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New Account Challenge - The Timewarp

WhoDaPoo

I've had this idea for a while and then was inspired by a post a few weeks ago about 5 stars to actually do it. I've done some digging to find out what story content was available at what point of time vs. what star ratings were available at those times.

The idea here is to play a new account today with limitations of the the past. I will only do story content with what was regularly available for champ star ratings at that time.

I know it won't be perfect to the history as quests have been rebuilt, rewards upgraded, and so on. I'll do my best to work within the confines of what I can do with what we have today.

The Historical Constraints (thanks to Google Gemini):

1-4 star champs were available on release.
5 star champs became availalbe in October 2015 and around the release of Act 4.
6 star champs became available around Feb 1, 2018, and around the that time story content was on end of Act 5 or act 6.1 was coming out that year.
When 6.2 first came out it restricted use of champs to 5 and 6 stars.
7 stars came out early 2023, and at that time 8.2 was out or just launching.
5 star and 6 star ascension released in 2023

Side note:
When new star ratings came out, maxing ranking wasn't possible. But managing these dates will be too hard. So I'm going to add a caveat to make things harder for me, and "round down" what champs I can use in what content. So if 6 stars released in 6.2 or 6.3, then I'll just wait till Act 7 to use them. That makes the challenge harder, but also not having manage all the ranking resources while moving through content.

New Account Rules:

I can use 1-4 star champs from the start of the account.
When I get to Act 5.1 I can open and use 5 star champs.
When I get to 6.2 I can no longer bring 4* and below champs (no synergies, etc.)
When I get to Act 7.1 I can open and use 6 star champs.
When I get to Act 8.3, I can open and use 7 star champs.
No ascending 5 star or 6 star champs till 8.3 (2023 timeline).
As I get champs I can rank however high as possible with the in game stores and resources - I won't keep to historical timeline accuracy.
I can open crystals with varying star level ratings (like a cav crystal), but if I pull a champ star rating above the story content I am on, then that champ will sit the bench.

Overall new account goal?
I'll go for paragon at a minimum, but no fixed timeline. I'm currently sick and off work and school so I have a bunch of free time to see how far I get in 5-7 days. I'm looking forward to doing Grandmaster with 5 stars for the first time.

If anyone has any notes or anything I may have missed as a timeline constraint, let me know! That's it for now. I'm starting very soon and will give updates here if people are interested in following along.

Comments

SummonerNR

I assume you are not gonna try to limit WHICH champs (based on when they were the only ones available). Or newer Masteries (although even the newest are very old by now). And of course no way to revert to older Abilities/Synergies (aka, even if using Guilly for ROL Wolverine instead of a newer Heal-Block champ, she has much better ability now for that).

And of course how a lot of early Act's were cut apart and specific nodes made a lot easier.

But still, would be a nice speedrun to see, given how earlier challenges have a lot better champ choices now.

Doesn’t look like @Cantona59 is still around on Forum, maybe they could have joined you in the challenge.

WhoDaPoo

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2956249#Comment_2956249

I thought about limiting by release year of a champ but I think it's going to be too difficult given the RNG and the biggest limiting factor of time and gold.

Masteries are an interesting call out. This is the first new account challenge I've done without Back Issues being around to farm the cores to unlock some easy masteries. So I may keep them very limited for now and maybe unlock the crit and cruelty ones only, assuming I get enough units. Other than that, I don't expect I'll unlock anything like willpower or glass cannon any time soon.

That said I did think of a goal for this challenge. Try to get to 8.3 to unlock 7 stars, and try to get the free key (or keys) from the realm event. It'd be cool to have this account's first 7 stars be from the ascension box.

Buttehrs

Sounds like a fun idea but id argue too much in the game overall has changed. Champs have gotten reworked, acts got reworked, even abilities and stuff like echo damage have been changed. I just dont see how its feasible.

WhoDaPoo

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2956261#Comment_2956261

Yeah A LOT has changed so it's impossible to play exactly as it once was. I'm just going to do what I can to be as close. That said, my last new account challenge I remember running through Act 6 with 7 star r1 and r2 champs. That's why I thought the basic premise of limiting star ratings would be "close". That said, I haven't done act 6 since the nerfs so I'm curious how much easier that'll be.

