Taking a step back from MPQ

froggerjohn

Despite feeling like I made good progress in the 4* tier the past six months, it hasn't really translated into better PvE clear times for the most part, other than a few specific instances.

In fact, after getting almost all t10 (and scattered t5) placements for many months, I went four events in a row at t20, despite optimal (for me) play and no mistakes.

It has left me with a feeling of frustration, and not being able to keep up with what appears to be a greater number of 5* players in SCL7 (I typically play 4.7). So I think I need to take a break for awhile, and just play PvP, boss events, and late-snipe PvE brackets.

Recent changes:
https://mpq.gamependium.com/rosters/froggerjohn/revisions/158

I started hoarding CP, and now have 850 (and 137 LTs). Previously I had been spending them on Classics, but I have most of the 4*s 209-capable now, so Classics are diminishing returns.

Sadly, the hoard was a bit too late to fully capitalize on the recent stores that included Kitty. That said, I did finally get my first yellow cover, now 1/4/3. Still under-powered for general use, but was delightful in Honor Among Thieves, in wave events with Mindless Ones (with R&G and Thanos).

BH'd Thanos3 to 266, and getting Strange there as well (now 258). Thanos/R&G/any Guardian works great for mook nodes, and occasional active tile-movers. But for nodes with three actives (like Dark Avengers), it's still faster for me to use America with the 5e. And I almost always use them on the essential nodes, where it doesn't seem like I have any other viable two-character teams. A big part of that, is having a 5* Sharon Carter support with a +1.2 crit boost. I can get 8-9K match damage when the 5e is a 'hero' (villains can't use the support).

Bottom line, I'm not really sure where I can go from here. I don't know if I'm missing any opportunities with other 4*s, but it doesn't seem like it. By the time I'd collect AP to use any powers, or wait for special tiles to buff up, America/5e will have already finished the fight.

Seems like the next step requires getting more covers for 5* characters, like Kitty or Okoye. But having just missed such an opportunity, that might be awhile as well. (My recent drop in placements may in fact be due to other players taking advantage of those stores).

I might jump back in after taking a break, so any guidance on where to focus next would still be most welcome.

jtsings

   First of all: congrats on making some very good progress on your account.  You've kind of bucked the system, so to speak, by getting some of the best 4* champed in the midst of the almost impossible wall of dilution.  However, I completely understand your frustration.  I specifically champed Okoye just so I could jump into SCL 8 PVE and the difference, for me at least, has been night and day.  I also bracket watch but with fairly optimum play, I typically finish top 10, top 5 or if I'm lucky sometimes even 1st (which honestly is not too much different than 2nd-5th place but that's another discussion altogether).  My suggestions to you would be to:

a)  bonus hero R4G and keep working on Kitty.  Save your CP and hopefully you can find a store featuring her again or maybe we'll get lucky to have a feeder announced for her soon.  In the meantime, you can try using Kitty and R4G on the essential nodes and if you've not already tried the regular nodes with Kitty, R4G, and Medusa, I'd give it a shot (focus on matching blue and Medusa's countdown tile).  I think I remember you chiming in on some supports posts before but if you have either the Chewie support or Lockheed, they go very well with Kitty.   

b)  Your other option would be to max level Kitty out but you'd be pretty much be playing Gritty for every PVP, which may get rather monotonous and quite possibly health pack draining as well.  But it is an option that would most likely speed your PVE time up a bit.
  
c)  3rd option would be to try doing SCL 8 non-competitively.  I'll admit the 5E nodes get pretty insane but you could finish it once or twice and just play at your leisure for the extra resources (extra 3* cover) and more CP for progression.  If you bracket watch and jump in at the right slice you may be able to still get a top 50 placement even for just going past full progression.

d) lastly if you need to take a break just do it.  Some people walk away and come back and some leave for good but even taking a few breaks on hard events, like the last two days of Venom Bomb, might work for you as well.  Another strategy too is to catch flips after the 1st day of an SCL 7 event is already over.  You get to take a little break from the "daily grind" and you can still get full progression if you play fairly optimally.  (I did this in Venom Bomb this time around and I've got a pretty good chance to get my 2nd first place finish in SCL 8).

  I certainly understand your competitive spirit toward the game, I'm not too competitive by nature but this game brings it out in me lol.  But when you're outclassed by bigger rosters you have to get creative or at least keep hanging in there until you can start getting a roster that can at least hang with the "big boy" rosters.

froggerjohn

Thank you for your comments and suggestions.

> a)  bonus hero R4G and keep working on Kitty

Is the starting level of R4G really important? It seems like I need to use the BH on new characters to raise them to 209?

