I don’t want a 5*

0_efx_0

Can you get through the game with only 4* characters? My answer is yes!
They the best, funnest, and well rounded in PvP and PVE.
And once you champ one 5* character be prepared to be outmatched in PvP. The big goal is to collect 5* stars but what is the point when all of the fun is in 4* land.
What do you think? I guess I’m only asking the players who have yet to champ a 5* and are stuck getting repetitive covers of one color.

FokaiHI

Crazy talk

Jarvind

I at one point champed three 5*s and then sold them, because I hated the way the game changed. 

I have since re-entered the fray with a handful of 5*s (Gambit, Parker, lolbanner, Phoenix and Daredevil) and it's a bit better, but I'm honestly struggling to play at all - I'm not even finishing the DDQ most days, just the required character node and Burrito/Enchilada (and Crash if it's up). Being forced to use the same characters over and over and over and
over
and
over
and

is pretty boring after a while.

Granted, this is partly due to Gambit completely wrecking the face of the game, but it wasn't dramatically better when I was using Phoenix/Daredevil all the time, either.

Do whatever you think is fun. It's a game with no end point, so there's no wrong way to play. And you're right that the 4* tier is much better balanced and more interesting, even if it's only because the sheer number and changing weekly boosts guarantee some variety.

LifeofAgony

I know a few players with hoards of cps that could choke a yak with no 4s above about 300.  They find the game fully satisfying.

smkspy

I use to have this very same attitude. Love my 4s, but I got them all champed. So other than the 2/3 star farm and eventual champing of a newer 4, I have nothing to spend that iso on...so I'm gonna champ my thor with 2 covers on the vine (my first champed five). I mean, it's not like I don't already play with a core group of 4s while everyone else is just there for champ rewards.

I mean, I go with unboosted Medusa, Grocket, and Gamora over the boosted 4s for pve. 

bob554

My own experience having my first champed 5* as of last week, having ALMOST all 4*s champed and having every 5* of varying levels. None of my 4*s went above lvl 315 and all my 5*s were soft-capped at lvl 330. Then I decided to champ my Jean Grey to 451, while everything else stayed the same.

BEFORE:
- continually running in Medusa/Rocket/G4mora in Shield Sim, annoying even when I had a team that would always beat them on offense (Eddie Brock/Medusa/G4mora)
- SCL9 would take about 1 hour for 1st 4 clears, but the 5* node would usually wipe out my health packs in order to do so, and the subsequent clears (lvl 515) would be pretty tough
- float on PVP events usually sat at about 550 points, sometimes as low as 400, Shield Sim float at about 1400

AFTER:
- Holy **** if the champed 5* is the required then the 5* node is so much easier. In my case, using Phoenix also meant I just Rocket/draxed my way through the other nodes too and just wait to resurrect Phoenix
- even if your champ isnt the required 5*, lvl 450 means she gets picked up most times, also depending on colour synergy
- Shield Sim more interesting insofar as I'm not always faced with the Medusa/Rocket/G4mora combo, the trade-off being that I usually have to contend with a lvl 360 or above 5* in most matches above 20 points
- PVP float can be as low as 250-300, and Shield Sim float about 1200

BUT I also agree that you can definitely get through with only 4*s!

Pants1000

I went against the usual advice and spent all my CP on classics.  People said I’d never cover them, but today I have Surfer champed, OML and Phoenix at 435, and a few more at 12-13 covers just waiting for ISO.  With 4* feeders, and basically all the 4’s champed, I’ll be champing more soon.

One nice thing about this approach is that I have 15 4’s at 300+, with Peggy at the top at 347.  Those 4’s are able to compete just fine with 450-460 5’s, so I use boosted 4’s all the time.

Gambit is another story, but I expect a nerf soon.

My advice if you aren’t interested in 5’s today is to pull classics.  By the time you cover your 5’s, you’ll have enough 300+ 4’s that you won’t feel like you have to use the 5’s.

0_efx_0

aesthetocyst said:

0_efx_0 said:

Can you get through the game with only 4* characters? My answer is yes!
They the best, funnest, and well rounded in PvP and PVE.
And once you champ one 5* character be prepared to be outmatched in PvP. The big goal is to collect 5* stars but what is the point when all of the fun is in 4* land.
What do you think? I guess I’m only asking the players who have yet to champ a 5* and are stuck getting repetitive covers of one color.

