How I cured my MPQ addiction.

Alsmir

For a while I've been struggling with playing MPQ. As a (discriminated) user of Steam version, I realized that when I got my rl together, I started having a difficult time commiting enough hours to MPQ to make progress. Relentless stream of new characters and an  absurd amount of time needed to clear PvE and PvP was just too much. 

If I at least I had hope that one day I'll be able to transfer my account to mobile or if the future of MPQ was looking bright...

So I made a decission and took a gamble: "acquired" tons of resources - ISO, HP, CP and started spending them.

First observations:
1. ISO crunch is unreal. It took nearly 5mil just to fully level up the characters that I had already.
2. Heroic 40-packs are insane. Now I know how some people were making fast progress. Champ level rewards pile up and you get plenty of 4*. My best pack was 5x 4* and 2x bonus 4*.
3. 5* progression is garbage. You either go for latest ones or you can forget about 5* champs. I struggled even when I was buying covers for old 5* with 720cp. Unless you're playing from the beginning or whaling - you will not cover many of older 5* chars.

Final observations:
1. PvE becomes trivial and boring. You can plow through nodes with 5* champs, but replaying each node 6 times is still too much grind.
2. PvP matchmaker isn't broken at all. It forces you to spend, giving false promise that you will have easier time. You won't. 90% of teams at 5* level have champed Gambit. You didn't champ him while he was in latest? Sucks to be you.
3. Entire 5* tier is absolutely garbage. Match damage deals too much dmg. Characters are boring and dull. Powers are uninteresting. It's difficult to make fun teams even with all 5* champed. Having just 1 or 2 champs? You will have to play them all the time.
You need to have Gambit and use him all the time. Don't use him and you're in a disadvantage.

My end game goal, my desire - reaching 5* tier - turned out to be a sad disappointment. It's not worth it, not even slightly.
If you still enjoy MPQ - stop at 4* tier. Don't bother with placement -  extremely committed players and whales will always have easier time to grab top places. What's the point of even trying?


It's been 2 or 3 weeks since I last played. I can't even remember and sadly, my only regret is downloading MPQ and getting hooked in the first place.

Have fun and take care.

//Removed Insult -Brigby

Tony_Foot

Good luck, lots I agree with but I thought they would transfer your account to mobile these days?

tiomono

Sorry it was an addiction for you. It is not an addiction for others. I find I just need to set limits on how much I play and be satisfied or accept the progress I make within those limits.

For me self control on a game is vital to my long term satisfaction with it.

Enjoy whatever it is you start filling your extra time with.

Aweberman

Just as a counterweight, I will say that I have been having fun in the 5* tier, which I entered with a champed OML last June, followed by Spidey, Daredevil, and Gambit in October.  (I have since added Thanos and Green Goblin, plus gotten Silver Surfer and Black Panther close.)

It's just as true in 5* land as it was in 4* land that if you only have 1 or 2 champed at that tier you will be using them all the time.  It is sad (but currently true) that Gambit is overly dominant in PVP and that it's too hard to acquire older versions of the characters.  Still, I currently have no regrets about the pace of my progress in the game.

Quebbster

Tony Foot said:

Good luck, lots I agree with but I thought they would transfer your account to mobile these days?

Brigby said customer service can help you move a Steam account to a mobile platform, yes. It only works one way and one time as I understand it, so you can't go back to Steam later.

Calnexin

I'm assuming Alsmir is SLCW, but to any newer players reading that - beware that if you approach the game from his mindset, you will follow a similar path.

The game is setup to make you think you need to cover, champ, and max every character.  You really don't.  For every "the iso crunch is real" post, there is a "I don't use 95% of my roster" post to match.  You do gain slight advantage by champing every character, but so long as you get them rostered, the advantage isn't much.  You can still complete events at your own pace and get all the progression rewards in PvE. 

How far you go does depend on money and time, but whether you enjoy the game depends on your perception of it.  If you think you need a 100% complete status in a game that continually adds content, you are starting with a losing proposition, and you will reach a point where you are unhappy and quit.  If you want to play the game and enjoy it, you need to manage your expectations.

