PVE: Hearts of Darkness (2016-07-28 to 2016-07-31)

rainkingucd · July 28, 2016, 2:48am

First event with Wave Missions since the new PVE format update. Here’s the Loot Table for Wave Missions.

Event Summary

[spoiler]Hearts of Darkness
Length of Event: 3 days
Sub-Events? Yes
Alliance Rewards in Sub-Events? Yes
Number of Sub-Events: 3 Length of Sub-Events: 24 hours
Main Bracket Size: 1000 Sub Bracket Size: 1000
Unique Reward(s): ?
Other Notes:

There are Main nodes to open up the sub-events. These nodes are one time only nodes.

[/spoiler]

Event Details

Sub 1
- Three in the Hand (100)
  Shinobi, Shinobi, Shinobi
- Unholy Alliance
  - Unpleasant Surprises (200)
    Don, The Hood, Shinobi
  - Tracking the Source (130)
    Thug, Muscle, Thug
  - Tempting Fate (160)
    The Hood, Koran, Koran
  - Full House (446)
    - Wave 1: Kishu, Kishu, Shinobi
    - Wave 2: Teisatsu, Konran, Teisatsu, Teisatsu, Konran
    - Wave 3: Shinobi, Shinobi, Shinobi
    - Wave 4: Kishu, Konran, Kishu
  - Run From the Rider (280)
    The Hood, Hitman, Hitman
  - Hand in Hand (560)
    - Wave 1: Shinobi, Muscle, Shinobi, Hitman
    - Wave 2: Don, Thug, Kishu, Thug, Thug
  - Target-Rich Environment (370)
    The Hood, Konran, Don
  - Essential: Legendary (370)
    Kishu, Kishu, Muscle
  - Essential: Rare (476)
    - Wave 1: Don, Teisatsu, Teisatsu
    - Wave 2: Muscle, Don, Muscle
  - Essential: Uncommon (370)
    Teisatsu, Konran, Thug
Sub 2
- Interrogation (100)
  Thug, Muscle, Hitman
- Dark Design
  - Mountfort, IL (300)
    Shinobi, Teisatsu, Shinobi
  - H.A.M.M.E.R. Patrol (150)
    Soldier, Lieutenant, Soldier
  - Worst of Both Worlds (240)
    Pyro, Thug, Konran
  - Ninjas and Hired Guns (786)
    - Wave 1: Sniper, Pyro, Grenadier
    - Wave 2: Teisatsu, Kishu, Teisatsu
    - Wave 3: Soldier, Shinobi, Kishu, Shinobi, Commander
    - Wave 4: Muscle, Don, Thug
  - Spies and Swords (465)
    Lietenant, Spy, Kishu
  - Lost Souls (555)
    The Hood, Kishu, Hitman
  - The Unimaginable Power (1275)
    - Wave 1: The Hood, Shinobi, Grenadier
    - Wave 2: Soldier, Soldier, Assasin, Kishu, Shinobi, Thug, Hitman
    - Wave 3: THe Hood, Muscle, Don
  - Essential: Legendary (555)
    Muscle, Konran, Muscle
  - Essential: Rare (1428)
    - Wave 1: Don, Teisatsu, Teisatsu
    - Wave 2: Konran, Soldier, Soldier
    - Wave 3: Grenadier, Pyro, Lieutenant
    - Wave 4: Hitman, Assasin, Spy
  - Essential: Uncommon (555)
    Shinobi, Commander, Soldier
Sub 3
- Move or We Move You (100)
  Shinobi, Konran, Muscle
- Spirits of Vengenace
  - Ghosts of the Past (557)
    Commander, Sniper, Pyro
  - The Devil’s Due (449)
    Bullseye, Kingpin, Elektra
  - Keep Moving (277)
    Soldier, Analyst, Analyst
  - Family Business (864)
    - Wave 1: Daken (Dark Avengers) Cyclops (Uncanny X-Men), Beast (Classic)
    - Wave 2: Deadpool (It’s Me, Deadpool!), Colossus (Classic), Psylocke (Classic)
    - Wave 3: Magneto (Classic), Jean Grey (All-New X-Men), Storm (Classic)
  - The Hand’s True Power (1010)
    Kishu, Shinobi, Konran
  - Back to the Beginning (847)
    Hitman, Don, Hitman
  - The Rider Awakens (1450)
    - Wave 1: Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze), Doctor Octopus (Otto Octavius), Daken (Classic)
    - Wave 2: Sentry (Dark Avengers), Loki (Dark Reign), Magneto (Classic)
    - Wave 3: Mystique (Raven Darkholme), Bullseye (Classic) , Ares (Dark Avengers)
  - Essential: Legendary (883)
    Cyclops (Classic), Professor X (Charles Xavier), Jean Grey (All-New X-Men)
  - Essential: Rare (1776)
    - Wave 1: Teisatsu, Thug, Soldier
    - Wave 2: Shinobi, Lieutenant, Hitman
    - Wave 3: Don, Pyro, Konran
  - Essential: Uncommon (883)
    Venom (Dark Avengers), Ragnarok (Dark Avengers), Moonstone (Dark Avengers)

