*** Mystique (Raven Darkholme) ***

ClydeFrog76

Hooty McThor?

Dauthi

Shapeshift level 3 adds blue to her steal, and level 4 adds black and purple.

CrookedKnight

So level 5 is just more stun?

Unknown

CrookedKnight wrote:

So level 5 is just more stun?

in the wiki it states it steals teamup AP as well link below

http://marvelpuzzlequest.wikia.com/wiki ... rkholme%29

EDIT:
Having played around with Mystique a bit more in simulator I now FURTHER rate her purple ability the worst of her three abilities... the issue is with the countdown timer, roughly 80% of the time I have that countdown tile down it either gets matched or destroyed via whatever means available to the AI within one turn. Now if the tile does somehow survive more than a few turns then great, otherwise it's just a very expensive stun to me or precursor to her black masterstroke ability. In that last situation, you only need the one point in it. Now if the ability was changed that you can select where you put the countdown tile rather than randomly placed that changes the usefulness of the ability completely, but in its current form, her purple ability is kinda a waste because of how quickly that countdown tile can potentially get matched.

To makes matters worse, the blue ability can actually be a hinderance to the purple ability. Boom placed my shapeshift countdown tile, and then later followed by my infiltration tile, oh balls.. I just matched my shapeshift countdown tile!.. The reverse can happen to if you use the infiltration ability first, it gives the AI more chances to match the countdown tile.... In a way those two abilities are counter intuitive and by no means should anyone want to have both rank 5 in both purple and blue in her, as you will be essentially gimping your own purple ability,

Two solutions I can think of for this problem in her ability design...

1. Either allow the purple countdown tile to move once on the first matchup but destroyed on any following matchup.. this would increase its usefulness a bit more but probably harder/more complex to program...Or allow multiple countdown tiles to be created and only when all countdown tiles are destroyed that her shapeshift stops.

2.remove the randomness of the blue's assignment of black/purple tiles, give the player the choice which basic tiles to change

Else unless these changes happen, that purple ability is a huge waste due to the potentially short duration

Unknown

I still say purple is more useful for AP Denial, not AP steal, because you can't choose what the opponent will match. I think it makes sense that blue is more dangerous when the tile is out, as infiltration makes it more likely she will be caught.

Also, I notice in a match that I cast it last match where only Devil Dino was alive, and she transformed into Thor instead?! I guess she can't transform into devil dino! An interesting touch by the developers for realism.

Unknown

Her stun definitely comes in handy against Hulk/Captain Marvel teams and adds to Shapeshift slowing down the enemy team. The countdown tile still steals AP on enemy matches even when Mystique is stunned so for 8 AP it's very useful. I'll mainly be using her blue skill to fuel Surgical Strike, Rage of the Panther or Whales x3 so I'm going 5/5/3 but I can see 4/4/5 being another viable build if you don't care about Team-Up AP and the extra stun.

MarcusGraves

4/4/5

Shapeshift: stealing TU AP and +1 to the stun isn't really that hot for a rank 5 but getting it to at least rank 4 makes it so the enemy loses out on every color match and you're possibly gaining more purple/black AP to fuel her powers.

Infiltration: forces the enemy to play into mystiques hands combined with shapeshift by possibly making them do unwanted purple/black matches that will help her or will cause cascades to happen on use. I'd love to max it but because shapeshift doesn't get its purple/black steal until 4 I'd also have to leave this at rank 4.

Masterstroke: 5, has to be 5, because its a liability at anything under rank 4 and helps the AI not be a complete moron on defense. red is not a color you ever want to get drained of and since you're already at rank 4 you might as well go up to 5 for the damage explosion with the shapeshift tile.

mjh

5/3/5

Like Captn Marvel, having 5 giving an extra turn of stun is a very good thing to have.

the difference on 3 - 5 is 3 more tiles? I'm sorry but this ability should be more like Dooms where 4 converts X-tiles and 5 converts ALL tiles. Only then would it be a real debate.

eidehua

I don't think there would be a debate as converting ALL red/green/yellow is kinda broken lol

NorthernPolarity

HawkeyeSucks wrote:

5/3/5

Like Captn Marvel, having 5 giving an extra turn of stun is a very good thing to have.

the difference on 3 - 5 is 3 more tiles? I'm sorry but this ability should be more like Dooms where 4 converts X-tiles and 5 converts ALL tiles. Only then would it be a real debate.

I dunno, 3 -> 5 increases the cascade potential by 17% and almost doubles the amount of tiles / ap generated / gained from the ability. It's a lot better than it seems.

Pwuz_

daibar wrote:

Also, I notice in a match that I cast it last match where only Devil Dino was alive, and she transformed into Thor instead?! I guess she can't transform into devil dino! An interesting touch by the developers for realism.

