PvP Sim Progression Rewards Mistake

pheregas

Spider-Man 2099? 

This breaks years of tradition. Is this intended?

bluewolf

New 4's enter tokens in the season following the end of the season by which all their events have concluded.  Since Hellcat's PVP (and progression run) were running into the off season, she's not eligible to enter tokens until the season following the one starting now.

This has always been the case.  I think the most recent example was Wolfsbane, who didn't enter tokens for 5 weeks after release (just like Hellcat won't).

If the person isn't in tokens and is "NEW", they won't be in PVP Sim rewards.

In the past this stood out less because there were more 4's so someone usually qualified to be in Simulator who was a new 4.  (I think in the past Anniversary they had someone again, maybe Worthy?, because no one new was qualified to enter tokens by then.)

Other players remember that Spidey 2099 never got into Sim rewards (probably some other 4 released that season and they got the nod), so in a way it's making up for him getting passed by before.

Note - Assuming 5/4/5/4 continues:  Unless they run 2 4s (or 2 5s again) in a row, or skip a release at some point, we will be in this situation on an ongoing basis where the 5 releases early in the season (1 week in) and the 4 releases just as the season is ending, and therefore the NEXT new 4 will again be released and not enter tokens until 5 weeks have passed.  And so on.  Presumably next season they'll just put Hellcat into rewards as she'll be the new 4 in tokens.

JHawkInc

Just seconding that this is unusual, but not the least bit unexpected. Hellcat's release cycle isn't over, so she didn't rotate into tokens, so she's not part of the Season or Shield Sim rewards where you'd expect to see a new character. Don't think we could have predicted Spidey-2099 would take that spot, but it had to be somebody, and he's a welcome choice, I believe.

shardwick

I mean, it could be worse, it could be Maria as the reward.

pheregas

I get it.  It was his "turn."  Even though they skipped his turn before.  I tell you what, with already having him champed, I feel absolutely no desire to pound out my wins like I usually do at the start of a season.  All that effort for the champ rewards equalling 50 hp?  Pass.

bluewolf

pheregas said:

I get it.  It was his "turn."  Even though they skipped his turn before.  I tell you what, with already having him champed, I feel absolutely no desire to pound out my wins like I usually do at the start of a season.  All that effort for the champ rewards equalling 50 hp?  Pass.

I have never understood, personally, the people who went hard at Sim right away, especially once ST and needing the new person at 10 covers went away.

Just grind out a few matches a day and you'll get to 75 eventually, assuming you go for wins.

HoundofShadow

I thought it would be better to enter first and then play three weeks after it starts. That way, you have many 75 pointers to hit.  

bluewolf

HoundofShadow said:

I thought it would be better to enter first and then play three weeks after it starts. That way, you have many 75 pointers to hit.  

You can certainly climb at the end if you want to end up hitting lots of meta teams as you hit 2K.

If you want to avoid that you can hit a few matches a day and stay low.

Also, you can enter at any point; if you don't play you'll still get the same high targets near the end, but you might need to skip a few qs if you want.

HoundofShadow

I thought brackets for shield simulator will "flip" once there are enough of them? But, I think they flip only twice or thrice?

In 4* land, all the meta teams are easy to beat and have high points. So, it's not a problem.

Who are the meta teams in 5* land shield simulator after 1700-1800 points now? I initally planned to enter 5* land next month but due to lack of ISO-8, it has been delayed for another half a year. 

bluewolf

OJSP said:

HoundofShadow said:

I thought brackets for shield simulator will "flip" once there are enough of them? 

SHIELD Simulator brackets and leaderboards don't really determine anything. We'd still be matched against other players who have joined the season, within our MMR range, irrespective of SCLs.

The benefit of the SHIELD Simulator leaderboard is just to confirm how much point a player has and whether they are shielded or not, if we can see them in that limited leaderboard.

