Making my way into 4* land, who do I focus on first?

NemoAbernnigan

So I have America Chavez champed and I'm just about there w Karnak, and I'm wondering who I should focus next. I'm leaning towards Captain Marvel (2 covers currently), Juggernaut (1 cover currently), Professor X (3 covers currently), Medusa (2 covers currently), or Vulture (1 cover currently). Any advice for me? I have BRB w 1 cover in each color so synergy w him is also a plus.

krakenoon

Where is your Bishop at?

I’m not sure how sound it would be to focus on him as there has been so much calling for a nerf, but if you can get him there with minimal effort, definitely do that. I’ve also heard good things about pairing him with Muric4 & Karnak.

Juggs is a good investment, Medusa fits on a number of teams throughout the 3/4 star meta and Captain Marvel was pretty clutch for me early in my 4 star transition period. 4 star PX is a part of an amazing 3/4 star team before you hit 4 star meta (built with 0 yellow covers, teamed with Switch & GSBW). If you don’t have that team (known as Charlie’s Angels) I might start there since it requires the least covers, 5 blue, and can definitely punch way up.

NemoAbernnigan

I don't have any Bishop covers yet so I'm a long way off on him. PX would be my fastest to get useful, I didn't realize you wanted zero yellow w him. I know from experience tho that Captain Marvel is annoying as hell and Juggernaut is near impossible to handle when they are champed, so I'm torn.

krakenoon

I suggest working on R4G & Juggs together, since throwing in a 3 star GotG will trivialize a lot of PvE content. My hay days using Marvel were fairly short lived once I broke into 3/4 star land. I still use her, just not nearly as much. It is worth noting that she has a lot of synergy with anyone throwing out countdown tiles once you can get strikes on the board.

 I still think your best bet would be Il Profesorre, but maybe wait for more feedback as I am not really a vet. If you do build that PX, I would also suggest rostering a second to build properly.

krakenoon

Well, looks like no one else is going to reply here.

Hope that helped. I would also note that once you’re fully in 4 star land, a 5 blue prof will do you little good. I’m not even there yet and it feels like the only time I use CA is when I’m holding off on pulling out the big guns.

Might be better off focusing on R4G until you get an idea of where to go since they’re pretty useful in a number of teams.

froggerjohn

America/Karnak is one of the two best combos in the current 4* tier (and probably _the_ best in PvP).


The other one, is Juggs/Grocket, but be advised that Juggs does almost nothing by himself. His real power comes from leveraging strike tiles (usually from Grocket). It's the best way to speed through PvE and other sections of the game, but it takes awhile to build up both of those.

You probably want to build Juggs next, and then look for alternate sources of strike tiles while waiting for Grocket.
Maria and Hellcat might be good interim partners for Juggs, or anyone else you have that can pump out strike tiles.

KGB

froggerjohn said:

America/Karnak is one of the two best combos in the current 4* tier (and probably _the_ best in PvP).

I think Grocket/Juggs is every bit the equal to America/Karnak in PvP. I *always* hit America/Karnak teams in PvP  with Grocket/Juggs because Karnak is always downed before turn 4 and even if the AI gets a lucky cascade and America procs some crits Juggs is virtually immune to match damage. Most times that doesn't happen and America goes down every bit as meekly as Karnak without me ever firing any powers.

KGB

krakenoon

Agreed. Karnak and America are a fierce combo, but Juggs & Grocket gets you much speed on PvE clears and can ensure you get all of your seed teams beat in PvP (not guaranteed, but pretty safe bet). Ofc, if your going strictly point in PvP, the second point is kind of moot.

 I still say Grocket should be the first you focus since they can be effective even without/with under covered Juggs. 3* Gamora helps a lot there as well.

froggerjohn

No argument about the lack of PvP defense with America/Karnak. (Although I do get blues in Simulator with America/Karnak/Vulture).

But Grocket/Juggs (in pick-two PvP) is just not appropriate for 30K+ enemies, unless the required character is a Guardian of the Galaxy strike booster. It takes awhile to get through those matches at best, and at worst, losing most of the strike tiles will turn it into a major slog. Personal preference to some extent, but I hate playing what is essentially a one-dimensional team (boosted strikes) when that dimension can sometimes be lost.

I'll defer to more experienced players about whether Grocket is a better first priority than Juggs. My thought process was that there are other ways of getting strikes, just not as instant. But no other way to get the every-match AoE that Juggs provides. Perhaps there's no other strike generation fast enough to make Juggs viable without Grocket.

If you do go Grocket-first, there are a couple of ways to leverage the damage a bit more. Medusa or any attack tile generation definitely helps, and Thanos can help quite a bit against certain enemy configurations. If there's a relatively low-health enemy, you can target that first, and then Thanos' Court Death will deal boosted AoE to the others. In an ideal match, there's small, medium, and large-health enemies that can be hit in that order to really speed things up.

