Character rankings 12/14 edition: vote now!

mischiefmaker

It seems like just yesterday that we wrapped up the 10/14 edition, but time waits for no rankings, and the fine folk at Demiurge have been quite busy lately, with nine new characters since last time (Colossus, Dr. Octopus, Devil Dinosaur, Ms. Marvel, Blade, Mystique, Rocket and Groot, Thor: Goddess of Thunder, Gamora -- not counting Elektra since we won't have enough time to playtest her before rankings are done), two changes to the meta (rotating lightning round characters, reduced rubberbanding), and four major character changes (Sentry, Hood, Loki, Daredevil). So let's do another round!

kwiksurveys seemed to work pretty well last time, so we're going to go with that again. As before, just rank all the characters from best to worst, using whatever criteria you like, where the characters at the top are the best and the ones at the bottom are the worst. We'll keep voting open for one week, with the survey to be closed on Christmas Eve, and (here we go, famous last words) writeups to begin on Christmas Day. Think of it as my present to all of you!

Here is the survey link. Enjoy!

Nonce Equitaur 2

I put in my votes.

over_clocked

Please do justice to Hood and cMagneto and certain other characters
Hood deserves to be t5 for sure now with that handy nuke of his (I admit that I overreacted to his funbalance and that Hood/4or could probably be pretty loopy with 5 blue covers for 4or which we couldn't try out in Anniversary week's Lightning Rounds), meaning he can now win a battle on his own without relying on Intimidation's piddling damage. Old Hood would have lost that battle:



While cMagneto is just all-around awesome and complements a lot of top characters: XF, LT, 5/3/5 Patch, Black Panther, Hood again, can combo with GSBW/2* Marvel for PvE, etc. He's an easy t10. His only limitations are a mediocre yellow ability and comparatively low health. Sure he competes for top red/blue with LC and 4or, but 4or is really, really hard to obtain if you're new, and LC is quite meh on defense in PvP.

Unknown

Man, these rankings were rough.

There are many high star characters that I didn't even want to rate above the best 2 stars.

I ended up putting 3 3 stars and 1 4 star below the top 4 2 star characters.

I kept putting Invisible woman in the 3 star range, but kept moving characters above her, because I'd rather see IW than any of the people I was placing her near.

Same with Sentry. I tried placing him in the top 15...but I just couldn't find him a space that I felt was appropriate. I finally settled at 25 for him. I probably ranked him lower than most.

And with all the new/reworked characters, Mystique, Blade, Loki, Dare Devil, Gamora, Rocket and Groot...I had trouble finding a good place for any of them because I've never played any of them at full covers.

We'll see how these rankings come out, but I think there will be many false lows and false highs based purely on assumptions this time around. D3 needs to slow down on releasing characters haha.

atomzed

Voted. This time, its really difficult to vote, because the Tier 2 heroes are really very close in terms of ranking.

In the end, i voted based on my frequency of usage, and whether the character value add to the rosters i have.

For discussion, this are my top 11 (my 10th and 11th are tied actually):

1) Xforce. Still the fastest and most economical in terms of boosts. You only need 2 sets of boosts (g/b and +all) and you can use his green with 1 match. I still prefer him over Thorina, but it may be because i don't have a max thorina.

2) Thorina. High hp, good synergy between her red and blue. Can 1-shot any character. A good partner for Xforce.

3) Hood. Yeah, i ranked him 3rd. The yellow was a buff in my opinion, as he now has the ability to finish an enemy. The Xforce-Hood has an additional outlet for yellow, giving them green, black and yellow for finisher. Which is great.

4) Lthor. Now that thorina is around, he's less often seen. But his high hp and yellow-to-green is still great.

5) Ldaken. True healing and free strike tiles. Sign me on pls.

6) Lcap. Personal bias, but i like Lcap style. He was instrumental in helping me finish the gauntlet, as it allows you to overcome enemies who are much higher level than him. Once you get his shields going, he is just great.

7) Cmag. Sexneto (Xforce-Cmag) is probably the next fastest team outside of Xforce-thorina. I like his blue and red as they do good dmg. I often target him over Xforce if i face Sexneto because i can deny green and black, but harder to deny red and blue. I lost many battles against Cmag because i couldnt deny 3 red matches, and the AI just have endless cascades

8) Patch. True healing, and strike tiles galore. He has a few new good partners like Daredevil and Gamora who can utilise his strike tiles.

9) Nick fury. Still has the highest dmg blue. His purple is also good, and yellow is also cool.

