Should I champ my first 4*?

Carnifex

Hi everyone. 

I have managed to get 13 covers for my first 4* character being Vulture and was wondering if I should champ him yet? I know leveling him up to champion will increase enemy levels though as well pvp team levels. So far I have raised his level to just over 200 so he is balanced with my highest 3*s.
My next 4* star with the most covers is Nico Minori who is at 7 covers, so is a still a while off yet. 
My current roster is every 3* champed, highest is Mags at level 205, a full 2* farm and about 38 or so 4*s mainly with only 1 or 2 covers. I don't have any 5*s, I didn't want to focus on any and jump ahead. 
My current method has been to earn 1000HP, then roster either a 4* star I earned through SCL7 PVE or by spending 20CP on a CT. Should I stick with this current slow way to level my 4*s, or should I open as many CTs as I can? I have about 2000CP saved, but only around 1/3 of 4* characters, so the odds arent great at champing many more.
Is it best to wait and champ several 4*s at once who are decent, or will I be okay with champing just Vulture?

Thanks for your time, will appreciate any help! 

DAZ0273

1 Champed 4* will not ruin your game as you have levelled your 3's evenly (it might get a bit harder in PvP) but it will in all likely make you too heavily reliant on Vulture which could become boring if you have no other champed 4's to play with.

If you are going to champ Vulture and open tokens that award 4* shards (Heroics, Mighty's), might I suggest 4* Iceman as a partner for Vulture? You will want somebody to make use of all that green and blue and he can be fed via Mystique for covers/shards. He has an excellent stun and a devastating AoE and can self feed his blue via purple. Likewise you can feed Mystique via shards including elites.

Likewise have a look at any other 3* and who they feed as a path to more champed 4's.

Otherwise I would also try and concentrate on getting shards/covers for newer 4* releases as these get quite a few runs in PvE and can be a better bet for transitioning players to get some numbers on.

Carnifex

Thanks for the comment, Daz. 

I won't champ my Vulture just yet then, I'll keep him at the same level as my top 3*s, I don't want to become to dependent on one character. 
I haven't managed to roster Iceman yet, but I'll definitely work on doing so, I know he's considered one of the top tier 4*s as well. 
Thanks for the advice, appreciate it. 

DAZ0273

It is probably a toss up in the air between him and Polaris as to who has the best stun.

Nico is a very decent Support character by the way but her ideal partners are those who bring special tiles to the table. There are a few at the 3* level who would work with her if she was champed.

With 2000CP, if you are concentrating on the 4* level you could pull Classics and if your odds held receive at least 85 4* covers + whatever shards you get so with less than half of the 4* tier and no 5* covered, you would potentially be looking at a lot of roster spots, not to mention maybe up to 15 5* covers of random distribution. I think the tactic is to maybe speed up your pulls a little to try and get more covers on your 4's - so pull until you hit a character you don't have rostered then make a decision on what to do in terms of rostering. At this point in the game, the 4* transition is quite daunting with the amount of characters so if you are unsure then there is no harm asking here about a characters worth. For example - rostering Talos unless he was the 4E is a waste of time but remember having a roster slot is NEVER a waste of HP.

mpiter

Carnifex

First, Iceman is not a good Vulture partner.  Vulture has already a very good green AOE leaving only two interesting powers for Iceman.  If you had to rely on Vulture, I would roast C&D as a black generator.  That would make a much faster pair than Vulture/Iceman because it is not always easy to keep black coming without C&D.  In such a case, use Vulture 553 (powers, 5 black, 5 green, and 3 blue) + C&D 535 to keep black pouring for Vulture who will generate the green AOE.

Second, Vulture is an almost totally useless character.  Do not rely on the published 4* top tiers, they are almost all rubbish.  The 4* and 5* realms are so unbalanced that it is useless to champion any 4* but half a dozen and you have to concentrate on Kitty and BRB in the 5*.  The rest can come after.

In 4*, you first need to raise R&G with 5 yellows and to the maximum level reachable when you have the 5 yellows (shards to R&G 3 and 4).  Then, champion Polaris as soon as possible after the 5 R&G yellows (shards to Polaris and her 3* feeder if there is one but I do not think so; if not use Mag3 to feed Jug4).  Then champion Juggernaut (shards in Mag3 and Jug4 starting with one green cover than 5 reds for Jug), then champion R&G.  You will also need a playable Medusa with around 6 covers to start for niche situations where the opponent brings you constantly down too fast such as Carnage4 (KK is Medusa feeder).  You will not use the rest of the 4*, even championed, because no characters can compete in speed with what you can achieve with the 4 aforementioned 4*.  You however want all 4* characters partially covered to access all nodes.

