Still confused on MMR

Mithloren

I am a relatively new player, but I learned early to keep my levels and tiers as low as I could.  So now I have 3 championed 3*s (level 168 or so) and a couple of unleveled 4*s and ZERO 5*s.  

I am getting set against decks of mid to high 200's 3 and 4*s all the time, and even during the first few battles when I have very little points.  I even see 4 and 5*s in the 300s sometimes.  I would understand this if I was over 575+ points but I can't even do the lightning rounds when I miss the first few minutes at all.

Am I missing something?  Or am I simply screwed in PvP for the first year or so of playing?

Thanks for the help.

Dormammu

Lightning Rounds are tough and mostly filled with experienced vets. They're also quick with far fewer participants, so the ranges of teams you will see in these are wider and tend to be on the high side. Farm seed teams in these (get in the second they start and defeat the AI dummy accounts that populate nodes at the beginning of each round).

My advice for other PvP events is to wait until the event has been going for at least a day, and ideally towards the back half or end of the event to do any climbing. This will allow more players to join and give the MMR more options for pairing you off against similar rosters. Jump in at the beginning and hit the seed teams for 100-200 points and then climb at the end of the event.

With only three freshly champed 3-stars you shouldn't be setting your goals very high in PvP. When you have more of the 3-star tier champed and have a bigger pool of boosted characters for each event, you will find it's easier to climb higher. Right now you are going to be faced with too many events where you don't have any 3-star champs on the boosted list and that'll put you at a disadvantage.

Mithloren

Ok thanks guys. I have tried waiting untIL the PvP is going and hasn't helped. Keep getting teams in the high 200s all the time.  I would understand it if it was after higher points but too bad I guess.

My one other q then is: does it not matter if I soft level my 4*'s then?  I have avoided it to keep the opponents lowe but it doesn't seem to matter.
Thanks.

KC_Hammer

Its my understanding that its based on your highest few characters before weekly buffs are applied. So if those other people have 3*s that are equally leveled to yours, but those characters have the weekly buff (the image for their level number will be purple) that could easily get a barely champed 3* into the mid-high 200's. Its the same for those 4*s that are probably underleveled as well to around where your highest level is but are just buffed up to the 200's.

In addition it shouldn't matter if you have 10 champed 3*s or all of them champed after the first 3 or so. I don't remember the number of characters that are taken into account. As you get more it will be more likely that your champed ones will be buffed as well, and perhaps those others got lucky with their limited roster getting the weekly buff.

Mithloren

Sounds great thanks. I will probably have to Google how to post my roster though. (I am an old guy so that's new territory for me )

Dormammu

Just go to Gamependium (see link in my signature). It's simple to use.

Mithloren

Cool, thanks!

Chrono_Tata

I think part of the reasons why you are still getting matched against significantly higher level rosters is because there isn't a large number of players softcapping their roster at your level, so the MMR algorithm casts a wider net to get you matches. At around max level 4 and 5 star rosters, there are a lot more players at that level so the MMR is more likely to get closer matches.

HoundofShadow

Hey, I've been in the same situation as you before and I'm still in 3* land with about 20 champed and I'm still facing the same situation. Back when I was in 2* land with a few fully champed 2*, I was already seeing 1-2 covers 5* in PvP, even when I don't have any 4* or 5* or even 3* with with more than 5 covers. I put it that many new players were opening up LT or CT and got those 5*. Unless they disallow 5* from competing in PvP, this is going to be a common team: lowly covered 5* with 3*/2*. You either skip the team with 5* or or stun them early to reduce the match damage from them if you want to fight them.

Based on my experience, MMR calculates the level of boosted characters as well. My 3* are still in 175 range on average and I often see lvl 180-190 or similar level 3* in the beginning (if I don't have boosted 3*) and once I hit more than 700 points in PvP, the landscape change. For example, In the recent Loki PvP, once I got over 700 points, I was seeing these teams most of the time:

Iceman: 359
Loki: 333
Jessica Jones: 360
Red Hulk: 343
Carnage: 343
C4rol: 271
R4G: 280
4* Gamora: 284
4* IM: 388

You are not alone and you are not screwed. Hit 725 and shield out in the last 3 or 8 hours depending on how many HP you can spare. If you get lucky, you can hit 800 to 900.

LR is a different ball game, compared to your typical PvP. If you've noticed the top 5 scorers for each LR, most, if not all of them, have multiple fully champed 4* and 5*. Even when I'm looking at the top 30 to 50, most of them are deep in 4* land, so you can see the kind of competition in LR. I believe that LR is open competition. 

Set a goal. My goal for each LR is 2 HT, which would require top 50 and 1 HT for top 100. 250 points are good enough to get top 100 and 310 points are good enough for top 50. Get any higher than that and you are painting a huge target on your team. The most important thing in LR is a decent team, tons of luck (hoping that high level players perceive you as not the easiest team to take out in the last few minutes, causing you to fall from top 50 to out of top 100) and timing.

Mithloren

It is great to here that it is a common situation.  Thanks.  In the LR rounds I just try to hit 5 or 6 to get the 2 standard packs (trying to get 2*s to up my champs) and them I watch myself get hit over and over, heh.
On normal PvP I try to get to 525 for the command point but usually don't make it.

No worries though,  just looks like it will take time. Thanks for all the help everyone! 

HoundofShadow

In my early stage of having a few 3*, I did this:

In the first 24 hours, I will hit 400. The second 24 hours 575 and the last 8 hours 725.

Now, I consolidate all these and go in the last 8 to 16 hours depending on the schedule of my day. Usually, I get to 725 in about 45 minutes and start shielding 3 to 8 hours in advance. More people play in the last 3 to 8 hours so you have more teams to choose to fight against. If you go in early (first 8 hours after your slice open), you hit your goal and you become others' targets.

j0nats

i believe pvp mmr is based on the average of ur 3 highest level chars.    note that the mmr will still match u up with openents a few levels above the average of your 3 highest chars to give u some challenge.  so just look at ur 3 highest chars, add maybe 50 lvels and u get an idea on the level of opponents ull be facing

cschwinge

There is something about the matching that just isn't MMR. In a normal PvP event, I don't get hit by people with 5* champs much, until my score goes above 600 or 700. I do get hit by plenty of people with 3* and 4* that are boosted once I go above 400. And a boosted, champed 3* is ~300+. That guy is right actually right in your MMR. He's just boosted for the event.

I have about 10 3* champed and they are my highest characters at 178.

Just keep filling your 3* champ roster, and pretty soon you'll have several combos that work for you. You'll be better able to pick boosted characters, and you will be able to hit 575 regularly. Also, when you have the essential character champed, that helps a lot

IM40 along with 3*Thor/Switch/Gamora/Kamala all work well for me. Sometimes I bring in a not-very-well covered 4* to run stunlock with Gamora or Switch.

Dormammu

The reason you start seeing more difficult teams at 600+ points is because that's all there is for MMR to match you up with. Players with rosters at or below your level can't or don't get that high and there is a minimum point gain that MMR will offer. If MMR matched you with equivalent rosters the win wouldn't be worth enough points.