** Ares (Dark Avengers) **

Unknown

I'm quite liking using my buffed Ares in his current tournament. I have him at 4/4/5 and level 45, and his Green hits for some ridiculous damage if you build a good reserve of AP. I currently team him with Spider-Man and Magneto (Classic) so they can use them Blue and Purple matches, and I can use Spidey's heal if the CD tile gets destroyed before Ares can heal himself. Not sure how much use I'll get out of him beyond any tournament he's buffed in, but I'm enjoying the strategy behind using him at the minute, knowing when to trigger his powers to minimise the damage to myself.

Unknown

I've got Ares up to lev 40. If the power up in tourney is 100%, am I getting an approximation of what he'll be like at lev80 without the buffing?

I feel like I can place without spending any more iso on him, but if this is what's he's gonna look like at near max level, i may get him up to 85.

Unknown

DaveyPitch wrote:

I'm quite liking using my buffed Ares in his current tournament. I have him at 4/4/5 and level 45, and his Green hits for some ridiculous damage if you build a good reserve of AP. I currently team him with Spider-Man and Magneto (Classic) so they can use them Blue and Purple matches, and I can use Spidey's heal if the CD tile gets destroyed before Ares can heal himself. Not sure how much use I'll get out of him beyond any tournament he's buffed in, but I'm enjoying the strategy behind using him at the minute, knowing when to trigger his powers to minimise the damage to myself.

Yeah, he's interesting to use (unlike, say, Ragnarok in either incarnation). Like you, I don't really see using him outside of a boosted tourney or a DA event, but worth some iso investment to acquire Patch covers.

Unknown

Misguided wrote:

DaveyPitch wrote:

I'm quite liking using my buffed Ares in his current tournament. I have him at 4/4/5 and level 45, and his Green hits for some ridiculous damage if you build a good reserve of AP. I currently team him with Spider-Man and Magneto (Classic) so they can use them Blue and Purple matches, and I can use Spidey's heal if the CD tile gets destroyed before Ares can heal himself. Not sure how much use I'll get out of him beyond any tournament he's buffed in, but I'm enjoying the strategy behind using him at the minute, knowing when to trigger his powers to minimise the damage to myself.

Like you, I don't really see using him outside of a boosted tourney or a DA event, but worth some iso investment to acquire Patch covers.

Bingo.

azmadu

jozier wrote:

pasa_ wrote:

jozier wrote:

4/4/5 is ideal.

Was there some explanation? To me it seems 4/4/4 is mandatory and the last point is pretty arbitrary for all. I currently have a 5th yellow cover and didn't apply yet, some input would be welcome. Have little experience with countdown tiles from my team.

The 5th cover in green doesn't do all that much (damage is based on total amount of green AP anyway, and you're going to get 6 AP 99% of the time instead of just 5 green AP, so you don't need the AP reduction.

The 5th cover in red raises the threshold from 25% to 30%. Very marginal increase, not really worth it.

The 5th cover in yellow reduces the countdown timer. Any time you can get a tile to activate faster, it's better.

So 4/4/5 is ideal. 5/3/5 or 3/5/5 is a waste because you're sacrificing overall strength for tiny gains that again, aren't all that useful.

I thought about this long and hard and although I do like 4/4/5 for Ares, but I had to read the stats carefully .

So lvl 5 Onslaught (green) means it only requires 5 green to activate, but it also says that it will incite your enemy and give them 1 green ap for every two that you use. So if you're attacking a high lvl Wolverine who only requires 3 AP in green then the scenario is this:

With 4/4/5 Ares needs 6 green AP to attack then he gives 3 green to Wolverine (or anyone else) to attack with. If Ares is 5/3/5 then when he attacks then he only gives away 2 green AP (for example to Wolverine who cannot attack you back directly if he survives the attack).

Does this scale up to where it really counts with a lvl 50 Ares with either 4/4/5 or 5/3/5 skills and accumulated 30 green AP??

4/4/5 attacks with 6 green (30 - 6 = 24) which will grant the opposing team 24/2 = 12 green in return. (Is my understanding correct here?)
5/3/5 attacks with 5 green (30 - 5 = 25) which will grant the opposing team 25/2 = 12.5 green returned?

In that scenario then it's totally pointless to go to lvl 5, but can someone clarify how it really works as I'm unsure and I currently have my Ares at 4/2/4 and hope to be gaining a couple of red and one yellow (4/4/5 is my aim, but 5/3/5 is also a possibility)?

Unknown

The only difference between 4 and 5 green is a lower attack value. It was very little strategic use except when you're gearing up for a second Onslaught attack, as your first will almost always be at 6 AP at a minimum anyway.

eidehua

Almost certain you give (current ap)/2 green to enemy and deal (current ap)*dmg per ap. No -6 or -5

Unknown

Yeah I also have no idea why you are subtracting. If you use it with 30 green your opponent should receive 15 but I haven't tested.

My question however is can any1 verify if greens damage increases at level 5?
A lot of characters have the hidden damage increase (IE: Magneto C). This could be the difference in 4/5 green for me.

mischiefmaker

eidehua wrote:

Almost certain you give (current ap)/2 green to enemy and deal (current ap)*dmg per ap. No -6 or -5

I can confirm this is correct.

Unknown

I went 5/3/5 for 2 reasons.. first, I team him with rags so I hope he gets his green off before rags and 2nd, I screwed up and added green before I thought it thru.

Unknown

EvilSonGoku wrote:

I went 5/3/5 for 2 reasons.. first, I team him with rags so I hope he gets his green off before rags and 2nd, I screwed up and added green before I thought it thru.

mischiefmaker

I actually don't think 5/3/5 is that bad -- Ares' red is pretty weak.

