Kingpin puts the hoard in a pickle

bluewolf

@GrimSkald. The other drawback of hoarding  is continuing boredom as your roster is frozen in amber, hoping for something better to come along.

GrimSkald

bluewolf said:

@GrimSkald. The other drawback of hoarding  is continuing boredom as your roster is frozen in amber, hoping for something better to come along.

Hey, I said that pulling is more fun -that is why I do it, but if you're a 5* player having your roster frozen in amber is not much of a tangible drawback, it feels worse than it actually affects you in day-to-day play.

jackstar0

Kitty isn't meta-defining, but she is exactly what I needed to keep my game more entertaining. Playing her with Grocket has redefined my Story mode experience and during the Iron Fist PVP those two got me more defensive wins than I'd seen probably ever.

While Kitty won't get you all the extra that some other characters might, I am glad that I chased her and have her champed and growing at all opportunities. If I had the means, she'd be my first 550 one day. She's just more fun to use and engages me more in my matching choices.

So my vote is that she's worth it because she's a cure for MPQ boredom!

Straycat

I don't hoard and I have no idea how long it takes to build up that hoard, but I feel like option 2 is the answer. I think Kitty, if not outright good enough, at least fills her niche in 5* land that no one else does.

whitecat31

For the beginner player who wants to crack into the five star  ranks and you are going to blow a hoard to possibly get all three characters. You want to make sure the characters will work together, because you are going to be using them a long time.  Any new player who pulled their hoard for the first time and got WASP champed, feel free to pity them. 
That being said:
It does look like FISK could work well with Kitty pride for match damage.  Kitty is Yellow Purple Red.  Fisk is Blue Black Green.  
Now if Fisk uses his green and has more AP than the enemy in a particular color and Kitty uses her yellow, she can start triggering the increase from phase and conquer.   Give a special tile away using Fisk's blue, and it will trigger Kitty's circuit breaker to destroy that special tile.
Will this be a fast team?  Not likely but it would be a fun climbing team in the shield simulator with Rocket and Groot in the middle who will never take damage.
Will it be a good defensive team?  Yes, but this game is about offense.
As for Cable he is an X-men so his yellow ability does work well with Kitty. It also could work well with Fisk's blue, but I might wait until Cable is out, before dropping the bank.  Kitty, Fisk, and ??? (sure it might be bad, but it can't be worse than WASP) 
Edit: I have this wrong. Kitty leaves first. What I don't have is wrong, is I don't think they will make anything worse than WASP.

Dormammu

whitecat31 said:

 ...but I might wait until Cable is out, before dropping the bank.  Kitty, Fisk, and ??? (sure it might be bad, but it can't be worse than WASP) 

Doesn't Kitty drop out before Cable?

bluewolf

Dormammu said:

whitecat31 said:

 ...but I might wait until Cable is out, before dropping the bank.  Kitty, Fisk, and ??? (sure it might be bad, but it can't be worse than WASP) 

Doesn't Kitty drop out before Cable?

Correct, she’s got a little under  9 weeks left.

Richyyy

jackstar0 said:

Kitty isn't meta-defining, but she is exactly what I needed to keep my game more entertaining. Playing her with Grocket has redefined my Story mode experience and during the Iron Fist PVP those two got me more defensive wins than I'd seen probably ever.

While Kitty won't get you all the extra that some other characters might, I am glad that I chased her and have her champed and growing at all opportunities. If I had the means, she'd be my first 550 one day. She's just more fun to use and engages me more in my matching choices.

So my vote is that she's worth it because she's a cure for MPQ boredom!

I used her a bit in the recent PvE (because 2* Thor was required, so Thor/Okoye wasn't an option for one node), and I agree that she's fun (and pretty quick). I also fell into that trap in the PvP once, failing to respect the danger of Kitty/Grocket/Fist. I would also add that while she isn't part of the 'meta' right now, she could become part of a top-end pairing if something resembling a 5* Grocket is released. So while I'm not excited by any of the options coming with her, I agree that finding a way to champ her is a valuable target.

My Kitty is 3/3/5, so I'm eagerly awaiting a feeder for her that would hopefully finish her for me without any more pulls at all...

Tony_Foot

Richyyy said:

I would also add that while she isn't part of the 'meta' right now, she could become part of a top-end pairing if something resembling a 5* Grocket is released. So while I'm not excited by any of the options coming with her, I agree that finding a way to champ her is a valuable target.

Yeah I have to admit that thought is terrifying if you pass on her, they could easily turn the meta on it's head that way and make it hurt again to play pvp. My current thought is to pass on Kitty, wait for a new release vault with her in and hope for the best. Risky though.

barrok

Question for the hoarding group... how do you handle PVE? Do you skip over new characters so you no longer have the 5e? Or do you break your hoard until you get the single cover for the 5e?

