Mainly 4* advice

hothie
hothie Posts: 210 Tile Toppler
http://mpq.gamependium.com/rosters/Hothie/

Here is my roster. I've got all but 1 3* champed, and he's at 11 covers, so I'm close there. Currently focusing Iso on my 2* farm, as I have 3 characters with 13 covers that I need to get champed again. I'm in about a 1.7M debt right now.

For 4*s, I've got Hulkbuster, Juggs, and Polaris champed. Next closest are Valkyrie (5/4/3), Beast (3/3/5), and Monica (5/2/3). But for PvP, I see a ton of Karnak, Medusa, R4G. I have very limited covers in all of them. I guess my question is, should I focus shards on the 4*s that are close to champ level, or leave them alone and focus on the more useful ones that will take longer to get good?

Should I care about my 5*s yet? Most are at 255 despite having a couple of covers. My 5* shards are currently going to Cyclops to get his yellow ability (367 shards currently), then I think I'll switch to Okoye to get her started down the meta path.

Also, if you see any loadouts that are different than standardized norms (like my 3* Storm at 5/3/5. Is there a more widely accepted loadout for her? I dunno, and I likely haven't paid too much attention to it.) So if you see any glaring loadouts that I might need to pay attention to, feel free to advise those as well.

Comments

  • Sekilicious
    Sekilicious Posts: 1,766 Chairperson of the Boards
    This is my opinion, others may vary. 
    Most 4* won’t be used outside when they’re essential. Don’t worry about champing them until that day comes, or you have at minimum ten covers (for the 5* shards). You can leave them unchamped until you have 100 saved covers and probably would not notice. You need a broad range of 4* characters champed to make the transition to 5* easier, but this will take time. 

    The meta for 4* is Polaris, Grocket, Juggernaut for PvE. They work great in Pick 3 PvP too. All teams in pick 2 PvP work around Polaris/Grocket. They are countered by Polaris/Sabertooth and Polaris/Medusa. These are countered by Karnak/Chavez since they don’t need special tiles. I have BRB at 1/2/2 lvl 280 and find he works a bit better as the second against Sabertooth.  If you have Polaris, Grocket, Medusa, Sabertooth, Karnak, Chavez champed your PvP experience will be productive as matches will be quick and you will only have to skip boosted 5* characters. The caveat is you are going against Polaris often and she can beat anyone with a unlucky cascade. Especially if she is with Grocket. 
    I think Okoye is a good 5* to focus on. Kitty and BRB are good as well due to their synergy with Polaris. I’m personally working on BRB for winfinite shenanigans. 
  • hothie
    hothie Posts: 210 Tile Toppler
    Thank you for your opinion.

    I have been running my Polaris (even before i champed her) with Juggs in Pick 2, and it tends to eat up Polaris /Grocket pretty easily. I struggle against some of the other Polaris combos, but can usually win, albeit with health packs afterwards. I find in Pick 3 that Polaris/Juggs/ and either 3* Hawkeye or 3* Cap Marvel work well, depending on if I'm facing a shields team (Polaris/BRB) or not, due to Cap Marvel's red ability. It's a lot of fun to stun their Polaris, then use CM's red and change the entire board from enemy shields to my shields. There are very few matches against Polaris/BRB that I have lost with Polaris/CM.

    So, I guess my point being, that I know many people run Grocket in PvP, but I'm not sold on them as a partner for Polaris, especially since I'm almost always facing off against an enemy Polaris that can use the swords just the same as I do. Plus, my Grocket only has 1 cover (yellow), so it may be a while before I'm able to run them effectively. But if you think I should focus on them, I'll def take that into account, as I know they are immensely popular with Polaris. My Medusa has 4 covers, so I may focus more on her and using her abilities effectively.
  • KGB
    KGB Posts: 2,904 Chairperson of the Boards
    Get your Grocket to 5 Yellow ASAP. The extra strikes matter and you'll especially notice it in PvE when you can run Polaris/Juggs/Grocket. In PvP Grocket helps because you can target and kill enemy Polaris very fast (often on turn 2) before she can do much damage using your own strikes.
    Once you have Grocket finishing you can move on to other meta 4* like Chavez.
    In 5* land, shard Okoye over Sighclops right now.
    KGB
  • Sekilicious
    Sekilicious Posts: 1,766 Chairperson of the Boards
    I agree about prioritizing Grocket. I recommend champed. He tanks blue for my Polaris which helps in PvE, especially in Pick 2. The meta rightly revolves around Grocket and Polaris. You will understand when they are champed, but I can do so much more with them than every other character I have used. They save so much time. 
  • hothie
    hothie Posts: 210 Tile Toppler
    I've done as you both have said, as far as shards go. But I just rode Polaris/Juggs to #1 in my Negasonic group, 25 wins on a combined 10 health packs, walking over numerous Polaris/Grocket and Polaris/Medusa teams. And I started the event late, so I didn't get the 1*s at the beginning. They were all 3* and 4* champs, as well as some boosted 5*s. But I'll look at using Poalris/Grocket in PvE though.
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 9,580 Chairperson of the Boards
    You probably will have to wait a while before they become more frequent in play filtering downwards (Morbius starting to show up a bit more) but when the new 4 releases this week there will be two 4* characters who look to be very effective at countering Polaris/Grocket teams. The Devs have taken aim at the special tile meta so it might be worth having a back-up plan in mind (Karnak/Chavez I guess maybe?). I don't expect Polaris to get shut down completely but I do expect that 4* players will start to see these new anti-Polaris teams on defence more often in PvP (the fact that they will work with Polaris also is going to be a factor). Polaris + new character for example have 3 different stun options and although one is random if it lands on your Polaris it might spell trouble and all the AI has to do is match a special.
    Until then though enjoy your Polaris!
  • Sekilicious
    Sekilicious Posts: 1,766 Chairperson of the Boards
    As long as Karnak/Chavez have a place in the meta, Polaris/Grocket will be there to smite them. 
  • hothie
    hothie Posts: 210 Tile Toppler
    Ended up 1st in my Negasonic group with Polaris/Juggs. Only variation was when facing Polaris/BRB, in which case I used Polaris/3* Cap Marvel. Spent a lot more hero points on shields than I wanted to, but I've never been 1st in any event before, so that was kinda cool. Beat a lot of 5* teams, too.

