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

ThaRoadWarrior

Yes and no on 5* rewards being flat better - since you are getting no rewards until you dump 4x covers into them, it actually slows down your pay as you go resource flow to put covers on an ascendant 4.

I haven’t decided what the right for me answer is there yet. I’m kind of ascending and then starting a 4* backfill in a half-@ssed way at the moment. My hope is that they may implement a system to bind a dupe into your main even after that first one you ascend if it feels like that’s a waste in the future.

entrailbucket

Yeah, the overwhelming draw for me is getting new 5* characters. The rewards matter, and I don't know that they're all THAT much worse or slower, but "everyone to 550" now includes a whole bunch of 4* guys.

ThaRoadWarrior

I did a comparison in one of the other threads comparing the 4:1 exchange.

The first four levels of a champ 4* are:
LT
2CP
2500 iso
2CP

Compared to 4:1
LT

Then:
50hp
2CP
2500 iso
2CP

Compared to 4:1
5000 iso

Then:
50hp
LT/Cover
2500 iso
3cp

Compared to 4:1
25cp

Then:
50hp
3cp
2500 iso
3cp

Compared to 4:1
250 hp

So the first 29 levels (base 13 covers + 16) work out to:
4* dupe
1x LT/1 cover or 2x lt
150hp
7500 iso
13cp

And 5* jump up:
1x LT
5k iso
25cp
250 hp

So you’re down a little iso, and up on HP and CP to go with ascendant at lower (more achievable) champ levels. 5* rewards do step up a few times when you get closer to the 500s. Whether you want to go that route is up to you of course.

entrailbucket

Oh, see, then for me it's not even close. I have so much iso I could never spend it all anyway, so I'll take the HP (and especially) CP every single time!

ThaRoadWarrior

My concern I guess is just whether or not my pull rate is going to tank if 3 out of 4 covers are falling into a black hole.

entrailbucket

@ThaRoadWarrior said:
My concern I guess is just whether or not my pull rate is going to tank if 3 out of 4 covers are falling into a black hole.

...only one way to find out!

ThaRoadWarrior

And no way to recover! Yolo

ThaRoadWarrior

It occurs to me that ascendant 1 and 2* rewards are the real wildcard here that may make it viable to not run a dupe.

entrailbucket

@ThaRoadWarrior said:
It occurs to me that ascendant 1 and 2* rewards are the real wildcard here that may make it viable to not run a dupe.

My 5* IM35 is lvl493...even at 4 covers per level, those will go fast.

ThaRoadWarrior

Did you buy that one, or did you already pull down that many covers?

entrailbucket

@ThaRoadWarrior said:
Did you buy that one, or did you already pull down that many covers?

I bought the $20 lvl450 one, and I spent some of the "mistake" rewards on repeatedly buying out that glorious 1* vault (it's so cheap that if you have most of the characters ascended, the rewards pay for themselves!).

I got a bunch from just playing though -- accumulating 1* is very fast.

ThaRoadWarrior

I’ve ascended Gwenpool to 450; haven’t played her yet though. I moved my 4* to ghost rider.

Currently my ascended characters are:
Rogue: 457
Medusa: 455
Valkyrie: 453
Sabretooth: 452
Hulkbuster: 451
Gwenpool: 450

2* Cap 3: 166 (got this from a token I think)
1* storm 2: 102
1* spider-man 2: 98
1* iron man 2: 97

Psylocke’s dupe is short a few covers, and 3* Deadpool has a dupe in flight as well but it was just started.

rainkingucd

I think for those that got in on Ascension Day (as @dramatist pointed out), won't have to worry about LL ever again if you're not going for 550 batches.

I ascended all my 3* (many of which I had both max champed already), and most of the 4* I could. I went from 3 LL to 220. And with Rex/Omega/Vulture all champed already, that pile will just kind of sit for a while as people rotate in an out. I tend to pull until the next character leaving is ~460, then save until the next rotation. That will leave all my CP for...

Classics! Most importantly, I probably spent ~3300 CP on classics when all was said and done. I had about 1500 I think, and then the rewards kept stacking. It enabled me to finish up dupes for a few characters, get other characters to 282 so I could 4x dip on LL/CP, and also get at least 1 extra 5* from my feeders.

The only bad thing on ascension day was I tested ascension with my Moon Knight without champing the dupe, and didn't get the freebie rewards.

Vhailorx

@rainkingucd said:
I think for those that got in on Ascension Day (as @dramatist pointed out), won't have to worry about LL ever again if you're not going for 550 batches.

I ascended all my 3* (many of which I had both max champed already), and most of the 4* I could. I went from 3 LL to 220. And with Rex/Omega/Vulture all champed already, that pile will just kind of sit for a while as people rotate in an out. I tend to pull until the next character leaving is ~460, then save until the next rotation. That will leave all my CP for...

Classics! Most importantly, I probably spent ~3300 CP on classics when all was said and done. I had about 1500 I think, and then the rewards kept stacking. It enabled me to finish up dupes for a few characters, get other characters to 282 so I could 4x dip on LL/CP, and also get at least 1 extra 5* from my feeders.

