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

ThaRoadWarrior

Not a huge update, but I can see that last Archangel on my upcoming shield rewards in-game now so it’ll be here in 5 days.

Punter1

2nd update from me in this thread.  I have 3 unchamped old 5*s, which when done I feel like is "endgame!"

Doc Ock has been "close" for a while with a path from 3* Ock > 4* Carnage.  I am now 2 Carnage covers away from him being done.

Yesterday I saw that Samurai Wolverine is getting a cover from resupply in about 100 days for me.  He's currently marked as my 5* fave with 10 covers & 240 shards.  With 600 shards coming in 2x 4* champs from milestones, the finish line is newly in sight for him.  

So that leaves just lowly Havok - 9 covers with no feeder.  In theory there is 3 more covers in milestones, but 1 of those is 100x 4* champs away!!  Waiting for some magic to get him done I guess!

ThaRoadWarrior

Archangel is champed. Now I just need 2.5 C4rnage covers to finish Doc Ock, half a BSSM that I hear will be in progression in November, and 19 N4tashas to be caught up through Kamala. I wonder if I’ll be able to get there before January?

Sekilicious

That’s it then? Three 5* left?

Punter1

A long, many year journey, finished on the weekend when Doc Ock was champed from Carnage after PVP rewards came out.  

That leaves just S Daken at 11.5 covers and Havok at 9 covers to champ.  

With neither of those having a feeder I'm currently lost as to who to favorite at the 3* & 4* level.  Weird place to be.  I've set my 3* as Patch just cos, and I'm working on any dupe 4* close to re-champ.

ThaRoadWarrior

well, 5*s never stop never stopping, that's just it for the truly "vintage" classics. I've been spending all my CP into Classic since champing Kamala, so I'm pretty light going into this batch once she drops out. but yeah, after that, it'll just be keeping pace with latest moving forward. I guess there is no way to truly predict what the release pace is going to look like moving forward under this new dev regime. I don't think they've stabilized into a new normal yet, though it does seem there is an effort to release 4* to 5* feeders regularly moving forward - so it won't be as terrible should somebody fall out of latest unchamped I hope in future. 

Current crop of Latest are:
Kamala: champed, 454 with 375 shards (i pulled a bit when Chasm hit)
Jane Foster: 2/3/3 with 1065 shards
Chasm: 1/3/1 with 660 shards (current 5* fav since Jane seemed decently far along)

NEW:
She-Hulk: 0/0/0 with 575 shards; I'll burn one to roster her if I haven't landed one by the time she is required.

Not sure if anyone cares, but since gamependium is pretty dead, i can list my roster by level so you can see where pulling like this has gotten me:
DAY: 2410

5*
Professor X: 471 (longest stint in Latest to date I believe)
Beta Ray Bill: 462
Iceman: 462
Heimdall: 461
Sinister: 461
Storm: 461
Apocalypse: 460
Ghost Rider: 460 (my first 5* champ)
Yellowjacket: 460
Magneto: 459
Elektra: 458
Okoye: 458
Rescue: 458
Yelena: 458
Doom: 457 (my second 5* champ)
Wanda: 457
Thanos: 457
Thor: 457
Cable: 456
IW Cap: 456
Deadpool: 456
Electro: 456
Hawkeye: 456
Jessica Jones: 456
Killmonger: 456
Kingpin: 456
Knull: 456
Old Man Logan: 456
Captain Marvel: 455
Carnage: 455
iHulk: 455
Old Man Daken: 455
Bolt: 454
Colossus: 454
Hela: 454
Kamala: 454
Kitty: 454
Star Lord: 454
Warlock: 453
Cyclops: 453
Strange: 453
Gambit: 453
Onslaught: 453
Banner: 453
FA Cap: 452
Daredevil: 452
Goblin: 452
Odin: 452
Shang-Chi: 452
Silver Surfer: 452
Brand: 451
Panther: 451
Crystal: 451
Gamora: 451
Gargantos: 451
havok: 451
Iron Man XLVI: 451
Jean Grey: 451
Sersi: 451
Ultron: 451
Archangel: 450
Big Wheel: 450
Loki: 450
Moon Knight: 450
Ronan: 450
Peter Parker: 450
Wasp: 450
Widow: 5/3/3 (270)
Octopus: 3/4/5 (270)
Black Suit: 4/3/5 (270)
Chasm: 1/3/1 (255)
Jane Foster: 2/3/3 (255)
She-Hulk: unowned

ThaRoadWarrior

Assume most of the 4*s above 340 came from chasing feeders, but not all of them.