For those who only go after meta defining characters, what use is your older 5*'s to you? Do you ever use them? It seems that many of the top players have lots of 5*'s but all anyone talks about is Thor and Okoye. So is having a 5* kingpin any different than having a 5* starlord if you aren't using them anyway?

justsing

I hate hoarding and don't care about getting high level 5* champs, so I'll just do what I've always done.. Pull Latest once Loki leaves to finish Kitty. I'll hoard after I finish her and then resume pulling once she leaves. This method has served me well. I've covered all Latest 5*s since Gambit except for Wa5p (because I stopped pulling after I got her to 5/5/2). 

The one wrinkle in this is Thano5 being in Kingpin's new release store. My 5/5/1 Thano5 really needs one more green cover, so I suppose I'll blow some CP there too... 

Tony_Foot

barrok said:

Question for the hoarding group... how do you handle PVE? Do you skip over new characters so you no longer have the 5e? Or do you break your hoard until you get the single cover for the 5e?

For those who only go after meta defining characters, what use is your older 5*'s to you? Do you ever use them? It seems that many of the top players have lots of 5*'s but all anyone talks about is Thor and Okoye. So is having a 5* kingpin any different than having a 5* starlord if you aren't using them anyway?

Lot's of questions...

Yes I skip characters and still get T50 in CL8 without the essential if I have to. I have them all though. Lot's at one cover from BH when I break hoard. I don't break early to chase one.

I came to 5* with gambit. No one pre gambit is of any use to me except Thor. I got him in a new release vault with Loki. None of my fives except Thor and Okoye get any use, even JJ parker Bolt Loki. DD gets used in easy nodes with thanos or when I'm killing thor to half health. If I didn't have him I'd just use anyone else.

So no I don't have any old ones with more than a couple of covers and I have no interest in them either, they don't balance them in a meaningful way so why care and why not let the dross slip through the net? If they made Wasp a new gambit with a buff I would just get her in a release vault with the saved CP from letting the poor ones pass through.

I get going for them all in 4* land, even the dross for bonus rewards but I really will never get that many extra levels on 5*s to worry about catching them all at 13 covers. Every Wasp or Angel they release I just thank them for saving me 500k ISO.

If they ever actually constantly and consistently tried to balance the tier, well then I'd try to catch them all.

Daredevil217

justsing said:

I hate hoarding and don't care about getting high level 5* champs, so I'll just do what I've always done.. Pull Latest once Loki leaves to finish Kitty. I'll hoard after I finish her and then resume pulling once she leaves. This method has served me well. I've covered all Latest 5*s since Gambit except for Wa5p (because I stopped pulling after I got her to 5/5/2). 

The one wrinkle in this is Thano5 being in Kingpin's new release store. My 5/5/1 Thano5 really needs one more green cover, so I suppose I'll blow some CP there too... 

What are your benchmarks as a player? Do you hit 1200 every PVP? Do CL9 PVE? My fear as a 900 PVP/ CL8 PVE player is I won't have enough pulls.  Especially since I seem to pull below average whenever I bust a hoard or get weird distributions.

Richyyy

barrok said:

So is having a 5* kingpin any different than having a 5* starlord if you aren't using them anyway?

Kingpin will be the required 5* in PvE several times in the next few months, whereas Starlord will be seen maybe once in the next year. Outside of that, no, not really (unless Kingpin turns out to be significantly better than most currently expect).

Personally, I tend to use either the release store or Latests - whichever has the preferable group of 5*s - to get at least one cover of the new character. Then you can play the PvEs in full, even if you're holding most of your hoard for a later date.

talleman

I pulled my hoard and stopped after 251 pulls when i got Kitty champable. I had to use a 3/1 swap but im happy anyways.

251 pulls got:
15 Kitty
13 Loki
8 Cable
2 Bonus hero 5*

658_2

I have a 464 Loki.  You’ll never use him.  It’s not that he’s actively terrible. He’s just outclassed by others in every way, and he also doesn’t provide any support or potential for synergy.  Kingpin could at least conceivably power up the right partner.  Most likely won’t matter either way.

justsing

Daredevil217 said:

justsing said:

I hate hoarding and don't care about getting high level 5* champs, so I'll just do what I've always done.. Pull Latest once Loki leaves to finish Kitty. I'll hoard after I finish her and then resume pulling once she leaves. This method has served me well. I've covered all Latest 5*s since Gambit except for Wa5p (because I stopped pulling after I got her to 5/5/2). 

