Grand Experiment 2: Treading Water in the SCL 10 Post-Shardpocalypse

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  • Chirus
    Chirus Posts: 191 Tile Toppler
    ThaRoadWarrior said:
    I do seem to have a big spender in my alliance, but i have the attribution on who it is hidden. So there is a probably not insignificant amount of CP coming in from that. But I myself am and have always been completely F2P
    In your opinion, would you say it's possible to get just the progression rewards in PVP by focusing on the latest releases primarily? I don't care about rank so much there. I'm in a comfortable spot right now depending on Polaris like a crutch, and part of me is afraid to venture any higher, but at the same time, I also want to invest in my 5 stars too at some point, eventually. I just don't know if hoarding is for me, which means chasing after classics will be a longer journey than the players who can tolerate the monotony for months at a time saving up tokens and CP. I'm sure I'll get the most popular characters eventually. I'm targeting Kitty, and hope to follow it with BRB, and the rest. And I'll go for them when they're featured in special shops, but I don't really want to save for them. I'm completely fine with just picking up a cover or two and waiting until the next special shop to make progress on that front. I just don't want to lock myself out of a game mode because of playing by my own rules. 
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,564 Chairperson of the Boards
    I think you at least have to hit the 10cp benchmark every event, but I usually grind to 1200. I started saving out at 1200 to hang on to season points since there is CP towards the top of that progression tree, and now it just feels like the thing to do for the extra couple covers and tokens.
  • Zalasta
    Zalasta Posts: 308 Mover and Shaker
    So far I've been able to keep up with baby champing all LL using LT and CP earned monthly. I complete CL10 PvE for progression, and CL10 PvP to the 10 CP mark.  That hasn't left me anything extra to go after classics, but one month I did burn my CP on the Crystal store because it had two classics that I hadn't champed yet. I probably can't do that every month, but it looks like I'll get it away with it this one time. Currently at 28 LT & 912 CP.  I thought I was approaching the ISO hump, but lack of ISO continues to be an issue.  I've stopped leveling new 4-stars to ensure that I've got ISO for champed 5-stars.
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,564 Chairperson of the Boards
    Zalasta said:
    So far I've been able to keep up with baby champing all LL using LT and CP earned monthly. I complete CL10 PvE for progression, and CL10 PvP to the 10 CP mark.  That hasn't left me anything extra to go after classics, but one month I did burn my CP on the Crystal store because it had two classics that I hadn't champed yet. I probably can't do that every month, but it looks like I'll get it away with it this one time. Currently at 28 LT & 912 CP.  I thought I was approaching the ISO hump, but lack of ISO continues to be an issue.  I've stopped leveling new 4-stars to ensure that I've got ISO for champed 5-stars.
    Yeah you can definitely keep up by committing to latest only playing to full progression in PVE and the 10cp in PVP. Then if you can stop until whoever is champed drops out it works pretty well.
  • dramatist
    dramatist Posts: 227 Tile Toppler
    I passed the 500 5* cover milestone yesterday and used the 800 shards to finish and champ Sersi. Now Elektra is 4,4,4 with 141 shards so I should probably hoard again until She drops out. 
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,564 Chairperson of the Boards
    Wa5p is now fully covered, but I threw a bunch of iso into my 4/4/4 Ultron for this past boost list as bolt and Abigail weren’t really cutting it in PVP. I need about 170k to champ her. I moved my 4* over to Gert who is now level 275 so I can finish Ultron. 5* is still Crystal, who is still 0/0/1 with 820 shards. Mr F is 5-8 covers away from finishing up Surfer depending on the loose shard situation. I may true him up to the rewards to save the cover chase.


  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,564 Chairperson of the Boards
    Wa5p is champed now. I haven't used her yet, but I'm curious if there isn't some kind of Panther or Shuma Gorath team that could benefit from getting sent inviz. I guess Thor is still the top tier yellow battery, though potentially Sersei could be cool there.
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    You've another 10 5* to go, while I have another 30+ to go. 

    I think you can bring her to half health or lesser so that Rescue or Crystal can trigger her swarm tile passively. My Wasp is at a bad build so it's really difficult work on creating a synergetic team.
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,564 Chairperson of the Boards
    yeah for sure; it's a weird feeling being so "close" to having them all champed. Calling the swarm is a full on joke though (at level 450 it does 6,915 damage and a lot of board shake). To me her only utility is to be able to be a 5* who can send teammates invisible. There is possibly some kind of board control chaos you could do with her now by using Sersei to remove a color from circulation and locking a bunch of the other tiles, but I can't really figure out how to make that meaningful.
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,564 Chairperson of the Boards
    I hit the 4K 4* covers milestone and a bonus 400 shards for Gert, so Ultron is now champed. That was 5* champ #60, so that milestone was cleared as well. I moved my 4* fav over to Mr F who needs 6 or 9 covers to complete Silver Surfer depending on if I want to true him up by 40 shards.
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,564 Chairperson of the Boards
    Now that Gargantos (Shuma Gorath) is in latest, I ran through all my LTs and I'm back in Latest with my CP.

