jeanbuster vs. fistbuster

TxMoose

ok I have a nearly optimal build on hb (level 220 at 5/4/4) and my jean is 4/3/4 (with a blue in queue). I mostly run fistbuster but occasionally throw in a boosted 3* (this week fist/cage or cage/doom). I usually hover in the low-mid 600s before I make my big push about 10 hrs out from event end (or sooner if I think 1300 is in play). I have the ability to put the last 2 covers on jean, but would take most of my reserve hp, leaving me with 4K to last to....lets say February or so. I'm ok on roster slots for a while - my dupe fist is going nowhere fast and with jean, I don't see him being useful. I also could sell 2* hawkeye and my dupe 3thor if needed, so that is 3 slots I have available now and with my reserve, I'd have enough for 7 new characters. plus I'm playing pve more, so I have some coming in there as well. my question is:

how much higher can I hang with jean than with fist?
what level do they need to be for more skip karma?
how fast is she with hb compared to fist?

for levels - I noticed early on just how little additional levels raise damage. my hb is level 220 and his red is 600 damage/ap and level 270 is 630 damage/ap, all for 120K iso. I know 240 and 250 are popular levels, but they get very expensive very fast for very little ROI. I know at 220 with fist, my strongest color is green, which is an advantage with opponents like kp, xf, and blade. many more levels and that becomes red. I know that is of small significance, but its something to consider.

I know with fist I just need one purple match and I'm off to the races. I'm sure its a different dynamic with jean and I'm curious - is it just as fast? faster? slower? do you climb with fist and then switch to jean for defense? or do you run jean the whole way? or run jean against crit makers (fist, gsbw, witch, etc.) and run fist against non-jean teams?

5K hp at stake and don't want to be disappointed - that's a big investment. an alternative I have is putting blue on and only buying one (assuming purple would be best), but was going to replace my dupe fist with that blue jean. any suggestions/comments from those with jean and hb (or others) is appreciated.

note: this might be roster related but also character and game-play discussions. if it must be moved, please give it a few days for some views, thanks.

Pongie

Can't help you out since I'm way behind you, but I would rather fight fistbuster than jeanbuster. Jean anti match 5 gets me all the time.

mgallop

First, for HP you should certainly sell your dupe 3s, and I would probably also sell down to 2 2*s to do DDQ. With 10 Health Packs, you just don't need them.

Fistbuster is faster than Jeanbuster, but its also way more easy to attack. If you have a well leveled Jeanbuster, you should be able to float around 800 or so, which is really nice for shielding later and getting higher scores. In addition, Fistbuster is not a great team for fighting really scary opponents, Fist is too squishy, which really matters vs all the AOEs in 4 land, JG makes his purple terrible, and one shooting with repulsor punch becomes less relevant if a 200+ 3 and a 270+ 4 is still left.

Final point: you should level up your 4s. Not because of damage, but because of HP. If you only have a lvl 220 Hulkbuster, thats one less power I need to fire to kill you, and so I'll attack whenever I see you worth a bunch of points.

GrumpySmurf1002

TxMoose wrote:

how much higher can I hang with jean than with fist?
what level do they need to be for more skip karma?
how fast is she with hb compared to fist?

Disclosure: My Jean isn't usable, so this is from the perspective of finding them in PvP rather than using them.

1) Do you mean float unshielded? A little higher, not significantly so. If you mean how high you can hop to, I think difference is probably negligible, both are quick enough to hop with, vulnerable enough not to be out there forever. I see both worth significant points about 1000-1100 (putting those teams in the 1500+ range). Jean is well more prevalent, however.

2) 350. Even then not really.

3) Don't know.

This past week, with 350 Carnage and XDP running amok (Not to mention RHulk), Jean's a sigh of relief if you can find her. In the week where she was the 350, Fistbuster becomes the sigh of relief.

The biggest advantages Jean has are more defensive skills and twice the health of Fist. At this point, Fist is pretty easy to battle through. Jean can turn things against you a bit quicker.

My advice (worth approximately $0.00 long run), is that if you have a potential 4/4/4 Jean now, don't worry about spending to 5/3/5. Few people are spec checking when they're climbing, and most will assume you're optimal and underleveling because max covered 250s are fairly common. I'd personally wait until the next time she comes through the rotation, hope 1k is purple or green, and buy the other one then.

GrimSkald

I am very interested in the answer to this question - I have a optimally covered HB (5/5/3) at level 255 at the moment, and Fistbuster is my bread and butter. I have heard anectodes about using Jeanbuster to climb well past 1000, here are my own experiences with a near-maxxed Fistbuster, I typically play in shard 4 if that matters (which it does, to an extent.)

