4* vaulting has exacerbated the ISO shortage.

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1

I was giving this some thought today as I raced my Blade up to level 270 before his three reserve covers expire.

The primary purpose of 4* vaulting was to give you a much better chance of pulling one of the newer 4*s, since before they’d be so diluted in the tokens it was hard to get them. I can understand and even somewhat agree with that as someone who still only has 9 covers for Moonknight due to unluckiness (and now will have to stay at 9 covers, but that’s another matter).

For me, this has felt somewhat successful. I’ve championed Medusa in record time. My coulson is already at 11 covers. Gwenpool was stuck at 8 for ages and now she’s at 13. I have 10 covers for Carol Danvers.

But herein lies the problem. Yes, it’s easier to get the new 4s now, and getting them to 13 covers doesn’t take the 6-12 months it used to, on average. But you have done nothing to address the ISO shortage. In fact, channeling covers to a handful of 4s only makes this worse. I now have Coulson, Gwenpool, Carol Danvers and Blade to level up and there’s no increased ISO to do so. The effect of maybe getting a 4* cover for an older character meant it would take longer before you needed the ISO to champ that really good new one, which gave you time to save it up. Now you earn the new covers so fast you’re drained instantly.

The ISO drought has been a problem for months already and vaulting only made it worse.

2

I’ve had the same problem. Before, it was a race, trying to stay ahead of my own roster. As a 4* hits 13/13, pulling a cover for them means it goes to waste (or you have to champ them to utilize that cover as a champ level). Thus, every 4* that hits 13/13 results in greater odds of pulling a 4* that goes to waste. The only way to counter this is to champion a character, which costs a lot of ISO. I was keeping track of my personal odds for pulling a 4* that would go to waste, and used that to decide whether or not to hoard CP and LTs or to spend them.

Then, Vaulting became a thing. Suddenly, it doesn’t matter if my Winter Soldier is 13/13, because I’m not going to pull a cover for him from an LT. So I didn’t have to worry. He didn’t count towards my odds of pulling a 4* that would go to waste, because he couldn’t be pulled in the first place. Vaulting wasn’t a system I wanted, or liked (I didn’t risk pulling a WS that would go to waste, but in turn I couldn’t continue to pull champ levels for people like Star Lord or Cyclops that I actually liked to use), but I was at the right spot in the game that I could make use of it. Newer characters got covered faster, and the odds of pulling wasted 4*s went down.

Except now it’s caught up. I’ve covered the newer 4s well enough that my risk of pulling wasted 4s is jumping back up. I really want to keep pulling LTs because I want more Iron Fist (and the same will happen when Cloak & Dagger enters LTs), but I run the risk of pulling one of the two Wasp colors I have at 5 already, or another Riri/Mordo (since they’re at 13/13, but unchamped). The ISO just isn’t enough to keep up, even pulling in 50k a day, on average.

Further, this system punishes me if I pick poor choices to champ. I’d like to champ Iceman, or Punisher, or Moon Knight (all at 13/13), but the reality is that champing any of them costs me a lot of ISO, but doesn’t increase the odds of pulling usable covers from the LTs. So if I champ the likes of them (or any of the 9 other vaulted 4s I have at 13/13), it’s going to lead me to start hoarding CP and LTs again. My other option, if I want to keep pulling LTs, and keep the odds of getting usable covers as best as I can, is to invest ISO into Riri or Mordo (the two 4s in packs I have at 13/13 but not champed).

Vaulting says “If you champion one of these high quality old characters, you will be forced to pull useless 4* covers or hoard until your ISO catches up; OR, you can champion one of these far less exciting characters, so that when your 1/12 odds inevitably gives you more covers for them, at least you can scrounge out the meager champ rewards.”

If we could rewind, even a 10% boost to ISO (across the board, in the entire game) would be a way better solution, because it would let me advance as I choose, instead of being bound to planning around the contents of Legendary Tokens.

3

This has been talked about in various places. I made an in-depth post about this and other issues vaulting has created as well.

