**** Howard the Duck (Howard, A Duck) ****

wymtime

notamutant wrote:

GrumpySmurf1002 wrote:

So his green is basically 3Magneto's red, but on a different color.

Polarizing Force - Red 8
Magneto hurls a massive metal object towards the heart of the enemy team, landing with tremendous force and causing them to scatter. Destroys all Team-Up tiles, dealing 27 damage per tile. Does not generate AP.
Level 2: Deals 43 damage per tile.
Level 3: Deals 49 damage per tile.
Level 4: Deals 59 damage per tile.
Level 5: Deals 81 damage per tile.
Max Level: 261 damage per tile

Versus Howard's green

Max Level
Level 3: Deals 83 damage for every green tile on the board, then destroys those tiles.
Level 4: Deals 153 damage for every green tile on the board, then destroys those tiles.
Level 5: Deals 288 damage for every green tile on the board, then destroys those tiles.

Are they seriously saying that a 4 star with 104 levels more than a 3 star should only do an extra 17 damage per tile (not likely to be more than 12 green tiles out, especially if you are collecting them to use the skill) for around 204 more damage total. And at least with Magneto, you can still collect more red AP while waiting for more team-up tiles to drop. With Howard, it will take forever to get that much green again AND have enough green on the board to make it worth using. And it will make his invisibility less useful. So it is actually worse than a 3 star skill that is the 3 stars second strongest move.

It will take you 2 years to get 13 covers so yes. He is a trophy character like devil Dino so fork over you 1k HP to hold him in your roster for his DPDQ pray the DPDQ isn't impossible and then either have a Howard trophy or sell him for the next new character that comes out.

Jaedenkaal

This may not be saying much, but I think he's probably at least as good as Elektra (who is by all accounts not intended to be a joke character).

Oh, and he combines well with Star-Lord.

ErikPeter

A) Destroying green tiles is totally more useful than destroying team up tiles.

So what if it's a bad power, plenty of characters have bad powers to make up for good ones

C) Spend HP on vaults during the event (Whoops should've taken advantage of the last sale), or a few hundred CP afterward, maxing him, 5 purple does 8k+ per turn while he's invisible. It's 4 times better than Blade's purple (at max efficiency with strikes out). And he's invisible.

So yeah for most of us he's a silly slot-filling character that won't be featured or boosted most of the year. But for the most committed players he'll be someone different, and more useable, at least. (A nice alternative to RHulk maybe?)

GrumpySmurf1002

ErikPeter wrote:

C) Spend HP on vaults during the event (Whoops should've taken advantage of the last sale), or a few hundred CP afterward, maxing him, 5 purple does 8k+ per turn while he's invisible.

No it doesn't, it does 1600 per turn, at least according to the specs here, and the clarification above that the interview 'per tile' was a typo.

slidecage

Jaedenkaal wrote:

This may not be saying much, but I think he's probably at least as good as Elektra (who is by all accounts not intended to be a joke character).

Oh, and he combines well with Star-Lord.

my elektra can do like 1000 pts+ of damage per turn...i dont see howard ever doing that

ErikPeter

Never mind then, he's poo.

udonomefoo

ErikPeter wrote:

Never mind then, he's poo.

Maybe the stats are the april fool's joke.

_Ryu_

Cthulhu wrote:

Howard The Duck (Howard, A Duck)
4 Star Rarity (Legendary) Wiki Link
At Max Level: HP: 13034 Tile Damage: 12/11/74/65/83/13/3.0x

The Quack-Fu One-Two - 8 AP
Oh, I’m sorry, you’re messing with a MASTER OF QUACK-FU? Then prepare to explain the webbed foot prints on your face to everyone in your office on Monday! Deals 9 damage for each Green tile on the board, then destroys those tiles (Does not generate AP).
Level Upgrades

Level 2: Deals 23 damage for every green tile on the board, then destroys those tiles. Level 3: Deals 41 damage for every green tile on the board, then destroys those tiles. Level 4: Deals 77 damage for every green tile on the board, then destroys those tiles. Level 5: Deals 144 damage for every green tile on the board, then destroys those tiles.

Max Level

Level 3: Deals 83 damage for every green tile on the board, then destroys those tiles. Level 4: Deals 153 damage for every green tile on the board, then destroys those tiles. Level 5: Deals 288 damage for every green tile on the board, then destroys those tiles.