I have tried to use Kitty/R4G/Medusa on regular nodes, but it was much slower for me. Kitty's buff is only 98 right now, so it takes awhile for that to add up. Only on wave nodes does it pay off in the long run. (And I only have a 1* Chewie, so the percentage chance is still pretty low).

> b) max level Kitty

You've touched on my biggest fear with MPQ, that of being stuck playing the same team for everything once I get one of the metas up high enough. I suspect I would lose interest in the game if it gets to that point. Not just due to the monotony, but it removes the motivation for building characters, if I'm not going to use those characters anyway.

And maybe that's an unsolvable quandary (for me). If the only way to speed up PvE is getting one of the meta teams, and if that removes too much interest in the 'game' once reaching that point, then I'm in a tough spot.

> c) SCL8

I really like playing SCL8. It turns the more mindless play into more of a challenge (Royal Family and Rider Awakens from HoD come to mind). It just takes so much longer. Granted I was playing competitively (and still getting t10 results), and not sure how the time works out with a smaller number of clears.

Up to now however, the "competitive drive" for speed is what makes the repetitive grind of PvE tolerable for me. Most of the 'enjoyment' came from trying to maximize speed and get those t10 placements. Without that motivation, it feels like the grind won't be worth it.

I wish PvE was half the number of repetitions of what it currently is. But that's not going to happen.

> d)
I caught a last day flip in VB that should have given me a t10 finish, but I totally botched the final burn and wound up #11 by 100 points. (Leaving 1000+ on the table. Like I said, botched).

The break was nice, but I've also realized that my CP and HP resources will seriously dry up if I don't play PvE to progression.

Ugh... 

Going to play SS to progression, since I like that one. Maybe I'll try SCL8, but back off on the clears a bit and see what happens.

Thanks again.

ThaRoadWarrior

I would say if you can make peace with the fact you'll miss out on Shield Training, just park your BH on a character you want to grow. Either someone for their own sake, as with 4ocket, or someone that can feed one of your 5*s over the hump. I see looking at your roster, nobody with a feeder is within feeding distance right now, so that won't be as helpful as I've had it be so far.

If you're leaning hard on Chavez, I'd suggest bonusing her as high as you care to, or need to in order to finish Jessica Jones. That's perhaps not coincidentally what I've been doing with my BHs all year (!) so far. Since late January, I've taken her from 285->327, and Jessica Jones is currently 4/3/4 on my roster. I've missed out on quite a few ST free covers because of it, but in the end if you're playing with/for a 5* roster, that's not so bad. I still get 1-3 from progression and launch placement unless I'm traveling.

Outside of release events, I just play to progression - 1x clear required node, 4x of all other regular ndoes, 2x on waves, and that's full progression on a standard PVE above SCL 7. I try to hit 900 in pvp, but I'm okay if I end up having to tap out at 575. I don't worry about hanging on to placement there. 

jtsings

froggerjohn said:

Thank you for your comments and suggestions.

> a)  bonus hero R4G and keep working on Kitty

mine is a level 307 and the strike tile strengths are 168 and 352 for GoTG member.  At level 325 it jumps to 194 and 403 and keep in mind that is multiplied by 7 (194-168=26X7 or 182 or 403-352=51X7 or 357 more total damage)  If you have Kitty strengthening or Medusa doing double damage with it, any increase helps.

> b) max level Kitty

You've touched on my biggest fear with MPQ, that of being stuck playing the same team for everything once I get one of the metas up high enough. I suspect I would lose interest in the game if it gets to that point. Not just due to the monotony, but it removes the motivation for building characters, if I'm not going to use those characters anyway.

  The only way you'd circumvent using Kitty and Grocket in PVP every match would be to get more 4* champs.  If you have at least two 4* champs on the weekly boost list you could use them instead, so actually getting more 4* champs would actually be helpful in your situation.  Here's the flip side though:  even if you have 65 4* champs, like myself, you're always going to have a really bad boost week.  For instance if the boost list is Fury and Kraven then, even though they are playable in certain situations you're not going to find good synergy or high usability of them even when they are champed.  In that light, you could always use your boosted 4*s and then leave Gritty as your defensive team when you're taking a break or use Gritty the whole PVP if the boost list is pretty poor.  However, the other issue that might arise is sheild simulator and boss battle side nodes.  You most likely are going to matched up with people that have high level 5* such as yourself and the side nodes in boss battles will be significantly harder as it goes deeper into the event.

