FACEBOOK REWARDS SHARING L&L MEMBER LIST
Please PM me if you want to be included in this list! Also, if we are already facebook friends, and you are not on this list, it is because i don’t know what your in game name is based on your facebook name!
Current Lock & Load Members & Alumni
Salgy
OJC80
Antreas1911
Scoregasms
Frank915
csjager
marvelch3f
darkron
PVE GUIDE - BASICS
I thought I would compile this here for all of our alliance members to be able to learn & grow with a little advice from their peers. I want to thank OJC80 & Scoregasms personally for all their input into this. It really came together easy with your help. Follow these instructions closely, and you too can rejoice in the rewards and praise in Maloricks write up’s!
GAME PLAY - The most important thing is not to miss a refresh, clear nodes on an optimal 8 hour refresh cycle. With family and work commitments we understand being game-time poor. If you know you will not be available for a refresh, it is always better to clear early then let the nodes sit full for any period of time. A double clear will only have you a few hundred off of a perfect run so it is definitely worth it, when necessary. If you do have to clear early, try not to do it immediately after a fresh clear, give it a few hours, whenever possible, so some points refresh. Whenever possible, do not use any boosts (other than teamups) during normal refreshes as that can lead to higher node scaling if you end up crushing nodes easily. No one ever really does a perfect run in PVE, not even Scoregasms or Malorick.
ADVANCED GRINDING - [spoiler]You want to maximize the time you are available in the final grind as this makes all the difference between top 10 and top 100. Selecting an end time with this in mind is the single most important aspect of a PVE. During the final grind of a sub it is very important that you allocate enough time to fully grind all nodes down to single digits. Take as much time as you need for this. High scorers in the alliance are starting a final grind anywhere from 2-4 hours before the sub ends based on roster size and health pack regeneration timers. Remember that other grinders in your bracket will notice your score moving, so be sure that when you start you can keep going.
ISO Boost during the final sub grind to help clear more quickly and save on health packs. Before starting your final grind, do a complete pass so all nodes are on a timer, this will also add additional points to your total. Grind as hard and as long as you can.
There are several schools of thought on which nodes to grind first. The 2 that could be most effectively argued are as follow:
- In your final grind, hit the Essentials first, they are worth the most points and are generally easier than normal nodes.
- In your final grind, hit the Essentials last, they are worth the most points and are generally easier than normal nodes.
What I am trying to say here, is that there is no wrong way to go about your final grind, the most important part of the final grind is to keep earning points. If your grind time is limited and you have to choose a set of nodes to grind, always choose Essentials and then the highest value non-essential nodes. What is important is getting each and every node as close to being worth 1 point as possible. Personally, I start with the hardest nodes first, and use characters that can regenerate health (daken/wolverine/groot/etc), this will minimize health pack usage. Hit the harder, high score nodes and bounce into the easy missions to recover.[/spoiler]
PVE CHARACTERS TO ROSTER (Incomplete):
Luke Cage: Great for Easy and below nodes, almost completely negates match and damage abilities & really saves on health packs.
Loki: Very helpful against Hard/Deadly Non-Goon Nodes due to AP steal and AI propensity to always go for Match 4’s
Lazy Cap: PVE Specialist due to both Red and Blue abilities able to target CD tiles
Lazy Daken: Health regeneration and passive strike tile on either team green matches with decent blue nuke
Falcon: Survival Node specialist and partners well with Lazy Daken/Blade
Iron Fist: Passive Attack Tile plus cheap Black generating ability, when paired with XF, LC or BP, can finish difficult nodes quickly
4hor (pre-nerf): Massive Health pool and 4 turn stun plus massive Nuke almost trivializes Deadly nodes when boosted, post nerf, probably also still very good
XForce: Best character in game, 'nuff said!
PVP GUIDE - BASICS
These recommendations were made prior to multi character boosts in pvp, if this trend continues we will all have to adapt our pvp strategies.
