Have I missed my chance with 5*s

killahKlown

Hoard for the Latest release stores. There's a decent one coming up next month with colossus and kitty. Those two are very good choices for being your first champs.

Jimsta_rooney

@Sp1d3r said:
I have only recently started hoarding and getting maximum rewards for 5*s but I have alot of older 1s that just seem lost.. my onslaught,kingpin,magneto,moonknight and a few others all stuck around 5-8 covers then older 1s like spiderman(PP), storm thor ultron and many more all stuck around 1-4 covers as I only used to pull CLs back in the day. Gambit, ghost rider and Mr sinister not even rostered. Absolutely no sign of ever getting covers for any of these characters ever again.. are these just lost in limbo land forever? I know I'll hardly ever use most of these even if they were champed but they'd come in handy for boosted weeks and pvp

No not really
With all the recent additions to feeders much easier to champ old 5 stars.
You get a cover and 2500 shards from max champing a 4 star.

Sp1d3r

Wow I never knew that my BRB should nearly be champed by the time I max throg

Vhailorx

I think there is basically 1 fundamental choice that everyone has to make about 5* progression: "Do you want to split your LT and CP resources?"

Everyone who plays the game will get a mix of LTs and CP. the former are only usable for one thing. so you will be stockpiling pulls against the latest-3 pool. that is unavoidable. But you will also get CP, which can be used for a variety of things.

If you want to maximize your chance of champing each new 5* release, then you basically pull once a month (it doesn't really need to be a single hoard pulled every month, but the idea is basically same). you pull each month until the character that is about to leave the LT pool is up to your desired level (be that 450 or higher). Then you wait until the LT pool rotates and do it again. Obviously you pull your stored tokens first, but whenever you have bad luck you will dip into your CP reserves. This has recently been dubbed "the LT train" on these boards, but it's been the standard practice for a lot of baby 5* champ players who just want to keep pace with the release schedule for quite some time. I think of this path as focusing one's resources into the LT pool, looking to ensure they champ-em-all even at the cost of a few champ levels in the long run. It's also worth noting that most players using this method will in practice have excess CP that they can save up and use for specialty stores or to dabble in the classic store from time to time.

The slower, more efficient road to building a complete roster is to use LTs just to roster each new 5* as they release (to ensure that you can get all rewards) and then reserve all your CP for classics. The good news is classics are a 20% more efficient than LTs. You will get more 5* covers and a LOT more 4* covers (and correspondingly more champ rewards). the bad news is that there are ~70 5s in the class pool now, so even with favorite shards you won't be building any particular 5 very fast. This is absolutely the best strategy to adopt if you only care about maximizing your resources and don't care at all about playing with exciting new characters for many months/years after their release. I think of this path as maximizing the efficiency of CP expenditure as they are never spent on anything beyond the classic store. There will still be excess LTs using this method, and you will have to decide what to do with them. You can pull as you go in which case most new 5*s will not be champed when they leave the LT pool, but will be somewhat faster to champ from your classic pulls. Alternately, you can hoard excess LTs until a good threesome comes along and then champ all 3.

[Finally, I almost hesitate to mention this option as it is impractical for most players, but if you want the tip-of-the-pyramid experience then the play is to hoard EVERYTHING, CPs, LTs, whatever you get from spending money, etc for years. Then when you finally have a massive hoard you can pull from a single LT pool until those latest 3 are at 550. This takes an absolutely astronomical number of pulls (something like 2,200 on average) but is the best way to get good characters way up high. It's also not for the faint of heart.]

entrailbucket

The slower, more efficient classics route MAY not result in missing out on latest champions anymore. Roadwarrior's experiment is working, despite his objections that he needs more data to say for sure. He started from a higher roster level than OP, but not a massively higher level. I think it has something to do with how BCS has increased rewards across the board -- this may not have been possible years ago.

Vhailorx

@entrailbucket said:
The slower, more efficient classics route MAY not result in missing out on latest champions anymore. Roadwarrior's experiment is working, despite his objections that he needs more data to say for sure. He started from a higher roster level than OP, but not a massively higher level. I think it has something to do with how BCS has increased rewards across the board -- this may not have been possible years ago.

