I’ve denied the signs too long... I’m a 5* player

ThaRoadWarrior

I have a feeling the extra tile changes more than you think it would on Thor-I know going from 3-4 TU created on Okoye was noticeably more effective on my roster.

Daredevil217

ThaRoadWarrior said:

Nice! Now that you can run it - can you see how practical my GE Doom/Lumbercap/Yellow Battery anti-gritty strategy is? Start with a killable Doom, put him in front to be slain, then revive him with Lumbercap. I don’t know who the best yellow battery is; I don’t know one at the 5* tier. I’d try Cyclops (Classic) or Valkyrie (assuming doom has the best stats over Lumbercap?) with my roster though.

Yeah. I’d ideally like to try just the two of them without the yellow battery (by the way, half health Thor is the best 5* yellow battery). Reason being, aside from sim (where you have more options to deal with them) you are still going to run into them. I think once you kill the strikes, IW Cap should be strong enough to take on a 4*, high level 3* and Kitty with no specials just fine, until you get enough yellow to bring doom back. 

Another option for you would be to request Cap teamups and go Doom/Okoye. Have Okoye do her thing to fuel teamup AP, let Doom die, then bring him back with the teamup. I usually have at least one yellow Cap on hand and actually used one recently after my Okoye was downed. Luckily she had so much TU AP stockpiled that she was able to come right back!

BoyWonder1914 said:

I was going to welcome you to the tier, but then I saw that the original post is from 1/20/19 and that you're wayyyy farther along than I am lol. 

I read all of the post, and it was a good read. Lot of things I could relate to - I made the transition myself a little less than a month ago now. I don't have quite as awesome a starting lineup, though I do have DD and BSSM, so I get the luxury of eating Gritty teams for lunch during my PVP climbs. PVE is definitely a much more awesome experience, though I should put some more iso into my 5s. I'm learning now that 12-cover Lv 435 characters can be just as viable as a champ, as long as the covers are distributed the right way. For example, 

- My Thanos is 4/5/3. The 5th cover of Court Death doesn't make it hit any harder, it just reduces the amount of damage that it does to your teammates. You mainly use Thanos for his black anyway - though I'm sure the purple will be nice to prevent the enemy from dropping CDs or specials, that doesn't necessary scale with level. No reason no to pump some iso into him. 
- My Thor is 4/5/3 as well. Though I'd ideally want his Green at 5, destroying 1 extra tile when he's at half health probably won't make a world of difference. Although his lower health right now at Lv. 255 makes his green easier to trigger, he's also a greater risk to try to bring on any kind of serious nodes. The iso in him would mainly just be to keep him alive a little longer, while he works his battery magic. 
- My Strange is 3/3/5, soon to be 4/3/5 after Mordo's champ reward update on Friday. Then I'll just need 5 more champ levels on Mordo to get that last purple. The main reason I'd be using him though, his yellow power, is already at 5 covers, and has been for some time. Should have put some iso in this guy ages ago. 

I've bumped Thanos & Strange up to Lv. 300 for now, as those are my 2 biggest targets for an improved PVE experience. Okoye is my next target after those 3, who's at 4/3/3 at the moment. 

Thanks for the kind words! Just those two champs or do you have others on your roster as well?  Curious who you’re go-to teams are. 

ThaRoadWarrior

I figure if you have a functional Gladiathor you probably don’t have a Gritty problem, so I didn’t really suggest that one. I’d forgotten about 4* Kingpin as a battery also, but he needs a good bit of purple for that. Rogue is probably better, then just siphon Kitty for it.

huktonfonix

Did you leave s5?  You’re definitely not a 5* player, but it was entertaining while you thought you were

Daredevil217

ThaRoadWarrior said:

I figure if you have a functional Gladiathor you probably don’t have a Gritty problem, so I didn’t really suggest that one. I’d forgotten about 4* Kingpin as a battery also, but he needs a good bit of purple for that. Rogue is probably better, then just siphon Kitty for it.

