Need advice on leveling up my roster

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ Tips and Guides
1

So here’s my situation. Currently at day 417, and like many, I have soft-capped my roster at 94, as I have found there are many advantages. With a diverse roster and lower scaling I’ve been able to amass a decent collection of characters, complete with some mid tier and top tier people cover-maxed. I’ve done decent in both PVE and PVP. However, the most recent change to MMR has me wondering if I should start leveling some people.

The way I see it, my leveling options are as follows…

  1. Bring 14 people up to 166

  2. Make 120 the new 94 and bring everyone up there.

  3. Leave everyone at 94 (if it ain’t broke…)

  4. Bring up just 3 people to 166 and use them for PVP defense only.

My fear is if I take the plunge, the game will become a lot more work. I’ve never bought a shield, cover or health pack and don’t want to have to start to compete. Every HP has gone into roster slots

I guess for me the “end game” is to get every cover rather than to dominate every event. I know these are related goals (more covers means more dominance means more covers, etc.) but they are different, as someone whose end game is to dominate will “trim the fat” and sell characters they don’t use. They’re also more likely to dump HP into a meta cover than open up a spot for Bagman.

Fears I have with leveling are

  1. PVE scaling
  2. PVP scaling (harder opponents after seeds)
  3. Having to use shields to compete and breaking even with hero points
  4. Longer matches, slower healing, slower climbs since opponents will be tougher.
  5. Not being able to play at my own pace since I will be starting a time demanding job in August.
  6. Not being able to go back.

Because I can’t go back I’m hoping someone that’s been there can convince me one way or another how to level.

Roster:

[spoiler]1. Juggernaut (Classic)
- Level 40/40 (5-5)

  1. Black Widow (Modern)

    • Level 1/25 (2-5)

  2. Black Widow (Original)

    • Level 94/94 (3-5-5)

  3. Ares (Dark Avengers)

    • Level 94/94 (4-4-5)

  4. Storm (Classic)

    • Level 94/94 (5-5-3)

  5. Thor (Marvel NOW!)

    • Level 94/94 (3-5-5)

  6. Daken (Dark Avengers)

    • Level 94/94 (3-5-5)

  7. Magneto (Marvel NOW!)

    • Level 94/94 (3-5-5)

  8. Wolverine (Astonishing X-Men)

    • Level 94/94 (5-5-3)

  9. Hawkeye (Modern)

    • Level 94/94 (3-5-5)

  10. Human Torch (Johnny Storm)

    • Level 94/94 (5-5-3)

  11. Captain Marvel (Ms. Marvel)

    • Level 15/94 (5-5-3)

  12. Captain America (Modern)

    • Level 94/94 (3-5-5)

  13. Bullseye (Dark Avengers)

    • Level 15/86 (5-5-2)

  14. Moonstone (Dark Avengers)

    • Level 15/94 (4-4-5)

  15. Spider-Man (Bag-Man)

    • Level 15/17 (1-1-0)

  16. Thor (Modern)

    • Level 94/166 (3-5-5)

  17. The Hood (Classic)

    • Level 94/166 (5-5-3)

  18. Daken (Classic)

    • Level 94/166 (5-5-3)

  19. Iron Fist (Immortal Weapon)

    • Level 94/114 (2-2-5)

  20. Wolverine (Patch)

    • Level 94/166 (5-3-5)

  21. Blade (Daywalker)

    • Level 94/166 (5-5-3)

  22. Black Panther (T’Challa)

    • Level 94/166 (5-4-4)

  23. Magneto (Classic)

    • Level 94/166 (5-5-3)

  24. Luke Cage (Hero For Hire)

    • Level 94/153 (4-4-4)

  25. Captain America (Steve Rogers)

    • Level 94/166 (3-5-5)

  26. Loki (Dark Reign)

    • Level 89/166 (4-4-5)

  27. Deadpool (It’s Me, Deadpool!)

    • Level 94/166 (5-5-3)

  28. The Hulk (Indestructible)

    • Level 94/153 (5-3-4)

  29. Cyclops (Uncanny X-Men)

    • Level 94/140 (3-4-4)

  30. Rocket & Groot (Most Wanted)

    • Level 94/153 (2-5-5)

  31. Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel)

    • Level 94/102 (3-2-3)

  32. Doctor Doom (Classic)

    • Level 94/153 (5-5-2)

  33. Human Torch (Classic)

    • Level 94/166 (3-5-5)

  34. Falcon (Mighty Avengers)

    • Level 94/166 (3-5-5)

  35. Punisher (Dark Reign)

    • Level 94/153 (5-2-5)

  36. Captain Marvel (Modern)

    • Level 94/166 (5-4-4)

  37. Black Widow (Grey Suit)

    • Level 94/166 (5-3-5)

  38. Daredevil (Man Without Fear)

    • Level 94/153 (3-5-4)

  39. Mystique (Raven Darkholme)

    • Level 94/166 (3-5-5)

  40. Psylocke (Classic)

    • Level 94/142 (5-5-1)

  41. Colossus (Classic)

    • Level 94/127 (3-2-5)

  42. Sentry (Dark Avengers)

    • Level 94/166 (5-3-5)

  43. Storm (Mohawk)

    • Level 94/166 (5-3-5)

