Returning Player Asking for Your Advice

Liljoeyjojo

Hi team!!

I've recently returned to MPQ after a year or two absence and  would appreciate any advice for direction of my roster.

To give an idea of my current roster, I am in the 4 star transition - Have all 2's and 3's champed, and 12 x 4's champed - The most notable being Capt Marvel, Medusa, Blade and Peggy.

I've read most of the guides here and on Reddit, and have focused on working up my Grocket which is now 2/5/1, my Gamora who is 4/2/3.

I don't have Polaris rostered yet, and my Juggs has just one cover. I am missing 36 x 4 stars and 36 x 5 stars.

My BH are Magneto at 3 (for juggs shards), Juggs at 4, and Kitty at 5. I will move onto Polaris, then Karnak, Chavez, Carnage, etc after this.

My focus at the moment has been grinding PVE to max progression at SCL9, PVP to ~750 points. I mostly use a combination of Grocket, Gamora and 3* Strange for PVE, or Medusa, Capt Marvel and Blade and have an ok time getting through it all.

I have 636 CP and 15 LL tokens and have been saving these until I have ~400 pulls to get 2 latest legends however long that might take.

My main questions -

1. Building Juggs seems to be taking a while. I seem to be getting maybe 1 cover for him a week? Is there a better way to build him faster?

2. Because I am missing so many 4's and 5's, I often am unable to complete the two hardest nodes in Deadpool dailies and cant complete the 5 star node in PVE. Should I be spending my CP and LL tokens to build my roster before saving them up for the 400 pulls? Whats the best strategy here?

3. I have seen some comments that it is good to use CP and LL to get the latest legends to be able to complete PVE nodes - This seems like a big investment, is it worth it to do this? How many LL tokens would be required to roster all 3 latest legends?

Appreciate any advice on direction, thanks in advance!

mpiter

Liljoeyjojo said:

I've recently returned to MPQ after a year or two absence and  would appreciate any advice for direction of my roster.

To give an idea of my current roster, I am in the 4 star transition - Have all 2's and 3's champed, and 12 x 4's champed - The most notable being Capt Marvel, Medusa, Blade and Peggy.

Polaris deeply changed the 4* metagame.  The best duo is Polaris + R&G x5x (where x5x means anything in the first and third power and 5 in the second, i.e., 5 in yellow).  Your best 4* trio is Polaris + R&G x5x + Jug y5x (where y must be at least 1).  No other 4* teams can compete in speed with those two or three together.  Medusa is still useful against Carnage, and a few others.  The rest of the 4* stay in the shadow of the first three.

I've read most of the guides here and on Reddit, and have focused on working up my Grocket which is now 2/5/1, my Gamora who is 4/2/3.

Gamora was replaced by Jug.  Her only use now is for the three PVE non-essential nodes where R&G + Jug + Gamora is faster than using Polaris.  You do not need to cover Gamora more because only the passives of R&G and Jug will do the damages.  You can add other covers when they fall in your bag but do not level her anymore.  You will want Jug to tank as many colors as possible.  So you do not want Gamora's blue and red to go over Jug's.

I don't have Polaris rostered yet, and my Juggs has just one cover. I am missing 36 x 4 stars and 36 x 5 stars.

With 5 yellows in R&G, your next target SHOULD be Polaris.  Jug is very secondary compared to her.  Unfortunately, I do not think she has a 3* feeder.  Check it to be sure.  So put your shards in her and use any means to get covers for her (vault, special offers...)  You will not believe the strength of R&G + Polaris when you champ her.

My BH are Magneto at 3 (for juggs shards), Juggs at 4, and Kitty at 5. I will move onto Polaris, then Karnak, Chavez, Carnage, etc after this.

BH are replaced by shards.  Focus on Polaris before Jug.  Since she does not have a 3* feeder, Magneto3 is good to help building Jug, but put your shards in Polaris.  OK for Kitty.

For Jug, you need at least one green to activate his crazy passive, and then maximize his red to lower alignment damage.  Since you will build him with an advantage to tank at least 5 or 6 colors, almost negating alignment damages is important.

My focus at the moment has been grinding PVE to max progression at SCL9, PVP to ~750 points. I mostly use a combination of Grocket, Gamora and 3* Strange for PVE, or Medusa, Capt Marvel and Blade and have an ok time getting through it all.

Good.  Since you are focused on Kitty, have you already one or two yellow covers for her?

I have 636 CP and 15 LL tokens and have been saving these until I have ~400 pulls to get 2 latest legends however long that might take.

