Soft capping

It doesn't exist as an 'exploit' but whether you do it is purely down to you and how much you like certain aspects of the game. I was in the exact same position in november and chose to champ Gambit Parker and DD. I don't really enjoy PVP (I'm happy with 575 and out but now go to 900) and most of my game is PVE.

I instantly regretted it and still do. Of course there are so many characters in the 4* game it's bound to be more diverse but if I look at my roster now for pve, non essential from the 4*s I use:

Chavez at level 120
Vulture if Parker is boosted
Xpool for Sim
Groot and Gamora for two of the DDQ

That is it from almost all 4* with 13 covers. I don't even care or look at new 4* releases or their powers unless someone in my alliance says they are top tier. The trouble is the speed is much faster in pve with the 5* and it's impossible to turn your back on that once you have started down that path. I wish I could roll back the clock, I could sell the 5* but couldn't face doing that. I did it once before but hoarded for way too long this time.

I do understand the argument that 4*s get relevant again at high levels and can be seen in pvp with high level gamoras and medusas running around but people like me aren't going to see a 370 medusa this side of 2020.

All you can do is take your new 5* to 360 and see how you feel about that speed because once you go 450 your 4*s won't get a lot of use for a long long time.

The 4* tier really ends once your 4* reach the 330-340 unboosted level.

Generally speaking to get the best MMR scenario that allows the widest range of chars.  you want your 5* to be no more than 70-90 levels ahead of your Top 5 4* avg.


So.

Keep your 5* within 70-90 levels ahead of your Top 5 4*.
2.  Once your Top 5 4* are over 330-340 range.  They effectively are considered 5* for MMR purposes.


Eventually 4* roster growth will eventually push into the 5* tier no matter what.  Unless your prepared to sell covers past 340.

There will never be an official MMR statement from the devs. It’s the secret sauce of making PVP work.  That said, the game is pretty long in the tooth and we have a good idea about how it works.

If you have enough champed 4’s so that you normally have 2 or more per week that are boosted, taking your 5’s to 360 is fine.  Note that MMR changes with boost lists too, so even if you have a week where the only 360+ characters are 5’s, the next week you’ll be solidly in 4* mmr.

Generally don’t level your 5’s until they are close to finishable (11+ covers) or you don’t know what else to do (almost all 4’s are champed).

Mmr is a PvP only function. You choose your pve opponent level when you enter the event.  All enemy levels are pre-determined.  Exception: side nodes in boss Events, which are roster scaled as it goes on.

That's one of the biggest weak spots in this game. Having to softcap your potentially best characters to have something of a fair competition in PVP.
On the other hand you got PVE where it would be best to level your best characters to the max.
Softcapping is a failure in game mechanics imo.

Tintaiwan said:

Does soft capping still exist?

I ask because I am rapidly approaching the end of 4 star land.  I have about half champed and a lot the others are close.  My fear is this.  If I start into 5 star land, my 4 stars become like my 3 stars are to me now.  Most of my 3 stars are useless in 4 star land.  I don't want that to happen to the 4 stars that I have been grooming for a long long time.   

Any thoughts. 

It kind of does. There are people who won't level their covered 5* for reasons akin to your own. They want to keep their MMR under control in PVP, or they're afraid that if their 5* get too powerful, they'll feel trapped into using them all the time in PVE in order to be competitive for placement.

It doesn't exist as it did in days gone by, when soft capping kept scaling manageable and allowed underleveled rosters to place better than leveled rosters that were rewarded with tougher fights.

I don't know what to tell you, really, about PVP, other than to say that even with four or five champion 5*, my PVP teams are typically one 3*, one 4*, and one 5* (exact composition varies based on factors) and I reach the targets I always could before I championed my covered 5*s.

The targets I can't hit now, I never could before, because I'm not willing to make the "necessary" changes to my play to enable those. So, I mean, whatever.

PVE? What are you looking for there? Do you play it to fiddle around with boosted combinations one week to the next, and just generally enjoy the synergies you find? Do you play for progression to get CP to feed to RNGesus? Do you have ambitions of being able to place better than you currently do?

Let's take those three in order:

1) Nothing needs to change. If it's an available game mode, rather than a priority, you needn't worry about your 4* becoming obsolete, because you control that.

2) See above. What 5* champions add to that is they enable you to finish progression play with less of a time investment. Nothing prevents you from playing with your 4* characters if that's what you want to do instead. You'll just be playing a while longer to reach your goal.

3) The truth is that there's a certain level of "uselessness" already baked into 4* land if your PVE play is ambitious at all. The name of the placement game is speed; the extent to which you're willing to acknowledge that by using faster teams over 'enjoyable' teams is the extent to which you'll realize placement ambitions. If that's so, then the difference between the 5* game and the 4* game to you, at least in PVE, is deck chairs on the Titanic. It's using your 5* champion(s) and America versus running Gamora and Baby Groot.

5* vs 4* is a little bit like PVE vs PVP in that there isn't an easy answer that lets you get everything you're after from both. To get one thing, you might have to make sacrifices with something else.

If you enjoy the game in where you are at now in 4* land, I would not recommend moving to 5*.  As noted above it will basically ruin your experience just like 4* did with 3*.  I have 5* Gambit champed and while he is awesome for PvE, I sometimes get burnout from using him too much and while I can switch to a 4* team, his speed makes it hard to go back.  This week though I haven't used him at all with boosted 4* Grocket.  

PvP will really be ruined for you when you go to 5* land because you will only be able to use that 5* all the time basically.  

If you want to break into 5* land, I would recommend waiting until you can at least get several fully covered 5* to begin to champ so you can at least play with a variety of 5*.  I am doing that now.  I champed Gambit but have DD and Thor max covered but decided not to champ them yet.  I am perfectly willing to just continue to level up my 4* as of now as my foray into 5* land (with Gambit) wasn't very worthwhile imo.