Well, we're back. I've basically taken two seasons off from competitive PVP, and with the long breaks between seasons since the Angel season, it feels like it's been 4 months since I have played PVP with any vigor or goal. In that time, I made a very lazy diamond and a nearly as lazy Vibranium. I guess I'm getting itchy, because it's not like I've read more than 5 comics featuring Domino and we can figure from looking at her who the originating "artist" was (It's starts with Lie and ends with Feld) , and we all know how I feel about him... But, there's something about her, I have to say, there's something about us anyway...
That's right, it's the DAFT PUNK references. And she seems interesting as a character. But they've never gone so far in theming a character, and I feel like I will feel bad if I don't put effort in. Honestly, Spiral is one of my favorites (well, that might be strong, but I've always liked her as a character, as opposed to some of these folks they've released). And, my friends couldn't shut up for two weeks about how great Spiral is. At my core, I'm a pokemon player, and I don't like seeing people going on about how great a character is while I have to wait 40 days.
So, not this time. I like the design of Domino, and, because of the federal government shutdown overlapping with my vacation in Europe, I didn't use as much vacation as I thought I would, so I need to use some or I might lose some. Thusly, another day away from the office playing near non-stop PVP. Woohoo!
Any rate, I can do all that without a blog. But I kind of need a place to write down what teams and setups I've been using and what the results have been, and since I play on multiple computers, need one place to put it all down.
Setups[]
I've been through a few teams at the time of starting this, but let's go with what I'm running now, and not worry about the past.
Offensive Team[]
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Agent | |
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heimdall | |
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quicksilver | |
In a Cube world, killing the agent has taken on a new importance. In an Empowered world, there are a lot of infiltrator agents floating about. Given that, there are not many reasons not to run scrapper quicksilver. I was running Rogue with the Morale Boost EISO and the Roguelike one, but with the volume of infiltrators I've been seeing (58% of fights have had an infiltrator out of 124 logged fights... yes, that's disproportionate), and the large majority of those being Agents, I'm not sure what took me so long. I'm running Green Suit QS because I like the Aggressive EISO on QS. He stacks very quickly, and in PVP, those stacks start to make a difference in his damage almost immediately.
Heimdall is a MAN. Paired with N-trope, he can frequently one shot people on the first turn, if turn sequence works properly (Agent ahead of Heimdall). He also does a funny thing with N-trope and his Level 2 skill... he will stop an attack, then get any status buff he would have gotten had he taken the attack (say enraged or even just a stack of War Frenzy) and then, counter attack with Hofund. That's generally death to whoever attacked. Very nice. I am enjoying him quite a bit, ranking him as one of the best Spec Op heroes released to date. On top of all that, he basically NULLIFIES BSQS's Blast From the Past. So, no more getting thumped to death ahead of a killing shot by that one.
Agent loadout is pretty self explanatory. Mystic keeps debuffs off, and keeps most buff removals from functioning (specifically the L1 from the Cube). Waraxe improves damage and Cube is the best anti-cube device going, if it comes to that. If it comes to that, I find my agent can trail the other agent by one step in cube progression to great effect. If they use the Cube L1 in the first round, I do nothing, as it does nothing to me with Mystic (or I work through it with AoEs or weak attacks). When they use the L2 on themselves, I use the L1 on them, which removes the Mirror thingy and any other buffs, while also applying distracted (and them without buff removal). When they use the L3 to put all sorts of nasties on my guys, I use the L2, which removes the nasties, and sets up the Mirror thingy to make their L4 Cube work as a healing process on my guys. Followed by the L3 from me, to put the nasties on them, and the worst they can do is run the L1 on me again. Oh well, L4 and goodnight. Trail them and you will have an easy win against a lockdown opponent. I don't find I have too many go that route, but it's nice to have that option, especially with Heimdall ready to apply the finest hour beat down.
Tactician is a nod to the many blaster Thors that I've seen, who were making me nervous by one shotting my agent or whole team. Tactician doesn't discourage him from blowing or attacking the agent, but it does net me an extra turn to switch up the turn order, and I like extra turns like I like my wife.
Performance Update[]
As of December 5th, in my last 198 fights with this setup, 188-10, for 94.9%. When it works, you don't monkey.
