Question on PvE: what is your strategy for max progression in minimal time

2

Comments

  • Dogface
    Dogface Posts: 967 Critical Contributor
    I like to combine Str5nge, Medusa and Okoye. Best if Okoye has the highest value in yellow, so it's her in front. 
    Basically it's gathering TU tiles and the occasional yellow. It boosts both Medusa's offense and Strange's passive defense. 
    Let Okoye tank, get 7 yellow and it's quite possible you get through a hard node without taking any damage.
    Not the fastest maybe, but very satisfying
  • ZootSax
    ZootSax Posts: 1,819 Chairperson of the Boards
    As a general comment, always look for the trivial wave nodes, as clearing those at a near-to optimal will give a lot of points compared to their minimal effort.
  • Tiggida
    Tiggida Posts: 64 Match Maker
    If you have the 5* essential 4X clears of all the nodes and 2X on wave nodes will get you max progression in almost all the pves. That’s all I’ve been doing  for months now and there were only 1 or 2 events where I needed to hit a couple extra nodes on the last day to get there. Not sure if they were different events or the same event that ran a few times.  99% of the time 4X clears will get the job done. 
  • helix72
    helix72 Posts: 991 Critical Contributor
    @Tiggida thank you--I was hoping that was the case. Since I have every 5*, usually the first 4 clears are straightforward with the boosted essential + America + Hood (or Peggy if the tile spammers are too fast). The only other thing I keep an eye out for is some nodes give a CP or two, so after 4 clears if I haven't gotten that prize I may hit it until I do. But for the time being I'll switch to your approach: each node (including the 5e) 4x, plus just to be safe and since it only takes a couple of minutes and you get some prizes for it, I'll hit the 3 easy nodes a full 6 times to add a little buffer. I'll keep track of which events require me to hit some nodes extra on the last day for "catch up".
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,125 Chairperson of the Boards
    I can confirm playing SCL8 or 9 is only 4x if you have the 5* (wave nodes 2x). 
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,238 Chairperson of the Boards
    The node rewards display seemingly randomly, but for the normal (non-alliance) PVEs, node rewards always follow the same pattern.  It basically builds from clears 1-4, then 5 and 6 are less exciting.  Any CP will be yours on the 4th clear in any normal PVE, except the 5E gives it on the second clear.  Note that you may randomly get a CP from the bonus rewards, if you spend, on any clear that gives a reward (1-6).

    Boss nodes give CP, but those rewards are given randomly.

    TLDR; if your plan is hit everything 4x, you don’t need to spend any time wondering if you got the CP.
  • spidyjedi84
    spidyjedi84 Posts: 514 Critical Contributor
    The only thing you miss in SCL9 is the Red ISO, which drops on fifth clears in many of the events. If you don't use it and aren't shooting for placement, you don't need the clears unless you're down one character.
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,238 Chairperson of the Boards
    I forgot about Riso and Supports.  If you have good Supports, they can really cut down your pve times. It’s definitely worth considering some 5th clears for riso if your Supports will help you.   But that depends on your team and the Supports you use. 
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,125 Chairperson of the Boards
    As to strategy for getting it: 

    I have a decent lvl 345 5* Lord I run with 4ocket/Thano5 (5/0/2 lvl 345) on most of the main-track nodes if they're goon heavy. I just deal with the health packs as somebody dies from Court Death - 4ocket doesn't need to survive a match, just be there up front to make his big strikes. 5* Lord has enough health that he can generally last awhile.

    If there are tile movers, I'll usually run some kind of Okoye based team, either Medusa/Thanos (3* so court death benefits from Wakanda Forever!) or I might mix in Strang3 or Chavez depending on how I feel.

  • cschwinge
    cschwinge Posts: 49 Just Dropped In
    If your minimum time includes opening the app as few times as possible, I'd suggest this simple strategy:

    On all but the last day, run 4x clears of everything, just once

    On the last day, run 4x clears as early as you can. Then, as late as you can do enough clears for max progression, starting with the easiest nodes.

