(UNofficial) Character Rankings 12/15

Unknown

----12/16 Updated 2*Marvel, 4*Thor, Blade section----
----12/17 Updated Mystique, Rocket and Groot, Gamora, Elektra, Loki, Daredevil section----
----12/24 Updated Elecktra, Sentry Section, added Tier List----

Hello, I know normally a certain someone(s) on the forums does this in a much more official format so I won't claim to do their job or be them. HOWEVER - I would like to discuss character rankings and hear people's thoughts as the game has grown significantly and changed since the last 'official' ranking(10/14). Last we heard about the character rankings, the person doing it was undecided because it was so much work and needed to be done fairly often. With the "last character" being introduced this year(plot twist: next new character offered January first )

PS: If I just missed the post or the person that normally does this would like to take over, I'd be glad to hand this over, just say the word.

I think first we should go over what's changed since now and then:

-Loki got a slight buff(R61)
-Very very slight She-Hulk(lol) and Hawkeye buff(R62)
-Beast's Blue wasn't buffed(R64)
-Moonstone Buffed(R64)
-Hulk "nerfed"(R67)
-Sentry nerfed, Hood "reworked(?)"(Around Groot and Rocket Event)
-Loki/Daredevil reworked, buffed(Season IX)
-Characters introduced(In this order?): Colossus, Doc Ock Devil Dino, Ms. Marvel, 4*Thor, Blade, Mystique, Rocket & Groot, Gamora, Elektra

More General Changes:
-Sentry and PVP time slot changes have changed how PVP works. Upcoming shield cooldown changes may change this even further.
-Character introductions have been nonstop
-3 Hour refresh times? A mistake?

And for reference - the last character ranking list:

1. Wolverine (X-Force)
2. ***Thor
3. Sentry
4. Nick Fury
5. ***Daken
6. Black Panther
7. Wolverine (Patch)
8. The Hood
9. ***Captain America
10. Hulk
11. Punisher
12. Magneto (classic)
13. Human Torch
14. Deadpool
15. Psylocke
16. Falcon
17. Captain Marvel
18. Black Widow (grey suit)
19. Black Widow (original)
20. Doctor Doom
21. Ares
22. Iron Man (Model 40)
23. Storm (Mohawk)
24. Spider-Man
25. She-Hulk
26. Beast
27. Thor
28. Ragnarok
29. Storm (classic)
30. Invisible Woman
31. Daken
32. Loki
33. Daredevil
34. Magneto (Marvel Now)
35. Wolverine (Astonishing)
36. **Human Torch
37. Hawkeye (modern)
38. Captain America
39. Juggernaut
40. Bullseye
41. Moonstone
42. Storm (modern)
43. Black Widow (Modern)
44. Iron Man (Model 35)
45. Hawkeye (classic)
46. Venom
47. Bag Man
48. Yelena Belova

Unknown

Colossus:

Colossus makes me sad because tanks one of my favorite roles in video games, yet MPQ doesn't have too many(good) ones that have defensive abilities. Although I think Colossus is ultimately a fun character, his overlap with certain characters(Patch, X-Force) and the fact he still falls to strike tile spam make his introduction underwhelming. Although he's far from the bottom, I think if during Immovable Object if he nullified strike tiles or even if he couldn't die(He'd stay at 1 HP) while Immovable object was out would make him work a bit better.

SUMMARY: Could use buff. Outclassed.

Doc Ock:

Doc Ock wins the award for being the most interesting sucky character introduced. Initially I was offput by his subpar health and once his full stats were revealed I wasn't surprised. I really like his animations, character sprite, and I admit I thought his might be pretty cool. But in a land full of awesome greens, the eight armed man ain't tinykitty. Some say he has a use in PVE. But I say when you can use 3*Steve, Daken/Patch/Blade in PVE why bother? Of course he's another body and will be essential every now and then. I at least like his character theme(destroy special tiles!) though it's sad how outclassed he is at it. Why use manipulation when I can cast Illusion twice or just straight up Wind Storm someone? Maybe Doc Ock could get some Prehistoric Arms instead of his manipulation? Maybe his Green becomes Passive Countdown? Maybe he gets a redone ability allowing him multiple matches a turn? I don't know. But he's not great.

SUMMARY: A for Flavor, C for execution. I like his character theme, but he's just Outclassed.

Devil Dino:

Originally an overpowered Team-up/Cameo, Devil Dino comes to us bearing LOTS of HP. Although his purple is quite obviously a joke ability and will ruin any plans you have of using purple AP on defense otherwise, I still think he's a decent character. In my head his huge HP and cheap-but-damaging abilities make up for his "lack-of-third-ability". Even then, his third ability is cheap enough if your board is **** its still an option. Although not as relevant anymore, he achieves the special honor of being able to survive a traditional sentrybomb. I think in PVP he's going to be as close as we'll get to 4* Juggernaut(hard to kill, cheap damaging abilities) for a while.

