In praise of the Jerk Node

The Bob The
The Bob The Posts: 743 Critical Contributor
edited April 2016 in MPQ General Discussion
Here's a lesser-known beast of the PVE wilds: The Jerk Node. A Jerk Node is NOT a hard or even necessarily challenging node. It is one that can almost always be won, but one that must be managed. A Jerk Node makes you stop (usually literally, by slowing down gameplay) and think about what you're doing. It does this by being a jerk, usually via a maddening roster of required characters.

The current Deadpool PVE is home, in sub 1, to perhaps the finest Jerk Node ever crafted. You enlist your all-support team of CStorm, Falcon, and Mr. Fantastic, ready to ... I dunno, buff the hell out of some protect tiles, I guess? Heal one guy, occasionally? The possibilities are several.

In the opponents' corner: OBW, Luke Cage, and Hawkeye. Between a passive protect tile and blue heal and your own miserable damage capabilities, this sets you up for an incredibly slow game. It also means Cage is probably getting his uppercut off, which will one-shot CStorm if you're not paying attention but is otherwise survivable. There's also Hawkeye's passive and a Fury team up, which each become more likely as the round drags on.

It's a classic Jerk Node for several reasons. Note that Cage has been neutered (no black power), and OBW is stripped of her steal; if not, this would become the Jerk Node's ugly cousin, the **** Node (see various Carnage and Kingpin feeder nodes for examples). That's an entirely different beast, one to be feared and faced. There's little chance of losing a Jerk Node, but the proposition still makes you roll your eyes and grit your teeth because UGGGHHHHHH.

Lest you think this a complaining post, I come rather to offer grudging props for the well-crafted Jerk Node. It's far stupider than its relative the True Puzzle Node (think Quicksilver-IW), but far friendlier than the **** Node. A Jerk Node requires craft, and, however maddening, craft deserves respect. So: Well played.

Now let's never, ever see this fershlugginer thing again.
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Comments

  • MojoWild
    MojoWild Posts: 765 Critical Contributor
    The OBW, Falcon, Mr. Fantastic goes one better. At least Storm can cause damage.
  • Quebbster
    Quebbster Posts: 8,070 Chairperson of the Boards
    MojoWild wrote:
    The OBW, Falcon, Mr. Fantastic goes one better. At least Storm can cause damage.
    Yeah, but they only have to worry about Yelena since OBW and Falcon have no issue with the goons...
  • dokiy
    dokiy Posts: 240 Tile Toppler
    How about the Mr. Fantastic essential node on day two? Your opponents: Carnage, Doc Ock, and Ultron. Yay enemy spamming attack tiles. Bah.
  • Blahahah
    Blahahah Posts: 738 Critical Contributor
    Maybe it's because I'm running around with an almost covered Mr.F but I found the node to be nice. A good place to go heal up.
  • MaxxPowerz
    MaxxPowerz Posts: 276 Mover and Shaker
    You gotta love the devs; they like to make you fight with bum teams, but when do you ever get to face up against one as inept as Cstorm, Falcon and Mr. F? I'm calling shenanigans.
  • atomzed
    atomzed Posts: 1,753 Chairperson of the Boards
    The node was soooo draggy, I think I ate a righteous uppercut everytime I played it.

    The fortunate thing is that they neutered cage black ability, and obw ability.... If not it will have been a massacre.
  • The Bob The
    The Bob The Posts: 743 Critical Contributor
    dokiy wrote:
    How about the Mr. Fantastic essential node on day two? Your opponents: Carnage, Doc Ock, and Ultron. Yay enemy spamming attack tiles. Bah.

    See, in my opinion that's approaching **** Node territory - brutal synergy designed to hurt rather than merely annoy.
  • The Bob The
    The Bob The Posts: 743 Critical Contributor
    atomzed wrote:
    The node was soooo draggy, I think I ate a righteous uppercut everytime I played it.

    The fortunate thing is that they neutered cage black ability, and obw ability.... If not it will have been a massacre.

    Yep. Hardest thing for me was remembering to monitor yellow so I didn't lose Storm. Counting on Imaginaut is a new experience for me.
  • TheWerebison
    TheWerebison Posts: 431 Mover and Shaker
    The Bob The wrote:
    atomzed wrote:
    The node was soooo draggy, I think I ate a righteous uppercut everytime I played it.

    The fortunate thing is that they neutered cage black ability, and obw ability.... If not it will have been a massacre.

    Yep. Hardest thing for me was remembering to monitor yellow so I didn't lose Storm. Counting on Imaginaut is a new experience for me.

    100% this. I can't believe I did probably half my damage with using Imaginaut to break through Cage's shield, and the other half waiting desperately for those 2 rare occurrences where I would make a 5 match that destroys Cage's shield, or else the enemy would match away their own shield, so I could stun him with Storm's blue and keep him from using it again for a bit.
  • UncleSmed
    UncleSmed Posts: 75
    dokiy wrote:
    How about the Mr. Fantastic essential node on day two? Your opponents: Carnage, Doc Ock, and Ultron. Yay enemy spamming attack tiles. Bah.

    1/1/2 MrF, champed Lcap and im40..
    First move is chuck out tiles for ap.. after that it's not a problem.
  • mazerat
    mazerat Posts: 118
    I didn't find it too bad, just had to grab enough blue for Redwing and you can start chipping away at Cage and once you have enough Black for Imaginaut, stun Cage with no protect tile and burn him before he unstuns. The one time my Storm got Uppercutted, though, yeesh!

