Best Active Abilities by Colour - Red

Unknown

Torch's is inarguably the best red damage ability - in terms of AP efficiency, it's downright unbeatable. But overall, Cap has the better skill. SSA deals massive damage, erases pesky special tiles, can cause cascades and match-5s in a pinch, and will often generate most of its cost back, leading to the situation where you're dealing 4k damage every three turns with almost no match requirements. Run it with patch and use it to overwrite the enemy strike tiles or get that extra match-3 for 1k damage that you need to close out the match. Run it with Hood and get 5k damage every 2 turns. Run it with IM40 and pay 6 yellow AP to start it rolling. It's insane.

Unknown

Without considering the characters themselves, it's awfully hard to beat Star Spangled Avenger. Even if you did something stupid like throw it directly into a red match 3 that's 8 red AP for a pretty respectable amount of damage and this is probably the dumbest thing you can possibly do with it. If you get the red to recycle even once it easily beats any other red ability in the game as long as you've more than 0 red AP when it recycles.

CrookedKnight

And heck, depending on the board there are times when throwing it directly into a match-3 makes the move way better.

Unknown

CrookedKnight wrote:

And heck, depending on the board there are times when throwing it directly into a match-3 makes the move way better.

I've used Cap's shield throws to trigger Hawkeye's Speed Shot quite a few times.

Aveeeengers, workin' togeeeeether...

atomzed

Agree with all the support about SSA of Capt America (Steve Rogers).

Many people talked about how efficient HT red is. But I will take Capt America in a match any day. Especially in a pve match where you are likely to face higher hp opponents. Being able to do 4k dmg every 3 turns, just make those matches easier.

Pylgrim

So lets take a look at the results:

1. Fireball (Human Torch) 78
2. Star-Spangled Avenger (Captain America) 77
3. A Little Off the Top (Deadpool) 32
4. Retribution (Punisher) 25
5. Best There Is (Patch) 18

6. Polarizing Force (Magneto) 13
7. Supernova (Sentry) 12
8. Power Of Attorney (She-Hulk) 11
9. Psychic Knife (Psylocke) 10
10. Colossal Punch (Colossus) 7
11. Ambush (Daredevil) 5
12. Mjolnir’s Might (Thor) 3

13. Thunderclap (Ragnarok) 1
14. Photonic Blasts (Captain Marvel) 1
15. Unibeam (Iron Man 40) 0
16. Pistol (Gray Suit Black Widow) 0
17. Smash (Hulk) 0

A very clear top 5 (with two clear winners) and very clear bottom 5. The top 5 are distinguished for their high-damage-for-AP ratio, while the bottom 5 are remarkable for being over-expensive and/or weak.

NorthernPolarity

Pylgrim wrote:

So lets take a look at the results:

1. Fireball (Human Torch) 78
2. Star-Spangled Avenger (Captain America) 77
3. A Little Off the Top (Deadpool) 32
4. Retribution (Punisher) 25
5. Best There Is (Patch) 18

6. Polarizing Force (Magneto) 13
7. Supernova (Sentry) 12
8. Power Of Attorney (She-Hulk) 11
9. Psychic Knife (Psylocke) 10
10. Colossal Punch (Colossus) 7
11. Ambush (Daredevil) 5
12. Mjolnir’s Might (Thor) 3

13. Thunderclap (Ragnarok) 1
14. Photonic Blasts (Captain Marvel) 1
15. Unibeam (Iron Man 40) 0
16. Pistol (Gray Suit Black Widow) 0
17. Smash (Hulk) 0

A very clear top 5 (with two clear winners) and very clear bottom 5. The top 5 are distinguished for their high-damage-for-AP ratio, while the bottom 5 are remarkable for being over-expensive and/or weak.

What the heck people. Colossal Punch is 6263 damage for 11AP: this is a nearly unconditional AP ratio of 569 damage / AP. And this ability was ranked lower than Psychic Knife? You all should be ashamed, ASHAMED. It's probably the third best ability just below SSA.

