Marvel Puzzle Quest

[ntndeacon]

Through luck, I pulled a Howard cover through a Webbed Wonder recruit token. ( I figure that those you have to use immediately) This gives me the following covers and potential covers in my queue:

Currently in queue:
Howard , purple
Loki, purple
Cyclops, black
Mystique, purple
Plus my next champion reward for cap 2* is Cap 3*
and within the next week 3* GSBW is is in the resupply

My current roster is
4*
Professor X 1/0/0 lvl 70/70
3*
Black Panther 4/1/2 lvl.91/91
Ironman 0/4/1 lvl 69/78.
Storm 3/0/1 lvl 66/66
Wolverine 1/1/2 lvl 55/55
Beast 0/2/1 lvl 53/53
Blade 0/2/1 Lvl 53/53
Hulk 2/1/0 lvl 53/53
Vision 1/2/0 53/53
Ragnarok 2/0/0 50/50
Rocket and Groot 1/0/1 lvl 43/43
Punisher 1/1/0 43/43
Cap Marvel 1/0/0 40
Daken 1/0/0 40
Daredevil 0/0/1 40
Iron Fist 0/00/1 40
2*
Daken 4/4/5 lvl 104
Cap Marvel 3/5/5 lvlv 101
Moonstone 3/5/5 lvl 101.
Storm 4/4/5 lvl 100
Steve rogers 3/5/5 lvl 98
Magneto 3/5/5 lvlv96
Thor 5/4/4 lvl 50
Human Torch 2/5/5 lvl 43
Wolverine lvl 5/3/4 lvl 30
Black Widow 2/5/2 lvl 18
Ares 3/3/2 lvl 17
Hawkeye 2/3/2 lvl 15
and a 1* IM

I am 175 HPs away from my next char. spot. However I am seriously considering dropping the Ares, Ragnarok pair ...plus I get 100 HP tomorrow. So the question of who to roster is coming up again.
My plan before Howard was to wait until it was close for one of those to drop off of my queue (Mystique is 11 days away) then if I hadn't gotten thew requisite HP's to open another spot drop Ares, Rags, and put 2 3* on the roster . getting a third when the next Character spot is available.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by ntndeacon

Through luck, I pulled a Howard cover through a Webbed Wonder recruit token. ( I figure that those you have to use immediately)

You can save them, but once the event ends, each token pulls from a one-off vault, so the odds don't improve to get the 'good' stuff with each token the way they do with tacos.

This gives me the following covers and potential covers in my queue:

Currently in queue:
Howard , purple
Loki, purple
Cyclops, black
Mystique, purple
Plus my next champion reward for cap 2* is Cap 3*
and within the next week 3* GSBW is is in the resupply

My current roster is
4*
Professor X 1/0/0 lvl 70/70
3*
Black Panther 4/1/2 lvl.91/91
Ironman 0/4/1 lvl 69/78.
Storm 3/0/1 lvl 66/66
Wolverine 1/1/2 lvl 55/55
Beast 0/2/1 lvl 53/53
Blade 0/2/1 Lvl 53/53
Hulk 2/1/0 lvl 53/53
Vision 1/2/0 53/53
Ragnarok 2/0/0 50/50
Rocket and Groot 1/0/1 lvl 43/43
Punisher 1/1/0 43/43
Cap Marvel 1/0/0 40
Daken 1/0/0 40
Daredevil 0/0/1 40
Iron Fist 0/00/1 40
2*
Daken 4/4/5 lvl 104
Cap Marvel 3/5/5 lvlv 101
Moonstone 3/5/5 lvl 101.
Storm 4/4/5 lvl 100
Steve rogers 3/5/5 lvl 98
Magneto 3/5/5 lvlv96
Thor 5/4/4 lvl 50
Human Torch 2/5/5 lvl 43
Wolverine lvl 5/3/4 lvl 30
Black Widow 2/5/2 lvl 18
Ares 3/3/2 lvl 17
Hawkeye 2/3/2 lvl 15
and a 1* IM

I am 175 HPs away from my next char. spot. However I am seriously considering dropping the Ares, Ragnarok pair ...plus I get 100 HP tomorrow. So the question of who to roster is coming up again.
My plan before Howard was to wait until it was close for one of those to drop off of my queue (Mystique is 11 days away) then if I hadn't gotten thew requisite HP's to open another spot drop Ares, Rags, and put 2 3* on the roster . getting a third when the next Character spot is available.

Howard is a character you can only get certain times of year, like Devil Dino. If he's a character you like, and would actually use, mazel tov. But realize that he's going to be one of the two hardest 4* to build in the long-term because while the others are all available from multiple outlets, Howard and Devil Dino are only available once or twice a year.

FWIW, I sold my Devil Dino and haven't bothered to roster Howard for exactly that reason. It might be worth rostering him temporarily so you can hit the 4* essential, but he isn't a character I'd keep around long-term. I'd sell him off after the event and roster Cyclops or GSBW.

My two cents.

[ntndeacon]

Thanks Sack.
I don't think I'll even roster Howard. I've definitely gone into 3* build mode.
So I'll definitely go 2 of the 3*'s when I drop Ares , Rags...( Plus I got Spidey (3*) in the tacos..web bandages) .

So I'll wait until GSBW drops and get both her and Cyclops.

[SackAttack]

oh oh oh I think I might prioritize 3* Cap over GSBW offhand.

You have the 2* variant so you kind of know why but that 3/5/5 build from the 3* Cap is a thing of ultimate beauty once he gets going.

