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[DangerousDave]

Two people in the top 10 in my bracket have shields on right now. The top guy is up at 880, which I don't think I've ever seen before and which I imagine is made possible by the existence of shielded players.

This shield thing is interesting because it will improve the score of a lot of people, and the rubberbanding effect will make easier to get more points (and get more rewards) for all the people, even the ones that don't use shield (there will be players with more than 1000 points, until now, it was a nightmare to find people to attack at 600).

Also, they're really cheap, 50g is the cost of a single character heal. The 3 hour one will save you from the last attackers, and it's basically free because you will get, for sure, +50g between score rewards and final position reward. I think it's a win-win, and it may be worthy even the 8 hours one. For example, in this Double Shot event, previously it was very difficult to reach 600 points. I'm sure that, spending 100g for the 8 hours of inmunity, it will be easy (with a competent team) to reach 1000 score, and get the 100g back (and probably climb up to 1100 for a Iron40 card)

Taking into account the price of the skills, healing packs and random cards, i hope that they don't make them more expensive.

 

[hamchan]

In my bracket someone is shielded at the top on 1.1k, so it's definitely helping with reaching higher scores than I have seen before.

 

[DangerousDave]

In my bracket someone is shielded at the top on 1.1k, so it's definitely helping with reaching higher scores than I have seen before.

And we're not even in the last 24h of the event. I assume that in the last hours, the amount of shielded players will go up, and this will generate a lot of people with high scores that will help climb on the reward tables all players (even the ones without shield).

But, on the other hand, it will be very difficult to get on the top of the bracket without using any shield.

 

[NineH]

There is no fucking way I get that spiderman reward. The shield ruined my chance.

I'm with you on that one. I thought I would be able to grind to get one spidey cover at the end of the event but the shields seem to complicate that now. Oh well, sucks to be a non IAP player I guess.

 

[hamchan]

I'm with you on that one. I thought I would be able to grind to get one spidey cover at the end of the event but the shields seem to complicate that now. Oh well, sucks to be a non IAP player I guess.

It's only 50 gold for a 3 hour shield. You get that for reaching 400 points anyways and then you get another 50 for placing rank 150 or above.

No need to spend any money at all if you can at least achieve those and if you can't reach those targets then you don't have a powerful enough squad to get a Spidey cover in the first place.

 

[DangerousDave]

LOL at all the people throwing shields at the Shield Training challenge (that is not time-limited, so it's impossible to be protected all the time).

I will simply let that people climb on the board and, then, go after them getting 50 points for each match against 1-star characters.

 

[hamchan]

Yeah it's pretty apparent people don't understand how to use the shields yet. I'm perfectly fine with that though, the more people mistakingly use it the more points generated for everyone.

 

[Gotchaye]

I wonder if shields apply to all PvP events at the same time - would explain why people are shielded in SHIELD training.

 

[davepoobond]

I wonder if shields apply to all PvP events at the same time - would explain why people are shielded in SHIELD training.

I would gander a guess and say it applies on the whole account when you put one up



I don't like the complete a mission and get your reward bonus thing. They better make the bonuses better overall since we have to put in actual work to get them

I did get a black widow grey suit from today's bonus recruit token so I guess I shouldn't complain... Today

 

[shaowebb]

Paid money for the 200 gold to go for an ironclad pack character since it advertises Marvel Now Magneto, Bullseye and Ironman 40. Hoped such an expensive pack advertising such specialized characters was an indicator that those were my odds "OR BETTER"


Got Bagman Spiderman. Fuck this game and its bullshit payouts. If its designed to rip you off like that then I'm out. Twice as much as the normal 2 stars, makes you think it has these very specific characters "or better" dumps out the worst pile of shit in the game.

Im done. Fuck this.

 

[blackflag]

Paid money for the 200 gold to go for an ironclad pack character since it advertises Marvel Now Magneto, Bullseye and Ironman 40. Hoped such an expensive pack advertising such specialized characters was an indicator that those were my odds "OR BETTER"


Got Bagman Spiderman. Fuck this game and its bullshit payouts. If its designed to rip you off like that then I'm out. Twice as much as the normal 2 stars, makes you think it has these very specific characters "or better" dumps out the worst pile of shit in the game.

Im done. Fuck this.