I thought I would compile this here for all of our alliance members to be able to learn & grow with a little advice from their peers. With the newish end-time selection abilities of PVP, I am not 100% that tanking really works anymore (or ever worked - I never had much success, but others swear by it), so I have included a section on that. As for PVP’s go, there are hunderds of different ideas/styles/possibilities for play, following are the personal strategies for your L&L commanders, who average 800+ every PVP, with different roster compositions, there should be a viable strategy for anyone reading this. A special thank you to Malorick & D2KM for sharing their insights with us all.
Follow these instructions closely, and you too can rejoice in the rewards and praise in Maloricks write up’s! And remember, the best defense is always a shield 
TANKING - this is just one of many possible strategies… [spoiler]Ok so you have decided to try tanking. With the newish end-time selection abilities of PVP, I am not 100% that tanking really works anymore (or ever worked - I never had much success, but others swear by it). here is one strategy that I have tried in the past. When tanking, you always want to open up the PVP as soon as a new one starts, in order to get the seed teams. Then beat a seed team with the weakest team you can possibly win with, which is usually the featured character plus the 2 weakest 2* you have, which are fully covered but still under-leveled (as close to level 15 as possible). This will make you a good target for people to get easy points, and their attacking you helps to lower your MMR.
Now is when to start tanking. Keep weak 1* or 2* at base levels to do this. Go into matches and loose on purpose. Retreating will help lower your health but won’t affect your MMR, so you will need to actually lose the match to help lower your MMR. Do this a lot, probably around 15 to 20 times. And don’t do it all at once. Loose 3 matches, wait for a few hours and then lose more. If u loose too many attacks at once the computer won’t lower your MMR.
Between loosing attacks on purpose and having people defeat u it will lower your MMR so u will see easier teams when u r ready to climb. Also, tanking in the shield simulator will help lower your MMR in the individual season PVPs also.
However I’ve noticed since the time sharding people don’t attack my easy to beat team anymore, so I have been doing extra tanking. Also you can use your weak 3* and retreat around 3 times then go into a match with their really low health and loose the match completely.[/spoiler]
SALGY’S METHOD - Averages 800-1000 points - 2 4*'s at level 200
[spoiler]Following is my method for PVP. I can consistently hit 800-1000 with minimal HP investment in shielding (minimal in comparison to the cost of purchasing the covers you can win).
- The most important piece is picking a time shard that is conducive to your schedule. Once the event is announced, I wait until I am ready to start before entering my bracket. I slowly climb to just close to 650ish, between PVE refreshes. I do that several times throughout the day, and I typically use Patch/Daken/Loaner to climb since I don’t need to heal them. If you don’t have Daken 3* fully covered, you should be able to do the same with Daken 2*. What is important is I can play without using any health packs and I can climb with these 2 and then I switch to my other teams.
- Roughly 28 hours before my event ends, I start my climb & shield hoping. Queue up large targets (30+ pointers), and put in a better team. My aim for my first shield is typically around 800 points. Keep pushing your score as high as you can until:
a. you run out of health or
b. you are attacked twice
Once either of the above occur, shield at that point. My first shield is typically an 8 hour shield, and the way I line my battles up are:
1pm - 8 hour shield
9pm - 3 hour shield
Midnight - 8 hour shield*
8am - 3 hour shield*
11am - 8 hour shield*
6pm - event ends
- optional based on current points & desire to obtain the 900 or 1000 point reward. If I am happy with my outcome, instead of an 8 hour shield at midnight, I throw up a 24 hour. If you add up the HP spent it is roughly 600 (even considering using a 24 hour shield)
The bottom line; the last piece of advice i can give you, is to never be scared of your opponent… you play the game 10x smarter than the AI, if in doubt, field an identical team, even if yours is not to their level. you will win 8 out of 10 times…[/spoiler]
MALORICK’S METHOD - Averages 800-1000 - no viable 4* on roster (yet)
[spoiler]Here what I do to obtain my score in pvp (800+ and top25) and I dont have a useful 4* yet and able to do very well in pvp and I was about to hit 1k.
For me, it is very difficult, due to my limited roster (compared to other) but I am still able to score pretty good in pvp. I don’t get a lot of defensive wins anymore, but that’s ok.