For example, I have Polaris 454 (championed) , Jug 341 with a black advantage, R&G 152, and Medusa 222.  PVE SC9 is just a walk with those characters, and in PVP I always easily get my 40 victories or 900 points to get the 4* cover.  Even the current Simulator and the last Cosmic Chaos were easy PVE at SC 9.

In PVE SC9 I almost always use Polaris + R&G4 for the 3 essential nodes, the same pair + Jug4 for the 3 high non-essential nodes, and R&G4 + Jug4 + any Guardian of the Galaxy for the 3 low non-essential nodes.  I usually cannot finish the 5* node because it is too hard with those teams.

In 5*,  Kitty outshines everyone for PVE and PVP up to SC9, even Thanos or Okoye. At PVE SC10, you will also need BRB.  So focus first on Kitty for your shards and your CP usage to build Gritty + Polaris (Kitty + R&G4 + Polaris).  Do not use CP on Classics.  The probability to have what you want is way too low.   Keep the CP for special vaults containing Kitty or for a Kitty cover sold for 250 CP.  When she is championed, focus on BRB except if a new future 5* will outshine one of those two.

I think these are the strategies to implement if you want to rise fast.

DAZ0273

Sorry but to disagree - Vulture can single handedly win a match by keep on going airbourne. There are only 2 counters to this and both are weak. Cloak & Dagger are great but it is not really hard to get 5 black AP and they cannot make use of the green and blue Vulture passively generates. I actually would say as a day 1805 player that mpiter is giving you terrible advice here. I have every single character he refers to as champed so feel confident that I know what I am talking about. 

You do not need Medusa, in fact that meta is long gone but she is good/useful but as soon as you get into Kitty Pryde  MMR then Medusa is a serious liability. I can kill Medusa with Kitty's circuit breaker without doing anything at all.

Polaris is of course great but she has no feeder. R4G has no feeder. Chase these characters yes but it is all completely random.

The current meta team is actually iHulk and Okoye who destroy Kitty based teams. 

mpiter

DAZ0273 said:

Sorry but to disagree - Vulture can single handedly win a match by keep on going airbourne.

I agree but he is way too slow making this scenario useless in almost all situations.  Speed is very important in MPQ.  No matter whether you play in PVE or in PVP, you want to clear some nodes as fast as possible in specific moments during events, e.g., the first 4 fights of each node at the beginning of a PVE, and the next 3 just before the end of the event.

Before having Polaris, I used to play with R&G4 + Jug4 + Gamora4 in PVE SC 8.  For the 24 first fights of the 6 non-essential nodes, about 22 or 23 out of 24 took between 1 and 4 turns to win.  Only one or two fights out of 24 required more than 4 turns.  Replacing Gam4 by Polaris for the 3 high non-essential nodes today even increases speed but I have not carried out accurate statistics yet.

Let's compare this with Vulture: to trigger Iceman green without a cascade you need at least 4 turns with an almost perfect alignment scenario (two black alignments at the start and 1 green during the next two).  Same problem with Iceman blue since you WANT to start your fight with two black alignments.  So your team will almost never trigger anything against mine.

Please, instead of claiming things without support, give us accurate figures about how fast can Vulture be.

Thinking that Vulture + Iceman can outweigh Polaris/Gam4 + R&G4 + Jug4 is simply not understanding MPQ or not having tried the combo.  10 minutes in this board looking for 4* information are sufficient to confirm that the meta 4* is currently held by those 4 characters.

There are only 2 counters to this and both are weak.

There are tons of Vulture counters because 4 turns before starting to hit is too long to hope to survive.  I never fear him in PVP because he has very rarely the time to go airborne.

Cloak & Dagger are great but it is not really hard to get 5 black AP and they cannot make use of the green and blue Vulture passively generates.

First, you need 6 black AP to send Vulture airborne.  Second, if you do not make a third black alignment, you will not be able to send him a second time in the air and the fight can go amiss.  It is very easy to be unable to get 3 black alignments during the first 4 turns.  So without black feeder, Vulture is too dependent on board.  With C&D, you limit a lot this dependence.  Third, even though Iceman's green can be better than Vulture's depending on board configuration, Vulture's green is a good enough AOE to be used.  Having a black feeder is usually more important than benefiting Iceman's green  in comparison to Vulture's.

