Character rankings: Tiers (late April 2016)

loroku

A new character ranking! Except hopefully faster and easier this time, and also no polls. Discussion for why tiers are being used is here.

Use posts (or post links to threads, discussions) to suggest changes; rankings will be compiled mostly in aggregate without weighting (unless the community agrees to weight someone's voice more). The one exception are troll posts: so justify your changes! Anyone wishing to contribute notes / descriptions may do so. Please always use both the name and * designation.

Tiers are presented with light ordering within tiers; general placement is less indicative than tier placement. Here are the 5 tiers defined:

S tier - Meta-defining. These are the best characters for the most possible situations, or the best possible characters for specific situations that happen constantly. You always want these characters and you always want to put your ISO here. 4* Jean Gray, Hulkbuster, and Iron Fist are S tier.

A tier - Excellent. These are excellent characters you'd never mind having, who can fill roles until your S tier characters are online, especially when boosted. These are still always worth maxing / boosting. 3* Thor and 4* Thor are A tier.

B tier - Good. These are still good characters overall, or they excel at very specific situations that don't come up as often. They're still worth keeping on your roster. Juggernaut is a classic B tier. The Hood and Patch are B tier.

C tier - Meh. The "everyone else" tier. These are characters you could drop if you needed to make room for a higher tier. They're still used for that one-off event every now and again, or they might have a niche use that's nice, but you should be prioritizing your precious ISO into the higher tiers. Star Lord and She Hulk are C tier.

D tier - Terrible. These are characters it's ok to dump at any time, you should never prioritize them for ISO, and you will likely never play them (except maaaaybe some are used for boosted PvEs or something). Moonstone, Ragnarok, and Yelena are D tier.

Bagman - There is only one Bagman.

Sources:
Original Thread
NorthernPolarity's old guide
Ozark Boatswain's sig
Ebolamonkey84's Feb. rankings

loroku

S TIER
5* Wolverine (Old Man Logan) - not as good on defense but probably the best single character to date
4* Jean Grey - goes great with 4* Hulkbuster, currently queen of the PvP meta
4* Ironman (Hulkbuster) - goes great with 4* Jean Grey, currently king of the PvP meta
5* Jean Grey (Phoenix)
5* Green Goblin
4* Iceman
4* Cyclops (Classic)
3* Iron Fist - combos well with nearly everyone, probably the strongest 3* for damage and board shake
3* Luke Cage - great with Iron Fist, great on defense, still packs a wallop
3* Kamala Khan


A TIER
5* Spiderman
5* Silver Surfer
4* Thor (Goddess)
4* Red Hulk
4* The Punisher (MAX) - strong new release
4* Professor X
3* Thor (Modern) - one of the strongest 3*s, slow but still viable well into the 4* transition
3* Cyclops (Uncanny)
3* Magneto (Classic)
3* Scarlet Witch - great with Kingpin
4* Quake - amazing defense
4* Nova
3* Blade - can still fill the board with strike tiles
3* Black Panther - great with Iron Fist
3* Daken - still a strike tile champ with great healing, a strong 3*, great with Iron Fist
3* Steve Rogers (Super Soldier) - great with 3* Iron Man
4* Deadpool (Uncanny)
4* The Thing - great with 4* Deadpool
4* Kingpin
4* Wolverine (X-Force)
4* Nick Fury
4* X-23


B TIER
2* Black Widow (Original) - a fan favorite and relevant WELL into the 3* transition, stealing AP is never bad!
2* Ares - still combos well with Daken, still one of the strongest 2*s
2* Daken - still combos well with Ares
1* Juggernaut (Classic) - insane when boosted in Balance of Power; great for Deadpool Dailies
4* Spider Gwen
2* Thor (Marvel NOW!) - not a bad 2*
3* The Hood - stealing AP is never bad!
2* Storm (Classic) - classic combo with 2* Magneto is still a classic
2* Magneto - great with 2* Storm
3* Wolverine (Patch) - great with Loki
3* Loki - still great board shake
4* Carnage
4* Ghost Rider - good against 5*s
4* Ant-Man
4* Venom
4* Miles Morales (Spider-Man) - great with 5* Spider-Man
4* Elektra - good against 4* Hulkbuster
4* Sam Wilson (Cap)
3* Sam Wilson (Falcon) - good with Daken, Blade, or anyone who makes lots of tiles
3* Iron Man (Model 40) - charge power is great, others are still overcosted
3* Doctor Doom - takes too long but can hit hard
4* Howard the Duck - weirdly useful in some places
3* Deadpool - meh but can pull Whales out to solve crazy Gauntlet matches


