Support NeoGAF

[DangerousDave]

Got second, and I did'nt got first because I had things to do and I was only able to do a couple of matches, the last hour.

I'm checking the scores, and the first event started at 10, now it's 16. I don't know if the hidden events are also increasing the score or not.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

As I learned from the Ares event, patience is the only way to do well in these tourneys. Play enough to open up a few routes and then play the last 2 hours of the event. Otherwise you reach the end of the points possible and are left at the mercy of the countdown clock slowly eroding all your points as folks continue to climb in late.

Another benefit to starting late I hadn't considered is if you go in the first two hours, your bracket will have people who could conceivably get four rounds in. That's crazyballs people and the chances of you hanging in that bracket and getting a good finish are somewhere on Google Maps between Slim, Nebraska and None, Delaware.

 

[NomarTyme]

3/3/3 now, aiming for 5/3/5. My thinking is that the yellow is too good to pass up, and there are all kinds of advantages to not needing to keep 10 yellow tiles on the board to heal. Level 5 yellow made a huge difference for 2* Wolverine and his only required 8 tiles.

It's harder to weigh the green and red, since they're bugged now. But I lean towards the green because it's a more general-purpose skill and is cheaper. The red is a skill that you really need to build a team around and need to play very carefully to take advantage of. You don't get much out of it if Patch is only matching one or two colors, and you don't get much out of it if Patch has been doing a lot of matching (reducing the number of tiles on the board with his color), so it restricts the choice of teammates for him and also means that you don't get that much out of his healing (since he won't be in front as often). By contrast, the green only requires that you be able to deal with the purple strike tiles, which is feasible, I think. The green being cheaper than the red also means that you're very likely to be able to use the green before the red, so when thinking about how leveling the red increases its damage it makes sense to consider the impact of the strike tiles from the green.

Still haven't received awards for the last sub-event.

Edit: And there we go. First place! 4/3/4 and will probably be 5/3/5 after Army of One wraps up. I guess now I'm either angling for a bunch of Heroic Tokens or shooting for Daredevils.



I saw on the official forums, and someone mentioned here, that losing battles makes enemy levels go down. I found this really helpful in the last hour, just loading up one of the missions where it gives you a Patch ally, sending in the default Patch and some level 1-6 trash characters, and retreating. Possibly this is better for the PC version, since I can do that about 20 times in a minute.

Nice. Thanks for the info.

 

[DangerousDave]

Al least 50 people in my 200 people bracked did only the first mission and are waiting for the score boost before continue playing. Seems that a lot of people already knows the tactic, it will be a difficult event.

 

[NomarTyme]

Al least 50 people in my 200 people bracked did only the first mission and are waiting for the score boost before continue playing. Seems that a lot of people already knows the tactic, it will be a difficult event.

Damn already did majority of the missions.

 

[zulux21]

god this event sucks... why are all of my enemies starting at 120 plus and just going higher :/

I am not doing well overall given one screw up sends me for a while since my missions are base line 120, most are 170 plus with a number of them 200 plus :/

 

[NomarTyme]

god this event sucks... why are all of my enemies starting at 120 plus and just going higher :/

I am not doing well overall given one screw up sends me for a while since my missions are base line 120, most are 170 plus with a number of them 200 plus :/

Do this.

.
I saw on the official forums, and someone mentioned here, that losing battles makes enemy levels go down. I found this really helpful in the last hour, just loading up one of the missions where it gives you a Patch ally, sending in the default Patch and some level 1-6 trash characters, and retreating. Possibly this is better for the PC version, since I can do that about 20 times in a minute.

 

[zulux21]

Do this.

much appreciated, it's still a stupid design, I shouldn't have to throw fights to be able to advance just because I play intelligently and don't lose much :/

I shouldn't be surprised given how pvp is run though.

 

[NomarTyme]

much appreciated, it's still a stupid design, I shouldn't have to throw fights to be able to advance just because I play intelligently and don't lose much :/

I shouldn't be surprised given how pvp is run though.

It not so bad. I have a bunch of shitty characters to kill.

 

[hamchan]

Shielded in 4th place in my bracket for Army of One. 1st place is only 803 points, I'm on 716. I was just constantly getting attacked around the 600s, a bit crazy really. I'm a pretty vengeful person though, so anyone who attacked me I immediately retaliated back.
I think I stopped seeing some of the same names after that... especially since I can heal myself most of the time with OBW and non-OBW teams can't really do that everytime they attack, unless they blow a health pack.

