How much do you play each day?

Tanglefoot

As a level 57, with a roster of 70, in the heart of 3* land - 24 3* championed but none maxed, it takes me nearly 2.5 hours daily to clear the PVE event (1 hour to finish yesterday’s, and 90 minutes to start the next one) and another 20-25 minutes to clear the 5 doable DDQ missions daily. If I do 2 PvP missions I am at a solid 3 hours, but could easily blow past 5 hours if I use my health packs conservatively and rotate my roster a little in PvP.

I never hit these milestones since I don’t invest that much time, but for heavy players, how much time do you spend to advance?

Sekilicious

It depends on the SCL and the difficulty of the event. After I got Polaris champed I can do PvE consistently in about 1/2 an hour. I play SCL9 (using Polaris, Grocket, and Jugg 4/4/4, lvl250) on easy events but drop to SCL7 on harder ones (like the current Wakanda). Before Polaris (I champed her about a month ago) I ran Grocket, Gamora, and Medusa/Kitty or Okoye (1/2/1, lvl270), Medusa, Strange and could do SCL7 in about the same, but never tried the harder nodes. In retrospect SCL8 on easier events might have been doable. 

When I was firmly in 3* land I ran Strange/IM40 for most events and could do SCL5 or 6 in about the same amount of time. I seem to recall before Strange was champed it was a lot harder and being annoyed at the same SCL taking about 45 minutes to an hour. I like to imagine that an under covered Polaris, with champed Strange, and Daken/Blade could do SCL5-7 pretty quickly.

ThaRoadWarrior

I play more than is healthy I'm sure - i kind of treat it like a fidget spinner and have it open when I'm watching TV or waiting for a meeting to start or whatever. I play PVE to progression in SCL10 as a priority, and then PVP I try to climb to 1200 without shields across an event if I have the time but I'll stop at the 10cp, or maybe 900,  and not feel bad if I run out of time or life is busy. My iPhone says the app is open on average 4.5hrs per day, which sounds like a lot, but there are a lot of times when I kind of have it open and I'm not engaging with it directly, so I'm sure a bunch of that is dead space.

HoundofShadow

In the very beginning, PvEs took about 1 hour to clear all six nodes. That was before knowing the 4+3 optimal clear method.

After that, it reduced from 45 min to 25 mins. This was playing as a 3* player, watching my Dr Strange and Thanos hitting 266, and playing for top 10 placement in SCL 6.

After champing R4G, PvEs was never more than 25 to 28 mins, using optimal clear, in SCL 7.

After Juggy came out, I jumped to SCL 8 and my play time was still 25 min for grind and 25 min for clear.

If you have Polaris, R4G and Juggernaut champed, I can guarantee 20 mins optimal clear in SCL 6 and 25 mins in SCL 7. If you are spending 1 hour on intial clear, you must be playing pretty high level SCL.

As for PvP, 40 to 45 mins for optimal play, or however long I love playing  that PvP.

If you are spending 1 hour on pve as a 3* player, you are playing too high a level. You must be playing 7 or 8.

Zalasta

I have 19 sub level 462 five stars playing SCL10 PVE.  It takes me 45-60 minutes each day to do three clears, which is enough for full progression.  I don't usually have too much problem with SCL 10, except on green missions with meta opponents, especially after they scale up. 

 I'll hit the last 1/2 hr or so of a PvP if I think about it, just to try for easy placement rewards.

Tanglefoot

The PVE event showed enemies in the 11-130 level range. The awards page says "level 4" - assume that means SCL4? My best 3* heroes are levels 178-186, plus Polaris under levelled at 192 - she would be 194 if I had enough ISO to level her.

At that level, it would be impossible to completely clear all the PVE nodes (9 in the current Wakanda Design Group) in less than 2 hours. not "hard", but "impossible".

Depending on the enemies in the nodes, I can go through as many as 7 or 8 health packs just to complete the appropriate "half" (first 4 or last 3).

Part of the problem is that I am amazed at how many battles I go through where the ONLY power I fire is Dr. Strange's yellow and maybe blue - since I never gather enough AP to fire other powers. If I am using Dr. Strange, IM40 and Kamala Khan, and in the game I gather a TOTAL of 5 yellow, 8 red, 7 green, 6 pink, 8 blue, and 26 black, that sounds like a RNG problem skewed against my team colors.