4*
Chavez: 370 (first max-champ, did it chasing JJ)
Panther: 370
Frost: 370
Kingpin: 370
Lockjaw: 370 (first organic max champ)
Medusa: 370 (first 4* champ)
Rogue: 370
Valkyrie: 370
Vulture: 370
Peggy: 365
Danvers: 362
Kate Bishop: 361
Gamora: 360
Flaptain: 360
Bucky: 360
Jubilee: 359
Cage: 358
Nightcrawler: 358
Shuri: 358
X-23: 358
XFDP: 357
Mordo: 356
Professor X: 356
Spider-Gwen: 355
Kraven: 354
Wasp: 354
Ant-Man: 353
Hulkbuster: 353
Teen Jean: 353
Nico: 353
Rocket: 352
Sandman: 351
XFW: 351
TA Hulk: 350
Ghost Rider: 349
Iceman: 349
Mr. F: 349
Elektra: 348
Miles: 348
Cyclops: 347
Mockingbird: 347
Gwenpool: 346
Moon Knight: 346
Blade: 345
Quake: 345
Thing: 345
EB Venom: 343
Dazzler: 342
Hobofist: 342
Lady Thor: 342
Black Cat: 341
Widow: 341
Carnage: 341
Riri: 341
Star-Lord: 341
C&D: 340
Coulson: 339
Invisible Woman: 339
Nova: 339
Yondu: 338
Drax: 337
War Machine: 337
Fury: 336
Main Event: 336
Karnak: 333
Red Hulk: 333
Spider-Woman: 332
Magik: 331
Mysterio: 331
Northstar: 331
Agent Venom: 330
Wiccan: 330
Prowler: 329
Ghost: 328
Punisher: 328
Nebula: 326
Iron Spider: 326
Ronin: 324
Sabretooth: 324
Bishop: 323
Devil Dinosaur: 323 (limited)
Anti-Venom: 321
Domino: 321
Juggernaut: 321
Misty: 320
MODOK: 319
Polaris: 319
Namor: 318
Talos: 318
Karolina: 317
Howard the Duck: 316 (limited)
Human Torch: 316
Super-Skrull: 316
Thanos: 316
Scorpion: 315
Maria Hill: 314
Blob: 312
Worthy Cap: 312
Spider-Man 2099: 312
Wolfsbane: 312
Elsa Bloodstone: 311
Legion: 311
Negasonic: 311
Beast: 308
Throg: 308
Silk: 307
Alligator Loki: 305
Hellcat: 303
Kate Pryde: 303
Monica Rambeau: 302
Hydra Stomper: 302
Red Guardian: 300
Taskmaster: 300 (limited)
Ikaris: 298
Gertrude Yorkes: 295
Lizard: 295
Melinda May: 295
Doc Ock: 292
Mantis: 291
Echo: 290
Rhino: 289
Black Knight: 287
Morbius: 286
Spider-Ham 286 (limited - never gotten from the alliance progression node since we can't get that far)
Puck: 281
Hulkling: 279
Gorr: 274
Spider-Man Oscorp: 273

NEW:
Reptil: 0/1/0 with 325 shards
She-Hulk: 3/2/3 with 0 shards

Duplicates - all these were organically covered after max-champing the base character
Chavez: 298 
Frost: 274
Rogue: 272
Panther: 1/2/3 (70)
Kingpin: 2/1/1 (70)
Lockjaw: 1/1/0 (70)
Medusa: 1/0/0 (70)
Valkyrie: 0/0/2 (70)
Vulture: 1/0/3 (70)

I'm not going to list 3s, 2s, or 1s. Suffice it to say my 3st just grow till they flip, I only keep 3 champion 2*s at a time with the rest on roster saving covers, when they flip I just champ whoever has the most saved covers in the bank, and I have a champion Bagman, maybe the 4th iteration of that? and I keep a 1* Juggernaut for DDQ.

KGB

Looking at your Polaris and Juggernaut tells us you've been a 5* player for quite a while

KGB

ThaRoadWarrior

I champed Ghost Rider in.....2019 sometime? It was right before Doom came out, and then he was my second one. But I've always had to use my 4* favorite to chase more 5*s, I've never max-champed a 4* for its own sake. Not even in the pre-nerf Bishop days when my 1 and 2 5* MMR had me up against a champ BRB/max-champ Bishop or a champed Hawkeye/Max-champ Worthy Cap did I change targets to get after one of those characters. I kind of wish I had, and once I get done with Widow I plan to park it on Juggernaut for awhile, but not so far lol.

atomzed

@TheRoadWarrior I am happy to see you finishing your classic 5*! It goes to show that it is possible to catch up on them, with some good luck, and strategic shards. 