[ntndeacon]

We'll, I'm hopefully going to get to 400 hps before he drops. I definitely am looking to grab him when I get another cap 2* cover

[Umbrella]

Once Ares levels up, he destroys. I agree about Rags though. I don't like him that much, so if I need to clear up a spot, he's the first to go.

[Critch]

Changes to the game and massive ISO bonus. I dont read any of the boards so wasnt expecting anything, a nice surprise. 450k means I can pay for upgrades that would have taken months before.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Critch

Changes to the game and massive ISO bonus. I dont read any of the boards so wasnt expecting anything, a nice surprise. 450k means I can pay for upgrades that would have taken months before.

Yeah it's a nice ISO influx. My T.R.O.U.T. account woke up to 'here have a half million ISO.' my S.Q.U.I.D. account got about 350k, which was WAY more than I expected for an account that's been essentially DDQ only.

clearing all rewards from a node: 10 XP
opening tacos: 3 XP
heroic tokens opened: 3 XP
legendary token opened: 10 XP
2* champion trained: 4 XP
3* champion trained: 10 XP
promote 2* champion: 20 XP
promote 3* champion: 50 XP
train a 4* power: 10 XP
first story mission clear: 10 XP (not sure if this is a one-time reward or one time per node or what; I've only seen it once)

The above is what I've witnessed so far in terms of earning XP for additional S.H.I.E.L.D. ranks for ISO rewards. I confirmed that the DDQ XP is just generically clearing all rewards from a node. It's just that there's only one reward per node there, compared with six per node for Story mode.

I've only seen the "first story mission clear" bonus once, on mobile, and I don't know if that's 10 XP for winning any fight in general or if the first time you complete each fight you're supposed to get that bonus.

I won't be able to chime in on training a 3* power (or a 2* power) until I get a cover for 3* Iron Man on T.R.O.U.T. or a cover for one of my lesser trained characters in S.Q.U.I.D.

Everything else is solid.

Supposedly you get XP also for sending team-ups but I haven't been able to test that yet.

[SackAttack]

Dola,

I think the 10 XP I noted for taco/4-wave is actually for receiving all rewards possible from a given fight. will test it with the trivial nodes in my Venom Bomb sub.

[Umbrella]

Wait, when did this happen? I played this morning before I went to work and didn't see extra ISO. I have several 3* I'm trying to champion, and could use it badly.

[SackAttack]

When the patch dropped this morning at some point. It was already live on Steam when I got up around noon central. It's live for me on both Steam and Android now.

[SackAttack]

Edited to update the 'how you get XP' post.

[Umbrella]

I think I had the patch, since I saw the new Spider Women screen, but I didn't get any extra ISO.

ETA: It was probably about 10:30 Mountain time when I did it.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Umbrella

I think I had the patch, since I saw the new Spider Women screen, but I didn't get any extra ISO.

ETA: It was probably about 10:30 Mountain time when I did it.

There's a new doohickey in the upper left corner of the screen that shows your S.H.I.E.L.D. rank info. I think you have to click that for the game to go 'OH HAI YOU HAZ ISO NAO.'

I know when I ranked up naturally after the patch (I was thisclose to a new rank when the feature dropped as it was) I had to click that thing to get my next reward, also.

[Umbrella]

Crap, when I started this morning to do my DDQ, all my progress is gone. I hope they can save this. It would suck to lose a years worth of effort.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Umbrella

Crap, when I started this morning to do my DDQ, all my progress is gone. I hope they can save this. It would suck to lose a years worth of effort.

That happens to me every so often on my Steam account. Usually what causes it is the game is somehow unable to sync with the Steam cloud to get the most up-to-date save file so it grabs the one that's on your hard drive from however long ago. If you're playing on Steam, try exiting Steam and then reloading it (sometimes that will trigger a Steam update) and then the game may be able to grab the correct save file after that.

[dunkem]

While I hate using facebook with my apps, whenever it has trouble loading up my stuff, usually if I log in to facebook in the beginning, it'll load my progress back again.

It actually just happened with Magic Puzzle quest... I just exited and logged in with my facebook and it was back again. I have no time for Magic, but I open it up daily to pick up free cards in case I want to get back in it later.

If you never linked your facebook, however, then I think you're a little screwed.

[SackAttack]

Yeah, if he's on mobile and didn't link to Facebook, that's gonna hurt. PC has a little bit more margin for error.

I think MPQ mobile pushes Facebook linkage on you the first time you play so you'd have to have actively denied it if you're on mobile to not have a backup.

[dunkem]

I figure Umbrella might be on mobile since I saw him in the recent PVE event rankings.

Yeah, the most annoying thing about mobile is that it has my facebook info, but every time I close out (often by mistake), when I relaunch it, it ALWAYS asks me to log back in. I usually cancel it and it says it can't reach facebook, but it still keeps my progress. Wish it would 1) stop prompting when relaunching and 2) give me warning if I really want to close the app (like Magic does). Sometimes I'm backing out of a PVE and I mistakingly hit it once too often and.... relaunch time.

And... PVE has that weird timing bug that springs every once in a while... where I should still be getting full points, but it says... full points in 5 minutes.... gotta close down and reopen to reset the timers.

And that sell all button is hazardously close to the bottom now.... Love that the rewards load up fast when trying to get the bottom of the list now though.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by dunkem

I figure Umbrella might be on mobile since I saw him in the recent PVE event rankings.

Doesn't necessarily mean anything. Mobile and PC players can play the same events, can even be in the same alliances.

