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

rbdragon

Hulk11 wrote:

What I don't get is why his artwork makes him look so small? Sometimes they have covers that are hard to copy like elektra, but still there's always more to look at. It should be pretty easy to see, he needs to be way bigger this time. He doesn't need to be super huge, but something that resembles the cover always helps.

He's not really huge actually.....

Marty17

Well, I'm slightly torn to how I want to build Luke Cage, it's between max or Need to find out his max numbers for me to decide.

Unknown

Anyone have max stats for him yet?

Unknown

onimus wrote:

Anyone have max stats for him yet?

I imagine even the people who max everyone immediately are waiting for alliance rewards.

thedarkphoenix

I really want him to drop just one stupid fat defense token as red maxed. It would be annoying and accurate. Just enough where most 3-4 matches wouldn't matter maybe a 400-500 strength one.

JVReal

So if you team him up with DDoom where he converts blue to Black, or with Mystique where she coverts Red Yellow or Green to Black & Purple, they could feed his black making it real easy to gather the AP to hit a couple of times... no?

wymtime

JVReal wrote:

So if you team him up with DDoom where he converts blue to Black, or with Mystique where she coverts Red Yellow or Green to Black & Purple, they could feed his black making it real easy to gather the AP to hit a couple of times... no?

You can, but you might be defeating the purpose. Summon Demons and masterstroke are very good black abilities and you are losing a lot of rainbow coverage by pairing them up. Doom would be the better choice as Luke Cage's black does more damage than summon demons and Mystique will get rid of yellow makeing Luke Cages yellow almost impossible to fire.

If you want to accelerate AP bring Hood as steal instead. Another option is to bring some one with a lot of board shake up as that usually brings cascades. Loki would be good (Purple Passive), Cmags (Red and Blue), She-Hulk (Red), Rocket and Groot (Green) would all go well with board shake up and cascades to lead to Luke Cage Black and Yellow.

NorthernPolarity

Colog has a level 153 3/5/4 Cage up. Basically, this hero is going to be very very good. Red at 153 is a 250 strength protect tile which negates all match damage, and jab jab does 4-4.5k on subsequent casts + 1 turn stun. Yellow seems decent with 3.6k damage at 3 yellow and 4.4k at 4 yellow, but red and black seem too good to pass up.

Unknown

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Colog has a level 153 3/5/4 Cage up. Basically, this hero is going to be very very good. Red at 153 is a 250 strength protect tile which negates all match damage, and jab jab does 4-4.5k on subsequent casts + 1 turn stun. Yellow seems decent with 3.6k damage at 3 yellow and 4.4k at 4 yellow, but red and black seem too good to pass up.

His abilities are so generic that it's almost impossible to screw him up. It's about time they've a protection ability that isn't just strictly inferior to their offensive counterparts. It will trade quite favorably against Phermone Rage/The Thirst and even some activated abilities like Judgment, which is fine because it doesn't help you win any faster while those abilities definitely do. 12 black for about 5K total damage is respectable but depending on what the yellow does at level 5, it might be better to go with yellow if the two are roughly even when used offensively, because the black is obvously pretty bad when used by the AI while yellow don't have that problem, though it is 1 more match compared to 4-match for black.

NorthernPolarity

Phantron wrote:

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Colog has a level 153 3/5/4 Cage up. Basically, this hero is going to be very very good. Red at 153 is a 250 strength protect tile which negates all match damage, and jab jab does 4-4.5k on subsequent casts + 1 turn stun. Yellow seems decent with 3.6k damage at 3 yellow and 4.4k at 4 yellow, but red and black seem too good to pass up.

His abilities are so generic that it's almost impossible to screw him up. It's about time they've a protection ability that isn't just strictly inferior to their offensive counterparts. It will trade quite favorably against Phermone Rage/The Thirst and even some activated abilities like Judgment, which is fine because it doesn't help you win any faster while those abilities definitely do. 12 black for about 5K total damage is respectable but depending on what the yellow does at level 5, it might be better to go with yellow if the two are roughly even when used offensively, because the black is obvously pretty bad when used by the AI while yellow don't have that problem, though it is 1 more match compared to 4-match for black.