I actually would say as a day 1805 player that mpiter is giving you terrible advice here. I have every single character he refers to as champed so feel confident that I know what I am talking about. 

Like using 5 black to send Vulture airborne?

You do not need Medusa, in fact that meta is long gone but she is good/useful but as soon as you get into Kitty Pryde  MMR then Medusa is a serious liability. I can kill Medusa with Kitty's circuit breaker without doing anything at all.

Of course a human can easily kill Medusa as any other character. The point here is to use her in attack, not in defense.  I was not speaking of the old meta. Against great special tile creators such as Polaris or Carnage4, you will save many health packs using her.  So she is a niche character useful in those situations.

Polaris is of course great but she has no feeder. R4G has no feeder. Chase these characters yes but it is all completely random.

R&G4 has R&G3 as a feeder.  Of course, as a day 1805 player we can feel confident that you know what you are talking about!  And I do not understand your "completely random" since it is possible to have today any chosen 4* cover in maximum three weeks and often faster than that.   Furthermore, there are currently plenty of Polaris covers to take, so it is very easy to champ her now.  I think you really should learn current MPQ possibilities.

The current meta team is actually iHulk and Okoye who destroy Kitty based teams.   

Nope.  Okoye is still today very weak in defense.  The AI cannot handle specific-character strategies.  As a consequence, the AI will not focus on TU when it controls Okoye rendering her black, her main asset, close to useless.  I always welcome Okoye based-team opponents in PVP because she almost never makes more then one TU alignement before dying.  So I often go through fights against her without requiring health packs after every fight except when she is paired with Thor5.  Conversely, one fight against Gritty automatically means health packs even if I kill the team because that team already hurts badly during the first matches.

So you should revise your MPQ basics such as 6 black required to use Vulture, its slowness comparing to the current meta 4*, the R&G4 feeder, the way to quickly earn a chosen 4* cover in a non-random fashion...

@Carnifex, do not trust him, do not trust me. Check by yourself using this board who constitue the 4* meta game.  Come back here when you have learned that, and tell us whether you would prefer Vulture + Iceman + a third or Polaris/Gam4 + R&G4 + Jug4 knowing that Gam4 can be replaced by any Guardian of the Galaxy.  Then play against Carnage or Polaris + R&G4 and tell us if you do not want Medusa against them.

Carnifex

Thank you both for your comments. I didn't mean to start a debate between meta teams, but I'm finding both sides of this to be quite helpful. 

So, I haven't championed my Vulture. Instead I have leveled him to be acting as my highest level 3* and running him with a 3* team. And I admit, I agree with mpiter. Vulture is slow. Yes he is decent when he goes airborne, but sometimes that takes a while to happen, or takes a few more turns to go airborne again. And also looking at Iceman, he does seem like a decent character to be rostered, but being paired with Vulture doesn't look like the most sense to me. If Vulture is gaining all that AP for iceman, then he won't be making any use of it himself, so no decent AOE damage and Vultures blue is a bit meh anyway. Wouldn't it make more sense for Vulture to feed his own green and a stronger blue user?

I'm not going to make my transition to 4* just yet. I have Polaris rostered, as well as Medusa, and Gam4ra but I'm still missing R&G and Jugs4. The ones I do have the most covers I have is about 5 or 6 or so. I'm just going to keep slowly rostering 4*s until its more worth while spending my CP to open packs and actually gain covers, not most of them being wasted.
Is this my best move you reckon? Thanks again. 

DAZ0273

In terms of progression, it really comes down to what sort of player you are. If you *must* have every character then your method is fine as it will eliminate waste but obviously it is not very fast. If you are going to try and fast track by chasing the meta characters then the more you open the faster you go. Some players have a "rotation" roster spot for rostering Essential characters and then they sell them and roster again as they go. I am not sure how effective this would be with 4* dilution, personally apart from the 1* characters I try and roster everybody.

Apologies, 6 black is correct. Can't believe I forgot about R3G, my farm is close to spitting out some shards!

4* Rocket & Groot are the most important 4* you could get because they are basically a 4.5* when teamed with special tile spammers or a Juggs pve clear team + GotG which is super fast.

To be fair I do not really need to rely on the team's mpiter references because I have better options, so his advice might be more beneficial for you where you are. Certainly I made two rookie blunders as they pointed out, I thank them for that!

