Why did I started to encourage going off meta?

Mr_F

I often get criticized for mine “go off meta” encouragement which often leads to lots of misunderstandments or – more often – me shortcutting my thoughts which is even worse as it leads to taking my posts as offensive and/or offending. Which is not a true intention of mine.

So I decided to sit down and write a longer post – to which I can link in further discussions – what I mean by “go off meta” and what I call “lower expectation strategy” which made it a success.

For a long time I “always” loved Marvel Comics. One day I had to give up them: I just couldn’t catch and I had to choose some hobbies out of many. But still some love for Marvel was within me. I tired few games but it was MPQ with which I stayed for longer, just to feed my love (and sentiments)

After playing for long time, when I reached a certain moment, I saw that MPQ, if done “the correct way”, is self-eating snake. A never ending circle when if you want go get better rewards you literally have to go meta and “the correct way” (i.e. all those little things that gives as better results like 4+3 clears as fast as possible, PVP hopping, 2* farm etc., getting 4* R&G, farming Deadpool Whales etc.). I call it “Chasing White Rabbit”.

Nothing wrong with that per se but this stick has the other end: the further you dive/immerse into the game, the bigger it becomes a problem. You keep using same characters, to get better rewards/placement to have more characters who you will never/rarely use. And more new characters became “meh” even though Elsa or Misty are awesome to use and watch (I love Elsa’s tea cup and Misty’s punch animations).

Of course its just generalization but I hope you all get the point. You know the drill perfectly.

 

Anyway, back then I felt no enjoyment while playing MPQ. I felt the pressure “I have to do it the correct way. Chase the Rabbit”.

Now, let me give you example what I did back then free myself from this… let’s call it “not-nice-thingy”. If you will play SCL 9 and finish top 200 then you will get 125 shards followed in next event with 275 (16 wins/600 pts) which is almost one cover. There was many other things like that. I did some thinking, some checking and some calculations and decided: JUST if I go and do some less optimal things (6 clears right away instead of 4+3 pattern) and carefully plan my short & long time objectives (like who to sharget , which PVP to focus) I will start getting more rewards total with less time spend! Sounds crazy? Well… It worked for me. Basically: micromanagement.

 

In 3 months since I started doing those little things:

-I went from 7M into 3M+dept – that fast my progress skyrocketed

-got 30 more 4* champions

-doubled rostered 5*

-managed to do PVP simulator with little to none health packs used: I had 10 PVP teams which  I rotated.

-spend twice less time on PVE clears early on but later expanded the time spend (because I started to watching films and tv dramas during pve clears and needed extra minutes to finish “daily dose”)

-I doubled coverage on new 4* releases.

-enjoyed using 50 different characters per week

-started enjoying the game even more than before

-and so on.

 

All because I went off the road and lowered my expectation of how high I wanna be and how much I wanna to play. I call this trategy “lower expectation strategy”. The name comes from statement that If you do not expect to be high or all the new releases to be “usefull” then whenever you get higher or new releases is “awesome” you feel better. I managed to get some “random” top 50 PVP or top 100 PVE and it always was nice surprise. When I was chasing Wasp I discovered that I essential 4* ready to be champed for an event which granted Wasp shards. Awesome, go for it. You know, enjoy little elements.

 

It was also back then when I changed alliance. My new Mates were and are awesome but the longer I was in more “competitive” alliance made to gain again that pressure. When I briefly left the game last year and then, after miletones, came back and joined “casual alliance” I felt that this is it. Yes, sure, Alliance Event are much less rewarding but I fell more joy from playing. And zero pressure. I totally skipped one season and for 2 weeks played nothing more that DDQ because I could allow myself to do it when needed. Because I do not expect to be able to play always.

 

Going off meta was part of that. Instead of, let’s say, sharget Rocket I shargeted whoever I wanted for whatever reasons. I found a way to squeeze longer fight here and there allowing myself to enjoy characters like Wolsfbane, X-23, Hulkbuster or Spider-Woman which arent that fast. And lately, 5* Wasp who is stronger that many people thinks.

