Advice on Rostering

dxanders

Hey guys! I was hoping for some advice on how to handle the covers on my vine. I'm comfortably ensconced in three star territory. All of my two stars are in farm mode, I have all but six three stars rostered, and five of those are champed with a few more just a cover or two away. I also have five four stars sitting at three or more covers.

While I feel like I've done a pretty decent job of managing my vine, I've reached the point where I have too many covers in the pipe to properly roster. Long story short, I have four three stars to roster (Colossus, Beast, Cyclops, R&G) and four four stars that I'd like to roster (Gamora, Peggy Carter, Medusa, Yondu). There are a few more four stars on the vine, but they aren't particularly interesting to me.

While I have a decent amount of time left to build up HP, I doubt I'll be able to get more than four or five of these guys rostered with the amount of HP I'm likely to acquire. What would y'all suggest? Should I prioritize my four stars knowing that three stars will eventually trickle on through, or should I focus on the threes since I can more readily champ and then farm them?

dxanders

Excuse me, I have five fours that I'd potentially like to roster: Gamora, Peggy, Medusa, Panther, and Shuri

ThaRoadWarrior

The long-term answer is to roster and champ all the 3*s before you move into rostering 4*s, and to stop pulling from Latest/Classic until you have the resources to put them on roster. That said, those are all good to great 4*s, though at a single cover they won't be very amazing. Medusa and Peggy have a 3* Feeder (kamala khan, psylocke), so you can reasonably expect some more covers from them eventually. 

Another thing to consider is that you may need one or more of them for node access before they expire, so you could consider just rostering a single cover of them, and then selling it to roster one of the others with the longer term goal of doing better in progression.

Nick441234

Out of the characters on your vine I would roster the 4*s and then not pull anymore 4* and above tokens until you can get all the 3*s rostered. 

skittledaddy

Who are your other 4*s on roster? Perhaps one of these five you would like to roster are better.
Who are your lowest covered 3*s on roster? If you have some low-end 3*s with only one or two covers you could consider selling them to roster some of those sweet new 4*s. This should only be considered a short-term fix, however, and will catch up to you if abused too many times.

I agree with RoadWarrior's first advice, though. Stop opening Legendary Tokens (assuming that's where you're getting these 4*s from) until you have the HP to roster them.

Borstock

Read TRW's post. Do that.

Also, Medusa is one of the most valuable 4's in the game once you are in 4* land and PvP becomes a lot of Grocket + a second Guardian teams. 

bbigler

The immediate solution to your problem is to either (A) open your wallet and buy some HP, or (B) roster the 4*s first because they're harder to get and you'll thank yourself in the future.  To prevent this from happening again, don't open any Legendary or Heroic tokens until you have the HP to roster more 4*s.  Roster slots are your biggest problem when starting out.  Later, the problem shifts to ISO shortages, then 4*/5* cover shortages.

The problem you're experiencing is "by design" because it encourages you to spend real money on game money to avoid cover waste (and you know those covers are hard to get).   Hoarding tokens and CP solves those problems (and don't worry about it slowing down your progress either).  You honestly can't progress faster than your ability to acquire HP and ISO, in order to create new champs. 

shardwick

I would roster the 4s since you're almost done with rostering all of your 3s and 3s are fairly easy to get. But then definitely hold off on opening tokens until you can get more hp to roster more characters.

jredd

even when you're rolling in this game, 4* don't come along every day. 3 stars do. you'll regret dumping 4* covers. 

AardvarkPepper

dxanders said:

Hey guys! I was hoping for some advice on how to handle the covers on my vine. I'm comfortably ensconced in three star territory. All of my two stars are in farm mode, I have all but six three stars rostered, and five of those are champed with a few more just a cover or two away. I also have five four stars sitting at three or more covers.

While I feel like I've done a pretty decent job of managing my vine, I've reached the point where I have too many covers in the pipe to properly roster. Long story short, I have four three stars to roster (Colossus, Beast, Cyclops, R&G) and four four stars that I'd like to roster (Gamora, Peggy Carter, Medusa, Yondu). There are a few more four stars on the vine, but they aren't particularly interesting to me.

