greenglove wrote: I don't know if this is a bug or not, but when he makes a countdown goon airborne, the countdown tile still fires. This is worse than useless with countdown goons, because you not only can't hit the goon when he's airborne, but also his countdown tile is sure to fire unless you can match it away. The airborne skill will then ONLY be useful in pvp. If the airborne skill actually prevented countdown tiles from firing, it would be far more useful.
GrumpySmurf1002 wrote: babinro wrote: Initial impressions from on paper stats: Red: Strong. Takeoff is a decent skill on it's own (assuming the level 5 version of creates 3 strikes is accurate). Rocket Man is on the other hand is great and puts Thing's red to shame. The damage and stun are both going to be excellent for the cost when you consider they get further boosted by the strikes on the board. Yellow: Great. Another yellow damage dealing skill! I prefer this one to Venom's as I put a lot more value in strikes than I do pure damage. This skill's lingering damage through the strikes should easily justify the cost. You have to assume people will follow this up with Nova's red which means it'll be dealing 5100 damage and stunning for 2 turns for only 6 red AP more often then not. Black: Average. 4 powerful strikes for 8 black AP is a below average value for this AP colour. More powerful strikes are great but it's clear that you'd rather have HB's black over this. As a finisher that requires jumping through hoops this skill also gives below average value. The damage is substantially lower than someone like Falcon and if used earlier in the match will really hurt your damage output going forward. This skill feels beautifully designed to me. It's giving the player 2 meaningful choices that are weaker than a single choice skill all while making both benefits good enough to still be relevant. Initial Build: 3/5/5 or 5/5/3 I feel as though his yellow is a must have 5 and the other skills could vary based on preference and pairing. It's tricky because all 3 skills have great good jumps at the 5th colour. If Rocket Man's 4518 damage is static regardless of covers then 3/5/5 is the standout generic build. Overall: Top tier. I freely admit that I value a strike tiles damage over time much higher than others. I considered Iron Fists green to be the best green spender in the game right up until the likes of JG, Iceman, and Rulk. With that in mind I love the quick fire nature of this character with substantial added match damage and skill damage for the rest of the match. I can easily see him being in the top 10 4*'s and he might even fall into the top 5 (above Cyke). He'll pair extremely well with Iceman, Rulk, and Jean Grey. I'd personally lean towards Jean Grey since her green can generate attack tiles but Rulk is clearly the superior choice in pvp to deter hits. Iceman is great when up against enemy OML, Rulk or within PvE. Edit: My post made a few assumptions which are still not completely clear. I assumed red was stun but it's been clarified that this is in fact airborne which is less useful. I'm also assuming red creates 3 strikes and black creates 4. I'm also assuming the damage on red doesn't change with covers. Think this is pretty bang on. He basically has a slightly cheaper version of FailCap's combo. For 14 yellow - 8 black he does 15k damage (w/ the 1200 in strike tiles), and if you have 6 red he tacks on another 4500 to someone else. With rocket man static max at level 3, there's no reason to sacrifice the damage on his black, so he's pretty clear 3/5/5. Going to be a royal PITA to fight. Envisioning a Nova/PX/Iceman team just creating all sorts of havoc. Edit: Oh and one more, he hides perfectly behind OML and has actives for OML's passives. So tack generating strike tiles on top of generating strike tiles. Hell just use Bullseye with them. Strike tiles for everyone!
babinro wrote: Initial impressions from on paper stats: Red: Strong. Takeoff is a decent skill on it's own (assuming the level 5 version of creates 3 strikes is accurate). Rocket Man is on the other hand is great and puts Thing's red to shame. The damage and stun are both going to be excellent for the cost when you consider they get further boosted by the strikes on the board. Yellow: Great. Another yellow damage dealing skill! I prefer this one to Venom's as I put a lot more value in strikes than I do pure damage. This skill's lingering damage through the strikes should easily justify the cost. You have to assume people will follow this up with Nova's red which means it'll be dealing 5100 damage and stunning for 2 turns for only 6 red AP more often then not. Black: Average. 4 powerful strikes for 8 black AP is a below average value for this AP colour. More powerful strikes are great but it's clear that you'd rather have HB's black over this. As a finisher that requires jumping through hoops this skill also gives below average value. The damage is substantially lower than someone like Falcon and if used earlier in the match will really hurt your damage output going forward. This skill feels beautifully designed to me. It's giving the player 2 meaningful choices that are weaker than a single choice skill all while making both benefits good enough to still be relevant. Initial Build: 3/5/5 or 5/5/3 I feel as though his yellow is a must have 5 and the other skills could vary based on preference and pairing. It's tricky because all 3 skills have great good jumps at the 5th colour. If Rocket Man's 4518 damage is static regardless of covers then 3/5/5 is the standout generic build. Overall: Top tier. I freely admit that I value a strike tiles damage over time much higher than others. I considered Iron Fists green to be the best green spender in the game right up until the likes of JG, Iceman, and Rulk. With that in mind I love the quick fire nature of this character with substantial added match damage and skill damage for the rest of the match. I can easily see him being in the top 10 4*'s and he might even fall into the top 5 (above Cyke). He'll pair extremely well with Iceman, Rulk, and Jean Grey. I'd personally lean towards Jean Grey since her green can generate attack tiles but Rulk is clearly the superior choice in pvp to deter hits. Iceman is great when up against enemy OML, Rulk or within PvE. Edit: My post made a few assumptions which are still not completely clear. I assumed red was stun but it's been clarified that this is in fact airborne which is less useful. I'm also assuming red creates 3 strikes and black creates 4. I'm also assuming the damage on red doesn't change with covers.