 

But there is something more to say here, to be fully honest: what is truly “going off meta” be like? Many of players do not want or do not need to use lowered expectation strategy as they are perfectly fine with Chasing The Rabbit and the “correct way”, as I call it. Fine. Its their choice, and playing YOUR own way is best option to enjoy MPQ. But still Chasing the Rabbit means facing and using same teams every time and, probably. It’s still same, self-sustaining machinery, which, btw, as some of You said is needed to keep the game alive from devs perspective (selling a product to make a money). So just once in a while, take a break. Use some fun team. Take a longer fight. Enjoy nerfed Bishop. Blast with Mockinbirds bombs. Do a long evening with 3 hour PVE clears with just 4*/3* teams used. Take one or two events with lesser SCL. Try to beat meta team with non meta combinations. Or whatever. And then go back to usual thingy. All just for fun.

And just MAYBE, jusy MAYBE you will find that not every new release has to meta. You will create crazy, niche combo against enemies YOU just keep facing too often. Or whatever.

You know, we have so many characters who needs some love. Go give them some once in a while!

So why did I encourage so much going off meta from time to time? Because, we, players, need that. And because devs need that too - just to tell them indirectly "hey, good work on that Misty Knight! She is fun to play!".

wymtime

I appreciate your off meta strategy and post.  I still do CL10 PVE because I found it takes around the same amount of time as CL9 because of the number of clears.  I have tried different teams and actually enjoy using the boosted 5* even if they take a couple of health packs.

PVP on the other hand for me is just about getting to 1200 to collect the CP.  I have gotten the 75 wins before and I just don’t want to play that much. At higher point totals there is just too much IHulk Okoye for me to explore new teams.  

To me one reason I am going to pull for Yellow jacket is because he seems fun even though he probably won’t be meta.  

Mr_F

I just thought about giving you another example of my "go off meta" thinking in more detailed example:

If exclude the ones you got covered via lucky/naturall pulls, what is the best 4* to get champed as 1st one?

My answer is: most likely Elektra, Wolverine, X-23, Invisible Woman, Nick Fury, Thor

Explanation:

Back then, pre-shards era, all of those have 3* feeder and when chased to lv 223 gave us 2 covers. X-23, Elektra and Wolvie were unique as thay had two feeders (respectivetly: Ragnarok and Daken; Daredevil and Elektra; Colosssus and Wolverine). If we add the daily login rewards from 1st two years of play, the most covered 4* in that process are:

Wolvie & Elektra: 7 covers

Nick Fury & Thor & Invisible Woman: 5 covers

X-23: 4 Covers

My 1st ten 4* champions were (in that order, if I corectly remember): Captain Marvel, Nico Minoru, Elektra, Devil Dino, X-23, Wolverine, Gwenpool, Hulkbuster, Nova, Invisible Woman.

The bolded ones are the ones which followed the above logic: which means that I chased their 3* feeder up to level 223 - some just because I had luck with naturall pulls.

Some may ask why to chase mediocre/weak/whatever 4* instead of more usefull like Rocket?

The answer is simple: Everytime you pull from classics or LL you have 6/7 chances to get 4*. The more 4* champions you have, the more rewards you get (champion level is reward) meaning that you can use those rewards to get more iso for others, more hp for slots and more CP/tokens to get more covers etc. You get the idea.

At some point I found out something I called "4* breakpoint" which is a number of 4* champions you have to have so all covers you get from whatever source will give you in 50%+ cases a champion reward which, back then, for me meant that my ISO debt would slowly decreae rather than increase with every pull.

So instead of chasing lets say Rocket (still waiting to be championed) or Juggernaut or Gamora I chased the one who were easier to get champed at that, specific time for me.