I do not think this strategy is still good.  The 4* and 5* are so unbalanced that either you have the key characters or you are out of PVP.  So I think that the most important thing is to get as fast as possible a key 5* such as Kitty.  As a consequence, I advise you to ONLY USE CP for 3-5* special vaults containing Kitty or to directly buy covers for 250 CP as we could do a couple of weeks ago.  What I call 3-5* special vaults are those temporary vaults only containing 3 5* characters and all 4* ones.

I wrote a program to carry out simulations of 5* drawings.  To champ a 5* character using only special vaults with 3 5* characters and saving all shards for the selected 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.

So, how to use LL tokens?  I am not sure there is a consensus on the subject.  I try to have one cover of each 5* entering the LL vault to be able to access any node requiring the character.  I never use CP in that vault because I keep them for Kitty.  I do not claim it is the best strategy but I think it is not bad.

My main questions -
1. Building Juggs seems to be taking a while. I seem to be getting maybe 1 cover for him a week? Is there a better way to build him faster?

Polaris first. Polaris first. Polaris first. Polaris first. Polaris first. Polaris first. Polaris first.

By the way, did I mention that you better cover Polaris before Jug? 

Look for every event containing your target cover.  You can sometime buy covers with HP or real money. You can save tokens such has Tacos ones till one cover you are interested in is in the vault.  Then spend all your tokens till you get the cover.  Do not try Classic Legends, the probability to get what you want is too low.

2. Because I am missing so many 4's and 5's, I often am unable to complete the two hardest nodes in Deadpool dailies and cant complete the 5 star node in PVE. Should I be spending my CP and LL tokens to build my roster before saving them up for the 400 pulls? Whats the best strategy here?

As mentioned above, I think that the 400-pull strategy is obsolete because most of the new 5* cannot compete with the best old ones.  I think you better champ Kitty with special vaults and direct buying.

3. I have seen some comments that it is good to use CP and LL to get the latest legends to be able to complete PVE nodes - This seems like a big investment, is it worth it to do this? How many LL tokens would be required to roster all 3 latest legends?

As written earlier, that is what I do but I am not sure it is the best path.

My main problem is that I do not have a good championed 5*.  I only have Kitty 220 level 315, Okoye 441 level 390, BB 433 level 405, G5mbit 422 level 375, and St5nge 403 level 360.  The other 5* are too underdeveloped to be listed here.  None of my 5* can compete with my main 4*: R&G4, Polaris, Jug4, and Gamora4.  Those 4 are sufficient to make PVE SCL 9 like a quick walk except the 5* node (I usually only win one or two fights for that node, and then it is over).  So it is not so important right now to me to be able to access the 5* node of the PVE SCL 9 events, but I try anyway to cover each 5*

Theghouse

Welcome back.  Sounds like you got your roster started during the vaulting phase of the game.  I also stopped playing around that time and returned a couple of years ago.  I now have all 4*s rostered, over 50 champed, and two 5* champs, so it's definitely possible to make the transition even though you might feel so far behind coming back now!  Luckily, Carol and Medusa are still high tier 4*s that you will find uses for as you build up the top meta characters.  They both play excellent with Rocket and Polaris.

Polaris is a newer character that is hands down the most powerful 4* in the game.  Most guides written before her release will tell you to prioritize Rocket, but as someone else said, once you have 5 covers in Rocket's yellow, move your favorite to Polaris and get her champed.   The reasoning here is that using Polaris's power to match away strike tiles and multiply them, it doesn't matter how strong they are, just that you start the battle with as many as possible by having his yellow power at 5 covers.  After champing Polaris, then target and champ Juggernaut. His team damage on every match amplified by a board full of Polaris's strike tiles is one of the fastest and most brutal 4* combos.  Then you can circle back around to finishing Rocket.  Polaris has no feeder but Juggs feeds through 3* Magneto and Rocket feeds through Rocket, so you can target them at the 3* level to help your progress.

To answer your number 1, building classic 4* is a long process if you are saving Legendary tokens and CP to do a big pull later (more on this below).  Don't expect a lot of help with getting classic 4*...  There are so many 4* now that the odds of pulling a specific one in tokens is down to a fraction of a percent, and with new releases taking precedence the PVE rotation for classic 4* is in the multiple years range.  PVP rewards will help but even the PVP rewards rotation is a year or longer.  Shards, feeders, and strategically pulling your vault tokens are going to be your best hope.  Luckily the new milestones feature offers a ton of shard opportunities to help you build your targeted characters.