    Also, the one time I managed to keep Imaginaut around long enough to get enough black to use it a second time only to learn it doesn't stack. I can't believe you have to jump through so many hoops for the skill and it's not even allowed to be mediocre if you do it a second time. Mr. F and his wife are so bad that you'd almost think it was part of Marvel hosing Fox's properties but Torch, Thing, Doom, and the X-Men are all solid so maybe it's more personal than that.
  • snlf25
    snlf25 Posts: 947 Critical Contributor
    MaxxPowerz wrote:
    You gotta love the devs; they like to make you fight with bum teams, but when do you ever get to face up against one as inept as Cstorm, Falcon and Mr. F? I'm calling shenanigans.

    Shenanigans officially seconded!
  • Dauthi
    Dauthi Posts: 995 Critical Contributor
    It's stuff like this that annoys me about MPQ. It would be nice to get a sense that they are hand crafting teams when you are forced to use specific characters to introduce you to witty team pairings, but then you get battles like this that make it obvious they don't care. They just throw down a randomizer and let the game run itself icon_neutral.gif
  • Crowl
    Crowl Posts: 1,581 Chairperson of the Boards
    dokiy wrote:
    How about the Mr. Fantastic essential node on day two? Your opponents: Carnage, Doc Ock, and Ultron. Yay enemy spamming attack tiles. Bah.

    That is more a jerk character than a jerk node since you can pick two proper ones to play alongside him.
  • Crowl
    Crowl Posts: 1,581 Chairperson of the Boards
    Dauthi wrote:
    It's stuff like this that annoys me about MPQ. It would be nice to get a sense that they are hand crafting teams when you are forced to use specific characters to introduce you to witty team pairings, but then you get battles like this that make it obvious they don't care. They just throw down a randomizer and let the game run itself icon_neutral.gif

    I think they must be handcrafting the rosters we get lumbered with for some of the heroics.
  • zodiac339
    zodiac339 Posts: 1,948 Chairperson of the Boards
    UncleSmed wrote:
    dokiy wrote:
    How about the Mr. Fantastic essential node on day two? Your opponents: Carnage, Doc Ock, and Ultron. Yay enemy spamming attack tiles. Bah.

    1/1/2 MrF, champed Lcap and im40..
    First move is chuck out tiles for ap.. after that it's not a problem.
    I plan on bringing in Squirrel Girl. Nuts from above loves the tile spam. Not sure who my third will be.
  • atomzed
    atomzed Posts: 1,753 Chairperson of the Boards
    zodiac339 wrote:
    UncleSmed wrote:
    dokiy wrote:
    How about the Mr. Fantastic essential node on day two? Your opponents: Carnage, Doc Ock, and Ultron. Yay enemy spamming attack tiles. Bah.

    1/1/2 MrF, champed Lcap and im40..
    First move is chuck out tiles for ap.. after that it's not a problem.
    I plan on bringing in Squirrel Girl. Nuts from above loves the tile spam. Not sure who my third will be.

    That node wasn't too difficult for me since I have a max Jean. So my team is Jg-Sw and mr F. Mr F comes in useful as he can stun carnage and prevent his passive from activating.
  • Smudge
    Smudge Posts: 562 Critical Contributor
    atomzed wrote:
    zodiac339 wrote:
    UncleSmed wrote:
    dokiy wrote:
    How about the Mr. Fantastic essential node on day two? Your opponents: Carnage, Doc Ock, and Ultron. Yay enemy spamming attack tiles. Bah.

    1/1/2 MrF, champed Lcap and im40..
    First move is chuck out tiles for ap.. after that it's not a problem.
    I plan on bringing in Squirrel Girl. Nuts from above loves the tile spam. Not sure who my third will be.

    That node wasn't too difficult for me since I have a max Jean. So my team is Jg-Sw and mr F. Mr F comes in useful as he can stun carnage and prevent his passive from activating.

    It wasn't too bad on a first play through with the good ol' champed LCap/IM40 duo either. Stun Carnage with Steve. If you have to eat an Alien Instincts to recharge, it's not too terrible. You can overwrite Ultron's CDs or attack tiles with Steve's shield spamming pretty easily. I didn't get too beat up even with Mr. F at an underwhelming 0/0/1 level 70.
  • wymtime
    wymtime Posts: 3,762 Chairperson of the Boards
    Smudge wrote:
    atomzed wrote:
    How about the Mr. Fantastic essential node on day two? Your opponents: Carnage, Doc Ock, and Ultron. Yay enemy spamming attack tiles. Bah.


    It wasn't too bad on a first play through with the good ol' champed LCap/IM40 duo either. Stun Carnage with Steve. If you have to eat an Alien Instincts to recharge, it's not too terrible. You can overwrite Ultron's CDs or attack tiles with Steve's shield spamming pretty easily. I didn't get too beat up even with Mr. F at an underwhelming 0/0/1 level 70.
    [/quote][/quote]
    Just bring Daken and match green. He will true heal and use carnage so attack tiles against him. you could bring Sentry with his massive strike tile too. I actually like OML and X-23 personally and I take out doc ok first then ultranationalist, the. Finally stun Carnage when I have plenty of strike and attack tiles out. Carnage is my MVP

    As far as the OP original point isn't the Jerk node having to use OBW, Mr F and Falcon over Cstorm? Cstorm can do some real damage with her blue, OBW is going to steal and heal. Her black is only good on blue and black since in the loaner nodes Mr F tanks black. Overal that is much slower then round 1 with Cstorm to AOE everyone.
  • Calnexin
    Calnexin Posts: 1,078 Chairperson of the Boards
    dokiy wrote:
    How about the Mr. Fantastic essential node on day two? Your opponents: Carnage, Doc Ock, and Ultron. Yay enemy spamming attack tiles. Bah.

    I'd agree, except you get to choose your other two. Steve + IM40 delivers a mighty slap. Once you stun and down Carnage it's just cleanup. All Ultron's done to me are finger lasers for ~ 500 AoE.

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