5* Jump

heybub

Now that we have a new 5* character announced, I'm hoping you can convince me what the best option is for my 5* jump.  I have ~350pull with CP/Tokens and am looking to max out some cool 5*s but not champ.

The question is when do I do this?  I feel like Hela is good enough for the jump, but her supporting cast is making this really difficult to decide.  CM looks pretty ****, but then so does Rescue.  Are there any synergies with a combination of the three?

Please vote and explain your reasoning.   

Dormammu

None of the above: Wait for a Meta...

heybub said:

I have ~350pull with CP/Tokens and am looking to max out some cool 5*s but not champ. 

If you're not going to champ, there isn't a 5-star worth blowing your hoard on in the latest 3 (or with the addition of Pepper Potts). Of the 5-stars who are worth cover-maxing and soft-capping, it's only the ones who have some outstanding passive that are going to be of any legitimate help to you. Someone like Kitty or Okoye. Otherwise, there's plenty of strategy and tactics in the 4-star tier that can do whatever an under-leveled 5-star can do - except better (as long as you have the 4-star champed and possibly boosted).

I voted to wait. If you have plans to one day elevate to 5-star play, that's your best move.

Now, you're never going to see three meta characters in the pool of Latest 3. The last time we were even close to that was when Okoye and JJ were in there together, but that was a long time ago. Hoard your LTs for when there is one meta character in Latest 3; try to pull when that one meta character is surrounded by the least amount of trash. In the meantime, you have a hoard of LTs that will enable you to get at least one cover for all new 5-stars so that you have them for 5e nodes.

Your CP is of infinite more value. Right now, the trend is to offer meta or near-meta fives in special stores. These are the best opportunity to get the top 5-stars. You need to be patient, and when one is offered that appeals to you a hoard of CPs will come in pretty handy.

Malcrof

Pull Now: GED, CM, Hela

GED and Hela only have 1 downside, the overlap of 2 amazing black skills. I am working on both, if CM gets done in the meantime, bonus, she is situationally very useful.  If your goal is PVP , Hela is great, for PVE, GED is amazing.  

Edit: I missed out on the current meta being retired, so for me, this is the current meta. 

heybub

Anybody Has to be better than GED/CM/Rescue: Hela, Rescue, X

Malcrof said:

GED and Hela only have 1 downside, the overlap of 2 amazing black skills. I am working on both, if CM gets done in the meantime, bonus, she is situationally very useful.  If your goal is PVP , Hela is great, for PVE, GED is amazing.  

Edit: I missed out on the current meta being retired, so for me, this is the current meta. 

I think we can all agree that CM and Rescue suck.  Hela is pretty good (as close to a meta as we have seen in several months).  I'm not sure about GED, but heard he is solid.

Why is GED so amazing for PVE?  What makes Hela so great for PVP? I usually play PVE, but do like to play PVP sometimes.  Maybe current 5*s are good enough for me, especially since these tokens are burning a hole in my pocket.

heybub

Anybody Has to be better than GED/CM/Rescue: Hela, Rescue, X

Dormammu said:

heybub said:

I have ~350pull with CP/Tokens and am looking to max out some cool 5*s but not champ. 

If you're not going to champ, there isn't a 5-star worth blowing your hoard on in the latest 3 (or with the addition of Pepper Potts). Of the 5-stars who are worth cover-maxing and soft-capping, it's only the ones who have some outstanding passive that are going to be of any legitimate help to you. Someone like Kitty or Okoye. Otherwise, there's plenty of strategy and tactics in the 4-star tier that can do whatever an under-leveled 5-star can do - except better (as long as you have the 4-star champed and possibly boosted).

I voted to wait. If you have plans to one day elevate to 5-star play, that's your best move.

Now, you're never going to see three meta characters in the pool of Latest 3. The last time we were even close to that was when Okoye and JJ were in there together, but that was a long time ago. Hoard your LTs for when there is one meta character in Latest 3; try to pull when that one meta character is surrounded by the least amount of trash. In the meantime, you have a hoard of LTs that will enable you to get at least one cover for all new 5-stars so that you have them for 5e nodes.

