Excessive difficulty to reach 5*

MissoesRicRose
MissoesRicRose Posts: 258 Mover and Shaker
I do not know for the other players, but at least here, I have realized at times that it is extremely difficult, or almost impossible, to achieve a 5* character. I already have almost all 4* in champion.
I believe that something has to be done about this. Improve the odds, or change the system to facilitate the collection of a 5*
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Comments

  • Rod5
    Rod5 Posts: 585 Critical Contributor
    Simple. Collect CPs and Latest tokens, wait until there are 3 (or at least 2) 5*s in Latest that are strong, then open till you have enough of each to champ.

    You’ll need 300-400 pulls to be sure of all 3.
  • MissoesRicRose
    MissoesRicRose Posts: 258 Mover and Shaker
    This is what everyone does. And even doing it this way, most of the time the result is also unsatisfactory. This only confirms exaggerated difficulty that is to achieve a 5 *. Further, with the addition of several 4 *.
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    Here are the available ways to get 5*:

    1) Latest or Classic Tokens
    2) Hero for Hire (250 or 500CP)
    3) Feeders
    4) Purchase unlocked power at 720 CP 

    Given that 5* are the most powerful characters that you can use, naturally it is more difficult to acquire.

    What do you think the odds should be changed to? Currently It stands at ~1:7. I doubt changing to ~1:5 or ~1:6 is going to make much difference. You gain an extra ~17 covers or extra ~8 covers respectively per 300 pulls. 

    What do you think the likelihood of the odds getting changed to 1:4 is? I think it's virtually impossible. 

    As you can see, guaranteed ways to get 5* are much more expensive than getting it through RNG. Be prepared to spend ~ 300 - 500CP to get a guaranteed  cover of your choice. I'm not sure how many will buy it.

    I think there are some players here who are able to cover multiple 5* without saving up for 300 pulls.  

    As some say, MPQ is a marathon, not a race. You just reached the next stage. 

  • tiomono
    tiomono Posts: 1,651 Chairperson of the Boards
    They have added many 4*s champion rewards to help with gaining 5*s. It is slow going but they have continually made things easier and more accessible. 

    Personally I hate the hoard and spend it all on latests tactic. I hate locking characters away with no way to earn them. So for me to spend all my resources to get a shot at the 3 newest 5*'s while locking all the rest into bonus hero odds is no good. That is why I pull classics. It is slower to get into the 5 star tier because of dilution but I am progressing toward it steadily. When I get to the stage of wanting to spend iso on my 5*s to fully make the leap I will have a broader selection not just the latest 3. I already have 1 champed, daredevil. He is a great first 5* good damage and amazing sustain. I have 3 more at 12 covers and 2 at 11 covers. I did have gambit before his nerf. I was seeing if I could fully cover a 5 in latests pulling solely latests. With the old cs cover swap I could. But now that any 6th or more cover i get in a single color for any character can be saved and not wasted i feel classics is the right choice for me.

    The 5* tier is not impossible to get into. And hoarding yo spend it all on latests is not the only way to progress into the tier.
  • Dragon_Nexus
    Dragon_Nexus Posts: 3,701 Chairperson of the Boards
    Personally I found the 5* thing didn't happen until I'd nearly maxed all my 4*s. Once that had happened and I stopped getting classic legendaries (you get more cos they're cheaper) suddenly the new ones look more enticing.

    That said it's still very frustrating how RNG it is. I haven't had a bonus 5* in ages and Okoye, JJ and Beardcap are all lacking that last little bit to finish them off. Time's running out for Okoye and I'm worried I'll not manage to champ her before then. Relying entirely on RNG is a pain in the butt. Not to mention all the older 5*s I'd still like to champ either because they're good (Black Bolt, Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Hawkeye) or because I just like the charactewr (Black Widow, Captain America).

    Unless the new 5* is a big old pile of meh, I don't see a time when I'm going to start using classic legendaries again.
  • crackninja
    crackninja Posts: 444 Mover and Shaker
    tiomono said:
    They have added many 4*s champion rewards to help with gaining 5*s. It is slow going but they have continually made things easier and more accessible. 

    Personally I hate the hoard and spend it all on latests tactic. I hate locking characters away with no way to earn them. So for me to spend all my resources to get a shot at the 3 newest 5*'s while locking all the rest into bonus hero odds is no good. That is why I pull classics. It is slower to get into the 5 star tier because of dilution but I am progressing toward it steadily. When I get to the stage of wanting to spend iso on my 5*s to fully make the leap I will have a broader selection not just the latest 3. I already have 1 champed, daredevil. He is a great first 5* good damage and amazing sustain. I have 3 more at 12 covers and 2 at 11 covers. I did have gambit before his nerf. I was seeing if I could fully cover a 5 in latests pulling solely latests. With the old cs cover swap I could. But now that any 6th or more cover i get in a single color for any character can be saved and not wasted i feel classics is the right choice for me.