I will give you a quick run down on what I do nomally in pvp. I slow climbed to just close to 650, between pve wait period and between refresh. I can do that in several time and I am always using my Patch/Daken since I dont need to heal them and I can use the feature character in pve. If you dotn have daken 3* fully cover but you should be able to do the same with daken 2*. What is important is I can play without the use any health pack and I can climb with these 2 and then I switch to my other team.
I can wait for a few hours during my build to 650, for me it’s that point so for you I think it should be really close to that too. When I pass 650 it’s where I start to be attacked a lot more. When 3.5 hours is left, it’s where I start my last push to the top and this is how I can do 800+. I make sure that I have my 5 health pack and I start using my other 166 and search for big fight 20-30 pts, I skip the level 270 because I found it too risky and cost me too much health pack since I dont have a rooster as deep as the other.
Normally I am able to climb to 800 easily in one time it’s when I am there it’s more difficult because they start to attack me and I see a lot of 270. During these fight I dont hesitate to buy boost +color so I can use my power faster like Thor green/yellow/red and this make a big difference since I can kill faster, losing less health so mean more fight I can do, its cost just iso so not a big deal and its cheaper that buying Health pack. Also I try to fight team that have only one 270 level or less since I know I can beat them, even a wolverine xforce I am not too much afraid since I can kill it faster if I can control the board and match green and black before him.
After I reached close to 850-900 pts and I am in top25, I need to shield immediately so I can secure my spot and this is where a put a 3 hours shield and I am ok for the rest of the pvp. People will not be afraid to attack my roster when I pass 800 and at these levels from here you need to do very fast matches. . I have tried to do shield hoping but with my team I cannot kill fast enough to do it. Something I am doing the same thing but with 8 hrs shield when I know I will not be able to play in the next last 8 hours.
At one time I had 270 when I was just at 300 so I have just waited a couple of hours and skip again and I was able to find more beatable team. As far as lining up matches go, I can usually find good matches just by skipping without the iso taxes, if not I pay that taxes and I found a easier one, I just have to be patient when searching. I keep always a good amount of iso for boost and skipping just in case but managing my success in pve and pvp its not that easy and cannot coordinate more shield hoping.
The key to scoring high is speed, but since I dont have a good 4* I use boost to help my thor since its the strongest I have that can kill these xforce wolverine. I try to kill my opponents as fast as possible. I know that my 3thor and hulk that is not a fast team. Thor’s powers take time to build but with boost and hulk feeding green I can beat stronger team than me. Also I using hulk/patch and match green as soon as possible and fire off berzerker rage. Then make any possible match I can with hulk. This will trigger anger and I can cascade your way to victory. It’s a very effective method. When you select your heroes, make sure hulk is on the left side, and patch is on the far right (imagine you are looking at the screen: the feature is in the middle, put hulk on the left side of the feature, patch to the right). THis will allow hulk to tank green for patch.
Dont be afraid of fighting 166 team you are better that a computer and you can beat them easily. Even with team that is greater than 166, you can beat them and target their dangerous heros first, like hood, xforce they are strong but low life with boost I can beat them before they do to much damage on me.
Also I have try to do shield hoping but this required more coordination and sometimes don’t match my schedule. I do the same thing as what mentioned to you climb slowy to 650 and when I am ready I push to go to 800 and put a 8 hrs shield, then when the shield is about to finished at start a combat few minutes before 5-10 and try to win 3-4 matchs really fast and be as fats as possible with all boost +color everything to terminate this fast and shield again for another 8hrs. And for my last climb I try to go to 1k and do again 3-4 fights and shield with a 3 hrs shield that will be until de end of the pvp. For that as you can see I need to schedule myself 19 hrs before the end of the pvp and this need to be between pve and need to be available to play, with family and work I cannot do this. This is why sometimes I had only to do 1 shield at the end and go for 800+.
Hope these tips help. if you are facing stronger team but dont hesitate to use boost or skip and do that is several phase, it’s seem to change the queue.[/spoiler]
D2KM’s METHOD - Averages 800-1000 points - 1 4* at level 210
[spoiler]Ok so as far as tanking goes, yes i still do it just not nearly as much as before. Once you start seeing lvl 3* immediately after the seed teams you know its time to tank a little bit lol
Scoring high in pvp is all about speed. Get in, hit hard, and shield up fast to protect those pts. More on this in just a min…
What i currently do with shielding is always work backwards from your end time to figure out optimal shield hops. I can usually make it to 1k in three hops, sometimes i need a 4th, that just depends on how high i make it on my 1st big push.
