Another "moving to 5* land" question

NotBAMF

I am sitting on 13 covers for 3 separate 5* characters (Kitty at 5/3/5, Jessica Jones as 3/5/5, and Storm at 5/4/4). I also have Dr. Strange at 5/2/5 and Rescue at 3/4/5, and a ton of characters at 11 covers (Logan, Gambit, Phoenix, Loki, and both versions of Cap), though most of them are frustratingly at some variant of 5/5/1. 

I know Kitty and Jessica are both good and Storm at least isn't trash, but... I don't play PVE anymore, and I still genuinely enjoy PVP in the 4* tier. I don't see any reason to move into 5* land. Is the PVP as bad there as I hear?

jp1

NotBAMF said:

I am sitting on 13 covers for 3 separate 5* characters (Kitty at 5/3/5, Jessica Jones as 3/5/5, and Storm at 5/4/4). I also have Dr. Strange at 5/2/5 and Rescue at 3/4/5, and a ton of characters at 11 covers (Logan, Gambit, Phoenix, Loki, and both versions of Cap), though most of them are frustratingly at some variant of 5/5/1. 

I know Kitty and Jessica are both good and Storm at least isn't trash, but... I don't play PVE anymore, and I still genuinely enjoy PVP in the 4* tier. I don't see any reason to move into 5* land. Is the PVP as bad there as I hear?

Yes.

Daredevil217

NotBAMF said:

I am sitting on 13 covers for 3 separate 5* characters (Kitty at 5/3/5, Jessica Jones as 3/5/5, and Storm at 5/4/4). I also have Dr. Strange at 5/2/5 and Rescue at 3/4/5, and a ton of characters at 11 covers (Logan, Gambit, Phoenix, Loki, and both versions of Cap), though most of them are frustratingly at some variant of 5/5/1. 

I know Kitty and Jessica are both good and Storm at least isn't trash, but... I don't play PVE anymore, and I still genuinely enjoy PVP in the 4* tier. I don't see any reason to move into 5* land. Is the PVP as bad there as I hear?

It all depends on what you mean by "as bad".

In terms of variety and enjoyment of the game itself (independent of rewards), I imagine it will be much much worse for you in 5* land.  I'm guessing you will have three viable teams to use (Gritty, Storm/Jessica, Jessica/Kitty) and will eventually get sick of running those same combos over and over again.  In 4* land, you have a wide variety of combos to use each week (and probably already have a functional Gritty anyways); not to mention weekly boosts which can shake things up. 

I don't know what the meta looks like in 4* land anymore (Jugger-Grocket?) but I imagine it has to be more varied than in 5* land. As a 4* player, you can avoid triggering the broken 4* that are flooding 5* queues (Bishop, Worthy Cap), but as a 5* player, there is no avoiding that.

Competitively, you have two top-tier fives that have synergy with one another.  So whatever your goals are for PVP (900 or 1200), I imagine you would be able to get there at least as fast (but probably faster) than you do now, and will take less hits along the way. So if you only care about rewards, the leap might not be a bad idea.  But this is me guessing, and I would want more opinions before making that decision.

KGB

Daredevil217 said:

I don't know what the meta looks like in 4* land anymore (Jugger-Grocket?) but I imagine it has to be more varied than in 5* land. As a 4* player, you can avoid triggering the broken 4* that are flooding 5* queues (Bishop, Worthy Cap), but as a 5* player, there is no avoiding that.

Competitively, you have two top-tier fives that have synergy with one another.  So whatever your goals are for PVP (900 or 1200), I imagine you would be able to get there at least as fast (but probably faster) than you do now, and will take less hits along the way. So if you only care about rewards, the leap might not be a bad idea.  But this is me guessing, and I would want more opinions before making that decision.

I use Juggs/Grocket to fast climb to 575 against boosted 3* teams and non-boosted 4* teams.

Once you cross 600 or so points pretty much all you see are boosted 4* teams or Gritty or some other high 300/low 400 5* pair team. So you are pretty much switching to your own boosted 4* teams to finish the climb to 900.

That climb from 600-900 isn't too bad actually. I skip the Gritty teams (or occasional Bishop teams) and focus on other boosted 4* teams or weaker 5* pair teams. Usually I can get there in 2-3 heath packs spread over a couple of sessions (ie I fast climb to 600 shortly after the event opens with Grocket/Juggs, wait a day for retals, do any retals that are 'easy' then finish the climb to 900 with boosted 4* with about 18-20 hrs to go in the event when it's not 'busy').

KGB

shardwick

You couldn't pay me to go to 5* land. Hell even if I had a meta character champed like Kitty just the thought of using Gritty in every single match would bore the living hell out of me. 

Daredevil217

shardwick said:

You couldn't pay me to go to 5* land. Hell even if I had a meta character champed like Kitty just the thought of using Gritty in every single match would bore the living hell out of me. 

