I know it has been discussed before, and there are different strategies based on time, but how do you level your roster? Work on one character untill you get them maxed, put iso into the featured, spread it between several?
Let’s hear your thoughts and strategies.
I wait until I have a fully covered and then dump the ISO into the char. I was fortunate enough to build a 3* team this way early last year that was Pun / CMags / Hood (bought last 2 covers for Hood). So going the targeted routed worked for me but these days with so many different chars it’s going to take that much longer and deciding where to put the purple goodness.
That is my dilema.
There are so many characters that are covered (or very close) it is hard to decide. And with so many different ones in my roster, when there is one that is featured and you only have them at 70ish, you really suffer in a pvp.
Suffer in pvp but benefit from laid back scaling in pve. Pick your poison.
Hopefully after a couple more seasons I’ll be able to top 100 both regularly (pvp is only problematic now).
I wouldn’t think of it so much as individual characters but as teams of 2 (for PvP). It also depends what stage you’re in. If you’re transitioning from 2-3, I’d find your favorite pair (Ares/OBW, Cstorm/MnMags, Hulk/Thor, etc) and max them. You might be going 2 vs. 3 in most PvPs, but you should be able to place and start building your 3* collection. If you already have a solid roster of 3*s, You can start pumping iso into featured characters as cover rewards dictate. Your broader roster will progress over time, helping you better compete in PvEs without murdering your scaling. Sometimes you even get lucky and find yourself having leveled featured characters in limited roster heroics.
Personally, I have all my 2* maxed to 94, working on my 3*.
I only level the 3* that is featured in PVE, and don’t plan to pass 90 (I’ve only got 1 3* with enough covers to do that Gray Suit Black Widow)… all my 3* are at 86 or lower. Leveling them makes them somewhat useful when they are boosted in PVE, and I mostly only play for PVE right now.
I have 3 4* characters with very very limited covers (Fury, Xforce, 4Thor)
At this point I’m only leveling new characters up to whatever can depending on how many covers I win/pull, again not to pass 80+. Otherwise I’m holding my ISO for when I cover max a couple of them. I am building a second OBW for loaner purposes, but when I get enough covers, I’ll level her for backup purposes since she is so effective.
Any suggestions on doing it differently would be appreciated.
Guess I should have stated where my roster is at.
XF-225
BP-maxed
Steve-maxed
LD-maxed
CMags-maxed
Hood-maxed
Hulk-maxed
Pun-maxed
Lthor-maxed
Patch-maxed
DP-130
Spidey-125
So you can see I have a good solid 3* roster already. Where I just get stuck in my head is working on individual chars like DP or spreading it around now and putting some iso in the featured like Cpt. Marvel (since she is a decent 3*)
i like to spread the iso a bit. i have a few maxed 3’s (cap, hood, psylocke) so with a decent boosted character i can still get to the level i want in pvp (around 650, i hate idea of shield hopping). i’m trying to get more of my characters at least to the 100 level mark so i have more viable teams to use in pve. i usually try to put a few levels on the featured character when they come up too. it’s that low lying fruit that gets picked for climbing 
Once you get a character worth leveling (Xforce, 4hor, Nick Fury, Thor, Patch, Daken, CMags, Deadpool, Blade, BP, Hood, Captain America, Loki) up to 13 covers, it is best to level them as fast as possible. Any ISO you get that isn’t reserved for skipping or boosts should go into that character.
That character will, from that point on, be the cornerstone of your team.
From that point, you have two options: build around that cornerstone, or develop an alternative cornerstone to build around.
For example, I first maxed Hulk. So I needed to find someone who worked well with Hulk. The next character I maxed was Daken, because he had very good synergy with Hulk.
Then I maxed Patch, as he had synergy with both Daken and Hulk. Then I maxed Thor because he fit with Daken and Hulk as well.
And then Sentry became the new craze, so I began leveling him up. He became a second cornerstone. I was no longer building around Daken and Hulk. Now I was building around Sentry.
So that is when I leveled Hood and began leveling Xforce.
Then Sentry was removed from the game, so I continued to level Xforce to become my next cornerstone. Around him, I built Deadpool and hope to begin building 4hor soon.
Don’t just max a character because you have covers for him. I did this with Falcon and Human Torch and have barely used either since. Make sure the character you’re leveling matches your playstyle and your existing roster (or if you plan on making that character a new cornerstone) before spending ISO on them. Once you get into the 3 star transition, ISO is worth almost as much as HP.
Only boost featured characters if you don’t currently have a character with 13 covers worth leveling and it doesn’t look like you will for a while.
And even then…Maybe don’t waste the ISO. If your core roster is strong enough, you can score high even with a level 60 stock character on your team.
Counterpoint to this strategy: remember that PvE scaling is tied to the strongest character on your roster nowadays. This used to be the recommended strategy a while back, but if you level up your Captain America to 166 for PvP, then you’re going to have to face significantly harder PvE opponents, which might be an issue if Captain America ever gets locked out. A lot of people seem to be spreading out the iso, and only leveling 3*s past 94 (any more will increase scaling) until they have a solid PvP team of 2, high tier guys that can carry them, at which point they’ll take the plunge, but it might be a bad idea to go all in on the first decent guy you have covered.
If that is the case, why do a fellow in my alliance and I have the same level opponents and yet his roster is superior to mine. He has one 166 and several mid-level 3s and my best 3 is 110?
Maybe you grind considerably more than he does. PvE scaling is a mystery, but there have been multiple accounts of people on this forum saying that they had their 3s below 94, then decided to level them up to 120 and PvE got considerably harder. We also have some data points on the Gauntlet where people with level 270 4s were seeing considerably higher levels than people without 270 4*s. All of this data seems to imply that your average roster level does impact scaling in some way.
Yes, absolutely. It’s a factor. Maybe even the most important, just not the only one.
Perhaps it’s a range. Since 2* max at 94, maybe they group 50 - 94 together in scaling, 95 - 166 together, 167 to 270 together?
Perhaps the cap of the 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* are the thresholds with little difference within those ranges? Just guessing.
A lot of the evidence we have is anecdotal at best, and there’s almost certainly a piece of the algorithm that isn’t mentioned. It could also be tier based, where your portions of the formula aren’t outweighing the community portion of the formula.
Boosted characters also have weight. A boosted 2* is considered a 134 character for the purpose of scaling evaluation.
I think this thread has been hijacked. Let’s get it back on track.
What do you plan on doing? Do you want to do well in PVP? Do you plan to play both PVP and PVE? My belief was covers come easier in PVP, but there is no reason to handicap your PVE scaling, until you have a team that can do well in PVP. I am going with Patch/Hulk and am leveling them both right now, despite not having them cover maxed yet. My goal is to have a team that 2* teams skip in PVP. I will still get hit by 166 teams and 270 teams. Patch also helps in PVE, especially goon only nodes where BR doesn’t hurt me. I plan to eventually have
Steve-maxed
LD-maxed
Hulk-maxed
Lthor-maxed
Patch-maxed
I just want to have characters maxed that I will actually use, in PVP and PVE. I don’t plan on leveling everyone to 166 if I don’t plan on using them.
My theory is that roster spots dictate lvls.
i have a hard time understanding why Cstorm/MnMags is a good team? I go after that team when i hit the 94 wall. I down storm first with Ares, use MnMags abilities i’ve save up to down the other one, then easy picking for featured character, I can do 3-4 of these before having to heal.
It’s great on offense, terrible on defense. Polarity shift feeds into Wind Storm which feeds into an instant win with little damage to your team. The AI can’t play tile placement powers effectively though, so it’s very easy to beat. Pretty much the definition of a glass cannon team.