The same as CMags Red which does 261 at max lvl, I think for a 4* it should be a do a little bit more dmg, maybe 300+

ElAkkra

It's not written the same way as Magneto's red. His (Magneto's) red destroys tiles, dealing X damage per tile; Howard's is written as "do Y damage per tile, then destroy tiles." So the question is whether that's actually a one-two punch as the name suggests (doing his normal tile destruction damage for green after he's done the special damage per tile) or just one attack that overrides his normal green damage.

I read it as the former (which'd mean 288 + 83, plus double dipping on strikes), which seems a much more reasonable 4 damage output.

Polares

ElAkkra wrote:

It's not written the same way as Magneto's red. His (Magneto's) red destroys tiles, dealing X damage per tile; Howard's is written as "do Y damage per tile, then destroy tiles." So the question is whether that's actually a one-two punch as the name suggests (doing his normal tile destruction damage for green after he's done the special damage per tile) or just one attack that overrides his normal green damage.

I read it as the former (which'd mean 288 + 83, plus double dipping on strikes), which seems a much more reasonable 4 damage output.

The biggest problem is that in either way when you get the AP to fire green, you don't have enough tiles to do serious damage, because you have just matched them!, so you need to wait until the board gets filled with new green tiles. And to fire it twice is even worse, because now you don't have any green AP to match or to destroy. Magneto doesn't have the first problem (though there are supposed to be less team up tiles than any other color), but it needs to wait until the board gets refilled with teamups, but at least he can match red tiles meanwhile. Both can create cascades that can help to refill the board faster.

If the power needs one color of AP it should always destroy another completely different color.

TxMoose

Polares wrote:

The biggest problem is that in either way when you get the AP to fire green, you don't have enough tiles to do serious damage, because you have just matched them!, so you need to wait until the board gets filled with new green tiles.

im40 to the rescue... 2/3thor, kk, gsbw. there are workarounds, but ultimately, except for a feeder like im40, the other characters' green abilities are superior anyway. I suppose you could run him with cmags and xfw (or quake as an alt) and play the cascade game, but doesn't look promising.

Jaedenkaal

slidecage wrote:

Jaedenkaal wrote:

This may not be saying much, but I think he's probably at least as good as Elektra (who is by all accounts not intended to be a joke character).

Oh, and he combines well with Star-Lord.

my elektra can do like 1000 pts+ of damage per turn...i dont see howard ever doing that

Max level Duck Duck Loose! does 320 damage per turn per invis tile (5); that;s 1600 damage per turn, and while any of them exist he's invisible. I'd say that's a fair bit better than Ballet of Death

wymtime

Jaedenkaal wrote:

slidecage wrote:

Jaedenkaal wrote:

This may not be saying much, but I think he's probably at least as good as Elektra (who is by all accounts not intended to be a joke character).

Oh, and he combines well with Star-Lord.

my elektra can do like 1000 pts+ of damage per turn...i dont see howard ever doing that

Max level Duck Duck Loose! does 320 damage per turn per invis tile (5); that;s 1600 damage per turn, and while any of them exist he's invisible. I'd say that's a fair bit better than Ballet of Death

It is actually a cross between ballet of death and Shadow step. The different is Howard costs 12AP compared to 8 from Ballet of Death.

scottee

Yay, debating abilities on a joke character.

It was like the person arguing that Dino's tiny arms were a legitimate boardshake ability.

notamutant

scottee wrote:

Yay, debating abilities on a joke character.

It was like the person arguing that Dino's tiny arms were a legitimate boardshake ability.

At the time he came out, Dino had the highest health in 4 star land, there weren't that many 4 stars, and he actually had decent damage to AP ratio for green and red. He is a waste of a spot now, but back then he had potential. Lastly, there were fewer characters then, so a slot didn't cost 1000 HP at the time.

Howard, on the other hand, came out at a time with ever more powerful characters, with a bloated 4 star tier, and few covers rewarded. Are we expected to hang onto him for the future just in case? Could he become an essential 6 months from now? He isn't really a joke character anyhow. His skills read like a normal but **** 4 star. He is being pushed now to coincide with a new comic.

Pogo

ElAkkra wrote:

It's not written the same way as Magneto's red. His (Magneto's) red destroys tiles, dealing X damage per tile; Howard's is written as "do Y damage per tile, then destroy tiles." So the question is whether that's actually a one-two punch as the name suggests (doing his normal tile destruction damage for green after he's done the special damage per tile) or just one attack that overrides his normal green damage.

I read it as the former (which'd mean 288 + 83, plus double dipping on strikes), which seems a much more reasonable 4 damage output.

