4* PvE speed tips?

MarkersMake

Any PvE speed tips for a 4* (10 champed) roster? 

I see people posting about their clear times and feel like I'm taking way longer than other players who have similar rosters.  I usually take 90-120 minutes for initial 4x clear, and I feel like I should be taking about 30 minutes less on average. Is that about right? Am I just a slow swiper? 

My typical teams are:

- easy nodes: Thanos/5*/5*
- goon-heavy (2-3 goons) nodes: Strange/Cage/other
- wave nodes: Carol/Coulson/<essential/Strange>
- tile movers: Peggy/IM40/<essential/Iceman>

My only usable 5* is my 2/1/2 Hawkeye, who I sometimes use with Coulson and Carol on particularly tough nodes. 


The roster in my signature is out of date, but my 4* champs (in order) are: Carol, Coulson, Cage, Agent Venom, Medusa, Peggy, Mordo, Riri, Gwenpool, Iceman.

My 10/3/2 Gamora and 5/5/2 Grocket I don't often use (waiting until champed), but I'm open to leveling them if they'd be effective.

Platform is Android 7.0, Samsung Note5, if that makes a difference. 

Bleh5

I'd guess that a fully levelled 5/3/2 Gamora and 5/5/2 Grocket will be faster than what you're doing now. You may need a few health packs along the way, though. Don't heal Grocket until he's been killed. 

justsing

Which SCL are you playing in? 

MarkersMake

justsing said:

Which SCL are you playing in? 

Usually SCL 8, although I don't see too much of a change when I occasionally drop down to SCL 7.

Phumade

your times are about normal for your roster.  Your missing all the specialist pve chars like

both thanos variants.
sl5
DS5
4* rocket and groot.

the speed game is all based on having those specialist chars at really high levels

LifeofAgony

Phumade said:

your times are about normal for your roster.  Your missing all the specialist pve chars like

both thanos variants.
sl5
DS5
4* rocket and groot.

the speed game is all based on having those specialist chars at really high levels

All of this.  Thanos, Strange and Bolt are the pve staples, along with the now boosted 5*.  Those are the things you’ll find in common amongst the top of your leaderboards.

justsing

In SCL 7 especially, champed Gamora and Grocket make a pretty big difference even when unboosted, so it might be worth putting some ISO into them. They'll probably be a bit slower in SCL 8, but I think they might still be faster than what you're currently using. Pair them with Medusa and see if your clear times are faster. They also work great with 5* DD. You should probably set Gamora as your BH to try to get some blue covers for her, or you can have Grocket as your BH to see if you can champ them soon. 

For the wave nodes, try Medusa instead of Strange.

j0nats

for easy node i use 3thanos grocket 5sl to one shot all easy nodes

Nick441234

Medusa/Rocket/Gamora. That'll wipe off a whole load of time on your clears. 

You need them all champed asap. 

MarkersMake

Thanks for the advice, all.

I'll level and start using my Grocket/Gamora (Gamora is my 4* BH), and keep my fingers crossed for BH luck with 5* Thanos/Strange as well, although at 1/0/2 and 1/0/1 respectively, that will be a long way down the road. 


On a separate note, I'm assuming (as a FTP player) that  it's not worth wasting extra CP on Latest pulls (rather than Classics), hoping to get at least one cover for the 5* essential nodes. I mean, event/sub t10 is probably out of the question for me anyway (aside from a very late bracket flip), and that would be the only reasonable motivation to do so, right? 

justsing

MarkersMake said:

On a separate note, I'm assuming (as a FTP player) that  it's not worth wasting extra CP on Latest pulls (rather than Classics), hoping to get at least one cover for the 5* essential nodes. I mean, event/sub t10 is probably out of the question for me anyway (aside from a very late bracket flip), and that would be the only reasonable motivation to do so, right? 

I'm not sure what the best call on this is, but if you don't have the 5* essential for a certain event, it might be worth dropping to SCL 7 since the 5* node is worth much less there. 

LifeofAgony

Doing cl7-9 is kinda pointless without being able to do the 5* since it’s 3 cp per clear plus too many points to leave off the board even if you’re not hyper competitive.

MarkersMake

LifeofAgony said:

Doing cl7-9 is kinda pointless without being able to do the 5* since it’s 3 cp per clear plus too many points to leave off the board even if you’re not hyper competitive.

Giving up the guaranteed 4* progression cover (it's only another 3* cover in SCL 6, IIRC) is a tough pill to swallow though, particularly for someone who needs every 4* cover they can get (like me). 

Nick441234

MarkersMake said:

LifeofAgony said:

Doing cl7-9 is kinda pointless without being able to do the 5* since it’s 3 cp per clear plus too many points to leave off the board even if you’re not hyper competitive.

Giving up the guaranteed 4* progression cover (it's only another 3* cover in SCL 6, IIRC) is a tough pill to swallow though, particularly for someone who needs every 4* cover they can get (like me). 

Drop to CL7, at least. Less points to lose out on from the 5* node. 

DarthDeVo

Absolutely max out your G4ocket. You've got five covers in yellow, the power that counts. There's not a drastic jump from 250 to 270, but there definitely its from 70 to 250. Max G4mora too, and run them with Medusa. 

Kjeldbjerg

What is so great about 5* Starlord for fast clears? 

LifeofAgony

Kjeldbjerg said:

What is so great about 5* Starlord for fast clears? 

The bonus damage for 4* Grocket if you don’t want to use gamora.  And 5SL has some of the highest match damage at the 5* tier.

ThaRoadWarrior

I just got my 9th 4* champ over the long weekend, but all my 4* champs are post-medusa releases. My take being in a similar spot is that C4rol/Coulson can do monster single-target damage...eventually. If you don't have a good Cloak & Dagger to get Photonic Barage moving, I'd recommend using 3* Iron Fist to fuel her black with his cheap purple until you can get 4ocket leveled up to parity.


I use 5* Lord/4ocket/Strang3 (or Medusa) to do SCL7 fast, and on the "easy" nodes, I'll use Thano5 (1/0/2)/DD5 (4/1/0)/Panther(0/0/1). I've moved up to SCL8 once or twice to test out my clear speed, an i just don't enjoy the added difficulty with my current roster. I can easily breaze through SCL 7 to full progression in a reasonable time (30-40 minutes), but it jumps up 2 or 3X that length in 8.

Jarvind

If you're going for speed, Cage is probably slowing you down on the goon nodes. Even with animations off, waiting for him to throw down shields constantly will add up. If you run with Grockmordusa, you'll be able to kill everything fast enough that CDs never resolve anyway, and shave off a lot of "The Protector. The Protector. The Protector."

broll

Jarvind said:

If you're going for speed, Cage is probably slowing you down on the goon nodes. Even with animations off, waiting for him to throw down shields constantly will add up. If you run with Grockmordusa, you'll be able to kill everything fast enough that CDs never resolve anyway, and shave off a lot of "The Protector. The Protector. The Protector."

Yeah I concur.  While C4ge is one of my favorite character's he's very slow.  The only time I would recommend him on goons is if you're in a goon-heavy 5* essentially that's near unbeatble for you.  The damage mitigation might help there, but it's not needed in most goon fights.  So many better ways to cheese them (Thanos or Strange or grocket)

MarkersMake

Ok, I've leveled Grocket (250) and Gamora, and after running them with Medusa, I'm a believer.

What surprised me was that it's faster to just keep those 3 active even for the easy nodes rather than losing time switching them out for Thanos/5*/5*.