You can apply this kind of logic to many aspect of the game. Today I looked at my rosted and saw that my 3*, even Doc Strange, has become irrevelant in my gameplay. I do not use them in PVP Simulator anymore, in "normal" PVP I chase 16 wins/600 pts and in PVE heavy lifting is done by my 4&5* so... I sold maxed ones to whom I have dupe, even just one cover. Got the ISO to champ three 4*, total of 70 4* champions (3 limited), grabbed 250 Wasp Shards and things go on.

Aweberman

I appreciate your explanatory post.  It is nice that this game has enough breadth and depth to allow for people to follow whichever path they'd like.  (Mostly.)

I played in a top 10 alliance for awhile and really enjoyed the competition.  My schedule changed, though, and now I generally can't play optimally for any PvE bracket.  I was glad when cl10 came along as it provided more rewards for not-a-lot-more play time (on initial clears, which is all I bother with), but after awhile, I started to feel like I wanted more variety, which cl10 absolutely does not allow for, even on a roster with all the 5* champed (except two classics and the latests) but with none of them over 470.

PvP should theoretically allow for more variety, but if one is competitive, one is basically forced to use meta characters.  Solution for me: Don't worry about being competitive, at least early on.  So I stopped joining PvP events 10-12 hours from the end and climbing hard and timing my hops and scraping over 1200.  Now, I do the following instead:

- join PvP events right at the start
- use low-level characters on the seed teams
- collect reds
- retaliate with slightly higher-level characters
- rinse and repeat for the first half of the event

With this method, you can really open up your roster to use on teams that retaliate against your "low level" characters -- however you like! I have gotten a dozen wins with boosted 3* characters, up to 40 wins with various 4* characters (depending on the required character and the boosted list), and if I want, I can always use non-meta 5* characters, since there is more variety at the low end.

Then I can still switch gears in the second half of the event and move up from the 500-700 range into striking distance of 1200 with not a lot of effort, thanks to having started early in the event (and, of course, thanks to those other players who are competing for placement -- I do try very hard not to double-tap anybody or to hit somebody immediately upon queueing them).

This approach has had a similar effect for me that the OP's approach has had for him: allowing for a greater use of the breadth of my roster and providing more fun, making me want to play even more.  I've grown to like PvP so much that PvE is now the mode that is starting to feel like a chore; I now will usually drop down to cl9 when I already have the 5* champed so clears are faster and I can have more time for PvP.

Just thought I'd share.

Edit: I meant to link to Daredevil217's fantastic write-up of the 5* tier that makes playing with non-meta characters more viable (and fun): https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/81334/

Akoni

I fully understand where you are coming from. I will add that each and every player has a certain style of play based on their resources and goals. Some people just want a game that they can play while sitting on the toilet at work. Some want to assert their dominance by spending lots of time and money to skyrocket to the top. 

I am an oxymoron: a minimalist who collects. To clear up that last sentence: I want to optimize my experience in the game while spending as little time and money as possible. As a result, I have employed the following strategies:

1. I farm by collecting and growing from the bottom up. This means I will champ a 2* before I champ a 4*.
2. I spend money only when there is a sale and it benefits me to do so, while also having extra cash to spare. I am not opposed to spending money for something I enjoy, but I don't have the resources of Bill Gates or Jeff Besos.
3. I play beneath my means. This means playing SCL7, even though I can tough it out in SCL8 or 9. I know, I know. The prizes are better in SCL9, but the time commitment is also higher. I would prefer to speed through nodes and collect adequate prizes to save on time. The better prizes aren't worth my time since I know that I will champ that character further down the road anyway.

I will finish by saying that I benefit from players of all sorts. I have learned how to farm from players who spend nothing. I have also learned which characters are more worthwhile to go after for shards and stores from whales. All of these players have helped me hone my strategy. 

So to all you big spenders, non-spenders, casual players, heavy hitters, farmers, etc... THANKS! Your contributions will lead to my eventual domination of... I mean... continued enjoyment of MPQ.