10) Hulk. I like him because he is anti strike tiles... he just keep giving green matches! Beyond that, he is less useful.

11) Cpt Marvel. I like her because he is anti-strike tiles too.... her yellow is great in generating black and red AP.

Unknown

My top 11, just to match yours:
1) Xforce.
He does everything well. Has true healing, massive damage, board shake, AP drain, AP gained, more board shake, epic health and more board shake. All at relatively low prices. 8 AP for his green is insane.

2) 4hor.
She does almost everything well. She has AoE damage that destroys special tiles, she has all her charged tile nonsense, a strong stun and a red that deals almost infinite damage. Ultra Epic health and her prices are also reasonable. If she had board shake or true healing, she'd probably be higher than Xforce. Number 2 isn't bad though.

3) Lazy Thor
He has heavy damage, high health and generates AP for himself to cast his own abilities. By far the best 3 star character, especially since Sentry was neutered.

4) Lazy Daken
Free strike tiles. Free health regen and even a high burst ability for the low low price of 5 blue AP? Sign me up. This guy is incredible for extended pushes and just for amplifying whoever his teammates are.

5) The Hood
With the best passive in the entire game, The Hood basically forces you to kill him first. Not only is he a guy that can put you in a hole quick if the board is not favorable, but he also makes it almost impossible to ignore him. His yellow is just a bonus burst for emergencies. His black is practically worthless now, since Sentry is gone, but it works okay with Lazy Cap and a few others who rely on countdown tiles.

6) Magneto
Very underrated since he was nerfed, but he still has scary damage in both his red and his blue and if you let him get his yellow off...good luck. It is unreliable, but that much protection almost always makes your match damage go down to 1. And if he already took out your Xforce with his blue and all you have is, say, Hood, you're in trouble.

7) Nick Fury
A bit overrated last time, because he is so very expensive to level and he is not top tier like the other 430k iso characters. But if we're rating characters purely based on their power level and now how much ISO is required to get them to their power level, then Nick is up there with the best. He has 3 abilities in 3 traditionally low power colors. This makes him a perfect match for the likes of Xforce, Lazy Thor and a few others. His blue almost guarantees 1 kill and his purple is great because there are so few strong purple abilities in the 3-4 star range. His yellow is just a cherry on top. It's a little hard to farm, but when you get it off...fireworks.

8) Black Panther
He may be outclassed by Xforce, but his black is still the 2nd best black ability in the game and, in my opinion, the best AoE damage ability in the game; rivaling only CoTS and Whales. However, black is quickly becoming a very hotly contested color; with Blade and Mystique coming out with strong black abilities as well as the obvious Xforce. He may not be the best of the best, but he still wins games and he makes your life easy.

9) Deadpool
His red deals heavy damage early on at a low AP price, his purple deals huge AoE damage in a color that has very few strong actives and his black essentially gives your marquee character (Xforce) 6800 more health due to him getting in the way of any attempted killing blow. He has everything you could ever need in a side kick; oh and he has an insta-kill button every so often for that impossible to beat Gauntlet match of that 50 point match in PVP that you really need to get the next tier reward.

10) Hulk
Classic pick. Extremely high health, extremely high deterrent to attack him due to his anger. His synergy with Xforce is underrated as well; since he covers green until about level 220 or 230 and his anger fuels Xforce further. His main strength is making people see you in PVP and just press the skip button. While he is admittedly weak on offense, he is a great safety net. I find myself taking him into PVP more than I thought I would simply because, when I'm low on health packs and can't heal up my Xforce, I know Hulk will be there to finish the job if Xforce is downed. And putting him in front of big hits and generating anger tiles is one of the most satisfying ways to play this game.

11) Blade
The only newbie, other than 4hor, that I think has really stood out. Not only does he have a strong kit including an active purple (again, pretty rare) and free strike tiles, but he also has some good direct damage and AP steal on his black. He isn't quite Daken tier, but Daken and Blade together is surprisingly effective. You get Daken's strike tiles for matching greens, you get Blade's strike tiles for not matching red and you get extremely high damage from his purple because every red tile is a strike tile by the third or fourth turn.

Just missed:
Patch
Patch fell for me not because he is weak. He is still a strong character and his synergy with new Daredevil cannot be understated (9 green AP + 10 purple AP equals the best consequence free strike tiles in the game). But why play him when you have Xforce? I will develop a similar opinion about Lazy Thor once 4hor covers become as available as Xforce covers have been. But Xforce has been around for so long that you can get 13 covers for him without even necessarily trying that hard. Which leaves Patch out in the cold. He is still strong at extended pushes because of his health regen, which is why he didn't fall completely off the map for me.

