shardmas 2.0?

tupacboy

think we'll be blessed with shardmas/feeders 2.0 before year end?

helix72

I know I was a good boy this year, Santa D3...

ThaRoadWarrior

I'm not at all sure, but my roster in is in a WAY better place this year to get burned by that super lame "anything after lvl 280 gets a flat 100 shards" choice than it was last year. I hope they do the consistent thing and give out true rewards if they do it rather than trying to arbitrarily truncate it. I missed out on Havok and Yelena this year be 3 covers each, so I would love to get a path to champ for them aside from direct sharding.

Loosie

Release 192 was Dec 6 2019. So we'll see. Hopefully they just do the right thing this time and give everyone the equivalent of what they would have received, instead of as was mentioned the cover and then '100 shards', only to have the entire community come down on them.

I'm in a position that any new feeder (with the exception of the latest 4s) will get at least cover. Some (depending on who is used) will get multiple.

PiMacleod

I'm hoping that they do.  Reason is quite simple -- dilution.

If classics are soooo diluted (and they are), this is a small step to help your players get closer to that magic number of 13 covers.

Some might argue "why would they care", and I would counter-argue that they should allow their players a glimmer of hope.  It's quite simple -- if you put the carrot-on-a-stick out there, but never let them get it, they might stop enjoying the tease over time.  Since dilution is real, and most of these 5*s from last year aren't "latest" anymore, the players could really use another way to target them.

On a personal note, my BRB would welcome it. 

shardwick

My Red Hulk was at like 298 so I got him up to 300 to prepare for Shardmas 2020 because I really need two covers for iHulk to get my greens to 5. They like doing their winter festivities so no better way than to start it off with Shardmas. This will be the forums if Shardmas doesn't happen or is underwhelming...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQXuazYI_YU

Borstock

I won't complain if they do decide to turn on a bunch of feeders, but would also find it somewhat annoying if this is the status quo, where they do it in bulk once a year. There's no reason why they can't update 5* feeders as soon as a 5* character rolls out of LTs.

HoundofShadow

This is probably their way of managing expectation and maybe more importantly, get people to spend their CPs and LTs.

Currently, players earn 2 to 2.5 cover for newer 5* in SCL 10. Most players who can do this probably have their 4* at a minimum of level 280/300 and veterans probably have dupes or highly leveled 4*. That's at least 1 fixed 5* cover and 500 5* shards for these levels.

If they make feeders a mechanical/automatic process, players would pull lesser LTs and CPs. For example, if I'm two cover away from champing the 5* who is leaving Latest next, I would stop pulling and wait for its feeder. Theoretically, my LTs pull needed would be for 9 or 10 covers instead, after including those 5* shards in SCL 10. Overtime, I'll be able to build a bigger hoard of LTs, and catch up easily. Then, if this scenario happens, they will start to adjust everyone's resources again. 

ThaRoadWarrior

I continue to recommend new 4*s just get released with some 5* in their tree from the get go and avoid the whole shardmas nonsense moving forward. If the goal of the feeder program is to provide a path to progression but not 1-6 “free” covers to people who spent years growing characters to those levels, just don’t make it a thing. Launch new characters with built in feeders like we saw with those late stage 3*s (Hawkeye, thanos, Star lord, strange, and gambit all come to mind)

Omegased

I really hope they do something - the step into 5star land is really hard. it is hoarding, then hoping. There's really no way to get the legendary 5 stars up in a timely manner. 

Even if the solution is feeders, that's still such a huge amount of 4stars it's even hard to target a single one of those (especially if you're hoarding for 5s... as you're not spending LL).

Borstock

RE: Hound

I mean........... yeah. I guess I could argue that with a precedent set of a "shardmas" every December, there's still reason for people to stop pulling at 11ish with good coverage. And then you'd probably come back with, "True, but it's a much longer wait", and you'd be right.

I guess I just feel that once they leave LTs and shards are no longer rewarded in PvE, the lure of the instant gratification is gone. How many people are really going to pull a hoard built up over 4 months to get three characters to 11 covers and stop?

But, I guess I don't know. I don't have their numbers, and you could just as easily be right.

HoundofShadow

The other possibilities for not making it an automatic process could be that it might affect potential spending in some ways or it could be due to those MPQ Seers who can look into the future and game the system.

Spending wise, assuming there's a vault right now with 250 BRB shards in it and he had feeder when he left latest(somewhere in February/March?), the percentage of players who will dump their HP or cash on that vault to get those shards will likely decrease. 

For 4* or 5* players who have not champed him yet, they would have already targeted him via shards because he is part of the top teams. For 4* players, his yellow power is enough to create winfinite with Polaris. Unless they are able to champ him or bring some improved QOL to their gameplay immediately, chances are they won't spend on the vault. Also, BRB is not at Okoye's level yet.