Yeah but who cares about Cage in PvP. You of all people should know that when XF / LadyThor exist, everyone else is irrelevant. Instead of optimizing for the 1 featured tournament every 2 months, you might as well optimize him for PvE where you will actually use him more often (especially since he'll be featured more often in PvE than he is in PvP), in which case jab jab has far more potential synergy / power than his yellow (strike tile synergy, weee). Just think about it in survival modes: he's perfect against the deathrattle ninjas since 6 black ap = stun and 4k damage, and that defense tile + jab is going to wreck survival mode. 5k damage for 12 black is respectable, but in PvE where you can get 9k damage for 18 black, or 13k damage for 24 black. The efficiency asymptotically hits 730 dmg / ap, since its effectively 4k damage for 6 ap which is nuts. I seriously doubt yellow at 5 is going to reach that level of craziness just by pure design principles. Not to mention that 13 yellow means it'll never get cast on defense so it's irrelevant there anyways.

Unknown

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Phantron wrote:

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Colog has a level 153 3/5/4 Cage up. Basically, this hero is going to be very very good. Red at 153 is a 250 strength protect tile which negates all match damage, and jab jab does 4-4.5k on subsequent casts + 1 turn stun. Yellow seems decent with 3.6k damage at 3 yellow and 4.4k at 4 yellow, but red and black seem too good to pass up.

His abilities are so generic that it's almost impossible to screw him up. It's about time they've a protection ability that isn't just strictly inferior to their offensive counterparts. It will trade quite favorably against Phermone Rage/The Thirst and even some activated abilities like Judgment, which is fine because it doesn't help you win any faster while those abilities definitely do. 12 black for about 5K total damage is respectable but depending on what the yellow does at level 5, it might be better to go with yellow if the two are roughly even when used offensively, because the black is obvously pretty bad when used by the AI while yellow don't have that problem, though it is 1 more match compared to 4-match for black.

Yeah but who cares about Cage in PvP. You of all people should know that when XF / LadyThor exist, everyone else is irrelevant. Instead of optimizing for the 1 featured tournament every 2 months, you might as well optimize him for PvE where you will actually use him more often (especially since he'll be featured more often in PvE than he is in PvP), in which case jab jab has far more potential synergy / power than his yellow (strike tile synergy, weee). Just think about it in survival modes: he's perfect against the deathrattle ninjas since 6 black ap = stun and 4k damage, and that defense tile + jab is going to wreck survival mode. 5k damage for 12 black is respectable, but in PvE where you can get 9k damage for 18 black, or 13k damage for 24 black. The efficiency asymptotically hits 730 dmg / ap, since its effectively 4k damage for 6 ap which is nuts. I seriously doubt yellow at 5 is going to reach that level of craziness just by pure design principles. Not to mention that 13 yellow means it'll never get cast on defense so it's irrelevant there anyways.

I'm not seeing how you can consistently get full damage on the black unless you're sitting on a boatload of black AP but if you have a boatload of black you could just use X Force or Black Panther. You need 18 black AP to do better than 5K for 12 and 18 black AP is usually game over for either of those two characters. It seems like it'd end up being about the same as Hypersonic Punch, which is respectable but hard to see a team built around it unless when forced to, and even if he's essential it'd still require the exclusion of a character like X Force first.

NorthernPolarity

Phantron wrote:

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Phantron wrote:

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Colog has a level 153 3/5/4 Cage up. Basically, this hero is going to be very very good. Red at 153 is a 250 strength protect tile which negates all match damage, and jab jab does 4-4.5k on subsequent casts + 1 turn stun. Yellow seems decent with 3.6k damage at 3 yellow and 4.4k at 4 yellow, but red and black seem too good to pass up.

His abilities are so generic that it's almost impossible to screw him up. It's about time they've a protection ability that isn't just strictly inferior to their offensive counterparts. It will trade quite favorably against Phermone Rage/The Thirst and even some activated abilities like Judgment, which is fine because it doesn't help you win any faster while those abilities definitely do. 12 black for about 5K total damage is respectable but depending on what the yellow does at level 5, it might be better to go with yellow if the two are roughly even when used offensively, because the black is obvously pretty bad when used by the AI while yellow don't have that problem, though it is 1 more match compared to 4-match for black.

Yeah but who cares about Cage in PvP. You of all people should know that when XF / LadyThor exist, everyone else is irrelevant. Instead of optimizing for the 1 featured tournament every 2 months, you might as well optimize him for PvE where you will actually use him more often (especially since he'll be featured more often in PvE than he is in PvP), in which case jab jab has far more potential synergy / power than his yellow (strike tile synergy, weee). Just think about it in survival modes: he's perfect against the deathrattle ninjas since 6 black ap = stun and 4k damage, and that defense tile + jab is going to wreck survival mode. 5k damage for 12 black is respectable, but in PvE where you can get 9k damage for 18 black, or 13k damage for 24 black. The efficiency asymptotically hits 730 dmg / ap, since its effectively 4k damage for 6 ap which is nuts. I seriously doubt yellow at 5 is going to reach that level of craziness just by pure design principles. Not to mention that 13 yellow means it'll never get cast on defense so it's irrelevant there anyways.

