*** The Punisher (Dark Reign) ***

Phaserhawk

The Hood and Punisher are very effective together. While not the beefest of character The Hood still has 4350hp, that's gonna take a few turns to work through and all the while he is going to be stealing AP from them. Sure they may be trying to ramp up their green and red so there aren't very many green and red tiles for The Hood to steal, but those off colors you have been picking up and those tiles are building, he is going to be whittling away at, and if they have a full color rainbow I get a little leary of him as while you are focusing him and trying to keep certain colors of your AP safe, he is eating the others. He's the kind of guy that does his job early and essentially delays you 1-3 turns, in fact, one of the worst things to do when playing against a Hood is to have AP in your bank by using boosts, you'll lose most of it right away.

Another reason the Hood is so good with punisher other than not competing for colors, is actually that Hood can and generally does make Punishe'rs Molotov Cocktail better. How? people argue a 5/5/3 build for Punisher attempting to abuse the attack tiles. That's fine, everyone is entitled to their own build, however, if you have a 3/5/5 Punisher and pair him with the Hood, The Hood's black when used speeds up the CD timers thus giving you the benefit of a 5/5/3 punisher and his 2 CD timer attack tiles. In addition, Hood's black deals more single target damage so when you are down to 1 guy (sometimes 2 depending on the situation) it's better to use Hood's black than Punishers.

In short, they go very well together.

ayatorahxephon

How do you guys use his green properly? Do spam it whenever you can to increase the number of strike tiles as much as possible or there are certain ways of using it? How about his red? Is it a good nuking skill early on or should save it only to ko heroes below that certain percentage of hp?

Elric_VIII

ayatorahxephon wrote:

How do you guys use his green properly? Do spam it whenever you can to increase the number of strike tiles as much as possible or there are certain ways of using it? How about his red? Is it a good nuking skill early on or should save it only to ko heroes below that certain percentage of hp?

My general strategy is to focus green first (black 2nd and red 3rd), popping it when I have my first 8 (unless there is a good cascade move that I see). Then, depending upon the available matches and AP I have, I either try to get off a Molotov or go for the 2nd Judgment. Another thing to consider here is whether you are facing people that like to put down special tiles. In goon battles I will often save up a Judgment in case I get into a situation where a countdown will go off and I can't match it. It has saved me very often by either outright destroying the tile or setting up a match.

Try not to delay the Molotov too much, to ensure attack tile production. I have 3/5/5, so I feel that the best strategy is to Judgment first, but if I had 5/5/3, I might be tempted to use moly first since I will be able to build up 50% more attack tiles, meaning there is less risk of my destroying them with Judgment.

As for using Judgment, I find that you can gather about 8 strike tiles on the board before it becomes very difficult to avoid the Judgment itself or the resulting cascades from destroying 3+ strike tiles. Basically, after you've resolved it 3x, just hold on to your AP until some tiles get removed.

For Retribution, I treat it as a 16 point skill when I plan my attack. While it is nice to take someone out from 30-40%, don't think of it as a waste to use it to soften your enemy first. I wouldn't use it unless you can ensure the kill on that turn. Also, don't forget that you can see the enemy's max health by clicking on their picture. Use this your advantage to pass the health threshold and get the most efficiency out of retribution.

Unknown

By the way, I just recently switched from 5/5/3 to 3/5/5, and I have to say I don't think I like it very much if you're relying on Punisher as your main damage dealer. The attack tiles feel so unreliable now. It feels like I'm losing a ton of damage between all of the extra turns where I don't have any out, and Judgment is screwing me a lot harder now that I can't get replacement tiles as quickly.

The build is still good for me since I'm mostly pairing him with other damage characters and using him for the execute, but I think 5/5/3 will deal more damage in the average case.

Unknown

I think it should depend on play style. Those who start with collecting black, sure go with 5/5/3. For me it is way down in priority, I go for red, blue, green, purple (not necessarily that order) before getting to black. Either for other powers or for combined defense value. And even if have 7 blacks chances are good I wait up a judgement to shoot. And from first molotov to end not so many turns left to allow the attack tiles to make the difference.