As for number 2 and 3, the rotation of classic 5*, just like classic 4*, is also less than once a year.  It is more critical that you have at least one cover of each of the latest three released 4* and 5* because they are featured much more frequently.  I would suggest you open latest legendary tokens until you have at least one cover of each of those 5*.  When I was in your position 2 years ago, as soon as I had one of each latest 5*, I pulled classic legendaries whenever I had the CP to do so and the HP to roster a new character.  Doing that for about a year I really built up my 4* roster, and was able to roster all but 4 classic 5*s, who all have feeders so I can get them eventually.  There are now 20+ more characters each in the 4* and 5* pool than when I did that, so trying that now will take even longer than it did for me and you'll use a lot more HP on roster slots for 1 cover of a 5* that will not add much value to your team.  Most players still agree that the best way to get through the game is to build each tier.  That doesn't necessarily mean every single 4* champed or even rostered, but until you have the top meta 4* and the top situational 4* champed, and a good majority of the 4* rostered, I would keep opening some form of legendary tokens to keep 4* covers and your target shards coming in to develop your roster.  At some point when you decide that your 4* roster is built enough for your play style needs, you can start saving LTs and CPs to pull for 5* champs. 

The 5* pull rate is 15%, and 3 champ 5* requires 39 covers, so starting from 0 covers with absolutely perfect odds and perfectly distributed covers for each character you would need 260 pulls.  Taking into account that you might get less than perfect odds and cover distribution, most on the forums recommend at least 350.  Doing at least 334 pulls will also earn over 1000 5* shards for 2 additional covers worth.  So I would make that your target when you do decide to start saving.

Liljoeyjojo

mpiter said:

Gamora was replaced by Jug.  Her only use now is for the three PVE non-essential nodes where R&G + Jug + Gamora is faster than using Polaris.  You do not need to cover Gamora more because only the passives of R&G and Jug will do the damages.  

Ok good to know. My Gamora covers were from before I went on a hiatus, I havent focused on her since returning. I'll leave her for now. Even playing with her a bunch, I have never been close to getting all purples on the board with special tiles on. Bummer!

Good.  Since you are focused on Kitty, have you already one or two yellow covers for her?

I have zero covers for her, I just saw she was good in the meta currently. My best 5 star is 5 star Black Widow at 2/3/4.

The 4* and 5* are so unbalanced that either you have the key characters or you are out of PVP.  So I think that the most important thing is to get as fast as possible a key 5* such as Kitty.  As a consequence, I advise you to ONLY USE CP for 3-5* special vaults containing Kitty or to directly buy covers for 250 CP as we could do a couple of weeks ago.  What I call 3-5* special vaults are those temporary vaults only containing 3 5* characters and all 4* ones.

I am assuming this doesn't come up much, so hoarding for these moments is fine? I have 3 shards for Kitty as it is and no covers, so it looks like it might take a while. 

Polaris first. Polaris first. Polaris first. Polaris first. Polaris first. Polaris first. Polaris first.

By the way, did I mention that you better cover Polaris before Jug? 

So reading between the lines, youre saying Juggs should wait? Ok Ive changed my shards focus to Polaris. Is it normal to see 1-2 covers a week with 4 star BH/Shard focus?

My main problem is that I do not have a good championed 5*.  I only have Kitty 220 level 315, Okoye 441 level 390, BB 433 level 405, G5mbit 422 level 375, and St5nge 403 level 360.  The other 5* are too underdeveloped to be listed here.  None of my 5* can compete with my main 4*: R&G4, Polaris, Jug4, and Gamora4.  Those 4 are sufficient to make PVE SCL 9 like a quick walk except the 5* node (I usually only win one or two fights for that node, and then it is over).  So it is not so important right now to me to be able to access the 5* node of the PVE SCL 9 events, but I try anyway to cover each 5*

Yes im fairly comfortable at SCL9 already, but only hitting ~150-200 ranks - Do you spend iso/LL to pull Latest Legends? How many pulls roughly to get the missing Legend?

Thanks so much for the advice, appreciate it!!

Liljoeyjojo

Theghouse said:

Welcome back.  Sounds like you got your roster started during the vaulting phase of the game.  I also stopped playing around that time and returned a couple of years ago.  I now have all 4*s rostered, over 50 champed, and two 5* champs, so it's definitely possible to make the transition even though you might feel so far behind coming back now!  Luckily, Carol and Medusa are still high tier 4*s that you will find uses for as you build up the top meta characters.  They both play excellent with Rocket and Polaris.

Yeah I am now sad I will never catch up in this game, but so glad to be back. And glad to have at least built up all 3's and some great 4's to get back into it.

Polaris is a newer character that is hands down the most powerful 4* in the game.  Most guides written before her release will tell you to prioritize Rocket, but as someone else said, once you have 5 covers in Rocket's yellow, move your favorite to Polaris and get her champed.   The reasoning here is that using Polaris's power to match away strike tiles and multiply them, it doesn't matter how strong they are, just that you start the battle with as many as possible by having his yellow power at 5 covers.  After champing Polaris, then target and champ Juggernaut. His team damage on every match amplified by a board full of Polaris's strike tiles is one of the fastest and most brutal 4* combos.  Then you can circle back around to finishing Rocket.  Polaris has no feeder but Juggs feeds through 3* Magneto and Rocket feeds through Rocket, so you can target them at the 3* level to help your progress.

