**** Punisher (Max) ****

VizMantis

I just champ'd punisher thanks to galactus. Sadly, I'm having trouble figuring out how to like him. Yes, he does big damage, but I can't figure out how to get him through a fight without losing a substantial portion of his health. For a pack hoarder like me, that puts him in the minimal use category.

I've read through this thread and most of the partnering suggestions seem to be for 5* teams. Aside from Nova (mine is weak), what are his best 4* partners? I tried him with the im40/peg combo, which worked ok, but I think rulk works better for that team. I also tried him on an antman/starlord team, which was also ok, but cho works better. I'm sure I just need to figure out how to use him better, but guidance would be appreciated.

sinnerjfl

VizMantis wrote:

I just champ'd punisher thanks to galactus. Sadly, I'm having trouble figuring out how to like him. Yes, he does big damage, but I can't figure out how to get him through a fight without losing a substantial portion of his health. For a pack hoarder like me, that puts him in the minimal use category.

I've read through this thread and most of the partnering suggestions seem to be for 5* teams. Aside from Nova (mine is weak), what are his best 4* partners? I tried him with the im40/peg combo, which worked ok, but I think rulk works better for that team. I also tried him on an antman/starlord team, which was also ok, but cho works better. I'm sure I just need to figure out how to use him better, but guidance would be appreciated.

Im guessing you are losing health because he stuns his 2 teammates?

My general strategy when using Pun (teammates dont really matter but strike tiles generator in general are good).
Before you start using his skills, down at least an enemy so that green can pack some punch. Try to use his blue
and also other strike tiles generator while amassing at least 7 black AP (14 if youre fighting high health enemies).

Once one enemy is dead, use green, spam black until everything dies. He's fairly straightforward but he does
require some setup, cant use him all willy-nilly

VizMantis

Actually, it's the strategy you describe why he's losing so much health, not the green stun. I spend much of the match collecting green and black for his combo, so he's usually in front tanking those colors. Acquiring them in sufficient quantities for the ol 1-2 punch and also downing someone first takes a not insignificant amount of time, so he's probably taking some power in the face, as well as a decent amount of match dmg before the end (pretty much what Polares said a page ago).

Once he gets going, he rains death. I haven't even really found it necessary to boost black with strikes for the most part. But I need to either figure out how to get him going faster, or find someone with more bounce-back to tank for him (sounds like this is where oml comes in for those with a quality version).

Anon

I champed him and regret absolutely nothing. At 273 5/5/3 he's a **** monster.

Polares

VizMantis wrote:

Actually, it's the strategy you describe why he's losing so much health, not the green stun. I spend much of the match collecting green and black for his combo, so he's usually in front tanking those colors. Acquiring them in sufficient quantities for the ol 1-2 punch and also downing someone first takes a not insignificant amount of time, so he's probably taking some power in the face, as well as a decent amount of match dmg before the end (pretty much what Polares said a page ago).

Once he gets going, he rains death. I haven't even really found it necessary to boost black with strikes for the most part. But I need to either figure out how to get him going faster, or find someone with more bounce-back to tank for him (sounds like this is where oml comes in for those with a quality version).

I have to say that I agree with your analysis completely. I usually use him with 5s, so I haven't noticed all these problems until I used him in a BoP event. I always won the fight, but he always endured heavy hitpoint loses, I think I had to use a health pack in every fight.

The problem of Punisher is that he is quite slow. His powers are amazingly strong, but he has no accelerators, so while you down the first char and get the green/black for the combo he always gets hit. As you said oher chars like Rhulk or Iceman are much faster and they suffer way less damage.

Jarvind

The fastest team I've found for Big Pun is IM40 and Doom.

- Recharge
- Use blue to turn all blue tiles black
- Make 2-3 black matches
- Use any leftover blue to make strikes
- Unleash hell
- Use Doom purple or IM40 red to clean up if necessary

Works pretty well most of the time unless you get a board that is starved of both blue and black.

DesertTortoise

I champed him immediately after the Galactus event and I've gotten to use him as an essential and boosted this week. It's tough finding someone who will accelerate him fast enough for him to be useful in PvE but good lord does he put out damage. The Doom/Pun/IM40 team works okay but it lacks a nuke that will get rid of an enemy to take advantage of Merciless Charge unless you use IM40's red (which will sap black) or Doom's purple (which will need 7 AP after recharge). I've been using him boosted with Peggy and IM40 since anyone that doesn't get taken out after a recharge, ultimate soldier, do as peggy says is pretty much doomed when I can use Punisher's green/black. I'm not sure how this will hold up once he's unboosted, though.