Certainly there are exceptions but that is the main case. And the preferred one too, who wants to give the opponents a turn. Attack tiles only shoot when you actually pass, if you get "extra turn" they just sit there.

Unknown

New player making a transition out of 1* to 2**. I managed to get lucky with some Punisher pulls combined with PvE rewards and have a 1/3/2 level 53 Punisher.

Is a level 53 Punisher worth using or do I need to get another cover or two to level him a bit higher? Would a level 53 Punisher combine well with a M35 Iron Man and a MStorm, for example? I do have a 2* Thor that I can raise to level 54 now (just got a green), a MNMagneto that I can level to 53, and a Captain America (5/5/3) that I can max if I want to. I have a bunch of iso banked with the intention to level a good 2 star or 3 star character that will last a long time as I get the covers.

No idea if I should wait on using a level 53 Punisher or what he synergizes well with at the lower levels. What would you guys do?

Unknown

ayatorahxephon wrote:

How do you guys use his green properly? Do spam it whenever you can to increase the number of strike tiles as much as possible or there are certain ways of using it? How about his red? Is it a good nuking skill early on or should save it only to ko heroes below that certain percentage of hp?

In my opinion, there is almost never a bad time to use his green, no matter how many special tiles you have on the board. You should be racing for green early in the match for the first one, then picking them up as you can after that. I pretty much use it almost every time I get 8 green AP, barring a complete match domination where I would rather just end things on a thunderous clap or something. Much of the time his tile destruction lands mostly off the side or corner of the board anyway. So, in short, almost never hold back from using judgment.

His red is different. You need to consider your options. Sometimes you will prefer another character's red skill (Cmags, I'm looking at you). Sometimes you will want to save it until you are sure the opponent is at 40%, check their portrait and do a quick calculation. Sometimes you will just blast away with it when you have a bunch of red ap banked, and sometimes you may want to use it when the opponent is still just over 40% because it will reduce them to within a tile match of death. So the red definitely requires just a bit more thought.

Unknown

The value of adding close to 300 worth of strike tiles simply outweighs any negative effect of Judgment. I'm pretty sure they overestimated the negative effect of Judgment (which is barely any) and were too generous on its strike tile values.

Unknown

I run a 3/5/5 and since I only consider black something that to use to bleed opponents I'd much rather see the damage on green and red. Most of my matches end with a red. I green as often as possible, I usually only red when I know it'll kill. I black as often as possible but make sure I black after a green (similar to what you've seen the AI do I'm sure), just to make sure my own green doesn't knock out my red. I see the appeal of running black at 5 though being able to spam additional strike tiles 1 round quicker does seems very appealing.... so I may have to give it a go.

Phaserhawk

Bugbear81 wrote:

New player making a transition out of 1* to 2**. I managed to get lucky with some Punisher pulls combined with PvE rewards and have a 1/3/2 level 53 Punisher.

Is a level 53 Punisher worth using or do I need to get another cover or two to level him a bit higher? Would a level 53 Punisher combine well with a M35 Iron Man and a MStorm, for example? I do have a 2* Thor that I can raise to level 54 now (just got a green), a MNMagneto that I can level to 53, and a Captain America (5/5/3) that I can max if I want to. I have a bunch of iso banked with the intention to level a good 2 star or 3 star character that will last a long time as I get the covers.

No idea if I should wait on using a level 53 Punisher or what he synergizes well with at the lower levels. What would you guys do?

The great thing about Punisher is he works well with any combonation you have. Now he and Modern storm can fight a little bit, as if you use her green you will destroy all strike tiles, but in short, no I would max him out, as high as you can get him. You have the most covers in his most important ability Judgement. Also as a player who has used both 5/5/3, 5/3/5 and 3/5/5 Cpt. America....try to respec to 3/5/5 it is the stonger build atm.

NorthernPolarity

Bugbear81 wrote:

New player making a transition out of 1* to 2**. I managed to get lucky with some Punisher pulls combined with PvE rewards and have a 1/3/2 level 53 Punisher.

Is a level 53 Punisher worth using or do I need to get another cover or two to level him a bit higher? Would a level 53 Punisher combine well with a M35 Iron Man and a MStorm, for example? I do have a 2* Thor that I can raise to level 54 now (just got a green), a MNMagneto that I can level to 53, and a Captain America (5/5/3) that I can max if I want to. I have a bunch of iso banked with the intention to level a good 2 star or 3 star character that will last a long time as I get the covers.