Yeah I guess most guides ive seen are a little dated now. Really looking forward to getting Polaris and Juggs champed, I see them everywhere and mostly avoid them, but that tells me they are the goods.

To answer your number 1, building classic 4* is a long process if you are saving Legendary tokens and CP to do a big pull later (more on this below).  Don't expect a lot of help with getting classic 4*...  There are so many 4* now that the odds of pulling a specific one in tokens is down to a fraction of a percent, and with new releases taking precedence the PVE rotation for classic 4* is in the multiple years range.  PVP rewards will help but even the PVP rewards rotation is a year or longer.  Shards, feeders, and strategically pulling your vault tokens are going to be your best hope.  Luckily the new milestones feature offers a ton of shard opportunities to help you build your targeted characters.

Milestones have been  great, I hope they release some more because I am starting to run out already it feels like, and then what? The daily Spicy token quests are awesome for the 15 shards a day for fours.

As for number 2 and 3, the rotation of classic 5*, just like classic 4*, is also less than once a year.  It is more critical that you have at least one cover of each of the latest three released 4* and 5* because they are featured much more frequently.  I would suggest you open latest legendary tokens until you have at least one cover of each of those 5*. 

Thanks for the advice. How big of a difference is having the 3 latest legends? What does it do for your rewards and stuff? And do you know how many pulls on average before all 3 Latest legends have been acquired?

The 5* pull rate is 15%, and 3 champ 5* requires 39 covers, so starting from 0 covers with absolutely perfect odds and perfectly distributed covers for each character you would need 260 pulls.  Taking into account that you might get less than perfect odds and cover distribution, most on the forums recommend at least 350.  Doing at least 334 pulls will also earn over 1000 5* shards for 2 additional covers worth.  So I would make that your target when you do decide to start saving.

This is really great info thank you! 350 pulls doesnt sound so bad.. I guess. Appreciate the response 👍

Theghouse

Thanks for the advice. How big of a difference is having the 3 latest legends? What does it do for your rewards and stuff? And do you know how many pulls on average before all 3 Latest legends have been acquired?

If you are placing t200 without most of the 4* and 5* required, I imagine once you are able to cover each of the three latest 4* and 5* for essential nodes you should be able to break into t100, and even better as your roster improves and your team gets faster.

With perfect odds, 20 pulls would get you 3 5* covers.  Because getting just a few covers is such a small sample size with high deviation from perfect odds, it could take 50 pulls and you might get 7 covers of one 5* before you get any covers of the others.  You could also take 3 pulls and get exactly 1 of each.

DAZ0273

You should definitely focus on Polaris. Whilst Grockets strikes are a great damage booster, if they get matched away or there is an unlucky cascade he is thereafter pretty much fodder. Polaris on the other hand does something useful no matter what, including an absolutely awesome stun. The other problem with Grocket is that he is also vulnerable to Sabretooth as a counter measure. Grocket is a vital team with Juggs + GotG and with Kitty but Polaris has utility with any special tile maker and can even self seed, although this is subject to RNG often.

mpiter

Theghouse said:

Most players still agree that the best way to get through the game is to build each tier.  That doesn't necessarily mean every single 4* champed or even rostered, but until you have the top meta 4* and the top situational 4* champed, and a good majority of the 4* rostered, I would keep opening some form of legendary tokens to keep 4* covers and your target shards coming in to develop your roster.  At some point when you decide that your 4* roster is built enough for your play style needs, you can start saving LTs and CPs to pull for 5* champs. 

I would not do that.  At Liljoeyjojo's level I think that building the the top meta 4* characters and one top meta 5* is more important than trying to roaster missing characters.  I would use the Daily and Milestone rewards, the progression and placement rewards  of PVE and/or PVP events, DDQ, alliance rewards,  and vaults that do not require CP  for the shards.  I would definitely hoard the CP right now.  I will detail why below.

The 5* pull rate is 15%, and 3 champ 5* requires 39 covers, so starting from 0 covers with absolutely perfect odds and perfectly distributed covers for each character you would need 260 pulls.  Taking into account that you might get less than perfect odds and cover distribution, most on the forums recommend at least 350.  Doing at least 334 pulls will also earn over 1000 5* shards for 2 additional covers worth.  So I would make that your target when you do decide to start saving.

While preparing above 350 pulls to champ one or a couple of Latest 5* was a very good strategy in the past, I think that it became obsolete a while ago.  If I am not wrong you may have missed something because you stopped playing while D3 changed their 5* production.