Unknown

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Pylgrim wrote:

So lets take a look at the results:

1. Fireball (Human Torch) 78
2. Star-Spangled Avenger (Captain America) 77
3. A Little Off the Top (Deadpool) 32
4. Retribution (Punisher) 25
5. Best There Is (Patch) 18

6. Polarizing Force (Magneto) 13
7. Supernova (Sentry) 12
8. Power Of Attorney (She-Hulk) 11
9. Psychic Knife (Psylocke) 10
10. Colossal Punch (Colossus) 7
11. Ambush (Daredevil) 5
12. Mjolnir’s Might (Thor) 3

13. Thunderclap (Ragnarok) 1
14. Photonic Blasts (Captain Marvel) 1
15. Unibeam (Iron Man 40) 0
16. Pistol (Gray Suit Black Widow) 0
17. Smash (Hulk) 0

A very clear top 5 (with two clear winners) and very clear bottom 5. The top 5 are distinguished for their high-damage-for-AP ratio, while the bottom 5 are remarkable for being over-expensive and/or weak.

What the heck people. Colossal Punch is 6263 damage for 11AP: this is a nearly unconditional AP ratio of 569 damage / AP. And this ability was ranked lower than Psychic Knife? You all should be ashamed, ASHAMED. It's probably the third best ability just below SSA.

That may be true for you, but my Colossal Punch does 493 damage, which is a ratio of 44.8 damage/AP. Until I get some more covers, or start seeing him as an opponent, I can't rank that over Fireball, Shield whatever, or Supernova (which on my undercovered character does 7173 damage or 652 damage/AP)

Unknown

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Pylgrim wrote:

So lets take a look at the results:

1. Fireball (Human Torch) 78
2. Star-Spangled Avenger (Captain America) 77
3. A Little Off the Top (Deadpool) 32
4. Retribution (Punisher) 25
5. Best There Is (Patch) 18

6. Polarizing Force (Magneto) 13
7. Supernova (Sentry) 12
8. Power Of Attorney (She-Hulk) 11
9. Psychic Knife (Psylocke) 10
10. Colossal Punch (Colossus) 7
11. Ambush (Daredevil) 5
12. Mjolnir’s Might (Thor) 3

13. Thunderclap (Ragnarok) 1
14. Photonic Blasts (Captain Marvel) 1
15. Unibeam (Iron Man 40) 0
16. Pistol (Gray Suit Black Widow) 0
17. Smash (Hulk) 0

A very clear top 5 (with two clear winners) and very clear bottom 5. The top 5 are distinguished for their high-damage-for-AP ratio, while the bottom 5 are remarkable for being over-expensive and/or weak.

What the heck people. Colossal Punch is 6263 damage for 11AP: this is a nearly unconditional AP ratio of 569 damage / AP. And this ability was ranked lower than Psychic Knife? You all should be ashamed, ASHAMED. It's probably the third best ability just below SSA.

Agreed, when I have a punch worth throwing I'll give it a try. He is too new for most to have any opinion of him at all.

OnesOwnGrief

I was assuming that these polls were based on a Rank of 3-5. 5 being the best option to draw a conclusion from a non-circumstantial skill.

Pylgrim

OnesOwnGrief wrote:

I was assuming that these polls were based on a Rank of 3-5. 5 being the best option to draw a conclusion from a non-circumstantial skill.

I think most people do grade abilities at their highest power. Still, most people are working on a first-hand experience basis; not everyone hunts around the written info and commit it to memory. So not only very few people have had the chance of playing with the ability at full power, few people have been victim of it too. On the other hand, everyone knows Fireball's power even if they don't own a maxed HT. Still, I doubt that once better known Colossal Punch is going to place better than 5th (BTI). It may be extremely efficient but it is also rather expensive, meaning that you don't get to spam it.

NorthernPolarity

Pylgrim wrote:

OnesOwnGrief wrote:

I was assuming that these polls were based on a Rank of 3-5. 5 being the best option to draw a conclusion from a non-circumstantial skill.

I think most people do grade abilities at their highest power. Still, most people are working on a first-hand experience basis; not everyone hunts around the written info and commit it to memory. So not only very few people have had the chance of playing with the ability at full power, few people have been victim of it too. On the other hand, everyone knows Fireball's power even if they don't own a maxed HT. Still, I doubt that once better known Colossal Punch is going to place better than 5th (BTI). It may be extremely efficient but it is also rather expensive, meaning that you don't get to spam it.

Yeah, I get the angle of people going with what they know: I just find it disappointing that the poll was supposed to show the best active abilities by color, and instead it's more of a popularity contest of "which powerful heroes have you seen with red abilities". I guess the format of the poll being "pick 3" doesn't really give any meaningful results beyond the first couple of abilities, since people weren't asked to rank all of the abilities in order.

