Phaserhawk wrote: I may have to change my vote of 5/5/3 or 5/3/5 being the best builds, I actually think 3/5/5 might be the best of all and here's why and shred me if you disagree.
locked wrote: Just looked at the poll again. So many 5/3/5 votes? Who are you people
MarcusGraves wrote: im still for 4/4/5 to have the flexibility of shapeshift stealing black AP + infiltration for getting a masterstroke off, which really is the goal of the character. if the board is dry on blue i'm not going to be getting infiltration off and shapeshift won't really be gathering blue either because there's not enough on the board for AI to match. rank 4 shapeshift, now I can get all 3 of mystique's colors and if the board is crapped out on blue but theres plenty of black with my SS tile out then i can still get closer to popping masterstroke if AI matches black. I'd also want the ability to slow down enemy black users since black powers have really been on the rise lately.
Phaserhawk wrote: Intersting, so you like the 3/5/5 philosophy but hedge your bets a little going 4/4/5. Not bad, the only negative is that you lose out on the speed if there is enough blue on the board, because you won't get the ensuing cascade like 3/5/5 but you are able to deal with an unfavorable board slightly better. While I'm not sold as I prefer the speed of 3/5/5 I cannot argue against your build as it's essentially just a variation of 3/5/5. I will say again, after that Rocket Groot PvE where Mystique was kicking my **** and I saw the power of Infiltration and Masterstroke first hand, ouch. Shapeshift never seemed to bother me even if someone was stunned 2 turns, because she always ended up killing that character with Masterstroke
NorthernPolarity wrote: MarcusGraves wrote: im still for 4/4/5 to have the flexibility of shapeshift stealing black AP + infiltration for getting a masterstroke off, which really is the goal of the character. if the board is dry on blue i'm not going to be getting infiltration off and shapeshift won't really be gathering blue either because there's not enough on the board for AI to match. rank 4 shapeshift, now I can get all 3 of mystique's colors and if the board is crapped out on blue but theres plenty of black with my SS tile out then i can still get closer to popping masterstroke if AI matches black. I'd also want the ability to slow down enemy black users since black powers have really been on the rise lately. I don't see too much value in going 4/4/5. The problem with this build is that if the AI doesn't match black, then 4 purple is basically wasted. On average you can expect the AI to match maybe what, black 1/7th of the time? This would translate to roughly 1 black AP per shapeshift activation, which just seems really mediocre given that many things could go wrong in the 8 turns that the tile is out. You should count how many times the AI matches black after you get the shapeshift tile out to test it out, I can't imagine it being more than 1-2 ap per cast, and thats if the game lasts the entire duration and the shapeshift tile doesn't get destroyed. On the other hand, 4->5 blue gives a pretty big boost, improving the cascade chances from 60% to 70% on an average board, and increasing the average ap gained by 2 immediately. So on average, you'd probably get 1-2 extra black AP from either case, but infiltration has the benefit of being an immediate effect, and not relying on there already being black matches on the board (since it generates black tiles as opposed to relying on the AI matching existing ones), the tile staying alive for the 8 turns, or even the game lasting 8 turns after using the yellow. I really think it's a mistake to not go 5 blue Mystique. Time and time again, we've seen that AP generation / cascade moves are among the best moves in the game. Abilities like MNM purple, thunder strike, GSBW purple, prenerf C. Mags blue, etc have always been among the top abilities in those colors, and infiltration falls under the same category. As a black / blue AP generator, she legitimately does something very powerful that very few characters in the game can do, and that's gonna be your main motivation for playing Mystique in the long run, not some inconsistent ap drain / stun or damage move. Personally, I'm starting to lean towards 3/5/5: I was originally going to go 5/5/3 because XF exists, but I'm starting to see value in making Mystique self-sufficient. One last thought about your hypothetical situation: this is really going to depend on who you're pairing with Mystique with. If you're running XF, then the situation of the board having black and the AI matching that is unlikely because you're going to be prioritizing black for XF. If you have a transition roster where MQ is the main focus of your team, then you'd probably want to prioritize black as well, leading to the same situation. Finally, one of my main beefs with purple is that you need to prioritize purple early in order to get full value out of the ap drain portion of the ability (the full 8 turns). This means that purple needs to be among the top say, 3 abilities in your team, which I feel is unlikely depending on your roster.
Narkon wrote: I hadn't played the game since July because I was tired of all the bad decisions and I returned today, only to find many new heroes and some older heroes being changed. It was so long since I last played, it felt really strange not knowing who to choose for each matchup and having to read all the abilities again in order to avoid missing a change to how they worked. Mystique looks interesting, but I wish they had used some interaction between her purple and blue, as they did with purple and black. Something that would buff her blue a little because right know the randomness hurts it, like +1 tiles in level 3 if she is shapeshifted and +3 tiles to level 5 for a total of 13 (at level 5)
vudu3 wrote: MarcusGraves wrote: im still for 4/4/5 to have the flexibility of shapeshift stealing black AP + infiltration for getting a masterstroke off, which really is the goal of the character. if the board is dry on blue i'm not going to be getting infiltration off and shapeshift won't really be gathering blue either because there's not enough on the board for AI to match. rank 4 shapeshift, now I can get all 3 of mystique's colors and if the board is crapped out on blue but theres plenty of black with my SS tile out then i can still get closer to popping masterstroke if AI matches black. I'd also want the ability to slow down enemy black users since black powers have really been on the rise lately. I'm also in the 4/4/5 camp. While the boost from 4 to 5 in Infiltration is nice, I'd rather have Shapeshift steal purple and black AP. If Infiltration changed RGY tiles to a single color then it might be different but too often I see changed into instead of
vudu3 wrote: Upgrading Shapeshift from 4 to 5 will get you an extra turn of stun and allow you to steal TU AP. I generally don't care about TU AP so all it really gets me is an extra turn of stun. And while that's nice, I'd rather have the extra tile color change that comes with Infiltration. That said, my Mystique is currently 4/3/5 so it's a moot point at the moment.
Phaserhawk wrote: And if you don't care about the extra turn stun then why aren't you 3/5/5 you'd get all you want.