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

ThaRoadWarrior

Having a boosted Apocalypse for SCL10 pve has been such a nice quality of life improvement this week.

Figured I'd check in with Operation: Classic Thunder. I've continued stockpiling LTs, I only spent the one on the day Colossus rotated out because I needed an entry for that day on my Latest tracker (it was a Spider-Woman cover). So I've earned 41 LTs in the last 26 days - 1.58 tokens/day. That's about half what I ostensibly need to stay current. I've spent 920cp into classic in that span of time (46 pulls) and only gotten 5 5*pulls for my trouble (4 champ levels, one usable banner).

I've had some 5* growth from random shard drops, incidental champ levels, and so on. I got +50 bonus 5* shards towards Sighclops, so he is now 1/5/5 with 427 shards. 

Medusa is now lvl 344, 6 levels away from completing black bolt.

I got an organic Mordo, so Dr. 5trange is now only 6 Mordos away from being complete; he was going to be my next target anyway. After that I'll likely move on to Loki who needs 2 more covers.

I have a 5* Lord Yellow incoming for the daily play rewards (i'm on day 1985), but that will be a second saved cover for my 6/2/4 rather than a useful cover for champing.

Knull is next out of Latest after Electro replaces 5Witch, he is 2/2/0 with 780 shards. He isn't awesome as a character as best I can tell, but you know, completionist I guess. I still don' thave a Ronan, just 400 shards, but I should be able to roster him in time for him to be featured.

I have all 4*s champed save Mantis, who is at 4/4/4, and I have yet to grind the PVP Simulator so she'll be champable this PVP season.

Sekilicious

I’m disappointed this experiment is failing, though would be fine with feeders. C’est La Vie I guess. 

entrailbucket

I don't know that it's necessarily failing, as much as it's just a really really long-term strategy and it's tough to evaluate progress over a relatively short period of time.  Some of the randomness works itself out over a long time, so a bad month might be offset by a really good one sometime next year.

That said, it very much is a month-to-month game when you're looking at who's entering and leaving the Latest pool, and missing out on one will cost you eventually.

Basically it might work out for you if you keep up with it for a very long time, but if it fails you might be screwed and unable to recover.  You don't seem to have missed out on anything yet though, I wonder if you could move to a hybrid strategy of some sort?

ThaRoadWarrior

I'm going to switch back over to all-in on Latest as soon as 5Witchdrops out, and see how that goes. I don't know that I'd quite say that it's "failing" really either, it just isn't obviously succeeding. I don't think we'll know until I start pulling these LTs how well it's going to work. I think going all in on Latest once there are 3 unchamped characters in there will be telling. The real problem with characters dropping out of Latest incomplete is definitely the lack of feeders - It takes a very long time to grind shards directly as we all know, but I do think that the Classic 20% more bang for the buck earn has been helpful on Sighclops. I also think I have been particularly unlucky pulling 5s from Classic this run - RNGeezus really owes me like a hot streak of 2 or 3 more any minute now, and that could make a difference.

HoundofShadow

Congrats on winning the forum competition. Is your Yelena champed?

ThaRoadWarrior

Thanks! I wasn’t at all sure my guess would be right, but I suppose I was lol. Yes, she is champed. This will bring her up to 454.

DAZ0273

Nice work, matey!

ThaRoadWarrior

Covers came through, the 25cp champ level turned into a 4* torch and a lizard cover, good for some iso and another LT. Sitting on 42 LTs in the bank now.

edit: the HP portion of the prize turned into a Stars and Stripes 10-pack, which got me a second LT.

ThaRoadWarrior

I’ve definitely had worse dry steaks than this, but this feels like a real dry streak lol. I’m 5 for 51 since I started pulling classic.

Sekilicious

I’m sure that dry streaks feel like they’re much, much worse in the classics store, I just haven’t figured out the math to prove it out. 

