*** Iron Man (Model 40) ***

mags1587

IM40 is somewhat useful paired with GSBW with his yellow at 4. On yellow-heavy boards you get purple and green to charge Sniper Rifle.

over_clocked

GSBW is another character I won't ever level until threatened to do so She's an utility green battery/tile clearer for me and that's about it...

Phaserhawk

locked wrote:

I understand the point, Phaser, but that would also require leveling IM 40 for the pile of HP and yes, never actually using any of his abilities. I can't afford to have a character specially made useless even if only one ability is actually useful; I'd rather have a fine offensive lvl 40 tool suited for PvE and early PvP climbing than a completely useless lvl 166 tank. A player only ever has to run IM 40 in PvP when he's their only viable tank; right now we have a Heavy Metal event and do you think I will give IM 40 a sliver of ISO? No! Maxed Sentry/Hood will do a much better job of scaring folks away.

Does making your IM 40 5/5/2 count as gimping if you never intend to give him levels anyway? (Maybe only if I suddenly win 2 mln ISO in a lottery. Maaaaybe.)

Edit: I might level IM 40 only for him to tank blue/yellow for cStorm when buffed, methinks. But why should I level him over Falcon, or *gasp* Psylocke?

I agree with you fully. As for leveling, I have a system. Whenever a character is featured for PvP I give them 5 levels. If a character is featured in PvE, like Heroic lets say. I give them 1 lvl, yes I gave bagman a level. The rest I give to the guys I want on my A team. It didnt' pay off right away, but I am seeing the difference now in a few PvE's not yet in PvP but it does let me run a B and C team before I put in my A team to defend.

GrimSkald

I'm looking for some advice. Here's a little background - I'm fairly solidly in the 2* -> 3* transition - I have all of the good 2*s maxed out with most of the others in the 50s for PVE, but I only have one 3* over 100 (Hulk with 10 covers,) and a few trailing behind in the 7-8 cover area. I presently have IM40 with six covers - a rather sub-optimal 1/4/1 but blue is what I got a lot of.

Here's my question - I've been playing around with him in both the PVE and PVP, and definitely find him more valuable as a mana battery rather than an actual attacker. I got both his blue and yellow cover from the past PVP, but have intentionally held off adding the yellow because I feel that the yellow is more useful at one 1 cover rather than 2 - 6 yellow AP is a lot quicker than 8, and I can *always* use the red, while the blue seems more conditional. What are other people's experiences? I have just under 6 days until the yellow cover expires, so I'm curious to know what other people think.

I'll be happy to share more of my roster if people are interested and they think it will impact the decision.

over_clocked

If you don't have cStorm or classic Magneto or lazy Cap or lazy Daken, I think you can keep yellow at 1. mHawkeye isn't a bad blue user if you got no one else.
8 yellow is still beastly cheap and sometimes you don't want to use yellow too early at 6 when there are plenty of yellow matches around, so imo either is fine in its own way. I use lvl 2 yellow now to power both red/blue, as I do have uses for blue.

HairyDave

It's really not that much harder to get 8 AP as opposed to 6 so I'd go ahead and stick the second yellow cover on there. Lazy Cap, CMags and CStorm are his besties at X/X/2.

Even if you have no other blue user, Ballistic Salvo isn't a complete waste of time.

Unknown

If you have 1 in yellow you can boost +3 yellow/red, +3 all, fire it in the first turn, match 2 red pairs, and use Patch's TBTI to 1 shot a character on turn 5.

Wish I could go back.

GrimSkald

SirKopath wrote:

If you have 1 in yellow you can boost +3 yellow/red, +3 all, fire it in the first turn, match 2 red pairs, and use Patch's TBTI to 1 shot a character on turn 5.

Wish I could go back.

I don't understand this. All my boosts are for 1ap, I can only double up by using the +1 to all, so at most I can get 2 ap in any particular color.

As for what I have, I have CStorm maxed out (I sometimes trot her out with MNMags, also maxed.) I have six covers in CMags (2/2/2,) four in LDaken (1/2/1 - I'm going to try to get three in the current PVP but two is much more likely.) I only have 3 in Patch (1/1/1) my next 3* will likely be Human Torch (3/1/3) or The Hood (1/5/2,) though I do have a rather lopsided PunPun (5/1/0) that I'd love to play. I hope to get Daken or CMags up there eventually, though Daken has a longer trip, I think...

mischiefmaker

GrimSkald wrote:

I don't understand this. All my boosts are for 1ap, I can only double up by using the +1 to all, so at most I can get 2 ap in any particular color.