You probably have said it before, but I forgot… how much do you spend on MPQ? I know you definitely not a whale, but wondering how much the spending help you to complete your personal goals (champ ‘em all).

ThaRoadWarrior

0, I’ve been completely F2P since day one, spending purely earned resources as I go the whole time. That was why I originally started the Grand Experiment thread - to see roughly what you’d need to do to keep pace playing like that.

ThaRoadWarrior

It’s important to remember I’ve been playing for two thousand, four hundred and eleven real human days to get to this point. 

Bowgentle

Also, your highest 5 is 471.
That only works with God boosts, else you'd hit a very solid 550 wall in pvp at 900.

MadScientist

Punter1 said:

With neither of those having a feeder I'm currently lost as to who to favorite at the 3* & 4* level.  Weird place to be.  I've set my 3* as Patch just cos, and I'm working on any dupe 4* close to re-champ.

I have set my 3* target to She-Hulk because she rewards 4* She-Hulk who rewards 5* She-Hulk. 

rainkingucd

MadScientist said:

Punter1 said:

With neither of those having a feeder I'm currently lost as to who to favorite at the 3* & 4* level.  Weird place to be.  I've set my 3* as Patch just cos, and I'm working on any dupe 4* close to re-champ.

I have set my 3* target to She-Hulk because she rewards 4* She-Hulk who rewards 5* She-Hulk. 

Totally agree.  My 3* target is GSBW to get me BWIW to get me the final cover I need for 5* Widow.  After that, I don't have any other unfed 5* classics to champ, so I'll be targeting 3* She-Hulk to help get me ahead on 5* She-Hulk

Sekilicious

Bowgentle said:

Also, your highest 5 is 471.
That only works with God boosts, else you'd hit a very solid 550 wall in pvp at 900.

This would be true if PvP wasn’t primarily coordinated through Line. Roster strength is very important but remains secondary as anyone with a well developed 4* roster can hit 1200 if they are in a decent Battle Room. Placement is a very different matter.

I’m not correcting you, since I’m aware you already know that. I’m stating this for newer players that might be confused about PvP. I agree completely that the boosted list is important to resist the wave of 550 Wandas and now Chasms.

ThaRoadWarrior

I'm not on Line either, for what it's worth, as a commander in a very casual alliance I'm about as close to a solo player as I think this game will support. I play PVP to 500 right when it opens, and then float till sometime in the last 24hrs when I'll push the rest of the way to 1200 and then finally use whatever shield will allow me to hang on to those points for the season to get full season progression. That's usually good for t50 at least, depends on the event.

With my roster shaped like this, most everyone at relatively low champ levels, PVP is now relatively similar to how it was when I was playing as an established 4* player except that I have no float point that I've found between 500 and 1200. Back in those days, I used to be able to float ~650-700 on my way to 900 where I used to stop, but now I will get busted back to just under 500 if I completely walk away from a PVP without a shield.

I will start seeing 550s late in a push, and depending on who it is I'll usually be able to deal with it to hit 1200 for progression but if the boost list is weak I'll often just punt on those upper rewards and walk away.

rainkingucd

Punter1 said:

A long, many year journey, finished on the weekend when Doc Ock was champed from Carnage after PVP rewards came out.  

That leaves just S Daken at 11.5 covers and Havok at 9 covers to champ.  

With neither of those having a feeder I'm currently lost as to who to favorite at the 3* & 4* level.  Weird place to be.  I've set my 3* as Patch just cos, and I'm working on any dupe 4* close to re-champ.

From the sounds of it, your next 4* target should be Reptil.  Rumour is that he's feeding Havok.  

Punter1

rainkingucd said:

Punter1 said:

A long, many year journey, finished on the weekend when Doc Ock was champed from Carnage after PVP rewards came out.  

That leaves just S Daken at 11.5 covers and Havok at 9 covers to champ.  

With neither of those having a feeder I'm currently lost as to who to favorite at the 3* & 4* level.  Weird place to be.  I've set my 3* as Patch just cos, and I'm working on any dupe 4* close to re-champ.

From the sounds of it, your next 4* target should be Reptil.  Rumour is that he's feeding Havok.  

Saw that - though it's unconfirmed and will have to wait a few weeks until he can be fave'd. 

I have gone the 3* Shulk route and will fave 4* Shulk too when available for now.  

ThaRoadWarrior

For what it’s worth I haven’t found the 3* to 4* shard path to meaningfully shorten my March to a 5*, but it does feel like you are maximizing your pulls to do it lol.