You may have noticed there are no placement rewards for Shield Simulator....and everyone in the game is in the same pool as far as MMR, it's just one big giant event with every person who is playing PVP as a possible target.

No slices, SCL doesn't segment out anyone, etc.

Hence as was said by @OJSP, there is no material benefit to waiting to enter Shield Simulator.

You could wait for a season (and hence Simulator) flip but that could mean missing one (or more) PVP events and I'm not sure it's that beneficial unless you're going to try to snipe placement at the very end of the season.

krakenoon

@bluewolf

So someone with 1000 points in Simulator would be available to someone with no wins?

bluewolf

krakenoon said:

@bluewolf

So someone with 1000 points in Simulator would be available to someone with no wins?

Could be, yes.  

Loosie

It usually the latest non-new 4* release, but with Hellcat having just been released and both Maria Hill and Super-Skrull already being awarded that last two seasons I not surprised to see a 'random' 4* as the reward.

If we didn't have back-to-back 5* releases and it was the standard 5/4/5 (ie Hellcat and Apocalypse releases swapped) I would have expected Hellcat as the reward and in tokens.

Loosie

bluewolf said:

pheregas said:

I get it.  It was his "turn."  Even though they skipped his turn before.  I tell you what, with already having him champed, I feel absolutely no desire to pound out my wins like I usually do at the start of a season.  All that effort for the champ rewards equalling 50 hp?  Pass.

I have never understood, personally, the people who went hard at Sim right away, especially once ST and needing the new person at 10 covers went away.

Just grind out a few matches a day and you'll get to 75 eventually, assuming you go for wins.

For me it was always a 'get sim over with' then I don't have to worry about it for a few weeks. With this not being a new character I don't have fully covered and not needing to rush to 209 I think I'll go the 3 wins a day route this season.

Xception81

bluewolf said:

I have never understood, personally, the people who went hard at Sim right away, especially once ST and needing the new person at 10 covers went away.

Just grind out a few matches a day and you'll get to 75 eventually, assuming you go for wins.

Agreed. I actually join right at the start and play ~8 seed teams with my 2* teams. This gets me tons of low-level retals, and I start beating a few of them each day with my 2/3* teams, which allows me to actually play characters I never use in PvE. I mean we champed them... why not use them! Then perhaps closer to the end, or when retals dry up more, I can move to my 4* teams to finish. Sure it takes longer than brute forcing to 2000 points, but I think it’s more fun, and isn’t that the point?

peterdark

Loosie said:

bluewolf said:

pheregas said:

I get it.  It was his "turn."  Even though they skipped his turn before.  I tell you what, with already having him champed, I feel absolutely no desire to pound out my wins like I usually do at the start of a season.  All that effort for the champ rewards equalling 50 hp?  Pass.

I have never understood, personally, the people who went hard at Sim right away, especially once ST and needing the new person at 10 covers went away.

Just grind out a few matches a day and you'll get to 75 eventually, assuming you go for wins.

For me it was always a 'get sim over with' then I don't have to worry about it for a few weeks. With this not being a new character I don't have fully covered and not needing to rush to 209 I think I'll go the 3 wins a day route this season.

I normally go for 3 wins a day too unless there's a boss event (ahem), then I'll rack up a few wins as I've got nothing to do.

krakenoon

So, to get this tread back on track...

While this being the new normal might keep me from champing Hellcat for example, it could help in filling in the gaps on other 4*s I might be lacking covers for. 2099 falls into this category for me although the single cover still won’t get him champed for me.

Others may find it easy to continue champing new characters on release, devs may change something to throw in a new character instead, but I can’t say I’m happy or upset by this. That may change once Hellcat is in normal rotation if I don’t have her covered of course.

Edit: Am I the only one who thinks 150 shards is an odd number of shards to reward for a 4*? Since SCL10 is locked behind shield level, shouldn’t SCL9 give half a cover? I think I’d be ok with losing 25 shards every PvP event to get a round number from shield sim.