Approaching 3* completion, and not sure where to focus

froggerjohn

Current Roster:
https://mpq.gamependium.com/rosters/froggerjohn/revisions/104

The best 3* characters are fully-covered now, but still waiting on iso to champ some of them. My best vine covers (Cyclops) are the furthest out, so I want to be careful with the iso. But I'll champ these as I can.

The feeders for my two best 4*s (Ant Man and Wasp) are not yet fully covered, and with the iso crunch already, I need to move 3BH to where it will do the most good in existing champ levels. I'm contemplating these:

3Gambit - Will boost both health and damage for the winfinite team along with KK and Mohawk. Eventually produces Rogue covers.

KK - I use her a lot, and will boost the healing

Patch - One of the keys to PvE speed, but not sure how much he will scale up.
Strange - Ditto, and when it comes down to it, speed against goons is already fast, and I'd be more interested to improve teams against tile-movers. Which brings us to...

Falcon - A recent champ, and an interesting team with 4Wasp and Switch. It feels like one of my only accelerated teams against three active tile movers. Although that probably changes now that 4Wasp left boosted status. 


As far as overall goals, I'm playing PvE at SCL6, and usually get t10 placements with some t5. I've been avoiding SCL7 since I won't have the 5e character, and assume that will drive placements quite a bit lower. But at some point, the increased progression awards more than make up for that, and I suspect I'm close to the point where I should be considering that level. 5 clears on SCL7 might be a similar time investment to the full 7 clears on SCL6. Just not sure what the tradeoffs are.

Dormammu

The tradeoffs are a 4-star in progression in SCL7 vs. SCL6. It's where you want to be and don't worry about placement. (On 7-day events it's two 4-stars in progression.) You'll get back to placing using my method below.

So... where to focus? It's really simple. You're near ready to begin your transition to the 4-star tier and covers are your only obstacle. That's easily remedied. I assume you're still hoarding? CP and LTs will get you where you want to be and they'll start netting you some 5-star covers so you can get into 5-star essential nodes as well. All I can do is give you the method I used when I was in the same place:

1) Finish your 3-stars. You don't want unchamped 3-stars nagging at your soul when you make the transition. Finish them all and get them done with. That's 3 tiers down and leaves you open to focus entirely on your 4-stars, enabling you to use any 3-star cover you gain without waste.

2) Hoard. Hoard all CP and LTs. Make it a habit. A lifestyle choice. Hoard, hoard, hoard. Do this until you have your 3-stars done and both A: an open roster slot, and B: enough ISO to champ a fully-covered 4-star.

3) Use your LTs and/or CP until you either A: get a new character that takes your open roster slot, or B: you fully cover a 4-star and open a 14th cover. Once either of these things happen, stop opening tokens. (As a side note, I suggest using your CP on Classic Legends, but it's entirely up to you.)

4) If it was a 14th cover that made you stop, champ that character and get your first champ level, which is a LT.

5) Wait until you have enough resources to fulfill step 2 again.

6) Repeat steps 2 thru 5. This will minimize cover waste because you are now in full-on ISO-shortage mode due to the cost of champing a 4-star (roughly 3x the cost of champing a 3-star) and the sheer volume of them.

ThaRoadWarrior

Speaking as someone that sold off a bunch of champ 3*s to make room for 4*s, and only went back to a full roster of 3s after I had 20+ 4* champs, Dormamu's advice will be a better long term move for you lol. I finally champed my last 3* only just the other day. This game wants you to build from the bottom up, and it will absolutely give you the cover most most likely to make you spend on something when you can use it least. You either need to make peace with hoarding, or make piece with throwing away rare covers. 

When I was chasing 4s and 5s, I used to keep a "flex slot" for my required character 3*s. You typically get the one you need for the event as a reward before you reach the end of sub 1, and usually a duo of champs can carry a 1 cover. So that's potentially bad advice, but it's how I did it.

froggerjohn

Apologies for not putting this in "Roster and Level Help". Could have sworn I was in there, but if a moderator could move this discussion, that would be great.

