Need help from consistent top 100 PVP players

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ Tips and Guides
1

Hi I’m still a 2 to 3 star transitioning player and I would like some suggestions on how to place in the top 100 more consistently if I can. For Season XV I’ve been relying on my buffed 2 star roster to do most of the heavy lifting. I try to rotate my roster to be more health pack efficient. The recent increase to 10 health pack is a life saver. My highest 3 stars are Thor, Deadpool, and Dr. Doom but they are only at level 92. I use them for seed teams and earlier “easy” fights.

I’m mixing around my time slices to see if that makes a difference in my scores. I also tried using shields and barely squeaked by into rank 98 in the Webslinger PVP with 689 points. On the second night I played for as long as I could and put up an 8 hr shield before going to bed. Woke up and fought for another 2 hrs then put up another 3 hour shield before the event end. I’m so lucky to have placed in the top 100. I guess not too many people were gunning for Doc Ock. I don’t think I’ll be so lucky in the Carnage PVP.

Am I doing all I can with what I have? Am I using my shields efficiently? I don’t want to squander my precious hero points. I know there’s going to be a lot of back and forth between the retaliations so there’s not much that can done about that.

Thanks for any help you can give.

2

Honestly, I think you’re doing pretty well with what you have. A few pointers:

Your run up and shields
I’d pretty much do as you’re doing. You need to be aware of what your equilibrium point is with your current roster, which is the point at which you can stay unshielded, and lose few, if any points. Your equilibrium point is likely to vary a little from week to week, depending on the boosted character, and whether you can field a featured character who’s any use to you at all. If you really want to conserve HP, play to your equilibrium point, then run up as high as you can when you’re ready to push. I wouldn’t really advocate shield hopping at your stage, it’s a fairly extravagant spend of HP to do that for a 3* cover.

You need to pick your time to push. Be aware that people will tend to push at -8 hours and -3 hours from the end of any event, so they can use shields at that point. Times in between that tend to be quieter, so you’ll tend to take less retaliations, and fewer incoming hits. If you really want a cover, you could try pushing at 5-6 hours out from the end of an event, and use an 8 hour shield to finish. Otherwise, pushing at around the 2 hour mark from the end of an event is probably a reasonable strategy. Pushing high in the last half hour with a 2* roster in the higher point values is likely to turn you into mincemeat.

Time slices
Time slices do matter. Some slices are more hotly contested than others. A score that will get you T100 in one slice, won’t cut it in another. Slices 4 and 5 tend to be high scoring, the others less so.

Picking your point values
Make sure that every target you hit is worth a substantial number of points. The bigger the better. This is for two reasons. Obviously, firstly, it makes your run up more efficient. Secondly, it means that your retaliation value (at least at the point of the match) may not make it worth it for them to hit you back. So, if you hit someone for 60 points, and you’re only worth 20 points on the retal, they’re more likely to skip the retal. If they’re silly enough to hit you for the retal, hit them again. Every retal is a net positive gain for you. As a rough guide, with the new point scoring method, I prefer targets around 50ish+, and I generally won’t hit a target worth less than 40 points. Definitely don’t hit any targets worth less than 38 points.

Likewise, try not to hit low point value targets, as your net loss on the retaliation won’t make it worth it. The only exception to this is if their team is so inferior to you as to not be able to retaliate successfully. (Beware of the sucker punch, where a strong player will deliberately field a weaker team, in the hopes of farming large point value retaliations.)

Use that skip button liberally.

Pick your events
Finally, obviously, pick your events carefully. You only have a limited number of HP, so you don’t want to spend HP shielding for a cover you’re not going to use in the short term anyway. The aim is to pick up enough covers in top tier PVP characters, so you can make them viable, which will, in turn, make placing T100 easier, and easier.

3

wow thanks for taking the time to write all that. Lots of good tidbits in there like the equilibrium point and avoiding less than 38 pt matches.