Buying packs is pretty much always a bad idea.

 

[Gotchaye]

Buying packs is pretty much always a bad idea.

I have to second this. Like, I'm not saying it's your own fault or anything - I think most people probably get screwed out of some HP buying a pack or two before they realize that it makes no sense to do that - but, don't do it again. The Heroic daily deal is not terrible if you've got more HP than you know what to do with. Ironclad is probably particularly terrible because its base price is exactly the same as a regular Heroic, but its deal price is double the Heroic's deal price.

I'm unclear as to how Ironclad actually differs from Heroic, at this point. It seems like you can get pretty much any 2*. Maybe you can only get IM40 as a 3*, so it's actually worse than Heroic, unless you're desperate for covers for this one tournament?


Edit: On the bright side, Lightning Rounds are back. One more good Hood round and I'll have his blue up to level 4, and then I'd have some really nice AP stealing as well as a hard-hitting character for future LRs. It's just painful trying to place well in these things without already having high-level villains. But with the blue I just scored my Hood is up to level 38 with a 51 cap, which makes him really competitive in my match-making group.

 

[blackflag]

Yup I learned the hard way too.

What you said about the shields translating into higher scores seems to be true. I'm in 8th place and just shielded up so I don't drop before I can play again. I've got a lot of HP so it's no big deal. Not sure I really like that it is basically gonna be necessary now to compete. At least it looks like it may be.

 

[shaowebb]

I have to second this. Like, I'm not saying it's your own fault or anything - I think most people probably get screwed out of some HP buying a pack or two before they realize that it makes no sense to do that - but, don't do it again. The Heroic daily deal is not terrible if you've got more HP than you know what to do with. Ironclad is probably particularly terrible because its base price is exactly the same as a regular Heroic, but its deal price is double the Heroic's deal price.

I'm unclear as to how Ironclad actually differs from Heroic, at this point. It seems like you can get pretty much any 2*. Maybe you can only get IM40 as a 3*, so it's actually worse than Heroic, unless you're desperate for covers for this one tournament?


Edit: On the bright side, Lightning Rounds are back. One more good Hood round and I'll have his blue up to level 4, and then I'd have some really nice AP stealing as well as a hard-hitting character for future LRs. It's just painful trying to place well in these things without already having high-level villains. But with the blue I just scored my Hood is up to level 38 with a 51 cap, which makes him really competitive in my match-making group.

The only thing I had to go on with Ironclad was its picture and price. I mean given the different and VERY hard to get characters on its image and its elevated price it SHOULD have been better right? No. No it wasn't. Its an absolute ripoff deal. I bought in because I had it available and was willing to do it since it seemed to be promoting characters I needed. Nope. Its the same shit. Forget this.

 

[Gotchaye]

I'm not sure how necessary shields are really going to be to place well in tournaments. They do seem to be in common use; as of thirty minutes ago 6 out of the top 10 in my bracket had shields on. But shields aren't putting these people way up above everyone else; everybody is finding it easier to get more points.

The big losers here are people (like me) who maintain a too-low match-making ranking so that we never get attacked or retaliated against anyway and who only play much in the last hour or two before tournaments end. The big advantage of this approach was that I didn't have to play much to get top 5 placement; I would get an average of ~25 points/match up to maybe ~300 points and an average of ~20 after that, and I would never lose points, so maybe 25 matches per tournament was all I was doing (~1 hour total playtime). Now I have to get a lot more points to place well, which means more matches.

But if you were already playing more the way the developers intended, and were both gaining and losing points over time, you're probably gaining more and losing less now such that you don't have to play much more to still be competitive, even without using shields yourself.

The big winners are obviously people who can't play right at the end of a tournament. But I doubt it's smart to use a shield if you could otherwise be playing, though we'll really test this tomorrow morning.

I'm sitting around #15 in my bracket right now, not having been attacked at all yet, with something like 550 points, which is a lot more than I'd usually have to have to maintain this position. But I'm still within striking distance of the top 5 (lowest is ~650), and I suspect that if I were to wake up early tomorrow and push for another 200 points I'd be able to place pretty easily.