DAZ0273

Juggernaut, Juggernaut, Juggernaut! Team him with R4G or if you have her Valkyrie and watch those clear times tumble.

The next one I would chase is Vulture because he can win fights on his own but also just happens to have multiple other uses such as special tile clearance and AP generation.

KGB

If you focus on Grocket first you can stop as soon as you get to 5 Yellow. There isn't a great need to continue on to champing him since his other 2 skills do very little.  Presumably by the time you get 5 Yellow you'll have a couple of covers in Blue/Green and then just level him as high as you can (so the strikes are as strong as can be) and move on to the next 4* (Juggs).

@froggerjohn - I agree completely about 30K+ enemies in PvP. As a 4* player (L310ish) I can always climb to 750 range in points before I get a steady diet of 30K+ teams (boosted champed 4s). At that point I switch to my own boosted 4s or other teams. The advantage is that Grocket/Juggs can get there fast (30 minutes) without needed health packs (just targetting teams with mid 20K health or lower).

KGB

krakenoon

@KGB

I am assuming there is a worthwhile difference in the power of Grocket’s strikes between level 1xx and a champed version?

KGB

@krakenoon:

(PASSIVE) Welcome to the frickin' Guardians of the Galaxy.  At the start of the battle create 3 strength 51 Strike tiles.  If there is another member of the Guardians of the Galaxy on their team create strength 79 tiles instead.

• Level 2: Creates 4 strength 56 Strike tiles or strength 84 Strike tiles instead.
• Level 3: Creates 4 strength 65 Strike tiles or strength 107 Strike tiles instead.
• Level 4: Creates 5 strength 68 Strike tiles or strength 124 Strike tiles instead.
• Level 5: Creates 7 strength 68 Strike tiles or strength 143 Strike tiles instead.
• Max Level
• Level 3: Creates 4 strength 126 Strike tiles or strength 207 Strike tiles instead.
• Level 4: Creates 5 strength 131 Strike tiles or strength 239 Strike tiles instead.
• Level 5: Creates 7 strength 132 Strike tiles or strength 276 Strike tiles instead.

So at 5 covers and L70 the strikes do 68. At 5 covers and L270 the strikes do 132. So they roughly double in value (they roughly double with another Guardian too (142 - 276).

You get 7 of them so 7*75=+575 more damage.

How worthwhile that is, is up to you to decide (ie who he's paired with).

KGB

krakenoon

Thanks for the breakdown.

DAZ0273

Whilst R4G's yellow is undeniably his ace in his pack, it is worth noting that his green actually works well with Juggernaut too because it gives you extra matches thus more chance to inflict strike tile damage. As Juggs normally tanks over R4G apart from yellow, he normally gets to hit with Collateral on the extra matches too.

krakenoon

@DAZ0273

Unfortunately, it seems any time I get free matches (MEH/R4G/Carbage) they tend to favor the AI. I can’t remember how many times Grocket’s green has matched strike tiles  or lined them up for the AI.

Edit: or ofc matching them countdown tile.

DAZ0273

Yeah there is that, quite true, the same applies to Banner and Meh Hulk but his green can sometimes be an asset. That said, unless things have gone badly JUGGS/R4G teams should have killed the otherside before you need bring Baby Groot in.

froggerjohn

That said, his green is actually a recipe for losing strike tiles, since the AI won't avoid matching them. Not a big problem if late enough in a fight, but if I get a big windfall of green early, I tend to not risk firing that one for a bit.

krakenoon

If I get the green for it, I usually wait a turn or two as a try to clear as many green tiles as possible. It helps, but still not 100% foolproof.

NemoAbernnigan

Thanks for all the advice gang. I'm at 150 shards on both Juggernaut and Grocket, with only one blue cover for Grocket and one green cover for Juggernaut at the moment so my command points, around 325 stocked up right now, are not very useful right now.

I'm favoriting 3* Magneto so I can build up my stock of shards for Juggernaut and Professor X at the same time as he levels, and favoriting 4* Juggernaut of course for the same reason. My Maria Hill is at level 172 currently so I can use her to help out Juggs. My only other 4* with a lot of covers is Super Skrull and I don't really care about him, so despite the long slog ahead I'll stick to my plan of building up Juggs then Grocket.

I wish Captain Marvel or Professor X was more viable in the current meta as they 'd be easier to get to a useable level faster, but the meta is what it is and I think that having a second strong 4* team for PvP is my best bet for making my way further into 4*land. Which is pretty important at this point, as my two champed 4*s and my couple 5*s have me getting matched with mostly teams that I either have no chance at beating or require my Karnak/Chavez combo for me to win.

krakenoon

3Mags was a godsend for helping me get Juggs covered.