Can’t rely on this lucky streak anymore. I’ll really need a second *** powerhouse if I want to do better (even with a 102 Magneto). my Spiderman only has one blue cover and my Ragnarok only has one red cover.
Still, I’m in a far better place than I was a week ago.
That’s the goal! Constant improvement. Luckily there is a solid ceiling on progression so eventually the have nots CAN catch up if they quit crying and get trying.
Never felt the need to weigh in much on topics until I saw your post. I think we’re in about the same situation (not exact, but similar). I don’t think of myself as one of the top few players, but I’ve been playing long enough - from the first week.
I’ve seen people around me who started around the same time I did, pay a little bit for hero points, and rocket past me in terms of character levels. That discrepancy only got larger when Lightning Rounds came about - especially after introduced the 200% buff for 3* villains. I placed top 8 without too much effort in one of the Lightning rounds before the buff, but didn’t cash in on that quick enough. The 200% buff was introduced and I was left hanging with a 2/1 Doom and nothing else. As time went by, I couldn’t even place top 100 to get a Heroic token for the life of me and eventually just gave up on Lightning rounds altogether.
One fine day, I drew a single red Ragnarok. After like two weeks of competing in non-lightning tournaments, I found myself with about 3000 hero points. I dumped 2500 of those into Rag’s red skill, tried it out for a bit, and decided I would try and get at least a 0/5 Ragnarok so I could get back to competing in Lightning rounds. It was in the middle of The Hunt when I finally got enough for a 3rd skill increase to bring Ragnarok up to 0/4. Lightning started, decided to give it a go and surprisingly, I did fairly well. I placed consistently within the top 50, sometimes in top 25, and very rarely in top 8. By the end of that, my 3* villain cards had an immense boost: Doom (3/2 to 5/4), Ragnarok (0/4 to 3/5), Loki (1/1 to 3/3), Magneto (1/0/1 to 2/2/2), Hood (still at 0/0/1 because I don’t participate in those).
The moral of the story is, you can whine about how broken Ragnarok is but you can’t do without it. I guess luck played a minor factor, but not very much. After playing for such a long time, I have only drew one single red Ragnarok card from a Heroic token.
I am finally starting to have solid fighting teams where I dont get blasted. Got lucky with Rags as most of my 3 * pulls were always him. I had 7 covers for him before I got more than 2 for any other 3* villain. The last couple days have been unreal though with the 3* I have pulled, 2 spideys (blue and yellow) out of the 4 pumped up tokens, finished top 50 in lightning and pulled a Doom (black), then pulled another doom (blue) out of the standard pack, then pulled two IM40s out of the heroic tokens I won (only kept the blue, already maxed the red) then today got top 25 in Doom lightning for another doom black and then pulled a black widow GS (green) out of a standard pack.
Overall Doom can go from level 28 to 63, Spidey from 53 to 77, IM40 from 102 to 114, and Black widow GS from 28 to 41. And tomorrow I get a green rags from the supply refuel. Need to get a lot of ISOs now lol.
I started immediately since I knew I didn’t have the speed or power to attack *** teams. I just realized soon enough that matches will rarely yield 25 points or higher.
Thanks again. I think a high level guide on thresholds and ceilings would help transitions from novice to intermediate to advanced. For obvious reasons I can’t do it myself.
Great story that validates my points. I have friends in meatspace who play, and they fairly represent the novices intermediate curve. The most advanced player started from day one but only started gaining ground after getting Ragnarok covers almost exactly like yourself.
I am almost certain so many jumps in competitiveness are due to circumstances such as yours. Thanks for sharing and validating my hunch.
As far as Lightning rounds, Ragnarok is what put me past the barrier. The lightning rounds are probably the biggest barrier to overcome in the game. Such tough competition in such a small time. Everything else is doable by anyone who puts in the time and gets a bit of luck (My friend at work who is 2-3 weeks behind me and hasn’t spent anything got a top 5 place in the Avengers Tourney last night, and had he stayed up for the end, possibly could have secured #1).
Finally having a decent Ragnarok: He is amazing in Lightning Rounds, and only good anywhere else, IMO. There are many times I’d take others over him elsewhere. Maybe once I get my Grey Widow green maxed, he’ll be a more common team member.