2* player with HP question

sajymus

I just bought HP, and it won't be a regular thing. My question is this: is it better to keep them for shields to try to get whatever 3* is in the PvP event or take my 5/1/2 Hulk to 5/1/4 and get him into lvl 100 territory. I understand Hulk can be a good defense and keep me from getting attacked as often in pvp. I don't have any competitive 3* characters; Hulk is my best. IM40 is at 4/2/2 and lvl in the mid 60. My next highest 3* is Hood at 3/2/0 lvl 51. I have 60K iso on reserve. My alliance gets in the top 1000, so I usually get 50 HP from them and 50 from my own reward. If I'm lucky I can get one 3* cover in the pvp events unless they're fiercely competitive. I can usually break the 800 points mark once (and briefly)but not 900 (yet) in a pvp.

After my purchase, I'll have 3800 HP.

Any advice / help is appreciated.

Unknown

How does your roster look like? Hulk is not that good on offense, so I wouldn't choose him as my very first 3 star hero, but IM40 and Hood are worse IMHO.
However, I think you can pair him with (maxed...) OBW and Ares/Thor for better results.
Saving up some HP for shielding is easy if you only shield for 8h or 3h (150 and 75 HP) as you ideally recoup the HP from your winnings. Still, 800 points won't always net you a top 50...
Hope this helps!

sajymus

I've got maxed out 2* OBW, Wolvi, Ares, Storm, Capt, full covers but not maxed levels on 2* Magneto. I have several other 3* but not many covers (4 or fewer) on Thor, Black Panther, Human Torch, Falcon, Psylocke, Daken, and one cover Spider Man, Magneto, and Capt. Oh, and a red cover for **** Wolverine.

Unknown

I see. Well, I'd say go all the way and level him up to 5/1/5 (you need that Anger...) then try your luck without shielding for a couple events, hopefully winning at least 25 HP so that you can use a 3h shield on the next event, get your HP back, etc.
Keep in mind this is the ideal situation and in all likelihood you'll spend another $20 at some point... Good luck!

HailMary

An unmaxed Hulk's scarecrow power depends on who you run with him.

As a lazy max-3* player, I'm far more intimidated by max Ares + OBW than, say, max OBW + L102 Hulk. If you level your Hulk high enough to tank green for max Ares, though (I have no idea what level that would be), Ares + Hulk would be a rather annoying team to play against.

Hulk is good on defense with 5 black, but otherwise, a L102 Hulk is less intimidating than either max OBW or max Ares.

Unknown

It really depends on how fast you want to see progression. The smarter way imo would be to use it to shield hop. If you shield hop 3/4 times it would come out to 300 hp per pvp event (assuming 3 hr hops, maybe alil more if you use an 8hr first ) but doing this should net you 2-4 covers. At 1250 hp per cover if bought outright this is an amazing savings. I'm not sure if it's possible or not to hit 1100 with a 2* roster as I haven't tried yet but it's my plan to try with my next purchase. That's 1 guaranteed cover, and at this point all 3* covers are useful. Top 50 is 1 cover, top 20 would be 2 and if your alliance can make top 100 that's another one. And there's always the chance of another 3* from progression token. You will also be earning hp at the same time, not more than what you would spend, but it would def offset the cost making you only lose 100 or so per event.

If you are looking for immediate results then of course that isn't your best route, but I don't really think hulk by himself is too scary. I would still wait at least a week or so and see what else you can get by shielding, even if just once per event. And then make the decision of whether to pump or not.

HailMary

BiGGz8912 wrote:

It really depends on how fast you want to see progression. The smarter way imo would be to use it to shield hop. If you shield hop 3/4 times it would come out to 300 hp per pvp event (assuming 3 hr hops, maybe alil more if you use an 8hr first ) but doing this should net you 2-4 covers. At 1250 hp per cover if bought outright this is an amazing savings. I'm not sure if it's possible or not to hit 1100 with a 2* roster as I haven't tried yet but it's my plan to try with my next purchase. That's 1 guaranteed cover, and at this point all 3* covers are useful. Top 50 is 1 cover, top 20 would be 2 and if your alliance can make top 100 that's another one. And there's always the chance of another 3* from progression token. You will also be earning hp at the same time, not more than what you would spend, but it would def offset the cost making you only lose 100 or so per event.

If you are looking for immediate results then of course that isn't your best route, but I don't really think hulk by himself is too scary. I would still wait at least a week or so and see what else you can get by shielding, even if just once per event. And then make the decision of whether to pump or not.

Agreed, except for the "all 3* covers are useful" bit. I wouldn't encourage anyone to shieldhop to 1100 for a lower-mid-tier 3* (the Psy's the limit, IMHO).

Shieldhopping to win specific, desirable 3* covers is a solid HP investment. But, noting how many UDaken, LT, and BP covers have already been given out, I don't think they'll be PVP rewards again anytime soon.

P.S. - Minor correction: Top 10 is required to get 2 3* covers in PVP, not Top 20.

Unknown

Right, and right about the top 10, sorry. What I meant more by that is he is not cover maxed on anyone, so by pushing to 1100 (on a tourney where you either need the 1100 progression, or the top 50 cover) should net you all 3 if you can make it to 1100. And it won't just be ISO, at least it's a useable cover (useful is a different story).