The problem is not just concentrated cover acquisition (I have SIX and counting in my que that will go to waste due to the Iso shortage and 6th cover syndrome. Before, that would be spread out over several months).

The other issue is the cessation of champ reward vaulting has created. Whereas getting covers for older champed 4s would GIVE Iso while we slowly collected new people, we now NEED Iso to keep up.

Its a bad system on many levels.

4

Yeah, this part right here is where I’m at. I’ve never hoarded LTs before, nor have I hoarded CP, much. My system was I’d get to 120CP incase, say, a 5/5/2 character suddenly got a 6th cover, I’d have 2 weeks to get the last cover I needed…otherwise I’d just buy it so it didn’t go to waste. I’d spend every 20CP over the 120 mark.

Now I have an LT I’m not using. I have 163 CP.

I mean, I’m tempted to use them to hopefully get a Wasp, but she’s at 4/5/2 (technicallyt 4/9/2, but whatevs) and I’m not that lucky. And even then, I’d need to gather another 250kISO to champ her. And again she’s going to drop out of the tokens soon, so there’s even less point.

The game’s now designed in the most disposable manner possible. You have a few months to champ a 4* and get them to a workable level and after that you might as well sell it because you’re likely to never get covers again.

Do you reckon the developers watched the 1988 Transformers movie?

5

This was an obvious consequence of the vaulting system and has been a complaint since the initial announcement. The cynical might think that creating extra iso pressure on players was an intended outcome that benefits demi/d3.

6

And while I could understand that if ISO wasn’t such awful value.
Outside of the whales (and you’ll always have whales), how many people look at the current pricing and think “Hmm, £380 to max out this 4* character. That sounds reasonable!”

I want to believe it’s an exceptionally small number of non-whales that actually do that.

If that is Demiurge’s true intention, then they’re so out of touch it would begger belief.

7

For me it’s been about an even swap. Instead of trashing a Mr F, Falcap and Miles, now it’s 3 Spiderwomen.

It will take a few months, but I can see the not too distant future when I have most of the latest 12 champed and fewer covers are wasted.

8

This has been an issue for a long time and vaulting has simply made it worse. Last time I looked, I had a 6M ISO deficit. While this is a free to play game, I don’t believe that everyone should simply get all the benefits that paying players get. D3 could monetize this simply by adding an ISO multiplier to VIP, or adding a second tier VIP+ at $15 that would give you increased ISO drops or a ISO multiplier. That would have the effect of encouraging players to pay for VIP (keeping the game solvent), while not adversely impacting non-paying players.

9

In conjunction with ISO earned from regular daily play, I get around the ISO shortage by maintaining a full cycling and active 2* farm. Provides ISO for champ levels and on sell off. I also strategically hoard LT and CP until i have enough ISO to absorb any large champing needs. I’ve been doing this all along: leveling according to DDQ crash schedules, who will be featured in PVE, PVP, who’s in progression awards. It’s not that hard or obsessive or time consuming to look at the in game rewards screen and event rules to figure out where to focus your ISO resources next. Patience and restraint goes a long way in keeping this game fun and your roster able to adapt with a dynamic mechanic. Build wide not up.

10

This is where I am aiming for. There will be some pain for a while, and the likes of Wasp and Spider Woman are being abandoned to the wolves, but by the time they roll out of the 12, I expect to have everyone up to and including Coulson championed, if not beyond.
I worried about not being able to champ Wasp or Spider Woman in time without hoarding tokens for a while, realised it was unhealthy and stripping fun from the game, and instead I opened everything as it came in, tossed several covers, but have Coulson and Medusa champed, and currently bringing Carol before I have to sell covers in the queue, and they have been great fun. Even the iso chase has been exciting for these guys - it’s not been a chore “I need to champ everyone” rather “I can’t wait to see how good they are!!”

11

As I’ve said in many other threads, in the exact same spot. if it weren’t for the fact that I’m trying to finish off carol and medusa, I would have stopped pulling, but until both of them are champed (10 and 12 respectively) I’ll just have to continue selling off all those 6th color powers that everyone in the latest twelve have and champ whenever I can.

