but if you can keep everyone stunned you'll last a lot longer.

And there's always Deadpool and his mega whales.

Pwuz_

I’m a big fan of St4r Lord and Steve for Goons.  Once you get the ball rolling those two can cover up most countdown tiles and actually start earning Red and Blue AP off shield throws!  It takes a while chipping away like that, but it’s a good safe bet.

Anything that puts up active opponents I start mixing in whoever is Powered Up this event.  I was really surprised how well Kate & Riri did a few days ago.  I wouldn’t use them unboosted, but they had enough power to knock down who needed to fall with minimal fallout.

Jaedenkaal

Having boosted 5*s now definitely helps, although my 0/2/0 Spidey, even boosted to 365, is still not much more use than a punching bag.

Sim Mayor

Thanks everybody, for all the great tips!

I confess when I started this thread I thought it would be a lot tougher to handle the 5* fights. The prevailing theme here is definitely correct, though: a couple of good 4*s and an undercovered 5* punching bag have never failed to get me through those first two fights, and usually on to 4 or 5 if I feel like using the points to skip some other unpleasant node. Of course, I also thought I'd be getting a chance to use more of my 5* covers than just Spidey and DD over and over again...

Roland113

The one thing that hasn't been mentioned is drop down to CL7.  I don't think there's a huge difference in the prizes and the grind time is significantly reduced.  I'm a bit ahead of you, 17 champed 4 stars, and just got really tired and burnt out when playing CL8.  I dropped to CL7 and my quality of life has improved dramatically, and I'm still getting the 4 star covers from progression.

Regarding which characters to use with Peter Parker, I actually played my last round (against Venom, Doc Oc and Sandman) with Squirrel Girl (3/5/5) and The Hood (3/5/5), both boosted.  I got through the first two pretty quickly and relatively unscathed.  Just get enough black to fire Intimidation from The Hood before you fire Furry Friends off so your countdowns can get reduced.

alaeth

I was also going to suggest dropping down one tier.

The rewards are that different, and you'll likely be able to fully clear that pesky 5* essential.

LavaManLee

Yep.  As others mentioned SCL7 is the best friend you can have.  I have about half the 4*s champed, severely undercovered 5*s, and it takes me about 30-40% longer to do SCL8 than SCL7 (not to mention the extra health packs needed).  The awards are definitely NOT 30-40% better so I am hanging out in SCL7 land for a while.

byc

I've used 5* Doc Ock's green and won with it too against thugs.  Depending on the thugs, there's time to set it off.

Dormammu

Yeah, I have no problem clearing out the 5-star essential nodes in SCL 7 with my 4-stars and an under-covered, under-leveled essential. 

Though, honestly, I rarely do more than two clears unless its a new release and I'm going for placement. Two clears gives you an event token and some CP - quick and dirty.