How to Perform Better in High Level PVP?

Unknown · October 2014

Hi everyone,

I just had a question for some of the top players out there. I'm a 3* player with a decent roster, but I'm having a little bit of trouble knowing where to go from here.

This is my roster:
166 LCap 3/5/5
166 The Hood 5/5/3
166 Hulk 5/3/5
153 LThor 3/4/5
166 Patch 3/5/5
140 Sentry 4/5/2
153 LDaken 4/4/4
131 X-force 3/1/2
111 Fury 2/1/2

I don't seem to be able to place beyond 800-850 points. I generally use 1 shield in PVP when I get to about 800 to get to the end. I don't think the issue is "you need a better roster," although I admit that it could still get better. I guess I'm just trying to expand to the end game, but I feel stuck. I tried to shield hop during Combined Arms, but it was so hard - I would get attacked after 2 games, and I could nothing but combinations of X-force / Sentry / Hood / Daken. I know my Daken and Sentry are weak for Sentry-bombing, so it's tough to shield-hop. I don't think my roster needs to get deeper, unless you guys think I need BP for defense. Other than that, I don't know why I'm struggling so much at the 800-1000 level of PVP.

Am I just not playing fast enough? Am I doomed without more X-force / Sentry covers? (which is ironic, because I'm trying to get better at PVP for 4* covers...) Let me know if anyone has any tips. Thanks in advance!

over_clocked · October 2014

What exactly is your issue? Can you find good points after crossing 800? Can you beat those teams? If you cannot beat all the maxed Sentry/Hood/X-Force teams, your MMR must be a bit too high or there simply isn't enough team variety past 800 points. Which shouldn't be true, I am reasonably sure that other viable and decent 3*s like the ones you have should be able to get at least 900 points fairly reliably. Do you use a 3hr, a 8hr or a 24hr shield at the end? Many non-endgame roster prefer to climb really late to avoid being hit by aforementioned top rosters due to unattractive scores, or have to shield up early themselves and so you rarely see them.
Don't feel bad about having tough luck in Combined Arms, CA and Balance of Power are notoriously hard for 3* rosters since 1*s and 2*s have more of a level footing in those too, and only Hood/Sentry/X-Force really stand out against all other 3*s and higher in those.
LC is very, very good for sustained pushing (with Hood/oBW or just Hood), Hulk/Patch are a poor man's Sentry bomb (put Hulk in the tanking position over Patch, boost green, Berserker, make Hulk matches, watch Anger fly, DO NOT attack other Hulks or classic Storms with this comp unless you kill cStorm early). Your Thor could really use the 5th yellow, but Thor/Daken and Thor/Hood are very good comps too.

Unknown · October 2014

Thanks for your reply, locked. I can find good points and I can beat those teams, but maybe I can't do it quickly enough? I feel like I can't beat three teams before getting attacked when coming out of a shield, so it makes it difficult to climb more than 70-80 points between shields. $:\$ Also, it seems dangerous to fight Xforce/Hood or Sentry/Hood to hop, but it seems like that's all I see. I'm still really new to this level of play (before I got most of my covers from PVE and just placing top 25 consistently at around 800 points for PVP), but I'm starting to reach that place where I think I need to do better in PVP for anymore progress.

I guess I'm not sure what team I should be using when shield hopping, other than that it should probably involve the Hood.

over_clocked · October 2014

Try to queue 50-point matches between your shields. That way you could do 100-point hops with 2 battles. You do indeed lack characters that can put away games fast (do try Hulk/Patch against non-tankiest teams though, they should be able to win against teams up to 7-8k health reasonably fast). You should not be attacked incessantly at low scores of 800-850 though, you probably just have too high of a MMR so that everyone and their dog prefers to attack you instead of maxed Sentry/Hood/X-Force teams.
Don't forget to lower your MMR regularly (=tank) if all you see past 800 is endgame rosters, and don't rush your progress. Focus on PvE instead if you think you hit a wall in PvP.

wymtime · October 2014

One thing to also remember is the fact that combined arms was an unusual event where you needed 1* and 2* people. One other thing if you are willing to invest HP try hopping at different times. You might make a hop from 800 to ___ with 5 hours left. You might be using a 8 hour shield but becuase it is not a peek time you might also be able to score more points. You are at the point where figuring out the HP cost to benifit is really interesting. Do you spend 225 HP to try and get 1100-1200 points?