No idea if I should wait on using a level 53 Punisher or what he synergizes well with at the lower levels. What would you guys do?

Is your IM50/M. Storm both level 50? If you take a look at the stats page (http://marvelpuzzlequest.wikia.com/wiki ... Dark_Reign)), you'll see that match damage wise, your 54 Punisher is equivalent to a level 50 IM, although he's going to be weaker because he has less covers. That being said, since you want to invest in Punisher anyways, it couldn't hurt to get him up to 54 because you'll still be able to use him as a regular (although weaker) member of your team right now. Synergy wise, Thor/Punisher/M. Storm don't really have any, but Thor/Punisher are good enough by themselves that you should probably go for it anyways. Ideally you want a purple/blue user to fill out the team, such as OBW.

Unknown

Thanks for the feedback.

Phaserhawk,
My Cap. America is currently only level 28. I haven't dumped any iso into him yet because I heard he's mediocre at best. I will respec as soon as I snag a blue cover (keep getting yellows over and over again). Think he is worth leveling to 85 since he would be by far my highest level? I have about 70k iso banked for situational use until I get things like more thor, punisher, or OBW covers (characters that I know will last me a long time).

NorthernPolarity,
My Model 35 Iron Man is level 44 and M.Storm is level 45. I have plenty of iso to max them out, but I was saving the iso to put into Thor as I get more covers (since, afaik, he straight up replaces M35 Iron Man anyway). My Punisher is currently maxed at level 53, and I've been using him with some combo of 2* Thor, IM35, Modern BW (in situations where I could use a stun), or M. Storm. Hesitant to use M. Storm because of the clash with green.

Good call with the OBW. Hoping to land more covers with her but didn't have any luck in the Hulk event. I got like 6 Modern Hawkeye covers with all my 2* tokens (no exaggeration)?? I think I may dump iso into my MN Magneto since he uses blue/purple. 2* Thor + Punisher + MN Magneto all in the level 55 range doesn't sound like too bad of a combo to use as an intermediate team until I get more covers, I think.

I had a TON of Ares covers that I dumped because I didn't have a roster spot and didn't realize how good he was. Kinda pissed about that . Oh well. Crossing my fingers for a 4th green Punisher!

Unknown

I'd like some advice on the Punisher. I used to be a fairly competitive gamer (EQ/DAOC/WoW raider, etc) but I'm older now, have a family, job responsibilities, etc. MPQ fills a great niche for me as being casual-hardcore.

Through some lucky pulls and LR Wins, I've managed to build my Hood up to 5/5/1. He's level 95 now, but can go higher. Since I mostly use him as support, 95 is good enough for now.

I have an 85 3/5/5 OBW who is used on damn near every team I have. My other 85's are Wolverine and C Storm. Ares is 72 and rising to 85. Cap and MagNOW! can hit 85 and are in their 50's (Side note: I like OBW/Hood/Cap for PvE. Yeah, it's slow but there's so much ap steal/healing you can set Cap up to knock down nearly anyone). Most of my other 2*'s could hit 85 or need 500-1000hp thrown at them to finish them off, but I'm iso limited. Thor's the only one I'm considering since they buff him so much (Divine champs... ).

My issue is that I have nearly every 3* character but most are sitting at 2-4 covers (5 cover spidey with 0 blue...). I have every cover of The Punisher. So I'm seriously considering dropping some of that working-guy cash to bump him up so I have at least one competitive team. I also hear Hood/Punisher/OBW is pretty strong.

I've sorta gotten over the mental block of spending $50-100 on a video game. WoW was $30/month for my wife and I, plus the cost to buy the damn game. We play MPQ every day. But I am waffling on the $50 vs $100 purchase and where to put the points.

