The FAQ Project

Question: Why does the critical tile sometimes hover in place making a match if available and sometimes drops down?

Now, I know that this is a bug with OBW but some other characters also cause the same behaviour. I'm guessing it has something to do with some abilities firing off during matches somehow (Mystique's Shapeshift while active seems to also cause it. Does Vision's Blue?). Has anyone got a comprehensive list of the characters causing this? Maybe specific mechanics explanation?

Is there a way to tell which countdown tile is attached to which goon?

Yes. When you cycle through the enemy targets, the tile will briefly flash when you get to the character that cast the ability.

PeeOne wrote:

morph3us wrote:

PeeOne wrote:

Another question - about shielding in versus... What is the cool down period about?

Why are there cool down periods on purchasing shields in Pvp?

The cool down period was implemented to try and limit excessively high scoring in PvP. Prior to the implementation of shield cooldowns, there was no limit to the number of shields you could purchase within a given timeframe (which lead to terms such as the 2 cent shuffle, where a person would repeatedly cycle through 3 hour shields to try and climb as fast as possible). The other reason provided by the devs with regards to the shield cooldown periods was that the original intention of shields was to provide players with a break from gameplay in PvP, whilst protecting their scores, and the cooldown period is in keeping with this.

Since this is an FAQ thread, I'm going to refrain from adding my own personal commentary about the effectiveness of shield cooldowns in achieving those goals.

Edit: Found the original post from the devs stating the reason behind the cooldowns:

Some of the thinking behind this change:
• "Shield hopping" is still possible but very limited. High-scoring is fun, but Shield hopping generally requires a large amount of out-of-game communication that not all players have access to. We asked ourselves this question: "Would you Shield hop if you didn't need to in order to reach a high score? If not, that's a sign that a change is probably needed."

• This change helps level the playing field. Players that don't have the Hero Points to spend on Shields, either through being in a top 100 Alliance or purchasing currency, will not need to worry about someone simply outspending them by using hundreds of Hero Points to Shield hop for a win.

Thanks for this but what specifically does it do - does it mean I can't buy another shield in that cool down time??

You can't buy another shield of that type during the 8 hour cooldown. It's perfectly fine to buy an 8 hour shield that lasts until the end of the event, then breaking shield, climb a bit, and then buy a 3 hour or 24 hour shield before the cooldown period for the 8 hour shield ends. This does not reset the cooldown for the 8 hour shield though - I have had to buy a 24 hour shield at the end of the event because I was one hop away from 1300 points and already had cooldowns running on both 8 hour and 3 hour shields.

PeeOne wrote:

A question...

Once someone is made a commander in an alliance how can they be removed if at all??

After an alliance is created, commanders within that alliance can kick out members, allow players who have applied to the alliance to join (if a private alliance), or promote other players within the alliance to equal status as a commander. However, players should be very careful about who is promoted: once a player becomes a commander, they cannot be removed from the alliance, even by another commander (though they can voluntarily resign from the alliance). If a commander wishes to remove another commander from the alliance (for instance, because they have ceased play), he or she needs to contact customer support.

Puce Moose wrote:

Great work on the FAQ! Thanks for taking the time to put it together.
One issue I noticed - questions 38 and 44 seem to be redundant and offer contradictory answers - I think question 44 has the correct answer.

I wrote both of them, and can confirm that 44 is correct. After we put up 38, one of the Devs came in and corrected us.

dude awesome wrote:

I've been seeing the term "merc out" a lot, especially in the line chat rooms. What exactly does it mean? An example was the alliance would merc out your spot for an event if you can't commit. Are you still part of the alliance otrbumped for that event and back in after?