And I do love the ironic catch 22 of bonus heroes under vaulting. You have to pull in order to acquire BHs, but in just over a month, pulling has more disadvantageous for us than ever before.

12

I don’t really see vaulting as good or bad, just different. I’m doing the same thing now I was doing before they vaulted a large chunk of the 4 star characters; I open tokens until I get a 14th cover for someone and then I stop opening tokens and champ them. Rinse and repeat. Instead of some older characters I’ve now champed Carol, Medusa, Wasp, Agent Venom, Gwenpool and Blade. The newer characters are actually a lot of fun to play with so I’m pretty happy with how this has turned out. Looking forward to playing with a champed Coulson or Cloak and Dagger next season.

On the ISO shortage front, since the addition of shield intercepts and clearance levels I can champ a 4 star in around 10 days which is significantly faster then I could do it at the end of last year. I would like to champ them all faster but I am champing them faster than they are releasing 4* characters. It will still take a long time to champ everyone but I think my ISO deficit is decreasing, not increasing. I feel bad for the players on Steam, the intercepts go a long way towards making things better for me.

13

It’s been a nice reprieve: opening tokens without abandon this last month. But it was obvious from the beginning that it wouldn’t last. And it’s not much worse than it was before. Prior to Vaulting, I calculated that each new cover cost me 80 CP, which made the 120 CP cover cost look good. I’ll be there again soon… no big deal.

Save your CP or get comfortable with selling covers for characters unworthy of champing.

14

I’ve started hoarding it’s not too bad up to 33 pulls mordo and iron fist are the only ones in the current 12 I don’t have cover maxed. It’s time for me to champ carol then make a decision on if I want to champ Gwen or just riri and then I’m caught up on my current issues. Wasp and drew aren’t champed but they are getting abandoned.

Who knows maybe ill just horde until until November and max out five Thor.

15

ISO is the main issue for sure. I had Medusa and Carol fully covered thanks to the vaulting and with Pve giving Medusa and PvP Carol i had two weeks to farm 760k… Had to make a choice, Medusa (4 vs 2 covers).

You can hoard all you want, but the game still throws covers at you faster than iso to champ.

Edit: Out of the current 12 i have 4 champs (counting Medusa already) and 4 fully covered. Coulson and Riri at 12/13, Iron Fist at 10/13 and Wasp 8 covers. So yes, i can get new characters covered much faster now, but what’s the point if it takes just as long to champ anyways…

16

I find myself back to playing more pve now, just for the ISO. I do feel bad taking up a spot in the top 10 even though I don’t need the covers. However, that is the only way to get more ISO and tokens

17

in the same boat as everyone else with the initial vaulting and hoping that once i get over that hump of an influx of newly covered 4*, my iso shortage wont be so steep. Of course it helps that I’m already a hoarder, so i was only opening tokens/cp/LT maybe once at the end of the season because I hated wasting covers. right now i need about 2.4 million to finally champion all the 4* i have sitting at 13 covers.

18

Before vaulting I had a nice pattern going. Usually champing a character every week/week and a half. I kept up with the pace of new releases. I only had Elektra, Prof X, and DIno at 13 covers. And if it wasn’t for a week of the Gauntlet, I would have champed Elektra and moved on to stocking iso for the next champ.

Now, I have Elektra, Cage, Nova, Riri, CapFalcon, Spider-Woman, X-23, Prof X, and Dino at 13 covers. And I champed Carol, Medusa, Blade, and Gwenpool. I’m struggling to get back to a nice pace. I’m still opening LTs for that sweet, sweet Pavlovian reward, but I have no interest in spending my CmdPts. I have 650+ CmdPts. I think I’m just going to get to a point that I spend CmdPts on covers to fill older characters, because why not? But then all that means is more of a iso debt.

I’d kill for double iso right now.

19

Out of curiosity, how much ISO would you say you get on average daily from the intercepts?

20

500 - 4k roughly. That’s not including HP, which can drop so often I can empty a vault and be okay within the week, and tokens, which can lead to more ISO, HP, and tokens depending on champing.