Obviously "get the Meta teams" is standard advice but with the dilution in the 4* tier this will not be a short term project. As they say. MPQ is a marathon, not a sprint.

Iceman has one of the most powerful aoe's in the 4*. The point of Vulture is as a battery. Just like how IM40 is for the 3* tier. Feeding Iceman all that blue is a great idea because he can stun lock the enemy (Polaris too). Gamora is another nice choice as a stunner.

Polaris is unlikely to be featured much more as a regular 4e, so opportunities to get her covers will sadly be limited. I have her champed but if you are struggling for covers, these will become scarce soon I am afraid as the new 4s rotate her out 

Medusa, like any character who produces a single Countdown or special tile is cannon fodder against any Gritty/Kitty based team because Circuit Breaker will eat that and cause damage. Considering Medusa will replace that countdown passively then you are killing yourself unless you can stop Kitty. Medusa is a great character but at least in my MMR she is basically irrelevant. I would not turn down her covers though and certainly at one point Cardusa was a SHIELD SIM pain.

Carnifex

I am definitely more of a casual player. Unfortunately I don't get the most time to play, perhaps maybe up to an hour a day. So by the time I've done my DPD, I don't really have the time to get 40 PVP victories or clear all nodes I can 4 times each in PVE. Obviously PVP last several days, but I often have to make the choice on which to focus on, not do both.
I would like all 4* eventually, that's the completionist inside me, but I might be more leaning to the faster method and try to get the worthwhile characters first, and come back for the others later.
Would it be worth spending the 120CP per each character cover instead of pulling 20CP covers at a time? It's then more focused and not potentially waste. Or is this method a massive no-no from MPQ players?
Thanks  

DAZ0273

Most MPQ players would consider spending CP on anything other than latest or classics as a big no no but if you feel that would give you a leg up then it is up to you. At where you are in the game the bottleneck is HP for roster slots  and CP is a later game concern. I would probably not myself.

mpiter

Hello both Daz0273 and Carnifex,

Now Daz, I think that we agree basically on everything.  I just keep thinking that C&D is a better match for Vulture because I think that keeping him almost always airborne is more important than to have a better green AOE.  Carnifex has already experienced the problem of gathering enough black for that purpose, and it is so much easier with C&D configured with 5 black covers.  I prefer to use often Vulture's green AOE thanks to C&D than to use less frequently Iceman's better green because on average you will inflict more damage in the first case. But since Vulture does not belong anymore to the meta 4*, this is just an academic discussion.

Carnifex, if you do not have much time to invest in MPQ, like many of us, speed is even more important.  In one hour, you can clear the 4 fights of every available node in PVE SC 9 with the 4* meta teams except the 5* node.  I did it everyday.  You will not access a very good placement but you will gather every progression rewards but the last one or couple of last ones if you miss the right 4* to access his node.  If time is too short, PVE SC 8 can be fully cleared much faster.  You will clear SC 8 almost as fast as SC 7, so the latter is never justified.

So I still advise you to follow the progression I mentioned above: 5 yellow covers for R&G4, then champ Polaris focusing first on her purple, then champ Jug4 focusing first on a green cover, then red, then champ R&G4.  The key is to choose only the aimed 4* for your shards (as well as a 3* and a 5*) and to complete 6 quests of the Daily quest.  That means 15 shards for your 4* everyday plus those automatically provided by Milestone during your regular progression and those found in Events.  That will cost you 3 Health Packs most of the days and 1 boost but it is worth the investment because you will have usable 4* teams in a few months long before having them fully champed.

I will give you other pieces of advice for your progression in other posts.

DAZ0273

The only reason we are discussing Vulture is because he is the 4* character that Carnifex can champ. Carnifex could of course decide to abandon Vulture and go after some of the other Meta - I would keep an eye out for Throg though if he does decide to go the route of champing Vulture who gives you an alternative option to throw Vulture airbourne and should be chaseable for a while. When you have only 1 champed 4*, your game will revolve heavilly around them until they get some back up.

C&D are an excellent Support 4* regardless of any Vulture connection, they do everything apart from stun. I think it comes down to the value of stun in a players game. If you are up against dangerous opponents which require managing from the start, I would want a stunner on my team. With Daily Rewards giving Spicy Taco vaults you could also make use of boosts to give Vulture a leg up. C&D I find tend to reach their black AP generation threshold quite quickly, of course they then passively generate attack tiles which is good. If you were specifically after a black AP generator and an outlet for Vulture's AP generation then Domino is another good alternative.