Would sure like to stay 4th and keep the yellow Patch cover, they've always been making that yellow cover the hardest reward. If not I guess I can go a 5/5/3 build, a pure offense build should be fine. If the respec they're adding later is decent then it doesn't matter too much.

 

[Gotchaye]

Shielded in 4th place in my bracket for Army of One. 1st place is only 803 points, I'm on 716. I was just constantly getting attacked around the 600s, a bit crazy really. I'm a pretty vengeful person though, so anyone who attacked me I immediately retaliated back.
I think I stopped seeing some of the same names after that... especially since I can heal myself most of the time with OBW and non-OBW teams can't really do that everytime they attack, unless they blow a health pack.

Would sure like to stay 4th and keep the yellow Patch cover, they've always been making that yellow cover the hardest reward. If not I guess I can go a 5/5/3 build, a pure offense build should be fine. If the respec they're adding later is decent then it doesn't matter too much.

Don't talk about me like I'm not here.

Also note that yellow Patch is the easiest to get in the PvE sub-events now, even though it's been the top prize in the PvP tournaments so far.

And I have no idea how PvP works anymore. It seems like the official forums don't either. Shields are more like invisibility than invincibility now (still very useful for negating retaliations) and the team that other players see from you isn't just the last one you used to fight (no tank teams anymore, and I've seen people's teams switch up really rapidly indicating that maybe the game just has an algorithm for picking a balanced team that fits the tournament requirements).

 

[hamchan]

Don't talk about me like I'm not here.

Haha didn't notice it was you up there. Nice job getting first. Looks a bit dangerous though with Wildart only 1 point behind you. He might do a surprise attack in the last minute.

 

[NomarTyme]

I like it when I put up my shield and over 8 people attacking for zero points!

 

[ToxicAdam]

I haven't even joined the Punisher tourney yet. I got 2 hours to do some work.....

 

[zulux21]

I like it when I put up my shield and over 8 people attacking for zero points!

I should have put up my shield earlier... i hit 615 points a few points behind 5th and decided to go after 5th to take it for myself... and then lost 100 points BOOM while getting 10 more points, so I got 60 points back and BOOM 100 more points lost.... I crawled my way back up to 592 and called a most likely locked in top 15 place good lol.

 

[NomarTyme]

I should have put up my shield earlier... i hit 615 points a few points behind 5th and decided to go after 5th to take it for myself... and then lost 100 points BOOM while getting 10 more points, so I got 60 points back and BOOM 100 more points lost.... I crawled my way back up to 592 and called a most likely locked in top 15 place good lol.

Its unpredictable. Just got to do it at the right time.

 

[zulux21]

Its unpredictable. Just got to do it at the right time.

it was actually pretty predicable it was going to happen, I just got greedy

 

[hamchan]

There are a few sad stories on the official forum of people unshielding to get a few more points and then getting blasted down a few hundred points.

^Shielded people being invisible really sucks too and is bad design. It means no new points are being generated to meet the higher progression rewards, which is why the bracket as a group can only really reach around 800 points when the highest reward is 2400.

 

[FaidSint]

Just the other page I was bitching about needing Thor covers and now I'm 30 minutes away from getting 3 prime ones from the Punisher tourney. Right now shielded at 86 (I was working all day so I went to 300 pts and shielded before work). So to get that last cover I'll have to unshield and play a couple matches right before midnight.

 

[zulux21]

Just the other page I was bitching about needing Thor covers and now I'm 30 minutes away from getting 3 prime ones from the Punisher tourney. Right now shielded at 86 (I was working all day so I went to 300 pts and shielded before work). So to get that last cover I'll have to unshield and play a couple matches right before midnight.

be careful with unshielding, as soon as you do you might get attacked

 

[shaowebb]

Wow, Thor and Storm with some AP boosts is fucking monstrous. Cascades for days. If they don't over nerf Thor's battery functions I'd like to keep this combo rolling with Daken. Here's hoping they just change Thor's colors so he can't pair with Wolverine's striked tiles.

 

[ToxicAdam]

Jesus, that tourney end was a shit show.


I was able to crest at 514 with one hour left and then never come close to that mark again, even though I was hitting people for 30+ each time. Finished at 425 and barely made the top 45.

 

[shaowebb]

Oh hell yeah! Finally got a Spiderman! Its a yellow and not a blue but still its a start. Also I got more Bullseye purple just now.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Ah ha ha holy crap.