D3 kept producing good 5* at a slow but regular pace in the past. BB was better than OML, DD was not bad, JJ coming later was good too, Gambit was so OOP that he needed to be nerfed...  So one could always hope for a good 5* to champ in the LL vault.

After Thorkoye and Kitty came, D3 stopped creating better 5*.  What have we received since those two deadly girls in several years?  Just BBR that some people use in PVE SC 10, and iHulk to be paired with Okoye in PVP.  According to what I read, every new other 5* ranked from trash (Wasp) to very nice but always weaker than iHulk+Okoye or Kitty based teams.  In other words, you almost never have an interesting 5* in the LL if you do not have Kitty, Okoye, iHulk, and BBR.

I therefore think that it is better to choose a 5* target such as Kitty, and to hoard all CP to buy covers of the target for 250 or 500 CP and for special vaults containing only 3 5* that includes the target and the 4* characters.  For each of the top meta 5*, there are at least one or two specialized vaults every year.  I would not be surprised to see one in March, the month of women.  The likelihood to earn a target cover in such a vault is 1/21 per pull while it is currently 1/156 per pull in Classic Legends and it decreases over time.

To come back to Liljoeyjojo case, he does not need to use CP to pull covers to complete his 4* roaster.  Except the top meta, he will not need the other 4* except to access event nodes.  There are always many things to do even if we cannot access one node.  If he does not have the right 4* in PVE, it is very easy to earn a cover as a progression reward in SC 9.  So he will rarely miss them and he can easily win them when they are required in PVE.  There are enough other means to gain shards to constantly feel progresses in one's roster without using CP.

Hence, I think his best course of actions are (i) to stay focus on Kitty (whom he chose) and Polaris/Jug4/R&G4; (ii) to earn as much shards, HP,  CP, and ISO as possible; (iii) to hoard CP for the Kitty specialized vaults and her covers occasionally sold for 250 CP/cover.  Saving CP and LL to reach 350 pulls is probably not a good strategy anymore for the lack of new 5* greater than the current top 5* meta.

Liljoeyjojo

Theghouse said:

Thanks for the advice. How big of a difference is having the 3 latest legends? What does it do for your rewards and stuff? And do you know how many pulls on average before all 3 Latest legends have been acquired?

If you are placing t200 without most of the 4* and 5* required, I imagine once you are able to cover each of the three latest 4* and 5* for essential nodes you should be able to break into t100, and even better as your roster improves and your team gets faster.

With perfect odds, 20 pulls would get you 3 5* covers.  Because getting just a few covers is such a small sample size with high deviation from perfect odds, it could take 50 pulls and you might get 7 covers of one 5* before you get any covers of the others.  You could also take 3 pulls and get exactly 1 of each.

I ended up pulling my 17 LL tokens - partly to test, partly on your advice and partly because of the itch to pull. I got 3 5 stars total (Deadpool and Magneto), all in the first 5 pulls. Ill need to test a little more to see how long it takes me to collect LL's again. Ill keep my CP for some Kitty specific pulls down the track.

Liljoeyjojo

mpiter said:

I would not do that.  At Liljoeyjojo's level I think that building the the top meta 4* characters and one top meta 5* is more important than trying to roaster missing characters.  I would use the Daily and Milestone rewards, the progression and placement rewards  of PVE and/or PVP events, DDQ, alliance rewards,  and vaults that do not require CP  for the shards.  I would definitely hoard the CP right now.  I will detail why below.

Ive decided I'll hoard my CP for now, and spend some LL's to scratch that itch. This should give me a little injection of 4 stars and expand my roster a little, and the latest 5 stars for PVE node.

After Thorkoye and Kitty came, D3 stopped creating better 5*.  What have we received since those two deadly girls in several years?  Just BBR that some people use in PVE SC 10, and iHulk to be paired with Okoye in PVP.  According to what I read, every new other 5* ranked from trash (Wasp) to very nice but always weaker than iHulk+Okoye or Kitty based teams.  In other words, you almost never have an interesting 5* in the LL if you do not have Kitty, Okoye, iHulk, and BBR.

But there is nothing stopping them from releasing better 5 stars down the track right? Who is to say they dont release a 5 star that becomes the new meta?

Hence, I think his best course of actions are (i) to stay focus on Kitty (whom he chose) and Polaris/Jug4/R&G4; (ii) to earn as much shards, HP,  CP, and ISO as possible; (iii) to hoard CP for the Kitty specialized vaults and her covers occasionally sold for 250 CP/cover.  Saving CP and LL to reach 350 pulls is probably not a good strategy anymore for the lack of new 5* greater than the current top 5* meta.

