This fight is the first one that wiped my team. I fought them at level 295. Man, that yellow on Carol is dangerous. I keep forgetting you need to treat her like Hulk and either slowly pick away or bring someone to stun. Hit her hard enough and you start to take Blasts and Punches to the face. And considering Hypersonic Punch stuns, it starts an avalanche of pain.
Still, got the covers I wanted. Just playing with the last few nodes to see if I can beat them or not.
Now, Capt Marvel... are you guys telling me she is Essential in the 3rd sub? So, in the off-chance I do make it all the way to the end, I can't get BP without having her?? If so, damn... that means I need to dump someone to pull her in, just to possibly dump her again to free up that slot. Ugh.
Required characters to get all progression awards:
Sub 1 Wilderness: Blade
Sub 2 Alpine: Blade & Captain Marvel
Sub 3 Global: Blade & Laken
As much as I would like to keep a top five finish for some Cap Marvel black, I don't know that I'll hop much further beyond 1300, and I'm in fifth right now at 1266. My HP expense so far is well below purchasing the cover I want outright, so I think I will settle for what I aimed for and not be greedy.
So... I got greedy and managed a top 5 placement with 1452 points. Once I got my 1300, I put a lower shield to see where I would be in three hours. At that point I was 4th and less than 100 points behind 3rd. Since I had some 40s in my queue, pushed another 100+. I threw up an 8 hour shield to get me almost to the end of the event (an eight and a three cheaper than a day). Twenty minutes before the shield was to expire, I'm in sixth and only 14 points back from fifth. So, I figure what the heck, I can't possibly get knocked out of top 25 placement. Got slowed down in one match and ended up getting hit for 92 before before throwing up another shield for a net gain of about 6 points. Well, crud. Thirty minutes before the end of the event, and fifth place hasn't budged in points. Play the skip game and find a generous X-Man with 49 points. Ten minutes before the end and fifth still hasn't moved. Well, at that point, Sunset Overdrive got paused and I waited until five minutes on the clock. Slammed through that fight as fast as I could and shielded again. Dunno if fifth was watching or not, but didn't respond. Woo.
Key learning: While it's less expensive than outright buying covers, high end shield hopping will cost you. Not just in the shields, but the ISO to skip your way to valid targets and the AP boosts. Also, not having the metagame Sentry/Hood combo will slow you down. My maxed Daken/Thor was fast, but I wasn't getting the less-than-a-minute speed to avoid retaliation losses, and my defensive win ratio was super low.
Now I need to talk myself out of trying this again for a first place finish for the Captain Marvel event - blue is my only missing cover for Fury, but everyone is going to go hard for more Blade covers. Bah.