 

[blackflag]

I'm not sure how necessary shields are really going to be to place well in tournaments. They do seem to be in common use; as of thirty minutes ago 6 out of the top 10 in my bracket had shields on. But shields aren't putting these people way up above everyone else; everybody is finding it easier to get more points.

The big losers here are people (like me) who maintain a too-low match-making ranking so that we never get attacked or retaliated against anyway and who only play much in the last hour or two before tournaments end. The big advantage of this approach was that I didn't have to play much to get top 5 placement; I would get an average of ~25 points/match up to maybe ~300 points and an average of ~20 after that, and I would never lose points, so maybe 25 matches per tournament was all I was doing (~1 hour total playtime). Now I have to get a lot more points to place well, which means more matches.

But if you were already playing more the way the developers intended, and were both gaining and losing points over time, you're probably gaining more and losing less now such that you don't have to play much more to still be competitive, even without using shields yourself.

The big winners are obviously people who can't play right at the end of a tournament. But I doubt it's smart to use a shield if you could otherwise be playing, though we'll really test this tomorrow morning.

I'm sitting around #15 in my bracket right now, not having been attacked at all yet, with something like 550 points, which is a lot more than I'd usually have to have to maintain this position. But I'm still within striking distance of the top 5 (lowest is ~650), and I suspect that if I were to wake up early tomorrow and push for another 200 points I'd be able to place pretty easily.

I was mostly playing like that as well. I got 4th place in the No Holds barred tournament and only played for like 2 hours at most.

I'm sitting in 7th right now with a shield on. Want to see what happens. I was 9th when I put it on.

 

[DangerousDave]

The big winners are obviously people who can't play right at the end of a tournament. But I doubt it's smart to use a shield if you could otherwise be playing, though we'll really test this tomorrow morning.

Yes. Shields are not as good as I though (I didn't saw that you'll lose the shield if you attack), but it fix the problem of losing all the progress at the end of an event because it ends at 6:00 AM.

It's still better to wait until the end, because people has better score, so it should be easier to find people with more score than you, but you can do a "sprint" hours before the end, build a good score, spend a shield and hope that you won't lose too much positions.

 

[blackflag]

Arghhh damnit I almost just got to 1000. I was at 911 fighting a guy that would give me 34 points. Should have beat him easy and I got the worst matches ever so I wiped and now can't heal so I shielded up since I'm in first place by 100 points or so.

I just really need those Spider-Man covers. If I can get to 1k in the morning I'll get the hp back, if not whatever I didn't pay for it.

 

[AVclub]

So last night at around 2AM I was at the #14 spot on my bracket and decided to spend the 100 coins to lock it in for 8 hours with the shield. Woke up this morning at 7AM and I had been attacked 5 times, losing zero points, but my rank was still down to #24. Since that doesn't get me the rewards being in the top 15 does, I decided to break the shield and try to grind up the ranks in the last hour of the competition. I beat another 6 groups and missed getting into the top 15 by about a minute because my last match took a bit too long. Still, in the top 45 I got my hundred gold back.

But the shield seems to prevent your points from dropping. It doesn't stop people from getting more points than you and dropping your rank. So, kinda false advertising within the game. I don't think I'll be using that shield again.

 

[Anilones]

But the shield seems to prevent your points from dropping. It doesn't stop people from getting more points than you and dropping your rank. So, kinda false advertising within the game. I don't think I'll be using that shield again.

Surely that is the only way it can work. Otherwise you could join a game and immediately shield once you hit #1.

I managed to remain in the top 15 and receive my Blue Spider-man. More impressive perhaps is I just got a Blue Hood from a standard token.

 

[PalaceBrother]

So what's the deal with the "daily" drops? I keep getting a chest to open every few battles.

 

[Gotchaye]

So overall I feel like shielding just means you end up playing more and getting more progression rewards, although having to pay HP for shields eats into this somewhat. The top 5 in my bracket ended up with 1200+ points. It seems to still be very important to play in the last few hours of a tournament in order to get great placement, but possibly it makes sense to try to rack up a bunch of points at an off-peak time more than a few hours before the tournament ends, when people are unlikely to be online to attack you, before shielding.

Actually getting that many points was easier than one might think due to everyone else having bunches of points. I was able to easily find matches for 20+ points even as my own score got north of 1000. This is the main reason why playing nearer the end matters; I needed other people with teams that I could easily beat to already have very high scores.

