Thoughts after Restarting: Day 90

bbigler

I must admit that I was wrong about something, but first here's the state of my roster after 90 days:

Rank: 83, Slots 172

2* Tier: 2nd Generation maxed, 3rd will start soon

3* Tier: 37 Champs, 10 to go

4* Tier: 3 Champs (Polaris, Blob, Mantis), Ikaris ready to Champ, 100 rostered

5*Tier: Shang 4/4/4 Level 435!, Ultron 4/4/2 Level 345, Gamora 0/3/2, Sersi 0/1/1, Rostered 11

Supports: Chewie 222/250, Taskmaster Sword 150/150, Avengers Tower 108/150, Quantum Realm 40/150

*Playing SCL 9 in PVE

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So I was wrong about the 4* tier; I said that it was ridiculously bloated and the biggest problem in the game, but my ability to cover 4*s has not been a problem.  Through shards & milestones I've been able to champ Polaris & Mantis by choice.  I'm currently shard building Morbius, who's at 5/3/2.  Blob & Ikaris were fully covered without any extra effort.  Besides these, I have another 8 x 4*s with 8+ covers each.  I'm steadily rostering them all and covering them; I think the pace is good.  Because rewards tend to focus on certain 4*s at certain times, it's not hard to steadily champ them all, especially the new ones.

I could have champed all of my 3*s by now, but instead I spent some ISO building my 4*s and 5*s that I fight with everyday.  Shang is my main fighter and can hit well above his weight.  I'm even winning PVP battles against enemies up to 180K health!  Mantis is great for countering Polaris teams, but Morbius is even better at that.  I haven't used Blob that much, but I should try him out some more.  I want to champ a good partner for Shang, like Chavez, Valkyrie, Karnak or even Doc Ock.  3*Cyclops & 3*Switch are great partners for Shang, but I wouldn't use them in PVP. 

As for PVE, Shang w/ Chewie & Polaris w/ Taskmaster Sword, kill everything very quickly.  If I don't miss any clears, I can even finish top 10 in SCL 9.  I'm steadily getting new or improved supports, so no complaints there.  Lately, my 5* pull rate has been around 5%, which is frustrating, but my overall rate is around 16% after 172 pulls.  I got lucky with Shang pulls in the beginning.  But with a new 5* every 4 weeks, I don't have enough pulls to cover them before they leave Latest.  I've heard that SCL10 rewards are good enough to keep up with it though (I also need more 4* champs to get more pulls). 

So, I think everything in the game is going well and designed well.  My only complaint is the cost of roster slots.  I've spent a ton of money (primarily for HP) to get the slots that I have now.  I'm at the point where I don't need to keep buying for HP, but getting here has been an unreasonable amount to spend on a game. I'm afraid to add it up.  But all of my efforts have produced a 4/4/4 Shang Chi, who will soon enough be champed! 

Sekilicious

I think that is a good order for Shang-Chi partners. Although you probably have a better handle on it, the fastest SC team I can currently field is with him at 3/5/5, Chavez, Purple/Blue ap boosts, all ap boosts, and match damage boosts. Hunt purple matches, then red? With Karnak I can normally win before his passive procs, though when it does it will be devastating. The most consistent against high health without boosts is with Valkyrie though Doc Ock does more that SC likes in board shake, moving tiles, and free ap. YYMV. Between these characters I can handle most challenge nodes in SCL10. 

Bad

I knew it was pretty viable to start the game nowadays, milestones, daily shards and favoriting helps that.
When I started playing there wasn't anything of that and I had to grind for 8 months until having my first 5* champed (who was awful by the way, kingping).
Obviously to roster all characters and win crash of the titans will take more time but it's just natural. 

bbigler

Because I got some killer supports, I can win any crash of the titans, even with a 1 cover 4*. The last time I restarted (2018) it took me about 300 days to fully cover 3 x 5*s. Right now it looks like I can champ Shang around day 100! But it will be a long time until the next one. 

Srheer0

What made you choose mantis over R4G?

Not flaming or anything, just curious. As polaris with R4g is a very fast and offensive team. 

bbigler

Srheer0 said:

What made you choose mantis over R4G?

Not flaming or anything, just curious. As polaris with R4g is a very fast and offensive team. 

Good question. Shang was providing all the firepower I needed, but I had a problem fighting Polaris teams in PVP. So I wanted to build up a 4* counter to them. I originally wanted Morbius but thought that stun locking a team with Mantis would be better, so I shard built her. After using her I quickly realized her passive stun could target the same enemy twice even when other enemies were not stunned. So, the team stun lock didn’t work as well as I thought. I then started building Morbius as a better counter to Polaris teams. He’s almost done. 

As for R4G, I do want to build/champ them but I’m not sure that team will be any better than Shang. Speed in PVE is less important right now than having a way to fight certain teams in PVP.  Morbius can beat Kitty, Grocket, Polaris or any other combination of them.

LavaManLee

It's been enjoyable reading your journey.  As someone well into 5* land, I champed Morbius and never think about him.  So very interesting to hear of his usefulness in 4* land.  I imagine DocOck will be similar (someone with lots of use but imagine I won't use him unless required).  Thanks for the time you take to share!

Aweberman

I assume Shang-Chi was primarily built when he was in Latest LT, which probably goes to show that one's ability to perform well with this approach will be strongly dependent on who happens to be in tokens when they start.

However, I do agree that the rate of progression is quite nice when restarting.  I assisted my daughter through her first 30 days or so, and things progressed nicely.  As you say, the biggest hurdle was HP for roster slots.

But she was done collecting and leveling 1* less than a week in, which makes it all the more ridiculous that standard tokens are a thing.