I like this thank you. Ive changed to focus on Polaris then will move to Juggs. Already on Kitty expecting to get there in ~ 5 years. And will look out for vaults and specials that hold these characters.

Awesome to see everyones opinion, I really just love reading your opinions on MPQ. Appreciate the input everyone!

DAZ0273

Polaris is definitely meta but the only concern to have is whether she gets nerfed. Polaris also gives an alternative option to use with Kitty teams but she is much more than just a R4G replacement. She can singlehandely win a match and is also part of a winfinite combination. Bishop and Worthy Cap were both nerfed into the ground last year, so that is the risk of an "all your eggs in one basket" strategy with this game. There are still people smarting about Gambit...

Apocalypse is definitely meta to add to that group and Prof X/Onslaught is a popular team but all are lost to classics. Chasing Classics is getting harder and harder.

We tend to get at least one game changing character per year be it at 4 or 5 star level, some have greater impact than others (Polaris is instantly meta, iHulk is meta at higher levels of gameplay with a strong enough Okoye to tank), sometimes more than that and meta's don't always form organically. For example - Thor was good on release but needed Okoye to form a meta. 5* Hawkeye was languishing in the reserves until 4* Captain America made him meta overnight. There seem to be increasing uses of charge tiles and airbourne in new releases, so perhaps a new combination might be formed around one of these mechanics with a 2021 release.

Theghouse

Liljoeyjojo said:

I ended up pulling my 17 LL tokens - partly to test, partly on your advice and partly because of the itch to pull. I got 3 5 stars total (Deadpool and Magneto), all in the first 5 pulls. Ill need to test a little more to see how long it takes me to collect LL's again. Ill keep my CP for some Kitty specific pulls down the track.

5* Deadpool is a unique character in that, if you play at least 1 match with him everyday  you will earn a bonus token for the Spicy Taco vault, which can help you when a good 4* cover is in there and you want to pull all your saved up tokens until you get it.  Try to remember to play with him at least one node everyday (technically his timer resets every 25 hours so you might not earn it everyday).

As far as earning LTs, it will take a while to earn regularly until your roster develops.  Your sweet spot for earning LTs is when the majority of your 3* champs get near max level and you have started champing a good portion of your 4*.  The last 10 champ rewards before max for 3* includes 2 LTs plus 250 HP, 15 CP, and 400 4* shards.  The first 10 champ levels for 4* includes either 2 LTs OR 1 LT and a 5* cover, plus 100 HP and 8 CP.  Most of the time these two roster developments start happening around the same time, but as the 4* tier continues to grow past 100 characters these might start getting farther apart for players still building their rosters.

Liljoeyjojo said:

But there is nothing stopping them from releasing better 5 stars down the track right? Who is to say they dont release a 5 star that becomes the new meta?

Already on Kitty expecting to get there in ~ 5 years. And will look out for vaults and specials that hold these characters.

As Daz said, you're absolutely right.  The meta is always changing and we usually get at least a couple characters per year who find a way to shake up the meta at the 4* and 5* level.  Remember that there are several different metagames, you have offensive metas for PVE and PVP (and in PVP sometimes different metas for climbing and shield hopping) and then the PVP defensive meta to float at the highest point level possible without shielding.  Sometimes new characters only find a fit into 1 meta, and it may not be one that matches your playstyle, or may need other characters you don't have leveled up enough to be viable.  For example, Adam Warlock had some mixed responses after his introduction, but now that people have had a chance to build him he seems to be finding a place in the 5* PVP defensive meta. 

While you may be right in that it could be years before you champ Kitty, you will probably have several opportunities before that time to champ some other great new 5*.  While picking 1 top tier 5* and sticking with it is the best strategy while still building the 4* tier, as your 5* roster starts to grow, you may see opportunities to build other good characters, and you may end up switching your target from Kitty to another 5* down the road.

As you continue to play and ask for advice, you will hear a number of different opinions and strategies.  Despite all the advice you'll receive and different opinions you will hear, you'll be the only one who can ultimately decide when you're happy enough with your progress on the 4* tier, and then deciding if a pull-as-you-go strategy or a saving all your resources to make a big 5* jump strategy will best fit the playing style and enjoyment you want to get out of the game.

DAZ0273

Actually they "fixed" 5* Deadpool's timer so it now resets with DDQ so you can get a token per day with him. Which is spicy! It is worth checking the vault daily too - I had Scorpion yesterday which was very nice to see that you can get such new releases in there.

Liljoeyjojo

Yes I did see that somewhere about 5* Deadpool so have been using him daily for my Spicy token when doing DDQ along with 3* Deadpool for the Whale Points. And had my first worthwhile opportunity to use the Spicy tokens this week for a Juggs cover which is great.