The only bad thing on ascension day was I tested ascension with my Moon Knight without champing the dupe, and didn't get the freebie rewards.

Sadly, 220 LTs is barely enough to chase one set of 5* characters in the LT pool, so I very much doubt that anyone is "post-LT," even after the botched rewards.

rainkingucd

@Vhailorx said:

@rainkingucd said:
I think for those that got in on Ascension Day (as @dramatist pointed out), won't have to worry about LL ever again if you're not going for 550 batches.

I ascended all my 3* (many of which I had both max champed already), and most of the 4* I could. I went from 3 LL to 220. And with Rex/Omega/Vulture all champed already, that pile will just kind of sit for a while as people rotate in an out. I tend to pull until the next character leaving is ~460, then save until the next rotation. That will leave all my CP for...

Classics! Most importantly, I probably spent ~3300 CP on classics when all was said and done. I had about 1500 I think, and then the rewards kept stacking. It enabled me to finish up dupes for a few characters, get other characters to 282 so I could 4x dip on LL/CP, and also get at least 1 extra 5* from my feeders.

The only bad thing on ascension day was I tested ascension with my Moon Knight without champing the dupe, and didn't get the freebie rewards.

Sadly, 220 LTs is barely enough to chase one set of 5* characters in the LT pool, so I very much doubt that anyone is "post-LT," even after the botched rewards.

I think for people in this thread, those that are "keeping up" or borderline keeping up, and not 550ing, it is more than enough. I know it's a fringe case, and not normal for many, but at least with that as the starting point for me, I will cover.

More LTs are accrued with regular play. All 5* will get at least 4 covers from Boss Events/PVE Features, potentially more from retro feeders (not guaranteed, but fairly regular so far), and extra help from bonus shards now. I don't think 300 pulls is truly necessary anymore with the way bonus shards can help target and shape the last couple of covers into a champ-able character

Bowgentle

@Vhailorx said:

@rainkingucd said:
I think for those that got in on Ascension Day (as @dramatist pointed out), won't have to worry about LL ever again if you're not going for 550 batches.

I ascended all my 3* (many of which I had both max champed already), and most of the 4* I could. I went from 3 LL to 220. And with Rex/Omega/Vulture all champed already, that pile will just kind of sit for a while as people rotate in an out. I tend to pull until the next character leaving is ~460, then save until the next rotation. That will leave all my CP for...

Classics! Most importantly, I probably spent ~3300 CP on classics when all was said and done. I had about 1500 I think, and then the rewards kept stacking. It enabled me to finish up dupes for a few characters, get other characters to 282 so I could 4x dip on LL/CP, and also get at least 1 extra 5* from my feeders.

The only bad thing on ascension day was I tested ascension with my Moon Knight without champing the dupe, and didn't get the freebie rewards.

Sadly, 220 LTs is barely enough to chase one set of 5* characters in the LT pool, so I very much doubt that anyone is "post-LT," even after the botched rewards.

He has 3 months to get his normal 300, in addition to the 200 he got from ascension.
Easy to keep pace unless you completely stop playing.

ThaRoadWarrior

It’s been interesting earning champ rewards from 1* covers. I’m definitely looking forward to standard tokens now. I can tell that I’ll be iso poor again before too long ascending characters - I’ve been in stasis around 2 mil the way I play for months, and I’m down in the 900k range now since I’m basically rechamping the 4* tier at a faster pace than my earn rate.

ThaRoadWarrior

Finished up Vulture with some lightning deal 500hp for 5* shards, so I’m caught up to latest again.

rainkingucd

With Ascension Round 2 coming soon, I am prepped and ready (at least at the 1-3* range).

With my Ascension Day haul, plus retro rewards due to the bug fix, the latest are:
Omega Red: 475 (my 3rd highest toon now)
Vulture: 461
Miles: 458
with Peggy sitting at 8 covers.

Even after getting Miles up to 458, I'm still sitting on 220 LL. I don't foresee any issues with keeping up so my ascension plans going forward will probably be a hybrid approach.

4*: Max-Max is one way to go, but my 4* will take forever to get there (my highest level 4* dupes were Captain Marvel and Medusa at ~340s, but I already ascended Medusa), and I prefer to use the ascended characters rather than hold out for rewards.

2* / 3*: Max-Max on the 2* / 3* seems logical as I have been building most of those in the background already, but I think when it is time to get those ascended 2* / 3* characters up to 5*, I'll go the quicker Max-Min route on the dupes

Characters that I need to be lower level to function I will hold off on (I ascended Valkyrie and kind of regret it, but didn't ascend 4* Deadpool)

Current Favourites:
5*: Okoye to generally just bring up her levels since everyone else is champed
4*: Polaris as I am building up a solid base to ascend her when she's eligible
3*: Omega Red as he is the only ascendable 3* that I haven't ascended yet. The dupe is at 185 so I just got the Sabretooth covers, but maybe I should ascend him already to speed up the process. Decisions decisions.

entrailbucket

4* Deadpool is a really tough call, because when you ascend him, you mostly lose his passive, but get a TON of extra damage on his purple, which is one of the best mThor counters in the game. One cast of that is often enough to kill her.