[TeamComps] Your 3* Defensive Team

Trisul

Older threads on this topic may be outdated, might be a good time to revisit this. I've listed every 3* character with above-average HP and/or built-in defensive mechanics.

By consensus, it seems like Sentry/Hood is generally considered the best 2-man defensive team, and Sentry/Hood/Daken as the best 3-man defensive team. But I'm curious about what comps are run by people who don't have those combos.

There are two major schools of thought here regarding the "Best Defensive Team":
- BEST = highest defensive win:loss ratio ( )
- BEST = most unlikely defensive team to be attacked ( )

What defensive teams are you guys running with your current roster, and why?

Unknown

My current defensive team in PVP is Hulk and Daken.

In Shield, its Hulk, Daken and Patch.

I currently have 11 covers for Sentry, so I am farming him up to take Patch's place in Shield and Hulk's place in PVP once he's level 166.

I prefer Hulk because most people just don't bother with him. I know if I have two equivalent point matches and one has a hulk and the other has, say, Patch or someone with lower health, I'll avoid Hulk every time.

He's just annoying having to save up to 1 turn kill him. A lot of bad things can happen when games are drawn out that long. Whether it is getting attacked when unshielded or getting angered/cascaded to death.

Once I get Sentry, my team will become more about beating people who choose to fight me than it is trying to avoid being attacked, as it is with Hulk.

Unknown

My current defensive team is Black Panther, Human Torch and Hood. It may not sound like much, but it's very annoying to fight against. I gain more points on the defense than I lose.

When it comes to defending with Hulk, I'm not impressed. I'll intentionally go after high-score Hulk teams because Grey Suit + Steve + Hood will decimate him effortlessly every time. Steve is practically designed to eliminate the Hulk.

Spoit

There's no such thing as defense.

over_clocked

Hood/Sentry, no 3rd option. (I don't like using Daken.)

Hulk and Patch are my new favourite things to attack besides GSBW/Spidey/Captain America/Lazy Thor (thanks, X-Force).

Unknown

Devilsaur, xForce, hood.

God, what a nightmare.

Unknown

Devil Dino, Bullseye, Spidey. Enjoy your 45 minute match.

wymtime

SirPhobos wrote:

Devil Dino, Bullseye, Spidey. Enjoy your 45 minute match.

Dino Spidey/Bullseye, Falcon. You want to beef up those shields so Dino doesn't take too much Damage. You can also use purple on Falcon for more shields as well!!!

Unknown

Black Panther/Wolverine Patch/Hulk in simulator

Black panther & Patch in other Versus events

But my strategy isn't really the chars, it's far more in the teamups where my strategy is.

HairyDave

Spoit wrote:

There's no such thing as defense.

Maybe so but you'd be surprised how many wins I've picked up with Patch and Panther. They still lose but I often find they've managed to win enough to cut my loses down to single digits or push me into positive gains.

Spoit

HairyDave wrote:

Spoit wrote:

There's no such thing as defense.

Maybe so but you'd be surprised how many wins I've picked up with Patch and Panther. They still lose but I often find they've managed to win enough to cut my loses down to single digits or push me into positive gains.

Man, I can't recall the last time I've had a defensive win worth more than like...5 points. Then again, It seems like I'm rarely attacked by people who aren't sniping for 40+ points, so I guess that's a type 2 defense?

HairyDave

I don't get big wins but lots of little wins generally offset the big losses.

Unknown

I switch between several combinations depending, but Hulk/Hood/Lazy Cap has earned me more defensive wins than I expected.

Many comment that there is no such thing as defense and in a narrow, absolute sense that is true: there isn't really any defense from a max Sentry/Hood/Daken team. Okay, we get that. And for players like me, there isn't really much defense from someone significantly higher on the food chain than me altogether, short of the ultimate defense -- shielding. So, I focus on the food chain around me (my peers) and below me, Against them, I would contend there is a measure of defense to be had.

If you can field a team that discourages opponents from selecting your team by minimizing their return on investment per unit of time and energy, it is in essence a form of defense. You want to exploit player psychology and the calculation they make when selecting you as a target, or not. Players tend to look for fastest return on investment. Pressing the skip button is relatively effortless. Waiting for scarce health packs and players to regen, or paying HP, isn't. So, like a peacock that puffs up it's feathers to appear bigger, you want to field a team within the constraints of your roster that provides maximal deterrence from your opponent calculating the prospects for the fight in his (or her) favor.