- I can generally climb to around one fight past 900 without taking any serious losses. I am typically so low on health packs by this time that I shield - I have yet to just climb past 1000 though I may be just over-cautious.

- hops are fast, sometimes very fast, but I can get hit hard during them if I take too long. If the board is purple-poor, if the boards are really black-poor, it can slow me down a lot, and that is the killer. Fighting Jeanbuster teams myself is definitely possible, but you have to be careful with the match fives and so have to be cautious with IF's purple. This slows you down a bit more. Carnagebuster also is a bit of a slow down, but not as bad as Jeanbuster, though you are garunteed to need more health packs. I have lost 180 points on a two-fight hop, though typically I lose a lot less. So long as they're quick, I can do two fights. I've gotten three off when they were super-fast and in a bit of an odd hour (7:30ish am EST.)

- My float point is somewhere between 500-700. 500 is pretty much dead-safe (very rarely get hit,) more than that is a bit of a dice game. 800 is decent climbing territory, but I won't float there for hours - in my experience I lose more than 100-200 points.

My JG is 5/2/2, so it would require a significant HP investment in her to whale her out. That said I'm seriously thinking about it, as it is likely to make my PVP game so much easier. I'd be interested in hearing more.

TxMoose

since this thread finally has some action (other than the 2 that PMed me - thanks for those) i'll give an update. Wednesday I got her above level 200 so I decided to do the deed. some boneheaded bad and lots of good - I guess I'll start with the bad...

cleared the space in my roster for the jean blue dupe and when to my queue and hit the button. well, the button was a 'train' button, so it got added to my main jean. she was 4/4/4, I was about to buy purple and green and had nothing to show for my blue I had pulled. no iso and no dupe. kicked myself and still went through with it. more on the bad - Thursday. last LR of the week. finished t100. heroic gives me a jean green. ugh. not 20 hrs after I bought it with hp. so, I now have a dupe with green. 2500 hp seems like a lot wasted there. but live, learn, move on...

now on to the good. I took her out immediately for a spin on Wednesday in pve and found out something I didn't know about her - her purple takes out cds too. I had no idea and was really excited when found that - now I have a third goon team that can basically clear any node no matter the level. ran her with hb in patch pvp and didn't really have time to climb very high early but sat in the upper 600s no problem (patch is 140, hb 220, jean 205ish). last night I make my normal push and not sure if its just this event with patch green, but patch green into jean purple (takes out the opposing strikes) and mop up with hb and match damage is so very efficient. I climbed pretty easily to 1040 for my first shield. (side note: I'm usually slice 3 on Friday events, but others on the other days - usually 4 for Wednesday and 1 or 5 over the weekend) A few hops later I'm at 1386 and shielded to the end and I'm done with a gross hp spend of 450, net hp spend of 250 (used 4 shields - 3/8/3/8). this is the lowest net I've ever spent to 1300. actually Wednesday's pvp I had did the same shield plan but had to play event end (got the token but got hit back down to ~1240) - Wednesday was aided by multiple cupcake teams. this one I only found one. today's LT was a green thing (up to 1/2/4 - may have a shot at ddq day next week).

my current plan moving forward it to just pour iso into her up to 220 and then not sure if I put more into hb first or take them up together to 250 and then see from there.

Malcrof

On the PVE side, not sure if you have played with it.. but Jean + SW = win.

Doesn't matter the node, nor who the essential is, jean and SW can get it done, all by their lonesome, even if unerleveled against overscaled opponents. SW feeds purple to JG.

Almost as good as charlies angels, but not as fast, but for essentials where you can't use charlies, it is an insta-win.

Just be warned, even at lvl 270, a 166 SW will tank green for JG..

for PVP, my jeanbuster got me my first unshielded 1k in Sentry PVP. and i decided to free fall (float) since i got what i came for... an hour later.. i hadn't been hit..

Transversely in Patch PVP.. i took soo many offensive losses with Jeanbuster, that i switched to JG + Cage for a while.. and started winning and being left alone.. the AI isn't using IMHB well.. and saving for Wolvie red.. and is matching yellows even with no active... so i have started to pick on Jeanbusters with Cagean (ok, not as catchy a name, but whatever)

Once we are done with Boosted Cage and Hulk week, you will find climbing and floating with Jeanbuster much easier.

Gamora PVP will be a good test, you will learn to adjust to not having a yellow power at all on a team, and restraint vs necessity with gamora's black and red vs IMHB (sometimes you may need Gamoras to finish off someone who is about to fire off a power)...

BTW, expect losses defensively, the AI will prioritize Gamora's skills over IMHB's, so not hard to fight, but makes for fast climbs.