C TIER
4* Star-Lord
4* Drax
4* Invisible Woman - better but still not good
3* Colossus - can hit like a truck if you ignore him, slightly above "meh" on defense
3* Psylocke - quick and good support but not quite powerful enough
3* She-Hulk - does a little bit of everything but just doesn't quite cut it
3* Human Torch - red and green are strong but there are better choices for both
3* Quicksilver - great with Iron Fist
3* Rocket & Groot - ok healing but meh everything else
3* Black Widow - still too slow
3* Mystique - good with Scarlet Witch
3* Storm - a good upgrade to 1* Storm
3* Gamora - good with Iron Fist, her black can be deadly
3* The Hulk - still not bad on PvP defense, but not really good at anything else
2* Steve Rogers - might be good if you get a power off
2* Johnny Storm - on the low side of meh
2* Wolverine - pretty ****
1* Iron Man - will last longer than your other 1*s except Juggs


D TIER
1* Black Widow - good early on, gets worse at max level, eventually replaced
1* Storm - good early on, but squishy and quickly replaced
3* Captain Marvel - not bad on defense but otherwise unremarkable
3* The Punisher - sadly no longer relevant
3* Sentry - how the mighty have fallen
3* Spider-Man - just doesn't do enough
3* Squirrel Girl - not really good at anything
3* Daredevil - trap tiles have gotten better but not enough to make him usable
3* Bullseye
3* Vision
2* Ms. Marvel
2* Hawkeye
3* Beast - still bleh
3* Doctor Octopus - was always bleh
3* Ragnarok - the upgrade helped but he's still not useful
2* Bullseye
2* Moonstone - dev crush but still awful
4* Hulk (Totally Awesome) - sadly not awesome
4* Mr. Fantastic - ironically named
4* Devil Dinosaur - joke character, also impossible to get covers
1* Spider-Man - too little too late
1* Hawkeye - not bad when you first start but quickly eclipsed
1* Venom - sell
1* Yelena Belova - terrible and almost strictly worse than 1* Black Widow


BAGMAN
2* Spider Man (Bag-Man) - need we say more?

loroku

(holding for future expansion)

loroku

(one more should be plenty)

carrion_pigeons

I guess this list is as good as any to incite discussion, as long as people are aware the discussion is the thing much more than the actual list.

Some stuff worth pointing out, to me:

3* Iron Man is probably an A, I don't see it on the list but it's the best battery in the game and relevant in the 4* tier.

OBW is certainly an S, she's the defining character of her rank, relevant throughout the 3* tier, and her utility for teamups means no one will ever take her off their roster, and will sometimes have multiples.

I don't think 3* Thor is an A. He was, once, but has been pretty far outclassed these days, and has very little utility.

Scarlet Witch, BWGS, and Professor X deserve an S for being an important way to grind PvE. If you want to compete there, you can't do without these characters unless you have a VERY solid 5* roster.

Cho is Bag-Man tier.

1* Spider-Man should be B tier. He might get quickly outclassed by higher ranks, but you'll likely not get rid of him for a long time. He's useful as a teamup for his purple, and he's more useful in DDQ than Juggernaut is. Since Balance of Power isn't really a consideration anymore, Juggs shouldn't be getting any higher billing than this guy.

Speaking of which, Juggs should be C tier. He's very cheap to max out, and will always be fine for DDQ, but Balance of Power has changed so he isn't meta-defining there anymore, and he's a terrible team-up. Spidey is a better 1* to keep.

3* Bullseye deserves C tier at least. He doesn't get his due mostly because he was the last 3* release and is low priority over the likes of KK or IF, so nobody really has him leveled, but he's a fine character.

1* Iron Man should be D tier. He loses relevance faster than Spiderman, Juggs, or even Storm, and should be sold at the first opportunity.

2* Johnny Storm should also be D tier. There's zero reason to ever roster him unless he's essential, and one cover in queue is good enough for that.

2* Steve Rogers should be D tier too. Same as Johnny Storm.

She-Hulk is very useful and unique utility and should be B tier for her counterplay to high level tactics.

