**** War Machine (James Rhodes) ****

HxiiiK

Tromb2ch2 wrote:

I fell like if his ability countdown tile gets matched or removed he should take a bunch of damage and be stunned for the foreseeable future...

He gets removed from the team and unusable until the next movi- I mean, next battle?

himatako

After using him in his event, he sucks so bad. What's worse is that his animations are so cool but after you use it, nothing happens and you just place CD tiles. It's just... so anti-climatic? They really need to give him immediate effects to all of his powers.

I mean, it's hard to imagine him going all out with gatling gun like that resulting in a few CD tiles being placed on the board lol.

Polares

himatako wrote:

After using him in his event, he sucks so bad. What's worse is that his animations are so cool but after you use it, nothing happens and you just place CD tiles. It's just... so anti-climatic? They really need to give him immediate effects to all of his powers.

I mean, it's hard to imagine him going all out with gatling gun like that resulting in a few CD tiles being placed on the board lol.

You are so right. In his PvP when the AI was firing powers against me, I was all the time "Oh **** I am screwed!" and then nothing happened, just some countdowns.


Blue is the only really strong power. They should have combined red-green into one power passive+countdowns, and then do green more damage and more tiles destroyed (like xforce green). But the attack tile creation should be a passive that is always on, ala IF, but in 4 land (but with not as strong attack tiles of course). This way he would be the storm of 4 land, he would be able to fill the board with attack tiles and he would be very easy to team with Carnage, 5 Steve or OML, etc.

Max stats:
Red: 9 AP create 4 1 turn countdowns. When they reach 0 they destroy 9 tiles. Passive: Each new tile in warm turn is a 50 attack tile.
Green: 8 AP do 3k damage, destroy three 4 tiles rectangles randomly.


PS: I dont know if people is reading CW2 but it is sad he has been added to the game now

Alkyoneus

So this was the first character I was legitimately excited about trying to roster in a long time. I bought 2 40-packs and a 10-pack and max covered him for his PVP. (5 covers from release event, 1 from 21 Guns, 7 from tokens) and brought him to level 234 (didn't have enough ISO to max him, I'll do that this week after lightnings). Due to RNG I ended up with 553 so that's what I've got practice with.

I actually quite enjoy playing with him.
Red: Decent. Not enough benefit of the fortified tile to make this a premier ability. You could max this if you pair him with a board destroyer, but I found that attack tiles matched themselves away constantly when his green went off. It ends up being a wash, although when a bunch of attack tiles fall from the sky, it was hitting for 3-4k per turn after a few board shakes.

Blue: Strong. Blue at 5 hits REALLY hard (10k boosted), and has the additional benefit of clearing those pesky invisible tiles and protects. Really good against PX, Howard, 2BE in PVE events. This is his only direct damage ability, therefore most people will want this at 5. If you are pairing him with another blue user (say Quake blue for board shake), this can be switched to 3 and red to 5).

Green: Strong. 3 1-turn CDs that do 2k damage each, create board shake, and do additional damage from cascades make this an entertaining ability. I really enjoy using this at 3, as soon as I champion him I'll switch it to 5 and see how much more fun it becomes.

Overall: Solid. He's no Iceman, but he is very fun to play max covered, and does a little bit of a bunch of different things to improve entertainment value. I'm not disappointed with him at all. I love the character design and will likely use him quite often.

I don't have any useable 5 stars, but I can imagine he would be a great pair with most of them. He has 2 cheap abilities at 8 cost and OML's strike tiles will complement him nicely. Pheonix causes board destruction and match 5s will improve the attack tiles, and I really do wish I did have OML, because I would pair them together constantly. He also pairs naturally with Iron Man, who uses blue to create more board shake bringing attack tiles down. Finally Cap is another potential pair, because of his additional board shake with yellow.