Unknown

mischiefmaker wrote:

I actually don't think 5/3/5 is that bad -- Ares' red is pretty weak.

I don't agree. Unboosted, it (total) deals as much or more damage as Wolv's red, costs 1 less, and it gets a huge boost if he's critically wounded.

Unknown

So far in the tournament yellow is my least used skill. It's the only 1 at 5 ATM. 4/3/5 lvl 60ish ATM.I just can't justify destroying my own health with yellow rather than just letting the enemy have green ap then using spideys yellow to heal. The red boosted has been apsolutely amazing at lvl 3 and the green is destroying everything. Yellow I hurt myself then the heal tile gets destroyed. It has been very counter-productive. Any1 having similar experience?

Unknown

Psykopathic wrote:

So far in the tournament yellow is my least used skill. It's the only 1 at 5 ATM. 4/3/5 lvl 60ish ATM.I just can't justify destroying my own health with yellow rather than just letting the enemy have green ap then using spideys yellow to heal. The red boosted has been apsolutely amazing at lvl 3 and the green is destroying everything. Yellow I hurt myself then the heal tile gets destroyed. It has been very counter-productive. Any1 having similar experience?

I got him at 85. Yellow deals huge damage. And before casting yellow make sure there are no easy yellow matches at board and you will have 100% sure that he heals himself (and do more damage)

azmadu

EvilSonGoku wrote:

I went 5/3/5 for 2 reasons.. first, I team him with rags so I hope he gets his green off before rags and 2nd, I screwed up and added green before I thought it thru.

Hahahaha, yeah I want to avoid this eventuality so I'm carefully building my Ares up so I'm definitely going 4/4/5 (currently 4/2/4) and I pair him nicely with his erstwhile brother from Asgard, Thor (5/4/4). Thor deals out the red damage (6 AP) and loads up with the yellow (this has to be the best red in the game right?).

Once I've harvested 24 yellow I can either let off Thunder Strike to fill up the green, or if I'm in trouble I'll sacrifice Ares and let him use Sunder x 2, then Onslaught.

Oh, yeah and the third member of the team can be anyone that compliments Red/Yellow/Green so Captain A or IM 35/40 are great matches as you won't miss out on red or yellow if both the big guys go down, and you can load up the blue which is always handy. If you want to play the long game then OBW is an obvious choice for keeping the enemy ap gathering to a minimum.

My favourite team for Rage & Ruin is: Thor lvl 50 (5/4/4) , Area lvl 50 (4/2/4), OBW lvl 45 (3/5/3).

Spoit

Polkio wrote:

Psykopathic wrote:

So far in the tournament yellow is my least used skill. It's the only 1 at 5 ATM. 4/3/5 lvl 60ish ATM.I just can't justify destroying my own health with yellow rather than just letting the enemy have green ap then using spideys yellow to heal. The red boosted has been apsolutely amazing at lvl 3 and the green is destroying everything. Yellow I hurt myself then the heal tile gets destroyed. It has been very counter-productive. Any1 having similar experience?

I got him at 85. Yellow deals huge damage. And before casting yellow make sure there are no easy yellow matches at board and you will have 100% sure that he heals himself (and do more damage)

Yeah, if the yellow doesn't actually kill the enemy, once he's healed again, the net self damage isn't really too terrible

Unknown

Polkio wrote:

Psykopathic wrote:

So far in the tournament yellow is my least used skill. It's the only 1 at 5 ATM. 4/3/5 lvl 60ish ATM.I just can't justify destroying my own health with yellow rather than just letting the enemy have green ap then using spideys yellow to heal. The red boosted has been apsolutely amazing at lvl 3 and the green is destroying everything. Yellow I hurt myself then the heal tile gets destroyed. It has been very counter-productive. Any1 having similar experience?

I got him at 85. Yellow deals huge damage. And before casting yellow make sure there are no easy yellow matches at board and you will have 100% sure that he heals himself (and do more damage)

Yea, its huge damage combined with a stun character to guarantee it goes off. And remember, it heals AND does damage when.the tile activates. Buffed the yellow can.easily down one hero and finish off a second 2 turns later. The net damage to himself is miniscule if the yellow tiles goes off. His green is easily his best move (at least buffed it is...) but yellow isn't as far off as you think. The red is "okay" but with the buff it does some pretty darn good damage to everyone even without the low hp buff. I don't plan on.using him much but he seems Like a pretty good/interesting.character.

I lvled him to 68 so far. Mostly to help with this tournement but with an added benefit of helping to make a pretty strong team for dark.avengers based tournements at future dates.

Spoit

His buffed red is pretty good. Starting boosted with 6, plus an additional 9 from IM40's recharge, I'm able to get 2 casts off pretty quickly, which downs spidey/thor/etc with just a few random matches

mischiefmaker

Kyosokun wrote:

mischiefmaker wrote:

I actually don't think 5/3/5 is that bad -- Ares' red is pretty weak.

I don't agree. Unboosted, it (total) deals as much or more damage as Wolv's red, costs 1 less, and it gets a huge boost if he's critically wounded.

That's fair. My issue is that it doesn't deal a whole lot of damage to any one source, so while it does as much damage as Wolvie's red, Wolvie's red is much more efficient in bringing down one target, making it easier to avoid damage.

Area damage works best if you can get it early (because if you're getting it late, either you're not hitting all three characters, or you let all three characters stay alive), or if you can pair it with strike tiles. 10 AP is on the high side for getting early, and all the strike tile powers to date are green, which conflicts with Ares' strong green.

During the current tournament, I found that I almost never wanted to cast Ares' red over my other options.

All that being said, I still went 4/4/5 because 3-red to 4-red is a much more significant upgrade than 4-green to 5-green, but I don't think it's a huge deal to go 5/3/5.