Champion all 5*s on release; classics are irrelevant

amusingfoo1

I've not had time to post here in quite some time, but several things have rolled out together that are all focused on the devs expecting people to champion 5*s as they come out.

1) There is now a ridiculous new character bonus for 5*s (I don't mind the idea of a bonus, but 80 levels?!?)
2) 5* essentials are boosted (and again, it's tinykitty-huge bonus)
3) 5* essentials are ridiculously overloaded towards new characters.  How badly?  I have 14/18 (currently available) 5*s championed.  In seven events, there has been one event so far with one of my champions as essential.  It looks like 5*s will be essential roughly 3/year, once they get into classics.  (The fact that it'll be 17/19 as of Monday does not make me feel better.)
4) All of this together makes me wonder if the several-hour 25% from the Gambit store was deliberate.

Put it all together, and it seems like there is a deliberate effort to make older characters irrelevant.  Or perhaps to make it as difficult as possible to compete without championing new characters immediately.  Two sides of the same coin, I suppose.

I might have spent only ~1/10 of what the 550 folks have spent, but it's still a tinykitty-load of money.  Not exactly feeling like I'm getting some return on that.

Good luck to anyone trying to make the 5* transition now; you'll need it.

corytutor

Classic dilution is a huge issue. Theres many very good toons that will take newcomers years to finish especially now that ypu have to t10 for cp on one half of the game

vinsensual

Is the 5* boost in pvp the same enormous amount that it was during the anniversary? 

Pants1000

Yes, my 255 Doc Ock is boosted to 365.  Same 110 level boost.

CT1888

For people transitioning into 5* land, I firmly believe Latests is the only way to go, and this boosted rota further encourages it - Classics are where good characters go to die. I know that those 8 or 9 cover characters feel so close, but ignore them, they offer false promises.
Either hoard and splurge, or just keep progressing and earning more rewards until you get critical mass and get enough LT and CP coming through to max cover them while they are in Latests.

The rota of boosted 5*s is harsh on developed rosters, but I guess it's part of their strategy to try and bust hoarding.

amusingfoo1

CT1888 said:

For people transitioning into 5* land, I firmly believe Latests is the only way to go, and this boosted rota further encourages it - Classics are where good characters go to die. I know that those 8 or 9 cover characters feel so close, but ignore them, they offer false promises.
Either hoard and splurge, or just keep progressing and earning more rewards until you get critical mass and get enough LT and CP coming through to max cover them while they are in Latests.

The rota of boosted 5*s is harsh on developed rosters, but I guess it's part of their strategy to try and bust hoarding.

The problem is that they're making it so you almost have to bust out of your hoard on every new character release, to at least get one cover to do their essential node for the 6-7 times they're essential before they roll into classics.

But I agree, hoarding for three good ones is the only reliable way to make the transition without putting a ton of money in.

Vhailorx

amusingfoo1 said:

CT1888 said:

For people transitioning into 5* land, I firmly believe Latests is the only way to go, and this boosted rota further encourages it - Classics are where good characters go to die. I know that those 8 or 9 cover characters feel so close, but ignore them, they offer false promises.
Either hoard and splurge, or just keep progressing and earning more rewards until you get critical mass and get enough LT and CP coming through to max cover them while they are in Latests.

The rota of boosted 5*s is harsh on developed rosters, but I guess it's part of their strategy to try and bust hoarding.

The problem is that they're making it so you almost have to bust out of your hoard on every new character release, to at least get one cover to do their essential node for the 6-7 times they're essential before they roll into classics.

But I agree, hoarding for three good ones is the only reliable way to make the transition without putting a ton of money in.

That's not just the result if what they are doing.  It"s why they are doing it.  5* essentials are a tax on hoarding.

But as long as the current classic pool remains diluted and without swaps, hoarding for 3 good latests is the only optimal strategy for covering 5*s.  

At least the current and next latest tokens should be pretty good.

Magic

I find the new way of release painful. I'd rather have the 10% single 5* store. That way whales can get their champion and us plebs can get the one cover needed for the PvE.

PolarPopBear

Magic said:

I find the new way of release painful. I'd rather have the 10% single 5* store. That way whales can get their champion and us plebs can get the one cover needed for the PvE.

You'll never have huge power, but it shouldn't be too difficult to earn enough cp/LL to get one cover of the newest 5 when they are relased every ~6weeks.  Still sucks though...

Magic

It is just much easier if there is only one in the store, rather than 3. Plus I am trying to hoard to get full blast in couple of months so the need to pull 20 times kind of kills big chunk of the hoard. 

That being said.... I was forced to play scl6 for two last release events as I didn't have the 5* (i only had 1 cover for Spider from the last batch of latest). And I've got top20 finish in Rogue and top1 finish in Nightcrawler. Sure it doesn't allow to merc for the extra alliance cover (no top 50 alliance will take a scl6 score on board) but 4 Nightcrawler covers won with minimal effort are something to smile about.

Working as designed (and I am sure the others in SCL6 were happy to be beaten by a double 5* champion team).

Calnexin

I believe that it is (or was) possible to fully cover a new 5* without whaling.  From my anecdotal experience - As of Doc's leaving latest, I have 7 Ock, 5 Pete, and 5 Daredevil.

I've only been opening classics with CP, and I buy more classics than I open LT's.  Each of the latests would be more or less "on track" to hit 13 covers before they leave latests if I had been opening Latest instead of Classic.  Possibly a few champ levels beyond the 13, if RNG favors you enough not to give you a 9/3/3 build (within those pull rates I've sold 4 Hawkeye, 1 black bolt, and would have sold a surfer if not for the special store, so the dreaded 6th color conundrum is represented in this individual data set).

Again anecdotally, my roster history is mostly absent the final CP reward in PvP. I only recently started earning that.   Even with win-based PvP shutting out the final CP progression award, the rate I'm observing doesn't change.  That's assuming they don't expedite the 5* release timelines, alter pull rates, or further restrict CP/LT earnings.

CT1888

It's totally possible to cover them without the 15cp @Calnexin if you were to pull only Latests with Cp - I covered Thanos and Panther that way, and didn't hit 1200 till after I champed them both.
At that point I was able to consistently hit the 1200 Cp, and then covered Star Lord, Doc Ock and Spidey, with Daredevil at 10 - no hoarding, no whaling, just consistent high level play. I could probably cover several more in Latests without the 15cp, but it's borderline (Black Panther was on the wire, a couple of days before he rotated out, but I managed to finish Spidey at the weekend with atheist a month to spare), and I'd rather not be left with a quality character lost in classics as a 5/5/0 thanks to rng.