Love and Hate and Marvel Puzzle Quest

NotBAMF

Hey, I've never mentioned here that I can remember (because I don't want to come across as spammy), but I have a comic book podcast and blog that I created with two of my buddies, one of whom is a former MPQ player (and is the guy who got me into the game in the first place).

Anyway, he came to me last week and said he wanted to co-write an article with me on MPQ and our history with it, mostly focusing on why I still play versus why he jumped out of the game. 

I thought some people here might get a kick out of it (I'm only posting it here because it's MPQ-specific; I wouldn't and haven't just pimp[ed] my site for no reason), and if you are comic fans, maybe you'll find some other stuff there that you dig. 

https://gotstratosphere.com/2018/09/29/placeholder-title/

wymtime

I liked the article nice job.  

ZommyGD

Definitely will check out the article and your blog. Thanks!

NotBAMF

Thanks to both of you! 

helix72

Nicely done! Bravo gents.

TPF Alexis

Interesting read. Thanks for sharing!

Daredevil217

Great read. 

For your buddy, he makes a great point as to why I am holding off on entering the 5* tier. Being relegated to using 2-3 characters sounds boring and would likely lead me to quit too. 

As for you, I find it interesting you only ever play strange and the guardians for PVE. I feel there’s absolutely room to be creative and mix it up in the 4* tier in PVE.

For the most recent PVE I’ve been using Carol/Clagger for the 5E, Rocket/Gamora for the trivials and actually half health 5* Thor (zero iso in him) Agent Venom and Blade for the rest. Yes, Clagger and Carol are top 10 characters but I’m finding the Venom combo way faster with Thor fueling two AOE attacks, Blade’s red, and leaving a bunch of black for Venom to spam. Fun, unique team that is also lightning fast. I’m in 4th currently with only 5* players ahead of me all while mostly keeping my best 4* benched. It’s all about finding that synergy which to me is part of the fun. 

Ironicaly I find I get less creative in PVP and just play my best boosted combo (at least it changes each week). The fear of retals means playing anything else can put a big target on your back. 

NotBAMF

Daredevil217 said:

Great read. 

For your buddy, he makes a great point as to why I am holding off on entering the 5* tier. Being relegated to using 2-3 characters sounds boring and would likely lead me to quit too. 

As for you, I find it interesting you only ever play strange and the guardians for PVE. I feel there’s absolutely room to be creative and mix it up in the 4* tier in PVE.

For the most recent PVE I’ve been using Carol/Clagger for the 5E, Rocket/Gamora for the trivials and actually half health 5* Thor (zero iso in him) Agent Venom and Blade for the rest. Yes, Clagger and Carol are top 10 characters but I’m finding the Venom combo way faster with Thor fueling two AOE attacks, Blade’s red, and leaving a bunch of black for Venom to spam. Fun, unique team that is also lightning fast. I’m in 4th currently with only 5* players ahead of me all while mostly keeping my best 4* benched. It’s all about finding that synergy which to me is part of the fun. 

Ironicaly I find I get less creative in PVP and just play my best boosted combo (at least it changes each week). The fear of retals means playing anything else can put a big target on your back. 

On the PVE nodes that are, say, 3 tile movers (bots, DA's), I'll sometimes swap in whoever is boosted rather than use Grocket/Gamora/Strange or Medusa, but only sometimes. The Guardians + Friend team is usually the fastest and most auto-pilot team in PVE, and my mission is usually to just blow through those with minimum boredom.

Daredevil217

NotBAMF said:

Daredevil217 said:

Great read. 

For your buddy, he makes a great point as to why I am holding off on entering the 5* tier. Being relegated to using 2-3 characters sounds boring and would likely lead me to quit too. 

As for you, I find it interesting you only ever play strange and the guardians for PVE. I feel there’s absolutely room to be creative and mix it up in the 4* tier in PVE.

For the most recent PVE I’ve been using Carol/Clagger for the 5E, Rocket/Gamora for the trivials and actually half health 5* Thor (zero iso in him) Agent Venom and Blade for the rest. Yes, Clagger and Carol are top 10 characters but I’m finding the Venom combo way faster with Thor fueling two AOE attacks, Blade’s red, and leaving a bunch of black for Venom to spam. Fun, unique team that is also lightning fast. I’m in 4th currently with only 5* players ahead of me all while mostly keeping my best 4* benched. It’s all about finding that synergy which to me is part of the fun. 

Ironicaly I find I get less creative in PVP and just play my best boosted combo (at least it changes each week). The fear of retals means playing anything else can put a big target on your back. 