Powered Up

[spoiler]

(Essential)

(new)

(Essential)

[/spoiler]

Progression awards:

[spoiler]100:

500: 100
1000: Rainbow Power Boost
1500:

2400: Rainbow Stockpile
3500: 140
4800:

6500: 140
8000:

10000: 140
12000:

14000: 250
16000: 25
18500: 250
21000:

24000: 500
27500: 25

32000:

37000: 1000

42000: 25
[/spoiler]

Placement rewards:

[spoiler]1-2:

rewards for 3-10
3-10:

, 1500
, 50

11-20:

, 1500
, 50

21-50:

, 1000
, 50

51-100:

, 1000
, 25

101-200:

, 500
, 25

201-300:

, 500
301-400:

, 250
401-500:
x 3, 250
501-600:
x 2, 250
601-800:
, 250
801-1000: 250
[/spoiler]

Alliance rewards:

[spoiler]1-2:

, 2500
, 100

3-10:

, 2500
, 50

11-25:

, 1500
, 50

26-50:

, 1000
, 50

51-100:

, 500
, 25

101-250: 500
, 25

251-500: 250
, 25

501-1000: 250
1001-10000: 140
[/spoiler]

Sub-Event Placement Rewards

[spoiler]1-2:
x2, 1000
, 100
, 2

3-10:
, 1000
, 100
, 1

11-50:
, 1000
, 50

51-100:
, 1000
101-200:
, 500
201-300:
, 250
301-400:
, 250
401-500:
x3, 250
5ß1-600:
x2, 250
601-800:
, 250
801-900: 140
901-1000: 70
[/spoiler]

Sub-Event Alliance Rewards

1-10:
, 250
11-50:
, 100
51-100:
, 100
101-250:
,70
251-1000:
x3, 70
1001-2000:
x2, 70
2001-5000:
, 70
5001-10000:

Previous runs

PVE: Hearts of Darkness (2016-05-12 to 2016-05-15)
PVE: Hearts of Darkness (2016-02-15 to 2016-02-18)
Heart of Darkness Nov 26 - Nov 29

DTStump · July 28, 2016, 3:44am

EDIT: actually, having a look at previous runs of the event, 42k is a rather low target compared to 55k or even 59k. So the trend of low max prog targets seems to be confirmed.

EDITS for partial results:
Sub 1:
Total event score: 14347
Sub 1 score: 14247
Clears: 5 full clears, suboptimal, all essentials
Made top 50

Sub 2:
Total event score: 41255
Sub 2 score: 26808
Clears: 5 full clears, suboptimal, all essentials
Made top 50

Sub 3:
Less than 1000 points to go, so I just hit a few nodes and got the 25CP.
Still grinding: 57470 points put me at #35 overall with a little over one hour to go.

So for max progression I needed a little over 10 clears, or about 3.3 clears per day.

cozmo1682 · July 28, 2016, 10:40am

I think I like it - the 25 CP is great reward, plus the 2 cp in each sub. However, it does seem off that you need to be 10K past max progression to place in the top 200 if my TAT bracket is any indication of how these are going overall.

DTStump · July 28, 2016, 12:19pm

What in the seven seas… after hitting the Patch essential node (wave node), the 24h timer started… eh?

Quebbster · July 28, 2016, 12:58pm

Wave nodes are supposed to start the timer after two plays per the announcement. Did it start after the first?

ZootSax · July 28, 2016, 1:40pm

When I tried, the timer started after the second (at least for the Full House one–I’ll try Patch’s essential shortly) (Edit: Same was true for Patch).

As an FYI, the first two awards for the Full House wave node were the event token and 500
. It seems it might be only two clears for the top prizes in waves, but we shall see…

BigBZ32 · July 28, 2016, 1:44pm

Hmmm, so is it best to only do two of the waves then grind the rest later?

DTStump · July 28, 2016, 2:22pm

Oh, I hadn’t realized that. Thanks for the info! (Also forgot to mention it was after the 2nd hit
sorry)

LuciferianX · July 28, 2016, 2:43pm

This was going to be my question, so it’s definitely more competitive in that one does a double clear before setting up their burn, although people who wanted to play at their own pace can meander through, while the hardcore will go 1, 2, hold and burn, am I correct in my understanding? I ask because it actively defines when I start the event. I despise the 11pm start time, but it’s the only one that comes close to aligning with my schedule and needs. I need a 5am or a 10pm, but 7am and 11pm = fail.

Sorry. Minor /rant.