But yes, at least 1 of the 2 should be useful to you to warrant the hp spending. Either way you save a ton, will just take longer but provides you with a steady income of covers instead of just getting 1 character to 100+ and hoping that helps you obtain covers in the same way shielding would, but in a less effeciant/guaranteed way.

Unknown

Before you buy shields, take some events to study what kind of score is expected to get whatever placement you're hoping for. Yes, that number changes depending on how desireable the reward is, but you can usually get a good ballpark. I don't really recommend shield hopping with a 2* roster because you don't have anything super cheap you can do to make use of it. You're better off just playing until you hit the score that you're pretty sure will hold top 25 or whatever and then be done with it.

Psylocke is a good benchmark for the least valuable 3* that's still worth using shields. People weaker than she generally aren't worth the effort, especially if you're low on roster slots.

sajymus

I doubt I could get to 1100 since I haven't hit 900 with a 2* team, yet. 8-900 seems to be the range for top 25, pushing top 10. (In the recent Psylocke contest I won my first ***Daken by barely being in the top 50 with 750 points). I seem to do better (get attacked less and have longer "runs" of victories) when playing early and middle of the event. Sounds like pushing up to 800+ with less than a day to go and buying a 24 hour shield is the way to go. Thanks for the advice!

Unknown

if you dont already I would focus on your 2star team for now, there will be another event giving out a hulk cover probably in the next month i would think and then you can look into maxing your guy out, but max OBW+(ARES or Thor or wolverine) are probably best for moving up. The most effective ways to spend hp are to get roster space and shields, dont over spend on shields though if you dont hit 900 much, i would suggest limiting yourself to buying 150HP worth of shields a PVP unless you are desperate for all 3 covers of the 3 star. but yeah, I can only sometimes reach 900 so thats why i limit the hp i spend. taht and im under 500 hp and dont plan on buying more.

Unknown

I can't believe you're telling the guy to basically waste his HP. Shield hopping with a 2 star team is useless, he'll never get to the 900+ points needed now for a top 20 unless he grinds like a madman and shields the last 24h.

HailMary

sorcered wrote:

I can't believe you're telling the guy to basically waste his HP. Shield hopping with a 2 star team is useless, he'll never get to the 900+ points needed now for a top 20 unless he grinds like a madman and shields the last 24h.

That could well be true -- a max-2* Djangolier hit 944 in the recent Psy PVP, good enough for Top 10, but he did semi-level his Psy. However, I don't see a 10-cover Hulk helping much at all for a guy who normally uses max Ares + OBW, and that 10-cover Hulk will cost him 2500 HP all at once.

I'd say at least try the early-shielding/shieldhop strategy a couple times (ideally only for good cover rewards), just to see where you can get with it:
1. Grind to your usual peak -- the point at which incoming attacks stop you in your tracks.
2. Immediately raise a 3hr shield.
3. While shielded, queue up three beatable, high-value enemies in your nodes (hopefully each worth 30 points or more). Wait for your health packs to recharge sufficiently.
4. After the incoming attacks seem to die down a bit, try to fight those three people as quickly as humanly possible, in quick succession. Defense doesn't matter much, due to Step 5.
5. Immediately reshield, ideally through the end of the event.

You probably shouldn't do steps 4 & 5 within the last three hours of an event, since you'll be slaughtered by other players making their pre-shield pushes. But, if your schedule allows, hopping and putting up an 8-hour shield somewhere between 5 and 7 hours from the end of the event should be less-than-brutal (save you some HP vs. a 24-hour shield). This would require steps 1 & 2 to happen roughly 7 to 10 hours before event-end.

Also, while entry time now matters less, try not to enter an event near its opening time. Wait a day.

Unknown

You don't really have to shield hop if you're not aiming for a high score. Here's what you do:

1. Note the kind of score that'd generally get you say, top 25, or even top 50. That gets you a 3* cover, over the course of several events.
2. Let's say you figure that 800 is about right, find a block of uninterrupted time, preferably not during prime time. Keep playing until you hit your goal.
3. Stay shielded for the rest of the event.

Assuming your research is reasonably in the right ballpark this will get you the cover you're trying to get, especially if you start out less ambitious and just for one cover. Obviously going for #10 is going to be a lot harder.

You shouldn't try to shield hop as a 2* roster because you don't have anyone that can quickly win a game or 3 before people see your team. If you just keep on play, you'll eventually find one of those lulls where nobody is attacking you for whatever reason. I guess if you run out of health pack and you've a decent score then you should shield, but otherwise just keep on trying. It took me like 10 tries to hit 1100 on the first Daken event without shields, but if you try enough times, it'll eventually work assuming you have modest goals.

Unknown

sorcered wrote:

I can't believe you're telling the guy to basically waste his HP. Shield hopping with a 2 star team is useless, he'll never get to the 900+ points needed now for a top 20 unless he grinds like a madman and shields the last 24h.

I can get really close to 900 consistently with a 2* team, and I have got it 4 times i think. was able to hold top 10 for 2 or 3 of the pvps, I am only on day 71 though, i just do my push 5 hours or 7 hours b4 the end and spend 150 on shield(s) thanks to top 25 you can get 100 hp +100 from alliance +50 if you can get to 900