Anyway, the extra progression rewards are nice. The 50 HP reward at 400 was achievable by basically everybody, and the 100 HP reward at 1000 wasn't too hard to hit. I wasn't really paying attention or I guess I would have pushed on to 1300 for a blue IM40, though he already has a level cap of 115 and I've never used his blue anyway.

One thing I need to think about going forward is when I should be trying to get bracketed for tournaments with shields. It used to be that I tried to enter in the first 26 hours of the tournament, at least two hours after it opens and about 8 hours off of the eventual closing time (the goal was to minimize the number of people competing hard in the last hours). But shields mean that I probably should also be concerned about people amassing lots of points before the end of the tournament, forcing me to play more to get above them. So maybe I should be joining tournaments on the second day, or maybe even just in the last few hours. I don't really want to be playing for 3 hours each tournament.

Edit: I'm also unsure of the extent to which this tournament is special due to Spider-Man covers being probably the most desirable of the usual 3* prizes.

 

[hamchan]

So last night at around 2AM I was at the #14 spot on my bracket and decided to spend the 100 coins to lock it in for 8 hours with the shield. Woke up this morning at 7AM and I had been attacked 5 times, losing zero points, but my rank was still down to #24. Since that doesn't get me the rewards being in the top 15 does, I decided to break the shield and try to grind up the ranks in the last hour of the competition. I beat another 6 groups and missed getting into the top 15 by about a minute because my last match took a bit too long. Still, in the top 45 I got my hundred gold back.

But the shield seems to prevent your points from dropping. It doesn't stop people from getting more points than you and dropping your rank. So, kinda false advertising within the game. I don't think I'll be using that shield again.

Surely no one actually expected it to lock your rank down? Of course people would still be able to overtake you in points.

 

[blackflag]

Arghhh damnit I almost just got to 1000. I was at 911 fighting a guy that would give me 34 points. Should have beat him easy and I got the worst matches ever so I wiped and now can't heal so I shielded up since I'm in first place by 100 points or so.

I just really need those Spider-Man covers. If I can get to 1k in the morning I'll get the hp back, if not whatever I didn't pay for it.

So this morning my shield ran out and I was in 4th. Then I played some in the last 15 minutes and got back to 1st and then got hit at the last second to go to 2nd. This is fine because I don't want invisible woman and I also got past the 1k mark.

So even though I used 150 hero points I got back 250. Not bad.

 

[zulux21]

But if you were already playing more the way the developers intended, and were both gaining and losing points over time, you're probably gaining more and losing less now such that you don't have to play much more to still be competitive, even without using shields yourself..

I personally am finding that I am getting bent over and taken for points way more often in this lightning event than the last.

I tried doing one seriously but despite finishing a match ever other minute or so I couldn't get past 250 points after 50 minutes (so 25 or so matches) because after I got close to 200 for every one match I was doing I was being attacked twice over :/

it's likely because my team isn't scary enough even though it kills everything just fine when I am controlling it (level 50 or so wolverine and level 50 or so thor) so I likely just look tasty so everyone goes after me since the top people in my bracket are shielded :/

 

[BlackJace]

I was the victim of a triple Widow's Sting today.

 

[Gotchaye]

Got my Hood's blue up to level 4 and it's triggering fairly often. I realize he's not a great character but he's up to a level 64 cap at this point and my next-best villain (Magneto) caps out at 30 (and his covers are much harder to get). In Lightning Rounds he's got significantly more hp than anybody else I can bring and does twice as much damage on matches.

The passive is interesting. Some naive math (assuming each tile takes a color independently of all other tiles and is equally likely to take any color + environmental) suggests that at levels 4 and 5 it averages about half an AP per turn per color. Probably that's a low estimate since matches are more likely when there's a color imbalance on the board. So it's plausibly better than OBW's passive, and doesn't even require him to make the matches (although you also can't as easily control which color you get).