1) Unless you have tens (possibly hundreds) of thousands of dollars of spare cash to spend on the game, you will never be the top player.
2) Unless your work/life schedule allows you to play during critical event start/end times, you will not take first place finishes
3) Unless you have years of experience with the game, any 5* in classics is an unattainable goal, and you should therefore only be aiming to roster, not cover, them.

If any of those is unpalatable to the point of annoyance, enjoy the game for the limited days you have with it.  If you internalize that and are ok with it, the game is very enjoyable, and you can more or less play at your own pace within whatever restrictions your (chosen) alliance places on your performance.  With power creep, the more readily available, newer champions allow you to become competitive in any aspect of the game.  Not #1, but high enough to earn relevant prizes that keep your roster progression moving.

Jabrony_Geoff

Wow, fantastic honest opening post. 

Borstock

I don't see posts like this as productive at all. I see this as "I have buyer's remorse, so I am going to whine my way out the door to the people who still like the game enough to keep playing it".

Gambit and the 5* tier in general have issues. We know. There are threads to discuss those things.

Buh-bye, now.

mexus

All this is pretty much me, and why I also quit. 2.5 months sober.
A few differences though with the major one being I never regretted downloading / starting MPQ. I had fun playing while it was fun! Then it stopped being fun so I stopped playing. Just like you I reached the 5* tier and felt like "well that's it, I'm done here" and realised the rest is just an eternal grind with no apparent goal.

I am glad I quit before the support feature kicked in because damn, that looks like another concern I don't need in my life.

And oh, yes, mexus is still watching you all. All the time. Every step you make.

Phumade

Alsmir said:

First observations:
1. ISO crunch is unreal. It took nearly 5mil just to fully level up the characters that I had already.
2. Heroic 40-packs are insane. Now I know how some people were making fast progress. Champ level rewards pile up and you get plenty of 4*. My best pack was 5x 4* and 2x bonus 4*.
3. 5* progression is garbage. You either go for latest ones or you can forget about 5* champs. I struggled even when I was buying covers for old 5* with 720cp. Unless you're playing from the beginning or whaling - you will not cover many of older 5* chars.

Final observations:
1. PvE becomes trivial and boring. You can plow through nodes with 5* champs, but replaying each node 6 times is still too much grind.
2. PvP matchmaker isn't broken at all. It forces you to spend, giving false promise that you will have easier time. You won't. 90% of teams at 5* level have champed Gambit. You didn't champ him while he was in latest? Sucks to be you.
3. Entire 5* tier is absolutely garbage. Match damage deals too much dmg. Characters are boring and dull. Powers are uninteresting. It's difficult to make fun teams even with all 5* champed. Having just 1 or 2 champs? You will have to play them all the time.
You need to have Gambit and use him all the time. Don't use him and you're in a disadvantage.

My end game goal, my desire - reaching 5* tier - turned out to be a sad disappointment. It's not worth it, not even slightly.
If you still enjoy MPQ - stop at 4* tier. Don't bother with placement -  extremely committed players and whales will always have easier time to grab top places. What's the point of even trying?

Pretty funny post with some surprisingly accurate observations.

5m is trivial when measured over 1000 days.  You either pay with time or money.

PVE is pretty trivial and boring and thats why no one blinks an eye at 7x.  In fact most player pve stories involve them playing while doing some other activity.  This should tell you that there is a very real segment that are completely used to walking and chewing gum (so to speak)

PVP you haven't played MPQ long enough to have experienced a real meta shift in actual time.   Its accurate to say Gambit is overpowered,  but like patch/mags sentry/hood, xfw/hood, thor/xfw. blah blah a newer and bettter combo will come that obsoletes gambit.  It may come through power creep / hard nerf /design counter/ blah blah,  but it will come just like it did for ever other char.  