What i do is build my pts up to about 600 or so then wait till everyone is healed and all health packs are available. Get my go to team ready and do my 1st big push. When i do my 1st push i always load up on boosts to make matches faster and conserve health for my peeps. This can get expensive sometimes because once i reach mid 600s or 700 pts ill always use the +3 boost all, which costs hp 
i always try to reach around 800 pts, then ill put up my 1st shield, an 8 hr shield.
I dont always get to 800, just varies match to match. Sometimes its like 750 sometimes its 800+. This 1st push will tell you if you will need 3 hops or 4 to hit 1k. Put up an 8 hr shield and wait the full 8 hrs before making your next hop. If you have time watch your leaderboards and when you see ppl in top 10 unshield search for them and line them up for your next hop. Its all about finding matches to maximize the amount of pts you can win per battle. Anything 30-35 and up. 40 and up is most preferred. Once the full 8 hr shield has completed or is down to 4 min or less left, do your 1st hop. After an 8 hr shield i try to get 3 matches in. Sometimes its only 2 depending on how long the matches take. If I can reach 900+ pts after 1st hop then its looking good to hit that 1k mark. Ill throw up a 3 hr shield and look for high pt battles for the next hop. Wait the full 3 hrs then do your 2nd hop. I only like to do 2 battles max after a 3 hr shield. Anymore than 2 after a 3 hr shield and your risking getting hit. Load up on boosts and do your thing. If you hit 1k congrats 
throw up an 8 hr shield and call it a day. Make sure you work backwards from your end time so when you put this 8 hr shield up it makes it until the end of the match. If you didnt hit 1k, or your 8 hr wont make it till the end of event then you gotta do 1 last hop. Wait until there is less than 3 hrs left in the event and get those last 1, 2 max, battles that will put you at 1k. Make sure your previous 3 hr shield has gone the full 8 hr cooldown before you make your last hop. Ive made that mistake a few times 
means youll have to use a 24 hr shield and that sucks lol
My go to team right now is x force and lazy thor. Focus on gr and yellow, black next, then red. I always look for teams who use hood. Those are the easiest to beat 
use +3 all, +3 bl and gr, +3 red/yellow. If you make a 1st match green, x force is ready to go. Hit hood and with a cascade he is dead. Without cascade he is 2 moves from being dead. Then take out enemy x force. Easy. Lol
No x force? Not a problem. Like all three commanders have mentioned speed is the name of the game. Hulk bombing (hulk/patch/featured character) is lethal and fast. Will eat up health pack but that not a problem if you are only using team for shield hops. Another great team is patch/loki. Not as fast as hulk bombing, but still a decent hoping team. These are the teams i am most comfortable with and have used numerous times. Obviously there are other viable teams (ones that use iron fist
) but i just dont have the covers yet to use em.
So to recap, i always start shielding cycle with 18-19 hrs left in event to ensure times and cooldowns are fully utilized and i can make it with only 3 hops (8, 3, 8 hr shields, one last 3 hr if needed). hope this helps. Let me know if i missed something or if you have any questions. Just takes practice to get cooldoen timing down. And even i still screw up lol the price of a screw up is 300 hp but the 1 day shield is always there if you need it.
