Expiring covers, and a few open slots

froggerjohn

Here's the current roster:
https://mpq.gamependium.com/rosters/froggerjohn/revisions/25

28 days in, VIP active on day 6, SHIELD rank 21. My 3* bonus hero is Dr Strange, and I have the following unredeemed covers, some of the 2* and the first three 3* are the closest to expiring now.

2* Cap          3xBlue  2xYellow 2xRed

2* Bullseye     4xBlack 3xGreen 2xPurple

2* Moonstone 2xBlack Red

3* Daken        Blue

3* Steve Rogers  Red

3* Ragnarok      Red

3* Psylocke      Black

3* Luke Cage    2xYellow

3* Human Torch  Black

3* Black Widow  Green

3* Vision        Yellow

3* The Hood      Black

3* Gambit        Black

3* Squirrel Girl Purple

3* Daredevil     Red

3* Sentry        Green Yellow Red

I have two open slots, and probably want to keep one open for essentials. There's three other slots that might be sellable to make more room.

1* BW 0/5
1* Hawkeye 5/0
3* IM40 1/1/0

The first two I created to give as team-ups, but have no idea how valuable they actually are. (5-turn stun, and protect-removal crit-making selected tile).

And while I know IM40 is supposed to be a good character, the two powers I have are the least useful, especially to early rosters like mine. (I only rostered him because he was an essential node).

My first guess is to roster 2* Bullseye, because I have so many covers, and already have 3* Bullseye to eventually roll champ rewards into. He doesn't seem like a character I would ever play (hence unused covers), but there are certainly plenty others in the same boat, and seems like eventually I want all the 2*s covered.

In general though, not sure where to make the cuts, and what to focus on next.

TPF Alexis

Ditch the 1* Hawkeye for sure, and maybe Black Widow, too. They do give good teamups, but roster space is more valuable to you right now.

Of the 2*, I'd probably grab Bullseye, and maybe Moonstone as well. From the 3* list, I would prioritize Cap, Cage, and Black Widow, and then probably Daredevil. Rags, Psylocke, Vision, Hood, Gambit, Squirrel Girl, and Sentry, you can definitely let go, but wait until they're about to expire, in case they come up as essential before then.

HoundofShadow

Ditto on ditching 1* Hawkeye and maybe 1* BW. Is it compulsory to contribute 1* BW to your alliance? What happens if you can't give 1* BW as a team-up?

I would roster all the 2* because after champing, they give you lots of goodies. 

IM40 is popular mainly due to his yellow ability. I would prioritise the top 3* as: Luke Cage (protect tile), Daken (self-heal), Steve Roger (2 abilities that can overwrite any tiles at 5 covers). This is my personal preference though. 

Sentry is the current 3* essential for Meet R&G PvE, so you can ditch him after using him in the PvE. Again, it depends on whether the prize are attractive to you.

Dormammu

If I were you, I'd get rid of all your 1-stars except Juggs. You can rebuild those at any time and give your alliance other team-ups that are just as good (Storm blue, Doc Strange blue).

You have good 2-stars on your roster. Keep building them up. The only one that looks like its wasting space is Human Torch. He's fine, you just have better, more advanced 2-stars and he's extra baggage for you right now. Sell him and he'll be easy enough to rebuild later.

For the 3-stars you have on roster, you can let Gamora and Captain Marvel go if you have to. But really, you should be trying to build as many 3-stars as you can (with the goal of rostering them all eventually) and get them max-covered while you work on max-champing the 2-stars you have and lean on those to get you through fights. Don't sell IM40 - he's the single most important 3-star and you should be chasing his covers like a crack-addicted maniac.

As for the covers you have expiring on the vine, you want to rescue Captain America, Luke Cage, Daken, and Hood for sure. If you can swing it, keep Black Widow and Psylocke too. After that they're all about the same, except Gambit. He's rubbish.

froggerjohn

Regarding team-ups, I just felt like I should contribute, if I was asking for them. But I agree that roster space is really important right now, so I sold all the 1* except Juggs. I'll send Storm or Doc Strange, and hope they get the blue.