WhoDaPoo

Just finished Act 2 and a few observations and updates:

They give a TON of free crystals at the start now. About 12 free PHCs got me my first 4 star: Archangel. A bunch of free 3 star crystals are given now as a "new account" landed me M

Archangel and 3 star Medusa made easy work of Act 1 and 2.

2nd 4 star (act 2 completion) got me a 4 star Adam Warlock. I never really used him, so it'll be fun to use him as a new (to me) champ.

Dex is finally unlocked so the game is feeling "normal" again.

On to Act 3… bring me Thanos!

WhoDaPoo

Maestro is down and 5 star champs are up for grabs. 4* r4 Adam Warlock carried a ton of the fights and his ramp up was very nice. I was pleasantly surprised to see his taunts actually working and his ramp easier to keep than I originally thought. The other two that helped along the way was 4* r4 AA and 3* r4 Ultron (when I needed immunities). I actually forgot how great Ultron can be for ramping up damage.

The first five stars are: Silver Centurion from a cav crystal, then from the 5 * crystals and shards were Elektra (yuck), Black Cat (never used her), Havok (eh), and Odin (should work well).

As hard as it was to watch a rollover of Kitty Pryde, it's going to be fun to do this next part without the usual A++ champs one sees on all the tier lists.

For story content so far I have Act 1 and 2 at 100%, and completion of Act 3 and 4. I'll move into Act 5 soon and see who to rank up as my carry to Uncollected.

Finally, as this is my first new account challenge in about 2 years, here are some things I've noticed in the first day:

There are sooo many Ronans on defense - feels like ever path I took had one.
Hulk buff made him a trickier defender for this early part of the game (and not having an unstoppable counter)
I remember there being unit deals all the time for 4 and 5 star shards. Seems those are all gone and replaced with $1-$5 deals.
Gold hasn't been an issue like it used to be. Might be more balanced now, or maybe it's because I'm only ranking 3 and 4 star champs.

If anyone has tips on using Blackcat, please share them. I'm thinking her and Odin might be my go tos for this next part of the content.

Feuerschwer

The main thing with black cat is moving her calling card to ramp your combo and build cruelty - you place it on the opponent with your heavy and take it back with intercepts and special/heavy punishes. When the heist timer ends, if the card is on the opponent you apply sabotage which further drops AA and does a burst of damage whenever an ability fails. If the card is on you, you get a vicious passive instead. Usually you want the sabotage unless the defender really doesn’t have any abilities to fail.

L2 is your go-to special 90% of the time - it automatically switches the card, then ends the heist timer, so it will trigger your sabotage/vicious if it’s not already up; and it deals crit bleeds that are quite nasty, with your combo boosting your crit rate to help stack them.

Normally you want the black widow relic on her for the ‘gain a precision every time an ability fails’ rune, but in your challenge relics are presumably off limits until much later.

WhoDaPoo

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2956670#Comment_2956670

Thanks! I'll give it a go and stick with the sp2.

And good call out on relics. I completely forgot about them! Looks like they came out in Nov 2022, which means I won't open any or use them till 8.1. Thanks for catching that part of the game!

WhoDaPoo

5.1 done and RNG has a funny way of playing out in this game. Cav crystal gave me a 6* nexus crystal. So that'll sit for now. Then opened a new 5 star crystal… pulled Blade. Talk about a blast from the past! I may have to ditch the Blackcat ideas and go with one of the OG champs that fit this theme! Now to find a 5 star ag

Java_Junkie

@WhoDaPoo Felica can be a MONSTER, and shut off so much with AAR.

her damage WANTS bleeds, but her AAR is just tied to combo not DoT, which gives her range.

alternate heavies and intercept/ heavy and special punishes to pump her cruelties (helps, not vital), but drop a big sp2, preferably with a Black Widow Relic.

melt. laugh. rinse. repeat.

lucianxvs

i made a post about how great 5* were , a few weeks ago, did you reffer to my post? that would be flattering

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/415129/the-sad-but-unavoidable-decline-of-the-5-champions

WhoDaPoo

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2956739#Comment_2956739

That's the one! Thanks for the bit of nostalgia and kicking off me actually doing this.

Just finished 5.2 and got Uncollected. Collector is still the pain he's always been. Took about 10-12 revives to chip him down with Silver Centurion. Here's the profile.