Unfortunately still stuck on just one Polaris cover but slowly getting there. That 7000HP offer for one cover is just not realistic for me right now.

As I mentioned I decided to spend LL tokens and hoard CP for now, however I just used an LL token yesterday and picked up Adam Warlock, and previous hoard got me the other two LL's so I now have all 3 in the current LL list.

Im thinking of stopping opening LL's now until they rotate is that a good idea? I liked that opening LL's gives me shards towards 4 and 5 star so would be a shame to halt that but could probs wait until some new 5 stars rotate in.

Thanks all for the great advice here!

Theghouse

Unless you are buying HP with real money, I would suggest only using HP for roster slots.  Once you have been able to roster almost every character, develop your roster to play in higher SCLs, and start earning champ rewards on 3* and 4*, you will start to build up a stack of HP which would be a time to consider using HP for deals.

As far as waiting for the latest 5* rotation, some people do use that strategy, once you have all 3 latest 5* covered go back to saving tokens.  It depends a lot on the current group of 5* and how useful they would be to your team.  Right now you are probably not opening enough tokens and would not get enough covers for any of the latest 5* to be immediately useful to your team.  Deadpool will be the one to leave next when Yellowjacket enters latest.  DP5 is considered by most to be a mid-tier 5* with only some situational usefulness compared to the top metas.  If you have the patience, it wouldn't hurt to wait until he's gone before pulling more LTs to get YJ rostered.  Magneto is widely considered bottom tier 5*, so once you have a YJ, you could even consider saving tokens again until Mag5 is gone and another new 5* takes his place.

Again, it's all going to depend on what goals you have for 4* and 5* roster development, and what level of enjoyment you get out of saving tokens vs. opening tokens.

Liljoeyjojo

Theghouse said:

Unless you are buying HP with real money, I would suggest only using HP for roster slots.  Once you have been able to roster almost every character, develop your roster to play in higher SCLs, and start earning champ rewards on 3* and 4*, you will start to build up a stack of HP which would be a time to consider using HP for deals.

As far as waiting for the latest 5* rotation, some people do use that strategy, once you have all 3 latest 5* covered go back to saving tokens.  It depends a lot on the current group of 5* and how useful they would be to your team.  Right now you are probably not opening enough tokens and would not get enough covers for any of the latest 5* to be immediately useful to your team.  Deadpool will be the one to leave next when Yellowjacket enters latest.  DP5 is considered by most to be a mid-tier 5* with only some situational usefulness compared to the top metas.  If you have the patience, it wouldn't hurt to wait until he's gone before pulling more LTs to get YJ rostered.  Magneto is widely considered bottom tier 5*, so once you have a YJ, you could even consider saving tokens again until Mag5 is gone and another new 5* takes his place.

Again, it's all going to depend on what goals you have for 4* and 5* roster development, and what level of enjoyment you get out of saving tokens vs. opening tokens.

Yeah I am using HP only for roster slots at the moment, i just saw the Polaris cover and made me wonder..

I do love to open tokens - dont we all - I think its one of the main reasons this game is so addictive. So I will definitely save my CP for now, and will see how I go hoarding LL for when 5 * rotates a bit. 

Thanks for the feedback

DAZ0273

Hoarding is a horrible thing. I played the long game and so never really hoarded that much, in fact I only really hoard now because the latest bunch of 5's have not been very inspiring and I can cover the 4's via other methods. It has put me in a position to immediately champ 7 5* and within striking distance of another 6 once I get the iso to do so. I normally tried and pulled for the new release though but sometimes that would depend on what CP I had. I can't guarantee but it feels like we are due a decent run of 5* releases this year but time will tell.

That said I did spend the best part of 800CP in YJ's store and got the Thor covers I wanted, some Storm and a 1/1/1 YJ which is a nice start. If you get lucky with pulls with somebody just rotating in, you might get a shot at getting them decently covered before they leave but Polaris is your current priority, so focus on her.

I would if you can bear to do so, keep an eye out on the next releases and hang on to your LT's and CP for now. Don't forget you can also earn 4* shards from opening Heroics & Mighty's, so it doesn't mean you can't still work on Polaris via them.

Liljoeyjojo

So its been a little less than 3 months since I returned to MPQ after a few years off and wrote this post.

I thought I'd provide a little update on where I'm at now for those who are interested in this type of thing.

I've gone from 12 x 4*s champed to 23 x 4*'s champed. This includes Polaris and Grocket champed, and Chavez and Juggs on 12 covers each. Im currently working on Sabretooth (4 covers) and then Karnak to complete the main Meta 4*'s. Sabretooth even on 4 covers is amazing against Polaris/Grocket in PVP so if anything id maybe have focused on him before Chavez, etc if i could go back and do it again.