While I have a decent amount of time left to build up HP, I doubt I'll be able to get more than four or five of these guys rostered with the amount of HP I'm likely to acquire. What would y'all suggest? Should I prioritize my four stars knowing that three stars will eventually trickle on through, or should I focus on the threes since I can more readily champ and then farm them?

dxanders said:

Excuse me, I have five fours that I'd potentially like to roster: Gamora, Peggy, Medusa, Panther, and Shuri

So you're no longer interested in 4* Yondu, but you are in 4* Panther and 4* Shuri?

Previous advice re: stop opening tokens applies.  It's good advice.

Apart from that, roster 4* Gamora, Peggy Carter, Medusa.  As others noted, 3*s are more common than 4*s.  But more particularly, it's far more important to roster *good* 4*s when possible, and Gamora, Peggy Carter, and Medusa are all high priority.

Yondu, Panther, and Shuri, I wouldn't say so much.  Panther and Shuri are a bit slow, and Yondu is in my opinion decent but usually Gamora is better on a team.

As to 3* Colossus, Beast, Cyclops, and Rocket and Groot - 3* Colossus is slow, 3* Beast is slow, 3* Rocket and Groot is slow and has burst regeneration that doesn't scale well out of PvE SCL 7 or so (you might think his burst regeneration might make up for his being slow but it really doesn't).  3* Cyclops is one of the better 3*s especially when boosted with multiple hard-hitting powers and minor board shakeup.

ThaRoadWarrior said:

The long-term answer is to roster and champ all the 3*s before you move into rostering 4*s, and to stop pulling from Latest/Classic until you have the resources to put them on roster. That said, those are all good to great 4*s, though at a single cover they won't be very amazing. Medusa and Peggy have a 3* Feeder (kamala khan, psylocke), so you can reasonably expect some more covers from them eventually. 

Another thing to consider is that you may need one or more of them for node access before they expire, so you could consider just rostering a single cover of them, and then selling it to roster one of the others with the longer term goal of doing better in progression.

Generally yes, but in practical application I'd have to say a player shouldn't *quite* do things exactly that way.

I would advise even free players that have only been playing for a month to start collecting select 4* covers.  Not *any* 4*s, but particular ones like 4* Rocket and Groot, and 4* Medusa.  Once you have them up (which takes a long time, granted), you save a crazy amount of real time.  If you wait until you finish rostering 3*s, ugh.  Don't do that to yourself.

As to rostering and selling on - typically in PvE, if playing at SCL 7+ (which a developed 3* roster is certainly capable of), one can earn both the 3* and 4* covers for the essential node as progression rewards.  So players looking to maximize PvE scores keep two roster slots open; they roster a single cover character as they earn them in one PvE event, then sell them to make room for the ones they earn in the next PvE event.

Of course while a player is doing this they're not using those slots for farming.  But good practices mean making consistent progression, which if you're a regular player can get you a top 100 PvE alliance membership.  And the rewards for that are going to add up.  So it's something players ought consider depending on their situation.

ThaRoadWarrior is certainly correct in that 3*s are faster to collect, so are better in terms of infrastructure, building a diverse and powerful roster quickly, and getting better reward payouts in less time.  Generally you *do* collect 3*s preferentially to 4* for that very reason.  But that's only generally.  A few select 4*s should certainly be prioritized - I'd say 4* Medusa and 4* Rocket and Groot, though a player could make a case for 4* Captain Marvel, 4* Agent Coulson, 4* Vulture, 4* Gamora, 4* Peggy Carter perhaps, and maybe two or three others - I'd say 4* Carnage, at least.

jredd said:

even when you're rolling in this game, 4* don't come along every day. 3 stars do. you'll regret dumping 4* covers. 

You'll regret dumping *good* 4* covers.  But really now.

