Grand Experiment 2: Treading Water in the SCL 10 Post-Shardpocalypse

HoundofShadow

Thanks for timing your clears. I think I would replace 5* Deadpool with other future 5* releases because I don't have him decently covered. That goes for Iceman too. Since the current PvE is mostly made up of non-tile movers, the timing would be shorter. I would jump again into SCL 10 once the time is right.

ThaRoadWarrior

You could easily replace Ghostpool with Spider-Man 2099 and it might even be faster - it's hard to know for sure really. Ghostpool is better against tile movers than he is goons because you can't fire his black at all if the target hasn't done damage, even for one of the secondary effects. That being said, I think Adam Warlock is going to be a PVE killer for speed, and less of a teamslayer than iHulk. 

As for the challenge node, one of the BRB Winfinite teams or Coulson/Hawkeye/G4mora can also reliably get the job done, but would likely take much longer.

HoundofShadow

I used Thorokoye and 2099 before and I find that he could mess up my game by creating web tiles on red or green, which causes Thor not to be able to destroy those red or green web tiles. I'm pretty excited foe AOA Beast now after reading his abilities. 

Cannibalqueen

I use Thorkoye 2099 a lot and yeah that sometimes happens.  But only when matches drag out.  Really, they don’t tend to last long enough.  A lot of times, I get an even small amount of team up in he tank, and Thor causes a cascade that ends the match before I can even heal Okoye.  That or you end up with a lot of black and 2099 will end a lot of matches with that.

I mean like the 3 pick 3 hard nodes on SCL 10.  It’s a fast combo for that level of enemy.  But I tend to use Apoc, Thor and Iceman a lot too.  Really depends on my mood. Probably more usually Apoc team for tile movers.

Edit: what I really love Thorkoye 2099 for is Shield Sim.  I play for wins every season and it’s a great team because it’s fast and it always seems to invoke a lot of retals, of teams that I can bust out non meta teams against just to get some variety.

but usually I just use that team five times a day or so just to keep progress towards end of season.  It’s a fun and very addictive team.

ThaRoadWarrior

You don't need Red or Green with that team, just team up and yellow. Chase yellow and team up, fire Okoye's yellow, and any cascades into yellow, blue, or black will trigger Wakanda Forever!

ThaRoadWarrior

4th clears of the rest of that sub took an additional 15 minutes.

ThaRoadWarrior

I was able to get Cable champed yesterday, hitting the "Champ 30 5* Characters" milestone reward in the process. While I have yet to find the perfect combo for him, I continue to feel he is adjacent to whatever fortification meta Heimdall isn't quite spearheading as well as some kind of charge tile game that a few older 5s are part of, without being a super obvious lynchpin to either. So now I don't have any pressing 5*s to level up, nobody is closer than 2 covers to finished, so i'll be playing catchup on my 4*s for a bit. 

@HoundofShadow
Today's Challenge Node of Carbage/3* Thor/Beta Ray Bill (Twin Hammers of Knull) is one I would consider to be legit hard for me without a stunlock or gimmick team. I had to fall back on a BRB winfinite team for clear 3, which takes forever at these health pools, and then went to Coulson/Hawkeye/Gamora with +2 blue for clear 4. Honestly I should have just done that from clear 1, it would have taken way less time.

HoundofShadow

I think I have to try out 2099 again because my last impression is that it wasn't that smooth.

I've champed Apocalypse. And Thorpocalypse is slow in scl 9, slower than even Polaris/R4G + Kitty. My placement dropped by 2-3 spots using this team. The only node that they are fast is in 5* node, which is good news because that's what I need in SCL 10.

I played that challenge node before. I think I was using IM40, Shuri, Gamora for the first couple clears. With free matches every turn, Carbage is indeed a pain. Did it take 15 to 20 minutes for 4 clears?

Theghouse

Yeah this challenge node is brutal for a baby champ roster.  I was able to Apoc BRB Polaris the first two clears, had to switch to Hawkeye Coulson Gamora and take three blue AP to stun Carnage right away to get the last two.

I find it to not only be faster but much more reliable than the winfinite, by taking two all APs you can kick-start your engine with a blue match, red match, or even two purple matches.