My punisher is 1/1/1 right now. So my thoughts are:
1) What build is best to aim for? I was considering 5/5/3. I've seen 3/5/5 recommdations for pairing with Hood though due to Intimidation. Still, Molotov and Intim are both black - dropping them both back to back seems too expensive on that one colour. 5/5/3 still seems the most attractive to me. Red is a strong colour in general and I'm sure others can use it, it only increases the raw damage by a few hundred and the 30-40% jump to insta kill only seems relevant against L230's in niche situations. Even when it's relevant, a guy with 25k hp will be killed 2500 hp sooner (best case).

2) If I drop $50, I can get him 7 more covers (10 total covers). Is that enough to make him viable and then try to earn covers for him, assuming guaranteed drops come up soon? I'd also have <300hp at that point and it would be hard to shield/be competitive in tourneys. $100 and I could max him out and have ~8000 hp left (I only have about 500 atm). The kick in the teeth here would be in Punisher covers start raining down like candy, but I doubt that. They've had a big push to releasing a new char every week or two right now so I think the old guys will be harder to find.

I may need to make it $110 and get my wife some flowers first. Though, she plays as well and would enjoy having a new guy to play with.

Thanks to everyone for your consideration!

NorthernPolarity

Ruval wrote:

I'd like some advice on the Punisher. I used to be a fairly competitive gamer (EQ/DAOC/WoW raider, etc) but I'm older now, have a family, job responsibilities, etc. MPQ fills a great niche for me as being casual-hardcore.

Through some lucky pulls and LR Wins, I've managed to build my Hood up to 5/5/1. He's level 95 now, but can go higher. Since I mostly use him as support, 95 is good enough for now.

I have an 85 3/5/5 OBW who is used on damn near every team I have. My other 85's are Wolverine and C Storm. Ares is 72 and rising to 85. Cap and MagNOW! can hit 85 and are in their 50's (Side note: I like OBW/Hood/Cap for PvE. Yeah, it's slow but there's so much ap steal/healing you can set Cap up to knock down nearly anyone). Most of my other 2*'s could hit 85 or need 500-1000hp thrown at them to finish them off, but I'm iso limited. Thor's the only one I'm considering since they buff him so much (Divine champs... ).

My issue is that I have nearly every 3* character but most are sitting at 2-4 covers (5 cover spidey with 0 blue...). I have every cover of The Punisher. So I'm seriously considering dropping some of that working-guy cash to bump him up so I have at least one competitive team. I also hear Hood/Punisher/OBW is pretty strong.

I've sorta gotten over the mental block of spending $50-100 on a video game. WoW was $30/month for my wife and I, plus the cost to buy the damn game. We play MPQ every day. But I am waffling on the $50 vs $100 purchase and where to put the points.

My punisher is 1/1/1 right now. So my thoughts are:
1) What build is best to aim for? I was considering 5/5/3. I've seen 3/5/5 recommdations for pairing with Hood though due to Intimidation. Still, Molotov and Intim are both black - dropping them both back to back seems too expensive on that one colour. 5/5/3 still seems the most attractive to me. Red is a strong colour in general and I'm sure others can use it, it only increases the raw damage by a few hundred and the 30-40% jump to insta kill only seems relevant against L230's in niche situations. Even when it's relevant, a guy with 25k hp will be killed 2500 hp sooner (best case).

2) If I drop $50, I can get him 7 more covers (10 total covers). Is that enough to make him viable and then try to earn covers for him, assuming guaranteed drops come up soon? I'd also have <300hp at that point and it would be hard to shield/be competitive in tourneys. $100 and I could max him out and have ~8000 hp left (I only have about 500 atm). The kick in the teeth here would be in Punisher covers start raining down like candy, but I doubt that. They've had a big push to releasing a new char every week or two right now so I think the old guys will be harder to find.

I may need to make it $110 and get my wife some flowers first. Though, she plays as well and would enjoy having a new guy to play with.

Thanks to everyone for your consideration!

Damn it my response got completely deleted due to losing phone reception. Ill repost it later tonigbt.

Unknown

Heh. I had thought something like the above happened. Thanks for trying to help, though.

hex706f726368

Ruval wrote:

I'd like some advice on the Punisher. I used to be a fairly competitive gamer (EQ/DAOC/WoW raider, etc) but I'm older now, have a family, job responsibilities, etc. MPQ fills a great niche for me as being casual-hardcore.

...lots of text...