To put it in perspective, for players with 3* rosters, are you REALLY going to regret losing a few 3* Vision covers?  No.  You don't even use Vision.  Nobody uses Vision.  (Okay there are a few that use Vision.  But generally - you're not going to stay up nights because you lost out on a few Vision covers.)

Same thing.  You dump some 4*s that aren't good, yeah okay that's not the greatest, but whatever.  You want to get rid of a 2* farming slot to save a few 3* Vision covers?  No right?  (The correct answer is no.)  Same thing.  You want to get rid of a 3* farming slot to save a few 4* Vision covers?  (There's no 4* Vision, but you get what I mean.)

Now if it's a *good* 4* it's different, like you really don't want to dump 3* Iron Man or 3* Doctor Strange covers, you just don't.

Unknown

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dxanders

Great advice guys, thanks. Generally the 4*s I've gotten have been from alliance events and heroic tokens, but I acted impulsively and did some legendary pulls too.


Chances are that I'll keep pulling heroics since the majority seem to be 3*s and 2*s. I want to play smart, but I'm not necessarily trying to do everything ideally.

As far as 3*s, the only one I'm actually INTERESTED in rostering is Cyclops. I eventually want to fill out my roster just for the sake of completion and events, but out of the six I have left to grab, only Cyclops, Doom, and maybe Rocket/Groot are of interest.

In terms of Panther and Shuri, I figured they'd probably synergize well together... but it's probably way too early for me to start focusing on 4* teams now, and I should instead be looking at 4*s I can integrate into my 3* teams.

AardvarkPepper

Chances are that I'll keep pulling heroics since the majority seem to be 3*s and 2*s. I want to play smart, but I'm not necessarily trying to do everything ideally.

It really depends on where your roster development is.  If you're not near 10+ covers on any of the 4*s you plan to use, you might want to consider holding those Heroic tokens.

What does opening heroic Tokens get you?  Mostly 2*s and 3*s, and an occasional 4*.

If you're just starting the 2*-3* transition, then you need 3*s (even though random) so I think opening Heroics is certainly the way to go for newer players.  Or if you're in the 3*-4* transition and you have a few select 4*s near 10 covers, you could possibly get a favorited (gold-starred) 4* that would speed your progress towards getting a couple particular 4* champions.

Certainly it's worth considering Heroic tokens in either of those cases.

==

But if you're not in either of those situations - say you have a developed 3* roster but your 4*s are pretty spotty and say your roster slots are limited - then what does mostly 2*s and 3*s and an occasional 4* get you?  The 2*s and 3*s don't really contribute to roster strength (a few levels or even a dozen or twenty don't make a huge difference).

On the other hand, as your 3*s increase in level you get fixed 4* drops - which you can't afford to roster if you have limited character slots.  But if your roster slots are already limited, you may have to sell those 4* covers off.

So what you're really getting in that situation is a negligible increase in roster strength, while pulling 4* covers you can't afford to roster (whether through randomly pulled from the Heroic token directly, or obtained by adding levels to a champed 3* and getting the fixed 4* cover drop).

==

Mind, the OP didn't specify exactly how his or her roster looked, so anything could be the case.  But I wanted to make the point that a lot of getting the most out of your in-game assets in Marvel Puzzle Quest comes to making informed decisions - sometimes it's best to spend, sometimes it's best to save.

And of course, sometimes players just want to open a lot of Heroic tokens just for fun.  Fun is important too.

spidyjedi84

dxanders said:

In terms of Panther and Shuri, I figured they'd probably synergize well together... but it's probably way too early for me to start focusing on 4* teams now, and I should instead be looking at 4*s I can integrate into my 3* teams.

They do, but you need them champed to see those benefits, and that's hoping for 25 additional covers... Gamora and Medusa are the better chasers early on. They're strong 4-stars that benefit a lot of teams. I'd chase them before Panther/Shuri.

Daredevil217

Yeah I hear people say that by not opening you are stunting your roster growth and limiting the rewards you can win. I think that can be true sometimes but it depends on each person’s situation. 