On paper, a team that doesn't have any AP acceleration but great synergy would be 553 Punisher, 535 Kate Bishop and 553 Nova. Lots of strike tiles out, full rainbow coverage and very heavy hitting once it gets rolling but the worry is that may take too long. It lacks passives as well, but has a great mix of crowd control, expensive nukes and cheap powers that makes the most of each color so should be able to deal with a variety of boards very well.

sinnerjfl

DesertTortoise wrote:

I champed him immediately after the Galactus event and I've gotten to use him as an essential and boosted this week. It's tough finding someone who will accelerate him fast enough for him to be useful in PvE but good lord does he put out damage. The Doom/Pun/IM40 team works okay but it lacks a nuke that will get rid of an enemy to take advantage of Merciless Charge unless you use IM40's red (which will sap black) or Doom's purple (which will need 7 AP after recharge). I've been using him boosted with Peggy and IM40 since anyone that doesn't get taken out after a recharge, ultimate soldier, do as peggy says is pretty much doomed when I can use Punisher's green/black. I'm not sure how this will hold up once he's unboosted, though.

On paper, a team that doesn't have any AP acceleration but great synergy would be 553 Punisher, 535 Kate Bishop and 553 Nova. Lots of strike tiles out, full rainbow coverage and very heavy hitting once it gets rolling but the worry is that may take too long. It lacks passives as well, but has a great mix of crowd control, expensive nukes and cheap powers that makes the most of each color so should be able to deal with a variety of boards very well.

X-Force Deadpool / Pun Max / IM40

Use DP's red to almost one-shot anything, Pun blue>green>black

DesertTortoise

sinnerjfl wrote:

X-Force Deadpool / Pun Max / IM40

Use DP's red to almost one-shot anything, Pun blue>green>black

That's what I'm currently using on the XFDP essential node but my XFDP is so undercovered I didn't get a full idea of how useful this could be. I hesitated to put this rainbow team as an option only because so many XFDP teams seem to be made around Countdown for What (mainly, XFW or Quake) so while this team would get the most out of Punisher, I was afraid it'd under utilize XFDP. Seems like it'd be a fun team though!

Recharge > Pun Blue > DP Red > Pun Green > Pun Black is brutal.

eidehua

DesertTortoise wrote:

sinnerjfl wrote:

X-Force Deadpool / Pun Max / IM40

Use DP's red to almost one-shot anything, Pun blue>green>black

That's what I'm currently using on the XFDP essential node but my XFDP is so undercovered I didn't get a full idea of how useful this could be. I hesitated to put this rainbow team as an option only because so many XFDP teams seem to be made around Countdown for What (mainly, XFW or Quake) so while this team would get the most out of Punisher, I was afraid it'd under utilize XFDP. Seems like it'd be a fun team though!

Recharge > Pun Blue > DP Red > Pun Green > Pun Black is brutal.

Yeah, You just need someone with a red nuke to take out the first enemy, if you want to synergize with Pun Green. With IM40 Recharge, either a red or blue nuke is fine
If there ever is a super reliable green and black accelerator character, Punisher would be amazing

DesertTortoise

eidehua wrote:

Yeah, You just need someone with a red nuke to take out the first enemy, if you want to synergize with Pun Green. With IM40 Recharge, either a red or blue nuke is fine
If there ever is a super reliable green and black accelerator character, Punisher would be amazing

I'm a cover away from having Kate Bishop champed but this was my thinking as well. Kate Bishop/IM40/Pun should be really good just doesn't have a great red outlet except for IM40's red itself.

Recharge > Kate Purple (if you've got the AP) > Kate Blue > Pun Green > Pun Black then possibly followed by Kate's purple countdown's damage which be a hell of a punch. Could use IM40's red in a pinch or if yellow/black/purple are already drained.

undrtaker

Either his Blue is bugged or I don't understand it.
I never see any strike tiles created by other characters (Daken, Blade etc.) get buffed
What am I missing?

eidehua

undrtaker wrote:

Either his Blue is bugged or I don't understand it.
I never see any strike tiles created by other characters (Daken, Blade etc.) get buffed
What am I missing?

Compare the damage of the strike ability text vs the damage of the strike on the board.