ThaRoadWarrior

@HoundofShadow
do you have 5 green on Thor? If not, he won't be anything near as effective as a battery, even with 4 on green. It seems counterintuitive that you should be noticeably slower with that team... When using Thorpocalypse, the strategy I employ is actively chase yellow from match start until I can fire shared strength, then switch to chasing red first and foremost, falling on black only if i have to (or picking up a match-5 if one presents itself). Fire nothing until Shared Strength is on the board, then unload. If you want to kickstart Apocalypse's black, you can use any subsequent yellow you get to power Thor's yellow, since at 3 covers the repeater is only 1 turn, and you'll always have at least 1 protect out (assuming it doesn't get matched and flip them to strikes). I have a hard time imagining that being slower than a Polaris team if for no other reason than all the SAP creation interrupts that happen on tile matches and turn start. That's of course for a PIck-2 node; I don't run Apocalypse over okoye on a pick-3 track because I prefer her higher damage scaling when I can bring a useful 3rd character.

With 2099, I'm only focused on Okoye, and even there the goal is just to collect team up and fire yellow as often as possible. The board shake will take care of itself, and 2099 will just be flipping around ticking big hits on his own. 

HoundofShadow

My Thor has 5 covers in green and I play Apocalypse the way you played it. I suspect it's due to those cascades or lack of red tiles on the board after firing his red power once, or it's because my Thor is not champed or at a high level. However, they are good for 5* node. They are much more reliable than iHulkoye who can mess up badly. I got booted out of good placement because of the lack of green basic tiles.

ThaRoadWarrior

Yeah, a dry board is a dry board I guess. In those situations I try and play from the bottom so that you have a better chance at cascades lining up when new tiles drop in, but sometimes you just can't catch a break.

PiMacleod

I find alot, if not all, of my playing tendencies are echoed in here.  

It feels like home. 

I decided to visit today because I KNOW someone's gonna bring up the Simulator's CN.  Ugh.  This is the worst one of all of them IMO...

Sinister/Medusa/C4rnage

Its hard to tell who's the biggest threat.  I mean, sure, we gun for Medusa first... She's getting free AP and healing from all the SAP tiles on the board.  But its SO easy for them to get 7 red for Carnage to basically kill all non-5*s on your team, or enough green to REALLY destroy whoever's in front, or even enough purple to take any SAPs you may have out.  All the while, Sinister is using the free blue generated for his traps, and his black passive triggers enough since theres no black outlet.

Yuck.

I have recorded a couple vids (unposted -- i wanna compile them into a montage at some point) of my failures, working towards a win.  

Champed BRB/Polaris/Th4nos... Failed before i got 12 green.

Thorkoye+2099...
Failed before i could get enough blue to stun Medusa (might get away with Ic5man, since he's champed and might outlast some damage, but hard to say).

champed Hawk5ye/Coulson/G4mora...
Won the 1st match, but on subsequent games, couldnt outlast the Attack tile damage incoming before i got enough blue to down someone.  Could be bad luck.  But Hawkeye does have a small healthpool.

Resorted to 5* essential (451 champed Mags), Medusa, D3adpool.
Medusa helped me generate purple, mags tanked it all, got 14 purple pretty quick, over several turns due to Mags high boosted health.  Got my last two wins this way.

For what its worth, this is the ONLY CN where i seem to always find myself back at whales.  A champed Kitty, BRB, Apoc, Okoye, Hawkeye, .... But its too much damage from those attacks (and entanglement)... Thankfully, whales points farming is part of my daily quests.

ThaRoadWarrior

I always play the 2am slice, so I won’t start that till tomorrow. Sometimes on nodes like that I’ll use Vulture/iHulk, particularly with a boosted Magneto also trying to get airborne, but I’ll have to let you know what I do there.

Daredevil217

ThaRoadWarrior said:

@HoundofShadow
do you have 5 green on Thor? If not, he won't be anything near as effective as a battery, even with 4 on green. It seems counterintuitive that you should be noticeably slower with that team... When using Thorpocalypse, the strategy I employ is actively chase yellow from match start until I can fire shared strength, then switch to chasing red first and foremost, falling on black only if i have to (or picking up a match-5 if one presents itself). Fire nothing until Shared Strength is on the board, then unload. If you want to kickstart Apocalypse's black, you can use any subsequent yellow you get to power Thor's yellow, since at 3 covers the repeater is only 1 turn, and you'll always have at least 1 protect out (assuming it doesn't get matched and flip them to strikes). I have a hard time imagining that being slower than a Polaris team if for no other reason than all the SAP creation interrupts that happen on tile matches and turn start. That's of course for a PIck-2 node; I don't run Apocalypse over okoye on a pick-3 track because I prefer her higher damage scaling when I can bring a useful 3rd character.  

