How high should I level 2* Storm?

froggerjohn

After recovering from a recent over-leveling scenario, I want to make sure it doesn't happen again. Short version, I don't want her to be exposed on green matches.

The three characters in play right now are (all 2*):
4/5/3 L53 Storm
2/5/2 L62 Thor
3/2/5 L70 Wolverine

Storm is already above where she can be hidden by Thor on green. (That was the initial over-leveling mistake). She's at the point where one more Thor cover will hide her again though.

In the meantime, I received a couple of Wolverine covers, so he's now doing the job of hiding her. In theory, I could now level Storm all the way up to L69, but it means essentially marrying those two together for awhile since no one else is close yet to enough covers to do the job.

That might not be terrible. Wolverine has good survivability and saves me health packs. But I also worry about the loss of flexibility, and not sure how to rank the extra Storm levels in importance. Certainly would add a bit of punch in her AoE, as well as health to survive incoming damage.

Here's the full roster, and any tips appreciated.
https://mpq.gamependium.com/rosters/froggerjohn/

TPF Alexis

Thor needs to be roughly 16-17 levels above Storm to tank green for her. He will cover yellow as long as he's within about 5 levels below her, tho.

Ares is the only other 2* character besides Wolverine who will tank green for her at the same level.

You don't have many covers for him, but Magneto makes a great partner for Storm, and he will tank blue for her if he's no more than 5 levels or so behind her, as will Hawkeye.

I found the data on damage per level at the MPQ Wiki. You have to scroll down quite a way on each character's page to find it, and there are so many entries that the tables are awkward to read, but it is there. It's worth noting that for most characters, their damage at a given level in their strongest colour will be the same as any other character's strongest colour. Same for the second strongest, and so on. I think all the exceptions are in the 4* and 5* tiers, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

If they're the same, you can pick* which character will tank a given colour by putting them "in front of" the one you want to protect when selecting your team. The character in the center in the team selection screen will be first, the one on your left is second, and the one on your right is last. So your right is where Storm always wants to be.

Magneto, Thor, Storm was my main team all through the 2* tier, and I still like when they line up so I can use them in the 2* DDQ missions.

*Usually. There is some weirdness that makes it work out differently some time. No one's quite sure what causes it, but there are definitely multiple factors that affect which character the game considers to be "stronger" when the displayed numbers are tied.

froggerjohn

The damage data on MPQ Wiki is indeed a great resource.

Is it possible to interpolate the level effects of powers even though they're not itemized per-level? (In other words, do they scale linearly?)

For example, Storm's AoE does 1058 damage at level 53. The Wiki says 1838 at max level (94). If I level Storm to 69, that's 39% of the remaining level rank, so can I assume that I'll pick up 39% of the remaining AoE increase? (Which would be up to 1362).

That sounds pretty significant, and seems like it's worth doing. I eventually want to champ these anyway, so will need to deal with level parity before too much longer.

froggerjohn

Well, looks like it's not linear. I realized I could check the math based on whether it would predict my current damage at level 53, and that didn't pan out.

The starting damage (presumably level 1) is listed as 357, which makes an overall range of 1481 (1838-357) over 94 levels. Level 53 is just over 60% of the level progression, but I only have 47% of the damage increase so far. Without knowing how/when that curve accelerates, I'm not sure how to predict where Storm's AoE will wind up if I make the jump to L69.

HoundofShadow

You can leverage on Juggernaut and Captain Marvel as well. How much do you rely on Storm to make a difference in a match? Are you focusing on PvE or PvP? 

froggerjohn

I play mostly PvE, and that's probably more comfortable and more fun for me for awhile still. Their weekly buffing mechanic gives me a chance to play with a lot more variety than what I could put together with my natural players at this stage. That said, I've had some decent top-50 or top-100 finishes in PvP, even though I'm not quite sure how. I was #2 in Fly-fight-win for awhile, even winning AI defensive matches sometimes. (Currently #15). But I don't think I quite get the extra mechanics involved yet. So I just play a few matches to get some progression rewards, and call it a day when reaching opponent levels that are out of reach.

I used to play Juggernaut quite a bit, until getting more of the 2* covers. Now I really like generating green with Thor's Thunder Strike. Thor-Storm-Kamala Khan was a nifty combo for awhile, getting nice benefits from both her healing, and the purple power to make green matches. But still relied on Storm quite a bit, both for the damage and the stun. Always seemed to find ways to save myself by being able to stun the right enemy at the right time to avoid a major attack.

The mechanic I'm starting to pick up on, is Daken-Wolverine, and generating strike tiles with them. I think I made a mistake when selling the Daken black cover, which at the time, seemed like a detriment since I always wanted to match the blue. But that likely reverses trend with more of those covers.

Since I have only a few covers so far for OBW or Mags, some of the more interesting 2* teams are still a ways off.

Captain Marvel was terrific when she was buffed last week. Helped me get past some tough spots with protect tiles, and buffed Sonic Boom was great AoE. Seemed a little under-powered when the buff ran out, but I can take another look, especially if I find more covers. (As it is, I haven't raised her to her current level max, so that might help too).

Totally bummed I sold my 2-cover Vision when I ran out of slots. He was an essential in the last event, so I missed out a bit.