Underneath the boost, there should be a green button that says "Boost more!". When you press it, you can stack an AP boost up to 3 times and a % damage boost up to 5 times.

I have both a 5/5/1 and a 5/5/2 IM40 build and I can tell you that the 5/5/1 sees a considerable amount more use. 8 AP is a lot more than 6 -- it's on average 2 turns slower to get off, and if you need to match extra yellows, one extra yellow match at 6 AP puts you one away from being able to double-Recharge, which is monstrous, whereas an extra yellow match at 8AP doesn't really do you any good.

At 5/5/2 I think he is really only suited for pairing with Captain America (although that is a really fun pairing, especially with Hood). CStorm/IM40 is fine, but you'll eventually outgrow CStorm, and anyway she plays just as well with MMN, who you already have maxed. CMags really needs a strike tile user, and he doesn't play that well with Daken (no use for green, conflict over blue, Mags' blue hurts Daken most of the time), so you're looking at Patch or Punisher; Patch strongly prefers 5/5/1 IM40, and anyway 9 blue is kind of overkill for Magneto, who really only needs 6-7 to get going, and you can get that faster than you can get 8 yellow. I also don't love IM40 as a Daken pairing because you're really not going to be spamming blue all the time, so getting 9 blue isn't really a power move.

I do think 5/5/2 IM40 might be pretty good for Nick Fury, but that's a long ways away for most people.

On the other hand, 5/5/1 plays great with Patch (easily enables early TBTI for taking out one character, I often use a second Recharge late for Thor/Hulk or similarly beefy teams), Human Torch, Psylocke, and Sentry. If I could only have one of my builds I would easily pick 5/5/1.

tl;dr: 5/5/1 is a good bit more powerful; 5/5/2 is a bit more versatile.

vudu3

One additional point to make--you can always add another yellow cover later but you can't remove one once you're added to your character. If you don't have a need for the blue right now you may be better off sticking with 1 yellow. If you decide down the line that you want the blue AP you can add a cover at that time. The devs aren't exactly stingy with IM40 covers so you shouldn't have to wait too long to get one if you really want one.

Joker117

So what's the best set up for IM40 ?
5red/5blue/3yellow?

Joker117

What about when IM40 is full ideally what's the best card set up

5 red
5blue
3 yellow ?

Or ?

Phaserhawk

Joker117 wrote:

So what's the best set up for IM40 ?
5red/5blue/3yellow?

Most people will say 5/5/2

If you want him fully maxed then 5/4/4 or 5/5/3 as having played both of these the times you can cast 5/5/3 Recharge over 5/4/4 Recharge is almost never.

Unknown

The ideal full build is 5/5/2, since with yellow at 2 you can fire it off with three matches. If you already have 3 in yellow, might as well go 5/4/4 - whether it's 10 ap or 12 ap, you get it in 4 matches.

GrimSkald

mischiefmaker wrote:

Underneath the boost, there should be a green button that says "Boost more!". When you press it, you can stack an AP boost up to 3 times and a % damage boost up to 5 times.

OMG thanks! Holy ****, I can't believe I've made it this long in the game without knowing that. I kind of thought boosts were a small edge that you could get, but I see that they can be significant. I'll have to experiment with this.

mischiefmaker wrote:

I have both a 5/5/1 and a 5/5/2 IM40 build and I can tell you that the 5/5/1 sees a considerable amount more use. 8 AP is a lot more than 6 -- it's on average 2 turns slower to get off, and if you need to match extra yellows, one extra yellow match at 6 AP puts you one away from being able to double-Recharge, which is monstrous, whereas an extra yellow match at 8AP doesn't really do you any good.

At 5/5/2 I think he is really only suited for pairing with Captain America (although that is a really fun pairing, especially with Hood). CStorm/IM40 is fine, but you'll eventually outgrow CStorm, and anyway she plays just as well with MMN, who you already have maxed. CMags really needs a strike tile user, and he doesn't play that well with Daken (no use for green, conflict over blue, Mags' blue hurts Daken most of the time), so you're looking at Patch or Punisher; Patch strongly prefers 5/5/1 IM40, and anyway 9 blue is kind of overkill for Magneto, who really only needs 6-7 to get going, and you can get that faster than you can get 8 yellow. I also don't love IM40 as a Daken pairing because you're really not going to be spamming blue all the time, so getting 9 blue isn't really a power move.

