Character Archetypes in the 3* Tier

Mawtful

At least one of the devs/designers has implied that the 3* tier is essentially complete. That is, all of the archetypes that they want to represent are included in this tier already. Hmm, interesting. Let’s take a look.

The game doesn’t really provide its own distinction for character archetypes, so we’re going to have to make some of our own. I think the initial split should be into five different categories: Tanks, Brawlers, Strikers, Supports, and Hybrids.

Tanks
Tanks are characterised by high health and threat - either a slow speed but high damage attack or a way to stop you from damaging their teammates.

Black Panther, Colossus, Ragnarok, Rocket & Groot, Hulk, and Thor all go into the “ignore me at your peril” Tank bucket.

Captain America, Deadpool, Luke Cage and She-Hulk are more of the “stay away from my friends” type.

Brawlers
This is a bit of a mixed archetype. Brawlers are characterised by fast abilities and combos. Unlike tanks or strikers they often aren’t a direct threat, but beware the death by a thousand cuts.

Blade, Daken, Gamora, Human Torch, Psylocke, Quicksilver, Storm, Punisher, and Wolverine all have these kind of attrition powers.

Strikers
Strikers are the glass cannon archetype. They are characterised by low health but strong attack(s) and an AP accelerator ability.

The Strikers are Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Kamala Khan, and Mystique.

Supports
Supports are fairly diverse. What they lack in outright offense they make up for in helping their allies.

Falcon, Loki, and Spider-Man are all Supports with no direct damage abilities.
Beast, Bullseye, Doctor Octopus and Squirrel Girl round out the Support archetype.

Hybrids
These are the exceptions which help define the first four archetypes.

Tank/Brawler - Sentry. He’s got a big health pool and his red is a fairly high threat ability, which is actually relatively fast.

Tank/Striker - Doom, Cyclops, Iron Man. All three have AP acceleration for expensive abilities. Cyclops is the real MVP, with the health pool of a tank and the abilities of a Striker. He’s probably the strongest in his tier.

Tank/Support - Vision. Probably. He’s got AOE, minor board disruption, special tile elimination, damage buff and damage reduction.

Brawler/Striker - Captain Marvel. She’s got a decent health pool and a high cost/damage ability, but her passive almost puts the target on her allies. It can accelerate her abilities though, and her Red is both fast and has some special tile elimination.

Brawler/Support - Iron Fist. I think it should be obvious. The AP generation on his Purple is fantastic support material, but the rest of his abilities will put some serious hurt if you don’t prevent them.

Striker/Support - The Hood.
Twin Pistols is a huge Alpha Strike ability, and although Dormammu’s Aid can accelerate Yellow, it’s not guaranteed. He’s still got an excellent support set with a high threat attack.

Support/Brawler - Daredevil. His Purple and Blue are both pretty decent support abilities, but his Red is pure brawler.

The Lone Wolf
It’s the secret sixth archetype for the one and only Magneto.
He can generate Protect tiles to defend his allies and his blue is high threat for a relatively high cost (four separate match-3’s) like a Tank. But his health pool is Brawler tier, but his cheap red ability can’t really be recast quickly. He doesn’t have AP acceleration, so he’s not a Striker, and he doesn’t have any Support abilities. I’m inclined to list him as a Brawler, but for now, he stands alone.

Final Counts
10 Tanks
9 Brawlers
4 Strikers
7 Supports
9 Hybrids
1 Lone Wolf

If we sort the Hybrids into their primarily listed archetype then our totals are as follows:
15 Tanks
12 Brawlers
5 Strikers
8 Supports

It's an interesting breakdown. I would propose that a Strikers ability to self-accelerate to big damage give players too much of an "advantage" over difficult nodes, which is why we don't have too many of them. It's the Tank/Striker hybrids that I think we need to be careful of - thankfully Doom doesn't accelerate his highest threat ability and Iron Man does, but his highest threat ability is not very high. Cyclops, on the other hand, accelerates a colour which is beneficial to both of his other abilities AND he's got killer buns, which sets a pretty dangerous precedent.

Marvelfamily

Wow, thank you so much for that overview!! It shows how wisely the mpq player can combine his team, that's the point why I love this game so much!

Boommike

This is top notch stuff

OneLastGambit

Also highlights how few supports there are, and I'll wager of those supports even less are actively used.

When playing PVP I see mostly tanks

Mawtful

This thread was not designed to be either a Tip or Guide but rather as analysis and discussion about the "completeness" of the 3* tier and an attempt to define the character archetypes. Since being moved, the discussion in the thread has stopped. Can I please have the thread moved back to General?