  44. Gamora (Guardians of the Galaxy)

    • Level 94/117 (5-3-1)

  45. Squirrel Girl (Unbeatable)

    • Level 94/153 (5-5-2)

  46. Spider-Man (Classic)

    • Level 94/166 (3-5-5)

  47. Iron Man (Model 40)

    • Level 94/153 (5-5-2)

  48. She-Hulk (Modern)

    • Level 94/166 (5-4-4)

  49. Ragnarok (Dark Avengers)

    • Level 40/78 (3-2-1)

  50. Doctor Octopus (Otto Octavius)

    • Level 66/114 (3-3-3)

  51. Beast (Classic)

    • Level 94/166 (5-5-3)

  52. Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff)

    • Level 89/89 (3-2-2)

  53. Bullseye (Classic)

    • Level 89/89 (2-2-3)

  54. Vision (Android Avenger)

    • Level 40/66 (3-0-1)

  55. Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff)

    • Level 40/114 (2-3-4)

  56. Wolverine (X-Force)

    • Level 94/111 (2-1-2)

  57. Nick Fury (Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.)

    • Level 94/131 (1-2-3)

  58. Kingpin (Wilson Fisk)

    • Level 70/70 (0-1-0)

  59. Devil Dinosaur (Gigantic Reptile)

    • Level 94/94 (1-2-2)

  60. Elektra (Unkillable)

    • Level 70/70 (0-2-0)

  61. Invisible Woman (Classic)

    • Level 94/188 (4-2-3)

  62. Iron Man (Hulkbuster)

    • Level 74/74 (0-1-1)[/spoiler]

Also have an extra Patch and Hood but will likely sell them with the health pack increase.

Hero Points = 4100
ISO-8: 1,572,044

2

Bringing them up to 120 won’t hurt you much at all, and it is also where leveling starts to get expensive.

I would bring any 3* you have covered the way you want them covered to 120 and go from there.

3

As a follow up, has someone collected the data on underleveling.

I.e. What level difference a person needs to tank someone’s #1 power with their #3 power, #2 with #3, #1 with #2, etc.

4

question is how are you placing in pvp now? if you are able to make t100, don’t do anything - any more than t100 all but requires shields. if you are close to t100 doing what you’re doing now, I’d try taking them to 120. if you aren’t close to t100 (don’t know what kind of brackets you see), honestly, it requires hp for shields (my experience). at a minimum a 3 hr towards the end to preserve your pts. you have a ton of elite characters fully covered optimally, but shielding is dang near required to keep points. however, my experience is based on one maxed guy and I currently have a few at 140 and several at 120, so taking the t14 in the game to 166 might function a bit differently than my experience.

you have a great roster for pve and I’m sure you can grind like mad now throwing team after team after team at nodes that really aren’t that high. seeing you mentioned a demanding job, the time commitment required for pve might be an issue when you start that, so some scaling in pve might not really affect you much since it might be hard to perform at a high level anyway. pvp takes much less time when you do it right. all things to consider.

good luck - keep us posted how things turn out. i chose to push a pvp pair up 2-3 months ago and it has worked out and did not killed my scaling. the extra 3 covers/week have been huge, but i was just at the beginning of my transition and you are basically done when you choose to pull the trigger, so I’m not sure if a select few makes sense.

5

https://forums.505go.com/discussion/30394

all you need to know about who tanks what at what levels.

6

I would say more often than not I can land top 100, with some outliers (occasional top 25 and top 200). It seems like the more coveted the cover, the harder it is (obviously). I usually join 1-3 hours before the event ends and just push like mad, and can consistently climb to about 700 before people are attacking me faster than I can attack. In the event for a Spidey cover I wasn’t attacked once. For I think it was Bullseye, I dropped 100 spots in the last minute due to incoming attacks. So it’s a bit of a crapshoot. Overall though, top 100 is definitely doable.

7

I haven’t done any leveling yet. I really want one of every 4* and since the outage screwed me out of Carnage the first time, I’m waiting until the end of the PVE to level (to keep scaling down).

I’m wondering though, if I should bring the last three 2* up to 94 (Moonstone, Marvel, Bullseye… Bagman is a long way off). It kind of bothers me to have them at level 15 while everyone else is 94, yet I’ll never use them. 208k is a lot of ISO simply for aesthetics and the occasional essential that I can still clear with a level 15 version. Mind you that price tag could get two of my 3* to 166. Choices…

8

I’m also contemplating leveling my roster to 166 (currently soft capped at 120) in order to achieve the 1k reward in pvp. It never occurred to me that perhaps I could select 3-4 chars to level to 166 and use them as defensive teams in pvp only. I may give that a shot next season and see how it goes.

9

If you have the ISO bring as many hard hitting 3 stars to 166 as you can. PVE may get a bit harder but that’s the trade off with PVP getting a lot easier. If you’re only shooting for 700 right now, getting there with a level 166 roster will be even easier. You most likely won’t need a shield to hit 700. If you have the boosted event cover ( I am assuming you will but I didn’t look at your roster in detail) plus another of the weekly boosted covers you can hit 1000 pretty easily. You will need a shield or two but 1000 is a guaranteed top 25 finish in almost every event.