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

Unknown

Ebolamonkey84 wrote:

raisinbman wrote:

GrumpySmurf1002 wrote:

Lerysh wrote:

[
Can't really say on Avengers Assemble but to my knowledge it's damage output is not 7k, but unfair comparison for 4* to 3*.

Damage output maxed is similar, but it also has the additional 5R+5Y requirement.

Twin Pistols does similar damage to Cage with one opponent down, and blows up the board to boot.

Seems people are sleeping on his black too (I did for a while). It's effectively a 12black power that does 5384 + 1 stun at max. Is it worth more than 127xMatch3 protection? Not sure, but there's an argument for sure.

It's a power you have to think to use, ofc people will sleep on it

I don't think much brain activity is required to realize you have to wait for at least 12 black before using his black power. The problem with black is that it is essentially useless on defense, as the AI does not have a brain. I'm a fan of the 5/3/5 build myself, so I appreciate both of his actives.

eh, you'd be surprised b/c some players struggle w/ teistsus and Deadpool dailies.

sure, but 'on defense' is a weird defense...so many characters simply don't work that way.

As I said earlier, stuns are valuable and u never know if your characters will be limited(heroics) or powered up(weekly), so I'd recommend to anyone X/X/4-5 for Luke Cage

Unknown

I've got to decide in 2 weeks now whether I want to stick to 5/5/3 build or got 5/3/5. And it's damn hard. One one hand, 5 black helps end match quicker, potentially stunlock last character, makes him work incredibly well with IF, and smaller still blocks most match damage. On other, if I want more offensive character on that colour scheme I can just bring Cyclops, and twice strong tile helps much more against over leveled nodes.

Did D3 ever released statement whether community scaling will be gone for good or stays? If it was gone I think optimal build would be a lot more clearer.

Unknown

Lucked into a 5/3/5 Luke Cage and unholy Shuma Gorath....it's beautiful. spanks the enemy kills people who think bringing high health ppl in PVP will save them

Unknown

So after playing the Hood event with Hood/Cage/S.Hulk its become apparent to me that 535 is the way to go 100%.

In this PvP day and age, you mostly stick with boosted outside of some God tier characters, so Cage is going to get the most PvP burn when boosted, this means his red wil lbe boosted to match dmg+, netting the same result as being 5 covered, on the flip, there is no garuntee you will have a black user who is stronger, and relying on his yellow is a bad bad move as it takes like 13 AP before you can fire off.

Yeah, I'm 552 now, but switiching to 535 as the covers come.
- Unreall

simonsez

Unreallystic wrote:

So after playing the Hood event with Hood/Cage/S.Hulk its become apparent to me that 535 is the way to go 100%.

Except for Ultron with high scaling

Unknown

97% we have only had Ultron 3 times
- Unreall

Unknown

Is there a general poll for Luke Cage to see preferences for his max build?

spectator

I find myself in the fortunate (or unfortunate) position of sitting on a 4/5/4 cage with a yellow and black cover in my queue. 14 days to decide whether i go 3/5/5, my original preferred build, 5/5/3 because i found the yellow fairly useful during the last two pvp events or 5/3/5 because as someone stated earlier, a boosted 3 red covers is on par with an unboosted 5 red cover.

decisions decisions........

Vhailorx

spectator wrote:

I find myself in the fortunate (or unfortunate) position of sitting on a 4/5/4 cage with a yellow and black cover in my queue. 14 days to decide whether i go 3/5/5, my original preferred build, 5/5/3 because i found the yellow fairly useful during the last two pvp events or 5/3/5 because as someone stated earlier, a boosted 3 red covers is on par with an unboosted 5 red cover.

decisions decisions........

Imo yellow at 5 is worth having because it's a better damage/ap than black until you get 18 black ap. And having a big nuke is generally useful.

As between 5/5/3 and 5/3/5, I am unsure. Eleminating match damage entirely is awesome, but the utility of the black at 5 is significantly improved, and in PvP the higher damage black is helpful and many argue that the extra protect value isn't meaningful.

My own solution is that I have started building a second cage, so take that fwiw.

LuciferianX

The PVP utility of the shield can't really be over stated. What it does is buy time. It neutralizes IF's Exquisite Technique, and ignores match damage, giving you plenty of unpressured time to build to your alpha strike.

I personally run 5/5/3, because:

1) A massive 8.5k nuke on yellow is impressive; only three characters come close to that I can think of quickly, Thor, that little punk in the Hood, and Nick Fury. Everyone else is commonly healing utility or an exchange ability.
2) There are better (within reason) black abilities, including Mystique & Cyclops; I personally like Capt Marvel's 9 black/2 stun.
3) I hate dealing with Iron Fist's... fist.
4) And even at 3 covers, you get max damage until 5 I believe, and it still hurts like all get out. Add in some strike tiles and you've got yourself a stew.

Polares

This is one of the hardest characters to decide a build. I had him 5/5/3 and I am respeccing to 5/3/5 because I really think black at 5 is very good. And if you pair him with IF you have plenty black. I have paired IMHB with him and even with a black as good as Overdrive, there are a lot of times that I prefer to use Luke black instead of Overdrive ( specially If I have cast overdrive already once).