BCS's switch to fixed 5* cover rewards has certainly had affect on roster building. Starting every new release off at 2 covers plus 1500-2000 shards is a big improvement over the demi days, and doesn't take retro feeder rewards into consideration.

As for Roadwarrior's example, it is helpful data. I would suggest that anyone trying to figure out their 5* roster strategy take a look at that thread.

entrailbucket

I agree that it's an excellent resource for 5* transitioners in general. The current version of his experiment basically happened because I was screaming incoherently at everyone about how classics were more efficient and the strategy worked for me -- he somehow managed to figure out what I was talking about, decided to try it, and has provided a far less incoherent, empirical evaluation of what's happening there.

Bowgentle

I think he ignored you and you're retrofitting your "it's all about the 4s!!!!1111" argument to his experiment 🤣

entrailbucket

@Bowgentle said:
I think he ignored you and you're retrofitting your "it's all about the 4s!!!!1111" argument to his experiment 🤣

No, he really didn't!!! The entire reason he started in classics was because of my incoherent ranting. If you go far back enough he actually says it! I deserve about 1% of the credit but I am absolutely grabbing onto that 1% and never letting go.

Bowgentle

Just like the chance of pulling a specific colour of a specific 5 from classics... ~1%
(actually 0.0001% but we don't show that, too depressing).

entrailbucket

https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/81450/grand-experiment-2-treading-water-in-the-scl-10-post-shardpocalypse/p16

Bowgentle

Did you receive your dead fish?

entrailbucket

Not yet. Also his characterization of those insane rants as "interacting with" me is both incredibly charitable and totally undeserved.

ThaRoadWarrior

I also feel like calling that thread a coherent resource is charitable, but I’m glad it’s at least entertaining to people at some level.

As for whether or not it is working, I currently have a lvl 450 hit monkey, a 1/1/2 wong (the first character with a new release feeder since I started this), a 2/2/2 Kang, and a 1/1/2 Magik. Everyone else 5* is champed. I’m up to 21 max champ fours now. But I can confirm it is all about the fours, though I think it’s actually all about the fours above 320 on your roster that makes the tipping point for sustainability.

AdeptusRevolt

I've been keeping up with the latest (https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/88062/all-aboard-getting-on-the-ll-train-a-4-to-5-star-strategy/p1) for several months now and my CP keeps growing. I plan to hit release stores and special 5 star stores to round out my classics, slowly but surely making progress.

Them all having feeders makes it easier too.

Zarqa

@AdeptusRevolt said:
I've been keeping up with the latest (https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/88062/all-aboard-getting-on-the-ll-train-a-4-to-5-star-strategy/p1) for several months now and my CP keeps growing. I plan to hit release stores and special 5 star stores to round out my classics, slowly but surely making progress.

Them all having feeders makes it easier too.

@AdeptusRevolt i asked for some advice regarding release stores in that thread. Seems you have thought about this. Mind responding over there with any insight you have?

toecutter3095

The thing with the mantra of all 5s having feeders now, means you need to be pulling covers for 4s in order to get the rewards that feed your 5s. Otherwise it is a nice anecdote that is not actually contributing to your roster growth. Until they release some other token that has ~85% chance of being a 4, classics remains the best place to feed the 4s that you want to feed your 5s. The icing on that cake is you will also pull the odd random cover for an actual 5 which shortcuts the feed-by-reward with a direct injection of a cover into your 5s.
I am not a 5-star player, but I have all 4s rostered, half champed and the other half fully covered and just starved for ISO. I still pull classics weekly because otherwise those 4-star rewards that feed my 5s will take forever to be realised since the rotation for being a 4E is upward of 2 years and growing every month as they release more 4s. Sure, some weeks are more saved covers than champ rewards but eventually that will change as I chip away at the backlog of unchamped 4s. Other times I will get 2 5-star coverss from 100 CP, so it is all swings and roundabouts. All 5s are rostered, just Rescue remains my elusive white whale and I lucked-out when they updated the feed-chain and didn't give retro rewards. I have enough shards to roster her but I am stubbornly waiting to pull a cover just for my own amusement at how long it will take.
My 5-star latest train doesn't get them to champ-able level, but it gets them close enough for me at this stage of the game.