Still don't get Lightning Rounds

froggerjohn
froggerjohn Posts: 373 Mover and Shaker
in MPQ Tips and Guides
My current roster:
https://mpq.gamependium.com/rosters/froggerjohn/revisions/62

I've had recommendations to try LRs to earn Heroic covers and finish off my 2* champs, but haven't managed to get any top-100 placements in order to achieve that.

I've had some moderate success in PvP by joining late, and have earned top-50 and even one top-10. But I can't get that to work in LRs. Also tried joining right at the start and going through the seed teams (monotonous), but in all cases I seem to wind up matched against teams in upper 200s with full covers well before reaching rank 100. (One 5* Jean Grey, L390, all colors. ****?).

What's the deal?

Comments

  • TPF Alexis
    TPF Alexis Posts: 3,826 Chairperson of the Boards
    Yeah, I don't know how people regularly manage that either. If I play them, it's just hitting the seed teams when I need ISO, not going for placement. I think I got a Heroic token from one once, and I hadn't done anything different than usual, just lucked into an easy bracket or something, I guess.
  • Pongie
    Pongie Posts: 1,412 Chairperson of the Boards
    Join as soon as LR opens and you'll normally get the full 10 seeds. Don't hit them though and wait till the last several minutes (however long it takes to hit 10 seeds). You should end up with 200+ points 
  • TPF Alexis
    TPF Alexis Posts: 3,826 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited April 2018
    Y'know, I haven't once managed to go an hour plus without the app reloading and wiping my seeds. I guess it's a thing for people with better phones.
  • Rod5
    Rod5 Posts: 587 Critical Contributor
    I use LRs for ISO mainly, when I have time I might go for placement, but top LR placement is mostly the preserve of the bigger rosters to be honest. 

    That said, MMR protects smaller rosters from ppl like me till I get higher ie 300-400+, so you might be able to get something if you do what Pongie says and climb hard and late off the seeds. Protect the cache!
  • Richyyy
    Richyyy Posts: 305 Mover and Shaker
    Is there some logic to how many seed teams you get (and whether you get any at all)? It certanly doesn't seem to be based purely on how early you join the event.
  • Rod5
    Rod5 Posts: 587 Critical Contributor
    You need to be in the game when the event starts.

    i think the longer you’re in-game before it starts, the greater the chance of more seeds.
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited April 2018
    Timing is important. You go in early to hit seed team and you stop. LR is a place where any team battles. You play again in the last 10 minutes or so. Observe. Look at the top 50 and top 100. See what score is needed. Forget about top 8 if you don't have fully covered 4* or 5*.
  • froggerjohn
    froggerjohn Posts: 373 Mover and Shaker
    I tried it again three different ways. Had the game open well before the event, and joined at the start, to make sure I got full seeds.

    1. Don't fight anyone until the last 15m
    2. Fight seeds once every 10-15 min or so (trying to be less visible to top players).
    3. Fight all the seeds up front and wait.

    #1 worked somewhat for getting seed points without much retaliation (still got hit during that time anyway though), but only results in a top-500 placing.

    #2 was a disaster. Didn't even make top 500. Got hit numerous times.

    #3 best results, but only up to rank 270 or so.

    Seems like the problem is that joining right at the start puts me in a pool filled with advanced users. So there just aren't beatable opponents at the end.

    It must ultimately come down to getting in a better pool, by delaying the join time.
  • Quebbster
    Quebbster Posts: 8,070 Chairperson of the Boards

    There are no pools in Lightning rounds, it's all one big bracket (or at least not many different brackets).

    Really, it all comes down to queue management. If you can save the seed teams until late in the round, you can climb comfortably off them and be in a pretty good position since other players won't have had much opportunity to queue you. It's risky though since you can easily lose the seed team queue - it's very fragile.

    But if approach 3 gives you the best results, stick with that for now. There's still ISO and the occasional two-star cover drop you get from the rounds, and starting immediately means less worrying about queue management and placement.

  • Dormammu
    Dormammu Posts: 3,531 Chairperson of the Boards
    froggerjohn said:
    I've had recommendations to try LRs to earn Heroic covers and finish off my 2* champs, but haven't managed to get any top-100 placements in order to achieve that.
    In LRs, like normal PvP events, placement shouldn't be a concern until you hit the 4-star tier. It just isn't realistic until then. But LRs still have a use for lower-tiered rosters and can be used to try and get more 2-star covers. Jumping in at the very beginning of the event and farming seed teams to 200-250 points will net you a nice chunk of ISO, possibly 2-star covers, and a couple of standard tokens. While not as sexy as Heroics, standard tokens do yield their fair share of 2-star covers.

