Well putting HP into shields only make sense if someone top tier like BP happens to be up for grabs and there’s obviously no way you could know that ahead of time, though it’s a good idea to save around 1000 HP just in case if you think you have a good shot at winning those. No you don’t need 1000 HP but having 1000 HP in reserve should account for any miscalculations unless you’re trying to compete against guys grossly out of your league and at least secure you a T25 finish for a coveted character.
I bought a lot of my covers with HP since I buy a lot less roster slots compared to people in similar situation. Some turned out to be great buys while others not great and there’s also the time I bought 2 Black Panther blacks to complete him and drew 2 BP black immediately the next day. There’s always going to be some risk involved when trying to break into T25 without spending a lot of money.
I picked Blue Hood as example, because he was the first I actually bought covers for and I never regretted it. Hood’s unique due to his considerable synergy with others, allowing a player to use wider variety of game plays and significantly speeds up fights, additionally to that, until reaching 600pts mark I secure much more defensive wins then before. And speed was the factor which was relevant for me. Until that time, an average climb to 600 pts was matter of lets say 2-3 hours of continuous play for me as transitioning player missing key covers out of tokens and rewards. When I first invested in covers in hood and stopped investing in shields and roster slots suddenly this time was reduced by approx 45 minutes. And those spare 45 minutes can be invested in grinding some nodes in PVE as well.
At the moment I am stockpiling HP for either XForce green or blue/red CMags cover to speed this up even more. Started at 50HP last week, being at 650 HP now that journey has already visible finish line and makes much more sense than before.
But my post is mainly focused on bad spending of HP on worthless shields, roster slots and other things. If I count how many HP I spent on 3 hours shields before the end of PVP and make a statistic on how often I was attacked during that period, I will conclude the return on investment resulted in loss. The same applies for my Human Torchling in example for which I bought slot as it was essential in the next PVE - waste of HP, I didn’t use that guy much since then.
EDIT: and when I say it’s speed improvement here’s data to support that statement
Before maxing Hoods blue it took me in average 7 minutes per fight. Average pts earned 25 - granting me approx 214 pts per hour in PvP.
After maxing Hoods blue it takes me in average 5 minutes per fight. Average pts earned 25 - granting me approx 300 pts per hour in PvP.
Net net saving me approx 18 minutes to achieve same score as without Hood blue maxed, thats 3,4 more fights per hour = more earned nodes awards, more effective grinding or better game/life balance.
I think if you just narrowed your covers to buy list, to the 4th or 5th cover of:
3* thor
BP
Everyone would be in agreement that it would help improve your PVP to top25 probably.
However, the scumbag vaulting system has basically destroyed this option for anyone that started playing recently, aka most of the 2*-3* camp.
Bought 2 cmags purples before the nerf - no regrets. My patchneedo combo kept me in the game for a couple months in pvp and tore up pve.
Bought 2 sentry skills a bit after, no real regrets. At the time, a fully maxed sentry and hood was the only way in pvp, having no hood, I needed a strong sentry, and used him to clear problem nodes all the time before the nerf
Bought my 5th green xforce - best money I’ve spent in the game
Bought last 2 blue hood - just recently, I will see if it was worth it.
But aside from a 5th Thoress blue or red, that’s it for me.
Also, not having enough roster spots and only keeping “good” players set me very far back in this game. Dumbest thing I’ve done in the game.
So, is that all I need, a fully covered BP? I am in the 2* → 3* transition also and it is taking a very long time (I have been playing for 7 months) to get even 1 hero fully covered (Thor and Daken would still be useless if I hadn’t bought 4 covers for each of them). A fully covered Thor was a game changer for me. I went from never making top 100 to always making top 100. I spent 5000 HP on 4 covers but, because of him, I’ve won over 40 covers in PvP alone! Now I’m trying to figure out how to make top 25. With the rapidly expanding roster of 3*, it is nearly impossible to get a large number of heroes to 10 or more covers. Getting to T25 would make the process much faster and far more enjoyable. What covers do I buy to guarantee T25? Based on this post, BP is the way to go. Unfortunately, he’s vaulted so I’ll have to wait 3-6 months for him. Would Hood do it? I have him at 5/3/3? Will 2 more blue get me to the promised land? Or do I need to drop some major HP on XF whom I currently have at 1/2/3? Any advice here would be greatly appreciated. I simply want to decrease the frustration and increase the fun factor of the game. Thanks.