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

So my totally crackpot idea of leveling up every character at the same pace is really starting to bear fruit. I've got two power-monsters, and then everyone else in a nice spot (and a few stragglers at their top limits who I just don't have enough covers for). This puts me in a great position for really any eventuality:

Wolvie Aston 85
Thor 65
Cap 40
Mod Hawk 40
Class Storm 40
Magneatie NOW! 40
Bagmun 40
Original BW 40
IM40 40
Hulk 40
Spidey 40
X-Force Wolvie 40
IM35 39
Mod Storm 39
Bulls 39
Dakez 39
Mod BW 39
Class Hawk 39
Juggz 39
Venom 39
Yelena 39
Moonstone 39
Hood 39
Grey BW 38
Frank 30
IW 30
Doom 28
Loki 25
Ragz 15

Still on the lookout for that Classic Magz….

 

[hamchan]

Managed to place Top 25 for the first time in the Rags Lighting Round. It was looking pretty bad when I was running the default Rag, Wolverine and Origina Black Widow. Kept getting attacked constantly.

Then I changed my Widow out for a level 38 Magneto. I guess people couldn't be bothered to attack me anymore because of Mags 4.5k hp when buffed. Now that I've managed to level my Rags to 25 with the cover I won, it should be easier to place at least top 50 consistently and get more and more diabolical covers, just snowballing I guess.

 

[DangerousDave]

Managed to place Top 25 for the first time in the Rags Lighting Round. It was looking pretty bad when I was running the default Rag, Wolverine and Origina Black Widow. Kept getting attacked constantly.

Then I changed my Widow out for a level 38 Magneto. I guess people couldn't be bothered to attack me anymore because of Mags 4.5k hp when buffed. Now that I've managed to level my Rags to 25 with the cover I won, it should be easier to place at least top 50 consistently and get more and more diabolical covers, just snowballing I guess.

Yep, people attack Original BW because is a good character to use, but also to fight against, because you can target it, and AI don't use it very smart. You can defeat a level 85 Original BW with a Thor yellow skill (or a couple of red one), or a few attacks of Wolverine or Rags, after two or three turns. It's way better to use Dakken. No one wants to fight against a level 69 Dakken, specially in a Rags tournament.

 

[BlackJace]

I find myself going after Classic Storm first no matter what. Mistress of the Elements, as well as Hailstorm, are too annoying to ignore.

 

[PalaceBrother]

So what's the deal with the "daily" drops? I keep getting a chest to open every few battles.

So...quoting myself here....but I sure hope they don't fix this bug because in a few more battles it looks like there'll be a

Spoiler

4 star Wolvie

getting distributed.

 

[blackflag]

How come I'm not getting these.

 

[hamchan]

Another top 25 in the Doom round. I think I'll just tank my MMR in the Loki and Hood rounds since I don't care about them at all. Then actually try for the Rags, Mags and Doom rounds.

 

[Dash Kappei]

haven't been playing this past days but I've just fired it up and did a lightning battle with my l58 Doom: he's buffed and his maxed out black power is devastating, dealing 1300+ every round... I wish he was always like that, lol

 

[zulux21]

top 25 in loki for me, makes me really sad because when I went into my last match I was 5th, I won my match around the same time as the round ended (I don't think it counted though -_-) and ended up just in the top 25 (meaning i fell at least 3 spots with out being attacked :/)

 

[PalaceBrother]

Well, it looks like the free ride is over. I'm not getting daily prizes every few matches this morning.

This probably means I won't get any for the next several days I suppose!

 

[Gotchaye]

I've had some insane luck lately. A standard token yesterday was a green Ragnarok, both Diabolicals I've gotten from this week's Lightning Rounds were green Ragnaroks, and the Heroic I just got from a Lightning Round was a red Ragnarok. He's 4/2 now with a level 64 cap.

 

[DangerousDave]

I've had some insane luck lately. A standard token yesterday was a green Ragnarok, both Diabolicals I've gotten from this week's Lightning Rounds were green Ragnaroks, and the Heroic I just got from a Lightning Round was a red Ragnarok. He's 4/2 now with a level 64 cap.

It's a pity that the good skill of Ragnarok is the second one

Wolverine + Ragnarok + pregame PA boosters (to start with 6 green and red) = Win in a single turn.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

I've had some insane luck lately. A standard token yesterday was a green Ragnarok, both Diabolicals I've gotten from this week's Lightning Rounds were green Ragnaroks, and the Heroic I just got from a Lightning Round was a red Ragnarok. He's 4/2 now with a level 64 cap.