I'm not seeing how you can consistently get full damage on the black unless you're sitting on a boatload of black AP but if you have a boatload of black you could just use X Force or Black Panther. You need 18 black AP to do better than 5K for 12 and 18 black AP is usually game over for either of those two characters. It seems like it'd end up being about the same as Hypersonic Punch, which is respectable but hard to see a team built around it unless when forced to, and even if he's essential it'd still require the exclusion of a character like X Force first.

Damn it I told myself that i wouldn't be Phantroned but i got Phantroned anyways. Your logic did make me think up of how LadyThor could use a yellow outlet though, and an uppercut might be just what she needs with those charge tiles, so thats a plus for 5/5/3. 3/5/5 just seems better in a vacuum but of course, most people want to think about it in an XF / Ladythor shaped vacuum. Building the best standalone build does work out though so I'm inclined to go with my gut and make him standalone: 3/5/5 MQ is infinitely better than 5/5/3 MQ, even though Phantron logic dictates that 5/5/3 MQ is better because XF exists.

Unknown

YES HE'S GOOD! I KNEW THOSE PPL SLACKING IN SIM WOULD REGRET IT teehee

NorthernPolarity

Pantha used a sandbox account to get some max level stats:
level 4 red - 182 strength protect tile
level 5 red - 268 strength protect tile

level 5 yellow - 4531 damage + 1310 damage for each ally.

level 5 black - 1044 initial damage, 4.3k on subsequent hits.

Colog has a 153 Cage that has:
level 4 black - 726 initial damage, 2.4k on subsequent hits
level 5 black - 968 damage + 4k on subsequent hits

3 yellow - 2258 damage + 655 per ally
4 yellow - 2903 damage + 655 per ally

TLDR: yellow and black get huge damage upgrades from 4 to 5.

Seems like Demiurge did a good job at making this guy hard to build. On one hand 5 red is a no brainer. On the other hand, its super tempting to level his yellow/black up to make them really solid abilities. Ultimately the 2 viable builds are probably 3/5/5 and 5/5/3: red is just too good to max. 5 yellow is great if you want to bring him alongside sexgoddess for PvE for support, since his yellow is probably the best yellow outlet for all that otherwise useless yellow AP you get with ladythor. 3/5/5 is the generally better build, since black has more synergies with strike tiles, survival mode, etc.

Arondite

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Pantha used a sandbox account to get some max level stats:
level 4 red - 182 strength protect tile
level 5 red - 268 strength protect tile

level 5 yellow - 4531 damage + 1310 damage for each ally.

level 5 black - 1044 initial damage, 4.3k on subsequent hits.

Colog has a 153 Cage that has:
level 4 black - 726 initial damage, 2.4k on subsequent hits
level 5 black - 968 damage + 4k on subsequent hits

3 yellow - 2258 damage + 655 per ally
4 yellow - 2903 damage + 655 per ally

TLDR: yellow and black get huge damage upgrades from 4 to 5.

Seems like Demiurge did a good job at making this guy hard to build. On one hand 5 red is a no brainer. On the other hand, its super tempting to level his yellow/black up to make them really solid abilities. Ultimately the 2 viable builds are probably 3/5/5 and 5/5/3: red is just too good to max. 5 yellow is great if you want to bring him alongside sexgoddess for PvE for support, since his yellow is probably the best yellow outlet for all that otherwise useless yellow AP you get with ladythor. 3/5/5 is the generally better build, since black has more synergies with strike tiles, survival mode, etc.

Are you telling me that Luke Cage will do 8,400 damage on 5 yellow? Holy, jesus.

Flare808

Arondite wrote:

Are you telling me that Luke Cage will do 8,400 damage on 5 yellow? Holy, jesus.

Negative- Cage will do about 7100 at max. He only does extra damage for each ally of his still alive, meaning he can get the bonus 1300 twice.

Unknown

I'm building him with 3 black. I'm gonna use him almost exclusively with falcon and blade in pve. Bye spider man.

Quebbster

I tried him out in Combined Arms and I have to say it seemed the Protect tile seemed to be matched away a lot. Not sure if it happens enough to devalue the power though.

Ducky

Yellow is also his strongest tile strength, so in his PvP you could power surge then surgical strike into a lot of yellow. I see matches ending very quickly.

Quebbster

I'm curious about what level of Jab adds the stun. That could be very important in determining the build.