Vhailorx

eidehua wrote:

undrtaker wrote:

Either his Blue is bugged or I don't understand it.
I never see any strike tiles created by other characters (Daken, Blade etc.) get buffed
What am I missing?

Compare the damage of the strike ability text vs the damage of the strike on the board.

This. Blue is kinda hard to see in an actuon because the strikes are just stronger as long as he is active. Try letting him get stunned with strikes on the board. The value of those strikes will go down.

OneLastGambit

If it's speed your after then do the following...

Im40/punisher/fist

Recharge
Fist purple
Punisher green
Punisher black

Everything is dead. Very squishy team but quick enough that it doesn't matter

Dunamis101

Any good punisher teams that don't involve IM40.

Dunamis101

For my other sandboxed account I use for experimentation, go nuts!

hopper1979

How about Cloak and Dagger and Vulture.  Lots of black and green generation there.  I have not been able to test that Vulture is woefully undercovered but it is one I will try eventually.  The only issue is you are overlapping some good attacks between Vulture and Punisher and my guess is Punisher will be tanking a lot but it might still be fun.

Dunamis101

hopper1979 said:

How about Cloak and Dagger and Vulture.  Lots of black and green generation there.  I have not been able to test that Vulture is woefully undercovered but it is one I will try eventually.  The only issue is you are overlapping some good attacks between Vulture and Punisher and my guess is Punisher will be tanking a lot but it might still be fun.

It would probably be fun but the color overlap is really bad between Punisher and Vulture, It would also disrupt C&D's Black as well. From what I can tell about Punisher he needs strike tiles and someone to accelerate his black.

Nova would be a good match at 553 but I really don't know who else would go good with that team. I tried Professor-X (535) with him but it's a bit slow on the uptake. Not bad once it gets going, if you match five it makes 4ap in black for Punisher. Nova is pretty quick though. Baldy makes strike tiles every time a power is fired as well. Not a bad team by any means.

Wasp would have been good but she also changes strike tiles to protect, which i know the A.I will mess up lol. You also won't have blue long enough for her passive to be of any value. Her black also conflicts.

Ironfist (Danny Rand) would have been good but he conflicts with all his colors as well.

Gamora would have been great at 355 but again the color conflicts with her black and blue.

Mockingbird is nice, but if her passive makes Punishers green power go off before he has black its really bad with your team stunned and only minimal damage. She might do better at a 544 or 535 build. Either way she is a great character with a powerful red, passive, and good purple as well. (AP generator with a nuke)

Blade (Modern), again the colors...

Elektra meh...  Although, her red would feed him black ap.

Antman, I actually like this character but he needs a buff before I consider putting him on any team.His yellow for strike tiles is something to consider, maybe at a 535 build. His yellow is easily matched away though, if they were fortified they would be great and more guaranteed (Or at least make them 2 turn coundowns). His purple and blue need to be reduced though, 18ap to get the nuke going is crazy imo. A 5ap cost for both blue and purple would make him faster. 10ap for the nuke.

Kate Bishop at 535 would have been okay as long as her purple didn't also remove strike tiles...

Now if we are talking 5*s I think his best partner is Phoenix (544). Her purple feeds her red to create strike tiles all while dealing damage and improving friendly special tiles upon match 5's by 520. All you need on that team would be a yellow user.

Cloak and Dagger (553) and Wasp (553) in this case, take your pick. Both characters are good for that particular team. Although C&D may be the better choice in terms of not messing up your own strike tiles with Wasp. When shes used by the A.I you would need 16ap to turn them back to strikes and although they would be improved strike tiles, its not really worth it.

If C&D made strike instead of attack tiles it would be too good. At least they convert tiles to black to feed Punisher, and the ability to do a little more damage and removing enemy strike, attack, or protect tiles. You will never use there purple with this team (Jeans instead) so they will stay making attack tiles and generating black tiles.

Pun 553/Phoenix 544/C&D 553 - is a pretty good team, Jean will also tank green for Punisher.

I also think Punisher and Antman has some potential, maybe Punisher / Antman / Mockingbird.

CCW1208

Punmax is good character. You have to create both black and green ap to mate him powerful. I would suggest Punmax carol redhulk ou Punmax Carol Thule. Let Punmax or carol be highest level. Carol green passive will feed the team black apps. Red hulk or Thulk could generate green easily. They both have counting tiles to enhance strike tiles but Carol yellow passive.I don't like rainbow team now. The character passive power is more effective than active power in MPQ world.