Character rankings 10/14 edition: the results!

Killinstinct

Budget Player Cadet wrote:

I think I have an inkling what row on that heatmap spiderman is...

Hehe, also my first thoughts. I like him tbh. I am a steam player so I rely on longer session and his purple is just really good for the sustainability of my team.

Unknown

I registered just so that I could thank all of you for doing this. As a relatively new player struggling to transition from a 2* to a 3* team( without breaking the bank) these lists have been very helpful each time they were released.

Pwuz_

onimus wrote:

#48 is the best right? That's why Sentry is there.

On a serious note, I'd love to see the rest of the votes for the player who did that. I'd be willing to bet every single one of their votes is a troll.

Unknown

On a side note, looking at the heatmap, I question the position of that second line. It looks like it really ought to be the swapped with the third line. I mean, I'm no statistician, but I'd think that line 3 should really be second, if not first, just going off the numbers. Am I wrong?

Killinstinct

That is because Mr 3 has a decent amount of votes on at place 20. Which is really bad for its average. I think that is Sentry.

Unknown

Killinstinct wrote:

That is because Mr 3 has a decent amount of votes on at place 20. Which is really bad for its average. I think that is Sentry.

Hmm... See, my first instinct would be to rate that as an outlier and not let it influence the data too heavily. But as said, I'm no statistician.

Unknown

Budget Player Cadet wrote:

Killinstinct wrote:

That is because Mr 3 has a decent amount of votes on at place 20. Which is really bad for its average. I think that is Sentry.

Hmm... See, my first instinct would be to rate that as an outlier and not let it influence the data too heavily. But as said, I'm no statistician.

I was going to disagree at first, but then realized that Sentry hopping is really only used at the top 2% or so. Most other players probably see him as a health-pack suck.
X-Force has to be 1st or 3rd.
I'm curious to see how far CMags has dropped, maybe 7th or 8th?
LDaken has to have moved up to 4th.

wymtime

Nonce Equitaur 2 wrote:

Ranking the 6 characters that have been added since the Survey. There are 54 characters now.

1. Lady Thor. More health than 3 3* characters put together. With boosts, has a trivial win by turn 4.
2. Devil Dinosaur. Highest Health, not bad damage.
3. Blade. Lots of Strike Tiles.
4. Colossus. Okay AOE Attack, half-decent defense.
5. Ms. Marvel. 2* character through and through
6. Doctor Octopus. Only his Passive is interesting. Overpriced powers.

3 things
1 thank you mischiefmaker!!
2 I believe Blade will be better than Dino. Dino will need to be fully leveled to be a decent damage dealer so he is just a meat shield.
2 Doc Ock is going to be a pain in the butt when he is buffed with goons in PVE. He will have his passive and the annoying Loki board shake up that might destroy your tiles. He will be annoying in PVE

Unknown

daibar wrote:

I'm curious to see how far CMags has dropped, maybe 7th or 8th?

I'd guess lower. I don't think I put him top 15, maybe not top 20. He's okay, but he's Psylocke tier.

over_clocked

Ben Grimm wrote:

daibar wrote:

I'm curious to see how far CMags has dropped, maybe 7th or 8th?

I'd guess lower. I don't think I put him top 15, maybe not top 20. He's okay, but he's Psylocke tier.

Disagreed. His premiere red and blue abilities make him a superb partner for X-Force, and a viable PvP character by himself (no heavy reliance on special tiles either). Even his worst ability, yellow, is somewhat useful and usable. Psylocke is very, very weak by comparison and cannot offer same amounts of damage/utility.

vudu3

I disagree. I still really like cMags. He's not broken anymore but he's still a solid character. And since he pairs so well with X-Force I think 7th or 8th sounds about right.

EDIT--Haha, locked and I said pretty much the exact same thing.

mischiefmaker

Day 2 rankings, #38-43, are up.

NorthernPolarity

mischiefmaker wrote:

39. Juggernaut, +4

Theme song: I’ll Make A Man Out Of You (Donny Osmond)
But you can bet before we're through
Mister, I'll make a man out of you

Also jumping up four spots is Juggernaut, who we called severely underrated in the last version of rankings. And while +4 is the third-biggest gain on the list, finally giving old Juggs his due as the best 1* in the game, it's frankly pretty shocking that he hasn't improved more, considering how devastating he was in both Balance of Power and Combined Arms. When buffed to 270 he has the highest health in the game (over 20k!) and does nearly 6k damage with a cheap red that makes most opponents reach for the skip button.

Speaking of Balance of Power and Combined Arms, here’s a fun little trick for those events: the difference between a level 101 and a level 140 Juggernaut is not that substantial (in BoP it's zero, since everyone is buffed to 270). But the difference in healing time is crazy; a level 1 Juggernaut will go from downed to full health in 35 minutes as compared to nearly 5 hours for level 40, and Headbutt just about one-shots squishy dangerous characters like OBW, Hood, and Human Torch.