I'm also not sold on your Colossus being slow argument. 11AP is obviously slower than 8AP, but it's still in that range where it's reasonable to cast if it has a good AP ratio, which punch clearly does. This is even better than Torch: 1 fireball = 8 AP for 3550 damage = 443 damage / AP. 2 fireballs = 14 AP for 507. Punch outperforms even 2 fireballs with a ratio of 561, so I don't see how you can pass up a nearly unconditional ability like that over situational the current 3-5 of AloTT (best case ratio of 550), Punisher (510 vs unbuffed Sentry, 750 vs buffed Sentry, 340 vs C. Mags) and Patch (don't even get me started, 14 AP is like 3 turns slower than 12 AP, requires the entire team to be built around Patch, etc). It's obviously desirable to have faster abilities, but Punch is within reason and has the benefit of consistently dealing that much damage.

Pylgrim

Fair enough. I myself might be underestimating the ability for my own lack of first-hand experience. It is really hard to nail the true impact of any ability in theory. (For example in theory, two fireballs cost 14, but in practice they cost 12 and there's a small chance of added cascade.)

Anyway, as I did with Yellow, I'd like to try my hand at fixing the bottom Red abilities. Here goes nothing!

Thunderclap (Ragnarok) 6
Thunderclap is ridiculously weak, even with the chance of powering up his green ability, which is a rather low chance, anyway. Let's make it always happen and deal more damage.

New Thunderclap (Ragnarok) 7
Ragnarok calls upon the storm and lighting replies, smiting the battlefield. Deals 90 damage to the current target and changes 2 tiles of any color to Green, then destroys them.
Level 2: Converts and destroys 3 tiles.
Level 3: Deals 150 damage.
Level 4: Deals 250 damage (Max: 1750)
Level 5: Converts and destroys 4 tiles.


Photonic Blasts (Captain Marvel) 7
The idea behind PB is novel and good, but the execution falls short of being relevant. Only some values need to be adjusted.

New Photonic Blasts (Captain Marvel) 7
Captain Marvel unleashes the amazing cosmic power of her photonic blasts, shattering her enemy's defenses. Deals 250 Damage and destroys up to 2 Enemy Strike or Protect tiles. (does generate AP)
Level 2: Deals 350 damage.
Level 3: Destroys up to 3 tiles.
Level 4: Deals 500 damage. (Max: 1800)
Level 5: Can destroy attack and countdown tiles as well. Costs 2 more.


Unibeam (Iron Man 40) 13
Once the champion of raw damage, necessitating a high cost and a drawback. Under modern values we can do better. (But I chose to leave the base damage exactly the same.)

New Unibeam (Iron Man 40) 10
Tony Stark diverts all power to a focused energy beam fired from Model 40's chest. Deals 473 damage and pierces a 2x2 hole in the middle of the battlefield, dealing damage but not generating AP.
Level 2: +10% damage
Level 3: +10% damage
Level 4: 3x3 hole.
Level 5: +10% damage, (Max: 3950)


Pistol (Gray Suit Black Widow) 12 (up to 17)
Pistol is a weird ability that mixes damages with board shake and targeted destruction but does everything poorly with its counter-intuitive 2x3 "blocks" and increasing cost. Let's focus on the targeted destruction, then.

New Pistol (Gray Suit Black Widow) 4
Black Widow fires 1 shot at the board, clearing a tile, dealing damage and generating AP.
Level 2: Clears 2 tiles, costs 6.
Level 3: Deals additional 50 damage per tile destroyed.
Level 4: Deals additional 100 damage (Max: 250) per tile destroyed.
Level 5: Clears 4 tiles, costs 9.


Smash 14
Smash is extremely inefficient and has two drawbacks to top! Let's eliminate one and make the other less crippling while increasing damage and lowering cost.

Smash 11
The Hulk smashes, consuming up to 10 of the team's Black AP and damaging the target for 300 plus 10 for each Black AP consumed and 20 for each Black AP remaining.
Level 2: 350 base damage. 12 damage for each Black spent and 27 for each Black AP remaining.
Level 3: 400 base damage. 17 damage for each Black spent and 35 for each Black AP remaining.
Level 4: 460 base damage. 24 damage for each Black spent and 50 for each Black AP remaining. (Max: 3000/150/300)
Level 5: Consumes only 5 Black AP. Also heals Hulk for 50 (Max:300) for each remaining AP.

Unknown

Honestly, when it comes to probable power and cost. For me it's Moonstones Photon Blast that is the best. Otherwise in general power Wolverines Adamantium Slash.