Well, it really depends on how much you want to spend and what you are trying to achieve. I whaled it up and bought covers for X-Force to max his black and green and I leveled him to 190 thus far. I pair him with maxed LThor or maxed Hood and I can reliably get top 25. That wasn’t the case before. So I spent a lot (though iTunes gift cards helped), and now I get an extra cover every 3 days when I want it. If you consider 10 events a month, that’s 10 extra covers which would normally cost 12500 HP otherwise. I can also hit T5 at times, so maybe an extra 5000 HP worth of covers earned in addition to progressions that you might not otherwise hit. (Correct me if I’m wrong on 10 events per month)
If you’re going to spend the money, do it at the top of the game, and don’t play around with the mid-tier. How you feel about paying to win is on you. Might lessen your sense of achievement, might not.
Also, many people have said it. If you aren’t in a top 100 PVP alliance, get in one with your shiny new 4*. There’s another ten covers a month. I was on a team that never hit the top 100 and the move to my new team immediately started paying dividends. Should have done so a long time ago.
That’s great advice! That’s what I’m looking for. I would need to buy 2 Hood blue, 4 XF green and 3 XF for a total of 20,000 HP. I’m willing to make the investment. This is the nature of the game now. Too many 3* means it’s virtually impossible to get a decent number of 3* fully covered. Finishing in T25 is the reward. 10 extra covers per season is definitely worth it. Decrease my sense of achievement? No way! This is the nature of the game. You can’t achieve anything good without spending money. I’ve been playing over 7 months and not one fully covered hero I didn’t have to pay for. I want to make sure the investment is worthwhile. I bought 4 Thor covers and have won over 50 covers so far. Not a bad return on investment! I’m willing to pay if it will guarantee my T25.
I have a few questions:
Will XF 190, Thor 166, Hood 166 get me T25 even if the main PvP hero is under-levelled?
Where do I go to find a list of the top 100 alliances? My alliance has been top 100 once in the past 5 seasons. I get HP from them, which is nice, but an extra cover would be better.
Did you see a huge increase in play time because of your alliance’s requirements? I want to maintain a life outside of MPQ.
I don’t know that you need to buy the Hood covers (although what’s 2500 more hp after you plunk down 17500 on XForce).
If you want it, yes. I just finished top 25 in Hood event with level 135s and 11 hours of shields because I wanted Black Doom. It would be much easier with XForce Thor but not automatic. Likely can be done with 3 hours of shield.
There is a season recap in the Events folder that lists the top 100 alliances. You can find one for every season. However, best place to go is the alliance folder and post in the Player looking for Alliance thread. They will find you.
Deadly United finished 62nd last season. We require 600+PvP, 7500+Season with no PvE requirements. I think those are fairly normal requirements for the lower end of the top100, but don’t know if that would require more play time from you. Keep in mind that adding XForce may decrease how long it takes you to reach your number
So for Unholy Outlaw, you ran Hood 166, and two 135s? Do you remember who they were? You said it would have been much easier with Thor and XF. Why didn’t you use them instead?
Thanks for the tip!
That’s exactly what I do now: 600+ PvP. In Cage PvP and Hood PvP, I scored 740 and got T25 both times. I’m glad there is no PvE requirement (I hate the grind!). Do you guys have room in Deadly United?