    I ended up doing 47 pulls with 7 5*s in the group ~14.9% pull rate which is pretty great.

    Current Latest:
    Crystal: 0/1/2 with 1372 shards (been my shard target since Ultron got a feeder)
    Moon Knight: 1/0/2 with 725 shards (got lucky from an hp token)
    Shuma Gorath: 1/1/2 with 275 shards (just got the one cover from personal progression in the boss fight, my alliance didn't clear round 8)

    Current favorites
    Crystal (previously mentioned)
    Mr F: level 342 - 2 more to get Silver Surfer to 460 shards, 2 more after that to finish him or i can wait and buy shards when they turn up.
    Storm (just rebuilding a flip)
  • Zalasta
    Zalasta Posts: 308 Mover and Shaker
    TRW - have you been able to champ all of the latest 5-stars? Your LL covers always seem a little low.

    I got my last two full covers for Crystal, and 2 each for MN & SG, so I'm on hold until next month. Will champ Crystal with her next event. A little concerned about my ability to finish MN before he rotates out. I did champ DD with bonus shards. Sitting on 18 LT & 1125 CP.

    MN @ 0/1/1 with 730 shards
    SG @ 2/1/1 with 405 shards


  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,564 Chairperson of the Boards
    Not always since I’ve been spending back in Classic, no. But usually they get at least to 10-12 before dropping out, and I just leave my favorite on them till they catch up. Ultron was the most recent dropout.
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,564 Chairperson of the Boards
    Usually the loop goes like this: I’ll be all in on Latest till I champ whoever is next out. Once that person is champed I’ll stop burning LTs and move my CP spend to Classic until they drop out. Sometimes it’s seemless and I’ll just pick up on the next one, sometimes I’ll be a little short and they drop out at 10-12 covers which is fine, they are easy to finish from there. 

    Other times I’ll champ the middle out character first, like Elektra this past batch who dropped out at 457, so it sets me back on the subsequent group like we see here with Gargantos. Now most of those Elektras were purple, so it wouldn’t have been an even spread, but I’d be a lot further along had I not continued chasing Brand.
  • Chirus
    Chirus Posts: 191 Tile Toppler
    For the people who mostly spend on the latest to build their 5*s, do you usually switch to the introductory store to get the newest release a couple weeks early? Or do you stay on the Latest to continue building your current projects?
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,564 Chairperson of the Boards
    Never. Just wait for them to land in Latest. If you really want to reliably stay current by spending as you go, the path to that is ONLY spending into latest, and stopping until the top 3 are characters you need covers for as you champ them. 
  • Vhailorx
    Vhailorx Posts: 6,085 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited June 2022
    Chirus said:
    For the people who mostly spend on the latest to build their 5*s, do you usually switch to the introductory store to get the newest release a couple weeks early? Or do you stay on the Latest to continue building your current projects?

    The specialty stores are tempting because they are theoretically a way to boost your drop rate up above the fixed 15% we all live with in latest/classics.  But that's only true if you get good luck; if you 3/40 you will just end up worse off (and if you pull enough from the specialty stores you will just end up at 15% like all the other LTs).

    For myself, I only test my luck with them when they have one (or preferably 2) classics that have value to my roster (either because they are a character I would still like to champ for fun like 5daken or sersi whom I never got past 11 covers, or because they are straight up very good like SC or BRB, etc). And when I do pull from them, I am pretty cautious and always willing to quit while I am ahead.  I think the only time I ever spent more than a few hundred CP on a special store in the last few years was for SC.

    So far I haven't been burned too badly and have gotten a few extra covers, but no doubt a bad run a coming. The smart move (for those without infinite cp) is almost certainly to never pull from them.
  • Chirus
    Chirus Posts: 191 Tile Toppler
    This is very solid advice. Thank you. I needed a good general push in the right direction. On the one hand, I wanted to maximize my chances of getting the newest release so I could have something for the PVE nodes at a minimum. But on the other hand, the chances of getting that newest release in a "pull as you go" approach is rather low and almost unrealistic, practically speaking. I just wanted to confirm my suspicions were correct, lol.
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,564 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited June 2022
    If you're getting all available progression CP and have a robust 4* roster, it's been pretty realistic for me to pull as I go and stay current. Mine started dropping out unfinished only when I went back to spending my CP in Classic while waiting for champed characters to drop out of Latest. I've been staying current by pulling only out of latest and then stopping while my champs drop out since professor X came out.
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    If you can play SCL 10 and want to get only one cover for essential, you'll never need to pull. You aren't missing out a lot from 3-4 nodes of 5* essentials.

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