4

1 more thing in regards to time slices, picking the time you start the slice is also very important. I have found starting early (day 1 or 2) will give you higher scores allowing you to hit progression but chances are you wont place well. If you start on the last day, you can generally place better with lower scores.

The other thing to take note of is to experiment with your score vs timeslice and work out what score is necessary to place in top 100. Early in my 3 star transition, a high 500 to low 600 was enough to get me top 100 placement so once i reach those score on my last push about 6 to 7 hours out, I would shield and check back about 30 minutes before the end to make sure i would place in top 100. I would break shield if i was in danger of dropping out but usually only did this 4 minutes before the end with a fully boosted team.

Although people do recommend pushing and shielding at the 2 hour mark or so, I find the 6/7 hour mark much quieter and more likely to secure the necessary points without being hit as much

5

I like the 4-6 hour range for a final push/hop. between those that started at the 8hr mark and those that start around the 3 hr mark. I’ve learned that last 3 hours is always super, super busy/crowded, even if its only for doc ock.

6

This is a very good read. It gave me some things to think about on how to improve my PvP scoring, but… it seems I don’t have the same problems as OP. Maybe it’s luck, or maybe I always hit’s not very competitive brackets, but usually I’m top 50, sometimes top 25 even with my 500-600 points and mixed 2*-3* team. Todays “Well dressed” I hit 97th place after a real struggle but it’s first PvP event I struggle in weeks. And mainly because I don’t know how to shield myself (lost 300 point over the night). I usually play 1 hour at evening and 1 hour in the morning. This seems chaotic, but it really works for me.

7

Wow may I ask what time slice you pick? I tried rotating my time slots but that doesn’t seem to make a difference. Also do you join right away? I try to jump in as soon as I can to get the seed teams.

8

I have only one criteria for choosing time slice. It’s one hour after my work starts. I have some spare time here (rather slow start at work) and I can push the points. I don’t know the time zones etc, but my time slice should end 23h30 from now on.

On the other hand, something has changed, because Gamora event is again very hard. I hit the wall quite fast, with 300 points I’m top 300 where usually I’m top 150. Or maybe first PvP events are more competitive. People trying to reach 4k points asap… I don’t know.

9

PvP events are bracketed in the same way that PvE events are bracketed, into veteran and newbie slices. You need substantially fewer points to place in a newbie bracket compared to a vet bracket. Generally, once you do well enough in a newbie bracket, the game will throw you in the shark tank with the rest of us. I’m guessing that maybe Flagoon is still in a newbie bracket?

10

I’d also recommend not worrying about PVP placement at this point in the transition - the cost, in terms of HP, is just going to be too much to justify in return for a single *** cover. You’re better off starting early in the PVP, running up as high as you can, getting the progression rewards, then focusing on PVE and DDQ. Those will let you get *** covers much faster. You’re not going to be able to place consistently in the top 100 on PVP without lots of shield hopping until you have a team of maxed or nearly maxed ***s, so you’re much better off saving your HP for roster slots, and saving your time for grinding PVE. I know it doesn’t always feel like it, but PVE is a much better investment of time and effort for transitioning players, and once you have a strong *** roster, you’ll probably be skipping most PVEs, so there’ll be plenty of PVPing in your future anyway.
Cheers.

11

Thanks, yeah I’m starting to notice that I actually spend more time in PVP and Sim just regaining points that I lose over the course of the day and over night.

12

If you only care about top 100 for the cover and don’t really care about the total points for season score, the best recommendation I have for you is to join the PVP really late. Like 1 hour or max 2 hours before the end of the PVP. There’s a chance that it’ll be a brand new slice and you can easily get to top 100. Even if it isn’t a new slice, there’s still a good chance you can place top 100 due to 2 factors: You just joined and at low points, no one will be hitting you with so many other targets around. By the time you climb to a respectable score and your ratings are “updated”, the slice is about to end and there won’t be that many people hitting you.

If you prefer to yoyo around your score for 3 days to earn a couple more iso and 2* covers is also cool, but highly unlikely to reach top 100 by the end of the PVP.