Quebbster

Blue being the only direct damage is a dang good argument actually. I was thinking about a 5/3/5 build to make the most of the red, but now I Think 3/5/5 may be better - green benefits more from 5 covers than red does.

Vhailorx

Cheap boardhsake is very useful, so I think his green will be a solid support move (i used it a lot while running im40/4*thor in his pvp). It's better boardshake and damage than something like xfw green or quake blue, but it also requires waiting a turn from the CDs, so it's fairly well balanced.

There are now 4 powerful offensive blue powers in 4* (fury, iceman, WM, and Kate Bishop). I would say thisbisbthe second or third best, depending on situation (it's worse than fury most of the time, and better when there are on his tiles to clear).

Red is an ok power itself, but probably the hardest to leverage. So 3/5/5 seems like a good default setting. But in the end I think he will be ant-man tier. Useful mid level 4*, and significantly improved as a champ since he can spec'd for different team builds.

Alkyoneus

OK so I championed him yesterday. I've been playing around with him in Venom and EOTS. i've tried different builds, and I think he can be pretty versatile. Green is definitely the highlight for him, Boosted it does 2300 x 3 CD tiles, each taking out 6 tiles (5 tiles plus the CD resolving) after 1 turn. It's caused some pretty significant cascades. Red at 5 for attack tiles or blue at 5 for a 12k nuke are both usable, it just depends on what you want to bring him for.

Overall I've already enjoyed using him quite a lot. I'm transitioning into 5 star land, and I'm almost ready to field a usable Green Goblin - they pair perfectly together and have full rainbow active abilities. GG yellow will complement WM green nicely, I feel, plus the incredible match damage from GG on the cascades. I'm excited.

Vhailorx

Alkyoneus wrote:

OK so I championed him yesterday. I've been playing around with him in Venom and EOTS. i've tried different builds, and I think he can be pretty versatile. Green is definitely the highlight for him, Boosted it does 2300 x 3 CD tiles, each taking out 6 tiles (5 tiles plus the CD resolving) after 1 turn. It's caused some pretty significant cascades. Red at 5 for attack tiles or blue at 5 for a 12k nuke are both usable, it just depends on what you want to bring him for.

Overall I've already enjoyed using him quite a lot. I'm transitioning into 5 star land, and I'm almost ready to field a usable Green Goblin - they pair perfectly together and have full rainbow active abilities. GG yellow will complement WM green nicely, I feel, plus the incredible match damage from GG on the cascades. I'm excited.

I think quake's blue is still superior as far as an 8ap boardshake (since it doesn't require giving the ai a turn), but the extra damage from WM goes some way to make up the difference.

GG does seem like a good pair for him during transition. But no 4* has a place in the 5* meta because the match damage and health gap is still way too big. in a fair world, he seems like a solid mid-tier 4* or even a bit better. But in a world where most players either already have top tier 4*s maxed, or are just relying heavily on RNG to cover their first 1 or 2 4*s, he doesn't add much value (he's not better than the current 4* studs, and he just dilutes the reward pool for early transitioners).

So greetings Rhodey! Welcome to the Irrelevant 9! (are we still at 9? Or is it 10 with Kate Bishop?)

Quebbster

Using him in Venom Bomb, I see they have changed the animation for Gatling Gun. Now the countdowns are placed without an animation, and the animation comes when they resolve instead. Makes more sense thematically, and makes it easier to miss (both good and bad, obviously).
I Think War Machine is pretty fun to play, especially all the nice board shake you get from Gatling Gun. Some of that has to do with me running Phoenix and OML all the time and War Machine complementing their colors nicely though.

bigsmooth

I'm starting to like WM more and more. One reason I think he didn't get much love in the character poll is that each of his powers jumps up in effectiveness at 5 covers but none of them are really true showstoppers on their own; if you don't have him max covered, I think he seems way worse than he is.

The other issue, I think, is that his powers don't necessarily fit the character thematically. He's got armor and a bunch of guns, so you'd expect a front line tank with lots of firepower, but he doesn't really function that way in a team. Instead, you do have to consider his teammates to maximize the effectiveness of his red and green.

