Pull Strategy for SCL10: Breadth or Depth?

ThaRoadWarrior

I've been pulling strictly from latest (with a few exceptions) as i earn resources all across 2019, and doing so allowed me to go from 0->9 5* champs with a bunch more in the 7-12 cover range for future feeding. Now that shards and more importantly, SCL10 are live in game, I'm starting to wonder: is it better from this point to give up on keeping up with latest and go back to splitting pulls between both Legendary Stores so that my shard drop rate increases and my access to classics goes up? I imagine there will be a bit of latency as my backlog of rostered but poorly covered 5's start to snowball, and it's going to feel pretty bad as new characters drop out of latest at 4-6 covers rather than 9-13+, but I'm assuming that over time it will all start to add up to a more complete roster eventually. 

My gamependium is out of date, but I have in descending order:

Profe$$or X: 461
5torm: 456
Iceman: 455
Ghost Rider: 453
BRB: 452
Rescue: 452
Doom: 451
Okoye: 451
JJ: 450

Aside from the 0/0/0 Havok I still don't have, Widow is my least covered 5* at 3/0/0.

I don't think split pulls are for everyone, but at this stage, with a usable roster of 5* champions, and what seems like an escalating release rate for 5*s, I'm curious if dumping into classic and filling out the rest of my team isn't a stronger play generally. Anybody have an opinion?

Vhailorx

I think there are basically 3 viable strategies for 5* accrual (maybe 2.5) and the choice between is best determined by the rewards rate at any given level of play. those options are:

(1) pull from every latest batch until the desired level is achieved for the older character, then hoard for the next LT batch. Risne and repeat. (Best for hard core players)

(2) pull fora token cover of every 5* on release and hoard for a good batch of LTs, then go Nova and cover all 3.  rinse and repeat. (Best for more casual players).

(3) only open from classics, take advantage of the lower cost, usually combined with option 2 above for fixed LT rewards. (Not optimal IMO as the lost 5e rewards probably eat up most of the extra efficiency, but maybe superior in the VERY long run).

Please note that their may be other strategies for uber whales, who want level 500+ 5* champs right after release.  Please feel free to add more detail if you have experience with that playstyle.

Overall, I am not yet sure how the big rewards rates changes with shards and cl10 will shake out.  I think option 2 may be less attractive if resource accrual rates go down (but maybe rewards rates will go up from all the extra 4* champ rewards?). Option 1 may also be worse off if the 5* release rate is going up, and keeping pace will be harder.  Option 3 may actually be a bit better now as well, if we can reliably get token covers from regular play, mitigating the lost 5e resources.

Daredevil217

It really depends on what your goals are.  If you want to be as successful as possible with limited resources you need maybe 15-20% of the tier champed.  Thor, Okoye, Kitty, Professor, Bill, Iceman, maybe Hawkeye.  Having these characters at super high levels would probably do more for you than having everyone champed at low levels.  If your goal once again is to place high.  You are in a good position, only really missing Thor/Kitty (maybe Hawkeye).  You can use (and are using) shards/feeders to move them along.  Assuming you eventually get them across the finish line, power creep is a real thing.  You will get way more from a Havok (the newest 5) than a Surfer (the oldest 5) in terms of power.  Focusing on newer characters will likely increase the strength of your roster more than finishing out the backlog of mediocre 5s that can't hold a candle to the aforementioned 15-20%.

For me personally, I am a completionist, and like to play fun combos that make the most of even some mediocre characters.  I am okay with "baby champ everyone" at the expense of super-powering the meta.  If the goal is placement, I'd say go depth (power up and chase the best characters), if the goal is diversity, then I'd say go breadth.

For me, I pretty much do and like Vhail's option 1 (BRB/Carnage are done, so I wait and stockpile resources).  I try to mostly use special stores, feeders and shards on filling out the backlog of classics.  But I know hoarding isn't really something you excel at or like to do.  However I think it was and even more so is currently the best approach for maximizing resources.

ThaRoadWarrior

I suppose there is the other option of just hoarding for release stores, that way you get the very latest + 2x classics. The issue there it's all-CP draws, so LTs kind of sit by the wayside. 

