When to start leveling 3* characters, and how it affects scaling

froggerjohn

When is the right time to put Iso into 3* characters? I read an advisory somewhere to avoid doing this too early, but it didn't go into enough details as to why. Seemed like it had something to do with how the game scales PvE though.

granne

It did, but PvE doesn't scale to roster strength any longer, so that's not a problem. PvP matchmaking does, however, so if you play versus, beware of levelling up your 3*s before you're ready.

Assuming you have your 2*s champed, your 3*s won't do much for you unless they have 10+ covers, regardless of levels. The exceptions would be batteries (IM40 with 5 yellow, Scarlet Witch with 5 blue, Iron Fist with 5 purple), but those don't need levels to work.

For what it's worth, my first three 3* champs were Daken, Vision and Ragnarok, and I survived. At some point you just have to make the leap.

TPF Alexis

granne said:

Assuming you have your 2*s champed, your 3*s won't do much for you unless they have 10+ covers, regardless of levels. The exceptions would be batteries (IM40 with 5 yellow, Scarlet Witch with 5 blue, Iron Fist with 5 purple), but those don't need levels to work.

I would also add Strange with 5 yellow and Thanos with 5 black to that list. At 2* play levels, even their lvl40 damage with 5 covers isn't bad, and they make PvE substantially easier and faster.

froggerjohn

Does PvP matchmaking only consider your highest character levels? In other words, since I have several 2* at higher levels than my 3*s that only have 3 covers, is it safe to level my 3* to 45 without any consequences?

I'm thinking of Kamala Khan and Doctor Strange, both 1/1/1, but I use them in some matches due to their abilities, and the early leveling for them is very tiny amounts of Iso.

HoundofShadow

I champed my first 3* when I got about 5 champed 2*. Their level was between 100 to 110. 

PvP looks at your top X number of character, where X is between 3 to 5. It also look at your PvP score as well. When you reach 600 or 700 score, I think you would meet opposing teams with levels many times higher than yours. If i were you, I would concentrate my iso on 2* first, unless your 3* has about 8 to 10 covers.

froggerjohn

I have about 115K iso, and it's only 268 to raise a 3* to L45. So I don't think the iso amount is even noticeable. It's more about whether there are any downsides to doing it.

Huntah86

PVP matchmaking only looks at your top 5 or so characters so theres no issues leveling up 3* around those levels

froggerjohn

This question just got more interesting for me, after obtaining two more covers for Dr Strange. At 5 covers now, I could make a noticeable bump in the yellow power damage.

I don't have any champed 2* yet, but I have some 3* that are useful to me in some battles. The iso amounts are negligible, so I'm just trying to figure out what potential downsides there might be in bumping some 3* levels.

TPF Alexis

The two issues are MMR in PvP, which isn't a huge one at your point, and who tanks what. Strange is a character who really doesn't want to be standing out front, which can become a problem if he out-levels your other characters, especially when he's Boosted.

granne

In addition, blue is his strongest colour so he will almost always tank that.

froggerjohn

Thanks for the tanking reminders. It's the same issue I encountered with 2* Storm, and it totally wrecked my team when I over-leveled her.