Your CP is of infinite more value. Right now, the trend is to offer meta or near-meta fives in special stores. These are the best opportunity to get the top 5-stars. You need to be patient, and when one is offered that appeals to you a hoard of CPs will come in pretty handy.

I think this is the right thing to do.  Wait for a bona fide meta/and or save up 350 LT.  The CP stores seem like the best bet to get 3 metas.  These options would require me to hoard for an additional year, and I'm not sure I want to wait that long.  

My plan had been to treat Hela like a Meta (she's pretty good, from what I can tell), and then maximize the talent around her.  Problem is, the talent around her is pretty horrible...If there were 2 decent characters around her, I'd pull the trigger since I'm tired of waiting.

Malcrof

Pull Now: GED, CM, Hela

heybub said:

Malcrof said:

GED and Hela only have 1 downside, the overlap of 2 amazing black skills. I am working on both, if CM gets done in the meantime, bonus, she is situationally very useful.  If your goal is PVP , Hela is great, for PVE, GED is amazing.  

Edit: I missed out on the current meta being retired, so for me, this is the current meta. 

I think we can all agree that CM and Rescue suck.  Hela is pretty good (as close to a meta as we have seen in several months).  I'm not sure about GED, but heard he is solid.

Why is GED so amazing for PVE?  What makes Hela so great for PVP? I usually play PVE, but do like to play PVP sometimes.  Maybe current 5*s are good enough for me, especially since these tokens are burning a hole in my pocket.

Hela, 3 active skills, 1 that deals massive damage (green) , 1 that adds strikes cheaply and buffs friendly and removes enemy special tiles, and that black... so many attack tiles, some boards i had it ramped up to over 10k per turn in just hela made tiles.  Add in all the passives, and she can ramp up fast. 

GED - black is a straight nuke, cheap and hits hard, yellow board shuffle, lots of heals for all, ap stealing, nifty passive on black should you lose.  in PVE, you will most likely never use a health pack on him. 

heybub

Anybody Has to be better than GED/CM/Rescue: Hela, Rescue, X

Ok, after thinking about this all now I am less sure what i want to do.

Being a 4* player looking to move to 5* land, I started hoarding a year ago.  The plan was to get 300 or so tokens, and pull when there were some good 5*s available, pull, max cover, and champ them.  After getting advice on the forums, it sounded like this was a bad plan if I wanted to play PVP (I'm typically a PVE player).  With champed 5*s, I would be in PVP 5* hell and place worse than I currently do.  The advice I received was to wait for a meta 5*, pull the tokens, but don't champ (soft cap at 330 or so).  This sounded like a good plan, and then Hela appeared, and I was set to go.

The problem is that Hela is not really meta, and the supporting cast around her is poor (GED might be OK).  Also, looking at the stats, a lvl 330 Hela or GED won't really be that great compared to champed/boosted 4*.  If that is the case, what is the advantage to pulling at all (or even hoarding at this point)?  Hoarding CP looks like a great way to go as I could hit a store with 3 metas, but I would need to collect for another year before doing that.  Also, if 4*s are so great, maybe I should pull now and get 300 4* covers.  I could also champ Hela/GED and do well in PVE, but would need to forget about PVP.  @Dormammu, I think this is exactly what you have been trying to tell me.  The meta for a 5* that is not champed needs to be one with a killer passive - and Hela/GED is not it.

I really don't know what to do at this point, and keep flip-flopping on the way to go.  

Dormammu

None of the above: Wait for a Meta...

Your problem is that your hoard is burning a hole in your pocket. 

I'm going to be as helpful as I can be with you...

If you champ two 5-stars you're going to see a lot of Okoye and Thor. And I mean a lot. You're also going to see a lot of Kitty + Grocket. And I do mean a lot. That doesn't mean you can't skip through and find some other teams, because you sometimes can, but at some point when your score is high enough that's about all you'll see for teams that are worth hitting (36 points or higher). You have to be able to handle them or you will quit PvP all together.  In SHIELD Sim you start to see Okoye + Thor + JJ and a lot of Kitty + Grocket + high-level Bishop. These are difficult teams to deal with when you don't have your own set of metas (or hard counters - like BSSM for Gritty) to contend.

