** Hawkeye (Modern) **

Unknown

First thing that came to mind was "is this a buff?", then I noticed his blue and red went from 10AP to 9AP which is a deceptively large improvement in a match 3 game.

The 25% ish damage reduction in exchange for -1AP and placing the tile for blast arrow is reasonable since the tile probably gets matched away at least a quarter of the time.

I prefer the old electric arrow because it did a *lot* of damage but again, a 1AP cost reduction. potentially shorter CD and some AP removal makes it a somewhat decent, if underwhelming skill.

His purple... well it's good with MMN but 5 matches are pretty rare otherwise. I reckon there are a fair number of matches where I don't get a 5-match at all but without actually making a note of it I can't be sure. The main question (in my mind) is does he become a better pairing with MMN than C.Storm? My first thought is no. Wind storm is amazing and raging tempest offers a tiny ray of hope on defence despite MMN being pretty damned useless in the ai's hands.

Still, overall an improvement and I think he'll be fairly usable. If his arrows could overwrite special tiles then I would have even considered him good but I guess you can't have everything.

OnesOwnGrief

L shaped cascades and matches of any color should proc his purple too. This would mean that Thor would also synergize well with his yellow. 9 tiles very often results in to cascades and match 5s. Though its entirely possible to lose a tile from the cascade as well considering you'll have crit tiles dropping too.

Unknown

scottee wrote:

If his passive includes cascades or combo matches, it's going to be huge. If it only includes simultaneous matches but they can be of different colors, it's still pretty great. If it only includes match-5's and match 6/7/8's of the same color, it's meh.

I think it's pretty clear it only triggers when you'd get a critical tile.

scottee

ark123 wrote:

scottee wrote:

If his passive includes cascades or combo matches, it's going to be huge. If it only includes simultaneous matches but they can be of different colors, it's still pretty great. If it only includes match-5's and match 6/7/8's of the same color, it's meh.

I think it's pretty clear it only triggers when you'd get a critical tile.

Oh, you're right. I skipped Ice's commentary and only looked at the abilities.

Pylgrim

I like but red is still very underwhelming. 9 AP for 1225 damage to all after a wait of two turns (with a small chance of losing it) is very poor. For only 2 AP more, c.Storm deals much more damage to all and freezes one character for 4 turns /immediately/. I believe that it would be okay to have one of his abilities not based off countdown tiles and this one seems that should be it.

NorthernPolarity

Pylgrim wrote:

I like but red is still very underwhelming. 9 AP for 1225 damage to all after a wait of two turns (with a small chance of losing it) is very poor. For only 2 AP more, c.Storm deals much more damage to all and freezes one character for 4 turns /immediately/. I believe that it would be okay to have one of his abilities not based off countdown tiles and this one seems that should be it.

The difference between 9 and 11 ap is huge: youre looking at 3-4 turns more for that exta match-3.

Trisul

Kelbris wrote:

It'd make him AoE 2* cap.

AKA better Cap.

Cap with more damage, less utility. It's too bad his red/blue only overwrites basic tiles.

Trisul

After seeing the patch notes, I'm fairly certain that 2* Hawkeye will be almost exclusively be played with MNMags because of the insane combo potential between Hawkeye's passive and Magneto's Polarity Shift.

Secondary 2* options are cascaders (Storm) and color-changers (Thor), but there are probably better options (like Torch).

Hawkeye's updated passive is the biggest reason why he's playable now. 5 here seems a no-brainer.

If he is being played without MNMags, then the best Hawkeye build is probably 5/3/5. His blue is the most unreliable skill he has on its own merit.

However, on a 2-man team with MNMags, the best build may possibly be 3/5/5, since Mags already has a decent red, and 5 in blue makes best use of all the extra blue AP that you'll want to dump. (The exception is a 3-man team of MNMags, CStorm, Hawkeye where you'll exclusively be using CStorm blue).

Unknown

Trisul wrote:

After seeing the patch notes, I'm fairly certain that 2* Hawkeye will be almost exclusively be played with MNMags because of the insane combo potential between Hawkeye's passive and Magneto's Polarity Shift.

Secondary 2* options are cascaders (Storm) and color-changers (Thor), but there are probably better options (like Torch).

Hawkeye's updated passive is the biggest reason why he's playable now. 5 here seems a no-brainer.

If he is being played without MNMags, then the best Hawkeye build is probably 5/3/5. His blue is the most unreliable skill he has on its own merit.