On the PVE nodes that are, say, 3 tile movers (bots, DA's), I'll sometimes swap in whoever is boosted rather than use Grocket/Gamora/Strange or Medusa, but only sometimes. The Guardians + Friend team is usually the fastest and most auto-pilot team in PVE, and my mission is usually to just blow through those with minimum boredom.

What CL do you play it and do you go for top placement or just progression? I guess those are important questions lol. 

NotBAMF

I play SCL7 and I mostly play for progression. I don't have a time option that would really allow me to play optimal either due to work or, you know, sleep.

I am actually considering changing my formula anyway. I realized I have enough RISO to max my 3* Element Gun, so I might switch to Grocket/Star-Lord/X (with X either being Stange, Medusa, or Gamora).

BoyWonder1914

Great article. I think it's important for new people that are thinking of getting into the game to hear varying opinions on longevity. The MPQ end game as it currently stands, which is the 5-star tier is going to take some years to get there for most people, and it never hurts to get perspective on that kind of time commitment. 

As far the 5-star realm goes, I'm well aware of my future dread on the PVP side, but I'm quite excited at the prospect of using those jacked up characters in PVE. No one says I can't still use my 4-stars once I do get that far, so I honestly struggle with this notion that some 5-star players perpetuate that everyone else just becomes useless for anything but farming. I can think of quite a few 4/5-star combinations that I'd be excited to try. The only thing really holding me back is my own insistence on getting ahead of the release schedule to the point that the only 4s I don't have champed at any given time are the 1-2 newest, and wanting to have a set of 5s that actually are competitive with the PVP meta. Now that Gambit has been nerfed to oblivion, none of my currently fully covered 5s really hold water. I would argue Hawkeye is my best one, but he doesn't seem like he'd be even half as effective in PVP as he would PVE. 

On another note, I also feel like you're your biggest culprit when it comes to boredom if you just run the same team all the time. The thought of just throwing RBG + Guardian at everything bores me like you wouldn't believe. I'm approaching 70 4-star champs, and I'll be damned if they all just collect dust. If I haven't used someone in a while, I actively make it a point to find a good team for them. Realized I haven't ran Cho in a while. CM4/Cho/Dak3n. Strike tiles galore for green matches, Cho's countdown buffs them thanks to Carol, and also creates more green matches. Match didn't last long. Realized I haven't pulled Spider-Woman off the bench in forever. Ran Fury/SpiderWoman/Vulture. Dangerous trap tiles all over the board, and an AOE every few turns. Sandman is collecting sand dust. Winter Soldier/Sandman/Blonde Widow. 2 stuns that allow some board control, 2 nukes that require a degree of board control, passive AP manipulation because of said stuns, healing and cheaper abilities, and Sandman's purple to generate more yellow. This is where I find my fun in the game, in light of all the repetition that gets thrown at us. You have an incredible roster and array of champed 4-stars, USE THEM. You think a lot less about the fact that you're playing Thick As Thieves for the 40th time in your MPQ tenure when you've got some new toys, or re-discovered some toys that you thought were useless. I've long since cast aside the "speed is everything" mindset. My roster is at a point where getting top placement is nothing more than a few champ levels for one of my 4s and extra iso, so it's truly not the end of the world if I'm t20 or t50. Sometimes you can be "fast" and still not make t10, so I'm not gonna obsess over it. I'm not saying EVERY character is useful in some way you just haven't discovered yet, but I'd argue that most of them have 2 or 3 more "hidden" uses that you can only discover by experimenting a bit. That experimentation and potential discover something new keeps me excited, since most everything else about the game is generally pretty repetitive and mundane. 

Straycat

Daredevil217 said:

Great read. 

For your buddy, he makes a great point as to why I am holding off on entering the 5* tier. Being relegated to using 2-3 characters sounds boring and would likely lead me to quit too. 

As for you, I find it interesting you only ever play strange and the guardians for PVE. I feel there’s absolutely room to be creative and mix it up in the 4* tier in PVE.

Lol using the best 5* is not very creative. 1/2 health Thor is the biggest crutch in the game. You might as well level him up at this point.

I think having 5*s leveled lets you be more creative. The 4*s are still there and they get relatively more useful unboosted than before. Your 5*s are there to tank or to take over after they get wrecked.

But thats how I play, only go for progression and maybe 1/3 of the time go for 575 in pvp. I play for fun, when I am bored I play 1/2 Thor to finish my clears.