On the other hand, with no feeder for BRB, this creates a question mark in everyone's head who hasn't champed him. When players see this vault with 250 BRB shards, especially players who need that magical yellow cover of his or wants to champ him immediately, they will be more likely to spend because he's part of the meta teams now and he can create winfinite with Polaris. So, when we extend this scenario to all 5* released, their sales get even more affected some ways. I believe I saw BRB cash bundle before.

I think using newer 4* as a feeder could be good. Most deep 4* players or 5* players would get 1 fixed 5* cover and 500 5* shards. But I think the veterans with dupe 370  or highly levelled 4* will feel terrible. A mixture of newer and older classic 4* as feeders plus some way to earn targetted 5* shards (via Milestone Quest?) could be ideal.

Again, we have to wait till late December or Milestone Quest to be released before we know anything. 

skittledaddy

Has someone smarter than I speculated who the most likely 4* feeders could be to the currently un-fed 5*s?

ThaRoadWarrior

I think there are a few thematically appropriate choices (did i forget any other 5*s?):
Magneto -> Polaris
Ghost Pool -> XFDP
Heimdall -> Th4nos maybe?
Old Man Daken -> X-23?
Killmonger -> not sure on this one
Onslaught -> Juggernaut maybe? Prof X is already taken, that's his nearest relation
BRB -> Worthy Cap?
Immortal Hulk -> Red Hulk is the only one left
Havok -> Bishop maybe? Teen Jean? Would have been better if Domino fed Cable so Cyclops could feed his brother
Yelena -> Red Guardian
Carbage -> Anti-Venom
Mr. Sinister -> Sabretooth maybe?

BriMan2222

I know I've seen a few people say that they'll make worthy cap feed BRB and Bishop feed apocalypse just to troll the people who sold them when they were nerfed.

helix72

skittledaddy said:

Has someone smarter than I speculated who the most likely 4* feeders could be to the currently un-fed 5*s?

I don't know. How smart are you? I do recall someone in a thread posted their best guess. I don't know how good my guesses will be as I'm a little out of date with my Marvel knowledge, but here goes:

There are currently 13 5*s that don't have feeders, and 69 4*s that don't feed 5*s.

Apocalypse: Polaris, who was once the Horseman of Pestilence?

Beta Ray Bill: Super-Skrull, who he once tangled with?

Mister Sinister: Kraven, because he once partnered with Sinister?

The Hulk (Immortal): Any of the Venoms, as they once took over Bruce to fight Carnage?

Yelena Belova: Red Guardian would seem to make sense, but he's so new I don't think they'd go this route. Maybe MODOK since he's part of AIM too?

Carnage: Any of the Venoms or Spider-Verse (Spider-Man 2099?)

Havok: Could also be Polaris because of the love connection.Obviously she won't feed both, so I'd put more money on Havok, as they generally don't like to have top tier 4* feed top tier 5*s.

Onslaught: maybe Legion? Since Onslaught was part Prof X and part Mags, and Legion is X's son so, maybe?

Wolverine: too new, won't get one

Killmonger: Could also be Kraven, just because they were both Black Panther enemies.

Deadpool: too new, won't get one

Heimdall: too new, won't get one

Magneto: too new, won't get one

PiMacleod

helix72 said:

skittledaddy said:

Has someone smarter than I speculated who the most likely 4* feeders could be to the currently un-fed 5*s?

......

Havok: Could also be Polaris because of the love connection.Obviously she won't feed both, so I'd put more money on Havok, as they generally don't like to have top tier 4* feed top tier 5*s.

......

Maybe that's the deal, right there.  This might be the entire reason why we don't get feeders as the characters are introduced.... they might just wanna feel them out first, let the meta define itself, and then assign feeders in such a way that you don't have a top feed a top... because if that happened, then no one would spend any resources to grab any other characters.

Just wild speculation, though, I'm sure....

ThaRoadWarrior

I don't know if that's always been the case - Chavez is a pretty upper tier 4* feeding Jessica Jones who at the time was an upper tier (not top, but upper) 5*. Valkyrie -> Thor is another one.  I'd say G4mora-> Thanos is pretty relative in terms of tier quality also.There are some notorious bottom-to-tops as well though, looking at Frost -> Kitty here. I do think Bishop and WCap are likely to feed somebody though.

Cannibalqueen

I think they’d be eager to assign feeders to newer 4*s
so i could even imagine Negasonic feeding 5* Deadpool.  Even tho XFDP or even Blade might make more sense.
I could also see Elsa feeding Immortal Hulk.  He’s pretty monstrous.

AXP_isme

I really hope we get shardmas again this year. Not much has moved the dial for me recently so it would be nice to have something happen that would create a path to champing some of those 5*s languishing semi-covered. 

Chipster22

If we are not getting new feeders it might be a good idea for the powers that be to tamp down expectations a little.  Nothing good seems to happen when expectations get too far ahead of actual plans.  It may be too late though, since the flames of hope are burning pretty hot already.