Prodigal Sun, Episode 4.5

Unknown

wade66 wrote:

tcourtney wrote:

If you don't have the character for the "essential nodes' you are not going to do anything in the PvE period...no top 10 no top 50 no top 100 because with how stuff scales now you just can't do it...so yes it is VERY essential to have that one character if you want anything worth a damn for rewards.

Does this mean I shouldn't bother with the event since without LD I can't hope to place to get anything meaningful?

Depends on what's meaningful for you?

Personally I'd play it just for the iso and HP, even if I had no chance at a cover - if you don't care about placement, you can always just play it casually like another Story chapter, not bothering with points and refreshes.

wade66

Carthl wrote:

wade66 wrote:

tcourtney wrote:

If you don't have the character for the "essential nodes' you are not going to do anything in the PvE period...no top 10 no top 50 no top 100 because with how stuff scales now you just can't do it...so yes it is VERY essential to have that one character if you want anything worth a damn for rewards.

Does this mean I shouldn't bother with the event since without LD I can't hope to place to get anything meaningful?

Depends on what's meaningful for you?

Personally I'd play it just for the iso and HP, even if I had no chance at a cover - if you don't care about placement, you can always just play it casually like another Story chapter, not bothering with points and refreshes.

That's probably what i will do, so I can throw some points up and see if it helps my alliance any.

Tagstar87

Carthl wrote:

wade66 wrote:

tcourtney wrote:

Personally I'd play it just for the iso and HP, even if I had no chance at a cover - if you don't care about placement, you can always just play it casually like another Story chapter, not bothering with points and refreshes.

This is what I do. I have not had the "Essential" character for the last few PVE's so I merely play all available nodes once to gather the ISO/HP/Tokens and to read any of the plot lines. It is a laid back approach, very similar to the Prologue, and I do not have to stress about refresh times or grind the same node over and over. That being said, I also know I will never earn the top rewards or characters from PVE, but I'm ok with that

TazFTW

My 1 black Daken is kinda useless in this event. I've been pairing him up with either OBW or cStorm and there is never more than 9 blue tiles on board, so he is always hurting himself.

On the bright side, I don't have to sit through the Pheromone Rage animation.

Unknown

Carthl wrote:

Personally I'd play it just for the iso and HP, even if I had no chance at a cover - if you don't care about placement, you can always just play it casually like another Story chapter, not bothering with points and refreshes.

I was only looking at this Event from the viewpoint of "Only play it to try to get the new character." This is how I need to look at it. Just as a way to earn (hopefully) a lot of Iso-8 and HP to help level up a couple more 2* characters before I try to focus on transitioning over to 3*s. And I'll at least be helping my team out a little bit. Thanks for opening my eyes a bit, Carthl.

Unknown

TazFTW wrote:

My 1 black Daken is kinda useless in this event. I've been pairing him up with either OBW or cStorm and there is never more than 9 blue tiles on board, so he is always hurting himself.

On the bright side, I don't have to sit through the Pheromone Rage animation.

It lets you play essential nodes, so not only is he not useless for you, he is the entire reason you will be able to get top 100, maybe even top 50, at all.

I have no LazyDaken and will be pretty much boxed out of this one. gogo standard token rewards for constant grinding!

Unknown

I'm finally going to beat it, thanks to OBW and an 82 Wolvie, but I hate whoever decided to pair up 2 Muscles and a Don.

With the ridiculous amount of Countdown tiles they make, way too many with no way to get to them, they need to slow down to amount of automatic AP goons get or something.

wade66

The most amusing thing is the rags tournament token gave me the Patch cover I could have used for the last event, so maybe the trend will continue and I will get an LD cover from one of next week's pvp events.

rkd80

Can some of the PvE vets give some advice to maximize this whole scaling/bracketing nonsense?

From the other guides I read, the following was gleaned - please confirm if possible:

1) You should play only one node at at a time and clear that node fully before moving on? This is to take advantage of the refresh?
2) You should play one event at a time, still not sure what 'event' means in this context.
3) You should wait about 3 hours or so before the end of the event to put in a good run? The event lasts for 9 days though...what is done in the meantime?

Thanks in advance!

Unknown

...I just want Iso-8. Why does it keep giving me Crit Bosts? Can we be allowed to sell Boosts we have for Iso-8?

itstime1234

this pve is already broken for me. starting at 240+ enemies is ridiculous and the maggie who put up a yellow 3 countdown tile every turn and do 3300 damage is insane.

What the **** is wrong with these developpers.

Clintman

Don't give up hope, there is a 6% chance you can get a DAKEN cover from the 1 pack..... Oh wait, it's 2.4% chance. They save the big 6% for the 10 and 40 packs

Unknown

hmmm if only i had more roster space I would want to get daken's 3* but, I'm out of room.

Not planning on wasting money on this game again any time soon, I got a new WiiU game coming out next week that I preordered since March so i prefer to save my money for that O-o

sooooooooo I should probably obtain whatever hero points im missing from the prologue, see how many hero points I will obtain at the end of the PvP season 1 and see if i will be able to buy my 20th slot in case i do get Daken's 3* by luck

Unknown

I feel like sort of a dumb dumb when I finally figured out one way to at least have a slightly better chance against all of the Countdown Tiles. OBW's Blue power. :sigh:

Unknown

rkd80 wrote:

Can some of the PvE vets give some advice to maximize this whole scaling/bracketing nonsense?

