I seem to have hit a (sortof) difficulty wall, is it justme?

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ General Discussion
1

Ok, first off, not a moan. Want to work out if I am doing something wrong.

History

Playing for around a year. Some three star guys (Thor, Cap, BP, Daken and Patch) at 121, a few others at 109, loads of 2* maxed.
Not ultra competitive, in a decent Alliance, paid at the start for some items but have been f2p for months until finish times and silly changes stop.
I would usually finish top 50-75 in PVE due to usually the finish times being bad for me (UK player). Stages normally Normal difficulty.
I would usually be 650-750 in points on PVP, and be either side of placing 25th. Around 650 I would see 166 teams, for 30-40 points, and I would try and take on a couple and then 8-hour shield (as events mostly finished 5am UK time)

Now

Since the new season, and the last PVE, I have had a large change in both.

PVE - Almost all stages are Hard or Deadly. I hit 2.5 hr refreshes a lot, and did the same for Meet Groot, burning through Boosts. I wiped numerous times but just about managed. Yet I steadily dropped down the scoreboard from 20 to over 100 before I went to bed last night (I knew Thor was not happening due to finish time, but the steady dropping down the leaderboard worried me about even getting Marvel). Just squeezed in on top 150 in the end.
PVP - Level 166 teams from 500 points now. And for 18-19 points “reward” mostly. I hit 600 if lucky, several events this season 550 or lower. Nowhere near the 25th place mark.

End result

I am running our of boosts so can’t compete on PVE, and even when I can I am finishing lower in the rankings, so get less rewards.
In PVP my scores have dropped, so I get less solo rewards, less Season rewards and my score with the Alliance suffers as well. Triple whammy.

Two points to note:

  1. No-one else on my Alliance has had this happen to them on both PVE and PVP.
  2. I have not levelled any major characters for weeks. Have put some into Psylocke recently as like using her but she is 109. My top guys haven’t moved up for a month or so now.
  3. I tried tanking in Sim. I get slightly easier opponents up to 500, but then still get “fight 166 teams or max X-Force for 19 points”.

So, am I missing something? Is there some fundamental change I have not been aware of? As having both sides of MPQ “turn” on me, whilst everyone else seems to be carrying on fine, is a bit dis-heartening. Failing all that, what can I do to stop it?

2

I hit the wall on PvP at 600. Go from max 2* to max and 4*. No shot to climb any higher

3

I hit the wall on PvP at 600. Go from max 2* to max 3 and 4*. No shot to climb any higher

4

After my seed nodes all I am facing are level 130 - 166 3 star teams … Before I never used to face a 3* till 600 but from the past few events everything seems to have changed

5

The PVP matchmaking was updated around Nefarious Foes so that you would see people closer to your difficulty rating from the start.

For PVE, it has been a little bit random, as older events have out of control scaling, and new events are not adjusted properly from the get go. They really need to fix PVE scaling, as the PVE becomes mostly unplayable after the first 3 refreshes.

6

I thought that might be the case on PvP, but everyone else in the Alliance is racking up their normal points no bother, which has me confused.

I get it if I were against similar 121 players, but it’s straight up to 166 and 200+ x-force players, which I can’t beat. And now I can’t finish high enough to get 3* covers, to get better, to challenge these guys. I don’t mind slow progression, I am playing MPQ after all, but no progression seems a bit harsh icon_e_biggrin.gif

7

As it is for many, the 166/270 wall seems to show up around 600. A few things that I’ve noticed:

The heavy hitters usually start to show up around 500 - 550, but spending 60 - 100 ISO on skips will often net me one of the ubiquitous loaner/94 storm/94 ** Magneto or loaner/94 OBW/Ares teams. Once I break 600, usually the days of non-maxed 3/4 star teams are done. However, I’ve noticed that sometimes I’ve been able to “shuffle the bucket” by losing. I pick the highest point team I can’t beat, and throw a trash team at it. I make sure I lose (not a retreat). Sometimes, after another 60 or 70 additional ISO spent on skips, I’ve noticed that this will shuffle things up and I’ll often get a few teams in the 120/130 range that I can beat.

That said, prior to the changes, I used to be able to comfortably reach 700 - 750 - now it’s a challenge to finish over 600. I’m a “shield once, six hours from the end of the tournament” kind of guy, so I don’t expect to be able to to reach 1000 with that mentality (and that’s fine - if I earn one cover by landing top 100 I’m good to go.) On the bright side, scores overall seem lower - most of my PVP brackets have had a 10th place of 700 or so, so the crazy days of 1000+ top ten seem to be over (at least until the next change). Shielding at 600-650 has consistently netted me a top 100 finish (and infrequently a top 50).

8

Maybe I am just unlucky with brackets then. For the Psylocke event, 700 didn’t get you top 25, let alone top 10. The event before I barely scraped into the top 100 with 602.

I have tried skipping loads as well. In previous seasons I just refused to do it, but as time went on with this season I felt i had no choice, yet I was still faced with max level teams.