Bad

I play always scl10.
Half hour in the morning to do 1 node clear, half hour at the end of sub to clear all( I know this is not the optimal but in my job I cannot rank doing another way).
1 h to do 3 pve clears on new sub, 10 m to DD, 1 h to pvp or 2 if it is about to end.
4 h and half at most.
All that can change and be more on pve if I want to play or explore other teams and not picking the fastest ones.

CharlieCroker

Too much, despite cutting back from the days I played more competitively.

Normally play CL10 PVE so around 1h each day between clears and grind (more often than not full clears but non-optimally) and DDQ.

PVP - between 30-60m each event.  Normally stop at either 1000 or 1200 but will very occasionally push higher (1/2 hops) for placement.  Most of the time not fussed.

The days when Lightning Rounds run you can add on 5m x 6 at a guess.  So I’d say it averages out at somewhere around 1.5h per day, plus time spent in alliance chat on Line.

I started by saying too much, but when I compare MPQ to other hobbies I’ve spent time on in the past (console games, chess, poker) maybe not so much after all

KGB

Tanglefoot said:

The PVE event showed enemies in the 11-130 level range. The awards page says "level 4" - assume that means SCL4? My best 3* heroes are levels 178-186, plus Polaris under levelled at 192 - she would be 194 if I had enough ISO to level her.

At that level, it would be impossible to completely clear all the PVE nodes (9 in the current Wakanda Design Group) in less than 2 hours. not "hard", but "impossible".

Depending on the enemies in the nodes, I can go through as many as 7 or 8 health packs just to complete the appropriate "half" (first 4 or last 3).

Part of the problem is that I am amazed at how many battles I go through where the ONLY power I fire is Dr. Strange's yellow and maybe blue - since I never gather enough AP to fire other powers. If I am using Dr. Strange, IM40 and Kamala Khan, and in the game I gather a TOTAL of 5 yellow, 8 red, 7 green, 6 pink, 8 blue, and 26 black, that sounds like a RNG problem skewed against my team colors.

With enemies in the 11-130 range you should not be taking 2.5 hrs to do PvE (4 clears then 3 later). Or at least not 2.5 hrs in all PvE's. Some PvE like those with the mindless ones definitely take longer but others like Meet Rocket & Groot should be much shorter.

Who are you currently using as your 3 characters in the non-essential nodes and what's your Polaris set at? She's really only worth using if you have someone who can create specials for her (ie Fist/Cage/Daken and maybe Storm in 3* land). Once you have a fairly decent Polaris (lots of covers in her key passive) your top priority is to favorite 4* Grocket (you really can just run him at 0/0/5 with the 5 being Yellow) to spawn strikes for her. That will cut your PvE time down dramatically.

KGB

P.S. I typically play 1 1/2 hrs a day (1 hr to do 7 PvE clears on CL8 (4 early, 3 late) + DDQ, 30 minutes on PvP) though on many days I only do 1-2 PvP battles just to get the reward for doing 1 PvP per day so on those days only 1 hr of playing.

Sekilicious

I definitely remember hating the Dark Avengers with a passion. PvE against tile movers take longer because Strange cannot spam his passive. Mindless ones were mildly annoying as well, but only because I could never predict which one was going to drop their countdowns. But yeah, if you run IM40 and rng does not gift you two yellow matches then the process is much, much more painful.

Polaris at 194 means you have nine covers. What is her distribution? With pink and green at 3 or 4 she should annihilate SCL 4 with Daken. 

Tanglefoot

for the lvl 11 nodes I put at the #1 slot my level 169 Thanos 3* 4/4/5 with 2 "fillers" - kill 1 enemy and Thanos drops the rest with Court Death. These levels have become relatively fast and rarely require more than 3 tile matches. The only catch is that I might go through 7 or 8 of my lower level characters as CD downs them.

For mindless ones and thugs I usually place at the #1 slot my level 183 IM40 #8 5/3/5 with level 185 Dr. Strange 3* 5/3/5 as #3, and level 174 Kamala Khan 3* 3/5/5 as #2.

For actual "hero/villain" nodes I use the Dr. Strange team, OR slot 1 my level 173 Iron First 3* 4/5/4, with lvl 192 Polaris 4* 2/4/4 at #2 and level 172 Storm 3* 3/5/5 at #3. Storm's black fills the page with attack tiles and Polaris's green passive adds like 3000 damage per turn. With Iron Fist's pink, hitting 9 black for Storm to fire is rarely difficult, though if I can't get enough black, I can often fire a green or two and a Polaris blue to get some Ooomf on the board.