Had some good luck this weekend getting needed covers, and was able to champ Wolverine and Thor, in addition to Storm. So I currently look like this:
https://mpq.gamependium.com/rosters/froggerjohn/revisions/27

I rostered a 4* Hulk picked up as a Civil War reward, since he's an essential node in R&G. Ditto for Sentry, and I figure both of those slots are expendable once the event is over. (Could let Human Torch go here too, since he was also on the essential/boosted rotation this time).

Interesting that one response included Hood on the "let go" list, and one on the "must keep" list. The Blue AP-steal looks pretty sweet, but seems like it takes multiple covers before getting there, and I only have the black, so leaning towards selling this one, in absence of more info. All the rest of the advice looks consistent and makes sense -- thanks.

The R&G PvE event is the first one where I've had all the required essentials. But I got pummeled in the first chapter at SCL4, probably because I wasn't making the best use of my roster. I tried using 4* Hulk, and he did tank a lot of damage, but with only 1 cover (and the worst one at that), was otherwise totally useless. Also tried my go-to 2* team of Thor-Wolverine-Daken, but couldn't seem to keep them alive once the Muscles got their strike tiles out. (Boosted Thor tanked every color, so the healing of the other two were wasted). The only moderate success I had, was with Thor-Storm-Kamala Khan. (Or Thor-Storm with the boosted essential).

If I'm missing some good combos, please let me know. (Doing much better in Luck be a Lady already though).

Dormammu

You'll start enjoying more success when your 2-stars are more fleshed out. Thor is great, but he's a bit slow. OBW will make a good teammate for him (and all your other 2-stars) when you have more of her covers and she can steal AP for you. Wolverine is a bad teammate for Thor because of color overlap, but Wolverine and Daken should be good buddies - they'll make lots of strike tiles together and save on healthpacks. Add in Magneto as a third and convert purple AP into blue tiles to speed up Daken's already cheap offense; with lots of strikes on the board his blue can be devastating.

Speaking of Magneto, use his purple to make match-4s for Hawkeye's purple passive - those countdowns do big damage. Add in Storm for a third.

But really, Ares is the strongest 2-star. His green and yellow decimate foes. Him, Ms Marvel, and Storm are a great wave-node team with lots of AoE and big nukes. Ares and Daken are good pairing as well, with OBW as a third to speed them up.

As for my advice to keep the Hood - once you're in the 3-star tier he's a great utility character. His blue passive will slow your enemies and quicken you. His yellow is awesome for board destruction (getting rid of pesky enemy tiles), and his black is a great utility when paired with countdown tile generators.

froggerjohn

Yes, Ares was boosted in Civil War, and was a beast. I was able to take out the Cap Boss up through stage 4. Almost got him a couple of times on 5. (One turn away one time). But in general it seemed like I was doing way more damage with Thor. Once the yellow was charged up, it usually made multiple cascades and filled the green. I'd also use Kamala Khan or Daken for some extra green triggers when needed. That said, my Ares isn't maxed out, and I only need one more cover, so I'll take another look.

I know what you mean about Thor being slow. The only node I struggled a bit with in the current PvE, is the Human Torch node with Mystique, and her AP steal. (Ditto for The Hood last chapter). Makes it much harder to get a foothold, especially when she has goons to feed her purple, so I can't stop her from getting it.

You're right about Wolverine. I mainly used him to tank the green so Thor didn't take too much damage. Not a very efficient use of a character, but did seem to help my survival. It was in the wave nodes when I first started using that combo, because I could use Feral Claws a bit for some strike tiles, while still stockpiling most of the yellow/green for the second wave.

One more Mags purple cover, and he'll get really interesting. A shame I've been so unlucky with OBW. I've gotten fewer of her covers than any other 2*.

TPF Alexis

Hood isn't bad by any means, and when I was down in 2-3* land, I always kept Twin Pistols Teamups because the targeted tile destruction is incredibly handy. He can fit in a lot of places, but I never found him a go-to like 3* Cap or Kamala Khan. Also, in this specific instance, his black has always felt like his weakest power to me, and I wouldn't have called it an easy toss in the same way if it were a yellow or blue.

Quebbster

The first sub in Meet Rocket and Groot is pretty brutal. The second and third are much easier.

Dormammu

froggerjohn said:

Yes, Ares was boosted in Civil War, and was a beast. I was able to take out the Cap Boss up through stage 4. Almost got him a couple of times on 5. (One turn away one time). But in general it seemed like I was doing way more damage with Thor. Once the yellow was charged up, it usually made multiple cascades and filled the green. I'd also use Kamala Khan or Daken for some extra green triggers when needed. That said, my Ares isn't maxed out, and I only need one more cover, so I'll take another look.