Many players choose to act as mercenaries (or "merc out") for particular events, going to a different alliance, often just for the end of that event, then returning to their original alliance. Alternately, alliances may kick players who are unable to compete in a particular event in order to bring in mercenaries (or, more commonly, ask them to leave for a period). A player typically mercs out in order to receive a better alliance reward than he or she would in the home alliance, just as an alliance typically looks for mercs in order to place higher than they otherwise would with the normal roster of players. This sort of movement is most common in events with very valuable top-100 alliance rewards, such as PVPs offering a new character.
Most commonly, mercing out is facilitated through out of game communication, making use of message rooms which match players looking for alliances promising specific placements (i.e. top 10, top 50, top 100), and alliances looking for specific scores that will enable them to get to a particular placement. These rooms often have their own rules, and failure to deliver on a promised placement may result in an alliance being sanctioned, or banned from recruiting in them.
When mercing out, there are several complications that may arise. First, if a player is kicked from an alliance (or refused entry to a private alliance), rather than resigning, there is a significant wait time before they can rejoin that alliance, making voluntary resignations preferable when opening up a spot for mercs. Second, alliance rewards are given based on placement at the end of the event, rather than the end of the time shard in which some, or even all, players may be participating. This can be especially problematic when two events (most commonly, a PVE and a PVP) are ending at almost the same time. Players can check the overall end time of an event by looking at the page for that event in the cover purchase menu.
This system also results in enormous fluctuations within the top 100 alliance placements in heavily contested events, as top scoring players shuffle into top scoring alliances, and other alliances change their rosters in order to stay in the top 100. This has led to controversy in the past, as alliances who lose out on alliance rewards due to lower scoring alliances use of mercs may see the system as unfair.
After mercing out, players must apply back to their home alliance (if it is private) like any other player.

JVReal wrote:

I joined a different time slice than usual, and bought a 3 hr shield on accident, should have bought an 8 hour. I'm not given the choice to buy an 8 hour shield while shielded to replace my 3 hour shield.

My MMR is currently hosed because of my recently rostered Surfer, so I'm not confident I can beat any of the Jean/Buster teams that are the only available fights. Are my options really just to fight and possibly lose (losing points and defeating the purpose of shielding) or try to stay awake until 2 am waiting for it to expire to buy a new one (which also defeats the purpose of shielding)?

If those are my only two choices, thats ****.

You could keep skipping until you find an easy team. If you're already satisfied with your score at that point then it wouldn't matter if the team was worth low points. Alternatively, you could try to find a 75 point team and just retreat to it immediately. You'll only lose 1 point from your score.

I am only trying out some PvP in a big way this season and I have a couple questions....

A) FAQ 2 mentions reaching the 700 point mark you become visible... Is that in a the overall season of PvP or in each individual event???

how do you know you are in a vet bracket?? One of the FAQ's mentions that you will be smashed... And in the current lightening round the floor was wiped with me!! Trying to work out if I have been shoved up to vet.

Actually a third question... Some PvP event brackets start with the chosen Character and 2 weak 1* back up - usually 3 and then the big guns appear... Sometimes it is straight to the big guns, current lightening had 9 nodes weak... Never seen that before any ideas??

Thanks

You should add "How do I determine whose countdown tile is whose on the board?"

By tapping different opponents you will switch who you attack, and their corresponding countdown tile will flash alerting you to who owns which countdown tile.

Ebolamonkey84 wrote:

The max level button is broken. My level max is 270, but the button says level 2xx.
Why does the amount of ISO to max a character keep going up? I thought I only needed x amount of ISO, but the number on the max button keeps increasing.

These are two common questions with the same answer. The purple button on the level up screen will either show the amount of ISO needed to max a character, or it will show the maximum level you could bring a character to with your current ISO plus a purchase of a Mother Lode. If you do not have enough ISO and you push the button, the game will try to sell you the additional ISO.

Here's the official wording from D3 tech support when asked about this issue.

As you earn and spend Iso-8 to level up your characters, you may notice the value change on the Max Level button. The value of this Max Level button changes based on several factors of your account and the characters you have access to. While your character may have the maximum amount of Comic Covers applied to them, the Max Level button functions different, and does not show the true max level the character can achieve.

Instead, the max level button takes into account your current total amount of Iso-8 along with the 78,000 Iso-8 Mother Load purchase, and will provide the level achievable with this combination. This explains the fluctuation of the cost of Iso-8 as well as the levels displayed by the Max Level button.

Please keep in mind that this Max Level button does not show the max level a character can achieve, only the Max Level that you can purchase at this time.

Best Regards,
D3 Go! Customer Support Team (RBK)