Invisible Woman should be D tier. Her abilities can be useful but as a 4* she's never going to be useful enough to be worth the Iso investment. The only reason to keep her around is because of the easy LT every couple months out of DDQ.

4* Sam Wilson should be D tier for the same reason. He's just never going to be worth investing hundreds of thousands of Iso into until long after he's likely to be relevant.

Same for Elektra, and Nick Fury, and X-Force Wolverine.

Ant-Man, Venom, and Miles should all be C tier for much the same reasoning. They're fine but not likely to draw much use, and don't have a lot of utility.

LegendReborn

Maybe I missed it when I was glancing over it but I'd consider 3* iron man to be an s tier support. It's not like he's any different than switch who is used as a purple battery and his red isn't bad at finishing off enemies, especially since the s tier 4*s don't have a red spender outside of 4dp and buster who iron man obviously can't be used with.

loroku

carrion pigeons wrote:

I guess this list is as good as any to incite discussion, as long as people are aware the discussion is the thing much more than the actual list.

Nope! I entirely disagree with this assessment!

Thanks for the suggestions, though. I'll wait until there are a few more before adjusting again. I might just make it a weekly thing or something, to keep the time cost down. It's never going to be perfect or please everyone, but hopefully it will remain useful.

I think what this list really needs is a short paragraph for each character. That's what made NorthernPolarity's guide so good: the context, as well as suggestions for covering. (Although that information is slightly less valuable in today's world of championing.) Anyone wishing to add those would really help. I put a few quick lines in but that's not enough. I can boil down some of NorthernPolarity's old stuff and cover the 1*s from the Feb. rankings, but more is always welcome!

elwhiteninja

loroku wrote:

B TIER
3* Iron Man (Model 40) - charge power is great, others are still overcosted

Jean Grey+Lady Thor will disagree with you. 6 pretty much guarantees you can fire Surge, smite, and full of suprises, possibly even enough to cast mind over matter. Making it an insanely fast and strong team. His yellow alone makes him S or A tier depending on team. Red and blue are gravy if you use em.

spghttihead

I didn't see 4* Cyc listed. He's A class for sure

spghttihead

Sorry, just saw him

Vhailorx

Great list overall!

I have a few disagreements listed below, but I think this is a really helpful list for newer players trying to make decisions about expiring covers.

Im40 is now s-tier, the second best 3* behind iron fist. He combos so well with any red/blue user, and can also help green/purple users as a bonus.

Moonstone and she-hulk should be solid B tiers. Tile theft is a very important mechanic in high-level pve.

3* cyclops is S tier. Best single target damage output in 3* land and self-accelerate to boot. Not as good as iron fist, but on par with khan and cage.

Rocket and groot might be A Tier, and are certainly an important transition target with true healing and decently strong strike tiles.

Beast is B Tier. His blue is legitimately good now, and green is decent quick aoe. Yellow is still a waste of space.

Obw is A or maybe even S Tier. Best all around 2* by a good margin, relevant well into 3* land, essential part of any 2* PvP team.

I think quicksilver is B Tier. After the rework he is a decent board control character. (i may be biased because I enjoy the puzzle-ly aspects of playing with him because he needs careful matching/switching choices).

4* JG is not top of the 4* heap. She is arguably the worst of the top 5 4*s. She is just one of the oldest, so more people have her covered. Same with imhb.

Iceman is king of the 4* meta. Fast stun, huge single target damage, strong air attacks, self-acceleration, enemy ap denial, he's got it all!

Red hulk is S Tier.

amusingfoo1

Vhailorx wrote:

Great list overall!

I have a few disagrements listed below, but I think this is a really helpful list for newer players trying to make decisions about expiring covers.

Im40 is now s-tier, the second best 3* behind iron fist. He combos so well with any red/blue user, and can also help green/purple users as a bonus.

Moonstone and she-hulk should be solid B tiers. Tile theft is a very important mechanic in high-level pve.

3* cyclops is S tier. Best single target damage output in 3* land and self-accelerate to boot. Not as good as iron fist, but on par with khan and cage.

Rocket and groot might be A Tier, and are certainly an important transition target with true healing and decently strong strike tiles.

Beast is B Tier. His blue is legitimately good now, and green is decent quick aoe. Yellow is still a waste of space.

Obw is A or maybe even S Tier. Best all around 2* by a good margin, relevant well into 3* land, essential part of any 2* PvP team.