    The 5* tier is not impossible to get into. And hoarding yo spend it all on latests is not the only way to progress into the tier.
    There is more than one way to do it, but I just cannot recommend this strategy to anyone that doesn't already have good coverage in their classics, and even with that, you are facing an uphill RNG battle as far as competing characters you actually want.  It's true that in the very long run you'll have more diversity, but it comes at quite a cost. 
  • tiomono
    tiomono Posts: 1,651 Chairperson of the Boards
    tiomono said:
    They have added many 4*s champion rewards to help with gaining 5*s. It is slow going but they have continually made things easier and more accessible. 

    Personally I hate the hoard and spend it all on latests tactic. I hate locking characters away with no way to earn them. So for me to spend all my resources to get a shot at the 3 newest 5*'s while locking all the rest into bonus hero odds is no good. That is why I pull classics. It is slower to get into the 5 star tier because of dilution but I am progressing toward it steadily. When I get to the stage of wanting to spend iso on my 5*s to fully make the leap I will have a broader selection not just the latest 3. I already have 1 champed, daredevil. He is a great first 5* good damage and amazing sustain. I have 3 more at 12 covers and 2 at 11 covers. I did have gambit before his nerf. I was seeing if I could fully cover a 5 in latests pulling solely latests. With the old cs cover swap I could. But now that any 6th or more cover i get in a single color for any character can be saved and not wasted i feel classics is the right choice for me.

    The 5* tier is not impossible to get into. And hoarding yo spend it all on latests is not the only way to progress into the tier.
    There is more than one way to do it, but I just cannot recommend this strategy to anyone that doesn't already have good coverage in their classics, and even with that, you are facing an uphill RNG battle as far as competing characters you actually want.  It's true that in the very long run you'll have more diversity, but it comes at quite a cost. 
    And the cost of opening just latests means you never get a chance at pulling 23 characters and growing. That is way too steep a cost in my personal opinion. The new release stores are too infrequent to offset this and you never have a guarantee that a classic 5* that you want will turn up in one of these stores. 

    For me classics with the 5* feeders is giving me good progress. I feel that the 4* tier is the meat of the game and am not feeling rushed to get into the 5* tier. If clearance level 10 opened up and was pretty much mandatory to have 5*s champed due to enemy levels I think I would still be happy in scl 9 getting the rewards I currently am and progressing my way up to scl 10 eventually.


    Others feel differently and that's fine. I was just letting the OP know that there is not only one way to advance.
  • Dormammu
    Dormammu Posts: 3,531 Chairperson of the Boards
    Personally I found the 5* thing didn't happen until I'd nearly maxed all my 4*s.
    This is pretty accurate. The game is good at slowly pushing you to the next tier through champ rewards. Once you start getting 4-star champ rewards and building towards max-champing 3-stars, your LT income increases quite a bit. The 4-star feeders are nice for obtaining a 5-star cover or two, but after that its about smart management of resources.

    Like it or not, hoarding CP is the best way to cover 5-stars. Whether you're looking to get someone out of the latest three, chasing a classic out of a 5-star release vault, or buying a cover out of the HfH store, having a stockpile of CP gives you options.
  • Jexman
    Jexman Posts: 165 Tile Toppler
    I have three champed 5*, another at 435, and a fourth at 13 covers. I've never hoarded anything in this game, and I've been mostly f2p. I did draw exclusively latest legends when I was finishing off the 3* tier for the first time and getting tons of tokens & cp. I'm drawing classics again now because I don't like 5Loki or 5Wasp much, and I only have a 2-1-2 Okoye so maxing isn't happening on latests. But that's just to say again: you can get to the 5* tier without hoarding (n.b. I've been playing since the first month of the game and have missed very few days since then, so newer players may not have the same experience).
  • KC_Hammer
    KC_Hammer Posts: 84 Match Maker
    edited September 2018
    Currently I have about 15 4*s unchamped. I've mainly only bought classic legends tokens with CP, except when i spent a hoard a few times. The only time I hoarded is when i was still working on my 3* roster, when i didn't have HP to roster someone and when I ran out of iso to champ and had a cover dying. All told that was maybe 4 or 5 times. Except for that I have spent CP and LL tokens as i get them. I have 4 fully covered 5*. So I don't think the strategy mentioned above is necessary if you don't want. Ironically I don't want to enter the 5* tier cause it sounds pretty boring, and even trying to not get 5*s covered I did at a pretty decent pace.
    Edit: typo
  • Jexman
    Jexman Posts: 165 Tile Toppler
    Off-topic, but moving to the 5* tier was a good decision for me. Yes, you end up using your champs most of the time, but it turns out that you'll want to, because they speed up your play so much just on match damage alone. I have almost all 4*s champed but when I'm required to use just a 2*, 3*, 4* in PVE I'm shocked at how slowly the match goes.
  • Straycat
    Straycat Posts: 963 Critical Contributor
    Thats how I felt about it until I had my first 5* champ. Never hoarded really, switched from opening classics to latests and back to classics. And now I have 7 champs. All f2p, no hoarding.
  • barrok
    barrok Posts: 37 Just Dropped In
    I have to echo the OP's statement. I know this game is a 'marathon', but even if you progress through the correct avenues (champ 3*'s, champ 4*'s) there is still no guarantee that you will be 5* land within the first year of playing. It could take you even longer (unless you horde or spend a ton of money). 

