Introduction[]
The current lull in the game prompted me to write an After Action Report for Pre-PVP 19. I did not gather hard data for it as I wasn't expecting to report strictly but I wanted to share my experiences nonetheless.
My choices, my playing experiences are influenced by my environment and my background, so they might not be applyable universally.
PVP Philosophy[]
Goals[]
My goal for PVP is Vibranium, but if I can take Adamantium with reasonable effort, I usually go for it. Since this was a Pre-PVP with less valuable prize, wider bracket ranges and arguably less participants, I aimed for Adamantium.
I value PVP Energy Tokens (Reds) for standard PVP, so I didn't want to use them during pre-PVP.
Finally, since a roulette was offered with this Tourney, I had the goal of winning 5 pvp matches every single day.
Scoring[]
My observations so far led me to believe volume and success during Offense will raise the score; having a good Defense will just contain my losses, and, once the score becomes high enough, you can just assume every defense to fail.
Offensive Team Goals[]
I want my offensive teams to be able to win reliably in the Adamantium score bracket and, if possible, to make the matches brief. I know I am not very apt at threat assesment so, due to playstyle, I rather prefer teams which are a little bit lenient on my mistakes even if this means sacrificing a bit of speed (e.g. while I know of PKB Sandman Nul one shot team, I am not comfortable running it because I am prone to one shot the wrong target).
Defensive Team Goals[]
Do not lose too many points.
Pre-PVP 19 Report[]
Hero Bonus[]
In order to keep the Offensive matches brief, I focused my hero bonus toward the offense by prioritizing classes in this order: Blasters > Tacticians > Bruisers > Scrappers > Generalists > Infiltrators.
Armory[]
Usually I run the latest SpecOps consummable for both Offensive and Defensive armory, but given the Bonus jump during PVP 18 I went with full 2g armories. I tilted the Offensive one toward Offense (4 pages of balanced items, 2 pages of offensive), and the Defensive one toward Defense (4 pages of balanced items, 2 pages of defensive).
Meta[]
I encountered a meta similar to that from PVP 18, so a lot of Nul Luke Cage, Red Hulk - Peast - Tact Agent, GG Prototype builds, Infiltrator and Tactician Gamora and Peast, Guardian Groot used as a protector, some Molly Hayes, a rising number of Air Pressure FF Invisible Woman, and a dwindling number of QuickLocke and QuickNull teams.
Offensive Team[]
The team I used is the same that carried me through the final part of PVP 18:
- Empowered Bruiser Agent with Relentless E-ISO, Mystic, Weather Control Device, Scroll of Angolob, Shepherd's Staff
- Tactician Captain Steve Rogers Captain America with Leading (Always go first) E-ISO, Concussing A-ISO (Subdue) on LVL1, Bursting A-ISO on LVL9 (Shield Breaker)
- Bruiser Molly Hayes with Close E-ISO (Street Fighting) and Vengefull E-ISO (Big and Fast), Knocking A-ISO on LVL1 (Incapacitation), Powerfull A-ISO on LVL2 (+ Damage), Bursting A-ISO on LVL9 (Shield Breaker)
The goal of the team is pretty simple: allow Molly to unleash her Temper Tantrum during Turn 2 all while disrupting the most common defensive pattern actions.
Let's begin with Always go first Steve Rogers. Cpt America usually switches to his Counterintelligence stance and stays in it throughout the match. Going first it can either put a Depowered on select targets (in my case Red Hulk in Red Peast Teams and GG Prototype agents are prime targets), attempt a Subdue on dangerous melee attacker (Quicksilver, Psylocke or Nul) or, if Invisible Woman is involved, drop a Shield Breaker on the opponent's team. The Shield Throw Exhausted is nice, but I often preferred to apply the Depower.
Molly Hayes build is pretty straightforward too: the Vengefull E-ISO allows for the chance of extra turns and the close raises the amount of crits for her L2; the Knocking A-ISO on her L1 sets up the Exploits Stun on the L2. The Shield Breaker on the L9 Catastrophic is a well known tactic, but a pretty usefull one. Having two sources of Shield Breaker in the team allows for some redundancy.The extra turn she might be granted with Shepherd Staff on turn 2 allows to avoid having her protect and have her contribute during turn 1 instead of just Raspberrying.
The agent loadout is pretty simple: Scroll of Angolob serves the dual purpose of disabling Nul (preheventively or after he goes "You are Not Worthy") and clearing Mystic Shrouds. The fact that it does it as a quick action, thus allowing to process all the remaining gear, makes it preferable to the Cube in this setup. The Weather Control Device provides another source of Exhausted while being Catastrophic, complementing Cpt America Shield Throw. The Shepherd's Staff allows for Molly and Cpt to take two turns in a row on turn 2 and lessens the effects of dots. While not critical, I've found that I do not like having my Molly protect for a whole turn. Finally the Mystic, which provides cover for debuffs against non-Peast teams, allows to disable tech gadgets via Obsolete Tech and when wielded by an Inspired, double Enraged Agent packs quite a punch.
Defensive Team[]
I think I copied this team from an opponent which I found pretty nagging (probably due to the lack of Shield Breakers in my Offensive Team at the time). I do not remember this team being surprisingly good or bad, but I assume that once you enter the 0.30% range all your defenses are losses and the ones which get salvaged are to be cherished.
- Safeguard Bruiser Agent with Vengefull E-Iso (Big and Fast), equipped with Neuropurge, Weather Control Device, Synthetic Cube and Quantum Jumper;
- Infiltrator FF Invisible Woman with Circulating E-Iso (Clears Debuffs), with Powerfull A-ISO on L1 and L6 (+ Damage) and Manifesting A-ISO on L2 (Epiphany)
- Bruiser Molly Hayes with Close E-ISO (Street Fighting) and Vengefull E-ISO (Big and Fast), Knocking A-ISO on LVL1 (Incapacitation), Powerfull A-ISO on LVL2 (+ Damage), Bursting A-ISO on LVL9 (Shield Breaker)
The team tries to keep Molly alive and un-debuffed to make her go Temper Tantrum.
Results[]
I scored a very lazy Adamantium with 2016 Rating 246 Wins and 150 Losses. I did not have to use any red token, and I quickly triggered the roulette every day.
Evaluation[]
Armory[]
Theoretically the choice to tilt the defensive armory defensively is less than optimal: as I run my hero bonus with a strong emphasis on offense, I would be better served by playing a Defensive Team which took advantage of offensive stats and tilt the defensive bonus back to balance or to offensive.
Defensive Team[]
Of course if I want to go to a balanced or offensive armory I need the defensive team to exploit it. As such it would be worthwhile to test how would a QuickLocke or a QuickNul perform.
Offensive Team[]
There are a few branching possibilities:
The first one is to use Scrapper Steve Rogers instead of the Tactician alt (Pros: Infiltrators are a presence in the meta, Blasters are very rare, Cons: Bruisers have a sizable presence in the meta)
The agent uniform could be subbed with the Scrapper Safguard (Pros: Inhibit QuickLocke team, exploits Infiltrators presence in the meta; Cons: Sizable Bruiser presence in the meta, lose the double enraged Mystic strike)
Finally I've seen Molly Offensive Team builds which call for HAIF. While I love HAIF and I overuse him, I think I prefer to play my chances with an Always go first Depower (which works even when Peast is present) than to have the chance of a full debuff clear (if Peast is not present), a big hit (White Hot Iron Fist) or Cornered.
Of course, if the meta swings back to a lot of QuickLocke teams, Iron Fist might be the right choice.