I got a tech r3-4 gem from finishing act 4 so I thought why not try out Silver Centurion. His immunities and utility (slow, heal block) carried through 5.1 and 5.2 with ease. Blade is also putting in good work and bringing back fun memories.

Finishing 5.2 also got me a 5* nexus crystal, and a few cav crystals - one of which gave another 5* nexus. From them I pulled new Pavitr Parker (my first real mystic for this account) and buffed Vision Aarkus. I'm debating leaving Pavitr on the bench as he's such a new champ and kind of breaks the theme of the account. Aarkus I plan to use though. I like his buff and I'm betting he'll ramp well for act 5 and 6, replacing Adam for that role.

Few other things that stood out going for UC.

5.2.4 :
I forgot they nerfed 5.2.4. It's so much easier without the old masochism node. It's a shell of it's former, punishing, glory.

Alliances aren't needed for a new account:
I joined an alliance out of habit, thinking I'd do AQ for some resources to get misc rank up mats. But with the essentia milestones event going on, and the combined stores, an alliance isn't really needed anymore for a new account. As a former product designer/director, I found this really interesting. Without chasing glory and loyalty for misc shards and mats, what's the point of an alliance for any new accounts? Maybe this won't be the case when the big essentia event is done. But thought I'd call it out in case Karate man or Pinwheel see this.

Blackcat:
Thanks everyone for the tips. I can see her ramp and damage. She just might not be my cup of tea though… she feels complicated and long to get to the sp2 pay off. It's been good to finally try to learn her, but I think she's going to sit the bench for now.

lucianxvs

are you livestreaming this? i think a lot of people would love to watch this (myself included)

WhoDaPoo

No, sorry no streaming, although it would have been a fun idea given all the twitch drops. Just boring right ups and some images for this one :)

WhoDaPoo

I forgot one other note about the stores and resources, which is about Mysterium. Going into this challenge I thought, maybe, Mysterium would pay off at a low level account and let me top off my 4 or 5* shards and rank up mats, before I scaled into a progression title where mysterium plateaus to those star levels.

Answer: Nope! It's been designed to always be a level or two behind the content needs. For example going into 5.1 the store had like 300 3* shards for sale. Now at UC it has 500 4* shards and some sig stones.

Knowing the store sticks to it's theme of being for low level rank up mats, and seeing it scale like this, is kind of impressive. Like I have to give kudos to the people that designed the store to scale so well in this way.

WhoDaPoo

5.3 done. Not hard but I'm starting to notice the chip damage and longer fight duration using 5* r3/4 champs or maxed out 4 stars.

It's also hit me how rare 5 stars are now that rewards are buffed in act 5. I need to start planning for act 6 bosses like crossbones, sinister, champion, and maybe Mysterio. I currently don't have a poison immune champ, or one with easy access to a fury buff.

I started taking as much 5 star shards as I can from the Essentia store and got some new champs: Shocker, Silver Surfer, Isophyne, Korg, and Leader. My luck on cav crystals have been great as Shocker and Isophyne both came out of them.

If anyone's done the nerfed Act 6 lately, does Sinister still need a poison immune champ with a fury buff?

WhoDaPoo

Been a slow day for game play. I was concerned with no good options going into Act 6 so I started to 100% Act 4 to get the two 5* nexuses. In doing so an offer popped up for a 5* crystal for 125 units so I went for it. I got Nebula which is a big win: somone poison immune and can shut down the 5.4.b ultron boss (when she has 8 charges).

I finished 5.4 and only used 2 revives for the Mephisto boss fight in 5.4.5. I forgot to bring anyone incinerate immune so I just chipped away till he was done. AA was great hear for keeping distance during his fiery shield, and letting the DoT damage do it's thing.

For finishing 5.4 I got 10 cav crystals. I popped them and got 3 5 stars and my first 6 star (crossbones) who will sit the bench. The 5 stars are great though, Nightcrawler, OG Scarlet Witch, and Doom! Doom will be excellent for Act 6 and the 6.2 Champion boss.

As I look at 6.1 and 6.2 it'll be crunch time to find a counter to 6.2 Mr. Sinister. So, first it's back to Act 4 and see about finishing that 100%. I'm crossing my fingers for a Captain Marvel, Ghost, Hyperion, or G2099. I'm not holding my breath to pull the perfect synergy of Warlock and OG Vision.