Despite comments all over the forum discounting Hulk, a high level high hit point Hulk does still discourage many players (at around your level or lower on the food chain -- players those with max Hood/Sentry/Daken teams can discount outright as an externality) simply because of the time investment in wearing him down. Whether Hulk should be a deterrent or not is separate and irrelevant question. A 5 blue Hood does the same -- he drags out the fight and players hate that. Plus, the procs every turn are annoying to watch. The annoyance factor does matter! Some players will outright avoid certain characters based on cognitive bias from past experience. You'll see comments on the forum from players on this. Lazy Cap isn't too intimidating unless he gets his shields going in which case he's a steam roller. Most players have probably experienced at least once in their career being spanked by the AI running Lazy Cap.

~~~
There was a scientific study done on how people calculate risk. People tend to select "investments" which are 100% confidence but provide a low rate of return (i.e. savings account) rather than investments that are higher return (e.g. high quality bonds, say), but with less than certain confidence -- even if the higher risk investment is statistically superior. People, unlike banks, don't discount emotion when calculating risk. The conclusion of the study is that people inherently weigh and calculate risk irrationally, in situations where there is a net gain. Furthermore, humans calculate even more irrationally after having incurred a loss --i.e, people tend to take larger risks than they would otherwise after losing money (in an effort to regain what was lost). Casinos know and exploit these human traits (Watch the movie "Owning Mahoney") as a profession.

Based on the above, it is in your interest to choose a team combination that carries a "wildcard" factor. Wildcard type characters are the Hood, OBW, Thor (cascades from yellow), and probably a couple others like Sentry, Hulk (green cascade), Juggernaut, and perhaps classic Storm at certain levels of play. You want your opponent to lose the certainty of winning if they select you. That loss of certainty exploits their irrationality even if their team is statistically superior.

Now that I have a decent level Sentry up and coming from recent covers. I will probably switch over to the Hulk, Hood, Sentry. As your roster improves, you will naturally field better teams. People who don't have Sentry are more likely to skip a team with Sentry on it by default, even if it's an irrational decision.

I'm not there yet, but I suspect simply having a two level 166 characters in itself, whether a decent synergistic combination or not, provides a decent level of deterrence as well. The reason being that many 2* and 2*->3* transition players are so accustomed to pressing the skip button when they encounter "the wall" in hopes of finding a lower than max level team in their queue, they'll just skip you outright out of habit before really proceeding on to calculating the cost benefit of fighting you. Take advantage of that...

Unknown

In the movie "Hero" starring Jet Li, the King of Qin instructs in the three levels of sword mastery:

The first level is to be a master of fighting with the sword.

The second level is to fight with the sword undrawn, sheathed in the scabbard. In a variation of this, Miyamoto Musasahi, the Japanese samurai legend, reportedly fought all his sword duels in his later years (when he was a master) with a bokken (wooden practice sword) or even in one case a piece of driftwood. Instead of killing them Musashi would just break the bones of his opponents with the bokken so that they couldn't continue.

The third and ultimate level of swordsmanship, is to not even need the sword at all. Either people fear you and won't dare consider to face you, or, you are so skilled in negotiation and manipulation that you can destroy your enemies by making them allies.

Unknown

I think Hulk is overrated on defence. He's a nuisance, nothing more. I do pick my team accordingly, though (have World Rupture create a black CD for every eruption and Hulk still standing at the end... ouch ). Either the stun strategy or the daage nuke strategy.

NorthernPolarity

I think Hulk on defense is more of a deterrent on defense than most other characters vs a Sentry bomb. However, X-Force is basically the perfect counter to hulk (Green surgical + nuke based damage = very dead Hulk), so if the metagame ever shifts due to Sentry nerfs, then X-Force teams are probably going to reign supreme, meaning that Hulk is going to be a goner in terms of defensive viability in high end PvP.

Unknown

Rico Dredd wrote:

I think Hulk is overrated on defence. He's a nuisance, nothing more. I do pick my team accordingly, though (have World Rupture create a black CD for every eruption and Hulk still standing at the end... ouch ). Either the stun strategy or the daage nuke strategy.

I guess it depends on the situation.

I can say I've never lost to a Hulk.

But I have had 2 nodes that are worth equivalent points. One of which has a hulk and the other doesn't. I will most likely attack the one that doesn't have the hulk. Unless that one has like a 166 sentry or a 270 x force or something.

So in that regard, he's pretty good on defense because people just want to deal with him.

over_clocked

I'm surprised people vote Daken this much. Sure, he makes Sentry's WR dangerous even without Sacrifice, and he ensures you take some damage, but he can also be blue-starved, one-shot, etc. Sometimes I skip Dakens when they don't have good enough points or when I'm not in the mood to sit through animations. Sometimes I attack Patch/Daken teams on purpose, seeing as how Patch is a good target anyway, and I never ever skip Sentry/Daken teams in favour of Sentry/Hood ones since Sentry/Daken teams are infinitely less dangerous.