Hoard.

I am. And it’s been fun opening at a point of saving 1 million IsO.
Valid points, which all leads to having fun in 4 star land.

CCW1208

If you keep collecting 4* characters, your PVP MMR will bring you to 5* land finally (when 4* LV 340 or higher). 
I have been in 4* PVP land in the long time. I don`t think 4* PVP is more playable than 5* pvp.
Why???? 
If peggy is boosted this week, everyone use peggy in PVP.  so dont you think it is boring?????
Without gambit, I think 5* is funny than 4* in PVP.  

rixmith

I resisted moving to the 5* tier. Then the 4* -> 5* champ rewards were introduced and I really hated the idea of losing 5* champ levels, so I took the plunge. 

PVE at SCL9 with 5*'s is about as fun for me as it was at SCL8 with 4*s.

Shield Sim with 4*'s was Groot/Gamora/Medusa/Blade/Carol now it's Gambit/Black Bolt/Thor/Daredevil. Really not all that different.

PVP is where the awfulness is. I must run Gambit in every team or be targeted by absolutely everyone who has Gambit. I had one PVP where I lost 500 points in one night. My float point was around 250 before I champed Gambit. And since I get attacked less running Gambit and Black Bolt than Gambit and anyone else, I run Gambolt for every PVP fight, all the time, including Lightning Rounds. Yeah, it isn't fun. But it is more fun than getting attack a million times. I just hope that at some point that will get fixed. 

But I've been playing long enough to believe that at some point most of the development will be at the 5* tier, and I think that getting in there now will make for a better experience later this year and beyond.

bigsmooth

It partially depends on whether you play PVE and/or PVP and whether you play for rank.

Once you champ one or more 5*, PVE can be MUCH faster if you want (or need) it to be, particularly if you happen to have the boosted 5*. If you don't care about optimal play/placement, there is nothing stopping you from using 4* instead to use more interesting team combinations, it may just be a bit slower.

PVP is, of course, a different story. If you have two ore more champed 5* you're going to have to use them almost all the time (you can sometimes mix in a top-tier 4* that's boosted).

Also, I will say that if you are F2P or close to it, it can be quite difficult to meet the ISO demands of champing 4* and 5* plus also potentially maintaining 2* and 3* farms. If you ignore the 5* tier you are more likely to avoid wasting covers.

For me the time savings in PVE alone have been worth the jump, but I do think there are valid reasons to stay in 4* land.

bluewolf

It is fun to have some 5*s to play with.  OTOH, it is frustrating to have no control over your acquisition of 5's, and to not care about them might allow you to enjoy the game more.  I am currently 0/90 on Archangel, where the law of averages says I should have about 4 by now.  If he was better I'd care more, but it isn't fun to know you can't really compete thanks to bad RNG luck.

It's all, as usual, about tradeoffs.  With champ 5's, the boosted list is no longer a determining factor in how well your clears go or how you will do in PVP (at least, it's a lot less of a factor).  But you will use less characters as well, which might impact your overall enjoyment of the game.

If you want to compete and/or collect maximum rewards, then you are required now to at least roster the 5's.  If not, you could just pull Classics to try to boost your 4's as high as possible and have a strong team (very high 4's are better than 5's after boosts), but again, that's not a great option any more.

At the end of the day, the game will never let you complete everyone or reach an end (barring spending 10's of thousands of dollars), so set your own goals and go from there.

Huntah86

bob554 said:

My own experience having my first champed 5* as of last week, having ALMOST all 4*s champed and having every 5* of varying levels. None of my 4*s went above lvl 315 and all my 5*s were soft-capped at lvl 330. Then I decided to champ my Jean Grey to 451, while everything else stayed the same.