    This also works well if you want to focus on PvP over PvE
  • Dougfresh413
    Dougfresh413 Posts: 125 Tile Toppler
    There is a lot of great info in this thread, but I only saw one post with the simplest answer -- Each sub-chapter simply clear each of the 3 easy nodes, 3 hard nodes, 2* Essential, 3* Essential, and 4* Essential nodes a total of 5 times and you will have max progression.  Anything beyond that just gets you there quicker. The timing of your clears does not matter.  I cannot play for placement because the timing of the slices doesn't work for me, so I have always played for progression.  I've been doing this since they introduced SCL's and never had any problems hitting max progression.
  • Dogface
    Dogface Posts: 967 Critical Contributor
    There is a lot of great info in this thread, but I only saw one post with the simplest answer -- Each sub-chapter simply clear each of the 3 easy nodes, 3 hard nodes, 2* Essential, 3* Essential, and 4* Essential nodes a total of 5 times and you will have max progression.  Anything beyond that just gets you there quicker. The timing of your clears does not matter.  I cannot play for placement because the timing of the slices doesn't work for me, so I have always played for progression.  I've been doing this since they introduced SCL's and never had any problems hitting max progression.
    While you might not play for placement, if you have the time i'd recommend you always do full clears. There's just too much (R)ISO left to let that go to waste. Especially ISO is a scarce commodity nowadays.
  • Dougfresh413
    Dougfresh413 Posts: 125 Tile Toppler
    Dogface said:
    There is a lot of great info in this thread, but I only saw one post with the simplest answer -- Each sub-chapter simply clear each of the 3 easy nodes, 3 hard nodes, 2* Essential, 3* Essential, and 4* Essential nodes a total of 5 times and you will have max progression.  Anything beyond that just gets you there quicker. The timing of your clears does not matter.  I cannot play for placement because the timing of the slices doesn't work for me, so I have always played for progression.  I've been doing this since they introduced SCL's and never had any problems hitting max progression.
    While you might not play for placement, if you have the time i'd recommend you always do full clears. There's just too much (R)ISO left to let that go to waste. Especially ISO is a scarce commodity nowadays.
    Yes, if you have time it makes sense to clear all nodes 6 times.  In reality, the ISO gained on the 6th clear is minimal.  Typically no more than 140 iso for the 6th clear which nets you a grand total of 1,260 iso for beating 9 levels.  The ratio of Time/Effort vs Reward isn't very good for the 6th clear. 
  • TPF Alexis
    TPF Alexis Posts: 3,826 Chairperson of the Boards
    Yeah, even when I'm just playing for Progression, I still green-check everything. Gotta get all the node ISO rewards.
  • Hilk
    Hilk Posts: 131 Tile Toppler
    1) know what the progression value is.

    2) there are 4 basic categories of nodes - easy, harder, required (e) and 5e.   Track once or twice how long it takes you to them... it is likely something like
    2-3 min for 4 easy nodes. - use thanos
    6-7 min for 4 hard
    8-9 min for req
    15 for 5e.

    3) calculate which has the highest points per minute and do those until you hit progression. Since you are trying to save time, don’t calculate it, just estimate it.   Normally this will be the easy, then hard, then req.... but sometimes req has better ppm.  I would do the easy nodes until they are zero as they are fast. Hard and req, do 5 or 6 depending how it is going,  Don’t waste time changing teams if possible,
    5e normally are harder and take a long time and should not be needed for progression.
  • Speed283
    Speed283 Posts: 122 Tile Toppler
    I am new to mpq. I am at level 3 for PVE. I am trying to figure out about things I have read in forums.
    I see talk about grinding some nodes worth 1 point and about LT as a reward. I’m guessing I’m not at a high enough level to worry about these things yet? Thanks 
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    Grinding nodes for 1 point was probably one of the infamous "strategy" to get top placement. However, this has been laid to rest in 2018. So, forget about this.

    LT as a reward happens in Top 5 placement in SCL 9 and 10. It's still too early for you to worry about this. This is something to look forward to ~1.5 years later.

    In the meantime, roster and champ all non-limited 2*, followed by 3* and so on. Remember to farm your 2* to keep your income moving. Depending how hard you play and spend, you can move to 4* land in 6-8 months time. If you can hoard those LT and CP, you could look forward to 5* land in a year of competitive playing.  

    Also, use your HP for roster slots only. 
  • Speed283
    Speed283 Posts: 122 Tile Toppler
    Ty hound: also, in PVP I play in level 7. I sure don’t think I can compete in lvl 10...how do I avoid getting there?
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2021
    It will take you a long time to get there. Your Shield Ranking needs to be at least 120. By then, you will be eager to get there.

    Also, SCL has no effect on your MMR. Your MMR is based on the top 3 or 5 highest levelled chaarcters, generally speaking.


  • Michael1957
    Michael1957 Posts: 630 Critical Contributor
    edited January 2021
    As I don’t care for placement either, just play because I love the game , I just do 6 clears on all nodes . In most events I can skip the first day entirely because points are so low so I get a few whole days off per week . 
      For example, the current HAT event has a 48 hour first node you don’t even have to play to reach max progression, that’s a huge hiatus from the game .