Lightning Round (Ragnarok) I just went 3-0 with DoomCap against Gritty. And didn’t use a healthpack (though by the end of third match I needed one as Cap had worn down). 

Even though 15 yellow is a lot, I got it all three matches. As I thought, IW Cap alone could handle Grocket and a Kitty without special tiles to buff. I have a complete set of max-champed 3s, so that’s a wash. This combo just shows me how bad Kitty really is without those starting strikes. It’s a slow combo obviously, but Dooms nuke can usually take out a weak foe, the 4* rabbit and tree are easy enough to dispose of, while Caps super nuke can one hit kill the beefy Ragnarok. 

Very good combo. And honestly a team one could add to the “Gritty Counter” threads. 

huktonfonix said:

Did you leave s5?  You’re definitely not a 5* player, but it was entertaining while you thought you were

I’m all over the place lol. Even though I haven’t used a 4* character since transitioning, I guess I’m still a 4* player. Who knew?

ThaRoadWarrior

I haven't sunk any iso into my 4/3/5 Doom or 2/4/4 Lumbercap, and every time i attempt it they both end up getting slain. I figure I'll throw a little iso into at least Doom once he leaves latest, and the race to get LTs out of my champable 4s isn't as pressing. 

I don't know that Kitty is "bad" per se, just a great support character. I suspect she was intended to revitalize OML and/or Phoenix maybe - get those cheap strikes on the board quick-ish, get them buffing up to the stratosphere, but 4ocket having them out at battle-start is just too dominant to pass up.

Daredevil217

Yeah I think Doom is worth the iso. Really hoping you get that last cover. Shame that he’d only bring a meh yellow power to your active rainbow, but the healing he provides could give you some much needed sustainability. Then like I said, you could always request lumberteamups and see how it works before deciding whether to dump iso into him. 

I agree on Kitty. She’s not bad (poor choice of words) but all those “just make her buff a repeater” people don’t understand how she’s absolutely not the problem, and how utterly useless she’d be if repeater-nerfed (while Rocket continues his death grip on the game).

My favorite Kitty pairing is DD to be honest.  It might be a slower ramp-up to the buff, but I KNOW I have more specials coming if my strikes get wiped. That consistency is important for me.

We all know Thorkoye is great on offense/ bad on defense. I find gritty to be sort of the opposite. On defense Grittys tiles are hard to reach, buff to high heavens and I walk away knowing I was in a fight or even losing to a bad cascade. On offense it feels like despite my best efforts to protect them, enough tiles end up matched away early to the point where the match ends up crawling to a finish as I have to try to get more specials on the board. DD as a partner obviously paints a much bigger target on me defensively (just kill her first before he can put strikes out) and it’s slower. But it’s nice grinding with a team other than Thorkoye and using no health packs. 

ThaRoadWarrior

If Doom gets into Classic before I finish him, I think I'll move my BH over then. But for now, I'm keeping it on Okoye (and really hoping for a red on this 6/4/1 build to save months of Shuri grinding). I actually don't lean on GRRR that hard anymore, even though he is my only champed 5. I tend to use Okoye/Chavez or Okoye/Medusa in pvp offensively. It isn't good on defense, but that's alright. I guess with an equivalent black from Doom, spec'ing GRRR 5/5/3 with Okoye as 3rd is probably more attractive. 

BoyWonder1914

Kolence said:

BoyWonder1914 said:

- My Thanos is 4/5/3. The 5th cover of Court Death doesn't make it hit any harder, it just reduces the amount of damage that it does to your teammates. You mainly use Thanos for his black anyway - though I'm sure the purple will be nice to prevent the enemy from dropping CDs or specials, that doesn't necessary scale with level. No reason no to pump some iso into him. 
- My Thor is 4/5/3 as well. Though I'd ideally want his Green at 5, destroying 1 extra tile when he's at half health probably won't make a world of difference. Although his lower health right now at Lv. 255 makes his green easier to trigger, he's also a greater risk to try to bring on any kind of serious nodes. The iso in him would mainly just be to keep him alive a little longer, while he works his battery magic. 