Unknown · October 2014

Hi guys,

Thanks again for the suggestions. I think maybe my MMR is too high when I climb to the top. I'm still really new to shield-hopping; I've only tried it like twice, and I think I'm just not doing a very good job at it. In Combined Arms, I spent like 225-300 HP and only climbed to like less than 1000. I think I need to be able to climb to 1300 to really make my HP expenditure worth it, though. $:\$

Seasick Pirate · October 2014

I'm going to hijack this thread because I'm in a similar situation myself.
If I should create my own topic, let me know and I will.

I normally break 700, get scared, and shield for the rest of the event. But I'm desperate for a yellow. Hood cover aAnd want to hit 1100 pts this event. This terrifies me. Honestly, I don't really know if my roster is good enough for his currently, but I feel it would be worth the effort if I succeed.

What sort of tactics can I use? I'm sitting at just over 600 pts with 26 hours left, ranked #10.
Should I be searching out targets worth a certain amount of points (are 15 pt targets okay?)?
Should I look to my score or my rank to determine when to take breaks? I'm fine with finishing at any rank.
I've been using a variety of teammates with Hood, but I don't feel my Sentry or Patch are species well enough to rely on. From my roster, who can I rely on to help the most (best defensive team)? I have pleanty of ISO saved to level a few folks if needed.

Thanks for any advise. The pressure I'm putting on myself over this is making me anxious so sorry if that comes shining through my post.

Unknown · October 2014

Seasick Pirate wrote:

I'm going to hijack this thread because I'm in a similar situation myself.
If I should create my own topic, let me know and I will.

I normally break 700, get scared, and shield for the rest of the event. But I'm desperate for a yellow. Hood cover aAnd want to hit 1100 pts this event. This terrifies me. Honestly, I don't really know if my roster is good enough for his currently, but I feel it would be worth the effort if I succeed.

What sort of tactics can I use? I'm sitting at just over 600 pts with 26 hours left, ranked #10.
Should I be searching out targets worth a certain amount of points (are 15 pt targets okay?)?
Should I look to my score or my rank to determine when to take breaks? I'm fine with finishing at any rank.
I've been using a variety of teammates with Hood, but I don't feel my Sentry or Patch are species well enough to rely on. From my roster, who can I rely on to help the most (best defensive team)? I have pleanty of ISO saved to level a few folks if needed.

Thanks for any advise. The pressure I'm putting on myself over this is making me anxious so sorry if that comes shining through my post.

I took a look at your roster, and you can probably try shield hopping with Sentry Hood & Black Panther to reach 1100. Try to level up Sentry as close to the soft cap as possible and see if you can push to 750 or 800 before running out of health packs. If you can log in regularly use 3 hour shields and cue up 3 40+ point targets doing 2 quick fights with boosts. Use Battle Plan instead of Sacrifice and switch to highest health enemy before world rupture countdowns trigger. Once you get the hang of hopping you can try 3 to 4 fights per hop but it's riskier that you may get attacked before shielding. Good luck!

PS - skip teams with Hulk or Captain Marvel

Unknown · October 2014

I can't believe you hijacked my thread! Although, I guess I should have known, since you are a pirate...

Seasick Pirate wrote:

I'm going to hijack this thread because I'm in a similar situation myself.
If I should create my own topic, let me know and I will.

I normally break 700, get scared, and shield for the rest of the event. But I'm desperate for a yellow. Hood cover aAnd want to hit 1100 pts this event. This terrifies me. Honestly, I don't really know if my roster is good enough for his currently, but I feel it would be worth the effort if I succeed.

What sort of tactics can I use? I'm sitting at just over 600 pts with 26 hours left, ranked #10.
Should I be searching out targets worth a certain amount of points (are 15 pt targets okay?)?
Should I look to my score or my rank to determine when to take breaks? I'm fine with finishing at any rank.
I've been using a variety of teammates with Hood, but I don't feel my Sentry or Patch are species well enough to rely on. From my roster, who can I rely on to help the most (best defensive team)? I have pleanty of ISO saved to level a few folks if needed.

Thanks for any advise. The pressure I'm putting on myself over this is making me anxious so sorry if that comes shining through my post.

Seasick Pirate · October 2014

^Haha! - sorry about that. It souns like we're in near-identical situations in terms of wanting to improve our performances.

I've been having good luck with Hulk & Panther with Hood. But I'm often wondering if I should level up my Hulk a bit more. Currently, I have him at lvl 130 and he has 9000 health. Would pushing him to 10,000hp be helpful or do I benefit more by having his anger trigger more often?

Also, by "soft-capping" my Sentry, do you mean leveling him up as much as I can? Sorry for this dumb question - I suck at the meta aspects of this game.

Unknown · October 2014

Seasick Pirate wrote:

^Haha! - sorry about that. It souns like we're in near-identical situations in terms of wanting to improve our performances.