Yeah, the most annoying thing about mobile is that it has my facebook info, but every time I close out (often by mistake), when I relaunch it, it ALWAYS asks me to log back in. I usually cancel it and it says it can't reach facebook, but it still keeps my progress. Wish it would 1) stop prompting when relaunching and 2) give me warning if I really want to close the app (like Magic does). Sometimes I'm backing out of a PVE and I mistakingly hit it once too often and.... relaunch time.

And... PVE has that weird timing bug that springs every once in a while... where I should still be getting full points, but it says... full points in 5 minutes.... gotta close down and reopen to reset the timers.

And that sell all button is hazardously close to the bottom now.... Love that the rewards load up fast when trying to get the bottom of the list now though.

I had a bug as soon as the current event started a couple days ago, it was still going '45 minutes to fill points' even though they were at full points.

my mobile (SQUID) roster is backed up via facebook, and I've never had it ask me to log in.

[dunkem]

Doesn't necessarily mean anything. Mobile and PC players can play the same events, can even be in the same alliances.

Forgot about that.. remember one of you guys mentioning that before.

my mobile (SQUID) roster is backed up via facebook, and I've never had it ask me to log in.

Really? Wonder what gives then... Ah... I know what it is... it's because I uninstalled the actual facebook app I think. That app was just a space and memory leech so I uninstalled it. I think if I had it on, it would see I'm still logged in.

[SackAttack]

yeah that might be. I'm always logged in on my phone via either the app or the browser, so it probably never has to ask.

[Umbrella]

I'm on PC, and logging out and back into Steam worked. Thanks!

[SackAttack]

You're welcome! Long time ago, I had the game running on both my laptop and desktop before the cloud functionality was patched into the game.

That way I could play at school during downtime between classes and at home (my main at the time). I wasn't yet a forumgoer when the cloud patch happened, so I had no clue it was coming. I logged in on my laptop at school, played, logged in at home, and realized I was missing characters and hero points.

Was never able to recover that save to continue to play two different accounts the way I do Steam/mobile these days, but every so often, if there's Steam wonkiness on my desktop, that old account will rise from its grave unless I log out of Steam and back in. If I could figure out how to get CS to give me the covers and coins from that account, that would be amazing.

Don't think that's ever going to happen.

[SackAttack]

Super digging the changes to the progression reward structure in PVE.

[dunkem]

Should be quite interesting. I'll have to see how the competition rounds out though... if it's anything like PVP matchmaking.... I'm gonna be annoyed being put in groups of players with fully covered 4*'s or high level 3*s. Just trying to crack the top 100 and the b.s. starts to flow at the 500 point mark. Supposedly the ranking system measures our roster strength... so hopefully this prevents the PVP thing I mentioned.

Elite tokens... gahh.... they're like Heroic tokens... I thought they might've put in the higher 3* % tokens (since legendary is higher % 4 *)

The rebalance plan scares me.... I sense an Iron Man 3* downgrade coming. I also think Hulk 3* needs a boost. Worst champion ever at this point with lame damage green, self damaging red, and a decent black but too high a damage point as Sack mentioned. He's riding my bench a lot unless I just need a pure tank and have other red/green to use.

Finally championed Kamala... she's a pretty good replacement for Grey suit black widow.

I'm carrying 3 5*'s right now and I think it's hurting my scaling judging by this gauntlet. I might need to cut one though I lucked out on Black Bolt with a whopping two covers! haha..

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by dunkem

Should be quite interesting. I'll have to see how the competition rounds out though... if it's anything like PVP matchmaking.... I'm gonna be annoyed being put in groups of players with fully covered 4*'s or high level 3*s. Just trying to crack the top 100 and the b.s. starts to flow at the 500 point mark. Supposedly the ranking system measures our roster strength... so hopefully this prevents the PVP thing I mentioned.

I don't think there's been a lot of discussion on how it's going to affect PVP yet. I think the PVP side of it is going to be implemented next season. That said, supposedly you're going to be matched in a bracket with others in your CL rank, so...placement may be interesting.

Majority of my play is PVE, though, and that's where I think this new system really shines. They've scattered the 25 CP at CL7 through the progression ladder, so it looks like playing enough to earn around 60% of max progression will get two 3* covers, a 4* cover, 10 CP and 100 HP. And max progression still seems to be set low enough to be reasonable, so there's no reason not to play for the other 15 CP. But if I have events where I just don't have that kind of time, casual play should still result in roster progress for me. I'm happy.

Elite tokens... gahh.... they're like Heroic tokens... I thought they might've put in the higher 3* % tokens (since legendary is higher % 4 *)

Not sure what to make of Elite tokens. They were SUPPOSED to be replacing Standard tokens, but they seem to instead be supplementing them, with one in the progression and the rest apparently being doled out as placement rewards. I was hoping they'd replace Standard at CL7 entirely, because that would mean guaranteed champion levels for me, essentially. So I guess how I feel about them depends on how scarce they end up being.

The rebalance plan scares me.... I sense an Iron Man 3* downgrade coming. I also think Hulk 3* needs a boost. Worst champion ever at this point with lame damage green, self damaging red, and a decent black but too high a damage point as Sack mentioned. He's riding my bench a lot unless I just need a pure tank and have other red/green to use.

Iron Man (3) just got buffed not too long ago, and with the meta having moved on to the 4* and 5* game, I don't think you're going to see any nerfhammers at the 3* tier. The idea is to increase roster diversity to break up some of the monotony going on at upper tiers of play. I'd guess we'll see some 3* get rebalanced, but I don't think the focus will be on them, other than a few who REALLY need it (Spidey, Hulk, and Sentry come to mind). I'd bet most of the rebalancing will be on the 4* tier and that there may be some changes at the 5* tier as well.