Got beat so many times in the last Scotland that it knocked them down to like 150. Beat them (so barely) with Astoney Wolves, Daken, and the requisite Spidey.

WOW.

Daken and pops are kind of amahzing together.

 

[FaidSint]

Top 75, got my Thor Covers, just what I wanted. I feel in the future I may regret not going for Patches in these tournaments but I really want to fill out my 2 star team before I worry about anything else. He's been sitting at level 38 for a while, now its time to rock this Thunder God! (til the nerfs that is)

 

[ZackieChan]

Top 75, got my Thor Covers, just what I wanted. I feel in the future I may regret not going for Patches in these tournaments but I really want to fill out my 2 star team before I worry about anything else. He's been sitting at level 38 for a while, now its time to rock this Thunder God! (til the nerfs that is)

Luckily, my 2 maxed out characters are Wolvie and Thor, both getting nerfed. So lame. Then again, I guess it gives me an excuse to upgrade others.

Then again, I'm in Bangkok for four months, so why am I playing this again?

 

[hamchan]

Alright, I have continuously kept retreating on the first battle and sacrificing all my lower leveled characters in this Thick as Thieves sub event, tanking my "PvE MMR" or whatever they use, so the last battle is only against a level 70 team instead of a level 230 team.

This seems like a dumb system.

EDIT: Looks like I've lowered their levels down even more to 60. I wonder how low they can go.

With rubber banding and the increase in difficulty every time you win, the best strategy really is to play as little as possible and beat everything in the last hour.

 

[DangerousDave]

Alright, I have continuously kept retreating on the first battle and sacrificing all my lower leveled characters in this Thick as Thieves sub event, tanking my "PvE MMR" or whatever they use, so the last battle is only against a level 70 team instead of a level 230 team.

This seems like a dumb system.

EDIT: Looks like I've lowered their levels down even more to 60. I wonder how low they can go.

With rubber banding and the increase in difficulty every time you win, the best strategy really is to play as little as possible and beat everything in the last hour.

I reduced the first battle down to level 70 (and all the others went down until 90-100), but the last one is still 230. At least I'm still able to win it.

But tomorrow I'll go to full waiting time. First mission and no other mission until the last hour. I'll use the other hours to get xp on tourneys and reduce the difficulty losing missions.

 

[PalaceBrother]

My daily reward has been stuck on 92 for the last two weeks. Is this because I was affected by the early Patch glitch?

 

[Anilones]

My daily reward has been stuck on 92 for the last two weeks. Is this because I was affected by the early Patch glitch?

My daily reward hasn't moved at all since they changed the format. I posted a bug to them within a couple of days but haven't heard anything yet.

 

[Deleted member 47027]

Ah ha ha holy crap.

Got beat so many times in the last Scotland that it knocked them down to like 150. Beat them (so barely) with Astoney Wolves, Daken, and the requisite Spidey.

WOW.

Daken and pops are kind of amahzing together.

They're really good. Feed him greens! Leafy greens! And pop a million attack tiles.

 

[ToxicAdam]

They said they were aware of the reward bug, but won't be able to do anything about it for awhile.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Second place with less than 8 to go. Is my math right in that, rubber banding aside, there's no way I can drop under that since at 4 PM EST a few of my matches refresh. As long I get them in before 6, I'm Patch-bound, right?

Rubberbanding basically only would get someone so far before they run out and I get a whole fresh set of matches.

Is that right?

 

[shaowebb]

Ah ha ha holy crap.

Got beat so many times in the last Scotland that it knocked them down to like 150. Beat them (so barely) with Astoney Wolves, Daken, and the requisite Spidey.

WOW.

Daken and pops are kind of amahzing together.

Yeah, my team has been Wolverine/Thor/Daken for a bit now since discovering how ridiculous the attack tiles get with Daken Wolverine. Daken passively puts out tokens and then next turn you put out more with Wolverine. Thor batteries them with his normal shenanigans with his yellow ability.

Stuff is golden for damage, plus 2/3rds of your team heals themselves and generally their is enough yellow to get heals as Thor's red ability makes more.


EDIT: Holy shit at that new event!

Pay 300HP to enter. Be guaranteed to win at least a 2 star hero cover. If you place at the top you win 10,000 HP!
This shit is gonna be big.

 

[Gotchaye]

The new tournament seems like a trap, tbh. As of now, I'm not intending to enter. With no progression rewards, and assuming maybe 100 HP spent on shields throughout, you need top 400 or top 200 to turn a profit (depends how much you like ISO and assuming that you think the 100 HP heroic tokens are good deals). Obviously you get ISO from individual fights, but you could do that in Shield Training or Army of One. Remember that this is unbracketed, so the difficulty of placement is going to be a lot like it was for The Hulk event.