I've been having good luck with Hulk & Panther with Hood. But I'm often wondering if I should level up my Hulk a bit more. Currently, I have him at lvl 130 and he has 9000 health. Would pushing him to 10,000hp be helpful or do I benefit more by having his anger trigger more often?

Also, by "soft-capping" my Sentry, do you mean leveling him up as much as I can? Sorry for this dumb question - I suck at the meta aspects of this game.

Yes his current level cap is 140 so try to level him up as much as possible.

As for Hulk & Panther... Not really a great combo with Hood. Hulk is great when his anger feeds green to a better skill than Thunderous Clap, namely Sniper Rifle or Call of the Storm. Thor/Hulk work well, or Black Panther/Thor, try different teams for your push up to the 800 range but if you take a break without a shield try winning a match with Sentry/Black Panther to set up as your defense team.

Seasick Pirate · October 2014

Well, I learned my lesson. I'll go back and sit in the corner like a good boy.

I don't think I'm ready for his. Before I could break 700 I hit a wall of maxed Sentry/Daken and/or X-Force teams. Nothing I want to mess with. I was ranked #4 in my bracket. I went un-shielded over night thinking any losses I suffer might help me find better-suited opponents. Dropped to 560 points,now ranked #30, but keep seeing the same teams. Why are there so many maxed X-Forces?!

Will my rank affect the kind of opponents I face? Or does my current score have more to do with that? Or is it soley MMR?
I told you I have little to no grasp on the meta game.

The1WhoKnocks · October 2014

Ok, I'll be honest that I didn't read all the previous posts. The one real advice I can give you other than what I have seen is that when shield hopping, you generally don't want to do more than 3 games, or stay out longer than 5 to 6 minutes max. The general idea is to get as big of a point node as you can and try to shield hop for no more than 2 games, or 4 to 5 minutes. The higher you get in points, the less time you need to be out from under a shield when hopping. There are little subtleties that you will come to learn when you are more comfortable with hopping, but try to stick to the basics. There are a ton of more advanced tactics that come into play when you get really high on points, but just know that when you hop, try to wait at leat 15 to 20 minutes between hops, and no less than 10 minutes at the extreme.

atomzed · October 2014

Seasick Pirate wrote:

Well, I learned my lesson. I'll go back and sit in the corner like a good boy.

I don't think I'm ready for his. Before I could break 700 I hit a wall of maxed Sentry/Daken and/or X-Force teams. Nothing I want to mess with. I was ranked #4 in my bracket. I went un-shielded over night thinking any losses I suffer might help me find better-suited opponents. Dropped to 560 points,now ranked #30, but keep seeing the same teams. Why are there so many maxed X-Forces?!

Will my rank affect the kind of opponents I face? Or does my current score have more to do with that? Or is it soley MMR?
I told you I have little to no grasp on the meta game.

You are seeing only max Xforce and other tough teams, because those are the only teams that are unshielded.

Generally as the game reaches its last 16 hours (and less), the weaker teams are shield up. Those with max teams can afford not to shield up, so you only see those teams.

For example, in the unholy outlaw pvp, I have a max hood xforce and lcap. I didn't shield at all throughout the pvp. I aimed for a score of 800 to get the hp award. After that I just left them unshield. Eventually I was hit for 80 points and dropped to 720 at around the 8 hr mark. Following that there were no more attacks.

Why is that so? It's because at 720 points I was not worth the effort at max team. If I were at a higher point total, like 900, I would get hit.

To contextualize it to a 2* transition players, if someone has 720 points, but was using a loaner hood, a max lcap and max obw, this guy would get hit a lot more. Mainly bec a 2* team would be able to beat it. And 700 points are a ripe picking.

If however, the same guy with loaner hood obw is at 250 pts, no one would hit it. Because he is not worth the points.

In short, shielding requires you to understand your roster strength and the phase of the pvp (hours left on the clock). To use the least shields and yet gain the most number of points is one of the fun part about high end mpq

Unknown · October 2014

Well, I've spent about 600HP in shields trying to learn how to shield hop and get to the Xforce cover, and what it's shown me is I get sniped too often. In 2 matches under 5 minutes, I will still get attacked in the 1st match. $:\$ I guess the irony of trying to get Xforce is that I can't move up without having him...

atomzed · October 2014

AznLyte wrote:

Well, I've spent about 600HP in shields trying to learn how to shield hop and get to the Xforce cover, and what it's shown me is I get sniped too often. In 2 matches under 5 minutes, I will still get attacked in the 1st match. $:\$ I guess the irony of trying to get Xforce is that I can't move up without having him...

What is your Xforce level?