Finally championed Kamala... she's a pretty good replacement for Grey suit black widow.

Depends on what you're going for. She does some wicked AOE for less green, so if it's GSBW's damage you're looking to replace, good call. Plus the healing, which is nice. On the other hand, GSBW is an amazing green battery. KK can generate some green, but nothing like on the scale of GSBW (for just 3 purple more).

I'm carrying 3 5*'s right now and I think it's hurting my scaling judging by this gauntlet. I might need to cut one though I lucked out on Black Bolt with a whopping two covers! haha..

Gauntlet is meant to be challenging. It's meant to be a measure of your roster progress. The next time I complete it will be my first, and my roster is pretty okay. I'm guessing I need to have some high-level 4* before I'll be capable, though. I have a dozen 4* at 7+ covers, so I'm hoping within the next run or two I'll have been able to level them up enough to get it done.

Offhand, are you planning on keeping all your 2* at 144? You can "recycle" them and re-earn the champion rewards. Takes a bit because you have to get a new set of 13 covers and then level/champion the character before you can start feeding it again, but those 2* can be a nice source of CP, HP, and Heroic tokens if you use 'em as a farm.

[Umbrella]

Does anyone know what the mystery boost on the Deadpool PvE is?

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Umbrella

Does anyone know what the mystery boost on the Deadpool PvE is?

it's random! it doesn't display what you got the way it does when you get a mystery boost for grinding a Hard node down x6, but it will be either AP boosts, damage boosts, or crit boosts. But it won't be the same every time. You might get the +20% damage boost this event and next event one of the +all AP boosts, say.

[dunkem]

Yeah, I'm still on the fence on the 2* recycle idea. My Deadpool lineup is actually a 2* lineup of Storm, original Black widow, and Thor (2 or 3* depending on usage in PVE/PVP damage) so I kind of don't want to cripple them. The rest of em, yeah, maybe soon.. like Torch, cap, and maybe Thor since their powers are pretty much identical and useless at the 2* level. I need OBW's healing/stealing and Storm's stun at high levels so probably not them.

I just got my 4* Venom from the gauntlet. That last round was a bitch... I had to use The Hood to cripple She-Cap, Kamala and Magneto because he's a quick hitting ass kicker. Kamala was a healer and I didn't need the slower pink/green that Grey Suit gives me. Deadpool was being a bitch with his counters and mass damage defense. Black bolt.... damn distracting with those charged tile damages. Forget going through it again for ISO and what not...

I actually wish all the PVE's were like the Gauntlet.... It's more a test of true roster and ability vs. playing for 3 hours a day to get a ranked award. More difficulty vs. quantity is what I want. I've contemplated taking a break because PVE takes so darn long to finish and get a top 50 ranking to get 3 covers and the command point end final reward.

Yeah, Sentry and Hulk suck and need a buff. She-hulk might need one too. 4*.... hell, too many and too rare that it's tough getting em covered up. I've probably had one of everything at some point. Always seem to throw away the ones I would've gotten a lot of though like She-thor and Red Hulk, but I felt they were bottom tier so threw em away.

Well, we'll see how these improvements are I guess.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by dunkem

Yeah, I'm still on the fence on the 2* recycle idea. My Deadpool lineup is actually a 2* lineup of Storm, original Black widow, and Thor (2 or 3* depending on usage in PVE/PVP damage) so I kind of don't want to cripple them. The rest of em, yeah, maybe soon.. like Torch, cap, and maybe Thor since their powers are pretty much identical and useless at the 2* level. I need OBW's healing/stealing and Storm's stun at high levels so probably not them.

You don't have to recycle them all at once. You might consider fiddling with your 3* champions in Deadpool's Daily Quest. I suspect you've got some options there that would let you continue to complete the 4-wave even if you were recycling folks. You're leaving resources on the table (HP, CP, and 3* covers especially) if you choose not to recycle them.

For the longest time, my TBE team was 2* Magneto/2* Marvel/2* Storm. It's still my pick for a go-to team for newer rosters. Once I started championing characters, though, I started fiddling with 3* and higher characters in TBE. I beat it today with 3* Wolverine/3* Iron Man/Loki, and my usual team is 3* Captain America/Green Goblin/Scarlet Witch. Goblin's there mostly because his yellow fortifies Cap's red/blue CDs and Witch's blue CD, which lets me fling shields and rack up purple AP like mad. But I've also run Cyclops in place of Goblin with Cap and Witch and gotten it done.

Fiddle. See if you can find a 3* team that works for you. If you can, recycling your 2* will be a tiddly little source of champion covers, HP for roster spots, and CP for 4* covers.

I just got my 4* Venom from the gauntlet. That last round was a bitch... I had to use The Hood to cripple She-Cap, Kamala and Magneto because he's a quick hitting ass kicker. Kamala was a healer and I didn't need the slower pink/green that Grey Suit gives me. Deadpool was being a bitch with his counters and mass damage defense. Black bolt.... damn distracting with those charged tile damages. Forget going through it again for ISO and what not...

Man. Props. I've never yet beaten the Gauntlet. If your roster got through it, maybe I should try to get it done. But facing Peggy Carter and her "all your shit costs more if I'm alive" skill fills me with dread.

I actually wish all the PVE's were like the Gauntlet.... It's more a test of true roster and ability vs. playing for 3 hours a day to get a ranked award. More difficulty vs. quantity is what I want. I've contemplated taking a break because PVE takes so darn long to finish and get a top 50 ranking to get 3 covers and the command point end final reward.