But using Gritty every single match is a choice.  Just like seemingly everyone was using Grockmordusa in 4* land before I left.  That's not a tier-specific issue as much as it is player-specific.  I posted in the fun teams thread that I made 12 unique teams out of my 24 champs and then made 12 more unique teams pairing everyone with someone new next PVP.  The choice to switch it up is always there, but regardless of tier, people usually use what is most effective. Now there's obviously a cost to using less stellar characters (I got hit WAY more doing this experiment), and that is an issue with the game and not the players.  But given the system we have, if all I cared about was getting rewards by any means necessary and having to use only my best teams or broken combos to get there, I would have burnt out and left a long time ago.

I waited until I had enough fully covered fives where I could enjoy variety still before transitioning, but that came after YEARS of playing and most new players have an even bigger mountain to climb than I did- so that's not really a viable option for them.

Hopefully this targeted heroes thing is not just a way to buy ourselves out of the problem the developers created, or just another drop in the bucket.  Some info on that would be pretty cool.

Vhailorx

Using gitty every match is a choice.  But the opponents that the game offers you in PvP is a choice only insofar as you can choose who/when to level up.

LavaManLee

I think the challenge with moving into 5* land is the difficulty in champing 5*s and getting enough of them to make it different. 

I lucked out.  My champs happen to be JJ, Thor, Okoye, Thanos, Kitty and BeardCap (ok, they can't all be winners).  Part of that was due to trying hard and most of it was luck.  For me, this actually lets me mix and match so I don't play the same way each time.

But, if I had other champs, I am sure it would feel differently.  And champing these recents has been a challenge.  I am close on several (Storm, Iceman) but far away on others.  I like 5* land with who I have but wish it were easier to continue to champ 5* as it is 4*.

Not sure if my rambling made any sense but my advice is to wait on moving to 5* until you have at least three characters you like to play and can mix and match.

WiDoW0042

Before I knew anything about MMR or had a clue about how to develop my roster, I was cursed by “lucking” into a bunch of Loki covers.  I thought the whole point of the game was to get your characters to the highest level you could.  I kind of figured my competition in pvp would get more difficult, but holy spit.  I was getting attacked by 550 teams.  I enjoyed using Loki in pve so I didn’t have the heart to sell him and drop my MMR (after finding this board and learning about all this stuff).  For good or bad, I also had about 9 Kitty covers, and somehow fished 4 more covers out of classics plus 1 bonus (yes, it can be done...albeit with uncanny luck).  So I can do SL 9 in pve and pvp and usually make it to 1200 if I time it right, but I’m limited to only using Gritty, otherwise I’d just get creamed in pvp.   That’s my experience.

WiDoW0042

Just to be clear, I’m enjoying the game, but I feel like I missed out on a lot of the 4* experience. (I’m only on day 504, clearance rank 129.). Will I still feel this way on day 1000 if I don’t have any variety to work with and still be somewhat competitive?  Dunno, but I doubt it.

Daredevil217

Vhailorx said:

Using gitty every match is a choice.  But the opponents that the game offers you in PvP is a choice only insofar as you can choose who/when to level up.

No I hear that. If you transition with only Gritty, then you have to use them every match (or lose) and will absolutely miss the variety you had in 4* land. I basically said that. It’s true in every tier though. What compounds it in the 5* tier is the snails pace at which we cover them and the wide discrepancy between the good and bad ones (Thor and Wasp really aren’t in the same tier honestly). 

Warbringa

Yeah, 5* Strange is really good for PvE but as stated before if PvP competitive is important to you, I would wait as those aren't great characters for PvP meta.  If you just play to 575 or so in PvP, then you are probably ok as difficulty in PvP is still not bad up to that point to go forward with champing them as the help in PvE will far out weigh PvP loss.  

acescracked

When you are in 5* MMR you can actually climb to about 900 (higher if you don't mind more hits) using only 4*'s.

Make sure you don't use any 5s and the dual 5* teams won't be able to Q you. Single 5* & 4 star teams can Q you but if your 4s are high lvl you may get alot of blues.

Now, *your* Q's won't change so you'll be fighting dual 5s, gritty. But if it's a good boost week no problem & there is your variety. Then you can switch to your 5* team to 1200 & shield out.

If it's a good 4* week I join really early and just sporadically play boosted 4* matches for fun. 

Having 5s makes pve way easier, and doesn't ruin PvP (albeit you have a few good 5s)...so be wary of the "I've got no 5s but listen to my 5* advice" crowd.

Daredevil217

^^^

Yeah I did that this last PVP sort of on accident lol. I was planning to do 75 wins off retals using pretty much the same strategy you’re talking about. Beat seeds with my 2* teams, then beat on the easy teams that hit me with easy teams. Well 75 wins is a lot, even over 3 days; and I ran out of time. I had hit about 40-50 wins and was at like 800 before I said “screw it” and just went for points. At least I got to use a different “meta” (Kitty/Doom) with Clagger. They both play with them so well!

JackDeath666

I say do it. Small fish in big pond for sure, but you've outgrown where you are and your 5*s are not bad. Variety is overrated. I'd rather hit 1.2k with the same team than struggle to 900 with 10 different teams.