Otherwise I agree with mpiter that Polaris, R4G and Juggernaut are all good choices in the 4* tier and two of them play up also, although Throg might pose an interesting challenge to R4G teams if his Zip Zap Zop power turns out to be reliable in taking out R4G's strikes at the beginning of the battle.

mpiter

Yes, Domino might be a better choice as a black battery.  But I often used C&D as a black or yellow generator for C4ge (my first champion), Carol, Vulture...  Configuring C&D with 3 covers in the color you want to generate works well most of the times.  The 10-AP threshold is not that bad.  But you may be right, Domino might be a more reliable choice and her red may be a good finisher.  On the other hand, she has two common colors with Vulture vs. one for C&D who have attack tile generation when we have enough black and a good cheap purple.  I have never tried Domino in this context but I think you are right.

For the stunner, Iceman is better than Gamora4 on their own but she is a Guardian of the Galaxy making her a better match for R&G4 on the long term.

Throg could be a pain but I do not think so.  He will not be able to clear R&G4 strikes at the beginning of a fight.  He needs 8 green => usually 3 alignments.  He will almost never trigger Zip Zap Zop in defense if he is not protected by another character up to PVE or PVP SC9 because three turns are sufficient to eliminate a target with its maximum health set at 13035 at level 270.  On top of this, still in defense, his blue will be exploited by a human player against him because the AI never focuses on charged tiles.  So he will not be frightening in defense.  And he will be too slow in offense to enter the meta game.  I think that he is a trash character.

mpiter

@Carnifex

Your short-term goals

Daz is right.  HP is the most important resource to gather in your progression state.  So you could have two simultaneous goals to define your strategy: (i) earn as much HP as possible; (ii) most importantly build a set of 4* teams as fast as possible because they will dramatically increase your progression speed.

To gather HP, you can focus on PVE SC 5 because with your 3* teams it should be possible to clear the first 4 fights of every node daily within the amount ouf time you can give to MPQ.  You should be able to access every day the top 50 of the daily PVE chapter of the event to gather daily 35 HP on top of the progression and placement rewards.  Sometimes, you will need to clear a few more nodes just before the end of the daily chapter or a few hours before to reach the top 50.  It is worth the effort.  You can try SC 6 but it requires a 4* character that you might not have and it is more difficult to stay in the top 50 for the daily HP.  SC 5 might be better right now.

Of course the DDQ quests can be done fast to gather 10 HP and some easy ISO, and sometimes 2 CP if you have the right 4* character.

To build your 4* characters, the new Daily, Events, and Milestone quests are one of your best bets as aforementioned in a previous post.

If you do not belong to a team, choose a good casual one, i.e., one that does not require daily goals but containing at least 18 people.  This is very important.  If you speak French, taz france is a very good casual one but it is very difficult to enter it.  We are always 20 and when someone leaves, the slot is usually filled within an hour.  Tell me if you speak French.

Win one mission of each event you do not want to participate to but do it a few minutes before the event end.  The reason is that D3 fills each event with 1000 players, then start a new batch of 1000, and so on.  If you enter an event winning a mission 5 to 10 minutes before the end, you might be lucky enough to enter a fresh batch with less than 100 players.  You may have good placement rewards just for the couple of minutes required to clear just one node.

Before focusing on other 4* than the meta characters, build a complete 2* farm (except bagman) and a complete 3* one.  They are very good long-term HP suppliers.  Tell us if you do not know what is an MPQ farm.

I would advise you to spend CP only in special vaults and for buying a cover for 250 or 500 CP.  Do not spend CP on Classic.  There is too much 4* dilution and the likelihood to have the 5* you want is so low that it is a very low benefit/cost strategy.  I think that Latest is not a good option either because D3 is constantly producing new 4* and 5* characters that are worthless as far as team efficiency is concerned.  I prefer to stick to Legend Tokens for the Latest to have 1 cover for each new 5* to access all event nodes.  CP are too important to me for the special vaults.  You will also want all 4* and 5* later to access all event nodes, but your teams are too weak now to even think about fighting in a 5* node.  So do not  bother now.  I would therefore suggest you to choose the 5* you want to cover first.  Gather as many CP as you can, spend them when there is a special vault containing your aimed 5* or buy a cover sometimes sold for 250 or 500 CP for your targeted 5*.