I also sometimes use my lvl 168 Deadpool 3* 5/5/3 with lvl 186 Scarlet Witch 3* 5/3/5 with a random #2 to bury enemies in whales. This usually takes only until Scarlet Witch's pink fires, then I can fire a Deadpool red or 2 to get any "tough" enemies below 4100 health for the whales. but these matches can drag on if the enemy keeps matching away SWitch's countdown tile.

Common #2s and my best OTHER 3* are:
lvl 178 Rocket and Groot 3* 3/5/5
lvl 177 Cyclops 3* 5/5/3
lvl 176 Luke Cage 3* 3/5/5

I rarely extend beyond these for any PVE nodes.

ThaRoadWarrior

I highly encourage you to set 3* rocket & groot and 4* rocket & groot as your favorites. 4ocket/Thanos/<guardian of the galaxy> will allow you to single-swipe kill those easy nodes up through SCL10. Once you have 4* Rocket champed, move over to Juggernaut and it gets even easier because you don't have the health drain from Court Death that way.

DyingLegend

I'm down to like 10 minutes a day, 30 mins tops.

Sekilicious

Tanglefoot said:

for the lvl 11 nodes I put at the #1 slot my level 169 Thanos 3* 4/4/5 with 2 "fillers" - kill 1 enemy and Thanos drops the rest with Court Death. These levels have become relatively fast and rarely require more than 3 tile matches. The only catch is that I might go through 7 or 8 of my lower level characters as CD downs them.

For mindless ones and thugs I usually place at the #1 slot my level 183 IM40 #8 5/3/5 with level 185 Dr. Strange 3* 5/3/5 as #3, and level 174 Kamala Khan 3* 3/5/5 as #2.

For actual "hero/villain" nodes I use the Dr. Strange team, OR slot 1 my level 173 Iron First 3* 4/5/4, with lvl 192 Polaris 4* 2/4/4 at #2 and level 172 Storm 3* 3/5/5 at #3. Storm's black fills the page with attack tiles and Polaris's green passive adds like 3000 damage per turn. With Iron Fist's pink, hitting 9 black for Storm to fire is rarely difficult, though if I can't get enough black, I can often fire a green or two and a Polaris blue to get some Ooomf on the board.

I also sometimes use my lvl 168 Deadpool 3* 5/5/3 with lvl 186 Scarlet Witch 3* 5/3/5 with a random #2 to bury enemies in whales. This usually takes only until Scarlet Witch's pink fires, then I can fire a Deadpool red or 2 to get any "tough" enemies below 4100 health for the whales. but these matches can drag on if the enemy keeps matching away SWitch's countdown tile.

Common #2s and my best OTHER 3* are:
lvl 178 Rocket and Groot 3* 3/5/5
lvl 177 Cyclops 3* 5/5/3
lvl 176 Luke Cage 3* 3/5/5

I rarely extend beyond these for any PVE nodes.

Does Polaris drop her strike before IF drops his attack if she is in the center? Probably not I guess.

I'm at a loss. I used to place top 5 in SCL5 with a similar lineup (if I had the required 4*) and it would rarely take more than half an hour per clear, 45 minutes if I was unlucky. Though that was a couple of years ago so maybe I'm not remembering correctly.

HoundofShadow

It depends on the position of these two. Just make sure Iron Fist is at the third position (right side) and Polaris will put strike tile followed by IF's attack tile.

Pair Polaris with 3* Daken for the time being in pick 2 and see if it's better. Then get your 4* Rocket to 0/5/0. After that, go for 4* Juggernaut.

It's going to be an unpopular opinion but it's time to open up all your Elite, Heroic and Mighty Tokens to clock your "collect x powers for 4*" and "champ x 3*" milestones to collect those 4* favourite shards, if you have all 3* rostered. Don't feel wrong for rostering and selling those single cover 4*. What's more important is reducing the amount of time spent on SCL 4 pve. So, your focus is getting those 3 4* mentioned to champ level as soon as possible.

My reason for the above is that by hoarding and opening tokens only when you have roster slot, you are delaying your progress to rostering meta 4* that will slash your playtime drastically. If you can get those meta 4* up running fast you will be able to play SCL 6 and 7 at half the time you spent currently in SCL 4, and yet, gain much better rewards, which mean faster progress. On top of that, SCL 8 PvP gives you enough shards for a single cover. So, you can always delete single non-meta 4* cover if necessary, but at the same time, you have 400 shards of 4* banked in.

Likewise, your PvP will be a piece of cake up till 800-900 points once you get Polaris and R4G champed.