SUMMARY: Although I'd like to see him without a 'joke' ability, I actually think he fares very well. Passing grade!

Ms. Marvel:

Although, obviously a 2* isn't going to do much for the meta-game, what she DOES do is make it so that 2*/Transition players don't HAVE to use the same, tired combination of . That isn't to say she blows MiniThor and Ares out of the water, but I know how frustrated I was as a younger player needing certain colors that weren't coming to me. Interestingly enough, she isn't a traditional "Lazy" character(Lazy characters have the same exact moves, but buffed and are 3*; I think they didn't want to give her passive to a 2* IMHO) and has interesting abilities that aren't BAD. A little board shake(though teamup AP isn't great, look at how it worked out for 3*Mag), a black twice-hitting move, and bleh red.

Summary: Strengthens 2*/Transition player's access to other parts of the color pie, is not Bullseye/Moonstone, has an interesting moveset. She's not the most powerful 2*, but she's more important for the growing players than anyone else. If we can get different versions of characters like THIS, I think the game will be a healthy, vibrant place.

4*Thor:

I don't even have the Goddess, but using her in her allied PVP and PVE, it's pretty obvious she's powerful. She can handle special tiles, stun, dish out damage, and stack your AP - what more could you want from a character? Much Like the reworked X-Force, if this is what we have to look forward to in 4* characters, I'm scared for what Elektra(and future 4*, and revamped Sue) will do. She sucks on defense(giving the opponent charge tiles), but if you're even facing her you probably have maxed out x-force so its really a moot point. I don't think she's efficient as X-Force, but then again, I'm worlds away from either of the characters. I like to only speak from experience. Also, she can pair with X-Force.

Summary: 'Nuff said, she's a 4 star.

Blade:

I'm super-biased here, but I was really excited for Blade. I constantly refreshed the forums to see what people thought of him, and what he'd be like maxed. And as it turns out, Wesley Snipes takes to the match 3 game as easily as he hunts vampires. But really, we've seen this formula before: Passive strike tiles, fast regen, pairing well with other strike-tile makers. These were the ingredients that created the powerpuff -err, relevant MPQ characters. I personally also like how he isn't useless at 1 cover - he can act as a support if you don't have the appropriate covers for him. Is he absolute best in game? No, but he's pretty damn strong.

Summary: I have a soft spot for Blade, but he was built like many other very good characters in this game, and the results show. Thumbs Up, Demiurge!

Mystique:

Some thought she would be the 3*OBW, but I dunno. She's fragile, and her whole "theme"( ARE BAD GO AWAY) doesn't work because the users of those colors are much more effecient than her. If she had something akin to Hood's or Loki's I'd be alot more satisfied with her as a character. Maybe her shapeshift should passively taken AP from the shapeshifted character's colors? I don't really know what to think of her and I don't really care. I guess I can be glad she's a fairly low HP PVE target in rotation now....? She does shift the board AWAY from those colors if given enough time, which can screw over players....who don't counter her....? Fun fact: if you shapeshift an already-shapeshifted character, you'll copy the shapeshift!

Summary: She's supposed to counter , but is not Hood or OBW. I'm happy she's a low health enemy in PVE. New Loki, Hood, OBW outshine her unless I'm just looking at her wrong or something.

Rocket and Groot:

I wasn't surprised when MPQ got some Guardians of the Galaxy love - they pretty much announced a sequel even BEFORE the movie came out. What DID surprise me was how GOOD Rocket and Groot turned out to be. True Healing, board shake, countdown strike tiles - and tanks with LOTS of HP to boot. I REALLY didn't expect these guys to do much(I really imagined they would be a cash-in more than anything), but I'm not afraid to say I was wrong. The saddest part of this character, however is that this character is a LITERAL BETTER VERSION OF BEAST. And to add insult to injury - they gave the Guardians a fixed version of Beast's blue. I hate when characters are completely invalidated by newer characters - a big problem in League of Legends that frustrated me. Additionally with their introduction, there's less pressure to 'fix' Beast....sigh.

Summary: Big HP, tanks, true heals, board shakes, Literally better in every way than Beast. Devs - Go krutacking fix Beast, please?

Gamora:

I'm not really sure what to say about Gamora - she's built with a spammable red, but her green is situationally useful and her black is purely outclassed(Some say use her black if she's the only character left. I say that's a dangerous strategy and situational). Maybe she is the cash-in character I was expecting from Rocket and Groot? I think her black needs to be changed....or something. It seems like she's built like Patch or Juggernaut without the actual benefits of having low cost, high potential ability. They could also have made her less powerful on purpose to attract 2* players without making 3*-4* players foam at the mouth to get her. Maybe she was made to work with the other, unreleased Guardians? Only time will tell. Well, that or a buff.