Let me know how it goes for you
good luck out there![/spoiler]
SALGY’S OLDER METHOD: Prior to any viable 4* - averaged 600-800 points
[spoiler]As a reference, season 7-8 i was having trouble hitting the 600 point mark, and with the following i was able to increase my typical score to the 600-800 mark, i now use my method mentioned above, but with a weaker roster, this guide may be helpful to you!
you will want to start this at least 24 hours into the pvp… too early & you wont find the higher level opponents… i typically start with 26ish hours left to go in the event…
Once you get out of the seed teams, my initial climbing strategy is usually to mirror the opponent when i can. even if you field the same team, you are playing smarter than the computer, so you will win… this strategy is to save health packs… do not spend health pack on this strategy! once i hit the first storm/magneto team, i typically will leave them in for a few matches… a beat up storm getting hit & tempesting has saved my a$$ more than i would like to admit!.. once i start to see underleveled 3*'s, play around with your underleveled people & create new/fun teams for future use… one of my favorites i just discovered is panther/deadpool/mystique… mystiques blue feeds both rage & whales… i will climb as high as i can just killing off my lower leveled 3*'s one by one… typically i can expect to hit the 400 mark at this point…
i then switch my team up, and use Patch and Blade, plus loaner, just to conserve health packs (i have 2 level 166 blades
). I usually find, at this point that I can climb to around 525… I then tend to stop at that point, and let my health packs regenerate, if I’ve needed to use any… i find that there is no need for a shield when you are sub 600 points, attacks are rare, and at this point you can make up any lost ground…
the next time i play, I push as high as I can. at the end of this push is when i will typically shield, so timing here is very important (more on this later)… my 3* tandems would include fathor/Patch and Blade/Black Panther for rainbow coverage. the “field the same team strategy” also works here (when you can)… you will always win an evenly matched battle (baring a bad board which can happen to anyone)… I aim for my initial shield point in the 600s. If I can hit 700, I’m doing really well, but my defensive losses tend to outweigh my ability to pick up points once I hit 650 or so. once i hit around the 600 point, i put in my defensive team (so at least save 1 health pack if needed)… My initial shield point is usually somewhere between 630-680. I then alternate three and eight hour shields, using the usual eight hour shield break at the five hour mark (so a 3 hour shield is available again).
My first hops are usually triples. until I reach 750ish. I then choose to either do single or double hops, depending on the targets that I find and the amount of time matches are taking. A typical score progression for me looks something like this: 650 → 730 → 780 → 830 → 860… using this method has an approximate cost of: 75 + 150 + 75 +150 + 75 = 525 HP. That’s a general minimum. Occasionally I’ll use a 24 hour shield if i can’t find a great match… or if can’t keep to the exact hopping schedule because real life gets in the way, or i just royally mess up my timing… if you look at the above schedule, it adds up to 25 hours of shields… i typically start this 24-25 hours before the end… that way, i know that i can be shielded at the end of the event… never break a shield in the last hour of an event… it will end badly… depending on the reward, this can be extended longer and you can use the same schedule to hop to 1000… even if it takes you 50 hours (double the schedule) it is cheaper to get a 4* cover reward this way, than buying one outright…
*** using this method, i used to avoid any level 249 feature with xforce/4thor above 220…[/spoiler]
PVP CHARACTERS/TEAMS TO CONSIDER (Incomplete):
Luke Cage + Iron Fist: Passive Attack Tile plus cheap Black generating ability& almost completely negates match and damage abilities & really saves on health packs.
Loki + Patch: Loki’s black negates Patches enemy rage tiles
Dr. Doom + Patch: Patch cannot overwrite Dooms pink trap tiles
Lazy Daken: Health regeneration and passive strike tile on either team green matches with decent blue nuke
Blade: Get enough red on the board & his thirst will wear the opponent out quickly. Add in his KYEC, and at 3000+ per turn damage adds up
Fathor: Easily the best 3* in the game & arguably better than his 4* counterpart, postnerf
Hood: Steals that precious, precious ap
4hor (pre-nerf): Massive Health pool and 4 turn stun plus massive Nuke almost trivializes deadly enemies boosted, post nerf, probably also still very good
XForce + anyone: Best character in game, 'nuff said!
Final word: the above is obviously for higher end play, but the roster suggestions and play style will work for any roster. Even if you are a 2*-3* transitioner, you should be able to hit 600-800 points following the above methods.
There is obviously room to grow this, if anyone has any input, comments or questions, please pm me!
SCOREGASMS ROSTER SPREADSHEET
Here is a link to a shared google document containing a combination of several roster spreadsheets with MischiefMakers very helpful tools, feel free to download/use it for your own! The original post where scoregasms talks about the functionality behind the document can be found Here.