However, on a 2-man team with MNMags, the best build may possibly be 3/5/5, since Mags already has a decent red, and 5 in blue makes best use of all the extra blue AP that you'll want to dump. (The exception is a 3-man team of MNMags, CStorm, Hawkeye where you'll exclusively be using CStorm blue).

I don't see it. I'd rather cut him out of the mnmags/cstorm combo and add someone with a good black and/or yellow, like thor.

Phaserhawk

Good changes for hawkeye though. Can't wait til he gets the gold treatment

Unknown

bonfire01 wrote:

Still, overall an improvement and I think he'll be fairly usable. If his arrows could overwrite special tiles then I would have even considered him good but I guess you can't have everything.

I was really hoping for full overwrite powers when this buff was announced, however long ago that was. I can see the logic being to keep that as Cap's domain, but it still would have been nice. Still, the cost reduction combined with being able to place his countdowns immediately makes him way more playable. The hit to his red is a bit of a bummer, but it's still pretty damn respectable for a 2* character, particularly since it's way more likely to actually go off now. Taking the damage off his blue and adding this weird She-Hulk-esque random AP sapping is odd, and I'm not a fan. It's not the garbage that Reprieve is, but I strongly prefer powers with more expected results and a 3 turn stun plus a roll of the dice isn't likely to change my mind. Passive is interesting. I've never actually sat back and tried to calculate how many match-5s you get per fight. Probably try out 3/5/5 for the lols and see if he's worth using next time he's buffed. Outside of that he's still riding the pine for me, but he certainly went up the ladder a few rungs for people in 2* land.

Unknown

don't get why your nerfing/ barely changing him. Deserved a buff.

Unknown

Too bad I have already moved into the 3* land. If I was still running 2*s I would definitely max out Hawkeye Modern and Johnny Storm.

over_clocked

fsentell wrote:

Too bad I have already moved into the 3* land. If I was still running 2*s I would definitely max out Hawkeye Modern and Johnny Storm.

I'm in the 3* land since basically season 1, maxed both Johnny and mHawkeye recently. PvE is a thing! Woo.

Spoit

MonkeySlut wrote:

don't get why your nerfing/ barely changing him. Deserved a buff.

Prior to the power creep, he had some of the highest damage/AP numbers, and probably still does in 2* land. With the ability to place the countdowns, so they usually go off, that really should help his usability singificantly

Unknown

I don't know if I really like the changes. He changed from glasscanon nuker to midhealth support. He is still trash defensive hero until AI learns to aim cd tiles in corners. Red is slightly buffed with changes but it is still not something you would want to run him for. Blue is actually worse than it was. I honestly don't know why. You have OBW and Hood who have amazing skills at stealing AP, they both deny and generate. Ability that only denies AP should be way stronger to compete. Instead you need 3 matches for blue, then wait for 2 turns, then it's random which 2 colors gets decreased. If it cost 6, or steal AP, or deny strongest color (like Panther black just other way around) I could see it being somewhat usable, but as it stands you will never want to actually go for blue matches, and by time you get enough AP by being forced to take so much blue, match should already ended. And then you have Pink that went from trash to absolute BONKERS. Some people say it's weak. What the hell? That's literally only reason why you would want to use him! What kind of team would want a char with slow medium red aoe and sluggish random AP drain?

Now, 4k potential damage for no AP sounds sweet except... he have absolutely no synergy with himself and rely on second character to use it. Hawkeye classic had ability that let him place critical tiles, that would be so much better as one of his other powers. So, what teams he would fit into?

NMM can reliably get 5 in a row. You trade huge aoe damage + stun and green outlet for extra nuking power on pink. Honestly, I don't like it, you use 2 chars with same colour schemes and only Magneto uses his actives, Hawkeye is just there for passive. It's just... iffy? It works, though I don't think there is much sense running him when you can just use Storm who also will be way, way better in PvE.

Thor or Ares sidekick. OBW still outclasses him for single most powerful team, but if you want to build pairs... Ares would still be with OBW, his Cleave serves same purpose as Blast Arrow, he can't shake/control board, and the not-really-heal synergize well with Sunder (+occasional steal back of Green). Thor could then work with Hawkeye. Main reason would be of course Thor yellow which would be even more powerful than it already is. I'm actually not sure if I would use Blast Arrow in this case simply because how strong Yellow is, getting potential extra match of it could end the game earlier than medium aoe.

Lastly, there is still Bullseye. Yeah yeah, he is trash,but let's play in what if. What if Bullseye got his buff? What if his black gets slightly cheaper, he would finally got third power, and maybe it would be actually playable? Well, in that what-if scenario, you could have new actual tier 1 team that is not copy of tank+support or nmm-pink-battery. However I don't think I hear upcoming changes to Bullsy and given how long those planned took, I'd say you're looking at about year before this combo becomes viable.