You goofed somewhere. I've seen my Mystique turn into Devil Dino more than once. It's my favorite use for her transformation!

ThatOneGuyjp189512

NorthernPolarity wrote:

HawkeyeSucks wrote:

5/3/5

Like Captn Marvel, having 5 giving an extra turn of stun is a very good thing to have.

the difference on 3 - 5 is 3 more tiles? I'm sorry but this ability should be more like Dooms where 4 converts X-tiles and 5 converts ALL tiles. Only then would it be a real debate.

I dunno, 3 -> 5 increases the cascade potential by 17% and almost doubles the amount of tiles / ap generated / gained from the ability. It's a lot better than it seems.

^^^^this is the reason i went with 5/5/3 for my mystique, having played her for a bit, she is insanely good at fueling X-Force with her blue at 5, 10 tiles of THREE colors changing to tiles of TWO colors makes a ton of cascade potential.

Unknown

Since Mystique is a villian, she can never be played in heroic events. This means you'd otherwise always have Black Panther or X Force who has a significantly better black, so unless you have neither that leaves 5/5/3 as the only choice because better skill exist on black. I suppose you can run a R/G character without a strong black with her but those characters are usually better off with The Hood. It's not that her black isn't good but there are abilities that do basically the same thing but do it better for the same cost. If The Hood gets nerfed that'd end up making her more viable but currently if you need a token black power you might as well run The Hood instead.

Pwuz_

Phantron wrote:

Since Mystique is a villian, she can never be played in heroic events.

We can always hope that some new Chapters could be added in which Mystique is an appropriate character for a Heroic event.

EDIT: Has anyone tried using one of the retired "Target Lock +20% Damage to the Brotherhood" Boosts against her? Just curious if the developers have that very small and shrinking subset of boosts in mind when programming. Since I haven't tried my "Target Lock +20% Damage to X-Men" boost on any of the newer X-men, I don't have any other similar examples to compare to.

Ryz-aus

Pulled a mystique from a standard token today, and noticed she is available in the heroic Tokens as well. I guess that's the positive of vaulting heroes for a season - they are pushing new characters into the availability pool faster.

famousfoxking

GrimSkald wrote:

I swear, all I can think of when I see her icon is the following:

SCIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIENCE FICTION
DOUBLE FEATURE

You're not the only one, but we may be the only two.

Unknown

famousfoxking wrote:

GrimSkald wrote:

I swear, all I can think of when I see her icon is the following:

SCIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIENCE FICTION
DOUBLE FEATURE

You're not the only one, but we may be the only two.

We used Sentry to win
Until his nerf kicked in
And the Hood's yellow would end its turn

Lazy Daken was there
Without a shirt to wear
John Storm caused everyone to burn

And then Spidey's in shock
Because he now can't stun-luck
And Magneto lost unlimited turns

And Devil Dino's got charms
Waving prehistoric arms
Which to use we would eventually learn

M-P-Q is Nerfing Powers
Ragnarok's lost red/green showers
Classic storm can't kill everyone
Loki's not still Forest fire fun

Oh oh oh oh oh oh
At the Marvel Puzzle Quest it's
Nerfing slow
Who's next to go
At the Marvel Puzzle Quest next Nerfing show

Phaserhawk

Phantron wrote:

Since Mystique is a villian, she can never be played in heroic events. This means you'd otherwise always have Black Panther or X Force who has a significantly better black, so unless you have neither that leaves 5/5/3 as the only choice because better skill exist on black. I suppose you can run a R/G character without a strong black with her but those characters are usually better off with The Hood. It's not that her black isn't good but there are abilities that do basically the same thing but do it better for the same cost. If The Hood gets nerfed that'd end up making her more viable but currently if you need a token black power you might as well run The Hood instead.

This a 1000%. Remember people, her black is only good damage if Shapeshifter tile is out, you add that to the cost and this skill really costs 19 AP. Blue at 5 feeds X-Force so insanely it's scary.

Unknown

I don't have the right covers, but has anyone tried Mystique's infiltration with Patch's Berserker Rage? Maxed Infiltration should create a couple damaging cascades and help match the enemy strike tiles away.

Unknown

daibar wrote:

I don't have the right covers, but has anyone tried Mystique's infiltration with Patch's Berserker Rage? Maxed Infiltration should create a couple damaging cascades and help match the enemy strike tiles away.

I tried my 4/4/5 Patch with 4/4/3 Mystique and the Berserker Rage/Infiltration combo isn't consistent, you'll either get purple matches or set up decent match 4 situations or get a lot of black, so she could be helpful in Loki PVP events if you want to pull off Trickery. I'm going to keep testing it out with Black Panther as my third (used Deadpool & Daken earlier)