I think quicksilver is B Tier. After the rework he is a decent board control character. (i may be biased because I enjoy the puzzle-ly aspects of playing with him because he needs careful matching/switching choices).

4* JG is not too of the 4* heap. She is arguably the worst of the top 5 4*s. She is just one of the oldest, so more people have her covered. Same with imhb.

Iceman is king of the 4* meta. Fast stun, huge single target damage, strong air attacks, self-acceleration, enemy ap denial, he's got it all!

Red hulk is S Tier.

I agree with almost all of this, though I have a couple of quibbles. Storm/Magneto make a really good 2* team that doesn't have a place for Widow (Thor and Ares are good thirds).

I agree and disagree about Jean. For PvP, yes, she is the worst of the five. But she is, with Witch (Flaptain actually makes a very good third), the goon squad par excellence in PvE.

Minor quibble about Beast. I found his yellow legitimately useful for wave nodes in the last run of EotS. So not quite complete garbage. And boosted, he can be pretty darned good in PvP.

Iceman and Rulk, I agree strongly enough that I want to echo it.

Groot's blue definitely moves him up a tier, though I don't think I'd agree that he needs to move up two.

And getting back to the OP, I have a couple comments as well.

Silver Surfer is B-tier, for a 5* (which says something about how broken the 5* tier as a whole is).

4* Deadpool might do with being a little closer to the top of A-tier. He's great with Thing, as you mentioned. He's also the top 4* once you're into the 5* transition.

Scarlet Witch might deserve moving up, as well. She's fantastic with several top 4*s, as well as with Goblin.

XFW is B-tier, at best. He's got an awesome black, and that's it. His other abilities are mediocre, and he doesn't have enough hit points.

Ditto Nick Fury. He's got a great blue, and two mediocre powers. His blue scares me a little bit. When he's boosted.

Juggernaut is no longer scary, even when overscaled. Just annoying. But he does make a great board-shake TU.

Patch is great with Loki, as noted. And with Hulk, as long as Hulk is at least as high a level. Doom and Daredevil also make decent partners (Daredevil should be 5/5/3 for this). I'd be very tempted to move him up a tier. Patch/Loki/Fist is an incredibly strong 3* team for PvE hero nodes.

Loki is also a good foil for Thing. Bring a stunner if Deadpool is with him.

Falcon is C-tier. Situationally useful.

Antman should probably be A-tier, if only because he's great (when boosted) against OML.

Hood is an A-tier 3*. Witness how many 4*/4*/Hood teams you see in Sim. That's not an accident.

Miles is really good with 3* Spidey as well. I think he'd work really well with Gwen, too, in spite of the 100% color overlap. Use his yellow, her red, and decide purple on situation.

A 0/0/5 Ghost Rider also makes an awesome TU.

She-Hulk. I like where she's placed, I think. Her green can be a game-changer, but it isn't reliable enough for her to be really good. But that does make her at least a little bit of a scarecrow on defense.

3* Torch. I would be inclined to move him up a notch. He can dish out a ton of punishment.

Psylocke. Good partner for Kamala. Not arguing overall placement.

It just hit me that Ares is in B-tier. Definitely too low. Very strong in 2*-land; cheap powers that hit hard.

I'd move Squirrel Girl up a tier also. I'm not a fan of her yellow, but her purple hits hard (very hard against tile spammers) and her green is good board-shake. Almost forgot; also a good partner for Patch.

Blahahah

I'm biased towards Ant Man, but I think he is great.
The big thing about him isn't just that he is good at stealing tiles, he basically sets your opponent on a timer.

His downside is he lacks speed, but the upside is I don't think there's a single better character in the long game.
Eventually, his tiles overwhelm you. He clogs 3 different colors, not counting specific colors he steals from.
The opponent has to manage to chew through him and your team before then, since he can start churning out 4k+ damage every single turn passively between ants and particles.

He also gives niche characters like Drax and Mr. Fantastic a purpose, which is nice for people who like those characters.
He also has an event that rewards his cover, so that's cool too.

scism

To add to the discussion:

3* bullseye - should be higher. maybe not A tier, but at least B. Very strong for PvE, especially multiple round nodes. Just ran him in DDQ final round with falcon and daken - by the 3rd round the board was full of boosted strike tiles and daken blue doing 5k for 5 cost is very strong.