With Thanos, 5 in black also increases the stun to 2 turns, which can be pretty helpful when you're using him against a higher level team, and not just to speed through easy nodes.

I've had Thor stuck unchamped for a long while, at 4 green and 435 (Archangel got covered and champed before him, even though I was just opening as I'd earn LTs or cp). That last cover and increase from 4 to 5 tiles destroyed, really makes him noticeably better at cascading. Plus the auto damage improves too with the extra tile and levels. 
At least that's how I remember it, as unreliable as that may be...

*facepalm* how the heck did I miss that. Good to know on Thor, I appreciate the insight! @ThaRoadWarrior as well. Related question, as the in-game description doesn't clarify - is Thor actually collecting AP from these destroyed tiles? I suppose I haven't actually been paying attention when he goes on his cascade rampage at half health, I just know that once he gets started an "Asgardian Tactics" or "God of Thunder" is likely coming in the next turn, and its going to hurt. 

@Daredevil217 - I've got 10 total. 

IM46 - Lv 456
GG - Lv 454
BSSM - Lv 454
Gambit - Lv 453
Hawkeye - Lv 453
1st Avenger Cap - Lv 451
Peter Parker - Lv 451
Star-Lord - Lv 451
Wolverine - Lv 451
Daredevil - Lv 450

This is still feels relatively new, so I'm definitely fumbling in the dark in terms of my best go-to team. 

DD/BSSM - I run this pair pretty reliably in PVP against Gritty. I target Kitty first and collect purple as quickly as I can, though the slower the better - the tiles will be THAT much more jacked up after DD steals them with his purple. This of course causes BSSM to go invisible, and Kitty rarely survives a "Taek Web Do" with BSSM hitting harder while invisible + the boosted strikes + Sonar Strike. The match doesn't last too long after that. 

Hawkeye/Goblin or Hawk-Bit - The countdown tile shenanigans are quite a blast. As long as your CDs survive your opponents turn then they'll end up fortified, and Clint's AP generation from resolved CDs keeps the train going. Fun team, but can still take a bit to get going, and Kitty/Thanos purple power makes a mockery of them. 

That's about it honestly for 5-star combos - I've got loads of team combos that include a 4-star, like Hawkson, Gambit-Chavez, IM-Domino (GIRL Friday + Enter The Fray = a crapton of black AP), OML-Nico, DD-Gamora, P5rker-Miles, 5-Lord/GRocket, just to name a few. The closest thing I felt I had to an all 5-star team with actual synergy was Hawkeye/DD/1st Avenger Cap, but even that was relatively slow. Feels more like I'm just trying to put together rainbow teams using my 5s, rather than teams predicated on a specific strategy. In PVP that is. PVE there's all kinds of synergies between 5s & 4s, and I still feel like I'm barely scratching the surface (forgot how awesome OBW + OML can be for example in WW)

Kolence

Of course Thor is collecting the AP from destroyed tiles (and following matches/cascades). That's what makes him so broken on offense! Well, that combined with the fact that he can hide in the back not making any matches while doing all that.

If you're talking about shield sim, where you can bring 3 characters, there are a few more teams I'd use with the 5*s and 4*s you listed. Hawkeye/Coulson/Spidey(PP) and Gambit/Hawkeye/Riri come to mind first.

DD and CW Cap do have synergy - stuns on two colors and Cap makes attack tiles to tick sonar strike passive some more. Also, they both have yellow as strongest color and can make use of support characters that can generate it for the team regardless of their relative levels. Carol and Valkyrie could help for pvp. No clashes in 5 active powers is a plus too, but with the current speed of the game, that's not as strong as it might have been before. They're now just a little too slow...