There's so many variables at play here. I'm sure that's what makes it a great game with the staying power it has enjoyed from the veteran players. Can definitely be overwhelming for the newbies at times though. 

froggerjohn

Things got more interesting, because I got the final cover for Storm, and have two more blue covers. I think that means I can champion now (first opportunity), but that's going to leave her out front again in 2* DDQ. I think what I'll do first, is make sure I can clear that with some other combo. And if so, then go ahead and champ her. (She might be fine anyway at that higher level, but I want a backup plan this time).

HoundofShadow

What levels are the opposing team in your 2* DDQ? I'm referring to the third node that is on the left. 1st node is 1* node; 2nd node is wave node. 

froggerjohn

Third node is 70-74. I haven't been able to get past that one yet. 

froggerjohn

Interesting... Just tried it, and got past it comfortably with Thor-Wolverine-Daken. Hadn't even gotten close before, which either means I hadn't tried in awhile and my characters are higher levels now (definitely true), or I hadn't tried that team combo before (likely true), and/or the opposing team makeup was just an easier set (no idea, but seems true as well).

In any case, it looks like I don't have the Storm dependency any more, but now that I think about it further, I probably don't want to raise her level yet until some of my other characters get the rest of their covers. I've got some time left to get them before covers start expiring.

iron-n-wine

Personally, I would just champ Storm if you have the covers (and ISO) -  it will also allow you to re-spec her to a 5/5/3 cover

DAZ0273

Champ Storm. Her blue can handle 2* DDQ no problem.

Rod5

The 2* DDQ nodes are made for Storm blue. Stormneto+Hawkeye when you get him will dispatch the 2* nodes with ease.

froggerjohn

I do have the Stormneto+Hawkeye combo now, with all of them champed.
https://mpq.gamependium.com/rosters/froggerjohn/revisions/35

It's definitely a fun combo to play, but Storm gets pretty squishy if she's too many levels in front of Mags, such that she tanks the blue hits. Things have since gotten better with the levels more evened out, although she still tanks Green, Yellow, Black, and AP -- sometimes, those are the only available matches. In general, that combo has poor color coverage, so the results vary quite a bit when the board is unfavorable.

My primary combos are still Wolverine+Daken+Bullseye (or Thor+Daken+Bullseye for wave-type nodes), which can clear them with little if any damage, so that's very sustainable while conserving health packs. But I rotate the others in too for healing breaks.

DAZ0273

Have you tried your Ares with 5 in green? He is a spammable death dealing machine at the 2* level!

Quebbster

DAZ0273 said:

Have you tried your Ares with 5 in green? He is a spammable death dealing machine at the 2* level!

No need to go to 5 green, 4 green still does max damage. All 5 does is to drop the minimum cost to 5AP, and how often will you have exactly 5 green AP when you want to fire the Power?

Yellow should be at 5, but green and red work just fine with 4 covers each.

froggerjohn

I've tried Ares multiple times, but either I'm missing something, or the real benefit doesn't come until getting to higher levels of champness. He was a total beast when boosted for example, that let me take down very high-level enemies in Civil War. But back in normal-land, I've been very underwhelmed every time, getting better clears while taking less damage using either Wolverine or Thor.

The red power is ok, but not great. Wolverine does more damage, and Thor has the added benefit of making yellows. (Not always useful, but sometimes hugely beneficial if it makes yellow matches).

Ares' yellow power is a clear win over Wolverine, but Thor's yellow is a total game-changer.

So we're down to the green, which is where most of that boosted damage came from. While it does out-damage Thor, it comes at a cost against green-users, which means I either accept a higher degree of retaliation, and/or I delay using it (which also tends to mean increased risk). Plus, without Thor's yellow to generate all that green, there's way less AP of it. (And thus also fewer strikes generated by Daken). So other than the longer delay to reach the AP trigger, and the inefficiency of using green in larger chunks (more likely to have unused AP), it's not even a clear win against Thor here, it seems.

It's hard to directly compare the green against Wolverine, since the damage type and style is much different. But I can get "quicker starts" in scenarios where there would be negative costs of using Ares early. I think that's why I can get through matches with less damage using him.

So basically I use Wolverine unless the match is going to be longer, like DDQ wave nodes, or if I need to wait for him to heal up. And I only use Ares when both Wolverine and Thor are healing.

Quebbster

Ares and Thor focus on different things though. Thor is all about building to that big green AOE attack and dealing damage to the entire team. Ares is more about single target damage, and since his Powers does have its drawbacks you need to play him smart - take out the green users first, for example. Thor is easier to use, but once you get the hang of Ares he is a one man wrecking crew. I used to bust him out in old runs of Prodigal Sun to deal with the Hulk nodes on Thunderbolt mountain... he did it a lot better than most threestars.

froggerjohn

I think another issue is that my levels are uneven, and Thor is 13 levels above him, which narrows the damage gap a bit.

I understand what you mean about the green users, but there are usually other concerns about who to take out first, and that doesn't always match up. I'm still pretty new to this game, so I may well be playing him against teams that aren't ideal for showcasing how he works best. I'll try to look for better opportunities.

I just went though the Hulk nodes in Prodigal Sun, which might have been interesting with him. That said, Thor's yellow in those nodes did massive amounts of damage, creating numerous crits and cascades. So they were already easy.