So yeah, I don't really see point of leveling Hawkeye as of yet. Ares/Thor+OBW and NMM+Storm are still better pairs and leveling third one doesn't make much sense in 2*. I have high hopes in Daken though.

Unknown

I am VERY disappointed with this apparent DOWNGRADE of Modern Hawkeye. Maximum damage of red has been reduced by 25% (costing 1 AP less than before, but 9 APs mean 3 turns usually to trigger). Blue power has been completely obliterated. The MAIN appeal of MHawkeye is his ability to inflict damage with blue, and by wiping out his blue damage this character has been castrated. If I'm looking to stun or steal AP, I go w/ Black Widow (and its variations). I don't need another BW wannabe. Purple is laughable. I may get a 5-match maybe once a month, and so this passive ability will RARELY trigger. The original hop skipping ability was annoying to play against, but extremely useful to play with. If purple is meant to cause damage, it shouldn't be triggered with a five match. It should be a 4 match, but reduced in damage to compensate for an easier trigger. As it stands now, MHawkeye is simply terrible to play with (and this comes from a player w/ a 50+ character roster including all characters in the game).

Unknown

Phaserhawk wrote:

Can't wait til he gets the gold treatment

My guess is two PVEs from now.

Unknown

AmusedObserver wrote:

I am VERY disappointed with this apparent DOWNGRADE of Modern Hawkeye. Maximum damage of red has been reduced by 25% (costing 1 AP less than before, but 9 APs mean 3 turns usually to trigger). Blue power has been completely obliterated. The MAIN appeal of MHawkeye is his ability to inflict damage with blue, and by wiping out his blue damage this character has been castrated. If I'm looking to stun or steal AP, I go w/ Black Widow (and its variations). I don't need another BW wannabe. Purple is laughable. I may get a 5-match maybe once a month, and so this passive ability will RARELY trigger. The original hop skipping ability was annoying to play against, but extremely useful to play with. If purple is meant to cause damage, it shouldn't be triggered with a five match. It should be a 4 match, but reduced in damage to compensate for an easier trigger. As it stands now, MHawkeye is simply terrible to play with (and this comes from a player w/ a 50+ character roster including all characters in the game).

I think he ends up in the same boat as C.Storm. No-one really uses her without MMN and I see it being exactly the same for Modern Hawkeye. When you fire off MMN's blue it's rare upi can't get a 5 match and not all that uncommon you can set up 2 of them. so that's 3-6k damage from 3-6 CDs which is pretty beastly considering it's replacing a non-damaging passive.

I think his red is a buff personally. You lose 17% damage per AP BUT placing the tile is a massive improvement and being able to fire it a turn earlier bue to dropping from 10 to 9 AP is nice. I reckon my red CD tiles for Hawkeye get matched away more than 17% of the time so overall I probably gain damage and get a reduction in cost that has more impact than 1AP seems at first glance.

Can't disagree about the blue though. I prefer the old one and don't think random AP reductions are all that useful and the reduction in stun duration seems totally unwarrented.

Overall though, I think he's a bit better. Before he was all but unusable, now he can be a pairing for MMN. I still suspect C.Storm might be better though but a Hawkeye purple passive off 2 5 matches from MMN's purple knocking an Ares/Thor down on only a 2 turn CD (well 6 CDs) could be pretty nice. Even if you only get the one passive firing off you still have the blue AP for MMN to use, so that's something.

MarcusGraves

Blue: random AP reduction sucks, and losing the damage sucks too. you guys fixed the power with making it 1 cost cheaper and able to be placed by the player and not at random but then you went and got rid of what made people actually want to use it, the hell? keep the damage with a slight reduction due to cheaper cost, ditch the enemy AP reduction, maybe cap the stun at 3 instead of 4 and bam solid blue power.

Red: fine

Purple: I hate this change, if the blue power wasn't changed at all then i'd probably be more ok with it but currently I'd prefer to keep avoid so people can't target him right away in a match or kill him before one of the countdown tiles goes off when he still has teammates up.

why are you guys trying to turn him into some weird pseudo support? just keep the powers the way they are with how they function and rebalance the damage due to the cheaper cost and ability to place them. please please don't do these changes to blue and purple, we just needed the cheaper cost+placement but this new stuff is ****. I was saving his covers in anticipation for the coming buff but if this is what we're getting im just going to keep throwing him out as im sure other players will.