When I was a 2* - 3* transitioner I had been really fortunate with Ares covers and had him max-champed at lv 144 pretty early. I would often use him over a champed 3-star just because he is so strong.

froggerjohn

Found an unconventional team for the top nodes in R&G PvE. I had enough covers to champ Bullseye to 3/5/5, so I replaced the under-utilized Wolverine to get Thor-Daken-Bullseye. It created a lot of shielding, and gave me an opportunity to use the black. Two specified crits is a pretty easy match-5 (creating another crit). Daken is still generating Strikes, and Thor's Yellow-Green rounds out the damage.

Not ideal, but until I get some more covers for other characters, it seemed reasonably successful against the Mystique-Doom nodes at level 130+.

froggerjohn

Argh, 230 points from the top progress reward of 15 CP. One stupid loss, and then ran out of time. Had the points sitting there if I had only started a bit earlier. Also rank 101. Just missed in yet another way.

Got the last Daken cover though, so another champ in the ranks, and that's great. Also picked up an IM40 yellow, so got to play with that a bit, but don't have great receivers for the blue & red yet.

Here's where I stand now, after rescuing all the 2*, and some other recommendations.
https://mpq.gamependium.com/rosters/froggerjohn/revisions/30

I don't need to make any more decisions for a couple more days, but this is the update of pending covers:

Expected to roster: (I'll have the HP for this)

3* Black Widow  Green

Expected to let go:

4* Venom          Yellow

4* Winter Soldier Red

3* Gambit         Black

3* Squirrel Girl  Purple

3* Vision         Yellow

3* Doc Doom     Purple

3* Doc Octopus  Green

Requesting prioritization:

3* Blade        Black

3* Daredevil    Red + Blue

3* The Hood     Black

Current characters being considered for selling to make room:
2* 2/3/4 Human Torch
3* 2/2/1 Sentry

Since Blade doesn't expire for almost 2w, I'm thinking of rostering Daredevil and Hood. I can always replace one of those later, depending upon what shows up in the meantime, and/or if I reach the next HP tier (which seems likely).

TPF Alexis

I always liked 2* Bullseye's ability set. They're too expensive, but the effects are very useful.

3* Blade is another really good one. It'll take a while before you really get the teams he gels with together, but it's good to start building him now so he's ready then.

Sentry can get sold off now. His Featured time in PvE is done, his PvP event is over, he ain't gonna be required for anything for quite a while now, and he's not good enough to use when you don't have to.

Hood is coming up in Dat Required Character in a few days, so if you're at the point where you can beat that and The Big Enchilada, you have the option to Roster him now, beat that, and then sell him off and have two weeks to come up with a slot for the cover you'll get there. If necessary.

froggerjohn

Thanks for the heads-up on Hood in DDQ. I'll definitely do that. My one attempt at The Big Enchilada was wildly unsuccessful, but that was also a few champs ago. If you had a recommendation for who best to try that with next time, that would be most welcome.

I can do the same thing with my Doc Ock cover the following day, and then I already have covers for the next 3 thereafter (and a few more over the next week). So it looks like I'll be getting a number of opportunities to try that shortly, and can hopefully be prepared.

Dormammu

2-star Bullseye is very useful. You need to ignore his black unless you luck into enough AP to use it, and there are better uses for green in the 2-star tier, but his purple passive is worth the price of admission alone. I used him into the 3-star tier a lot just for that passive protect tile generation. He goes so well with 3-star Falcon that its like chocolate and peanut butter... so delicious.

froggerjohn

What I found against Doom/Mystique, is that they both had powerful black attacks (one-shot kill if I had the wrong character up), so it was worth picking up the black just for defensive purposes. That, plus the survivability from the purple meant I always got a chance at the black, and was able to make a double-crit match-5 each time. He was a big help.

TPF Alexis

It's hard to give many tips on beating The Big Enchilada because it changes every day, but it often seems to start off with three goons. In that case, you take your time whittling them down, damaging them evenly with match damage, and saving up AP. Ideally lots of blue for Storm. Then drop them all as close to simultaneously as possible and hit the three Characters who come in next with everything you've got.