Defensive Team[]
December 5th Experiment[]
The Thor-Magneto setup ran it's course and between November 26 and has been in a state of decline as my ranking goes up. Aggregate numbers from the 26th through December 5th resulted in 40-167 for 19.3%. Not awful, but going 4-28 in my last 32 cut it. Thor isn't what he was at the start of the tournament, and Magneto has never struck me as a heavy hitter, and if I'm not running Thor, I'm not feeling the need to accelerate as much. If push comes to shove, I could even live with that kind of performance, so I can always go back to it. The new stuff:
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Agent | |
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rescue | |
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heimdall | |
This setup has been annoying me when I see it on offense. I could switch Signpost for Shep. Staff, or maybe switch the agent uniform, but we'll see how it rolls.
November 25th Experiment[]
Well, it wasn't a huge sample size, but when you come back to -170 on one screen of defenses, you know something didn't work well. I'm going to write off my loss to this setup as a turn order thing, as I couldn't get things going fast enough to thwart the agent, which would have solved everything. Or, alternatively, it was a tactics issue, where I should have killed Rescue first, especially after Angel put the L9 on the Agent. Or, plain bad luck, as they Cube dodged nearly every Heimdall attack. Whatever it was, this setup didn't work well for me, posting, during a relatively light volume day a 2-19 for 9.5% winning. Back to the November 21 setup.
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Agent | |
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rescue | |
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angel | |
Well, the November 21st setup, when I actually put it in right, won about 23% of the time. I'd be happier with a higher number, so I cribbed from someone who is running close to 50% on a HUUUUUGE volume (I suspect they ran through the L295-300 gauntlet to acquire that volume), and ran a setup that made me want to punch a wall. So, above, that setup. This person had marginally better armory bonus than I did, and possibly better hero bonus (not much better, though I didn't look closely, so I'm gonna run this for a few days, see how it works for me.
Angel has the Generosity EISO and when I level him to 13 (possibly next after QS), the Morale Boost. Rescue is using the Generosity giving EISO and the one that gives Snappy Service. I think Snappy Service might be of marginal utility on her since she can do nearly everything every round anyway, but with the Generosity buff, that winds up being a lot of health, too. I'll let you know how it goes, since I have a cutoff point in my logging data.
November 21st[]
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Agent | |
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magneto | |
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thor | |
Made a couple changes to this setup. First, QS out, Thor:GoT in. I'm using Modern Thor in the bruiser getup. Modern because he can go first turn with a big one, and be ready to go again pretty quickly afterwards. Bruiser might be the interesting call here. First, I've seen a rise of tactician agents, as a counter to Blaster Thor. In fact, agents are now more likely to be tactician than infiltrator, which makes Quicksilver less desirable. It also raises the possibility of playing an infiltrator, but now we're getting far ahead. Blaster Thor would be my preference, but, given the presence of a lot of tacticians, I would prefer not to give that away. I'm actually a bit surprised by the number of people who are running Blaster Thor and a Tactician agent. It's like they KNOW they need the tactician due to the large number of blaster Thors, but they have so much fear of blaster Thor that they will trade an extra turn to an agent.
The goal with the loadout is to force the agent to use the Cube in the fast progression. I've already discussed how this is easily countered by running your Cube a turn behind their Cube, so the wisdom of this strategy remains to be seen, but apparently with Magneto's shield rolling, when it works properly, you get fast enough turns from your other guys that the Cube doesn't get around to the Atom Smasher.
I am contemplating putting the Solar Storm in place of the Signpost, as it would disrupt Cube progression to the proper pace, and accelerate Magneto quite a bit, while protecting against the mirror match. Mostly to accelerate Magneto though.
November 19th[]
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Agent | |
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magneto | |
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quicksilver | |
Quicksilver discussion is the same as the offensive side. Plus, he just works.
Magneto has solid AI and with the Quick EISO, he does some nice tricks, like applies the Magnetic Shield as a QA then gets on with the attack. Mystic stymies him a bit, but Scroll of A removes the Mystic shielding and lets him get on magnetizing everyone. This is an attempt to get the team a lot of extra turns. We'll see how it works. 25% is the goal.
Agent is designed to go through the Cube progression, and have something to do with an extra turn. We'll see how that goes, but switching Mystic for a quick action gizmo might be another avenue to explore. Scroll of A, removes Mystic's shielding, which allows the L1 of Cube to process, letting me get ahead of the progression and not allowing the enemy to run his progression. Defense, as you know, is a larger shot in the dark than ever it was, so we can only go based on results and observation. I hope it all works out.