The one wrinkle in this is Thano5 being in Kingpin's new release store. My 5/5/1 Thano5 really needs one more green cover, so I suppose I'll blow some CP there too... 

What are your benchmarks as a player? Do you hit 1200 every PVP? Do CL9 PVE? My fear as a 900 PVP/ CL8 PVE player is I won't have enough pulls.  Especially since I seem to pull below average whenever I bust a hoard or get weird distributions.

I'm a 4* player who does T5 CL7 PVE and 1200+ PVP. However, when I first started my "pull Latest as you go" thing, I was only 900 PVP, and I only started hitting 1200 after I had already finished Gambit-Okoye.

I think one way to gauge whether this method will work for you is tracking your CP + LT gain. I just looked at mine from the past 31 days or so, and I've accumulated about 78 Latest pulls. That works out to be about 2.5 Latest pulls per day. To be able to pull as you go, you'd want that number to be at least 2 Latest pulls per day on average (2.5ish is safer since CS swaps are no more).

bbigler

talleman said:

I pulled my hoard and stopped after 251 pulls when i got Kitty champable. I had to use a 3/1 swap but im happy anyways.

251 pulls got:
15 Kitty
13 Loki
8 Cable
2 Bonus hero 5*

I've pulled 252 from Latest since Cable entered, but my distribution is this:

6 Kitty + 1BH = 1/3/3
13 Loki - 4/6/3
13 Cable - 6/6/1

So, consider yourself lucky 

Daredevil217

justsing said:

Daredevil217 said:

justsing said:

I hate hoarding and don't care about getting high level 5* champs, so I'll just do what I've always done.. Pull Latest once Loki leaves to finish Kitty. I'll hoard after I finish her and then resume pulling once she leaves. This method has served me well. I've covered all Latest 5*s since Gambit except for Wa5p (because I stopped pulling after I got her to 5/5/2). 

The one wrinkle in this is Thano5 being in Kingpin's new release store. My 5/5/1 Thano5 really needs one more green cover, so I suppose I'll blow some CP there too... 

What are your benchmarks as a player? Do you hit 1200 every PVP? Do CL9 PVE? My fear as a 900 PVP/ CL8 PVE player is I won't have enough pulls.  Especially since I seem to pull below average whenever I bust a hoard or get weird distributions.

I'm a 4* player who does T5 CL7 PVE and 1200+ PVP. However, when I first started my "pull Latest as you go" thing, I was only 900 PVP, and I only started hitting 1200 after I had already finished Gambit-Okoye.

I think one way to gauge whether this method will work for you is tracking your CP + LT gain. I just looked at mine from the past 31 days or so, and I've accumulated about 78 Latest pulls. That works out to be about 2.5 Latest pulls per day. To be able to pull as you go, you'd want that number to be at least 2 Latest pulls per day on average (2.5ish is safer since CS swaps are no more).

I think I'm probably slightly above 2 pulls per day.  So it's tight.  Do you not put iso in your fives? I noticed you said you have everyone since Gambit covered, but consider yourself a 4* player.  If so, how come you haven't invested in your fives?

Dormammu

barrok said:

Question for the hoarding group... how do you handle PVE? Do you skip over new characters so you no longer have the 5e? Or do you break your hoard until you get the single cover for the 5e?

Dip into the hoard until a single cover comes. It usually doesn't take many pulls. I've also gotten lucky a couple of times and pulled the single cover with the free release event vault token(s).

For those who only go after meta defining characters, what use is your older 5*'s to you? Do you ever use them? It seems that many of the top players have lots of 5*'s but all anyone talks about is Thor and Okoye. So is having a 5* kingpin any different than having a 5* starlord if you aren't using them anyway?

I don't have a lot of champed 5s so I'm trying to maximize the value of my hoard/pulls. That being said, I have two top 5s (Okoye/JJ) and a couple mid-tier 5s (Spidey/Widow). While I certainly use Okoye and JJ more often, I use them all daily.

At the very least old 5s are good for fast PvE node clears and sponging Thanos' Court Death damage, reducing health pack usage. But all 5s, meta or not, are useful in the PvP Sim for climbs. To save health packs in the Sim I switch teams rather than heal damaged characters, but with only four champed 5-stars my options are limited. I wish I had more.

I'm still transitioning into 5-star play, which leads me back to maximizing the value of pulls. Low-tier 5-stars will make that transition harder. So if Cable and Kingpin are rubbish it makes me hesitant to waste pulls, but I think getting Kitty may be worth it.

Also... we really don't know how Kingpin will pan out. There have been characters before that looked awful on paper, but some crafty player figured out a nifty strategy that made them quite effective. I mean, I remember people saying Medusa would be a fringe niche character when she was released.