He also works wonderfully with 4* Captain Marvel (although he's certainly not alone in that regard).

notamutant

Disagree strongly with all the recent love. Just maxed him, been using him boosted in Venom Bomb. He still stinks boosted.

Tiger_Wong

Sounds like operator error to me.

Infrared

War Machine + IM40 + Star-Lord was a fun team. Use Star-Lord's red after double casting WM's green.

Jaedenkaal

Tiger Wong wrote:

Sounds like operator error to me.

Could also be a Venom Bomb-related problem. Venom Bomb is a... different kind of event.

That said, my 5/1/4 War Machine performed very well. The worst part was the red cover that I earned for progression

Vhailorx

notamutant wrote:

Disagree strongly with all the recent love. Just maxed him, been using him boosted in Venom Bomb. He still stinks boosted.

He doesn't really play like anyone else, so i can see why people find him refreshing and fun.

But i agree with your topline evaluation. He just isnt that good. He takes too much time to really get going (both red and blue take turns to resolve, and blue requires 4 matches). In that way he is like antman. He has support uses as a character than can make lots of CD cheaply (extra useful now with someone like carol), and is a drcently cheap boardshaker. But he us definitely in the big middle tier of 4*s and mayve even towards the bottom of that tier.

notamutant

Vhailorx wrote:

notamutant wrote:

Disagree strongly with all the recent love. Just maxed him, been using him boosted in Venom Bomb. He still stinks boosted.

He doesn't really play like anyone else, so i can see why people find him refreshing and fun.

But i agree with your topline evaluation. He just isnt that good. He takes too much time to really get going (both red and blue take turns to resolve, and blue requires 4 matches). In that way he is like antman. He has support uses as a character than can make lots of CD cheaply (extra useful now with someone like carol), and is a drcently cheap boardshaker. But he us definitely in the big middle tier of 4*s and mayve even towards the bottom of that tier.

I think a lot of people that are saying they like him don't have the option of 30 other maxed 4 stars to compare him to. Does his blue deal a lot of damage? Yes. But his red is useless without his green maxed, and his red is useless at anything but 5 covers, so you have to make blue useless at 3 covers to make his red useful. And giving up the high guaranteed damage of blue is a bad idea, meaning in most cases, you have to run him at 3/5/5. So if you run him at 3 red, his red is useless. His green is about 9k damage when he is boosted for 8 AP, after a turn waiting assuming all CDs resolve. Not bad damage, but there are better options for green usually. That pretty much leaves him as a blue outlet only. There aren't that many good damaging blues though, but in Venom Bomb, Thor was also boosted. Her blue was essential to power up her red, so it basically made WM completely useless in this event. I don't think he is close to Wasp or Elektra tier bad, but he certainly isn't in the upper half.

Jaedenkaal

notamutant wrote:

Vhailorx wrote:

notamutant wrote:

Disagree strongly with all the recent love. Just maxed him, been using him boosted in Venom Bomb. He still stinks boosted.

He doesn't really play like anyone else, so i can see why people find him refreshing and fun.

But i agree with your topline evaluation. He just isnt that good. He takes too much time to really get going (both red and blue take turns to resolve, and blue requires 4 matches). In that way he is like antman. He has support uses as a character than can make lots of CD cheaply (extra useful now with someone like carol), and is a drcently cheap boardshaker. But he us definitely in the big middle tier of 4*s and mayve even towards the bottom of that tier.