And maybe that's an unsolvable quandary (for me). If the only way to speed up PvE is getting one of the meta teams, and if that removes too much interest in the 'game' once reaching that point, then I'm in a tough spot.

  Agreed: it's a tough balancing act, trying to enjoy playing a variety of different characters or use the fastest team to get you better rewards that eventually will get you more resources to get more new characters that you may never use other than when they are required.  Only you can find that correct balance.  For me I enjoy playing Okoye and half Thor because they can get me through really tough 5e nodes and Okoye really is the perfect character for variety because she makes almost everyone else around her so much better (when she has a few black covers).  So far it hasn't become monotonous for me to use them in PVP and PVE every time but only time will tell if that changes for me.

  You might want to mix it up for PVE.  I personally would not do SCL 8 for SS, sorry if I steered you that way, because it takes so much longer than any other PVE.  But goon heavy PVE's would be a good time to jump to SCL 8 because it usually doesn't take too much longer using America or Gritty/dusa or even Gamora/Rocket/dusa as compared to SCL 7.  But again I'd only do SCL 8 if your going to just take it easy and go at your own pace or maybe doing this might even get you top 20 without too much effort (there's currently an account with one 4* Medusa champ in SS SCL 8 and as of a few hours ago he was in the top 20). If that doesn't fit your play style then you may just have to wait things out until you can get a competitive enough roster to get top 10 without too much effort, which is what I had to do for awhile.

  I'm not sure any of this info helps but I thought I woud at least share some of my experiences.  Hopefully you can get the right balance of enjoying the game/not feeling you're constantly grinding while also getting good enough rewards that allow you to keep advancing at a good pace.

  As an aside:  this "problem" of 5* champ rosters competiting for top spots in SCL 7 is really an issue of time.  Champed 5* rosters know they can get top ten and a 4* cover in placement with the least amount of time and effort so that's whay they flock there.  I kind of wonder if they added 4*s cover(s) to the top 20 SCL 8 if that would make a diffence but I'm not so sure the game team is willing to be that generous.  It also could be for some the 5e node is just too difficult to complete even with 5* champs.  If the levels of SCL 8 5e was leveled down to 350, or so it might be a bit more manageable and less time comsuming to encourage players to move back up to SCL 8.  Who knows if either of these will or will ever be considered sometime in the future; we can only hope.

froggerjohn

Well, I had already jumped into SS SCL8. No worries though, it looks like fun. It did take a long time for the Doom clears, but I think the next two days will be better, and I can ride boosted Strange. A 3* Taskmaster sword adds an extra 1K every yellow/blue power hit. Gritty/Strange should be a good option for the wave node.

The best part of SCL8, is that at least for me, it encourages opening up some different teams.

America/5e is really fast in SCL7, because many of the enemies are one-match kills. As the health gets higher, and the AP equation gets tougher (active tile movers + goons are often harder to maintain the advantage against), it can slow way down to the point where other alternatives are better. Boosted Hawkguy was great on the Sentries, for example.

My 280 R4G is 139/289, or less than one Nico/Kitty buff away. Seems like that's a small difference, compared to what else I could do with 27 4BHs. As tiles get buffed, as well as matched away, the starting value gets less and less relevant. (Granted, it's still a difference "per-tile, per-turn", so it does add up).
 
Half-Thor actually sounds "fun to play", from what I can imagine, trying to maintain that health balance. My 1-cover Thor and 2-cover Okoye means that in all likelihood, I will never get a chance to experience it. But maybe someone else will come along with an interesting and powerful mechanic, and I'll have enough LTs/CP to make a run at them.

In the meantime, I just have to find my peace. I think it's an indication of a broken game when SCL7 has 550 champs in it. I also think it's not 'generous' to expand rewards, when the state of dilution means that expansion is actually 'required', just to maintain a similar relative level of roster growth potential as what players had years ago.

froggerjohn

Since 'time' is the only real impediment to doing SCL8, I'm running HoD with a reduced time commitment (compared to competitive SCL7 play), and it looks promising so far.

It's basically a tradeoff of losing a 4star placement cover (which in itself isn't guaranteed), and gaining the additional SCL8 progression resources (CP, HP, iso, 3* cover).

It also gains time freedom, variety, more challenge at SCL8, using other teams, etc.

I figure I can do a mix of different play styles, and maybe solve the monotony and burnout issues.

1. Events with wave nodes (extra cover rewards therein) and/or valuable progression covers are good candidates for the above.

2. Events with valuable placement covers, or the lack of the above, are good candidates for late bracket competitive sniping. Which also yields "days off" on occasion.

3. Can always choose to do a competitive event here and there.