Never thought about anything other than 5/5/3 for Thor. Do you think it’s worth going 5/3/5, since Apoc will be using that red anyways?

HoundofShadow said:

My Thor has 5 covers in green and I play Apocalypse the way you played it. I suspect it's due to those cascades or lack of red tiles on the board after firing his red power once, or it's because my Thor is not champed or at a high level. However, they are good for 5* node. They are much more reliable than iHulkoye who can mess up badly. I got booted out of good placement because of the lack of green basic tiles.

Supports also make a huge difference in getting any of these engines moving. I’m curious what ones you are running. 

ThaRoadWarrior

Daredevil217 said:

ThaRoadWarrior said:

[...]

Never thought about anything other than 5/5/3 for Thor. Do you think it’s worth going 5/3/5, since Apoc will be using that red anyways?

HoundofShadow said:

[...]

Supports also make a huge difference in getting any of these engines moving. I’m curious what ones you are running. 

You know, I hadn't really thought about running Thor at 5/3/5, but I NEVER use his red, and his yellow at 5 covers will do a second fire of 26k damage with 823pt special tiles at level 450, so there may be some value to it. But honestly he is almost entirely a passive character for me due to his relative power costs. He really is perfectly serviceable at 5/0/0

For my part, I have a 3* Korg on my thor, that way at start of battle I have a 45.1% chance to gain 3 yellow AP, and when he fires a power it creates a single protect tile. I used to run my 3* Stormbreaker, because the synergy perk would have about the same chance to add red/green/yellow to the board, but it's not generally as useful and pumps his red damage up higher than it already is causing him to tank over Okoye. Apocalypse has a 3* Cull Obsidian, which is pumping his green up by a trivial amount, raising his health by a trivial amount, and at the start of every turn there is a 10.98% chance to add a protect to the board. That was surely an afterthought, I don't really have a very deep mental map of what all the various supports are doing.

atomzed

For thor-apocalypse, I have a level 4 Vintage shield (+61% for 3 yellow ap) on Apoc and a level 3 Sanctum Sanctorium (+52% for 5 yellow ap). With +2 r/y ap, This gives me a good chance of getting enough ap for shared strength at the start of game. 

With pick 3, I have BRB equip with level 3 Peni Parker (+54% of +5 yellow ap). This almost certainly gives me enough ap for shared strength right at the start. 

mdreyer93

@ThaRoadWarrior are you still saving your pulls once the next 5 to rotate out of LL is champable or continuing to just pull as you get them? I know a while back you said you might just continue to pull since you didnt like how roster progress came in waves. I feel the same way and was wondering if you were still able to cover all the latest 5s this way.

ThaRoadWarrior

Generally yes, but for whatever reason i've kept pulling through Magneto even though he is not good, trying to get a big Warlock (not working so far). I just champed Elsa and Red G, levels 282 and 286 respectively, and Magneto dropped out of latest at 457, so that would have been at least 5 Cyclops covers (i guess 7 really...) had I waited.

Current Latest crop:
Adam Warlock: 2/3/3 with 180 shards
Yellowjacket: 4/3/2 with 190 shards
Sighclops: 0/1/0 with 390 shards.

Current Favorite crop:
Havok: 5/3/3 with 272 shards
Rogue: 326 with 218 shards
Gambit: 229 with 74 shards

(5* Gambit is 3/4/3 with 470 shards)

ThaRoadWarrior

I got Scorpion champed today, moving on to Throg. By the time The Hunt is done, I'll have Silk ready to go as well, and I'll be caught up to Dark Beast. I've been on something of a 5* dry spell, and it's not looking awesome for Adam Warlock right now. 2/3/3 with 480 shards; I think he's out next right?

I've mentioned it in a few other threads, but I'm curious to mess around with some of the charge tile spammers alongside the high-match damagers that have been coming out. I'm curious if that is going to be a viable team strategy or not.