    Been using Polaris/Grocket/Juggs in pve, and it does win quickly, even with my Grocket at 2 (yellow) covers. I can see why Polaris/Grocket is popular, but I almost never have troubles with it with Polaris/Juggs in pvp, The only time I've lost to it is when Polaris gets her big cascade on the 1st turn. Otherwise it's an easy win. Still not sold on using Polaris/Grocket in pvp, but I can see its use.
  • hothie
    hothie Posts: 210 Tile Toppler
    edited June 2022
    I'm failing to find how to add a new discussion, so I'll just piggy back my question onto this thread in hopes that someone sees it.

    The set-up:

    One of my current goals is to roster every 5*. The only 2 5*s that I'm currently missing are Havok (428 shards and shargetted) and Jean Grey (Jubilee at lvl 274, 141 shards and shargetted). Although Kamala comes out soon.

    There is a Kamala Khan store starting June 9th, which I am saving up my CP to hopefully pull her in that store.
    Now, I only need 24 more pulls from LL, CL, or the store in order to have enough shards to roster Havok. I'm currently sitting at 87CP, so only 3 pulls from the Kamala store right now.

    Now, there are 2 current offers, each for $40, and I'm debating on which one to purchase, if either.

    The Instant Classic has 4000HP, 2CP, and 10CL tokens. I'm likely to get 1 or maybe 2 5*s from those CL tokens, but that's 10 of the 24 pulls I need in order to get Havok. Jubilee would get quite a few shards from that little excursion as well.

    The other offer is the Choose Your Own Adventure, with 6000HP, 5CP, 1200 4* shards, 900 3* shards, and 15 Mighty Tokens. So, the 3* that I have shargetted is Sentry, at level 258. The reason I have him hearted is to get him up to 261 for the 15CP. This offer would do that instantly. Also, from the Savory Vault, my Quicksilver is at 259. He's one of the required 3*s this week, plus I am hopeful to pull another cover for him from the vault, to get him up to 261 as well. This would allow me to focus on Elektra at 258, trying to get her to 261 as well for even more CP for the Kamala Store. The 4* shards in this vault would help get Jubilee closer to 280 to get my Jean Grey cover. The tradeoff being that I'm not getting any 5*s from this offer like I might for the Instant Classic offer.

    I'm leaning towards the CYOA offer because it gets me much closer to getting both (soon to be all 3) of the 5s that I need.

    Or, I could do neither of them, and just keep on slogging away at saving CP for the Kamala store, and trying to get to 24 pulls between LL and Kamala Store.

    Thoughts?

  • KGB
    KGB Posts: 2,904 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited June 2022
    Are you viewing the Forum from a phone?  In my desktop browser there is a 'New Post' button on the right hand side of the screen you can use to create a new topic.

    Do you really need the Havoc and Phoenix covers that *badly*? You obviously won't use either at 1 cover so it's really only how badly you want to have every 5* covered.

    Personally, I'd save the money and cover them organically (esp Havoc/Phoenix). If you don't get a Kamala cover (either from shards or from your few CPs (87) then you can consider buying one of the offers (the CYOA is the better one in my opinion). I'll also assume you don't have any other tokens to open to get more shards for BagSilver/Elekra but hopefully you can get at least one of them up enough this week to get another Kamala draw.

    KGB
  • hothie
    hothie Posts: 210 Tile Toppler
    I ended up getting the CYOA pack. The 4* shards went to Jubilee, to get her up to 278 (now nearly 279). The 15 Mighty tokens gave me a ton of stuff from champ rewards, and I used the HP to get the Ghost Rider pack, which came with another load of tokens and champ rewards. So it was a big boost to my overall roster.

    My current goal is to have all of the characters rostered, and Havok, Jean, and now KK are the only ones that i don't have. I now only need 15 pulls to have enough shards to roster Havok. Jubilee is nearly at 279, so very close, and the KK store is this Thursday. I'm up to 363 CP, which I know is peanuts for most hoarders, but it's the most that I've ever saved up without spending them. I'll have enough CP for 15 pulls tomorrow, so what that means to me is that if I can pull KK in her store, that I'll get her and Havok Thursday, and Jean soon after, so I'm looking to have that goal completed this week. It may not be a big deal to most, but it's a goal that I have been working towards since I started, so I'll be happy to have that one completed very soon.