3* she-hulk - worthy of debate - can be a nightmare to face when it quickly removes all the AP you've been storing, or when you fire it and it removes 2 AP in their useless colours, but can be a life saver with all 3 abilities (removing tiles in bottom corners especially)

Otherwise broadly agree with the tiering system. Some lower tier characters can still be worth levelling if they are you only option with lots of covers (my strongest non 5* is x-force from when he was super OP and i dont regret this as the black is still super strong, even if the green is useless), but if you have better options they are easily left alone.

wymtime

Taking a look at the 4* tier I don't understand the love affair with JG. Her number 1 use is stunning and AOE damage on match 5's. Her green and purple are really strong AOE, but are expensive and she is light on health. Is she top 5 yes. Is she #1 4* I don't think so. The top 5 4* can really be interchanged, but I find myself using more health packs on her then with others. RHulk has more health and fuels his own green while draining the others. XFDP protects against AOE and his red does great damage, his purple needs skill to work, AI to match.

My other take is I think NOVA is under rated. Nova is also light in the loafers in health but can be hidden better than JG. He does strong cheep damage, and produces strike tiles. He also works great with OML same colors. He also makes x-23 much better as his strike tiles makes her trap much easier to fire. He is great support and easily hidden in today's game.

658

JG is kinda interesting. She is dominant against 3 star teams, good against 4 star teams, and close to useless against 5 star teams (unless buffed). The big problem is she's terrible against OML, and to a lesser extent SS. OML heals up the damage she delivers in two turns. SS needs just a couple more. The other 5s have the health to eat a whole bunch of AOE also. It's a lot more useful to have a Cyclops or HB knock off 15-20k at a time on a single target and get rid of somebody (crucial vs OML). She is the opposite of XDP, who is fairly meh against lower teams, but turns into a killing machine against the 5 star teams. If you have a decent OML (360-390) to pair with XDP, you can beat any team team in the game (except megawhales with 500+ five stars). The other top tier 4s are also significantly better against 5s than JG. Cyclops and HB have the single target damage to take down 5s. IM has the stun and two good damage powers (much greater than JG's). Rulk has the passive that goes off every round he's in front, plus the acceleration/steal, and a very powerful AOE. (twice JG's and easier to fire with all the ap he gens).

JG is a great investment as you transition into 4 star play, but she's going to mostly sit on the shelf once you start transitioning into 5 star play, whereas those others can still be played for a long time into the transition.

Orion

658 wrote:

JG is a great investment as you transition into 4 star play, but she's going to mostly sit on the shelf once you start transitioning into 5 star play, whereas those others can still be played for a long time into the transition.

I disagree with this. OML / JG are great partners. They're rainbow, and OML's black gives JG's green/purple the punch that they need to take down 4* and even 5* teams. PvP is all about boosted 4*s anyway. But I run OML/JG/4Cyke in shield sim.

But mainly what makes JG so good is PvE. Her purple's ability to take out 6 countdown tiles is ridiculous. SW/JG can take down goons of pretty much any level.

Banjo

I'm just going to confess my love for ProfX. Yes, he's low on hp - but several times in the Civil War event he won me nodes by being last man standing. Partnered with SWitch he's deadly. Plus he's a battery for OML's transformed black power.

And if you're going to bring one support character, IM40 should generally be it. Forget blue & red - his yellow is that good.

ronin_san

Bullseys is invaluable in wave fights. That alone means he should be a weak B. His low health hurts his overall rating.

Beas's green is better than Hulk's. He does double damage w his green for one AP less when any free blue tile is present. That means he pairs well with: BP. SW. Cap. Daredevil. RnG. Even Ragnarok!!! Yes. Rag's red accelerates beast's blue, which is a great one-turn ability generator.

sinnerjfl

Red Hulk needs to be in S tier, he might be a one-trick pony but it's a hell of a trick.

Self-acceleration with while denying (he drains all of the opposite team's green) is quite frankly incredible.
Damage on green is the top AOE in the game if he gets 18 AP and it's not very hard for him to get that. His red ability is not very good
but pair it with strike tiles and it can start to hurt while providing minor boardshake, it's also easy to proc.

Rocket & Groot are certainly not C tier, they need to move to B at least, probably A in my book.

The strike tiles are one of the strongest in the 3* tier, yellow can heal to full health (true heal) and green can truly pack a wallop at 5 covers, the boardshake is not insigificant and can lead to crits. Strictly a PVE character but far from being useless.

scorpionmit

Any updates on this list? Where does War Machine rank?