Summary: Spammable red, questionable everything else. I don't understand? Maybe she's SUPPOSED to be bad so 3*-4* players won't want her and 2*-transition players will use her?

Elektra:

Not much to say here until we see her full stats/ Seeing the last four 4* characters introduced(Fury, 4*Thor, X-Force, Devil), they were very good. Best thing to do is watch the forum and don't underestimate her.

---

Post-release Elektra:

What I said previously still applies, but in seeing her final stats I wish her purple effected more than strike tiles. Sure, she hoses Daken/etc. but she's really niche. 4* and X-force set the bar pretty dang high for a what 4* is truly capable of. And With them scoring better than her, she's not going to be on your A PVP team. So that brings the question: Is she useful in PVE? I guess. There's wayyyy better options, though. Although flavor-wise and mechanics-wise, she seems pretty cool. I won't be dumping any iso into my hypothetical Elektra anytime soon.

SUMMARY: She doesn't offer 4* players anything new, and 3* players have better 4* to look forward to. I wish her purple effected more than strike tiles. They did, however, manage to make Daredevil's inherited traps not ****. Her artwork and animations are pretty cool, just she isn't really all that relevant. I wouldn't pour iso/effort into her unless I already finished the best 3* and 4* out there already.

Loki:

Loki's rework is interesting because it really seems like all he needed was a 3rd power. I think trickery is a little bit overpriced(countering your enemy should never be too costly), but illusions and mischief are solid, solid abilities. Mischief is interesting because it procs. ALOT. Not to mention because the AI is dumb as rocks you can give them 'dummy' match-4s in order to trigger it for yourself. I imagine with Mischief, you'd set up a match-4 against a mostly goon team to get easy AP(though its random). I only have 1 level in Mischief but even I'm seeing it proc ALOT. Also, seeing Mischief in action in the Gauntlet shows what a danger it can be to match 4 against Loki - say goodbye to your boosted AP. It now creates a tension of 'do I match 4/5 and get the AP I need, or do I leave it for Loki/take a lesser match to not get drained?' Is Loki a good defensive character now? Will his infinite combo with Rags be a real thing?

Summary: Trickery is overpriced, Loki has turned into a more interesting, usable character. Good job D3.

Daredevil:

I don't expect much from my characters. This is a silly phone game after all. Daredevil, however, had a bad rap: He only had traps. And as it turned out(unless you're Nick Fury) traps are very, very bad. I think this rework gives him PVE utility more than anything. His trap still sucks compared to Fury's. I like his new purple, but it doesn't effect countdown tiles

Summary: With how bad Daredevil was, I'm just glad he doesn't have an ability that reads: Drain all your team's HP and delete all your ISO.

Sentry:

Sentry used to be king, he was damage on demand. But with his Yellow hurting him more and World Rupture severely nerfed(takes a turn longer and takes double AP) he won't be such an exception in PVP anymore. Although he still hurts alot, it is at significantly greater risk to the person using him and their characters. But even without him being changed, we're seeing even more changes to PVP so who knows what would've happened anyway. I do think it was necessary he got nerfed, I was personally able to use him with 2 other random characters and win matches I had no business winning. Basically, his changes force him to be a bit more of a team player: Strike tiles from Rocket/Panther, acceleration thru Hood.

SUMMARY: No longer a cheating device. Must now work with other characters to achieve similar results.

Tier Rankings(by usefulness):

S Tier:
X-Force, 4*Thor, 3*Thor, Daken, Hood, 3*America, Falcon

A Tier:
Nick Fury, Black Panther, Patch, Hulk(possibly B tier b/c X-Force destroys him so easily), 3*Mag(Possibly S tier, works well with X-Force, still very, very powerful but I don't personally have his covers), Punisher, Deadpool, 3*Torch, 2*Widow, Loki(Might be B tier, have to wait and see), Devil Dino, Blade, Rocket & Groot,

B Tier:
Psylocke, 3*Widow, Doom, Ares, 2*Storm, 2*Daken, Daredevil, 2*Cap(He's okay but BUFF HIS RED DAMAGE OH MY GOD), Colossus, Mystique, Elektra

C Tier:
2*Thor, 3*Storm, 2*Mag(by himself ofc), 2*Wolv, 2*Torch, 2*Hawkeye, Juggernaut(best 1*, becomes relevant), 2*Marvel(may be better, maybe not), Gamora

Z Tier:
Bullseye, Yelena

1 Star Tier:

1*Storm/Stark/Widow/Hawkeye/Venom

AND HONORABLE MENTIONS - Buff Me Tier:
3*Stark, Spider Man, She-Hulk, Beast, Rags, Sue Storm, Moonstone, Bag Man, Doc Ock

Undecided:
C. Marv

***Reserved for future use.****
****Under Construction****

OzarkBoatswain

S
4* Thor
Top tier, #2, right behind X-Force Wolvie. Huge damage plus stunlock potential.