Tanglefoot

Hound - based on some discussion from you, KGB and a couple others in other posts I decided to clear all of my Elite, Heroic and Mighty tokens last month when I picked up a heroic10-pack for season progression - the goal being keeping only the BEST 4*, but bulking up my 3* roster. I cleared again last week when I picked up this month's heroic 10-pack. Dropped all the 4* that weren't rockstars - though I got a handful of gems - just can't bring myself to pass on a 4* rocket and groot, Medusa or Captain Marvel even if they were only 1 covers. Though I have picked up second covers for both Medusa and Captain Marvel since then.

yes, I dumped a lot of 4* covers, but since most of them were things like Talos, Nebula and Mysterio I am pretty sure I don't care. And have blown through like 900,000+ iso levelling pretty much my entire 3* roster. I bet I have champed at least 18 of my 24 3* champions in the past month

still sitting on 908 command points and 24 latest legend tokens though.

My timing is, however, pretty well-established. I have PVE missions end/begin at 10pm my time. If I do not START the last 3 cycles by 9:00 I will probably not finish by 10. And, if I START the new nodes at 10pm, I cannot always finish clearing the first 4 passes by 1130. 

My Polaris is currently sitting on 199 shards - I might wait until she hits 400 more shards before going 2/4/5 then changing favorites. I do see the value of R4G's passive yellow, especially since I also have 4* Gamora rostered (1/0/0, but still rostered...) I can see how that damage boost can add up quickly

KGB

Keep sitting on the command points and LT's. You have no reason to open any of them yet.

The sooner you get 4* Grocket Yellow covers the better your Polaris will be. Even starting off with just 3 strikes gives her some auto-damage immediately from her passive and then when you match/destroy any of his strikes (your goal should be to match/destroy strike tiles before anything else) she will do damage and create 3 more strikes. It won't take long for you to rip through PvE in that way.

Juggs is you next big target after Grocket. Mostly because he does AOE damage and against tile movers he can absorb a ton of damage thanks to his match damage reduction.

Still surprised your taking so long to finish PvE nodes. Not sure whether you take a long time between moves (deciding what to match) or whether your damage output is just low. Your goon node team (Strange/IM40/KK) isn't really that fast. KK doesn't do much to help since her Green Nuke needs IM40 to get Yellow. I'd think you'd be much faster with Strange/Fist/Polaris and ordering them as Tanglefoot mentioned so you get a Strike and Attack tile so you have more chances to match for Polaris. Your tile mover team (Fist/Polaris/Storm) looks good for what you have and again you should order them to get an attack and strike tile out.

KGB

Tanglefoot

Tried a Strange/fist/Polaris battle, and a daken/fist/Polaris battle. 

Dr. Strange’s passive does more damage than everyone else combined. Just not enough special tiles for Polaris, even if I am matching green every other turn. Each battle everyone lost about half their health, so 2 battles would cost me 5 heal packs to recover... so these are really useless combinations.

KGB you mentioned placing characters in certain spots - I gather you meant so they fire special passives. But I don’t know how to determine who goes where... I usually just put my lowest health character in the 3 spot (the right) and my highest health in the #1 spot (the middle)

Sekilicious

Passives fire by order. The character in the middle fires first, then one on left, finally one on right. It is important with Polaris since her pink states At start of turn, if a special does not exist, create a strike tile. So IF going ahead of her will negate her putting a strike out. The same is true with Medusa. As an aside, if Polaris goes ahead of Sabertooth she will place new tiles before he destroys them when strikes are matched.  Position doesn’t matter between Polaris and Grocket as he puts tiles out at the start of the match. 

HoundofShadow

Can you take a video of 3-4 matches of how you play? Using 5 Healthpacks in two battle is excessive for a 3* player in SCL 4.

If you are dealing with goons, Thanos and Dr Strange is the one to use. You can equip Dr Strange with Yaro Root, which you will get it from one of the milestone rewards. This increases the amount of HP he temporarily recovers by a fixed number.

revskip

Tanglefoot said:

KGB you mentioned placing characters in certain spots - I gather you meant so they fire special passives. But I don’t know how to determine who goes where... I usually just put my lowest health character in the 3 spot (the right) and my highest health in the #1 spot (the middle)

Sekilicious already covered the passive aspect but I'll touch on one other thing.  If two characters are tied for how much damage they do the character in the middle will "tank" (stay in front to absorb damage).  This matters more when you have a character with low HP.  Keeping them on the right will give all tiebreakers to the other characters.  In 3* land this can matter a bit since in your non-dominant colors you'll sometimes have ties.  Just something to consider.