I bet most people would be better off just buying 100 HP Heroic Tokens over the next three days. It also looks like a good way to raise your MMR for tournaments with valuable covers as prizes. I suggest focusing on Army of One and then Lightning Rounds later in the week instead.

Second place with less than 8 to go. Is my math right in that, rubber banding aside, there's no way I can drop under that since at 4 PM EST a few of my matches refresh. As long I get them in before 6, I'm Patch-bound, right?

Rubberbanding basically only would get someone so far before they run out and I get a whole fresh set of matches.

Is that right?

Pretty much. If you're in the lead with exactly 8 hours left, and you're going to be able to play all of the missions twice again after they refresh, it's awfully hard for someone to overtake you unless they benefit much more from rubber-banding. Or unless they grind out a bunch of one pointers.

 

[shaowebb]

The new tournament seems like a trap, tbh. As of now, I'm not intending to enter. With no progression rewards, and assuming maybe 100 HP spent on shields throughout, you need top 400 or top 200 to turn a profit (depends how much you like ISO and assuming that you think the 100 HP heroic tokens are good deals). Obviously you get ISO from individual fights, but you could do that in Shield Training or Army of One.

I bet most people would be better off just buying 100 HP Heroic Tokens over the next three days. It also looks like a good way to raise your MMR for tournaments with valuable covers as prizes. I suggest focusing on Army of One and then Lightning Rounds later in the week instead.

Not even gonna late enter with a prize of 10k HP as a possibility? You've got some good stuff. So long as the nerfs dont appear mid tourney things should at least yield over 400 if you place high again.

 

[Gotchaye]

Not even gonna late enter with a prize of 10k HP as a possibility? You've got some good stuff. So long as the nerfs dont appear mid tourney things should at least yield over 400 if you place high again.

I have no shot at the 10k HP prize. Late entry doesn't matter because this is unbracketed, or is effectively so since the bracket is 50k and The Hulk event only ever saw about 60k entrants. I have better things to do than grind for a few hours for 70/140 ISO per match awards and then a small amount of bonus HP at the end. Better to relax or get some work done now and then spend that same amount of time in the Lightning Rounds getting 3* covers instead of 2*, plus progression rewards.

Edit: I mean, basically this is just a long Lightning Round. It'll have more players by virtue of lasting longer, and more of them will be focused on doing well in the last hours because the prizes are larger. So if top 50 in a Lightning Round is a struggle, probably top 200ish here will be a struggle, I bet, and probably you'll have to put in a lot more time than you would for a Lightning Round to get there. But a top 200 placement is only giving you 100 HP and 2000 ISO beyond what you could have gotten spending 100 HP on heroic daily deals. This is significantly worse than a typical PvP tournament - I can trivially place top 45 in Army of One for 400 ISO and 125 HP in prizes, and then the progression rewards for up to 500 points come out to a minimum value of 1700 ISO and 50 HP (including 2 recruit tokens and 1 pseudo-heroic token, which could give me something better than 100/125 ISO).

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

I have no shot at the 10k HP prize. Late entry doesn't matter because this is unbracketed, or is effectively so since the bracket is 50k and The Hulk event only ever saw about 60k entrants. I have better things to do than grind for a few hours for 70/140 ISO per match awards and then a small amount of bonus HP at the end. Better to relax or get some work done now and then spend that same amount of time in the Lightning Rounds getting 3* covers instead of 2*, plus progression rewards.

Edit: I mean, basically this is just a long Lightning Round. It'll have more players by virtue of lasting longer, and more of them will be focused on doing well in the last hours because the prizes are larger. So if top 50 in a Lightning Round is a struggle, probably top 200ish here will be a struggle, I bet, and probably you'll have to put in a lot more time than you would for a Lightning Round to get there. But a top 200 placement is only giving you 100 HP and 2000 ISO beyond what you could have gotten spending 100 HP on heroic daily deals.

Agreed. Looks shiny and cool and of course who doesn't want to be elite, but I'm going to need to spend HP on a slot for Daredevil in a few days (or maybe even hours depending on what the Intel Unlock does) so, thanks but no thanks.

 

[shaowebb]

Hmmm....I wonder how this sort of tourney would fare if they added progression awards as well? Weigh in tourney veterans.