Daz was right about Okoye + iHulk in PVP.  I checked it and the pair rocks.  But Kitty and the 4* meta are still faster in PVE till SC 9 included.  I therefore think that Kitty should be the first 5* to cover because Okoye is not as good as Kitty with the 4*.  As a consequence, you need a second 5* with Okoye to start being a top killer.  Without a second 5*, Kitty is way faster than Okoye both in offense and defense, and Okoye is weak in defense without her 5* companion.

So my suggestion would be to place all your shards in Kitty, R&G4, and R&G3 for the beginning.

mpgame14

Hello,

I have been following mpiter guidelines almost from my beginning.  I think they are very good.

It is day 287 and I have seriously played for about 200 days and have just carried out DDQ the other days because I do not have the opportunity to play one to two hours a day all the time.

I spent a little money at the beginning on beginner packs such as 3 or 6 (I do not remember) covers of all 2* characters and later another pack containing 9 covers of IF3 and 9 of C3ge.  I bought a few other packs but I have not spent money for months.  That gave a solid initial boost.

I firstly built a 2* farm then a 3* one before concentrating on 4* characters.

I did what mpiter suggests for the 4* stage: 5 yellow in R&G, champed Polaris, and I am working on champing Jug.

Right now, I have R&G 152 (1 blue, 5 yellow, and 2 green), champed Polaris 454, Jug 342, Gamora 333, Medusa 222, and 39 other 4* hardly covered that I never use.  There is just AC 443 that I never use either, except for Kaecilius, but luck made me to almost fully cover her.  I gave an Advantage to Jug4 for black alignements making him to tank everything but yellow and purple in my (R&G, Polaris, Jug) 4* team.

I also have Okoye 202, Yelena 101, Apocalypse 100, BP 100, Black Wid 010, and Mag 101 as 5* but I almost never use them.  I used Okoye in the past but I stopped when I got R&G4 with 5 yellow and Polaris with 5 purple.  This pair is so much faster than my poorly covered Okoye...

I am at level 66.  I mainly play in PVE and PVP SC 9 and a few other events.  PVE and PVP SC 9 are a walk with the 4* teams suggested by mpiter, even partially covered as they are in my team right now.  I even carried out Cosmic Chaos and Simulator at SC 9 without much trouble.  I almost never use Health Packs in PVE but consume some in PVP.  The only node that I cannot clear more than once or twice in PVE is the 5* one.  I can presently reach any level in PVP.  Just to test my ability, I succeeded in having the 75 wins for the last PVP event that ended a few days ago.

Playing in SC 9 is very interesting because there is a good amount of CP and ISO to earn in every event (the most important resources for the 5* level).  HP income at SC 9 and from the two farms is not too bad (the most important resource for the 4* level with ISO).

In PVE SC 9, even partially covered as I have them, I use R&G4 + Gam4 + Jug4 for the 3 low non-essential nodes to clear them in one or two turns.  I replace Gam4 by Polaris for the 3 high non-essential nodes to clear them usually in no more than 6 turns.  I use Polaris + R&G4 to clear the essential nodes.

In PVP, I use Polaris + R&G for most fights.  I replace sometimes R&G by Medusa when the other team contains Medusa + Polaris or Carnage or some specific characters.

Carnifex, go for it.  Vulture is interesting for you now but do not champ him too soon.  You will never use him anymore when you have the 4 4* meta.  Concentrate now on the meta, you will not regret it.

Carnifex

Hey guys, hope you had a good Christmas

I completely agree with HP being the most important, I have never spent them on anything apart from roster slots, and I occasionally purchase buy the smallest amount possible, just for the extra boost and so I can get bonus rewards which are very helpful. I'll definitely give the SCL5 method a try though, thanks for the tip! 

Stupidly, I had Vulture favourited whilst I claimed all my rewards for the 3* champ milestone rewards, so I wasted a lot of shards I could have used on a meta character. But oh well, it's happened now and I can't change that. Instead I have Polaris favourited now, and she is currently at 6 covers. I don't have R&G4 yet or Jugs4, but R&G4 is a 12 Days of Marvel reward, so fingers crossed I can complete all 12 days and roster them. 
The daily and milestone rewards are slowly helping with the shards, and all the Deadpool spicy tokens or whatever they're called I hoard until I have 40, then spend them in the vault for a cover worthwhile. 
I am part of an alliance but I don't think it is very active. Is this bad? I get the occasional 1CP reward from that, but nothing else. I do not speak French unfortunately. Thanks though  
I did not realise about event timing, so I will definitely start trying to enter ones I'm not fussed about towards the end instead! 
I have every 2* and 3* rostered, so that is my farm. Although I have never managed to achieve a 3* fully covered after being champed, I'm just slowly gaining their progression rewards. 
Are special vaults the ones which go alongside the featured characters event? Or the ones where you buy specific covers for CP? I'll make sure to stop investing in CTs now! 
I have had 5Thor favourited for a while now, but Kitty seems far more versatile, so I'll change to having her favourited instead too. 