Rhycar wrote: I think one thing getting lost in these (very good) analyses is just how cheap these powers are. I don't think it will be uncommon to fire red immediately followed by black and trigger that massive nuke. It seems to me like 5/3/5 deserves some attention, though I could see 4/4/5 as well. Regardless, I think black 5 is going to be a must.
Phaserhawk wrote: Black is much harder to trigger the damage than it appears from the Sandboxing playing so far
Buret0 wrote: Anyone else going to just keep pumping out black strike tiles with OML and using the cheap red to keep your enemy airborne?
CrookedKnight wrote: Yeah, when you think about it Nova isn't as self-sustaining as he seems to be. But I can't wait to put him on a team with X-23.
Phaserhawk wrote: Black is much harder to trigger the damage than it appears from the Sandboxing playing so far You need 5 black strike tiles to get the dmg from black Well once there is one black attack tile, red stops making attack tiles. So now you to do a double black, which costs 16, not to mention you are depleting your strike tiles which trying to do this. Red is gravy to get going, black not so much. He really needs a helper for those black tiles.
Sandwichboy wrote: ...So why wouldn't you be using his yellow once you've fired off red once? Or just fire off yellow twice for 6 strike tiles. He doesn't need 16 black, he needs enough to fire each power off once, and that really doesn't sound very difficult considering they all cost less than 3 match 3s.
Buret0 wrote: Buret0 wrote: Anyone else going to just keep pumping out black strike tiles with OML and using the cheap red to keep your enemy airborne? So you guys are starting to catch on that he's still totally useful, but not because of his black damage? He's a 5/5/3 who plays with OML. OML tanks all three colors. You use Nova's Red and Yellow actives to keep OML from transforming or you hold on to the yellow in order to transform OML. 6 Red AP keeps a character in a stun lock state at 753 damage per AP + damage from the Nova/OML strike tiles. OML acquires black to drop the strike tiles. OML continues to grab red/yellow/black. Nova keeps using the red AP to disrupt the enemy, which creates OML red strike tiles (if fewer than 6). OML tanks/heals. Once you have enough yellow you can choose to unleash the claws or to keep OML healing for awhile longer.
Polares wrote: I still don't see this team as good, at least in PvP. First you are giving green and purple to the other team (well, and blue too) and with so many teams with iceman, rhulk and jean you are really hurting yourself. Then AI will always cast Nova's yellow so OML won't trasnform EVER in defense, so now your team is really easy to beat. So, I still think iceman or rhulk are much better team mates for OML (or even 5 spidey or Phoenix if you are already in 5 land), with cheap and very powerful powers, and in rhulk case, with so much life. And with iceman you have a rainbow team.
Polares wrote: Still undecided which is his best build, probably 5/5/3 and build him as a support character, but it is hard to pass this 8k for 8AP. It is really a pity if as you say black does not 'work' that much, but yeah, usually having 5 of something in the board is hard and a part from OML there are not that many chars which use black for strike tiles.
Has anyone with a sandboxed account confirmed that the red alt power does the same damage regardless of covers?
ArcanaMoon wrote: Has anyone with a sandboxed account confirmed that the red alt power does the same damage regardless of covers? If this is the case, 3/5/5 should the best build Red at 5 creates 3 Black Strike tiles of strength 198. While Black at 5 Creates 4 Black Strike tiles of strength 221, otherwise deals 8119 damage. For 2 more AP, you get 1 more strike tile with a lot of power, pull off the damage from your black can be tricky, but the power of the strike tiles is really worth it, at least for me.
Vhailorx wrote: It seems to me that he is a character that looks slightly better on paper than he ends up being in action, at least with respect to the black nuke. We have plenty of experience with cheap powers that are designed to stack (i.e. one cast does X, and a second cast does Y). Powers with this mechanic that cost 5 or 6 ap tend to work really well (like cage black, if purple, iceman blue). But powers that require 3 matches tend not to work nearly as well because they are just too slow (elektra purple, antman's 'grow' power). I expect nova's black to fall into the latter category: nice when it works, but not worth building around it. Of course, his red and yellow are really good as is for cheapbstrike tile generation. I think he will become a viable back-of-thr-top-tier 4* (maybe on par with someone like deadpool or thing) in 6 months when people have him maxed.
wymtime wrote: I think you might be right about his blacks 2nd power, but as a set up for red it is a different story. For 8 black you can set up rocket man fairly easy. if you boost it is 2 black and 2 red matches. His cheep powers will also allow you make X-23 much more playable. I don't think the AI will be able to play his 2nd black power well as you will need 16 total black but a player could get itvup Fire a lot more depending on the team they bring.