Funny you should mention LazyCap. He's quite litterally the only rare cover that has never moved through my hands (I was discarding GSBW, Loki, Rags, and Daredevil - I started keeping the first two but they'll probably be the first to go if I need space.) It's so strange. I hope to get at least one from the current PVE.

mischiefmaker wrote:

I do think 5/5/2 IM40 might be pretty good for Nick Fury, but that's a long ways away for most people.

On the other hand, 5/5/1 plays great with Patch (easily enables early TBTI for taking out one character, I often use a second Recharge late for Thor/Hulk or similarly beefy teams), Human Torch, Psylocke, and Sentry. If I could only have one of my builds I would easily pick 5/5/1.

tl;dr: 5/5/1 is a good bit more powerful; 5/5/2 is a bit more versatile.

vudu3 wrote:

One additional point to make--you can always add another yellow cover later but you can't remove one once you're added to your character. If you don't have a need for the blue right now you may be better off sticking with 1 yellow. If you decide down the line that you want the blue AP you can add a cover at that time. The devs aren't exactly stingy with IM40 covers so you shouldn't have to wait too long to get one if you really want one.

This is where I'm leaning - I have another day or two to make up my mind. Sure, the blue can fuel his own "once in a long time" blue, and it is quite fun when you get it off, but it is not really a viable option normally.

Thanks for the feedback, all! Feel free to continue the discussion, it is interesting.

over_clocked

I seriously don't know how people are able to pull off x/x/1 early; I can only imagine they hog ALL the yellow matches early and do double Recharge for 12 yellow. If you fire an early Recharge at 6 yellow as soon as you have 6 yellow or just boost 6 yellow before the match, most of the CDs are going to be matched and destroyed because yellow is a strong colour for many a character, even those that can't use it effectively (Patch, cStorm, Captain, Magneto).

GrimSkald

locked wrote:

I seriously don't know how people are able to pull off x/x/1 early; I can only imagine they hog ALL the yellow matches early and do double Recharge for 12 yellow. If you fire an early Recharge at 6 yellow as soon as you have 6 yellow or just boost 6 yellow before the match, most of the CDs are going to be matched and destroyed because yellow is a strong colour for many a character, even those that can't use it effectively (Patch, cStorm, Captain, Magneto).

I typically get two out of the three off so long as I can arrange it a bit. While I don't know if I'll ever get a viable Patch (just three covers,) I certainly have a lot of red users he can fuel. While I do have a few blue users, I think the ability to use the red faster outweighs the extra blue.

mischiefmaker

locked wrote:

I seriously don't know how people are able to pull off x/x/1 early; I can only imagine they hog ALL the yellow matches early and do double Recharge for 12 yellow. If you fire an early Recharge at 6 yellow as soon as you have 6 yellow or just boost 6 yellow before the match, most of the CDs are going to be matched and destroyed because yellow is a strong colour for many a character, even those that can't use it effectively (Patch, cStorm, Captain, Magneto).

I typically only use Recharge for powers requiring at least 10 red (because if you only need 9 red, it's just as fast to get 9 red as it is to get 6 yellow + 2 turns), which means I need to match at least one red. Also, everyone I use Recharge for has another color that's roughly as desirable as red (Patch green, Psylocke black, Torch black/green). Therefore, yellow is typically a third priority color -- e.g. for Patch I need two reds before I stun IM40, plus I want green. I find that by the time I get 2 yellow and the colors I want, I'm able to disrupt the board enough where I can put all my countdowns places where they don't have immediate matches. I'd guess that I get all 3 to hit around 90% of the time.

So really the only time 8 is just as fast as 6 is if I get 2 yellow and 2 red matches, and I can't disrupt any eminent yellow matches by taking another color I want, and there's only one yellow match on board (because if there's two I'll go double-recharge).

That's only for the non-boosting case, though. If you're boosting yellow, you'll almost certainly have 8 after you clean up available matches.

IReallyHatePVP

I would argue 0/5/2 or 0/5/3. You never want to give the AI an excuse to want to fire off a Uni(corn)-beam. I have used that ability twice, LOST one of those matches, and deeply regretted both instances.

Phaserhawk

I think I am going to be respecing my IM40 to 5/3/5. The reason is 1, why waste points in a blue skill you never use. 2, by having yellow maxed, it raises the cost, by raising the cost I am able to have him paired with Thor or any other higher costing yellow, without fear the AI will cast recharge while on defense. So since I never play him except PvP, I would like him to be the most optimal in that enviornment, which means having him do nothing else but tank, and a 5/3/5 lets him sit there, absorb punishment and not mess the AI up.