I think the shard-drop rates have thrown a wrench into a lot of the conventional wisdom strategies. I know that the 20% higher favorite shard drop rate by splitting your pulls will really accelerate any direct-chase covers you might be after. It may be worth somebody trying to quantify that.

For me personally, I'm only 3 covers short of Hawkeye, so he's going to be up there on my list of who I'm chasing. Kitty and Thor are the ones I miss most, and I believe that Thor will be the offensive battery i need at 5 green regardless of the rest of his build, so I'm working on that now. 

My own roster aside, the idea of a roster of all baby champs vs a few very highly champed "good" characters is kind of what I was curious about for play in SCL10. I don't really care at all about placing on purpose, I just want to have a decent quality of life clear speed for hitting progression and then placement can fall wherever it falls.

broll

I agree with @Daredevil217 that it primarily depends on your goals.  If you're not a completion focus on his list.

I am also a completionist and want to eventually champ them all.

To this end my pre-SCL10 strat was to spend LTs pulling until the oldest 5* was champed (rinse and repeat) and to spend CP on either classics or special stores (usually classics) to slowly work my way up on those characters.

My post-SCL10 strat is to play SCL10 every event (even if it's a slog because half a 5* cover is half a 5* cover and the ones I need the most are the least covered and gonna be a slog).  In addition I am now spending both LT & CP on the latest store with the goal of getting all 3 in the store champed ASAP (currently I have Carnage & BRB both champed, I decided to hold off on Sinister till Havok comes in based on how good looks vs how bad Sinister looks).  Then I use all of favorite characters to work on classics.  For example:  I didn't champ Hawkeye till last week.  I champed him by having my 3* favorite set to 3* Hawkeye, my 4* favorite set to Kate Bishop, and my 5* favorite set to 5* Hawkeye.  After that finished I switched them to 3* Mystique, 4* Iceman, & 5* Iceman so I can get him champed next, since they are both near top tier and were both relatively close to champed.

This strategy has left me with a breath vs depth 5* roster:

Name		Level
Thanos	The Mad Titan	461
Daredevil	Matt Murdock	460
Black Panther	Civil War	459
Spider-Man	Peter Parker	459
Jessica Jones	Alias Investigations	459
Okoye	Warrior General	459
Wolverine	Old Man Logan	458
Black Bolt	Inhuman King	457
Kingpin	Spider-Verse	457
Archangel	Classic	456
Captain America	Infinity War	456
Thor	Gladiator	455
Carnage	Prophet of Knull	455
Doctor Strange	Sorcerer Supreme	454
Loki	God of Mischief	454
Professor X	Classic	454
Jean Grey	Phoenix	453
Silver Surfer	Skyrider	452
Captain America	First Avenger	452
Kitty Pride	Uncanny X-Men	452
Cable	Nathan Summers	452
Hawkeye	Clint Barton	451
Beta Ray Bill	Korbinite Cyborg	451

For you what I would recommend:

If you want to be a completion, do what I'm doing or something close.

If you don't care about completing them all or you want to chase placement you should focus on beefing up your roster.  I would still try and champ 5*s while they are in latest, but I would focus on the good ones and be less concerned about the rest.  I would set your favorite on the tier for a particular 5* and boost them to a certain level, occasionally switching to others and figuring out what's optimal.  if it was me I would set all your favorites to feed Okoye as she's good in both SCL 10 PvE and PvP if you have Thor with her.  Then probably save your CP for special stores that contain those top tier characters, which will lead to a lot of hording, but will really let you power up those characters when they come up.
EDIT: Just noticed you don't have 5* Thor, if he's anywhere near close I'd work on getting him champed, if he's light years away I'd focus on other teams with the characters you do have.

EDIT 2:
The other downside of depth vs breadth is that if they were to nerf a character who is the core to your main team it could wreck you pretty bad.  So if you do go for breadth I would still try and spread it around between 4-7 characters if possible vs just focusing say a single team of 3 5s.  Nerf don't happen often, but they are devastating if your entire roster is built around a character or two.  And with there being an open thread from devs asking about character re-balancing, the nerf bat might be behind the devs backs as I type...