I don’t have a character over 135, so for climbing I run Patch/Daken and for endgame speed I run Hulk/Patch. To get to 838 in Hood event, I was running Hulk/Patch with buffed 203 Hood. XForce is 3/4/3 (I am buying at least 2 covers next season) and Thor is 3/3/3 (I am saving Heroic tokens for the unvaulting next season plus the likely PvE and PvP rewards), so neither is as effective as what I run.
My point was that a 190 XF and 166 Thor should draw less attacks to make it easier to climb higher before the first shield. As soon as I cross 600, it is a race to get as many points as possible before health packs run out and the attacks roll in.
Deadly United is full. Good luck with your search.
To add, I found my alliance here on the boards. Go to the alliance recruiting posts. There are consistently top 100 alliances looking for recruits. As papa said, if you can hit 600 every PVP you should be fine. Don’t try and join the X-Men or similar hardcore alliances if you aren’t willing to pt in the time and work. also, it seems that most of these alliances are casual towards PVE. Some may go for new characters, but most don’t.
You will definitely be able to hit 600 in a single run with X-Force and Thor. Time spent for me is way down, so more free time and not less.
Warning though. When you start getting covers fast, there is a strange feeling when you start having guys maxed and you have to sell the 3* covers. You get used to needing every one you open and now you get 500 ISO, which is a terrible sell price.
I’m waiting for the next sale. After you start hitting top 25, the only next step is getting Lady Thor…
To add, I found my alliance here on the boards. Go to the alliance recruiting posts. There are consistently top 100 alliances looking for recruits. As papa said, if you can hit 600 every PVP you should be fine. Don’t try and join the X-Men or similar hardcore alliances if you aren’t willing to pt in the time and work. also, it seems that most of these alliances are casual towards PVE. Some may go for new characters, but most don’t.
You will definitely be able to hit 600 in a single run with X-Force and Thor. Time spent for me is way down, so more free time and not less.
Warning though. When you start getting covers fast, there is a strange feeling when you start having guys maxed and you have to sell the 3* covers. You get used to needing every one you open and now you get 500 ISO, which is a terrible sell price.
I’m waiting for the next sale. After you start hitting top 25, the only next step is getting Lady Thor…
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It sounds as though getting more XF covers is the way to go so I can run him with Thor. I’m short 2 blue covers for Hood to get him maxed. Should I get him too or is XF enough?
I know what you mean about selling covers. In the past 2 weeks I’ve had to sell 3 Hulk green, 2 Blade black and 1 Torch red. It is a strange feeling but those guys aren’t good enough to have doubles and my roster slots run 650 HP now so I had to let them go. I agree the sell price is terrible. They should offer HP instead.
Other covers I’d highly recommend investing HP in:
Daken Purple - Daken carried me into the 1000s with just Hulk as his teammate. Granted this was months ago.
Hulk Black - I know people hate on Hulk a lot but, like I said, Daken and Hulk took me from a 500 point scorer to a 1000 point scorer.
I agree with you on Daken purple. I waited for months before I got my first one. As soon as I did, I purchased the other 4. One month later, he was vaulted. He hasn’t been a game changer for me like Thor was but I can climb more easily to 650-700 with him. I’m just trying to take the next step to T25 and, based on the feedback I’ve gotten so far, XF is the only way to go. I had been waiting for months for Hood blue. I just won him in the last PvP. I thought I would buy the other 4 immediately and level him to 166 but now I’m not so sure. If he and Thor would guarantee T25, I’d do it in a heartbeat (he’s much cheaper than XF) but, if not, why spend 2500 HP and continue to finish outside of T25? The cover investment has to be worth it in terms of all the additional covers it will help me win. When I bought 4 Thor covers months ago, I went from never being in top 100 to always being in top 100 and I’ve won at least 50 covers because of it. That’s a great ROI!
I broke down and bought the covers for LThor and Hood to max them out. LThor is 166 and hood is 135, to protect his yellow, and out of the last 10 pvps, i’ve finished in the top 25, 7 times.