    It's really frustrating. As someone who doesn't enjoy hording, I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel. There are tons of 4*'s, and you only get 5*'s or legendary tokens from 4*'s every 10 champed levels... and getting 10 of a single 4* is darn near impossible thanks to how many there are (on top of the original 13 covers to max em). 
     (i have been back playing almost 80 days now, and my original champed 4*'s only have gotten 2 levels each other than carnages SCL bundle). 

    To add insult to injury, it's quite common to see rosters where they obviously horded because they might have only half the 3*'s champed, and a few 4*'s, but then have 3 really solid 5*'s. So they were able to "sprint" into 5* land while individuals who don't try and skip 3* and 4* get stuck with lots of low covered 5*'s. 

  • Hendross
    Hendross Posts: 762 Critical Contributor
    The fact you can't keep pace with the 5 star release cycle without hoarding, I'd say the dangling carrot is working as intended.  This model is the defacto standard for free-to-play games.  Once a critical mass is reached whereas people can routinely earn 5-star champs, I'll be expecting 6-star toons.
  • BoyWonder1914
    BoyWonder1914 Posts: 884 Critical Contributor
    tiomono said:

    Personally I hate the hoard and spend it all on latests tactic. I hate locking characters away with no way to earn them. So for me to spend all my resources to get a shot at the 3 newest 5*'s while locking all the rest into bonus hero odds is no good. That is why I pull classics. It is slower to get into the 5 star tier because of dilution but I am progressing toward it steadily. When I get to the stage of wanting to spend iso on my 5*s to fully make the leap I will have a broader selection not just the latest 3. I already have 1 champed, daredevil. He is a great first 5* good damage and amazing sustain. I have 3 more at 12 covers and 2 at 11 covers. I did have gambit before his nerf. I was seeing if I could fully cover a 5 in latests pulling solely latests. With the old cs cover swap I could. But now that any 6th or more cover i get in a single color for any character can be saved and not wasted i feel classics is the right choice for me.

    I've taken this strategy as well. I've never saved up 2-3K CP and blown it all on Latest, the most I ever do is hoard 1K CP and spend on classics, trying to cover newer 4s. I'm about to do this now actually when the new season starts, trying to finish off Iron Spidey, Ghost, Emma, Nebula and Dazzler. I just take whatever Classic 5s I get on the way, as it hasn't necessarily been a goal to reach the 5* tier. Doesn't mean I don't pull latest, I still pull the tokens I get from champ rewards, Crash, and vaults. Just doing that, I got Lumbercap up to 4/3/5, DareDevil to 4/3/5, and actually fully covered Gambit when those guys were in Latest. I have 6 fully covered 5-stars otherwise, with several more that are only 1-2 covers away. Of those that are just a cover or two short, most of them have a feeder that will finish them even if I don't manage to pull the last cover(s) through classics: 

    20 more Gamora covers will finish my Thanos at 5/5/3
    17 more Peggy covers will finish my 1st Avenger Cap at 3/5/5
    18 more Winter Soldier covers will finish my IW Cap at 4/4/5
    7 more Kingpin covers will finish my DareDevil at 4/4/5
    23 more Drax covers will finish my Star-Lord at 5/4/4

    Feeders and saved covers are a huge boost to helping finish these guys. Complaints about who gets chosen aside, I'd have a much harder time finishing these guys if they never made those changes. It'll take 46 more champ levels for my Blonde Widow to finish my Nata5ha, but that's better than just hoping for RnG's good graces like you have to do for most folks. I also have a P5ter Parker who will be 5/5/2 after Vulture gets 16 more covers to 320. but he also has 2 saved covers, so just needs 1 more to be able to trade in. Pushing into the 5-star tier definitely isn't impossible, but it takes patience, which wasn't hard for me considering that wasn't even my goal when pulling tokens before. You don't HAVE to chase Latest only, but I def understand that strategy. 
  • Phumade
    Phumade Posts: 2,477 Chairperson of the Boards
    barrok said:
    I have to echo the OP's statement. I know this game is a 'marathon', but even if you progress through the correct avenues (champ 3*'s, champ 4*'s) there is still no guarantee that you will be 5* land within the first year of playing. It could take you even longer (unless you horde or spend a ton of money). 