You're not alone in the desire for progression rewards having primacy in PVE. I don't play for placement. I mean, sometimes I get top 100 or, occasionally, top 50, but I don't push for it. Just gimme what's in progression and I call it good.

The Clearance Levels appear to have moved one of the 3* covers from placement to progression, though, so that's nice. At least, at SCL7 (with your roster, that's where you should be). I like that they've broken up the CP rewards into chunks in progression now, too. Two 5's and a 15, and the 4* cover is around the 60% mark. So you could, if so inclined, go get 100 HP, two 3* covers, a 4* cover and 10 CP for about 60% the work of getting the full 25. I'll go for 25 anyway because I don't want to leave 15 CP on the table, but that's an awfully enticing first 60% of the ladder.

Yeah, Sentry and Hulk suck and need a buff. She-hulk might need one too. 4*.... hell, too many and too rare that it's tough getting em covered up. I've probably had one of everything at some point. Always seem to throw away the ones I would've gotten a lot of though like She-thor and Red Hulk, but I felt they were bottom tier so threw em away.

Well, we'll see how these improvements are I guess.

I've tossed some 4* in my day, to be sure, and I regret selling a one-cover She-Thor I pulled a long time ago. Didn't realize she had three covers in the Daily Resupply; she has 8 covers for me now, and I wish I had that 9th. It was basically free progress and I didn't realize it.

She used to rule the meta before a nerf a while ago. Wish I'd had her covered as I do now back then. That would have been fun. I still occasionally throw out 4* (looking at you, Carnage) but my rule of thumb is the ones that have 2-3 covers in the Resupply (Invisible Woman, Fury, Elektra, She-Thor, Star-Lord, Wolverine) I recommend keeping if you pull them. Those characters are all useful in their way. None of them are particularly badass for PVP, but they all have value, and you're getting a boost with them you won't get with any other 4*. After Star-Lord, the other 4* drops are all single-cover. My Captain America (Sam Wilson) got a cover today. He greatly appreciates it! But it's just one cover, so instead of having two more and 10-cover status to look forward to, he's at 8 for the foreseeable future, and the next one up is Thing.

[dunkem]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

You don't have to recycle them all at once. You might consider fiddling with your 3* champions in Deadpool's Daily Quest. I suspect you've got some options there that would let you continue to complete the 4-wave even if you were recycling folks. You're leaving resources on the table (HP, CP, and 3* covers especially) if you choose not to recycle them.

Fiddle. See if you can find a 3* team that works for you. If you can, recycling your 2* will be a tiddly little source of champion covers, HP for roster spots, and CP for 4* covers.

I'm trying it with Torch right now since 3* Torch can replace him.

Man. Props. I've never yet beaten the Gauntlet. If your roster got through it, maybe I should try to get it done. But facing Peggy Carter and her "all your shit costs more if I'm alive" skill fills me with dread.

Yeah, Peggy sucked ... and at that high a level, her RED blew one character out each time. That's where Hood kine of equalized Peggy and Magneto could get going fairly quickly.[/quote]

You're not alone in the desire for progression rewards having primacy in PVE. I don't play for placement. I mean, sometimes I get top 100 or, occasionally, top 50, but I don't push for it. Just gimme what's in progression and I call it good.

The Clearance Levels appear to have moved one of the 3* covers from placement to progression, though, so that's nice. At least, at SCL7 (with your roster, that's where you should be). I like that they've broken up the CP rewards into chunks in progression now, too. Two 5's and a 15, and the 4* cover is around the 60% mark. So you could, if so inclined, go get 100 HP, two 3* covers, a 4* cover and 10 CP for about 60% the work of getting the full 25. I'll go for 25 anyway because I don't want to leave 15 CP on the table, but that's an awfully enticing first 60% of the ladder.

I would love to just play for progression, but those hero points for placement sure help. I'm not sure if this new system is anything mind blowing though. Maybe it'll help the lower ranked players progress faster though since they're not competing with the stronger rosters for rankings.

I've tossed some 4* in my day, to be sure, and I regret selling a one-cover She-Thor I pulled a long time ago. Didn't realize she had three covers in the Daily Resupply; she has 8 covers for me now, and I wish I had that 9th. It was basically free progress and I didn't realize it.

She used to rule the meta before a nerf a while ago. Wish I'd had her covered as I do now back then. That would have been fun. I still occasionally throw out 4* (looking at you, Carnage) but my rule of thumb is the ones that have 2-3 covers in the Resupply (Invisible Woman, Fury, Elektra, She-Thor, Star-Lord, Wolverine) I recommend keeping if you pull them.

Tossing 4*'s are a common thing for me since I'm limited in roster space (and I'm a cheap ass). I'm thinking of picking up She-thor again after what you just mentioned.. I think I'd have been 6 covered by now if I had kept her. Yeah, against carnage she could get rid of that nuisance ... She'd also go perfect with Black Bolt with charged tiles. I lucked out on another cover for Black Bolt so I'm 1 covered in each color now for him. Still fairly useless at that level.

I actually just chucked Elektra and Star Lord to reconsider Hulkbuster and Venom (for the PVE). I wasn't getting any covers for them Elektra and Star Lord and needed the space so I replaced em. Venom may be shortlived though even if I have two covers now. Seems there are just better guys... the one round powered up characters help to see how good they really are. I just wasn't impressed with Venom.