Thanks guys for the valuable thoughts. I've fully embraced hoarding since the beginning, so that part is taken care of. I'm just starting to scratch the CPs when I have the space. With over 1/2 of the 4*s covered now, it's decent odds of building on characters I already have before I pull a new one.

I'll keep an eye out for an event that's mostly goons, and has an attractive 4* cover reward, and try out SCL7.

For now, I set the 3BH to get more levels on Gambit.

ssbledsoe

I'd suggest jumping to SCL7 when you have the required 4* decently covered.  Some of the required 4* nodes can get pretty cumbersome as you're transitioning from 3* to 4* land.  Having to go at those 4e nodes with a 1-2 cover 4* amps up the difficulty quite a bit, but the 4* progression cover really helps expand and build your roster.

Also, Dormammu's advice is extremely good advice.  Based on your roster, you're a pretty disciplined player and it will really serve you well.  You'll be champing 4*s before you know it!

froggerjohn

Is the 4e node in SCL7 (and for that matter, all the nodes) the same characters as in SCL6, but at a higher level?

The current Meet R&G for example had Doom and two goons in the 4e node. That should be trivial at any reasonable level for IM40 + Strange. I just need to pick an event that doesn't throw three active tile-movers in there.

DAZ0273

There isn't really any downside to BH Strange for the timebeing until you formulate your plan. His BH 4* is Nova which you have 4 covers for and he is decent.

However if you are going to open a horde then I would concentrate on the 3Falcon/4Wasp dynamic, that is a team that can punch way above its weight and Falcon's aoe alone is pretty decent and highly unusual in being a purple Shield active.

DAZ0273

ssbledsoe said:

I'd suggest jumping to SCL7 when you have the required 4* decently covered.  Some of the required 4* nodes can get pretty cumbersome as you're transitioning from 3* to 4* land.  Having to go at those 4e nodes with a 1-2 cover 4* amps up the difficulty quite a bit, but the 4* progression cover really helps expand and build your roster.

Also, Dormammu's advice is extremely good advice.  Based on your roster, you're a pretty disciplined player and it will really serve you well.  You'll be champing 4*s before you know it!

Yeah - the key to playing the 4E when you are transitioning is trying to keep that low cover 4* alive to complete your clears, otherwise it is a massive health pack sink. Obviously strong boosted 3* to try and protect it are important the more health you have for a potentially useless 4* the better.

Jaedenkaal

froggerjohn said:

Is the 4e node in SCL7 (and for that matter, all the nodes) the same characters as in SCL6, but at a higher level?

The current Meet R&G for example had Doom and two goons in the 4e node. That should be trivial at any reasonable level for IM40 + Strange. I just need to pick an event that doesn't throw three active tile-movers in there.

The nodes are all the same, but at higher levels.

Dormammu

froggerjohn said:

Is the 4e node in SCL7 (and for that matter, all the nodes) the same characters as in SCL6, but at a higher level?

The current Meet R&G for example had Doom and two goons in the 4e node. That should be trivial at any reasonable level for IM40 + Strange. I just need to pick an event that doesn't throw three active tile-movers in there.

Doom is not a problem. Doom and 2 goons is not a problem. Doom and 2 AP feeders... now we've got a problem 

I forget what event I was just in, I think it was one of the Growth Industry events, where I was facing a level 454 Doom and he had two feeders enabling him to cast summon demons every other turn. Yikes!

back on topic...

You should be able to handle anything in SCL7, @froggerjohn, whether they are active tile-matchers or not. Active opponents usually just means more health pack usage. Against goons you have IM40/Patch/Strange who can punch far above their level. Against active opponents swap out Strange for Daken, which gives you two true healers and will eliminate the need for a lot of health packs. IM40/Cap/Kamala will also hold their own against high-level active opponents. Hawkeye is another fantastic choice against active matchers because his blue can stop a team in its tracks and he has a true heal as well.