For I believe the first time ever, I have every 4 in tokens champed. So, I’m currently hoarding Heroics until next season (just started so only have like two and a ten pack). I have all my 2s and 3s max champed so nothing there will push the needle for my roster if I open now. If I get just 1 Domino bonus hero and she is a cover closer to SHIELD training it’d be worth it. And if not, the rewards I’m missing out on now will still be there later. 

Each person has to look at their individual roster and do what works for them. 

kk3thess

What I did in this situation was focusing on rostering all 3*, then all 4* that we're given as bonus reward from 3* and occasionally rostering a top tier 4*/5* when I wasn't risking to lose any 4* with a 3* feeder.

Milk Jugz

There's another option, buy a couple starks and get a whole bunch of roster spots and roster them all. And have spare spots. 14 2*, 47 3*, 75 4*, you're going to need a lot of hp!!

purplemur

4*:
Medusa/Peggy/Gamora should be prioritized, they will serve you very well going forward.
I would BH Medusa as well. She is the 4* replacement for Iron Fist but she heals and generates AP. One of the best in the tier.
Peggy is great against tile movers and in PVP,. She has a tremendous stun and a big red bomb. you can't go wrong with her
Gamora is probably the best Guardian to pair  with 4*rocket and Groot (at least to start). Her stun is a lifesaver and will help you punch above your weight; you can build a team around and  use deadliest woman against bosses when  they get scaled out of reach on the last day

3*Rocket and groot can be a PvP grind healthpack saver for a long time, at least until you pass the equilibrium point where you are using more 4*'s than 3*'s- a long way off for you. You can take them into an easy PvE node trigger the heal(pair with 2* Marvel) and go right back to PvP full up.
Cyclops will help you generate Red AP and cause cascades, has a conditional black that when boosted will TKO most- does not have a feeder so might want to hold his
Colossus has a neat mechanic and has staying power- he can actually be useful for those under covered 4*'s where you have a 0/2/1 build and he can trigger the power for you, he also saves on Healthpacks but is not generally considered very strong

3*'s you could sacrifice to roster above:
She Hulk- hawt garbage
Angel- purely mediocre
Gambit - self harm and super conditional red
Cap'n Marvel - You will get her again from the 2* farm and with her backwards defensive mechanic gets less useful
Sentry and Ragnarok - While they are featured a lot and are good to have high level in Lightning rounds, they mostly suck, mostly. Rags green is not as good as regular Thor and Sentry is just annoying, the CD tiles won't really be helpful until you have someone that can game them which is well into 4* tier. You can afford to pass on them and circle back later

I also recommend checking your budget and evaluating if you can justify 20$(100$ for the stark will solve the dilemma) for some slots, If you spend a few hours a week playing the game you are getting a lot of entertainment value out of the game, better bang for your buck than going to the movies, buying  beverages, a new tshirt at the mall etc. 
You certainly don't need to spend money to keep enjoying but if you can afford it occasionally then it does make getting new covers fun again instead of seeming like analytics homework.

randomhero1090

Just buy HP.  Honestly, it solves everything.  The game is designed to push you to buy HP.  

Don't open LTs or CP until you got all the 3* rostered.  Once you have some free slots open, then you can open and start to roster 4*.

Rhipf

This may be obvious but...

You didn't mention if you have any 1* covers in your roster. If you have more than one you could sell them and use those slots to roster 3* and 4* covers. You only need one 1* for DDQ (I like Iron Man others seem to like Juggernaut).

Again, I assume you already know this but just in case I thought I would mention it.

skittledaddy

Rhipf said:

This may be obvious but...

You didn't mention if you have any 1* covers in your roster. If you have more than one you could sell them and use those slots to roster 3* and 4* covers. You only need one 1* for DDQ (I like Iron Man others seem to like Juggernaut).

Again, I assume you already know this but just in case I thought I would mention it.

Good call on this advice. I don't always think of that, as I take for granted everyone already knows it.

FWIW, I feel the reworked Spiderman is the best 1* for DDQ. Cheap, yet effective powers all around.