ThaRoadWarrior

I've mostly been doing something similar to what you all are doing - 100% committed to latest with CP and LTs, but spending as I go for the most part. It's only recently that my pull rate has been high enough that I can champ characters earlier than right as they're leaving latest, so hoarding till they left wasn't quite as necessary as it is now. 

I've been working my bonus/favorite/feeder trees since Dec. 2018 to get some of the key characters over, so for instance I spent all 2019 with my 5* BH set to Okoye and my 4* BH set to Chavez until JJ was champed, then I moved it to Shuri to finish Okoye. Right after that I finished Rescue via Hulkbuster, and now I've been chasing Gladiathor via Valkyrie/Thor shards directly. I've had my 3* mostly on Spid3r-Man chasing Miles Morales covers, since Fi5k is only 1 cover from done. I need 4x more Miles Morales covers to handle that, so I'm fine having it parked there. 

I think my current actual plan is going to be to keep doing what I'm doing until we know for sure what's going on with the release pattern, and then I may or may not make a change. 

On a side note- I'm really curious about the idea that Sinister is a zero and Havok is a hero - I have quite the opposite impression of them. I love how Sinister plays, and even with 1/1/2 on him he was still useful on his 5e node in SCL10. I found Havok to be pretty uninspiring in his release pvp, but at 1/1/1 it's hard to be very confident in that assessment. 

Vhailorx

ThaRoadWarrior said:

On a side note- I'm really curious about the idea that Sinister is a zero and Havok is a hero - I have quite the opposite impression of them. I love how Sinister plays, and even with 1/1/2 on him he was still useful on his 5e node in SCL10. I found Havok to be pretty uninspiring in his release pvp, but at 1/1/1 it's hard to be very confident in that assessment. 

I think it's a matter of perspective.  If you care about pve, sinister is better. He has a clear use case against almost any node with a goon.  But against pure tile mover teams he is (like just about all trap-reliant characters) very high variance.

But if you care more PvP, then havok probably has more appeal.  He is a almost pure damage.  And pretty efficient too. 

ThaRoadWarrior

I think I maybe over-value board chaos. Sinister strikes me as a potentially viable anti-BRB, particularly if you bring your own in PVP.

anyhow, carry on if you have opinions on this. @tiomono I’ve noticed you describing pulling from Classic in other threads, what is your take on moving into 5* play one way or the other?

tiomono

I'm one of the oddballs that doesnt mind dillution. I pull from classics as soon as i have 20 cp and let the latests fall where they may. Its 20% more shards and pulls with the cp I use. Which to me is huge. Every other level on a 5* champ is another pull as well. And every level higher makes scl 10 story just a smidge easier. I also am not big on my entire roster just stagnating at about 460. Seems like deciding to limit myself to low levels. Which is odd to accept 10-15 champ levels and be done when I could get to 100 later down the road.

Edit: If a latest comes along that looks really fun to me I will pull latest to get them. I feel like once you are in 5* play with a good solo character or even a solid duo. You can slowly raise the entire squad and do just fine. 

ThaRoadWarrior

How long generally is it taking you to complete a Latest that drops to Classic?

tiomono

ThaRoadWarrior said:

How long generally is it taking you to complete a Latest that drops to Classic?

A long ol time. It does depend on wether or not I had a character I was pulling for that overlapped with them. I went for iceman and got storm up to 8 and professor to 9. Storm is at 10 now and x is lvl 451.

I have no idea how long characters I completely skipped is going to take. I had a horrible streak in latests around hela and marvel. They both were around 3 covers coming to classics. And are now at 5 each. Progress is slow no doubt but I am ok with that since I have a solid core of meta 5*'s.

My first 5* was daredevil. Then gambit. Then I sold gambit on his nerf and the 14 or so covers I got from that bumped up a few more 5*s to champ for me. I dont aim for even top 100 on any event. I only play progression and am not in a top anything alliance. So my progress is slow but it works for me.

ThaRoadWarrior

You are describing both my alliance and my play style, so I can relate. As much as I like the idea of covering everyone, I’m thinking I may persist into Latest and try to stay current with directly acquired 5s, and let my shards/incidental covers drive my classics.