Come up with three or four teams from among your 3-stars (that don't overlap) to use in those tougher PvE nodes. When one team is exhausted of health, go to team two, then three, etc.

Storm/Fist/Falcon (great synergy, make Storm's black your priority)
Thor/Panther/Deadpool (3 big AoEs)
Magneto/Widow/Switch (board shake, nukes, AoE, stun)
Spidey/Hawkeye/Gamora (flexible team, no bad boards)

While none of these are meta-defining teams, they have enough synergy and/or rainbow coverage to get some clears done against active opponents. This allows you to use more of your roster while preserving your best characters (IM40, Strange, Cap, Patch, Thanos) for when you need them (like 4E nodes).

froggerjohn

Excellent point about Doom + two AP feeders. I found that out the hard way when I was rushing, not paying enough attention to enemy AP, and lost a character. Had to bail and restart, and the end result was missing my last clear by probably 15 seconds.

I'm actually looking forward to ignoring placement for a little while, even if the matches are harder. Maybe the next one after DP v MPQ.

Love your suggestion about rolling several different teams, and many of those combos I haven't tried before. Over and above the HP savings, it would add some variety of play, which is another worthwhile goal.

Curious about "swap out Strange for Daken", which would seem to indicate  IM40/Patch/Daken, and eating quite a bit of damage from the enemy strikes. Even with true healers, that sounds pretty rough.

The other comment I'd love to get a bit more info about, is Hawkeye's blue. I've really only used him on Sentry-based nodes (he and Bullseye really transformed those for me), and the blue descriptions don't seem that exciting, even if I bump the covers to 5.

I was planning to try Switch/Bulls3ye/Patch. 14 purple will do 2x Lethal Improv after Patch's Green. Likely enough to kill someone and proc Contract Killer for lots more strikes.

Next time Kraven is boosted, I'm going to try Kraven/Elektra/Patch. Elektra steals 2 and adds 3, giving extra margin for that 6-tile threshold for Kraven to reduce the enemy strikes. (And immediately reducing damage on that first counterstrike after Patch's green).

Pongie

I have 4-5 3* champions that I have yet to maxed. 3* is pretty much a year long farm now (compared to 2* farms that takes about a month to cycle). My decision is to focus the 3* bonus hero on those that could feed 4* and perhaps 5*. So far the candidates are:

Squirrel Girl > Antman > Wasp
Rocket & Groot > Drax > Starlord
Hawkeye > Kate Bishop > Hawkeye
Bulleyes > Kingpin > DareDevil
Kamala Khan > Medusa > Blackbolt
Psylocke > Peggy > Cap
Wolverine > Xforce > OML
Colossus > Xforce > OML

I then removed those with 2* feeders (hawkeye, bulleyes and wolverine), colossus since oml has 2 feeders, kamala since I already used bonus hero to get the 6 blackbolt covers already, psylocke since peggy is fairly high level. That leaves me with rocket & groot or squirrel girl. I previously had it on rocket & groot so maybe I'll switch it up to squirrel girl.

Dormammu

froggerjohn said:

Curious about "swap out Strange for Daken", which would seem to indicate  IM40/Patch/Daken, and eating quite a bit of damage from the enemy strikes. Even with true healers, that sounds pretty rough.

The other comment I'd love to get a bit more info about, is Hawkeye's blue. I've really only used him on Sentry-based nodes (he and Bullseye really transformed those for me), and the blue descriptions don't seem that exciting, even if I bump the covers to 5.

IM40 generates AP, you can clear out a couple guys out with Daken's blue and IM40's red, finish the last enemy off with Patch's green. Daken and Patch will tank a majority of the colors and heal much of the damage taken.

Hawkeye's blue is cheap and easy to spam. The first arrow gives a 4-turn stun, after that things get crazy and he starts shooting exploding arrows, doing AoE, making charged tiles, etc. His purple dishes it out, too.