One more thing. If you do get that 13th cover for Thor, I'd suggest leveling him as much as you can while keeping your DD tanking TU tiles over Thor. Two of them are one of the fastest pvp teams on offense still, but if Thor tanks TUs, he'd be eating more health packs on climbs and slowing you even more while you go about bringing him back to optimal temperature.

ThaRoadWarrior

I have a question about Lumbercap's red interactions:

How good is that when he's champed? Good enough to 1-shot a half-health Gladiathor when he's hiding behind Okoye? I suppose that's more of a defense play, but I wonder if that was part of the point of that being a conditional target power in his design? I know everybody fixated on his purple being a lame duck attempt at blocking Gambit at the time, but I wonder if he is as middling as all that in the current climate really?

What happens when you fire his red with Bishop as the target so that it hits the bros in back? That power is basically the nuclear version of Riri's Remote Gauntlets, so I imagine it would behave similarly. Does Bishop jump-in-front to both hits, or does he let it slide since he wasn't hit?

DAZ0273

Would depend on how high a level Thor it is. Mine is at 350 and at half health I think could survive Cap's Rope-a-Dope but it would hurt, higher levels probably not an issue.

Daredevil217

My Thor (level 440) could survive two rope a dopes from my champed Cap (level 453). At these levels, Thor has just under 50k health (so just under 25k at half) and Cap hits for just over 10k for each person in the back. 

ThaRoadWarrior

Right on; what happens vs a Bishop when you put him in front and attack the wingpersons?

ThaRoadWarrior

Interesting. XFDP and Valkyrie will do their passives 2X times when that happens; I can't recall what happens to Thing or the other defensive Jump-in-fronts (spider-woman/colossus). I'd have expected him to retaliate twice

TPF Alexis

ThaRoadWarrior said:

Interesting. XFDP and Valkyrie will do their passives 2X times when that happens; I can't recall what happens to Thing or the other defensive Jump-in-fronts (spider-woman/colossus). I'd have expected him to retaliate twice

Colossus, Thing, Thanos with his green out, Spider-woman, and 3* Deadpool all ignore it when Riri nails the poor fools sheltering behind them, as I recall. I'd assume LumberCap's red would work the same.

JackTenrec

Well, thanks to the updated Mordo feeder rewards, I got the last two Dr. Strange covers I needed to champ (he was at 3/4/5 with two saved covers).  I previously had Civil War Cap at 13 covers + one saved, but didn't want him as my sole 5* champ, so I had him chilling at 255.  This weekend, I champed both.

Dr. Strange basically single-handedly plowed through all the nodes in Strange Sights (I previously had to use a sadly undercovered Okoye with his 3* counterpart, and even that wasn't enough to save from taking an eyebeam or two). He's still not faster than Jessica + Thanos on trivials, but I'm looking forward to him absolutely wrecking some Maggia events.

The two of them combined were pretty much the only way I could find to beat the Mockingbird/Cage/Iron Fist node in SCL8 in the recent Deadpool Vs. event (the 5* nodes just have too many hit points even with boosted 4*s).

So I'm probably still not a 5* player yet, but I'm guessing I'm at least a 4.287* player.

Daredevil217

My last roster update was 2.5 months ago.  Currently I have 5,000 CP (200 pulls) and 157 Latests burning a hole in my pocket. I said I was waiting for Carol/Doom/Hela to rotate, but now that we’re getting this accelerated release schedule for fives (and customer service swaps are no more), I no longer feel comfortable trying to “catch them all” and feel letting Rescue go completely may be a smart play, since she’s pretty trash. If the next 5 is even worse (doubtful) I’ll probably pull, but otherwise, she’ll stay at 2 covers.  I’ll probably post a big update in about a month once I bust the hoard. Really excited for Iceman, as of nothing else, he looks fun. 

New 4* have been pretty easy to keep up with between BH and PVE. Mysterio covers in Sim and PVE progression will leave Juggs (8 covers) as my only unchamped. It’s weird having all these new people that we invest tons of resources in to champ and time to chase, and they are glorified trophies. 