Captain America
Captain America is great in PVE and is strong on offense in PVP. But he is pretty much helpless on defense in PVP. He is also very slow to get going and isn't exactly an ideal match for many characters in PVP. But he sticks because he is good on offense and for dealing with PVE.

Nonce Equitaur 2

There were a few odd standouts for me.

Loki -- I have Mischief maxed out, and he's become my new goto guy. He's perfect support for 4 Thor. With AI cascades, I now miss having him whenever I'm not using him. His drain ability is often better than Hood's. His board shakeup is among the best in the game. He can usually lurk in the background, and doesn't need to be leveled up to be dangerous. I ranked him one spot above Hood.

Blade -- Against low level foes, no-one is better. Especially when combined with Daken and Falcon, they can finish clearing out goon nodes while XForce+4Thor teams are barely getting getting started.

Daredevil -- He's now good at massive damage, stunlock, and board control.
Magneto -- Great synergy with X-Force, and still dangerous.
4 Thor -- Against high level foes, no-one is better. When she gets going, she can do more damage than anyone.

Biggest losers

Sentry -- He was never much fun to play. He's still deadly and dangerous, but he's no longer in the top 5.
Beast -- The worst 3*
Doc Ock -- Runner up for terrible 3*

Unknown

Random side predictions:
CMags will raise 3 ranks once people realize, hey he's still usable, especially with X-Force.
Sentry will be ranked 8 ranks lower than he deserves.
Thor4 will attempt to make a surprise push to #1 over X-Force, due to most players not having 5 black covers.
Mawkeye drops down 2 ranks as people realize his Pink sucking ways hurt on long term offense.
Doc Ock hangs out with Beast as the 2 lowest 3*, even below Ragnarok.
Loki is under appreciated, and only raises a few ranks as few have him cover maxed. Seriously, that loaner node against goons did nothing to feature him properly.
Hood pops up a rank, as people realize his yellow is more useful as damage than AP collection. It costs 15 AP. How often are you going to collect that much?
Bagdevil attempts to give his bag back to Bagman, but fails, only raising 5 ranks and remaining in lower 3* territory despite having much improved utility.
Gamora + Rocket & Groot deemed relatively mediocre, ranking above IM40.
Captain Marvel is rated higher than she deserves, due to so many of her covers being given out. (She's got to be in the bottom 4 2*'s).

Unknown

Just posted now,

My top 10 for reference:

Xforce
Thoress
Hood
(For me the top 3 are the best by some distance)
Lazy Thor
Cmags
Daken
Patch
Capt A
Fury
Black Panther

Hulk just missed top 10 in 11th, tho honourable mentions to deadpool, captain marvel and blade

Unknown

Top 5 and bottom five was easy for me to rank but everything in between was a bit of a nightmare. As some characters fall into very specialised roles like Dr Oct for example.. on his own he's kinda naff, but if he's fighting a team very dependent on special tiles, he starts to rock, so rating him relative to anyone else was very subjective because his usefulness ranges from meh to pretty good depending on what he is faced with. And he's not the only character like that...

I did find myself rating invisible woman right down there with a lot of medicore 2* characters and devil dinosaur towards the bottom half of the 3* range. And in the opposite direction, obw as high as the middle of the 3* pack regardless of her low health

I know it's been suggested before, but really think it would be better to rate the characters in clusters because that list is getting rather long. and rating them within their rarities would be much easier

SolidQ

Voted:
1. X-Force
2. Lady Thor
3. The Hood
4. LDaken
5. C.Mag
6.Thor 3*
7. Nick Fury
8.Black Panther
9. DeadPool
10. Hulk
11. Blade

Unknown

SolidQ wrote:

Voted:
1. X-Force
2. Lady Thor
3. The Hood
4. LDaken
5. C.Mag
6.Thor 3*
7. Nick Fury
8.Black Panther
9. DeadPool
10. Hulk
11. Blade

I think this will be the top 11 for about 90% of people. It may not be in the same order, but I think these 11 are clearly the best 11.

Captain America and Patch may sneak in here or there.

Unknown

Yeah, very similar for me (with the addition of Patch) and I think LCap was possibly 11th or 12th for me. Hulk's value has gone up since increased enemy damage + XForce has made him not just a scarecrow but a very useful green generator against tough opposition on offence.