I was thrown off by the description's phrasing, which is specifically what led me to this thread. It specifies that you don't get the AP, but since damage isn't mentioned after the tiles are popped, I'd assume normal tile damage is dealt after the initial hit.

Even if he's going to be distributed as a novelty/vanity character like Devil Dino, and even if the source of the character is more wacky than awesome, it still seems counterproductive to intentionally underdeliver on a new character, power-wise.

babinro

Initial impressions from on paper stats:

Green:
Below Average. At five covers this skill could probably average around 2500 damage on it's first use. You can likely time the use of the skill in a way that you'll generate some AP so it's not a completely worthless skill. The problems with it are clear though...there's almost no reason to fire this off twice and the damage is XF green level's of bad.

Blue:
Good. 3 turn stuns are strong and the ability remove just about every main tile type at 5 covers is very nice. This is a useful skill in the current pvp meta and a great one in PvE as well. In a world without JG's absurdly powerful purple this skill would be a lot more compelling. 5 covers is a must.

Purple:
Below Average. An interesting defensive skill that pesters with ongoing amounts of slow damage. This skill could be great on a character with better offensive options but in the case of Howard it's all just too slow to seriously consider. This is pretty much the ultimate troll skill though, kudos D3. Please don't make him pop up in a random survival node, lol.


Initial Build:
3/5/5
Blue is the only skill of note on this character. At 3 purple and 3 green both of those skills are accomplishing their main goals. I give the edge to purple because the damage is ongoing and increases with more invis tiles. You really don't want to be in position where Howard has to win the match by himself though. These skills are slow.

Overall:
Top 5. Worst. He's bagman tier. Better than Devil Dino and arguably on par with Totally Awesome Hulk. I could see some people considering him stronger than Elektra and IW but it really doesn't matter at this tier of play. Not setting a high bar but he's clearly intended to be a joke character so that's fine.

Edit: Had to modify the write-up quite a bit upon learning that purple damage procs every turn rather than just once.

Jaedenkaal

babinro wrote:

Initial impressions from on paper stats:

Green:
Below Average. At five covers this skill could probably average around 2500 damage on it's first use. You can likely time the use of the skill in a way that you'll generate some AP so it's not a completely worthless skill. The problems with it are clear though...there's almost no reason to fire this off twice and the damage is XF green level's of bad.

Blue:
Good. 3 turn stuns are strong and the ability remove just about every main tile type at 5 covers is very nice. This is a useful skill in the current pvp meta and a great one in PvE as well. In a world without JG's absurdly powerful purple this skill would be a lot more compelling. 5 covers is a must.

Purple:
Bad. Atrocious damage tied to an admittedly annoying and effective skill. If this were on a better character it would actually be somewhat appealing as far as defensive skills are concerned. Howard's other skills just don't make this appealing. No one wants to finish a match with just Howard the Duck left alive dealing match damage against the enemy team for 20 minutes. Xavier at least addresses this problem by quickly ramping up the special tile damage.


Initial Build:
?/5/?
Blue is the only skill of note on this character. At 3 purple and 3 green both of those skills are accomplishing their main goals. The damage boost from 3-5 green or 3-5 blue is lousy and going from 4 invis tiles to 5 invis tiles isn't enough to demand immediate attention.

Overall:
Top 3. Worst. He's bagman tier. Better than Devil Dino and arguably on par with Totally Awesome Hulk. Howard is worse than Invisible Woman in my opinion. Not setting a high bar but he's clearly intended to be a joke character.

Um. rank 5 Duck Duck Loose! damage is 1600 (per turn) vs the 600 per turn at rank 3. (less as the tiles get matched away, to be sure). That's a pretty awesome damage boost whether or not you think 1600 damage per turn is terribly exciting. It's equivalent to about 15 Pym Particle attack tiles. I think as a mashup between Blind Spot and Pym Particles it's hardly a terrible skill, and if you can make 12 more purple AP before the last invis tile gets matched or destroyed, you could keep it up for quite a while.

sinnerjfl

Very dissapointing now that we see his final numbers, meh.

Sandwichboy

The damage on green seems really low, but blue and purple are pretty solid skills at 5. 5 purple will be incredibly annoying if the AI can fire it off, and hilarious on Offence. 1600 damage per turn may not sound scary, but the fact that you basically need to have JG around to make him visible again means he can cause a lot of health packs to be burned. Certainly not top 10, but probably fun when boosted and certainly fun in PVE. Just wish Blue also targeted countdowns.