When do I stop leveling 3* and start on 4*?

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ Tips and Guides Roster and Level Help
1

Is it now worth my ISO/time to start pouring my ISO into the 4*s? If not, at what point should I start the fabled transition? Roster in my sig.

3* summary:
25 characters at level 166+

Best covered 4*:
XFW 5/4/4, currently 166
Fury 5/3/4, 188
Starlold 4/2/3, 70
Thor 3/3/2, 70
XFDP 3/2/2, 133
Ant-Man 3/2/2, 78
Iceman 2/3/1, 70
Jean Grey 1/2/2, 70

I leveled XFW and Fury before championing happened and I had the ISO and was bored. XFDP was because of the recent Clash.

I was planning on bringing Bullseye to 166 (from 40) because I have queued 3 of his covers and because I focus on PVE nowadays, and then Beast (because his champs Jean).

2

I’d say when you have the covers for them, and you get your money’s worth for the ISO you’re sinking into them. Right now, I don’t think you’ve got enough covers on your 4*, to level them to where you’d get more benefit from them, than your 3*. You can continue championing 3*, for the LTs, which should give you more 4* covers.

Another path is to start leveling the 4* to a usable level (enough to beat their DDQ, powerful enough to be chosen in PVP over your 3*) and wait for the covers to come in.

In the long term, everyone’ll probably have 3* Champions and a few 4* Champions, but everyone has a different way of getting there. I’d go with the first suggestion I put up.

3

That brings up the other question: at what level does a 4* become useful? I assume that it’ll depend on the character to a large extent. Are they useful when they can beat the DDQ node? Or when you can level them to a point where their match damage starts to outstrip 3*s? Etc.

4

You are correct. It does depend on the character to a large extent. Leveling them to a point where you could beat the DDQ would be worth it for the LTs. This might not necessarily make them relevant in PVP or PVE though. I wouldn’t factor in match damage. Match damage is great for 5* b/c they start at 255, without costing you any ISO. But it’s definitely not worth the ISO to level a 4* for the match damage. Speed, damage, and synergy with your roster should be the factors you use to determine usefulness of a 4*. Some powers scale with levels, and that should be factored in. Some are useful based on covers, so you would get use out of them without leveling.

You’ve got Fury at 188 5/3/4. Have you ever used him in PVP? Mine is 200 5/5/3. If I do use him in PVP, he’s not going to last more than 2 matches, if he’s tanking. I’ll go on comment on some 4* to help you out, with a side by side of your roster and mine, and what I’d recommend.

188 5/3/4 - 200 5/5/3 Fury - His blue is great, so is yellow, but slow. Way to squishy. Wouldn’t prioritize to level him, since you’ve got him high and more 1 more level will cost more than multiple levels on a lower 4*.
166 5/4/4 - 200 5/5/3 XFW - His black is awesome, green really sucks. I didn’t realize this until I actually started to use him. I want him 4/5/4 or 3/5/5. I pair him with XFDP and it works in PVE and PVP. Saves healthpacks since both are true healers.
133 3/2/2 - 200 5/5/3 XFDP - His black is awesome. I went 5 red b/c I like the true healing, but you can’t go wrong with almost any build. His 5 black helps against AoE and scales with levels. So I would dump ISO into him, if you’ve got nowhere else to put it, since you’ll see a bump in the damage with higher levels.
70 3/3/2 - 200 5/3/5 Thor - She’s still really useful after her nerf. She can hit above her weight class, since her red is dependent on charged tiles on the board. I use her with a 5/5/2 IM40 in PVE, or if I want to fight 1 high point, high difficulty match in PVP.
70 2/3/1 - 200 5/3/2 Iceman - He is one you’ll want eventually leveled, but you can probably use him now with his blue stun. In PVE, I use him with SW and 2* Mags against character/2 goon nodes. I stun the character, and eventually it turns into a goon only node.
You don’t have enough covers on any of the other top tier 4* to really consider them yet, JG, Cyclops, IMHB, Rhulk. I don’t think you’d regret pouring ISO into any of those, b/c they will be useful once you get the covers.

I assume you’re waiting on the 13th covers for SW and Cage to Champ them. Those 2 are no brainers to Champ.

5

Well, looks like almost all of your 3*'s that are fully covered and even close to 166 are already championed… so I would move on to a few 4s. You are at the 3 - 4* transition point, IMO.

You probably already know this with that roster, but level 120 is where the curve really takes off on leveling 3s. So it wouldn’t take much ISO to take up some of the low-level 3 up to 100 - 120, just in case they are the feature in PVP or an essential in PVE, but I don’t think it’s necessary, you have a good enough roster to carry them.

Regarding the 4*s:

XFW 5/4/4 - Not the optimal (probably the worst 13-cover, actually) build right now… but still not a bad choice to take up. He’s also your only fully-covered 4*, so… might as well

Fury 5/3/4 - Blue is his best, unfortunately. I don’t really like Fury… there are better 3*

Starlold 4/2/3, 70 - IMO, the only reason to play SL is his yellow, which is level independent anyway. Keep him low for now.

Thor 3/3/2, 70 - Solid PVP character, and one of (if not the) best PVE characters. With only 8 covers, you still have a ways to go, but at least more and more characters are getting “charged” abilities, so you might be able to replace her blue by bringing along Rags, SS, or TAH (if you get more covers for them)

Iceman 2/3/1, 70 - I would start taking him up, but not too high… reason being his stun is level-independed, and at 3 covers, a 4-turn stun for 6 AP is definitely useful.

XFDP 3/2/2, 133 - Don’t bother until you get more covers
Ant-Man 3/2/2, 78 - Same

Jean Grey 1/2/2, 70 - I like Jean a lot, but I would hold off until you get more covers… especially if you do take Iceman up.