ThaRoadWarrior

At the risk of shooting myself in the foot on somebody, I went ahead and burned my stack of LTs in Latest trying to roster Ronan before he is required. Knowing full well I'd have him on roster from shards by sub 2 and only missing out on 3cp. But I like to live dangerously lol. 

I pulled 52 Latest draws, and got a champ level for 5Witch (453 with 480 shards) and a pair of Knulls (3/3/0 with 980 shards). Serves me right I suppose. I did end up getting a shard level for Profe$$or X, Banner, a shard level for Sighclops who is now 400 shards from done, and 3 covers for Medusa from both shards and organic pulls, so i'm only 2x medusa covers away from finishing Bolt. I'm also only 206 health packs away from a quest reward medusa cover, so I may just grind one more shard cover and move on to Mordo.

I'll be all in pulling out of Latest Legends moving forward until at least Knull is finished (ideally). If that works out, I may just alternate pulling classice between characters. I suspect what will happen though is very similar to what happened on Sighclops, where he dropped out at 10 and I was able to finish the next 2. I probably should figure out what the minimum bank of CP I need to hang on to is in order to do a hybrid pull system...

justsing

You should track your monthly LT and CP earning rates. If you're looking at ~300 pulls to finish a trio of Latests and each 5* stays in Latest for 3 months, then you probably want to set aside at least 100 pulls each month for Latests only. Maybe up that to 120 to account for RNG.** Then, whatever excess CP at the end of the month can be hoarded or spent elsewhere. 

I personally prefer to target specific 5*s, so I avoid Classics and hoard for special stores. With that approach, I've still managed to finish all 5*s but SL, Electro, and Ronan. 

ETA: ** Actually, since you're playing SCL10 PVE, 100 pulls is probably more than enough since you're getting at least 2 covers from shards. 

ThaRoadWarrior

It's been interesting thinking about how to spend shards on classics now - for unbuilt classics it's probably best to just leave the shards in the bank until the character is finishable, same as I do for characters who are still in Latest. now that there's a present danger of a cover coming in above 5, so taking somebody with one good power and maxing it out to 5 on the premise I'll only ever get more covers via shards seems like an erroneous way to do things.

Got another green for Knull, so he's 3/4/0 with 2 covers in shards. 

ThaRoadWarrior

Achievement unlocked: champed Mantis earlier so for the first time I’ve got all currently available 4*s champed. Until Monday when marauder Kitty gets given out at least.

HoundofShadow

How many dupes of 2* or 3* do you keep? Or do you keep one and then sell the max champed? I still have over 10 fully covered 4* unchamped.

ThaRoadWarrior

I don’t keep any dupes below 4*, and there I only have one incomplete Chavez behind my only max champ. I flip 2 and 3 star characters pretty ruthlessly because they don’t matter at all outside of having a cover to get into a node or DDQ. If I’m not pushing to champ a 5* I’ll leave a max champ until I find a backfil cover but as often as not I’ll just sell them and push my luck they’ll be required before I can replace them.

I only keep 3 champ 2*s at a time, the rest sit at base level stacking saved covers till one of my three turn over.

ThaRoadWarrior

Finally got some luck on Latest - Ronan is now 1/1/1 with 200 shards and Knull is 3/4/1 with 980 shards. Medusa hit level 349, so I moved my 4* over to Mordo and left my 3* on Kamala. It’ll be a tossup whether I put 33 levels on her before I burn 138 health packs to finish Bolt.

ThaRoadWarrior

Picked up a green for Knull, just need 2 more organic pulls. 

Cannibalqueen

I like your 2* farm system.  I imagine that adds some fun variety to DDQ 2* nodes over time.
i always use the same three. I might try something like yours for one cycle and see if I like it.
plus I am about to run out of all the roster slots I have had in plenty since I liquidated max 3*s for a pure farm.

HoundofShadow

Knull will be in for another month or so. I imagine you stop pulling once he's covered until the next 5* hits LT.