I think a lot of people that are saying they like him don't have the option of 30 other maxed 4 stars to compare him to. Does his blue deal a lot of damage? Yes. But his red is useless without his green maxed, and his red is useless at anything but 5 covers, so you have to make blue useless at 3 covers to make his red useful. And giving up the high guaranteed damage of blue is a bad idea, meaning in most cases, you have to run him at 3/5/5. So if you run him at 3 red, his red is useless. His green is about 9k damage when he is boosted for 8 AP, after a turn waiting assuming all CDs resolve. Not bad damage, but there are better options for green usually. That pretty much leaves him as a blue outlet only. There aren't that many good damaging blues though, but in Venom Bomb, Thor was also boosted. Her blue was essential to power up her red, so it basically made WM completely useless in this event. I don't think he is close to Wasp or Elektra tier bad, but he certainly isn't in the upper half.

"he certainly isn't in the upper half" and "He still stinks" are not equivalent. The hyperbole here is not helping anyone. I think what you've managed to actually convey here is "All other things being equal, I'd take Thor when picking a Red/Blue character" which isn't even that poor of a showing considering Thor was the 7th highest rated 4* overall and the 4th highest rated 4* with Red and Blue powers.

I would agree that my experience with him is definitely influenced by my lack of other 4* choices (I have XFW, IW, Fury, and Hulkbuster champed, Thor at 2/5/5 202, , no one else is that close)

Tiger_Wong

So basically you're just whining he isnt OP? And if he's not OP then he's "useless/worthless"?

StarLord 5/4/2
Carol Danvers 1/2/0
War Machine 5/4/2

It's plenty fast and things get moving very well with attack tiles, strike tiles, and CDs all over the place.

Sorry that War Machine isn't a character you can just put with IM40, match 3 yellows twice, and act like you're awesome. I know it's hard for some of you guys to play without being led by your hand.

sinnerjfl

notamutant wrote:

I think a lot of people that are saying they like him don't have the option of 30 other maxed 4 stars to compare him to. Does his blue deal a lot of damage? Yes. But his red is useless without his green maxed, and his red is useless at anything but 5 covers, so you have to make blue useless at 3 covers to make his red useful. And giving up the high guaranteed damage of blue is a bad idea, meaning in most cases, you have to run him at 3/5/5. So if you run him at 3 red, his red is useless. His green is about 9k damage when he is boosted for 8 AP, after a turn waiting assuming all CDs resolve. Not bad damage, but there are better options for green usually. That pretty much leaves him as a blue outlet only. There aren't that many good damaging blues though, but in Venom Bomb, Thor was also boosted. Her blue was essential to power up her red, so it basically made WM completely useless in this event. I don't think he is close to Wasp or Elektra tier bad, but he certainly isn't in the upper half.

5/5/3 works really well. Green from 3 to 5 covers is not that big of a change and not really superior. You get 1 more shake and 1 turn earlier, the only time you should put it at 5 is when he's boosted, then the damage is actually good.

Red at 5 produces very strong atk tiles, and a lot of them. You can use any board shake to help (not just his own green) and the tile is fortified so it will survive 99% of the time. Pair him with OML (i know i know) and it becomes very big damage every turn.

Blue at 5 does good damage and removing all protect tiles is pretty neat. (remember there are almost no blue damage skills)

I thought he sucked before I champed him, now I consider him a very solid mid-tier. And he does play differently than anyone else which is fun.

Daredevil217

Rhodey is at the bottom of my current plans (but he's on the list!).

Though I may bump him up to the top if I get the 900 progressional.

I have the following Champs:

Red Hulk, Chulk, Hulkbuster, Wolverine, Falcap.

I also have the covers to Champ Starlord and Miles.

(And the Iso to champ five 4*)

Of these SEVEN characters I have ONE active blue user and ZERO that do blue damage, yet Falcap benefits from matching blue and Chulk fuels blue. I think it'd be worth it for me to have a good outlet for said blue. Buster at 3 blue just isn't cutting it alone, though I will be champing Big Pun soon.

I feel like Rhodey is a good investment for a roster like mine, but would love opinions! Seeing my Iso drop from 2 mil to 500k (champing Punisher, Star-Lord, Miles and War Machine) is going to SUCK!