BEFORE:
- continually running in Medusa/Rocket/G4mora in Shield Sim, annoying even when I had a team that would always beat them on offense (Eddie Brock/Medusa/G4mora)
- SCL9 would take about 1 hour for 1st 4 clears, but the 5* node would usually wipe out my health packs in order to do so, and the subsequent clears (lvl 515) would be pretty tough
- float on PVP events usually sat at about 550 points, sometimes as low as 400, Shield Sim float at about 1400

AFTER:
- Holy tinykitty if the champed 5* is the required then the 5* node is so much easier. In my case, using Phoenix also meant I just Rocket/draxed my way through the other nodes too and just wait to resurrect Phoenix
- even if your champ isnt the required 5*, lvl 450 means she gets picked up most times, also depending on colour synergy
- Shield Sim more interesting insofar as I'm not always faced with the Medusa/Rocket/G4mora combo, the trade-off being that I usually have to contend with a lvl 360 or above 5* in most matches above 20 points
- PVP float can be as low as 250-300, and Shield Sim float about 1200

BUT I also agree that you can definitely get through with only 4*s!

I just champed Spidey about a week ago and this is EXACTLY my experience.  One thing I would to the After is how much easier it is to get decent points.  Yes my float went from around 600ish all the way down to 250 - 300 but it takes a lot less matches and they go pretty quick to get up to 1000. I was also able to reach 2000 in Sim at least 2 weeks earlier. I'm terrified to champ my next 5* though and see nothing but teams of champed 5* instead of just one lol.  PVE is MUCH easier though and that was the only reason why I finally took the dive, there were way too many times where the 5* essential node was really difficult.  I'd get it done but it would eat health packs. But Spidey with Vulture can pretty much take out any node and hits WAY above their weight class.

Daredevil217

LifeofAgony said:

I know a few players with hoards of cps that could choke a yak with no 4s above about 300.  They find the game fully satisfying.

That's my situation. Carol is my highest 4 at at 296 and I have 5800 CP.  Only 9 LTs though.  It would be more but I actively chased and fully covered Gambit and Daredevil. 

I really enjoy the 4* game and am competing just fine.  I was second in the last PVE, 1st in the one before that (Kraven release) and am 5th right now in the current PVE (brutally mistimed how long it'd take to beat the mindless ones and started way too late). No tapping in any event.  Point being, I can compete just fine with 4s, and with almost 51 champed, I am pretty much guaranteed to have 3-4 boosted.  I do only play at CL8, so there's that.  And it does take me longer than those with champed 5s, so there's that too.

I only ever climb to 900 in PVP because the amount of work and the cost in time, timing, and HP to get to 1200 doesn't seem worth it.  Again this would likely be less of an issue with 5s.  I can usually climb to 900 in one shot without shields (sometimes if the packs are low I might need to throw one up to let my health regen).  So I usually just do a one-shot grind before the event ends and toss a 3-hour or 8-hour up to preserve the 900 points and whatever placement I get (usually top 25).  This is a pretty good ROI and takes minimal time.  Simulator is also pretty easy as well.

The biggest pro to staying at the 4* tier is the variety of characters.  Yes it's the Grocket show in sim but I can skip/avoid them for about 3/4 of my climb honestly while playing with fun combos.  It's only the final push where they become the most optimal target.  Aside from sim, the characters I see are quite varied week to week depending on the boost list, and I use a wide spread of characters in both PVE and PVP week to week as well.  This week I used Cyclops and Mockingbird respeced to be pure batteries for Star-Lord.  Something I've never done.  Sandman got run in the 5* essential node.

Then in Spidey PVP I actually put 5 in Sandman's Yellow because it synergized well with the featured character, and used him until about 550 points. Then finished my grind with a Rogue/Star-Lord combo.

The jump to 5-land means using the same characters for PVE and PVP to save time (while yes, likely getting slightly more rewards).  Meh.  I'd rather soft-cap my 5s to bring them in line with my 4s, so I have more options to choose from rather than less!  I'd rather enjoy the actual playing of the game more than to limit myself to Gambit/DD only and do better at it while enjoying it less (if that makes sense).
 

Spidurman27

Here's a slightly contrary perspective:

PVE: If you want to play SCL9, I highly encourage having and using 5*.  If you are playing lower, there's nothing ever stopping you from mixing in or using other characters extensively.   There's no more character lockouts or restrictions barring a partial on Wolverine in EOTS.  So don't restrict yourself if you don't want to.  I'll primarily use 5* teams, but I rotate and will use boosted 4s as well.