Overall
Your posts are still just as funny as when you got tripled by a baker's trapcake.  Why did you ever think you were gonna beat an extremely committed player or a whale who spends hard currency?  By definition those two classes are playing to win not just "get by"

TLDR.  Your asumption was that a 5* roster enabled avg players to win and become whales.  The reality is different.  its because those players are either "extremely committed" or buying whales that allows them to win and build rosters.  The 5* trophies and Galleries of 4* dupes is just evidence of the hardcore behavior / buying power.

Neuromancer

Calnexin said:

I'm assuming Alsmir is SLCW.

Salt Lake City Weekly?
Swedish Lutheran Church of Washington?
It is a mystery...

AXP_isme

Spending life chasing whales?

gmtosca

AXP_isme said:

Spending life chasing whales?

They should be called 'Ahab' then.

Quebbster

mexus said:

All this is pretty much me, and why I also quit. 2.5 months sober.
A few differences though with the major one being I never regretted downloading / starting MPQ. I had fun playing while it was fun! Then it stopped being fun so I stopped playing. Just like you I reached the 5* tier and felt like "well that's it, I'm done here" and realised the rest is just an eternal grind with no apparent goal.

I am glad I quit before the support feature kicked in because damn, that looks like another concern I don't need in my life.

And oh, yes, mexus is still watching you all. All the time. Every step you make.

I quit after I went full throttle into the fivestar tier... and then I realized I missed the game and came back. I hoarded once more and got Daredevil, Gambit and Thor champed out of it (in addition to Panthow, OML/Phoenix and a few others), and the game got fun again.
I have said it before and will say it again: The fivestar tier is a lot like the other tiers - it sucks when you first enter it and have to rely on a very limited selection of characters. Once you get more options to choose from it gets better again.

JSP869

Borstock said:

I don't see posts like this as productive at all. I see this as "I have buyer's remorse, so I am going to whine my way out the door to the people who still like the game enough to keep playing it".

Gambit and the 5* tier in general have issues. We know. There are threads to discuss those things.

Buh-bye, now.

I'd hesitate to call it buyer's remorse.  Notice OP doesn't say they bought a bunch of HP?  
  

So I made a decision and took a gamble: "acquired" tons of resources...

Methinks OP acquired their resources in the same way I acquired a ton of Simoleons in The Sims. Until I did that, I was sort of enjoying the game, but the further in I got, the more and more 'grindier' it became. So I also "acquired" a small fortune in Simoleons, redesigned my house, bought a bunch of items I'd had my eye on but previously hadn't been able to afford, and after doing that I realized I had nothing more to play for. By cheating, I took away all the fun I was having, and don't get me wrong, I was enjoying The Sims, right up until I cheated and made my Sims overnight billionaires.

Calnexin

Neuromancer said:

Calnexin said:

I'm assuming Alsmir is SLCW.

Salt Lake City Weekly?
Swedish Lutheran Church of Washington?
It is a mystery...

So Long Cruel World.  

MaxxPowerz

I can't help but agree with most of the op. I feel like the more I progress the harder the game gets.

Now that I have started getting maxed 5 star characters PVP has become crushingly hard. This wouldn't be so bad if the SLC rewards were more forgiving, but now it's even harder to climb to get the same rewards I used to with ease.

Should I really have to shield multiple times to get a measly 3* cover? 

mega ghost

Alsmir said:

As a (discriminated) user of Steam version

I'm going to assume you've never experienced actual discrimination if this is your attitude and choice of words in regards to a mobile game.

Rod5

MaxxPowerz said:

I can't help but agree with most of the op. I feel like the more I progress the harder the game gets.

Now that I have started getting maxed 5 star characters PVP has become crushingly hard. This wouldn't be so bad if the SLC rewards were more forgiving, but now it's even harder to climb to get the same rewards I used to with ease.

Should I really have to shield multiple times to get a measly 3* cover? 

Try a different slice, and maybe even (God forbid) Line, and I promise you will have an easier time.

So long as you join S1/3/4 and don’t try to climb right at the beginning or end, getting at least to 900 should be simple with a 5* roster. Which ones do have?