LuciferianX · July 28, 2016, 5:42pm

It counts as a wave clear for rewards, but you only clear a node when it says “Victory.”

ZootSax · July 29, 2016, 12:24am

Because they haven’t published the wave node awards, yet, to my knowledge, they appear to be:
1st clear: event token
2nd clear: 500 iso
3rd clear: standard token
4th clear: 250 iso
5th clear: (I forget, but will update later when I fire up MPQ again)

I’m not playing optimally, so it won’t help me if you’re in my bracket, but I’m curious: what is the best strategy for timing the loaner node at the start? Still one clear and grind or would it be different?

Finally, the randomly boosted team of Cap Falcon (2/4/3 for mine), Rocket&Groot and Quicksilver has been surprisingly effective. Blue matches fuel/boost Rocket’s tiles while also setting up QS’s nuke. The one thing I like with the random boosted characters is finding new/odd teams.

hesjingixen · July 29, 2016, 12:44am

Does anyone know when Teiatsu’s started turning to smoke even if killed while stunned? Cuz I know that used to be a thing.

DFiPL · July 29, 2016, 1:44am

That bug’s been present for at least a couple of weeks.

I am enjoying event tokens dropping with the first clear of a wave node.

sambrookjm · July 29, 2016, 5:32am

I just figured it was D3 saying “You know, these ninja guys are too easy. How about we make it so Turn To Smoke triggers, no matter what happens!”

3-star Iron Man, Kamala Khan, and Cap for tile overwriting. Of course, I used that team before for Cap’s stun, but now it’s pretty much required. Especially in wave fights.

LuciferianX · July 29, 2016, 10:03am

A few thoughts here for those who are following along.

Opening node is 1 round then starts the clock
Wave Nodes have been reduced from a silly number to a more reasonable 5
2 Wave Node clears start the clock to 24h
4 Normal Node clears start the clock to 24h
My current roster is struggling with 4 270s, and those all combined took me ~2 - 2.5 hours
See my plea last year for “pick my hour slice” or “divide this into 2 hours or even 4, but stop with the 11pm”

Battle Notes

Turn to Smoke does trigger regardless of the status of the opponent; having Mind Over Matter or a similar tile wipe/control ability can be beneficial (Ant Man, Moonstone, Quake (single color target removal), Rocket & Groot depending on the cluster and play style, etc.)
Kishu will aggressively deploy caltrops; caltrops + 600 point strike tiles will cut through almost any defense, so the challenge is the maintenance of an aggressive attack profile to down them, coupled with having AP when you need, and survival ability. It’s not easy.
As always, The Hood should be your first priority in any fight, unless you have very strong passives, like Marc Spector + Danny Rand + Falcap or a similar team (I… don’t).
Even unbuffed, a 2 star Black Widow can solve a lot of problems if you can get her blue reliably, i.e., Black Widow + Quake + IM 40.

carrion_pigeons · July 29, 2016, 11:32am

Liking Falcon/Daken/IF for Hood nodes. He’s pretty much completely ignorable then.

BigBZ32 · July 29, 2016, 1:29pm

I been using FalCap with PHX and SWitch and he’s been really effective in this event. Mine is 3/5/5 boosted to lvl219 from lvl140. I been mainly using him to accelerate SWitch CD to get lots of
for PHX, but it’s been fun. If I have 5
then I will use his red which is nice because even at lvl219 it hits hard with
out there and no limit cap. I used to think he’s trash, but boosted I think I found a use for him. Might actually champ him.

Sluggo · July 29, 2016, 8:10pm

I’m pretty happy they changed the wave node timer to start recharging after only two clears. They’re massive time eaters and not much fun, so I consider that a solid QOL improvement.

Kishida · July 29, 2016, 8:59pm

I’m still playing with a primarily 2* roster, but I have to say that the wave nodes in this are comically… dare I say fun?.. using Daken/Patch/Moonstone.

sambrookjm · July 29, 2016, 10:11pm

You could say it’s fun…right up until the Muscle’s Threaten ability goes off, creating strike tiles and causing an uber-cascade, doing 10K points of damage and taking out your Patch, anyway.

Topic		Replies	Views
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PVE: Hearts of Darkness (2016-05-12 to 2016-05-15) MPQ Events, Tournaments, and Missions	21	1908	May 15, 2016
PVE: Hearts of Darkness (2016-02-15 to 2016-02-18) MPQ Events, Tournaments, and Missions	37	3985	February 18, 2016
PVE: Hearts of Darkness (2016-09-19 to 2016-09-22) MPQ Events, Tournaments, and Missions	38	2853	September 22, 2016
PVE: Hearts of Darkness (2016-12-01 to 2016-12-04) MPQ Events, Tournaments, and Missions	12	1762	December 2, 2016

PVE: Hearts of Darkness (2016-07-28 to 2016-07-31)

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