From the other guides I read, the following was gleaned - please confirm if possible:

1) You should play only one node at at a time and clear that node fully before moving on? This is to take advantage of the refresh?
2) You should play one event at a time, still not sure what 'event' means in this context.
3) You should wait about 3 hours or so before the end of the event to put in a good run? The event lasts for 9 days though...what is done in the meantime?

Thanks in advance!

Some answers:

1) Strictly speaking this isn't necessary. But in order to maximize your points, you should wait one full refresh cycle after your last attack on each node in a given run before attempting that node in the next run. Recent refreshes have always been 12 hours. Keep reading this thread for a confirmation of the refresh time.
2) I'm not sure what this refers to. Can you clarify a bit?
3) A good rule of thumb is to wait for (x*refresh) + 2-3 hours before the end of each sub-event before joining. So if refresh is 12 hours, you could wait until the last 2-3 hours (x == 0), 14-16 hours (x == 1), 26-27 hours (x == 2), etc. What determines x? It mostly comes down to your preference. The more points you want (for progression rewards, or node rewards, or end rewards), the higher x you will want to use. But this is balanced by the fact that the more times you play, the higher your scaling will go, making subsequent rounds and events more difficult. A lot of people choose an x value of 1, but again this is mostly just a preference.

Here's the best resource I've found on PvE: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5304

Good luck.

Bowgentle

Pamizard wrote:

hmmm if only i had more roster space I would want to get daken's 3* but, I'm out of room.

Not planning on wasting money on this game again any time soon, I got a new WiiU game coming out next week that I preordered since March so i prefer to save my money for that O-o

sooooooooo I should probably obtain whatever hero points im missing from the prologue, see how many hero points I will obtain at the end of the PvP season 1 and see if i will be able to buy my 20th slot in case i do get Daken's 3* by luck

I'd be careful with Mario Kart, I heard the rubberbanding is so insane that only the last lap really matters

mohio

Warrition wrote:

rkd80 wrote:

Can some of the PvE vets give some advice to maximize this whole scaling/bracketing nonsense?

From the other guides I read, the following was gleaned - please confirm if possible:

1) You should play only one node at at a time and clear that node fully before moving on? This is to take advantage of the refresh?
2) You should play one event at a time, still not sure what 'event' means in this context.
3) You should wait about 3 hours or so before the end of the event to put in a good run? The event lasts for 9 days though...what is done in the meantime?

Thanks in advance!

Some answers:

1) Strictly speaking this isn't necessary. But in order to maximize your points, you should wait one full refresh cycle after your last attack on each node in a given run before attempting that node in the next run. Recent refreshes have always been 12 hours. Keep reading this thread for a confirmation of the refresh time.
2) I'm not sure what this refers to. Can you clarify a bit?
3) A good rule of thumb is to wait for (x*refresh) + 2-3 hours before the end of each sub-event before joining. So if refresh is 12 hours, you could wait until the last 2-3 hours (x == 0), 14-16 hours (x == 1), 26-27 hours (x == 2), etc. What determines x? It mostly comes down to your preference. The more points you want (for progression rewards, or node rewards, or end rewards), the higher x you will want to use. But this is balanced by the fact that the more times you play, the higher your scaling will go, making subsequent rounds and events more difficult. A lot of people choose an x value of 1, but again this is mostly just a preference.
Good luck.

Good answers. My best guess for number 2 would be if a single main event has multiple sub events to just focus on one at a time so you can time your refreshes better. So this might be important for The Hunt or Simulator (regular + hard mode) or when Heroic was split between regular and hard as well. Also to expand on number 1, most people (that I know at least) will only do a full set of nodes once or twice per refresh. Grinding everything down like that is probably detrimental in the long run to your enjoyment of the game. That said, if your OCD means you have to see those green check marks - grind away. The depleting one stack (node) at a time part is just so you can time your refreshes best. That way you can start 12 hours after you last beat the FIRST node, as opposed to 12 hours after you finished playing last (and if you played for 2 hours straight this could make a big difference).

In reality, because of rubberbanding, what's most important is making sure you don't play at all (or maybe just some low value nodes you won't do later anyway) in the last 14-15 hours of each event/sub-event and then doing as much as you can/want to in the last 2-3 hours. Personally, I just play the last 1-1.5 hours and usually still do pretty well and get at least one of the new characters if not both.

Unknown

wade66 wrote:

tcourtney wrote:

If you don't have the character for the "essential nodes' you are not going to do anything in the PvE period...no top 10 no top 50 no top 100 because with how stuff scales now you just can't do it...so yes it is VERY essential to have that one character if you want anything worth a damn for rewards.

Does this mean I shouldn't bother with the event since without LD I can't hope to place to get anything meaningful?

That is correct..... without Punk-**** Daken, you're screwed out of scoring a sentry cover.

rkd80

Thanks for the responses guys, so if this event ends in 9 days, then most of you are waiting until 8days from now to jump in? If so, then is not everyone doing that thus somewhat negating the purpose?

Wouldn't the community scaling be very painful at that stage too?

TazFTW

Hmm, people are already over 5000 in my sub. Top progression award is achievable?