One lineup that I'm kind of liking is 3* Cyclops, Daredevil, and Kamala. Fully colored and the reds are flexible... I can either use Cyclops off the bat or plant the Ambushes.. Use my yellow to create more reds and matches ambushes. Blue does its stuns and Kamala's purple to greens give me the mass blow I need without waiting too long. If I can afford to wait a little, I'll use grey suit instead, but for the slightly faster play, Kamala's good enough for me. Magneto can also take Daredevil's place for more damage vs. stun.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by dunkem

I'm trying it with Torch right now since 3* Torch can replace him.

Good call. Thor and Cap would also be good 2* to recycle, both because 3* Thor and Cap are stronger variants with the same power sets, and because 3* Thor and Cap are quality 3* champions who can use the champion levels the 2* would feed them. One thing I ultimately learned the hard way was to make sure you have three or four 2* champions on the roster at any given time for the DDQ 2* fights. I went a little farm-happy the first couple weeks after I had level 144 2* and things were tight for a while. But now I have a process in place and things are a smooth machine.

Yeah, Peggy sucked ... and at that high a level, her RED blew one character out each time. That's where Hood kine of equalized Peggy and Magneto could get going fairly quickly.

I still only have one Peggy cover. I hope she's an essential soon so I can get more.

I would love to just play for progression, but those hero points for placement sure help.

Shit, you're not kidding. Just playing for progression I wound up top 50 in the 2nd Deadpool vs MPQ sub and top 50 overall. The net gains from that ended up being about 10k ISO, 300 HP and 5 CP.

I'm not sure if this new system is anything mind blowing though. Maybe it'll help the lower ranked players progress faster though since they're not competing with the stronger rosters for rankings.

Well, as I said earlier, having a 4* cover in progressions and some CP earnable earlier are both huge. My transition to the 4* game was stalled for the longest time because I refuse to "shield hop" in PVP, which means 1000/1300 aren't doable for me, and 4* covers in PVE were limited to top 10 finishes. So 1-2 4* covers a week just for doing my thing in PVE is going to be big. And the CP being broken up into 5/5/15 ensures that I'll still see some progress even if real life interferes to prevent me from reaching max progression in an event.

Tossing 4*'s are a common thing for me since I'm limited in roster space (and I'm a cheap ass). I'm thinking of picking up She-thor again after what you just mentioned.. I think I'd have been 6 covered by now if I had kept her. Yeah, against carnage she could get rid of that nuisance ... She'd also go perfect with Black Bolt with charged tiles. I lucked out on another cover for Black Bolt so I'm 1 covered in each color now for him. Still fairly useless at that level.

1/1/1 5* may not be world-shattering, but they're fantastic tanks and that match damage still hurts. Not going to do much for you in PVP, but 5* can be quite helpful in PVE. Shoot, my 2-cover Green Goblin is a friggin' mainstay of my A-Team because of his match damage and because his yellow cover protects the CD tiles SWitch and 3* Cap generate.

I do understand about roster space. One thing I have to remind myself to do at this point, now that roster spots cost me 1k HP per, is to only open Legendary Tokens when I have enough HP to roster somebody new, should I PULL somebody new. I have about half the 5* characters rostered, and there's only 3 or 4 4* I don't have rostered currently, so that doesn't happen too often. But there's always the once...

I've tossed probably 3 or 4 Totally Awesome Hulk covers, which might be an oops now that he's had a buff, but now that he's had a buff I might actually be willing to roster him. So, y'know. Tradeoffs.

I actually just chucked Elektra and Star Lord to reconsider Hulkbuster and Venom (for the PVE). I wasn't getting any covers for them Elektra and Star Lord and needed the space so I replaced em. Venom may be shortlived though even if I have two covers now. Seems there are just better guys... the one round powered up characters help to see how good they really are. I just wasn't impressed with Venom.

Elektra is sneaky good in PVE. She won the Crash of the Titans for me at 2/2/2. She's one of just a few 4* characters to win the Crash for me at such a low level of coverage, and the only three who have won a Crash at her level or lower had invisibility to fall back on. There are better characters than Star-Lord. I like him fine, but he's the only one of the group I mentioned who only gets 2 covers instead of 3, so if you were going to pick one of those cats to dump, he would probably hurt the least.

One lineup that I'm kind of liking is 3* Cyclops, Daredevil, and Kamala. Fully colored and the reds are flexible... I can either use Cyclops off the bat or plant the Ambushes.. Use my yellow to create more reds and matches ambushes. Blue does its stuns and Kamala's purple to greens give me the mass blow I need without waiting too long. If I can afford to wait a little, I'll use grey suit instead, but for the slightly faster play, Kamala's good enough for me. Magneto can also take Daredevil's place for more damage vs. stun.

3* Cyclops' yellow is also cheap enough to proc Khan's heals, which is nice. I've been finding a number of teams she works well with. Such a useful character.

[SackAttack]

Playing MPQ when you have insomnia and pulling a 5* cover in the process is nice, but probably not the healthiest thing if you're at all superstitious.

[dunkem]

I utterly hate it when I mess up the PVE by rushing to finish it.... only to recognize that it's a two day vs. a one day.

Good thing is ... Iron fist is 100-200 placement... bad news is I'll probably need new Powerman next PVE.

What's up with the repeat characters too.. Guess they're trying to generate excitement for the upcoming movie. There are SO MANY other characters they could use, but instead, we got 2*,3*, 4* same characters. Heaven help us if we get another Cap or Iron Man variant. Is there a She-Iron man too?

[ntndeacon]

Well, I got a new powerman...unfortunately it is my steam account, which only has a handful of three stars. So even when I do have a character slot, I will probably have to sell him and place a 3* instead...
My mobile account is getting ready to get force Wolvie with the next couple of weeks... so he'll be the second 4*that I have on that account.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by dunkem

I utterly hate it when I mess up the PVE by rushing to finish it.... only to recognize that it's a two day vs. a one day.