How the eff do you even get to a Diabolical? Do you just play for most of the 90 minutes?

I guess maybe my Doom/Rags/Hood/Etc just aren't strong enough to hang...

 

[Gotchaye]

How the eff do you even get to a Diabolical? Do you just play for most of the 90 minutes?

I guess maybe my Doom/Rags/Hood/Etc just aren't strong enough to hang...

Mostly I think it's about playing at off-peak times, making sure that the game thinks your team is awful, and avoiding the Magneto and Ragnarok rounds. In a lot of LRs it's a good idea to play up to 100 points or so and then sub in level 1s and let people beat them up. And if you happen to wake up at 6AM that's a great time to play. LRs are annoying in that they're unbracketed, so the total number of people playing matters.

If you have a bad matchmaking record and get in to a LR early, you can quickly get up to 100 or 120 points by playing the fake teams (WannaBSkrull, Chopstuck, Pyromantic, etc.) they seed the tournaments with which only have the default villain and some level 1-6 guys. That takes all of five minutes, and then I go do something else for maybe half an hour, then I work up to 26th place or thereabouts and then keep an eye on the rankings, playing more matches when I fall to ~35th. Usually this is all pretty easy to do; the hard part is keeping that position right at the end. Often I get hit multiple times in the last few minutes. Shielding would probably work, but I don't want to spend 50HP on it. So there's some luck involved, and sometimes you get a Heroic and sometimes you get a Loki.

I was doing this with an 85 Wolverine, 77 Original Widow, and 60 Hood, sometimes subbing in a 30 Magneto, although I replaced Widow with Ragnarok permanently once he got up to level 40 or so.

 

[davepoobond]

What team does the game use for your pvp team? The last one you used?

 

[Gotchaye]

What team does the game use for your pvp team? The last one you used?

My understanding is that it's the last one you were actually in a fight with, at least as far as other players' matchmaking going forward is concerned. So you can lock in a bad team by going into a battle with them and then retreating (you might have to yield too before it sticks). Obviously this doesn't affect people who already had you in one of their circles, and I'm not sure how it impacts retaliation circles that are still in queue for people. Typically in LRs where I want to do this it takes 5-10 minutes before attacks start coming in.

 

[PalaceBrother]

Hmm...ok, so those daily chests are still coming in pretty regularly. As long as you switch between prologue & pvp events it seems to work.

This just showed up. I was wrong, wasn't 4 stars.

I'm not posting the image in case people want to be surprised:

http://i.imgur.com/3msYHPn.png

 

[PalaceBrother]

Is Original Black Widow's purple power (Aggressive Recon) worth leveling past 3? Her other two powers seem pretty powerful so I'm thinking about holding purple back.

 

[davepoobond]

Is Original Black Widow's purple power (Aggressive Recon) worth leveling past 3? Her other two powers seem pretty powerful so I'm thinking about holding purple back.

I wouldn't. The ap cost gets too high for the return on it.

 

[zulux21]

Is Original Black Widow's purple power (Aggressive Recon) worth leveling past 3? Her other two powers seem pretty powerful so I'm thinking about holding purple back.

I had this debate myself for a while and in general I felt being able to steal 3 of everything but purple at 8 was better than 4 of everything but purple at 10 or 4 of everything at 11.

8 is a number i usually accidentally get around the time when stealing mana would be useful, 11 was usually a turn or two late unless I focused on it :/ (and I would rather focus on green and red)

 

[PalaceBrother]

I wouldn't. The ap cost gets too high for the return on it.

I had this debate myself for a while and in general I felt being able to steal 3 of everything but purple at 8 was better than 4 of everything but purple at 10 or 4 of everything at 11.

8 is a number i usually accidentally get around the time when stealing mana would be useful, 11 was usually a turn or two late unless I focused on it :/ (and I would rather focus on green and red)

My thoughts exactly. Thank you both.

 

[BlackJace]

"No missions are currently available?"

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Hmm...ok, so those daily chests are still coming in pretty regularly. As long as you switch between prologue & pvp events it seems to work.

This just showed up. I was wrong, wasn't 4 stars.

I'm not posting the image in case people want to be surprised:

http://i.imgur.com/3msYHPn.png

WHAT THE HOLY FUCK WOWWWWWW