Thanks to everyone for your consideration!

Punisher is a great character to level up because he's so easy to build around, but I'd recommend only spending money on him if you are feeling impatient. It seems like he is one of the more common progression awards in PvE. I'm more inclined to buy a last cover or two to finish a character rather than spending to build from the ground all the way up (I've not spent on covers yet, only roster slots). Also, unless you have the ISO to invest in him, getting all the covers is probably going to feel anti-climactic.

As far as 5/3/5 vs 3/5/5, that's probably more personal preference. I was 5/3/5 mostly because black covers were easier to get. I'm in the middle of respec'ing to 3/5/5 (which means I'm in limbo at 4/4/5 right now, c'mon green cover!). As my punisher has leveled up, I find myself relying more on his strike tiles than attack tile generation. My frank is level 116 right now and I'd rather have 3 strike tiles of 88 strength for 8 green than a 57 strength attack tile every 2 turns for 7 black. Heck my psylocke is only level 50 and she puts out a 59 strength attack tile for 6 black.

Phaserhawk

Ruval wrote:

I'd like some advice on the Punisher. I used to be a fairly competitive gamer (EQ/DAOC/WoW raider, etc) but I'm older now, have a family, job responsibilities, etc. MPQ fills a great niche for me as being casual-hardcore.

Through some lucky pulls and LR Wins, I've managed to build my Hood up to 5/5/1. He's level 95 now, but can go higher. Since I mostly use him as support, 95 is good enough for now.

I have an 85 3/5/5 OBW who is used on damn near every team I have. My other 85's are Wolverine and C Storm. Ares is 72 and rising to 85. Cap and MagNOW! can hit 85 and are in their 50's (Side note: I like OBW/Hood/Cap for PvE. Yeah, it's slow but there's so much ap steal/healing you can set Cap up to knock down nearly anyone). Most of my other 2*'s could hit 85 or need 500-1000hp thrown at them to finish them off, but I'm iso limited. Thor's the only one I'm considering since they buff him so much (Divine champs... ).

My issue is that I have nearly every 3* character but most are sitting at 2-4 covers (5 cover spidey with 0 blue...). I have every cover of The Punisher. So I'm seriously considering dropping some of that working-guy cash to bump him up so I have at least one competitive team. I also hear Hood/Punisher/OBW is pretty strong.

I've sorta gotten over the mental block of spending $50-100 on a video game. WoW was $30/month for my wife and I, plus the cost to buy the damn game. We play MPQ every day. But I am waffling on the $50 vs $100 purchase and where to put the points.

My punisher is 1/1/1 right now. So my thoughts are:
1) What build is best to aim for? I was considering 5/5/3. I've seen 3/5/5 recommdations for pairing with Hood though due to Intimidation. Still, Molotov and Intim are both black - dropping them both back to back seems too expensive on that one colour. 5/5/3 still seems the most attractive to me. Red is a strong colour in general and I'm sure others can use it, it only increases the raw damage by a few hundred and the 30-40% jump to insta kill only seems relevant against L230's in niche situations. Even when it's relevant, a guy with 25k hp will be killed 2500 hp sooner (best case).

2) If I drop $50, I can get him 7 more covers (10 total covers). Is that enough to make him viable and then try to earn covers for him, assuming guaranteed drops come up soon? I'd also have <300hp at that point and it would be hard to shield/be competitive in tourneys. $100 and I could max him out and have ~8000 hp left (I only have about 500 atm). The kick in the teeth here would be in Punisher covers start raining down like candy, but I doubt that. They've had a big push to releasing a new char every week or two right now so I think the old guys will be harder to find.

I may need to make it $110 and get my wife some flowers first. Though, she plays as well and would enjoy having a new guy to play with.

Thanks to everyone for your consideration!

Well it's on your play style, 3 green is mandatory, so do you go 5/5/3 or 3/5/5. Well, how much faith do you have in CD timers? Molotov Cocktail does the same initial damage regardless of level. I find that with all the cascades and such my CD tile never hangs around long enough, but if it was 1 turn shorter I'm sure I would get a few attack tiles more out per ton, none the less, I just don't like putting my faith in a overtime skill vs. a more solid red that will A. Do more direct Damage, B. allows me to down massively huge opponents. That 2500 hp you speak of, that's 1-2 turns or more sooner than average, you will never burn a guy away with full attack tile damage faster than a fully leveled Retribution, that's my 2 cents.