Good thing is ... Iron fist is 100-200 placement... bad news is I'll probably need new Powerman next PVE.

What's up with the repeat characters too.. Guess they're trying to generate excitement for the upcoming movie. There are SO MANY other characters they could use, but instead, we got 2*,3*, 4* same characters. Heaven help us if we get another Cap or Iron Man variant. Is there a She-Iron man too?

Riri Williams is probably not coming any time soon. The thing with character releases is they have to strike a balance between new characters the player base wants and familiar characters to continue to attract new players. And then, too, they have to promote Marvel properties. So the Power Man release is to support the Luke Cage season 1 in a week or so here.

Speaking of Power Man, the next PVE (well, current PVE) is Juggernaut Heroic. You may need Power Man for that, but that depends on how willing you are to play heroics in the first place :-D

Originally Posted by ntndeacon

Well, I got a new powerman...unfortunately it is my steam account, which only has a handful of three stars. So even when I do have a character slot, I will probably have to sell him and place a 3* instead...
My mobile account is getting ready to get force Wolvie with the next couple of weeks... so he'll be the second 4*that I have on that account.

Yeah, that's the rough bit with 4* characters if your roster is just starting out. If you're willing to spend the money, it's worth keeping what you get, but if you're trying to go F2P, the only ones worth holding onto early are the ones you get via resupply, because those you'll at least have 2-3 covers of, where Power Man you might have just that single cover for 6+ months.

[SackAttack]

Oh, also, 250 coins and 2500 ISO as gifts from Demiurge because of some recent bugginess. If you need a roster spot, that'll help some.

[ntndeacon]

The Hp's will be especially nice. I'll be able to add another character immediately in both accounts. I'm holding some HP in reserve so I can make sure I can roster 4* Wolverine when he is the daily drop in two weeks.

[SackAttack]

Yeah, I pulled a Totally Awesome Hulk yesterday but lack a roster spot for him. The 250 freebie plus today's daily drop is going to get me up to about 900 HP. I'll take it. I have a couple 2* champions close to giving me more as well, so some Lightning Round play this week could push me over the top.

[ntndeacon]

I added a character to both accounts with that bonus HP... the mobile one added a 2* hawkeye back to eventually help out IM 40 and the steam account added patch.

[SackAttack]

Mobile is up to needing 800 HP per roster spot, so while the 250 helped, it didn't quite get it there.

The good news on the Totally Awesome Hulk? He's the 4* progression reward in the next event, and I pulled another cover of his from a Legendary Token last night, so he's going to be a 3-cover character in short order.

[dunkem]

Playing with awesome hulk... I dunno... it's not so awesome. He's slightly better than he used to be, but he's still not all that to me after playing with him in the PVE. I'll have to ponder rostering him in the future even if get a few covers for him.

I think it was mentioned that the vaults are random, but it seems like the vaults have a repeating patterns. The key is timing it, but it seems that you could spot a pattern and get the character you want. I usually look for a rare symbol and try to count. I've timed it a few times.

*sigh* PVE and hulk PVE... trying to suck every minute of my time ...

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by dunkem

Playing with awesome hulk... I dunno... it's not so awesome. He's slightly better than he used to be, but he's still not all that to me after playing with him in the PVE. I'll have to ponder rostering him in the future even if get a few covers for him.

He's not the best 4* in the land, no, but he's improved enough that I'm building him now, where I used to sell off his covers if I pulled them.

I think it was mentioned that the vaults are random, but it seems like the vaults have a repeating patterns. The key is timing it, but it seems that you could spot a pattern and get the character you want. I usually look for a rare symbol and try to count. I've timed it a few times.

Nope. It is purely a visual effect. If it comes up what you're trying to time it for, count yourself lucky, but the second you tap the 'open' button to start the vault spinning, your reward has already been determined.

[General Mike]

Any suggestions for someone getting back in the game after a long time away? I was playing Avengers' Alliance, but it got canned, so I'm looking for a time killer.

I'm on level 7 with 4541 ISO and 2900 coins. As you can assume, my roster is crap, with my best character a level 70 X-Force Wolverine. Next best is a level 40 Dr. Doom and then a level 25 Thor.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by General Mike

Any suggestions for someone getting back in the game after a long time away? I was playing Avengers' Alliance, but it got canned, so I'm looking for a time killer.

I'm on level 7 with 4541 ISO and 2900 coins. As you can assume, my roster is crap, with my best character a level 70 X-Force Wolverine. Next best is a level 40 Dr. Doom and then a level 25 Thor.

Welcome back to the fight!

Let me see if I can distill my advice here.

1) Focus on roster spots with your coins. That's the major bottleneck in the game, especially for where you are.

2) Focus, for the moment, on 1* and 2* characters to give you a foundation from which to build.

3) Levels are actually less pertinent than are covers. That level 70 XFW is going to have greater match damage than your 2* if you haven't maxed out any of your 2* characters yet, but once your 2* hit level 94 and beyond (more on that in a moment), they're going to be more useful than a 1-cover XFW.

4) A good 2* team (I'd say you want bare minimum level 70 for those 2*) will kickstart your transition to the 3* game. You have at least one already with Doom, which is good - it's anniversary week right now, which means double ISO from all events, and Doom is up in Deadpool's Daily Quest in six days. If you have, or can get, three well-covered 2* up to level 70 or greater by the time Doom comes up, you'll be in a good spot to win another cover for him from DDQ.

