Is this game "Pay to Lose"?

Unknown

I've done very well in a few past events mostly with my relatively weak roster (I have one max 85 character and working on bringing up a decent 2 star team) because I spent time grinding (and some cash) and then shielding once I got to a what I deemed to be a sufficiently high event point level. However, in recent days I find myself in a bracket where the events are dominated by players with multiple level 141 characters.

So help me with my logic, I do well and spend money on the game so I can take an **** whipping from veteran players with much higher level characters? What is my incentive to keep spending money on the game? Do I invest additional time and money to get some characters to 141 so I can a take an **** whipping by those with maxed 4 star characters?

Something isn't make sense for me here, I'm just trying to see the logic. Help me out if I'm missing something because I love this game in concept but I'm wary of spending money and time on a game where I take one step forward only to have an artificial matching system force me take 2 steps back.

They could potentially get some serious cash from me in the long run but the system currently has me jaded.

Serious question to the Marvel Puzzle Quest veteran players here, is this game pay to lose? And by "pay", I mean an investment of time or money (so those who have never paid a dime feel free to weigh in here).

Unknown

1. Yes
2. None, unless they finally start listening
3. not quite, but the stronger Your roster the tougher the game
4. Yes

Twysta

If I can be serious for minute then I'd say... it's not pay to lose exactly...
However it's probably the only game I've ever known where it's more catered for and probably more beneficial to be a new player than an established one.
That's not to say your time and effort aren't rewarded... maybe just not as much.

For PvE it's a lot easier for a new player to do well, so if you want to just focus on PvE for some people it seems probably just better to start a new account!

PvP is a bit trickier. New guys currently with MMR bracket creation are finding it easier to get decent placement due to lower point totals in their brackets (I found this to be the case on my alternate phone account).
While mid range players - which seems to be where you're at - are getting left out in t he cold as you''re stuck in the middle, in MMR limbo as it were: as veteran players are still competing for the top prizes as ever and you have to get lumped in with them as gentle nudges incline you to have a less likely chance to get stuck with the lower troop - although this is still possible.

Unknown

I'd say yes. It's mostly pay to advance (quickly) and advancing means playing a harder game, making the chances of losing higher. (And I don't mean not placing #1 - losing for me means not getting a 3* cover, i.e. not making top 50).

Honestly, if I were starting now, I'd build a decent 1* roster with maybe a couple 2* taken to about lvl 50 and then stay there and just collect covers and iso, until I have enough to push two lvl 3 characters to 141. That seems the most logical strategy - stay with the lower ranks until you milked them for all you can and don't advance under any circumstances (until the weighted sharding pushes you in the harder brackets because of how long you've played).

Of course from the point of view of basically any players that's an absurd strategy, because we want to advance continually, not be stuck in the same place forever.

Unknown

Ok, so it's not pay to lose but it's more like do well to lose.....

In their infinite stupidity the devs try to make the game challenging (read force you to buy shields and health packs) in a few ways....

In PvE scaling punishes having higher level heroes specifically. You start at a higher level, scaling is done on a percentage so you gain extra levels more quickly AND it appears between events the resetting of scaling is lopping a flat number off the top of your PvE scaling MMR so if you're low level your personal scaling gets pretty much wiped whereas higher level ppl start the next event already part scaled.

In PvP you can split your punishments into 2 parts:

1. If you've done well in previous events and won substantially more times than you've lost then your PvP MMR goes up and you face tougher opponents. This particularly punishes you if you push early (so have to win a lot to get points because other ppl aren't high yet and points per win are low) and shield so you don't get retaliated against. Any strategy using shielding is punished in this way really BUT regardless of your MMR when the event is getting closer to the end you are offered, and targetted by people with similar scores. So weaker rosters punching above their weight will get picked on at the end of an event if unshielded.

2. The new bracketing system is sorting people into brackets based on how long they have played the game for. This means the longer you've played (regardless of whether you've played hardcore and got a great roster or been casual and got a weak one) the harder your bracket will be to place well in as you go up against more players who have better rosters and likely make time to do well since they've stuck with the game a long time.

SO.... if you spend cash on the game for shields then you will suffer in subsequent PvP. Getting a couple of 3* covers doesn't really cover the increased MMR.
-If you spend cash on ISO to level heroes then you are punished in PvE BUT would do a bit better in PvP because you'll cope better in your MMR bracket and would have a good roster for your length of play so be a bigger fish in your rewards bracket. ISO is way too expensive IMO though so don't buy it
-If you were to spend money on cover packs or specific covers you actually get something of an advantage in everything. A level 85 3* with 13 covers is generally a lot better than one with, say, 8 but the game doesn't differentiate between the 2 for PvE scaling. To do the best in PvE for the least effort you would harvest (or buy) covers without getting too much in the way of levels. In PvP you would have a stronger roster through extra covers for your time played and be stronger in your rewards bracket than the next guy as well. Only thing it doesn't help with is the PvP MMR increase BUT if you only need 700 points to place well in PvP because you've not played so long and avoided all the 1k+ scorers then you can afford to get hit more and normalise your MMR a bit.

In reality the game is pretty heavily pay to win (get covers for new heroes for their PvP or boosted PvE, get 3 x 141 heroes by only needing 1 of each colour to get started on them then buying the covers and ISO, Shield hop from insanely early on in events because you're buying HP etc etc) but the amount you have to spend to get a big advantage is huge. If you try to spend to advance your roster more quickly then you're actually punished somewhat for doing so, presumably in the hope you'll feel you've already invested in the game and if you spent a bit more maybe that would help so you pump more cash in...

The most depressing thing is IF you spent a small fortune to get the covers and ISO to have a multiple 141 roster you'd still generally need to keep spending on those shields to place highly in PvP, you'd need to suffer and struggle in PvE to beat garbage rosters and you'd need to spend again on the next hero that came out to keep up 8)