    The real issue is how the devs set unrealistic player expectations. As someone who's played the game since the first 3 months of availability. The avg dedicated players is probably getting their first 5* champ around day 500, and aren't realistically competing in 5* land till day 700+. In fact, almost every veteran player would tell you getting a single champed 5* in under 2 years would require either astounding amounts of play or significant spending. Use Bigler's thread on his account restart to set realistic guidelines and expectations. Even his account is growing twice as fast as any veteran player account was at that same stage.
  • crackninja
    crackninja Posts: 444 Mover and Shaker
    tiomono said:
    crackninja said: no
    tiomono said:
    They have added many 4*s champion rewards to help with gaining 5*s. It is slow going but they have continually made things easier and more accessible. 

    Personally I hate the hoard and spend it all on latests tactic. I hate locking characters away with no way to earn them. So for me to spend all my resources to get a shot at the 3 newest 5*'s while locking all the rest into bonus hero odds is no good. That is why I pull classics. It is slower to get into the 5 star tier because of dilution but I am progressing toward it steadily. When I get to the stage of wanting to spend iso on my 5*s to fully make the leap I will have a broader selection not just the latest 3. I already have 1 champed, daredevil. He is a great first 5* good damage and amazing sustain. I have 3 more at 12 covers and 2 at 11 covers. I did have gambit before his nerf. I was seeing if I could fully cover a 5 in latests pulling solely latests. With the old cs cover swap I could. But now that any 6th or more cover i get in a single color for any character can be saved and not wasted i feel classics is the right choice for me.

    The 5* tier is not impossible to get into. And hoarding yo spend it all on latests is not the only way to progress into the tier.
    There is more than one way to do it, but I just cannot recommend this strategy to anyone that doesn't already have good coverage in their classics, and even with that, you are facing an uphill RNG battle as far as competing characters you actually want.  It's true that in the very long run you'll have more diversity, but it comes at quite a cost. 
    And the cost of opening just latests means you never get a chance at pulling 23 characters and growing. That is way too steep a cost in my personal opinion. The new release stores are too infrequent to offset this and you never have a guarantee that a classic 5* that you want will turn up in one of these stores. 

    For me classics with the 5* feeders is giving me good progress. I feel that the 4* tier is the meat of the game and am not feeling rushed to get into the 5* tier. If clearance level 10 opened up and was pretty much mandatory to have 5*s champed due to enemy levels I think I would still be happy in scl 9 getting the rewards I currently am and progressing my way up to scl 10 eventually.


    Others feel differently and that's fine. I was just letting the OP know that there is not only one way to advance.
    Sure, by your own admission you aren't trying to get into the 5* tier. We agree that the freedom to choose is there and that is great.
    In 3 years of pulling classics you will likely have more champed 5*'s than by pulling latests.  In 1 year, not so much. So to me, the real hoarding is banking on classics.
  • barrok
    barrok Posts: 37 Just Dropped In
    edited September 2018
    Hendross said:
    The fact you can't keep pace with the 5 star release cycle without hoarding, I'd say the dangling carrot is working as intended.  This model is the defacto standard for free-to-play games.  Once a critical mass is reached whereas people can routinely earn 5-star champs, I'll be expecting 6-star toons.
    I disagree. I have played far to many f2p games (and spent way too much money) and this is the only one where the strongest character can not be purchased directly. Sure, it's not cheap in these games but they aren't hidden behind some year long grind. If I want to get the new 7* character in SWGOH, I just spend a **** ton of money for it. 

    Here, you either have to grind forever or you have to spend insane amounts on RNG tokens/group buys for cps. 

    It is just so different than almost any other game I have played and it makes progress so flipping slow. 
  • shartattack
    shartattack Posts: 370 Mover and Shaker
    barrok said:
    ---there is still no guarantee that you will be 5* land within the first year of playing. It could take you even longer (unless you horde or spend a ton of money). 

    You shouldn't have champed 5s in your first year playing unless you whaled out (and that is ok).  I've only known a few players do that. 

    To add insult to injury, it's quite common to see rosters where they obviously horded because they might have only half the 3*'s champed, and a few 4*'s, ..."

    or they flipped their 3s when they hit max level.  I did that for 9 months to finance champing all the 4s.

  • Qubort
    Qubort Posts: 203 Tile Toppler
    I think 5 stars are quite easy to obtain. They give out enough CP and LTs to champ 5s as they're released.

    They've also increased the number of feeders making it easier still. The Saved Cover feature is a huge boost. You never have a wasted pull and ISO shortage is a non factor.

    The only way they could make it easier is if they just handed them out and would defeat all the fun of playing.