Right now, if a player doesn't have Okoye, Thor, or Kitty champed PvP is going to be a lot harder than for those who do. I don't want to comment on the right or wrong of this, that's just simply the state of the union at the moment. But this won't always be the case. Okoye, Thor, and Kitty haven't always been the darlings they are now and they won't always be the meta. Someone will come along and oust them, eventually. So you have to ask yourself... when that new meta character arrives, do you want to be sitting on two so-so 5-stars and one bad one? Or do you want to be sitting on a hoard that's ready to jump into the new meta? What about the next time they run a special store featuring fan favorites (like the one they did featuring Thor, Okoye, and Kitty)?

My advice is to be patient. Enjoy the 4-star tier - you can never go back to it once you cross that threshold of two champed 5-stars. You'll get there. But you'll be a lot happier if you do it at the right time. I don't think this is the right time, but that's just me.

heybub

Anybody Has to be better than GED/CM/Rescue: Hela, Rescue, X

Dormammu said:

Your problem is that your hoard is burning a hole in your pocket. 

I only have one problem? No, I totally agree. I think your advice is the right thing to do, but it's like you said. As of right now, I will follow your advice and let GED/Hela go....but we'll see how I feel tomorrow.

Daredevil217

Dormammu said:

Your problem is that your hoard is burning a hole in your pocket. 

I'm going to be as helpful as I can be with you...

If you champ two 5-stars you're going to see a lot of Okoye and Thor. And I mean a lot. You're also going to see a lot of Kitty + Grocket. And I do mean a lot. That doesn't mean you can't skip through and find some other teams, because you sometimes can, but at some point when your score is high enough that's about all you'll see for teams that are worth hitting (36 points or higher). You have to be able to handle them or you will quit PvP all together.  In SHIELD Sim you start to see Okoye + Thor + JJ and a lot of Kitty + Grocket + high-level Bishop. These are difficult teams to deal with when you don't have your own set of metas (or hard counters - like BSSM for Gritty) to contend.

Right now, if a player doesn't have Okoye, Thor, or Kitty champed PvP is going to be a lot harder than for those who do. I don't want to comment on the right or wrong of this, that's just simply the state of the union at the moment. But this won't always be the case. Okoye, Thor, and Kitty haven't always been the darlings they are now and they won't always be the meta. Someone will come along and oust them, eventually. So you have to ask yourself... when that new meta character arrives, do you want to be sitting on two so-so 5-stars and one bad one? Or do you want to be sitting on a hoard that's ready to jump into the new meta? What about the next time they run a special store featuring fan favorites (like the one they did featuring Thor, Okoye, and Kitty)?

My advice is to be patient. Enjoy the 4-star tier - you can never go back to it once you cross that threshold of two champed 5-stars. You'll get there. But you'll be a lot happier if you do it at the right time. I don't think this is the right time, but that's just me.

I think Hela/Doom could take Thorkoye. Hela has the soft counter to his green and Doom has the super nuke to off him at half health. Doom/Hela could also take Gritty if you’re willing to use a healthpack or two every single time. Doom dies and removes the specials and Hela could take a declawed Gritty. 

Another option is to bust the hoard and soft cap the champs to stay in 4* MMR. Then build for the next meta and transition with 5-6 characters. That’s what I did. I started cracking my hoard when DD was set to leave Latests and started covering 5s, but didn’t level them until over a year later when I had amassed a big group. 

I also like the idea of Doom single 5* MMR. There are quite a few black batteries that he would pair well with in the 4* tier (Clagger, Domino). Obviously he’d help speed up PVE, but I think he could be a beast in PVP too. Gritty teams may skip him because you either attack first and risk losing the strikes or attack last and risk eating a nuke. 

ThaRoadWarrior

You can offensively take Thorkoye with a number of teams + a little fire-focusing strategy (assuming similar levels). It's on defense where you're going to get steamrolled. So if you're used to climbing without shielding like i was, just expect PVP to require you to pay more attention to it going forward. I think Doom is better than people thought at the time, and i'm seeing him more and more in PVP now. Hela I don't see, but when I have, she has been a Problem for me, relying on green the way I do with GRRR.