*** Luke Cage (Hero For Hire) ***

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Comments

  • turul
    turul Posts: 1,622 Chairperson of the Boards
    You probably had a non Luke-Cage shield out, making his passive shield NOT to appear, as described by his ability.

    (You could have stealed an enemy shield from the ninjas witzh She-Hulk, or deployed a shield of any other of your hero)
  • vinnygecko
    vinnygecko Posts: 245 Tile Toppler
    Ahhh, that was it. I had a lone remaining protect tile from Falcon for the longest time. The board was not helpful towards the end, not enough purple to get more of his out there, not enough yellow to strengthen it.

    It's weird because I could have sworn Cage's tile went up again when I was using him with Cap, but that was during Ultron so who knows.

    I did switch some of the attack tiles with She-Hulk, there were just too many...
  • mjh
    mjh Posts: 708 Critical Contributor
    I had him 5/5/3 with a blackflag.png ready to re-spec or sell, definitely going 5 blackflag.png now. The dmg increase to over 4k is crazy, i'll gladly take 127 less protect.png for almost 2k more dmg + stun
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Keep in mind that in boosted level situations, the match damage scales less than linearly to level while ability damage, including the value of his protect tile, scales linearly with levels. That means if you're only using him while he's boosted (which is fairly common now that boosted characters tend to dominate) having a low level of red matters a lot less because your enemy's match damage is already low. A level 395 Luke Cage has around a 650 protect value at red 5, and that's really nothing compared to the hardest hitting moves. Take just this week's buffed list, Full Blast at 240 does 11K with 10r on board. Optic Blast is 6K. Embiggened Bash is roughly 5K on the team. Diabolic Plot probably does some hilariously large amount of damage too. So it's not like the protect tile would make any meaningful difference against the big moves.
  • GrumpySmurf1002
    GrumpySmurf1002 Posts: 3,511 Chairperson of the Boards
    Phantron wrote:
    Diabolic Plot probably does some hilariously large amount of damage too. So it's not like the protect tile would make any meaningful difference against the big moves.

    1469 base + 1469 per tile @ level 152 or 153 (220ish boosted), forget where I have him.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    GrumpySmurf1002 wrote:
    Phantron wrote:
    Diabolic Plot probably does some hilariously large amount of damage too. So it's not like the protect tile would make any meaningful difference against the big moves.

    1469 base + 1469 per tile @ level 152 or 153 (220ish boosted), forget where I have him.

    I know the base doesn't sound that much, but every time I fought Doom in Meet Rocket & Groot and he fired off a Diabolical Plot it's always a 'you don't want to know how much damage it did' deal.
  • GrumpySmurf1002
    GrumpySmurf1002 Posts: 3,511 Chairperson of the Boards
    Phantron wrote:
    GrumpySmurf1002 wrote:
    Phantron wrote:
    Diabolic Plot probably does some hilariously large amount of damage too. So it's not like the protect tile would make any meaningful difference against the big moves.

    1469 base + 1469 per tile @ level 152 or 153 (220ish boosted), forget where I have him.

    I know the base doesn't sound that much, but every time I fought Doom in Meet Rocket & Groot and he fired off a Diabolical Plot it's always a 'you don't want to know how much damage it did' deal.

    I'll stop derailing after this, but I had as many as 7 tiles live when I hit it = 11752. As devastating as Cyclops for 3 cheaper, plus Scarlet feeding it was kinda fun.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    GrumpySmurf1002 wrote:
    I'll stop derailing after this, but I had as many as 7 tiles live when I hit it = 11752. As devastating as Cyclops for 3 cheaper, plus Scarlet feeding it was kinda fun.

    I didn't put a number on it since it varies on the board state, but suffice to say it hits really, really hard at level 240.
  • Carnage_78
    Carnage_78 Posts: 304 Mover and Shaker
    Is it just me or are other players also hearing the "Rocky" soundtrack when using "Jab, Jab, Cross"? icon_eek.gif

    Pan (first power use)
    Pan, Pan, Pan (second power use)
    Pan, Nah, Naaaah...Pan (afterwards)

    I am actually very much enjoying it with the Luke Cage animation that comes with the power... icon_cool.gif

    P.S. I play the game without sound by the way...so no actual in game similarities, just in my imagination... icon_e_wink.gif
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    I prefer to use 3/5/5 with Cage. The Yellow is strong, but I really like the versatility of black. There are so many options including:

    1. A character is down to about 1000 HP -- use a single jab to take him down. This only requires 6 black so it's always easy to get off.

    2. You have too many strike tiles on the board and Hulk is raging even from tile damage -- Jab one of the other characters and Jab, Jab, Cross Hulk. Hulk gets stunned and doesn't rage. Repeat until Hulk is down without taking rage damage.

    3. You need AOE damage -- Cage isn't the Black Panther, but with a black generator like Iron Fist, you can easily save up 18 black to hit all 3 characters for a total of around 9600 damage (1044 on one, 4340 on the others). Also remember that each opponent is stunned.

    4. Your opponent is going to shoot off a big attack next turn -- If something like Call of the Storm is about to hit you and you're only one match away from one of your own special attacks, 12 black will deal 5300 damage and buy you another turn.

    5. Tile subterfuge -- if your Jab countdown tile is down, your opponent is forced to either get rid of it or risk extra damage. It forces them to match black, whether they need it or not.

    6. Drain black tiles -- if you're matching solely for black, you can often prevent characters like X-Force, Black Panther, and Cyclops from getting the necessary black.