You may be better off using another character in the shield hop than a half naked Xforce.

Reason is that a 200+ levelled Xforce is going to be a target board at the 900 points level.

Like I said in my previous post, the strength of the team matter. The stronger the team you set out, the less likely the chance you will be targeted.

So your current roster might not be suitable for shield hopping. Then just save the hp for now.
.either that or you hop way earlier (say at 24 hrs instead of 6 hrs)

Unknown · October 2014

I'm not using Xforce to hop. I use a 153 Sentry and a 166 Hood. Yeah, well, I agree. 600 HP poorly spent. $:\$ I guess I shouldn't try again for a few months. I started hopping really early, I guess I just didn't have enough hp to hop 5 times and use 300 to get to the end.

Unknown · October 2014

AznLyte wrote:

I'm not using Xforce to hop. I use a 153 Sentry and a 166 Hood. Yeah, well, I agree. 600 HP poorly spent. $:\$ I guess I shouldn't try again for a few months. I started hopping really early, I guess I just didn't have enough hp to hop 5 times and use 300 to get to the end.

Are you using boosts? In a Hood versus Hood fight you can bring along AP boosts for 3 green/black 3 red/yellow& you can save 2 more turns if you bring along 2 all color AP boosts. That'll speed up your fights and get you re shielded before the retaliations

atomzed · October 2014

Hmm... Or it may be the timing that you are shield hopping. Was it at those "zombie horde" hours like 8hr 6hr 3 hr?

Or did you not spread out your hops? Meaning, that did you allow at least 30 mins to lapse between your hops. Preferably an hour is better.

Last possibility is that you were just unlucky. I remember the time in magnetic mayhem when I was shield hopping at around 16 hr mark. I was just hit left right centre when ever I hop more than 2 games. It was crazy. That pvp was the only time it happened to me though.

HailMary · November 2014

AznLyte wrote:

I'm not using Xforce to hop. I use a 153 Sentry and a 166 Hood. Yeah, well, I agree. 600 HP poorly spent. $:\$ I guess I shouldn't try again for a few months. I started hopping really early, I guess I just didn't have enough hp to hop 5 times and use 300 to get to the end.

Could you describe, in detail, your shieldhopping timeline?

For example:
1. Reached 800 points, fought last fight with a team of N + M, & put up first 3hr shield at T-16 hours.
2. T-14 hours: broke shield, Sentry-bombed three queued targets, got attacked for X points, put up another 3hr shield after X minutes with a P score.
3. T-11 hours: etc. etc.
...

This would help us see what specifically is happening in your hops, because spending 600 HP and not getting the X-Force cover you want is definitely painful

, and people want to help.

Unknown · November 2014

Well, basically, I planned to give myself plenty of time, so I entered about T-24, having already lowered my MMR in Simulator. I climbed to about 700, when I started getting pummeled constantly. Normally, I can climb to 800 before having to shield, but for some reason that day, I kept getting attacked, no matter who I changed my defense to.

T-24, with 750 points, I shield. (normally I shield at about 800+, but today I was just struggling).
T-22: I break, win three times, and shield at 882.
T-19: I break, win three times, am attacked after I come, leaving me at 968.
T-17: I break, win twice, am attacked after coming out of the second, leaving me at 1063.
T-14: I win 1, no problems. I win the 2nd, come out, and have been attacked twice, leaving me at 1063 (no change).
T-6: 1 win 1, no problems. I win the 2nd one, come out, and have been attacked twice , leaving me at 1087.
T-3: I win 1, am attacked after the FIRST round (I didn't take an excessively long time, maybe 2-3 min), win another, then shield at 1120.

So my problem is basically that I was sniped pretty much every time. I don't know why; I don't know if there are people who don't need to hop at those levels, and they simply can just attack the first people that come up without having to queue and prep, but I pretty much started getting sniped the last 4 times. I don't if I'm just too slow, but I can finish each in game in about 2-3 minutes. Every game, I either used 3 r/y + 3 g/b boosts, OR 3 rainbow boosts. Later on, for about the second half, I started adding 4-80% rainbow damage boost. I don't know if my roster just looked easier than everyone else's? I leveled Sentry to 153 (4/5/3) before I started, had a max Hood, and I was using a lvl 60 beast. But, I don't see how having a 150 beast would deter anyone either. Maybe as long as my Sentry is not max, and I don't have the featured character leveled significantly, I will be punished?

Thanks for everyone trying to help. I guess shield hopping is a part of high level play, but getting sniped every time makes me wonder if I'm doing something wrong, or if it's just this hard. $:\$

How to Perform Better in High Level PVP?

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