I am able to fully cover and champ latest 4*'s coming through and will keep up with those now. I have about 20 other 4's with 13 covers that will rarely if ever get used, and so will be champed slowly when I have iso to spare. I aim for 1 a week or so.

Im managing to hit Top 5-10 in PVP SCL 9 and Top 10-20 in PVE SCL7, and as I roster and champ the Meta 4's will get a bit faster with PVE and improve efficiency in PVP.

I broke a mini hoard on the Str5nge, Kitty and BRB vault recently with Kitty shargeted and opening about 100 tokens. This has left me with a 2/1/5 BRB, a 4/5/1 Kitty and a 2/1/1 Str5nge which im looking forward to fleshing out over the coming months.

Mostly using BRB/Polaris for PVP and Polaris/Grocket/Juggs for PVE right now. These seem to be most efficient, fastest, and reduce use of health packs for me. 

Im keeping my BRB and Kitty at level 300 for now to not affect my MMR in PVP too much. As a result, Kitty/BRB doesnt seem to be any faster than Polaris/Grocket/Juggs for me at SCL 7, maybe if I increase SCL8-9 or level her then Kitty might be a better choice down the track.

Thanks all for the input in this post, really helped steer me in the right direction.

 

mpiter

Liljoeyjojo said:

I broke a mini hoard on the Str5nge, Kitty and BRB vault recently with Kitty shargeted and opening about 100 tokens. This has left me with a 2/1/5 BRB, a 4/5/1 Kitty and a 2/1/1 Str5nge which im looking forward to fleshing out over the coming months.

So you could see the advantage of hoarding CP for a good vault.  That should have given you a big step.

Im keeping my BRB and Kitty at level 300 for now to not affect my MMR in PVP too much. As a result, Kitty/BRB doesnt seem to be any faster than Polaris/Grocket/Juggs for me at SCL 7, maybe if I increase SCL8-9 or level her then Kitty might be a better choice down the track. 

Do not worry about PVE SCL8-9 right now.  Keep your MMR low.  Polaris/Grocket/Jugg will still be really fast, even at SCL9.  You just need a good "advantage" (I am not sure about the English word for the thing you can add to your 3-5* characters to make them a little bit more powerful) for Jugg to make him to tank at least 5 colors.  Then PVE SCL9 is just a walk, even Cosmic Chaos and Shield.

Go as fast as you can to PVE SCL9.  The CP progression rewards are much better than SCL7 for not so much more efforts.

mpiter

By the way, you will not find much use of Karnak and Sabretooth because other 4* meta are much faster than them.  Try to champ C&D instead.  This pair is a very useful black and yellow feeder to solve puzzles and in other niche situations although Domino is also a good black provider.  Outside the meta, they are the character I use the most often for those special situations.

I do not think that Karnak and Sabretooth deserve the meta qualification.  They do not have any use in PVE and they are very easy targets in PVP.  I love the Karnak+Chavez pair that some people still use in PVP.  You can always kill Karnak in less than 4 turns, then most of the time Chavez before she can use her passive.  I never use them.

Liljoeyjojo

mpiter said:

By the way, you will not find much use of Karnak and Sabretooth because other 4* meta are much faster than them.  Try to champ C&D instead.  This pair is a very useful black and yellow feeder to solve puzzles and in other niche situations although Domino is also a good black provider.  Outside the meta, they are the character I use the most often for those special situations.

I do not think that Karnak and Sabretooth deserve the meta qualification.  They do not have any use in PVE and they are very easy targets in PVP.  I love the Karnak+Chavez pair that some people still use in PVP.  You can always kill Karnak in less than 4 turns, then most of the time Chavez before she can use her passive.  I never use them.

I've been playing a lot more competitively in PVP, and thats where Karnak and Sabretooth shine. Not for PVE, and not for climbing in PVP necessarily, and may not be scariest on defence in PVP, but they are the key to part of the rock/paper/scissors dynamic of the meta that you see in 4* PVP, and they allow some of the fastest clears of a node when hitting certain opponents.

Karnak as I understand is a great pairing with Chavez for certain matchups, especially Polaris/Sabretooth or Polaris/Medusa where bringing any strike/special tile users is dangerous. Karnak can take out a Polaris or Medusa in 4 turns and reduces the risk of special tile effects which is important.

Sabretooth is just the fastest and best way to clear Polaris/Grocket nodes, or any nodes with Grocket. I have a 3/1/0 Sabretooth and even that knocks out Polaris/Grocket really really quickly. Can't wait to champ him.

I have heard Cloak and Dagger is great and will work on them eventually, but I think ive got PVE mostly sorted with Polaris/Grocket/Juggs, and PVP is where Karnak and Sabretooth can be really effective in certain match ups.