Thanks for all the help, Ive been able to apply so much to the game already!  

mpiter

Carnifex said:

Hey guys, hope you had a good Christmas

I completely agree with HP being the most important, I have never spent them on anything apart from roster slots, and I occasionally purchase buy the smallest amount possible, just for the extra boost and so I can get bonus rewards which are very helpful. I'll definitely give the SCL5 method a try though, thanks for the tip! 

Do not directly buy HP.  Save your money for packs containing character covers and HP.  For example, there is now a 10-euro beginner pack containing 1700 HP and 42 2* covers, 3 covers for each 2* character.  I advised mpgame14 to buy it since he was ready to put some money in the game.  As a beginner, 1700 HP was sufficient to roast the 13 important 2* characters leading him to start the game with everyone of them with 3 covers.  He could then roll over everything in the Prologue for more HP.  For 10 euros, you can buy twice 600 HP for just 1200 total.  You can see how inefficient is directly buying HP.

There are other interesting packs for intermediate players.  One contains 3 or 6 covers of SW (Scarlet Witch) and of Thanos3 plus HP and ISO.  Two very important 3* characters.  Another pack contains 9 covers of IF3 (Iron Man), 9 of C3ge, and 9 of Spider3 plus HP and ISO.  IF3 and C3ge are very important in the 3* world.  There are other interesting packs but I do not remember which ones.

Stupidly, I had Vulture favourited whilst I claimed all my rewards for the 3* champ milestone rewards, so I wasted a lot of shards I could have used on a meta character. But oh well, it's happened now and I can't change that.

Do not worry, it only delays a few weeks your big start in the 4* level.  Do not champion him now.

Instead I have Polaris favourited now, and she is currently at 6 covers. I don't have R&G4 yet or Jugs4, but R&G4 is a 12 Days of Marvel reward, so fingers crossed I can complete all 12 days and roster them. 

Good idea for the 12-day event.  R&G4 is a very good character for the 3*-to-4* transition.  I am not 100 % sure, but I think that R&G4 with 5 yellow will be more important than a champed Polaris for the transition.  Pair him with IF3 and Gamora3 when he has a few yellow covers.  This will dramatically speed up your fights.  Then replace IF3 by Polaris as soon as you have a few purple covers for Polaris.  R&G4 + Polaris will be your base pair for PVP events as well as essential nodes in PVE.

How exactly is your Polaris covered right now with her 6 covers?

The daily and milestone rewards are slowly helping with the shards, and all the Deadpool spicy tokens or whatever they're called I hoard until I have 40, then spend them in the vault for a cover worthwhile. 

Good idea.

I am part of an alliance but I don't think it is very active. Is this bad? I get the occasional 1CP reward from that, but nothing else. I do not speak French unfortunately. Thanks though  

A good alliance speeds up a little bit your progress but not much.  As Daz wrote, MPQ is a marathon, so any slight boost is welcome.  You receive  for free HP, ISO, tokens, covers, Red for advantages, and shards of the character of a regular event when the event ends.    But for every alliance event, you will earn a 4* cover in your progression rewards and 3 covers of another 4* characters with the alliance progression rewards.  In the alliance I belong to, we always earn all the alliance rewards 24 hours before the end of the event, including the 3 4* covers.  That is nice.

So, quit your alliance and search a better one.  Find an alliance with 18 or 19 active members, i.e., check that all members were active during the last 24 hours.  Check the roaster of the members.  If everyone is deep in the 5* level, you are not likely to be accepted.  So try to find one with every member active and with all kind of roasters, including someone at your level.  Holidays are not the best time to find a good alliance because some people might be unusually inactive.  You may miss a good alliance but as long as you find a good one, you do not care.  So you can start searching right now.

One event ended this morning (actually two, the full Strange Vision and the corresponding daily event).  The alliance brought me 55 HP, 150 shards for Bullseye3, 7500 ISO, 1200 Red for advantages, 1 Heroic token, and 1 Elite token.  This was free on top of my own position rewards.  This is not a game changing but this helps a bit every 3 or 4 days.

