why it is impossible to max characters

I am a top player . . usually top 5% but lately more like top 10% because I needed a little break.

When I was transitioning between 2 and 3 I started selling off most of my 1 and 2 characters to fund the leveling up. The problem wasn't getting characters but having the ISO to level them up. Once I had a solid 3 roster I started re-acquiring the lower level characters. Most are not leveled yet.

Now I'm firmly in 3 land and am starting the trek into 4 land. It's tough and you have to make some decisions about your priorities. I no longer jump on each character. Yeah, I usually place high enough to get them but I don't stress about it. My general practice is to level the current featured player in the PVP. If the character is already maxed, then I put the ISO into my 4 characters.

Here's the thing, the more characters you get leveled, the easier it gets to level other characters because you get more covers than you need. Also, the more you play, the more character tokens you get. Those tokens add up. My CMags was totally acquired with standard tokens. It was a surprise one day to realize I had him fully covered and hadn't made any effort to obtain the covers.

I still remember my first 3 cover. Pink Spiderman. It took me months to get the second cover and by that time I had several more 3 characters and was starting to rank consistently higher in events.

Everything has a price. The question is if you are willing to pay it. For some, it is gold. For others it is intense effort. It is definitely a time commitment. That's what it takes to develop a deep roster of fully leveled characters. However, most won't want to do that. Most will be happy to go slow and steady in whatever way suits them. There will always be some that want the achievement without paying any significant price for it. That's just the nature of life.

lokiagentofhotness wrote:

scottee wrote:

Everyone thinking about the 3* transition through the traditional lenses is going to have a harder time with it.

Try inserting this into your strategy:
-Collect all random 3* covers you can until someone gets to about 7-8 covers.
-Do everything you can to get them cover maxed. (everything includes more than most are willing to do)

All that really matters is that you get two maxed out 3*'s, which allows you to compete in PVP. Then you can get anything you want. Play smarter, not harder. This is part of the strategy game.

Well I'd say you might want to avoid maxing chars like Beast / Doc Ock if those are the two covers you happen to get. No-one's going anywhere with those two.

...but i might be wrong.

Where there's a will, there's a way?

. . . No? Yeah, I guess not.

I've been preaching the OP for months, not that D3 ever listens. The sheer number of covers times number of characters makes your dilution go up, you end up with lots of weak (under-covered) 3*'s.

Went to look - I'm on day 284. I have -one- optimally covered good 3* (BP). I have a couple of optimally covered not so good 3*'s (IM/Spidey/Storm/Psy). I have a couple non optimally covered 3*'s (Hulk, Cap, Hood). I haven't moved anyone to 166 because why would I mess with my PVE when I'll get annihilated in PVP anyway, you need multiple characters that not only have the covers but have the 'right' covers.

Between putting characters out of rotation and increasing characters without increasing HP/ISO/Token drop rates, it becomes nearly impossible to get to 3* land. I'm not saying you should get there in three months. But I'm saying in a year I -just- found my first Daredevil red in the last PVP, and I've never found a Thor yellow. That's not even going to all those covers that are 1-of or 2-of, just the zeros of characters that have been out since I began.

Transition time is getting longer with every added character, and as they add characters they need to increase drop rates from tokens at the very least. I'm of the opinion they should put the 2-cover event rewards to twice as many people, as the characters are seen in events much less often due to the long rotation time.

You don't need to "catch up" in number of maxed characters. This is only for the collector's mentality, or people who get jealous that their friend has a newer phone than them. To be competitive, you only need a handful of viable maxed characters. Yes, that takes longer than before to get because of dilution. But even forgetting the 4*'s, if you can max even 2-3 of Patch, Thor, Daken, Magneto, or Hood (w/5 blue), then you can be competitive at the top end. So first work on maxing out someone who's at least mid-tier in the steps I mentioned above, then leverage your maxed mid-tier to work on the above characters.

Honestly, NONE of the characters released in the last 4 months are necessary to compete. Not a single one. Stop worrying about them.

Back when I made my transition, the first 3*s that I got covers close to maxing were Hulk and Punisher. They were specc'ed wrong, but once I got to 9-10 covers, I put all my effort into getting them maxed, saving HP, disregarding roster spots, so I could shield in their next tourneys. It also required searching for every single token I could get hoping I'd get one. Because even if a token is .6% chance to get the character you want, get enough of them and you'll eventually draw what you want.

Did my maxed mid-tier 3*s make me awesome? No. But they made me better than those that had no maxed 3*s. So I leveraged them to start winning covers for better 3*s.

Every decision in this game is strategic. Following guides that say to transition a certain way, or only spend HP on roster slots, are helpful to get you started, but randomly waiting for the covers you want WILL take forever. In the transition, it's FAR better to save 1000 HP to shield and win even two 3* covers that you really need, than it is to buy 2-3 more roster spots.

Patch was just double rewarded. He'd help any transitioner greatly. So grind to win one or two covers in the PVE. Save up HP to win one or two covers in the PVP. Show your previous PVE scores to an alliance around top 100 and fight together to get another cover or two.

It's still a marathon. It's always been a marathon. I started 11 months ago and it took me 4 months to get my first maxed 3*. I fought like crazy, and I consider 4 months much faster than average. I'd guess 6 months for a maxed 3* was closer to the norm back at that time, and that was before the dilution. If you've been fighting hard for 4-5 months now and still don't have a maxed, I think that's the normal course. If you've been playing all out for 7-8 months, I think it's more understandable to be frustrated.

Sidenote, I think players who joined in the last 6 months don't have any appreciation for how hard it used to be to even finish the 2* transition. Now those covers are given out like candy. I partially think the ease of the 2* transition has given people a false expectation of how fast the 3* transition should be.

EDIT: Just to be clear, the above timelines were from the perspective of F2P.