 

[ihearthawthats]

I love the idea of this tournament. It'll be fun just to watch. Prolly one of my fave updates thus far.

Progression rewards detract from the main purpose imo, which is bragging rights for top placement.

 

[ToxicAdam]

I was going to skip this tourney, but reflecting on it, I might join with 5 hours left. Go balls out for 2 hours of play then throw up a three hour shield (for 50 HP) and let it ride.

That late in the tourney there should be plenty of targets ahead of me that will give me 35-42 points per hit (and the chances of them retaliating are slim).


So, that's only a 350 HP investment and I should have a good chance (??) of finishing top 100. Which would mean a 500 HP, 2000 ISO, 3 Heroic prize.

Decent tradeoff, but not great. I'll just monitor it and see how it's shaping up.

Hmmm....I wonder how this sort of tourney would fare if they added progression awards as well? Weigh in tourney veterans.

Progression awards don't really mean much to me anymore. The ISO is usually paltry (especially with the scoring the way it is now) and the tokens rarely (less than 5%) grant me something I need, let alone want. It's all about that end prize for me at this point.

 

[shaowebb]

Also...anyone else miss THIS version of the market?

God damn would I love something a bit more precise still existing in the market. I'm looking at you random Bagman Spidey.

 

[Gotchaye]

So, the bright side of all the weirdness going on with the PvE event is that it's ridiculously easy to get first in the sub-events by playing smart (and being aware of how the event works, etc.). The vast majority of people are probably staring at level 200+ goons on every mission. And there's a rich-get-richer effect, since at this point, even when the goons are level 200+, matches end as soon as my Patch gets 9 green AP and lays down 12 strike tiles. I could very easily take first in the sub-event I'm in now, but I'm debating letting someone else (who actually needs them) have the Patch covers and just taking the 3x Heroic Tokens. But that's a lot of ISO to give up. Come to think of it, it's the same as the prize for the Avengers Elite tournament, and for only about an hour of playing.

Edit: Plus I can grind out some of the 500 ISO rewards as I go through all the missions for a second time. Sorry 6th place

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

So, the bright side of all the weirdness going on with the PvE event is that it's ridiculously easy to get first in the sub-events by playing smart (and being aware of how the event works, etc.). The vast majority of people are probably staring at level 200+ goons on every mission. And there's a rich-get-richer effect, since at this point, even when the goons are level 200+, matches end as soon as my Patch gets 9 green AP and lays down 12 strike tiles. I could very easily take first in the sub-event I'm in now, but I'm debating letting someone else (who actually needs them) have the Patch covers and just taking the 3x Heroic Tokens. But that's a lot of ISO to give up. Come to think of it, it's the same as the prize for the Avengers Elite tournament, and for only about an hour of playing.

I don't know about #1. I disagree. 230 level final matches are not "ridiculously easy", even if you can clear through every other match in a sub event.

The only people who can comfortably coast to a #1 are people with Spideys of a high enough level to beat the final mission twice. I still can't see that as that easy to pull off, unless I'm doing things wrong and should be entering brackets with only two refresh opportunities. (or 1??? that seems totally bonkers)

That said, it has been ridiculously easy to hold onto my top five spot all day. But #1? I don't think so at all. I just barely beat the final mission once after like five failed attempts. I don't dare try it again, and I can't see myself overtaking #1 without being able to do that, nor, honestly, should I. You shouldn't really be able to be the best if you can't even beat every mission.

It's possible I'm missing something/approaching it wrong, but I entered the sub event about four hours after it started and have played through two rounds of every match (twice), except for the last one, which I was only able to beat the one time. At 4:00, I'll have matches IV through VIII to go through again, which should (I believe) secure a #2 finish, but I won't be able to beat #1 without beating IX.

 

[Gotchaye]

I don't know about #1. I disagree. 230 level final matches are not "ridiculously easy", even if you can clear through every other match in a sub event.

The only people who can comfortably coast to a #1 are people with Spideys of a high enough level to beat the final mission twice. I still can't see that as that easy to pull off, unless I'm doing things wrong and should be entering brackets with only two refresh opportunities. (or 1??? that seems totally bonkers)

That said, it has been ridiculously easy to hold onto my top five spot all day. But #1? I don't think so at all. I just barely beat the final mission once after like five failed attempts. I don't dare try it again, and I can't see myself overtaking #1 without being able to do that, nor, honestly, should I. You shouldn't really be able to be the best if you can't even beat every mission.