Now, one might make the argument that BoP-style events only come around once a month or so, and he has little utility elsewhere, but you could make the same argument for many of the worst 3* characters. And, like his character overall, his green might be the most underrated in the game, as it provides heavy board shake and generates AP via cascades. You've probably seen multiple PvE events where Juggernaut went green and magically got enough AP to then Headbutt you to oblivion -- this isn't the AI cheating, that's just how good Unstoppable Crash is.

If roster diversity really is a goal for the developers (and we have no reason to think that it isn't), he's likely to get even better as more events catering to 1*s are brought online.

Speed: medium
Sustainability: low
Power: medium

Red: good
Green: good

Recommended build: 5/5.

Medium speed / power for Juggernaut? I sort of get the reasoning for medium power since he's a 1*, but shouldn't his speed at least be high? 2, 6AP abilities make him one of the fastest characters in the game.

Unknown

*sheds a tear for MStorm.*

I'm a little surprised at Bullseye's rise, but I guess it's just the greater need for Purple power, and the fact he works with OBW.
Also agreed with Juggernaut's speed being high.

vudu3

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Medium speed / power for Juggernaut? I sort of get the reasoning for medium power since he's a 1*, but shouldn't his speed at least be high? 2, 6AP abilities make him one of the fastest characters in the game.

He's probably hurt by the fact that he has only two abilities and only one of them does more than minimal damage. It's really easy to get the first 6 or 12 red AP necessary to headbutt someone into oblivion but once the board dries up it's going to be very slow until you can get some more red AP.

Compare this to someone like Punisher--yeah, I know it's not exactly a fair comparison but I'm willing to bet Punisher gets a fast rating. He has 3 active abilities that are all cheap and synergism well. Match black. Run out of black? Match some green. Throw out a Judgement for some board shakeup and repeat.

mischiefmaker

I considered a high speed rating for Juggernaut -- Headbutt is one of the fastest direct damage powers in the game, and Unstoppable Crash generates cascades which is a general indicator of speed -- but in the end I settled on medium because I find it can often take a while to get that second Headbutt off, and just getting one isn't really enough once you start hitting 3* opponents.

Also, a high-low-medium rating seemed overly generous for someone ranked #39. But yeah, if someone else had categorized him as high speed, I wouldn't object.

I'm also a little surprised by how high Bullseye ranked, but...let's just say it's not the last surprise on the list.

over_clocked

I hate the fact that people rated Bullseye that high. Did Fake Healing influence that? Is he really that good at mitigating damage? Do people overrate him because he's ubiquitous in PvE, overscaled, with some decent-looking health which hides his true squishy nature? *sigh* I wish I could say the only thing I'm afraid of is some match damage.

Unknown

Seriously, what's Bullseye doing so high? He's terrible. **** health, protect tiles are downright depressingly bad, and his black costs 16 AP.

Unknown

mischiefmaker wrote:

41. Moonstone, even

Theme song: Sex Sells (Benefit)
Sex sells
Every night and day
It will be this way
Sex sells

With a red power that's too expensive and unreliable, a black power that costs twice as much as it should, and a purple power that's just plain...weird, there's a good case to be made that the only good reason to keep Moonstone on your roster is that she's probably the most attractive character in the game. Sadly, looks won't get you far -- she's got decent health for a 2*, but she's never buffed, and both red and purple are severely outclassed at the 2* level by several other powers.

Still, I must say that I'm surprised she ranked below Bullseye, who's been a mainstay of the bottom five for quite some time now.

Speed: low
Sustainability: low
Power: low

Red: fair
Purple: fair
Black: poor

Recommended build: 5/5/3; black is a really horrible, unplayable power.

40. Bullseye, +4

Moonstone ranks lower than Bullseye? Imposibru! I've done 4000+ damage with her red the couple of times she was buffed in PvE. IIRC, her red does some number plus ~400 per red tile on the board. It's still expensive and slow though. You need to either be lucky or wait for some more red tiles to appear on the board before you can use it to do decent damage which is possible if you pair her with a couple of 3* characters like Punisher and Magneto. Purple and especially her black is really bad. I agree on that. Bullseye is kinda fun to use as with any chars that you don't use often but that doesn't make him any good. You explained quite well why he is bad. He is one of the chars that were **** on purpose by the devs I believe who considered the god awful scaling in PvE events and how often he is an opponent in those.

edit: Can't wait for the next part!

Unknown

Ben Grimm wrote:

daibar wrote:

I'm curious to see how far CMags has dropped, maybe 7th or 8th?

I'd guess lower. I don't think I put him top 15, maybe not top 20. He's okay, but he's Psylocke tier.

Nah. He can still burst.
That makes him better than psylocke and punisher tier, that relies on steady dot.

Magneto is still terrifying if you let him build a little blue or red. And oh my god is his yellow annoying.

I think i put him at like 11 or 12.I forget exactly where I placed him. He is still a force.