Seems I am a bit of an anomaly then. harder to score, but those around me are still scoring fine. The PvE I have no idea about. Would make sense if I had levelled some guys, but I haven’t.

9

I wonder if PvE performance has an impact on PvP scaling? Usually I only play each node once or twice in a PvE to get the dialog (I finished 613 in the latest PvE), and consistently score low in most PvE events because of this. Do you usually score top 100 or better in the PvE?

10

Sometimes. As a UK player the finish times normally meant I was not near the top. Could be anywhere from 50 to 75 if favourable, further out if not. Was 140-ish on this one.

11

I have an ok roster but didn’t have the maxed sentry / hood team you need.

I was averaging around 650 - 800 for top 25 placements and would hit the 166’s or xforce wall at around 600, but could find the odd match till 750 fairly easily.

Now since the time slots I hit that wall around 500, and 600 becomes very very difficult and I dump thousands of iso on skipping. So it’s not just you.

12

Well in a way that is good to know. Think my Alliance guys have just dodged it then, so I can tell them it’s not my fault!

13

It’s not just you. I was comfortably hitting 600-650 prior to the MMR change… now I can barely hit 550-600 without shield hopping and burning hundreds of ISO skipping…

14

This happened to me as well, last season though. Several 127’s, and I see 94’s right up until a certain number that always seems to change (possibly MMR dependent on simulator?), either 500 or 550 or 600. I never know, I get to 480 or so and sit until final push. Once I pass that unknown number, it goes from 94’s to 166’s + (and X-force is nearly ubiquitous, like everyone else seems to
mention). Tons of ISO can be spent, and it is unlikely I’ll find anything else. With changing timeslots it means I don’t need to shield anymore - no reason to try to shield hop or move up since it will be impossible. I just pick a time that will work for me and put up the last points at the very end. [Devs can read this as: “no reason to spend money on health packs or HP”]

It’s almost as if there are no other teams like mine (anything over 94 and under 166) - except I see these threads pop up occasionally and it is always the other 2* transition teams wondering what happened. I thought MMR changed last season, but I have a team-mate with a very similar roster that had the change this season, like the OP seems to indicate.

Worst part of this is they give the same rewards for team and individual now. It was ok when you had a shot as a transition player to crack the top 25, but now there is little to no chance of that. I have had 8-10 PVP’s that are of a character that needs improvement in one or both colors that I can’t get, but the color that I can get I happen to have five covers of: making the 2*-3* transition time (which increases with each character) even longer!

15

Worst part of this is they give the same rewards for team and individual now. It was ok when you had a shot as a transition player to crack the top 25, but now there is little to no chance of that. I have had 8-10 PVP’s that are of a character that needs improvement in one or both colors that I can’t get, but the color that I can get I happen to have five covers of: making the 2*-3* transition time (which increases with each character) even longer!
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I’d have to agree on that one too. Part of the fun of being in a top 100 alliance and the reward for the work to be in one was a good cover at the end of the pvp, a chance to get a cover that otherwise us middle guys wouldn’t dream of being able to get.

I get why they changed it, but I’d say a middle ground of the top 25 cover for allanice reward?

16

Yeah, they definitely changed the matchmaking. I’ve got a good maxed 3* team, and I start out facing nothing but 2* teams until I reach 500-600 points, then I start facing heavy hitters. X-Force Wolverine is everywhere. I just end up grabbing 23 points a pop from 2* teams I can tear through rather than try my luck with teams that might down a unit or even all three of them.

For PvE, well, I just don’t play enough. One thing to keep in mind, though is that a 2* unit boosted to level 134 actually tends to be stronger than a level 166 3* unit. So a team with two of them can take out some pretty high level AI opponents, although there’s still a good chance they’ll get badly hurt in the process.

17

as a transitioning player i usually get two covers - one for alliance and one for top 100. around 6-700 points has usually been enough for me to get into the top 100, and that has not changed since the new time shards. it’s at least 2 3* covers more than i used to get, which is 0. but i do a lot of shielding + boosts just for that 6-700, so it’s not an easy ride. especially the 166 players that i mostly try to avoid but sometimes just boost and go for it because i need that final push.

18

Turns out two of the guys from the alliance are having the exact same issue, so feel a bit better now. Just seems so odd to have a game which suddenly says “nope, no more progression for you son, move on to something else”.

19

I go through periods where i lean way off the gas when discouraged…

I’ll resign myself to only joining events at the very end, and try and steal single covers at a time. I’ll do this for a few weeks until a string of good luck compels me back into the mix.

Minimum effort in, and it usually works. Though still, sometimes even that isn’t enough if you don’t get bracketed properly and you just have to be okay with missing out entirely on some new 3*'s.

Can’t keep a place in a good alliance with this attitude though, but the freedom is worth it for players like me.

20

Transition player here, I hit the wall at 450~500 usually. Now I can get up to top 100 but I cant seem to be able to get top 50, even though people with same roster say they do get top 50 around 600. I see people with 166s for 19ish points as you said you do, but I dont have heroes good enough to even try.