PVP: Any given week you'll see the optimal couple characters once you start climbing - regardless of 4* or 5* land.  When I was in 4* land (until September of last year), after a couple hundred points, almost all matches would be 2 of the top 3 boosted 4s that week.  Now as a multi-champ 5*, almost all matches are 2 of the top 3 or 4 5* after a few hundred points.  However now I have greater potential to break MMR and see a huge variety of teams ranging from 3s to boosted 4s to 5s.  What really changes is that now the optimal teams don't really change - they're going to be fairly optimal regardless of where you are at, just the variation in optimal (both in terms of me having it as well as them) changes.  I think the most variety I saw was in the 3.5 weeks between champing my first and second 5* - I got to fight a TON of different combinations those events.

Straycat

I think 5* tier was mishandled from the start. If they made the starting level around 150 instead of 255, the scaling imbalance wouldn't have been as bad. The current 5* tier could have been released as a 6* tier and the 5* transition would be much less daunting.

Is the 4* tier the best tier? It is more balanced than 5* just by having more characters. Its more fun because there are more options, but I think the 5* powers can be more fun. They are generally more complex and of course stronger, so I think you would be missing something by never playing it. And now with 5*s boosted in pve, its pretty great seeing your champ with 100k health

I just find it funny that a big complaint against 5*s is that you have to use the same characters all the time, yet everyone already uses Gamora, Rocket, and Medusa every match.

Daredevil217

Straycat said:

I just find it funny that a big complaint against 5*s is that you have to use the same characters all the time, yet everyone already uses Gamora, Rocket, and Medusa every match.

This is such a wildly inaccurate statement. At least for me, I see combinations of random boosted 4s, which of course change week to week. In sim yeah they are everywhere, but like I said, easily skippable for about 3/4 of the climb to 2000. After which, you can still skip but might be taking a 22 point match over a 70 point match. 

I also know I personally don’t play just that one team. I like to try different combos, especially in sim. What’s the point of having all those champs and not using them?

hopper1979

I recently championed my 3 5 (OML, Phenox and SS) I have ~80% of the 4's championed.  PVP is not fun anymore, I was never a fan but it is a chore now, I hit 400 and stop.  PVE is where it is at I can experiment and try out characters and not bring the same 2-4 characters into pve so I have a chance.  No I do enjoy working on the 5's because they open up a who new set of combos and teams but they do kill PVP.  I do not seen anybody use G/R/M in PVP anymore I wish, I did those teams are easy if you have 5's even the lousy ones.  Gambit and whoever or Thanos/Black Panther as far as the eye can see. 

I can beat a Gambit team but why take the beating in the process.  Thanos/BP, same, it is stagnate and does not encourage the "Puzzle" aspect of the game.  I do not blame the players though why would you play differently when it is so much easier to win with those characters.  There will always be top vs bottom tire character but the top of the top is too big of a jump and I do not see a good way to fix without nurfing characters which I am not a fan of.  PVE is the way to go.

bluewolf

I forgot, in my other post, to point out:  If your game is set up in such a way that (at least some) players actively do not want to build and level up the highest tier characters:  

Something Is Wrong.

It should be an absolute no-brainer that players want to pursue 5* characters. It is better than it was to use them, but there are still issues. Whether this can ever be fixed in a 4 year old game is, admittedly, questionable.

Dragon_Nexus

After champing two 5*s and getting Gambit to level 420 (blaze it up), I feel the game has changed a lot.
All I get in PvP now is 5*s. Sure all I got before was the two best 4*s before, but now it's only Gambit combos. Shield Sim is pretty broken since I *need* three 5*s to compete. Bringing in a 4* with its 15-20K HP against the 40-70KHP of a 5* is crazy talk.

That said, PvE has become way, WAY quicker now. That at least is more enjoyable since I don't have to spend over an hour on a single clear.

But the biggest issue I feel is suddenly new 4*s feel like a waste of time. I just champed Nico and I'm not far from a 13th cover for Hulk. America Chavez, a character I like, has been released and if I champ her tomorrow or in a year it'll make no difference to me. They will only really help as a required character in PvE.

I hate how much the MMR changes once you go to 5* land. You're pretty much stuck there once you reach it.

Dragon_Nexus

Side note, I wish there was a PvP designed to not allow 5*s. If they made a season with no 5*s allowed, I'd be all over that.