There are a few teams which have gotten some love in this thread, but my personal favorite DDQ team for the 2* game is Magneto (2)/Captain Marvel (2)/Storm (2). As a stunner, Storm can help you keep the board movers quiescent while you pile up AP so you can unleash hell. The Big Enchilada isn't as predictable as it used to be, so some days (like yesterday) you'll face nothing but goons, and some days you'll have board movers in every wave, and some days will be in between. But a good stunner will *always* be useful for 3* cover acquisition.

Beyond that, being able to win the 2-wave fight in DDQ will start earning you tacos, which will eventually net you more 3* and coins with which to roster those 3*, which will open up the second taco opportunity (the essential fight) and so forth.

Basically, be diligent about DDQ. For early play through the 3* game, that's your most reliable way to build.

5) Depending on how willing you are to drop a few bucks here and there on the game, you may want to be strategic in terms of which 4* characters you roster. There are a handful who will give you 2-3 covers through the Daily Resupply (one of which is X-Force Wolverine); I feel like those are worth rostering because that's free progress. XFW, She-Thor, Elektra, Nick Fury, Star-Lord, and Invisible Woman all fit that criteria. Any covers you pull for them, you're starting from a base of either 2 or 3 just from the Resupply.

6) Farm the prologue. As soon as you hit level 10, you become eligible to engage in Story play, at which point you can also join an alliance. Plus, there are rewards useful to you in the prologue nodes, each of which can be hit 4x.

7) Join an alliance as soon as you can. That's free ISO, potentially 2k ISO per day depending on how active the alliance is.

7a) Save your ISO for training your characters. You CAN spend ISO on standard tokens, and it would be hypocritical of me not to admit that I have done so, but every cover I got from a standard token, I would have eventually earned from DDQ. That impatience got me certain characters fully covered more quickly, which is good, but that ISO might have finished my 3* champions (I have four left) or enabled me to fully train one of my two max-covered 4*.

8) Champions! 2*, 3*, 4*, and 5* characters are eligible to champion, which is a fancy way of saying "additional covers will train them past their level max." 2* characters can train as high as 144, 50 levels above what would otherwise be their cap. 3*-5* go 100 levels past their max. Champion characters as soon as you're able. Not only will that enable them to continue to get stronger, but you'll earn additional coins, Command Points, tokens, and character covers to build your roster with. Champions can even be "recycled," although in practice that's mostly going to happen at the 2* level - recycling consists of training a character to 144, selling them for 65k ISO and 125 coins, and building them all over again. You are probably not going to recycle all that many 3*, 4*, or 5* playing this game unless you are the whaliest of the whales.

9) Lightning rounds run for 48 hours, from Tuesday to Thursday, beginning at noon Central or so. They run every two hours, and if you're able to get in to a LR just as it begins, you'll have up to 10 'seed' fights against AI cakewalk teams. That'll let you farm ISO, 1* covers, or 2* covers. It's based on RNG, so some days you might get 7 2* covers from the 10 seeds, some days you might get 10x 70 ISO rewards. But that's another accelerant, potentially, for your 2* roster.

All PVP fights have a chance to drop either ISO or covers as a reward, so S.H.I.E.L.D. Simulator play is another way you can chase covers and ISO to build your roster. Your roster is new enough that if you play regularly, you may be able to place well in "newbie" brackets in PVP events. That will also give you a shot at better rewards to help your growth (but I believe you need to be level 10 for that as well, so...farm the prologue and get your S.H.I.E.L.D. rank up!).

That's off the top of my head. If you have more questions, feel free to ask.

[ntndeacon]

Getting the 2900 HP from the anniversary vault helped a bunch. I have immediately been able to roster several 4 *s just when I am about to get XFW in the daily drops...( within a week )

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by ntndeacon

Getting the 2900 HP from the anniversary vault helped a bunch. I have immediately been able to roster several 4 *s just when I am about to get XFW in the daily drops...( within a week )

Nicely done! I haven't pulled any of the 'great' prizes from the Anniversary vault yet. I'd love to have that 2900 HP or one of the 4* therein. I got a 3500 ISO, which as I'm trying to max Star-Lord, was appreciated. Also a 1000 ISO. Got a couple 3* covers for champions, and a champion cover for 2* Wolverine.

Haven't pulled any of the three HP prizes, three Legendaries, or seven non-Dino 4*, though.

[General Mike]

Damn SackAttack, you blew my mind. I've just been trying to farm the prologue missions since I'm not up to level 10 yet, but based on what you are saying, I should be using my 2* level 30 Thor who has a few covers in him instead of my level 70 Wolverine.

[Umbrella]

It finally happened. On day 322, I finally got my first Kamala Khan cover. I even had enough HP to roster her! I've now got every 3* character on the roster.

On the topic of first world MPQ problems, I got 2* Black Widow to level 144, and sold her. With the ISO, I was able to get 3* Daken and She-Hulk (both with 12 covers) up to level 153. They both have an unusable cover sitting in my stash, so my thinking was that if I pull cover 13, I'll be able to champion them and level them quicker. That was yesterday. Today, I pull 2 Gamora covers, which gave her cover 13, and an extra. Now the race to champion her before it expires is on. I would have liked the 65K ISO for that.

General Mike, see if there is an opening in T.R.O.U.T. alliance. That is the FOF alliance. I don't know if there is an opening, since it seems like it has been pretty active these days. Sack's advice is always good, although I am in the Magneto/Black Widow camp for DDQ. Magneto's pink feeds BW's blue, which heals everyone and extends the enemy timers. I used Thor as my third, which gives cover for all colors, even though black is just a passive.