And the stun can save you plenty of times...

But even after saying all this, I will miss the shield at max

Unknown

I have a 543 at the moment with 2 black covers to use. I don't want to lose a red since I'm about to get another one at 800 in the pvp so I can make 553. I want to make another cage so should i go 355 or 535? Or should I just lose a red and make my current one 535?

Unknown

dw316 wrote:

I have a 543 at the moment with 2 black covers to use. I don't want to lose a red since I'm about to get another one at 800 in the pvp so I can make 553. I want to make another cage so should i go 355 or 535? Or should I just lose a red and make my current one 535?

4 black is a must

Quebbster

raisinbman wrote:

dw316 wrote:

I have a 543 at the moment with 2 black covers to use. I don't want to lose a red since I'm about to get another one at 800 in the pvp so I can make 553. I want to make another cage so should i go 355 or 535? Or should I just lose a red and make my current one 535?

4 black is a must

That stun is darn handy at times. The problem with Cage is that all his powers get a lot more powerful with 5 covers, so you pretty much have to **** one power at 3 covers. The real question is what power to ****.
I decided to go 5/3/5 since I really like the offensive punch of both yellow and black. If you don't see yourself using yellow or black going with 5 red is absolutely solid though.

Polares

Quebbster wrote:

raisinbman wrote:

dw316 wrote:

I have a 543 at the moment with 2 black covers to use. I don't want to lose a red since I'm about to get another one at 800 in the pvp so I can make 553. I want to make another cage so should i go 355 or 535? Or should I just lose a red and make my current one 535?

4 black is a must

That stun is darn handy at times. The problem with Cage is that all his powers get a lot more powerful with 5 covers, so you pretty much have to **** one power at 3 covers. The real question is what power to ****.
I decided to go 5/3/5 since I really like the offensive punch of both yellow and black. If you don't see yourself using yellow or black going with 5 red is absolutely solid though.

I just ended respeccing him to 5/3/5 and I am quite happy. The stun at 4 helps a lot, and going from 4 red to 3 red is not a big deal and you win a serious punch in black. So yeah I agree best build is 5/3/5

Ps: when buffed to 240 black does 6000+ and at 290 - 7300, I think It was worth mentioning

Vhailorx

I am very tempted by the extra damage of 5/3/5, but I find that most of the time now, when I use cage, I am doing it to protect a squishy support like Loki or hood. I think 5/5/3 may be the better build for that, since some damage will get through 3 red, especially if they have strikes. Cage is also useful as deterrent in low-mid level PvP because he slows down matches so much, which is something else that works better with 5 red.

If I really want tons of damage from a red/black/yellow character. I can just bring cyclops, right?

That said, I may build a second 5/3/5 cage as he among the best 3*s.

Polares

Vhailorx wrote:

I am very tempted by the extra damage of 5/3/5, but I find that most of the time now, when I use cage, I am doing it to protect a squishy support like Loki or hood. I think 5/5/3 may be the better build for that, since some damage will get through 3 red, especially if they have strikes. Cage is also useful as deterrent in low-mid level PvP because he slows down matches so much, which is something else that works better with 5 red.

If I really want tons of damage from a red/black/yellow character. I can just bring cyclops, right?

That said, I may build a second 5/3/5 cage as he among the best 3*s.

But the thing is 3 red is still enough protection most of the time, this is why you can bring Luke over Cyclops. If you use it for defending the hood and loki maybe yes, then 5/5/3 could be best, but you because those two have very low hp.

And you have to consider that when Luke is buffed it definitely makes him stronger. When buffed, 3 red will stop allmost all tile damage, and then black is really powerful at 5

atomzed

Polares wrote:

Vhailorx wrote:

I am very tempted by the extra damage of 5/3/5, but I find that most of the time now, when I use cage, I am doing it to protect a squishy support like Loki or hood. I think 5/5/3 may be the better build for that, since some damage will get through 3 red, especially if they have strikes. Cage is also useful as deterrent in low-mid level PvP because he slows down matches so much, which is something else that works better with 5 red.

If I really want tons of damage from a red/black/yellow character. I can just bring cyclops, right?

That said, I may build a second 5/3/5 cage as he among the best 3*s.

But the thing is 3 red is still enough protection most of the time, this is why you can bring Luke over Cyclops. If you use it for defending the hood and loki maybe yes, then 5/5/3 could be best, but you because those two have very low hp.

And you have to consider that when Luke is buffed it definitely makes him stronger. When buffed, 3 red will stop allmost all tile damage, and then black is really powerful at 5

I still prefer 553 because the protect tiles also helped in over scaled pve nodes like gauntlet.

Unknown

erased

Vhailorx

raisinbman wrote:

Is it possible we can stop having this argument? some believe 5 red is overkill and some believe 3 red isn't enough insurance, as shown by sticks and stones pvp.

I only say this because we had this argument already in this same thread, and Phantron IIRC gave a good explanation.

There's 19 pages of discussion....

1) new people do still come to the boards, so rehashing older topics may be more useful to others than it is to you; and

2) I don't think this board needs less activity. It has been a bit slow around here since the spring.