I'm also debating the pros and cons of unlocking willpower. The chip damage is really starting to show as I hit 5.3 and 5.4. I'm thinking if I can find the units, having some kind of healing may help hold off more chip damage through Act 6. That said, I'm now using units for full energy refills as leveling up has tapered off in its pace.

Here's how the account is looking so far:

WhoDaPoo

Quick little update. I grinded out 100% of act 4 yesterday and today (sooo many units gone!) in hopes of an option for 6.2 Sinister. Why do this before 6.1? Well, gold is becoming a little scarce and I need to pick which team of 5 or 6 I want to r5 for Act 6.

So I put my bets on the two 5* nexus crystals when exploring Act 4 in hopes of someone poison immune and with a fury buff. It also bought time for the Essentia store to resupply so I can max out on 5* crystal shards again.

The Essentia store didn't out well. Got a Man-Thing, Knull, Gorr, and Fantman. Some great champs in there, but no one for the Sinister fight.

Exploring Act 4 100% did well though. Several cav crystals got me some good champs and another 5* nexus crystal. Between the 3 nexuses I banked a Mr. Sinister, Spider Woman, and Arcade. As much as I wanted to keep this account to using "older" champs I will probably end up using Spider Woman for the Sinister fight as I don't want a hard roadblock. I was looking to use 4 stars instead but even with them I don't have the right champs/synergies for Sinister.

So now it looks like I have a everything as good as I can get it going into Act 6.

For tech, Silver Centurion also got awakened today so he will continue to lead the account. I got a tech r4>5 gem so he went to rank 5 today. I know some may say "go fantman!" but Silver Centurion has been my MVP so far, so he's going to see me through all of Act 6 if possible.

For mystic, Doom will go up now as a heavy hitter and covers my mystic needs.

For comsic, Vision Aarkus is is at r4 and will probably go to r5 as my main cosmic. I was thinking of knull but he's not awakened and I've used him a lot on my other accounts.

For skill, Blade is still doing Blade things so he will go from r3 to r4 or r5.

For science, my options are Spider woman (who will be needed for 6.2 Sinister boss) but I may rank up Count Nefaria for general question as I haven't used him much before. I'm not sure how good he is unawakened though so I have to do some research.

For mutant, my options are Mr. Sinister and Casandra Nova. Bother great, and both I haven't used much on my main account. I'm brain is saying Sinister as his buff was incredible, but that might be too easy. This might be a good account to learn Casandra as I've heard people enjoying her more and more.

If anyone has thoughts on advice going into Act 6, please do share it. I know some of the bosses will hurt (looking at you Cap IW) but I think most are at least partially covered now. Also if you have opinions/tips on Count Nef or Cassandra Nova, let me know. I'm going to wait a day before making my choices.

lucianxvs

this account definitely has that nostalgic 2018 seatin vibes

SummonerNR

Story ACT pop-up of 125 Units for a 5*, lol.

Remember when it was 2500 Units for a 4* (is that still there, or did this cheaper 5* replace it now ?)

That was either my 1st or 2nd ever 4*. The other was whichever ACT (3 or 4, Kang or Thanos ?) also gave you a 4* champ in rewards.

WhoDaPoo

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2957311#Comment_2957311

What's really funny is the next pop up ad I got was a 5* crystal for $6.99 usd. What a steal!

WhoDaPoo

Cavalier Achieved! Below is the profile and roster. Again Silver Centurion carried really well through 6.1.1 to 6.1.5. Nebula took care of the Crossbones boss and it was so slow as most her damage is from DoT. But slowly, slowly (and about 6 revives) she took him down. For the final Sentinel boss, I was happily surprised to see he wasn't awakened. I was worried how he'd be with his recent buff, but none of that mattered. Nebula and a big sp2 took him down to 48%. Silver Centurion did the rest with his plasma DoT.

Next up 6.2 and a goodbye to 4 star champs. AA was still doing work in 6.1 but now he can retire to the bench.

EDIT:
I just reloaded the game and now have all the collectives milestones (and all those empowered grace crystal milestones) open to this account. As enticing as that would be to get 1 or 2 of them, I'm going to forgo collectives for now. Maybe if this account gets Valiant, I'll start using collectives.

WednesdayLength

As long as for the first 4 acts you can only use 6 bricks of iso to upgrade them at a time