    7. More precise damage dealing -- Yellow is extremely powerful, but it can sometimes come across as overkill if your opponent only has around 4-5000 HP left. If you have someone like Iron Fist on your team, you can cover the difference between the 4340 damage attack and 5000 hp very easily.
  • Dragon_Nexus
    Dragon_Nexus Posts: 3,701 Chairperson of the Boards
    Carnage_78 wrote:
    Is it just me or are other players also hearing the "Rocky" soundtrack when using "Jab, Jab, Cross"? icon_eek.gif

    Pan (first power use)
    Pan, Pan, Pan (second power use)
    Pan, Nah, Naaaah...Pan (afterwards)

    I am actually very much enjoying it with the Luke Cage animation that comes with the power... icon_cool.gif

    P.S. I play the game without sound by the way...so no actual in game similarities, just in my imagination... icon_e_wink.gif

    I actually think more of this.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz6OpsUfaug
  • Buret0
    Buret0 Posts: 1,591
    VintageVision wrote:
    4. Your opponent is going to shoot off a big attack next turn -- If something like Call of the Storm is about to hit you and you're only one match away from one of your own special attacks, 12 black will deal 5300 damage and buy you another turn.

    5. Tile subterfuge -- if your Jab countdown tile is down, your opponent is forced to either get rid of it or risk extra damage. It forces them to match black, whether they need it or not.

    4. Call the Storm. Say it right Frenchie.

    5. Luke Cage on D will throw Jab out there with no intention of ever using Jab, Jab, Cross. On the other hand, his Yellow is devastating no matter how it is used by the AI.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    I can't decide on 535 or 553, I'm using my HP to get covers for him at this point, but I can't tell how good his red is between 3 and 5. The value pretty much doubles, but match dmg is rarely going to ding that high, and if I get hit with an attack its going to do substantially more.
    *le sigh*
    - Unreall
  • simonsez
    simonsez Posts: 4,663 Chairperson of the Boards
    Unreallystic wrote:
    but match dmg is rarely going to ding that high
    Except for people getting reamed by scaling. I'd love to have 5 yellow, but 5 in red is the only thing that kept me alive in the ultron nodes.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    edited June 2015
    Unreallystic wrote:
    I can't decide on 535 or 553, I'm using my HP to get covers for him at this point, but I can't tell how good his red is between 3 and 5. The value pretty much doubles, but match dmg is rarely going to ding that high, and if I get hit with an attack its going to do substantially more.
    *le sigh*
    - Unreall

    There's 2 ways to look at it - are u gonna use Luke to save on health packs? 5 might be useful, if you're just using him as an Arsenal.

    Also depends where you're fighting - 3/5 may or may not matter vs buffed PVE 395s
  • Nick441234
    Nick441234 Posts: 1,496 Chairperson of the Boards
    My Cage is always to save on health. He's also won me fights against much higher ranked opponents due to that red. No way I'm ever taking 5 off it.

    5/5/3 for me as I usually team him with Doom and I prefer Dooms blacks anyway so I can drop strike tiles.
  • stowaway
    stowaway Posts: 501 Critical Contributor
    I've said in a different thread that Cage has more viable builds than probably any other character in the game. He's the only character I'm actively trying to build a second of, just so I can have a defensive build and an offensive build. I have him at 3/5/5, because that's where the covers fell, but it's going to be a tough call when his yellow comes up again in DDQ. Do I respec the one I have? If so, which color do I drop to four? Or do I just give it to the second one I'm building?

    There's no denying how powerful his yellow is, but I really like his black too. I love being able to one-shot and stun ninjas in a single move. I pair him with LThor a lot, and am happy to use his yellow instead.
  • Nick441234
    Nick441234 Posts: 1,496 Chairperson of the Boards
    I'm very much the same with his yellow. I team him with Lthor all the time, but always use Cage's yellow. Yes, by firing LThor's yellow you have the potential for cascades, but its of course no guarantee. By the time you have Cage's yellow ready for use its a one shot kill on one of the opponents. Far more valuable to me than the chance of a cascade.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    nick_chicane wrote:
    I'm very much the same with his yellow. I team him with Lthor all the time, but always use Cage's yellow. Yes, by firing LThor's yellow you have the potential for cascades, but its of course no guarantee. By the time you have Cage's yellow ready for use its a one shot kill on one of the opponents. Far more valuable to me than the chance of a cascade.
    um....... icon_eek.gif

    Thor Yellow = cascade?

    No Guareentee?

    I think you're downplaying what Thor yellow does.....
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Unless you're making a guy just for Ultron Gunners (fighter's special is fairly weak so far damage goes and it's the massive cascade that kills you anyway) I don't see why you'd need 5 in red. Match damage does not linearly for 1-3*s, so unless you're fighting only 4*s (somewhat rare in PvP, almost never in PvE) it's not going to matter. It'll only matter against a goon/villian combination since goons have elevated match damage, but generally speaking the match damage is not what you've to worry about. Either they're on the wrong color feed and it's relatively easy, or it's on the right color feed and you got to worry about a Headbutt every 4 turns or whatever and Luke Cage's red isn't going to do anything about that either.

    Note that Ultron Fighters are practically unstoppable when combined with anyone who can use their AP due to their insane passive, so again you wouldn't really have to worry about their attack tile when the computer is getting 12 AP a turn because the game is going to be over very quickly one way or another.

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