It's possible I'm missing something/approaching it wrong, but I entered the sub event about four hours after it started and have played through two rounds of every match (twice), except for the last one, which I was only able to beat the one time. At 4, I'll have matches IV through VIII to go through again, which should (I believe) secure a #2 finish, but I won't be able to beat #1 without beating IX.

The three enemies in my mission IX are at level 46. Maybe it's just that I'm on the PC version and can take advantage of hotkeys and short load times, but I do "damage" to enemies faster by loading up Mission 1 and retreating with the default Widow than I do fighting for real. Plus I can do that in advance of my actual push such that a full sweep through the missions only takes 30-40 minutes, without boosts or otherwise trying very hard. Optimal order for a refresh on this sub-event is 9, 8, 9, 7, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 7, 6, 2, 1, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, incidentally.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

The three enemies in my mission IX are at level 46. Maybe it's just that I'm on the PC version and can take advantage of hotkeys and short load times, but I do "damage" to enemies faster by loading up Mission 1 and retreating with the default Widow than I do fighting for real. Plus I can do that in advance of my actual push such that a full sweep through the missions only takes 30-40 minutes, without boosts or otherwise trying very hard. Optimal order for a refresh on this sub-event is 9, 8, 9, 7, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 7, 6, 2, 1, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, incidentally.

:0

holy shit

how many times do you retreat? just the once?

 

[Gotchaye]

:0

holy shit

how many times do you retreat? just the once?

Lots. I just timed it over 8 retreats. It takes about ten seconds per, and you get a significant level reduction of enemies on all missions every 4-5 retreats (although I think I'm at the minimum now - level 40 on the last mission).

You load up mission 1, hit replay, select the default level 16 widow, then scroll over to the right to your trash characters and put two of them with her. Start the match, retreat asap, skip through the next screen, then you're back on mission select. Select the mission again, select level 16 widow, and go again (it saves the other two characters). You can do that four times before the characters die. Then pick two more characters, repeat. And trash characters are back to full health in less than half an hour. Do this once or twice with 6-8 trash characters before each refresh and basically every fight is against level 60 or less enemies.

Edit: I'm also finding it helpful to start 9-15 hours before these things end so that I only have to worry about two rounds of refreshes. But that's more a preference thing based on how much you care about the main bracket, I think.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Lots. I just timed it over 8 retreats. It takes about ten seconds per, and you get a significant level reduction of enemies on all missions every 4-5 retreats (although I think I'm at the minimum now - level 40 on the last mission).

You load up mission 1, hit replay, select the default level 16 widow, then scroll over to the right to your trash characters and put two of them with her. Start the match, retreat asap, skip through the next screen, then you're back on mission select. Select the mission again, select level 16 widow, and go again (it saves the other two characters). You can do that four times before the characters die. Then pick two more characters, repeat. And trash characters are back to full health in less than half an hour. Do this once or twice with 6-8 trash characters before each refresh and basically every fight is against level 60 or less enemies.

So I can sort of "prime" this before my matches actually refresh at 4:00 PM or should I wait?

 

[Gotchaye]

So I can sort of "prime" this before my matches actually refresh at 4:00 PM or should I wait?

Yes, you can prime it. I've been a little scared to try priming before I actually join a bracket, but in about two hours my mission 9's points are going to pop back up and the enemies will still be level 40. They were 90ish when I finished my earlier run, but during lunch I did the retreat thing and got them down, even though all my missions were only worth 1 point at the time (I wasn't winning missions anyway).

 

[PalaceBrother]

Lots. I just timed it over 8 retreats. It takes about ten seconds per, and you get a significant level reduction of enemies on all missions every 4-5 retreats (although I think I'm at the minimum now - level 40 on the last mission).

You load up mission 1, hit replay, select the default level 16 widow, then scroll over to the right to your trash characters and put two of them with her. Start the match, retreat asap, skip through the next screen, then you're back on mission select. Select the mission again, select level 16 widow, and go again (it saves the other two characters). You can do that four times before the characters die. Then pick two more characters, repeat. And trash characters are back to full health in less than half an hour. Do this once or twice with 6-8 trash characters before each refresh and basically every fight is against level 60 or less enemies.

Edit: I'm also finding it helpful to start 9-15 hours before these things end so that I only have to worry about two rounds of refreshes. But that's more a preference thing based on how much you care about the main bracket, I think.

I'm totally lost. Are you increasing the reward points by doing this?

I'm @ #1 in my event but there's still plenty of time for that to change. All my missions are returning 1 point right now.