A+
The Hood (Remastered)
His went from an AP generator to a powerful move that always ends the turn. I consider it an improvement. It turns out that ending the turn isn't so bad -- you just need to make sure the AI can't use a power on their next turn. Hood teams didn't need the even more AP that the old yellow gave them, and being able to win with only the Hood left is useful. The #3 character in the game in my opinion.

Sentry (Marvel No!)
He can still dish out the damage, but the slowness of getting 12 AP means he's no longer top tier. Still a solid character.

A
Blade
A suitable Daken replacement. His is outclassed by XF Wolvie and BP.

Mystique
That damage! Think Thor with the other colors. Middling health, and her stun and AP drain are just bonuses. Her tile color converter isn't as good as LThor's yellow, either.

Loki
At max level, his new passive is as annoying as the Hulk's.

Gamora
Depends on if you have the right team to make her work. If she's the last character standing, watch out. All 5-5-3 builds look good.

A-
Devil Dinosaur
Decent damage and huge health, but not really worth the ISO investment. Level up X-Force, 4hor or Nick Fury first.

Rocket & Groot
Excellent strike tile ability on blue, which is uncommon. Can easily be paired with other strike tile makers. is underwhelming. A smart opponent can avoid the passive by killing him before he goes below 25% health. The passive will mainly be used for regaining health in story mode. So this is basically a one-ability character with high health.

Daredevil
I'm still not sure where to put him. He is a variant on Gold Cap, but I don't think he's as good. still relies on red trap tiles which aren't the greatest, and this means it should never be used against Daken. at max level might be better than Cap's, as two tiles will easily stunlock a single opponent for 18 AP (versus 24+ AP for Cap). : the damage can be considerable, but it depends on the enemy team (and Patch).

Colossus
Great . I like the idea of his , but in practice it doesn't matter much. : second rate, but maybe a future character will come along and make it good.

B
Dr. Octopus
I like the idea of an anti-special tile character. Right now his active powers are just too expensive, and their direct damage is negligible.

C
Ms. Marvel
is bad. Decent (for 2* land) . I suppose the TU generator might be good against the Hood? People with good 3* characters shouldn't bother.

My full list link is in my signature.

Unknown

Even tho this is "Unofficial" I think this good info to have. Thanks for post this.

Unknown

Off the cuff:
Loki's low ranking was largely due to his lack of a 3rd power. He's probably around Captain Marvel, GSBW range now.
She-Hulk, Hawkeye, Moonstone, Hulk no real ranking change.
Sentry is closer to Psylocke range. He's too slow for large damage, though he can still deliver if you give him time. Self-Damage still hurts.
Hood: Honestly, I think this was a buff. Yellow becomes a finisher, so you don't really care too much about it ending the turn. I think he was underrated in the last poll, and should go to at least 6.
Daredevil: still too situational, though his red has become useful. Probably will remain around the same position with the new characters pushing him back down.
Colossus: Is almost like a deadpool, but without whales.
Doc ock: One step above beast.
Ms Marvel: I still don't know where to place her. She's got a Black AOE which is nice, super conditional red, and a questionably useful Yellow? It overwrites enemy tiles at least. Probably just under Cap for me.
Thor4: to be honest, I think she's pretty close to Thor3 in terms of usefulness to the general MPQ population. Though good as an hit point scarecrow, she's not as good defensively somehow, perhaps because the charged tiles feed the attacker just as much.
Blade: I find him slightly better than Hulk.
Mystique: This one is questionable. Her abilties make it hard for her to work with all characters. While I would put her around Patch level, I think she'll end up closer to GSBW in the next rankings.
Gamora: Seriously disappointing character, unless you're transitioning with 2*. Captain Marvel level.

CMags was rated way too low due to angst over his nerf.

Unknown

ecir2002 wrote:

Even tho this is "Unofficial" I think this good info to have. Thanks for post this.

Well, there was never really an "official" one - Demiurge would be crazy to do so

But yeah, the point was to spur discussion among other things. It's not a problem.


----12/16 Updated 2*Marvel, 4*Thor, Blade section----

Unknown

----12/17 Updated Mystique, Rocket and Groot, Gamora, Elektra, Loki, Daredevil section----

Unknown

----12/24 Updated Elecktra, Sentry Section, added Tier List----