Unknown

Thanks to both of you for your thoughts. I appreciate it.

A few notes:

1) I'm debating basically if the black or the red is at 3. Green at 5 is mandatory (I think this may be a typo two replies up).

2) I am finding it really hard these days to seriously compete for 3* covers with a 2* roster. I've been trying for the last month and just seem to levelling up more 2* guys. Sure, getting one 3* cover is no problem. But especially with the move to only top 10 getting 2x3* covers, I'm just languishing here. I can't participate in every event and getting 1-2 3* covers a week and all for different guys means I may have a guy ready to play by May/June or so, particularly since as I noted about half the 3* rewards these days are for new characters.

3) It think the focus was on 2500 hit points and not the fact I noted that would be pretty rare. How often do you fight 25,000hp oppoents? Against ye olde 5800 hp d*, it's 580 hp, basically a drop in the bucket. Getting two more attack tiles out that live for 2-3 turns would cover that. I guess I see black be more as being 'old reliable' - slow, but you'll use it every fight. Red is more situational, but when it's useful it's really useful (L230 Devil Dino or Hulk)

And yes I'm wordy. Sorry!

Unknown

Ruval wrote:

Thanks to both of you for your thoughts. I appreciate it.

A few notes:

1) I'm debating basically if the black or the red is at 3. Green at 5 is mandatory (I think this may be a typo two replies up).

2) I am finding it really hard these days to seriously compete for 3* covers with a 2* roster. I've been trying for the last month and just seem to levelling up more 2* guys. Sure, getting one 3* cover is no problem. But especially with the move to only top 10 getting 2x3* covers, I'm just languishing here. I can't participate in every event and getting 1-2 3* covers a week and all for different guys means I may have a guy ready to play by May/June or so, particularly since as I noted about half the 3* rewards these days are for new characters.

3) It think the focus was on 2500 hit points and not the fact I noted that would be pretty rare. How often do you fight 25,000hp oppoents? Against ye olde 5800 hp d*, it's 580 hp, basically a drop in the bucket. Getting two more attack tiles out that live for 2-3 turns would cover that. I guess I see black be more as being 'old reliable' - slow, but you'll use it every fight. Red is more situational, but when it's useful it's really useful (L230 Devil Dino or Hulk)

And yes I'm wordy. Sorry!

lv230 or boosted Rag/Hulk can end up with 15k HP, which is about the most you can expect to see. Realistically, I'd say 8k should be your measuring stick for an average case where the red is really good. It goes from being a 2400 damage skill to 3200, which is decent, but the potential for overkill is very high since you can ONLY use it as the final blow. Meanwhile, upgrading the black gives you a very small but consistent damage increase, and more reliability to the combo.

Both upgrades are very marginal and depend upon your team composition and what you'll be using Punisher for. If you're using him as your primary damage dealer in all of your teams, I say go with 5/5/3, because the red is simply not good enough in most of your fights, and there are likely at least 3 colors you'll be prioritizing over it.

To reiterate: 5 in black is not for the extra attack damage, it's so you can guarantee your strike damage twice per turn and not worry about nursing your attack tiles. That thing ticks very fast, and once there are 3-4 attack tiles on the board, you can be a lot more reckless with your matches and Judgments.

mags1587

Celerity wrote:

To reiterate: 5 in black is not for the extra attack damage, it's so you can guarantee your strike damage twice per turn and not worry about nursing your attack tiles. That thing ticks very fast, and once there are 3-4 attack tiles on the board, you can be a lot more reckless with your matches and Judgments.

Yep, this. I have a 5/5/3 build and I really like it. The counter at 2 gets attack tiles out there and pretty soon there's enough on the board that I don't have to worry about matching it's not as likely that the opposing team will match all of the attack tiles and counter away. And I don't miss the extra % damage on Retribution because by the time I'm ready to use it my strike and attack tiles will take the guy down in a couple of turns anyway. It really comes down to personal preference.