The TLDR roster update is:

- I finished Strange with a CP store (please bring these back!) and Mordo feeder (more of these as well please!). I was so focused on chasing him and excited to finish him, and now... I often forget he’s champed. Just so squishy. He’s a decent PVE third against goons if I remember to run him. 

- I finished Kingpin with the Miles feeder.   I think I played a few matches pairing him with DD (whom I think he synergizes best with) early in PVP climbs. Slow but fun. Haven’t played him in awhile now that novelty hasn’t worn off. 

- I have Black Suit close to being finished. 15 IW Spidey covers puts him at 4/4/4, so he’s my current BH. I won’t play him until he’s champed but once he is, I’ll bust him out a lot to disrupt Gritty teams.

Other than those updates... hoarding is rough.  Here’s the full roster...

L461 Cable 5/5/3
L460 Thanos 5/3/5
L457 Jessica Jones 5/5/3
L456 Black Panther 5/4/4
L456 Kingpin 5/3/5
L455 Daredevil 5/3/5
L454 Archangel 5/4/4
L454 Doctor Doom 3/5/5
L454 Green Goblin 5/5/3
L453 Captain America (IW) 5/5/3
L453 Doctor Strange 5/3/5
L452 Captain Marvel 5/3/5
L452 Loki 5/5/3
L452 Okoye 5/5/3
L451 Ghost Rider 5/3/5
L450 Hela 5/5/3

L440 Kitty Pryde 5/5/3 (6 saved)
L440 Thor 5/5/3 (3 saved)

L420 Gambit 4/2/5
L420 Spider-Man (BiB) 4/4/3
L405 Wolverine 4/3/3
L375 Spider-Man (PP) 4/3/1

All L255:
11 covers: Doctor Octopus
10 covers: Iron Man
9 covers: Silver Surfer, Star-Lord
8 covers: Jean Grey
6 covers: Black Bolt
7 covers: Black Widow, Wasp
4 covers: Captain America (FA), Hawkeye
3 covers: Iceman, The Hulk
2 covers: Rescue
1 cover: Storm

ThaRoadWarrior

I'm not sure I agree Rescue is total trash, but I also don't have as deep a 5* roster of "better" characters to lean on. Paired with GE Doom and my mostly built Okoye, I feel like she'll be pretty strong as an okoye seed. That red is only 6ap and has a double-tap, and you can sort of kickstart it off that blue. Since Doom is passive on blue, it seems like it's reasonable as an alternative to me. I'm looking forward to trying her out. 

As for Iceman, I have a feeling Ice-koye will be the bootleg version of Thorkoye for those of us who missed out on him. His green is mega cheap and will do team damage, and his blue and yellow both work way better than you might expect. with the godmode boost, my 1/0/1 is already viable in my dual 5* MMR with that and damage reduction hiding behind Doom.

DarthDeVo

ThaRoadWarrior said:

As for Iceman, I have a feeling Ice-koye will be the bootleg version of Thorkoye for those of us who missed out on him. His green is mega cheap and will do team damage, and his blue and yellow both work way better than you might expect. with the godmode boost, my 1/0/1 is already viable in my dual 5* MMR with that and damage reduction hiding behind Doom.

Thorkoye will beat Icy/Okoye twice before Icy/Okoye would even win once. 

Okoye does boost Icy's green quite nicely, but you have to actually collect it first. And with him tanking yellow, blue, green, and maybe purple (my 462 Okoye has purple at 87, 452 Icy has it at 89), it's gonna be hard to keep the TU AP stocked to actually get that boost. 

My first instinct was to run those two together in PvP, but it's s-l-o-w. You can use Okoye's red to destroy Icy's CDs and/or repeaters, so there is a little synergy there, but you're at the mercy of the board to get those matches.

Thor ended up making a much better partner because his board shake helps force blue matches and feeds green. 

Having said all that, I still enjoy Icy, and he's a great third for Thorkoye in Sim. But he's not breaking those two up anytime soon.