Spoit

onimus wrote:

SolidQ wrote:

Voted:
1. X-Force
2. Lady Thor
3. The Hood
4. LDaken
5. C.Mag
6.Thor 3*
7. Nick Fury
8.Black Panther
9. DeadPool
10. Hulk
11. Blade

I think this will be the top 11 for about 90% of people. It may not be in the same order, but I think these 11 are clearly the best 11.

Captain America and Patch may sneak in here or there.

I don't recall my exact rating order, but I had LC and mq in there, and fury and hulk much lower, and maybe DP out of the top 10 too? I forget

IlDuderino

I don't get the hulk love - I find him a dead weight and dull on offence and am still attacked (and lose) with him as a scarecrow - am I using him wrongly (with 5 black and green and stuck out front to take big hits - he only lasts a few fights that way though and contributes less than say hood, dp, cap marvel etc etc)?

Apart from having hulk outside the top 11 my top team was similar to all these (I had in Patch and Lazy Cap instead of Hulk compared to some other lists)

Spoit

IlDuderino wrote:

I don't get the hulk love - I find him a dead weight and dull on offence and am still attacked (and lose) with him as a scarecrow - am I using him wrongly (with 5 black and green and stuck out front to take big hits - he only lasts a few fights that way though and contributes less than say hood, dp, cap marvel etc etc)?

Apart from having hulk outside the top 11 my top team was similar to all these (I had in Patch and Lazy Cap instead of Hulk compared to some other lists)

his only function is to feed green, mostly in overscaled pves

Kolence

Spoit wrote:

IlDuderino wrote:

I don't get the hulk love - I find him a dead weight and dull on offence and am still attacked (and lose) with him as a scarecrow - am I using him wrongly (with 5 black and green and stuck out front to take big hits - he only lasts a few fights that way though and contributes less than say hood, dp, cap marvel etc etc)?

Apart from having hulk outside the top 11 my top team was similar to all these (I had in Patch and Lazy Cap instead of Hulk compared to some other lists)

his only function is to feed green, mostly in overscaled pves

Together with Patch, he can do ridiculous amount of damage. He'll need a health pack afterwards, but those two can win you tough fights with very good chance.

Unknown

Kolence wrote:

Together with Patch, he can do ridiculous amount of damage. He'll need a health pack afterwards, but those two can win you tough fights with very good chance.

I used that duo to shield hop. With my current roster, they are a great choice for quick wins or for tough PVE battles.

atomzed

Spoit wrote:

onimus wrote:

SolidQ wrote:

Voted:
1. X-Force
2. Lady Thor
3. The Hood
4. LDaken
5. C.Mag
6.Thor 3*
7. Nick Fury
8.Black Panther
9. DeadPool
10. Hulk
11. Blade

I think this will be the top 11 for about 90% of people. It may not be in the same order, but I think these 11 are clearly the best 11.

Captain America and Patch may sneak in here or there.

I don't recall my exact rating order, but I had LC and mq in there, and fury and hulk much lower, and maybe DP out of the top 10 too? I forget

I agree that this is probably the top 12 choice for most ppl.

The interesting thing for me, is how close the top 4 to 12 are. We have ppl questioning hulk ranking, we have seen ppl not rating Lcap at all, and we have some ppl placing BP out of top 12 altogether (like me). Also, there is only one new entree, blade to the top tier.

To me that shows that so far the balancing had been quite good.

P.s. why I don't rate BP that highly. Few reasons, 1) his black is completely overshadowed by Xforce. 2) HP had been increasing steadily so using a RotP does not guarantee a win anymore.

Spoit

BP's key power isn't RotP, it's BP. Sure there are 1k strike tile moves now with gamora and rocket, but those are a lot more conditional, and are 4 match moves. BP is by far the best 3-move strike tile move

Nonce Equitaur 2

IlDuderino wrote:

I don't get the hulk love - I find him a dead weight and dull on offence and am still attacked (and lose) with him as a scarecrow - am I using him wrongly (with 5 black and green and stuck out front to take big hits - he only lasts a few fights that way though and contributes less than say hood, dp, cap marvel etc etc)?

Apart from having hulk outside the top 11 my top team was similar to all these (I had in Patch and Lazy Cap instead of Hulk compared to some other lists)

Someone with 4 Thor has no fear of Hulk. Once she has her blue, stun Hulk for 4 rounds, Smite someone else, then collect red to Smite Hulk.

Loki and Hood are the new scarecrows -- they slow things down and can make a battle go kablooey. Punisher, Deadpool, Gamora, and anyone else with a fast&nasty skill is also enough to cause a slight hesitation.