I did not realise about event timing, so I will definitely start trying to enter ones I'm not fussed about towards the end instead! 

Good.  Even if you are unlucky enough to enter the event with an almost full batch of players, you will earn some modest rewards for almost no efforts at all.  In PVP, if the three first fights are against very week opponents, do the three fights instead of only one.  It will improve a lot your ranking for a few minutes more compared to only one fight.  That means better almost free rewards.

You must also know that every time a new 4* character is introduced in the position reward, you can have at least one or two covers entering the event just before the end.  This is because a top 300 is usually sufficient to have one cover.  This is only the case with a brand new 4*.

I have every 2* and 3* rostered, so that is my farm. Although I have never managed to achieve a 3* fully covered after being champed, I'm just slowly gaining their progression rewards. 

Perfect, that is the goal of a farm: slowly gaining the progression rewards.

Are special vaults the ones which go alongside the featured characters event? Or the ones where you buy specific covers for CP?

What I called the special vaults are the ones featuring only 3 5* and all 4* characters.  There are two of them now for Christmas holidays.  One called in French "Légendes de clan" (Clan Legend) containing Captain America (Infinity War), JJ (Jessica Jones), and Professor X as 5*, another one called "All Roads Lead to Chrome" containing Adam Worlock, IM, and Silver Surfer as 5*.

In such a vault, if you are focused on one specific 5*, you have 1 chance out of 7 to draw a 5* cover, so 1 chance out of 21 to draw a cover of your specific 5* because there are only 3 5* characters in the a vault.  If you go in Classic Legends for Kitty, you still have one chance out of 7 to draw a 5* cover, but since there are currently 47 5* characters in the vault instead of 3 in a special vault, you only have 1 chance out of 7*47=329 to draw a Kitty cover.  So paying 20 CP for 1 chance out of 329 to get a Kitty cover is not worth the cost.  So I currently wait for a special vault containing Kitty and two other 5* to pay 25 CP for 1 chance out of 21 to earn a Kitty cover.

I'll make sure to stop investing in CTs now! 

You can buy one yellow Kitty cover for 250 CPs right now.  If you have the CPs or can have them within the next 4 days, buy the cover it will help you a lot in a near future.

I wrote a program to carry out simulations of 5* drawings.  To champ a 5* character using only special vaults with 3 5* characters saving all shards for the 5* character, you will spend on average between 525 CP/cover (best-case scenario, with no covers at the beginning) and 1280 CP/cover (worst-case scenario, starting with 5 covers in two powers and 0 cover in the third).  The simulation does not take into account any other resources than special vaults with the shards earned during the drawings.  As you can see, 250 CP for one cover is a bargain.

I have had 5Thor favourited for a while now, but Kitty seems far more versatile, so I'll change to having her favourited instead too. 

Good idea.

Thanks for all the help, Ive been able to apply so much to the game already!  

You are welcome.  The game is funnier with faster progression.

Carnifex

Hey again, Happy New Year

It's very rare I buy anything from MPQ really, I use my free Google opinion rewards to buy something cheap for the bonus rewards. But I will bear that in mind if I ever decide to make a more pricey purchase.

I should have R&G4 rostered today, assuming I am able to complete the last day in the 12 days of marvel event. I have Gam4 at 8 covers currently too, would she be a better partner with R&G4 and IF?
My Polaris should be getting her 7th cover today as well, so she will be at 3 purple and 2 Green/blue. 

I have changed my alliance now too. Already I am noticing an increase in rewards, as you said, its nothing major, but a few extra cover packs and iso 8 is always nice.

Yes, I know which vaults you mean now. I'll make sure to check all of those from now. I purchased Kitty for that 250cp and have her rostered, so I will make sure to see if any vaults contain better odds for her. 
I have been using Kitty, Polaris at 6 covers and Blade 3 in PVE the last couple of days and already the change in speed is crazy. 

So my short term goals now are to get R&G4 rostered and switch my shards to them instead for the yellow covers. After that, I hope a random Jugs4 cover will appear, but I will work on champing Polaris in that time.

Thanks again. 

DAZ0273

WandaVision launches next week and a 5* is due on the same date, people are expecting a 5* Wanda and the hope is she might be Meta so keep an eye on that as a place to possibly spend some CP depending on who we get as the release.