    What I do is: Fight all the seed teams up front and stop. Whatever placement that gives me is usually another small chunk of ISO and I move on with my day.
  • Rod5
    Rod5 Posts: 587 Critical Contributor
    BlackBoltRocks said:
    Dormammu said:

    What I do is: Fight all the seed teams up front and stop. Whatever placement that gives me is usually another small chunk of ISO and I move on with my day.
    This.

    Forget about placement entirely; treat Lightning Rounds as purely a source of iso, and you'll never have to worry about it.
    Or if you start late just keep on hitting till you’re high enough to place somewhere and throw a small shield down - you get a Heroic for T100. Worst case you don’t get there and get hit a few times...nothing lost though.
  • skittledaddy
    skittledaddy Posts: 999 Critical Contributor
    My advice - skip LR. Period. 
    No matter where you place or what rewards you earn along the way, the rewards just aren't worth it. 
    Heroics always disappoint and the ISO amounts are trivial. 
  • Dormammu
    Dormammu Posts: 3,531 Chairperson of the Boards
    skittledaddy said:
    My advice - skip LR. Period. 
    No matter where you place or what rewards you earn along the way, the rewards just aren't worth it. 
    Heroics always disappoint and the ISO amounts are trivial. 
    This is a pretty old thread to be digging up, but I couldn't disagree more.
  • froggerjohn
    froggerjohn Posts: 373 Mover and Shaker
    I had all but given these up for being tedious and repetitive, but a newly-champed Thanos makes quick work of the seed teams, and the iso/minute return now is well worth it.


  • Quebbster
    Quebbster Posts: 8,070 Chairperson of the Boards
    skittledaddy said:
    My advice - skip LR. Period. 
    No matter where you place or what rewards you earn along the way, the rewards just aren't worth it. 
    Heroics always disappoint and the ISO amounts are trivial. 


    The thing is Heroic pulls are preset, so the more tokens you open the quicker you get the good pulls. Sure, there will be a lot of "meh" pulls, but with enough volume you will get good pulls more often.

    As for the ISO, it may seem trivial but really adds up in the long run. Up to you to decide if it's Worth it or not of course, but ISO is probably the game resource you need most of and every Little bit helps.

  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,460 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited July 2018
    it takes less time to thanos-clear a seed team than it does to navigate the menus to get into the match. I just jump in when I notice them, clear seeds, move on. sometimes i get lucky with the standard token or the after-match reward, but either way it's like 3 minutes to get through even a full stack of seeds. it's little drips and drabs of iso, but you can fill a bucket with enough raindrops...
  • Warbringa
    Warbringa Posts: 1,299 Chairperson of the Boards
    Only play them for the extra iso you get.  I don't play them because they aren't worth my time but if you have the time, they are another way to help add some extra iso.  Don't worry about placement you won't place high in them unless you have  a top roster anyway.
  • DanielleL
    DanielleL Posts: 119 Tile Toppler
    Like others said, I play them for the ISO. Also, to maybe get lucky and get a 2* for winning a match. 

    I just find it frustrating where I join only a minute after they start and the seeds are already gone. 
  • SymmeTrey
    SymmeTrey Posts: 170 Tile Toppler
    edited August 2018
    The easy seed wins are the main appeal to LRs. However, if you are super bored and just want as much ISO as possible, you can play them heavily and break MMR... once you do that, you can then get enough wins to earn 5k or so ISO in a single LR.

    The main strategy is to climb to 300ish, so, that you break MMR and can see everyone at your point level. This is most easily done by hitting a lot of seed teams, then you just need 2-3 "real" wins after a full slate of seed teams. You can then start farming some easy wins from 2-star teams. This isn't very appealing to an early player, but, for players with established rosters, these are some of the easiest PVP wins you can get.

    You beat on some 2-star teams, eventually get beat by a higher level player, and start climbing again. If you do this all the way to the last 10 minutes, it can be worthwhile to throw up a 15-minute shield when you are over 400 points to get 2-3 heroic tokens.

    The main thing about LRs is to realize that placement is basically pointless, just focus on getting a lot of wins and match rewards.

    This was once more appealing before saved covers (back when we were in a race to champ a 4-star to save covers), but, these days this kind of kind of feels like a waste of time and it was never efficient... however, if you just want to play, this is a way to do it.

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