ThaRoadWarrior

the soft benefit of running Hawk3ye with Patch is that Hawkeye accrues AP on his colors for matching enemy specials similar to how Medusa does

froggerjohn

> IM40 + Daken + Patch

Thanks for the clarification. I'm used to either firing Patch's green first against goons, or making sure I can eliminate/reduce enemy strikes against tile-movers. Sounds like it's a "finishing move" here, and relying more on healing the damage earlier in the match.

> Hawkeye blue

I'll give it a try in DP vs MPQ. Timing was good to be given an event with all active tile-movers right when I was trying to get suggestions for dealing with them.

> 4Wasp + Falcon + Switch

Even unboosted, this team exceeded expectations, and still rocks with a 4/1/2 Wasp. It's very quick to reach 2K+ match damage, and multiple paths to get to either 4K damage, or damage + lots of shielding. Switch's green can be raised to 5 (since Falcon will use the purple), giving both her and Falcon red the ability to remove enemy specials. Wasp AP-steal helps a bit, and the occasional small stun thrown in too.

The only downside, if you can call it that, is that it worked so well I didn't get to try out the other teams yet.

DAZ0273

Dormammu said:

froggerjohn said:

Curious about "swap out Strange for Daken", which would seem to indicate  IM40/Patch/Daken, and eating quite a bit of damage from the enemy strikes. Even with true healers, that sounds pretty rough.

The other comment I'd love to get a bit more info about, is Hawkeye's blue. I've really only used him on Sentry-based nodes (he and Bullseye really transformed those for me), and the blue descriptions don't seem that exciting, even if I bump the covers to 5.

Hawkeye's blue is cheap and easy to spam. The first arrow gives a 4-turn stun, after that things get crazy and he starts shooting exploding arrows, doing AoE, making charged tiles, etc. His purple dishes it out, too.

Edit: And his black is a true heal. As the wise Dormammu had already pointed out!

DAZ0273

froggerjohn said:

> IM40 + Daken + Patch

Thanks for the clarification. I'm used to either firing Patch's green first against goons, or making sure I can eliminate/reduce enemy strikes against tile-movers. Sounds like it's a "finishing move" here, and relying more on healing the damage earlier in the match.

> Hawkeye blue

I'll give it a try in DP vs MPQ. Timing was good to be given an event with all active tile-movers right when I was trying to get suggestions for dealing with them.

> 4Wasp + Falcon + Switch

Even unboosted, this team exceeded expectations, and still rocks with a 4/1/2 Wasp. It's very quick to reach 2K+ match damage, and multiple paths to get to either 4K damage, or damage + lots of shielding. Switch's green can be raised to 5 (since Falcon will use the purple), giving both her and Falcon red the ability to remove enemy specials. Wasp AP-steal helps a bit, and the occasional small stun thrown in too.

The only downside, if you can call it that, is that it worked so well I didn't get to try out the other teams yet.

If that team has a weakness then it is probably that Falcon doesn't have overly high health for a 3* (even Wanda has higher health) and until you get your shields out you are vulnerable. Obviously that is OK when you have his shields to protect him but once you flip he can be vulnerable again. Of course you will be shredding opponents after that so hopefully they don't sneak in too many hits!

froggerjohn

Taking this team into SCL7 (I'm doing this event in SCL6 still, so the damage is manageable), I might use a +2 yellow boost, so that I could make an initial cast of Wasp's yellow after one match, giving one strike and one shield. Then you need two more yellow matches plus the 9 purple to cast the combo, and you'll still have a shield tile after that. (If the original strike survived).

Dormammu

You can be a lot safer by swapping out Switch and plugging in 2Bullseye. As you are (or your enemy is) matching purple for Falcon, Bullseye will be making protect tiles which get pretty beefy. It'll shut down all match damage at the very least. They also give Falcon something to augment with his passive yellow as you're matching yellow for Wasp's eventual flip. The other added advantage of Bullseye is that you don't have to wait for Falcon's purple in order for Wasp to do her thing.

fight4thedream

froggerjohn said:

Apologies for not putting this in "Roster and Level Help". Could have sworn I was in there, but if a moderator could move this discussion, that would be great.

No worries! Consider it done.