***** Black Bolt (Inhuman King) *****

TLCstormz

KingDreadnaught wrote:

I'm Back.. LOL

Thanks for all of the info.

Also.......check your messes on here and on Facebook, dufus.

hodayathink

Looking at everything, I feel like his yellow is the second best single 5* cover you could pull if you're not someone who already had a bunch of maxed 4 or 5 stars (the best being OML yellow, which even at minimum level turns him into a tank that heals nearly all match damage until you get well into 4 star land). Basically, if you're in the 3 star or 4 star transition, it could actually be pretty helpful since you probably don't have everyone max covered.

mckauhu

notamutant wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1NTQiMs5Rw

My youtube video showing Black Bolt in action. If you just want to see him in a match, skip to around 15 minutes.

Nice video but I'm curious just how can you have him already max covered?

hodayathink

mckauhu wrote:

notamutant wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1NTQiMs5Rw

My youtube video showing Black Bolt in action. If you just want to see him in a match, skip to around 15 minutes.

Nice video but I'm curious just how can you have him already max covered?

Look at his HP and especially CP numbers. It's a hacked save file.

KingDreadnaught

Tested BlackBolt (not fully covered)

Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/qPPJz5k5-pM

**PS** Thanks to all great players who featured in this video.

Polares

hodayathink wrote:

Looking at everything, I feel like his yellow is the second best single 5* cover you could pull if you're not someone who already had a bunch of maxed 4 or 5 stars (the best being OML yellow, which even at minimum level turns him into a tank that heals nearly all match damage until you get well into 4 star land). Basically, if you're in the 3 star or 4 star transition, it could actually be pretty helpful since you probably don't have everyone max covered.

I think you are overestimating the usefulness of his yellow, but yeah I agree that his yellow is just useful to players that dont run with maxed 5s. Anybody that pulls 3-4 BB covers and uses him with some other 360 level 5s (so 8 covers or something like that) can benefit from this yellow power. So yeah, give the 4 cover of GG black before firing it when you have a 3/3/2 GG or IM46 red, etc. can have some impact at that level. But then, if that person champs a 5 he will no longer have need for this power.

It would have been much better to give extra levels. Then it would have been useful to anybody, and even more when you have champed 5s. Really unfortunate it has not been levels

The other option should have been to have the 'motivation' always on as a passive power. Something like if you have more than 5 yellow create a motivation tile, if you stop having it destroy the tile. OR as long as you have more than 5 yellow .... At least this way it would be not just for a few turns and would cost no yellow so you would be able to use it in the same team with IM or GG yellow.

Devs should upgrade this yellow power ASAP (but of course it is not going to happen).

Mitchjewitz

So all my 5*s are still at 255.
BSSM 3/3/2
OML 0/4/2
IM 0/1/3
PHNX 1/2/1
GG 1/0/2
SS 0/2/1
CAP 1/1/1
HULK 1/0/0
I pulled a LT and managed to get a yellow black bolt! I know it is his weakest color but man... it is anything but terrible. With this I can transform OML, throw pumpkin bombs, and transform Banner! I'm so excited to test these things out. I already popped OML's claws for the first time and I nearly shed a tear. As for complete champed characters: BSSM would definitely benefit (max damage/ max damage/ enemy strike tiles do nothing). The counter-5* char XFDP would be perfect at 5/5/5. There are many more that can greatly benefit. Maybe not most of the 5*s but there will be many more 5*s to come.

zodiac339

Mitchjewitz wrote:

So all my 5*s are still at 255.
BSSM 3/3/2
OML 0/4/2
IM 0/1/3
PHNX 1/2/1
GG 1/0/2
SS 0/2/1
CAP 1/1/1
HULK 1/0/0
I pulled a LT and managed to get a yellow black bolt! I know it is his weakest color but man... it is anything but terrible. With this I can transform OML, throw pumpkin bombs, and transform Banner! I'm so excited to test these things out. I already popped OML's claws for the first time and I nearly shed a tear. As for complete champed characters: BSSM would definitely benefit (max damage/ max damage/ enemy strike tiles do nothing). The counter-5* char XFDP would be perfect at 5/5/5. There are many more that can greatly benefit. Maybe not most of the 5*s but there will be many more 5*s to come.

This made me realize how the character development discussion probably went:
Lead Developer: What makes a character fun to use.
Mr. Munchkin: Nuking the enemy down!
Guy who mains Rogue in WoW: Stuns all the time.
The one that put the price tag on Mother Lode: Stealing AP.
Literally Satan: Unrealistic limitation to activate weak power. It's totally awesome!
Hopped up on all the caffeine: SpecialtileschargedtilescountdownsboardshakeAOE
Lead Developer: No, we don't need another Armed and Dangerous
Casual Dude: Actually using a character's powers.
Sarcastic Guy: What? So, like, a power that just let's someone use their powers? Hah, hah, hah! Hah, ha. Ha...
Everyone:

hodayathink

Polares wrote:

hodayathink wrote:

Looking at everything, I feel like his yellow is the second best single 5* cover you could pull if you're not someone who already had a bunch of maxed 4 or 5 stars (the best being OML yellow, which even at minimum level turns him into a tank that heals nearly all match damage until you get well into 4 star land). Basically, if you're in the 3 star or 4 star transition, it could actually be pretty helpful since you probably don't have everyone max covered.

I think you are overestimating the usefulness of his yellow, but yeah I agree that his yellow is just useful to players that dont run with maxed 5s. Anybody that pulls 3-4 BB covers and uses him with some other 360 level 5s (so 8 covers or something like that) can benefit from this yellow power. So yeah, give the 4 cover of GG black before firing it when you have a 3/3/2 GG or IM46 red, etc. can have some impact at that level. But then, if that person champs a 5 he will no longer have need for this power.

It would have been much better to give extra levels. Then it would have been useful to anybody, and even more when you have champed 5s. Really unfortunate it has not been levels

The other option should have been to have the 'motivation' always on as a passive power. Something like if you have more than 5 yellow create a motivation tile, if you stop having it destroy the tile. OR as long as you have more than 5 yellow .... At least this way it would be not just for a few turns and would cost no yellow so you would be able to use it in the same team with IM or GG yellow.

Devs should upgrade this yellow power ASAP (but of course it is not going to happen).

When I say single 5* cover, I mean that if you could add any 5 star to your roster with only one cover for him, which character and which cover would you choose? OML Yellow would be first. Black Bolt Yellow would be second, IMO, but I'm willing to hear arguments for Banner's Transformation or GG Pumpkin Bombs or Fortified tiles.

Polares

hodayathink wrote:

...

When I say single 5* cover, I mean that if you could add any 5 star to your roster with only one cover for him, which character and which cover would you choose? OML Yellow would be first. Black Bolt Yellow would be second, IMO, but I'm willing to hear arguments for Banner's Transformation or GG Pumpkin Bombs or Fortified tiles.

Yeah, I get what you say, and it is true that he can be used to test other chars powers that you dont have. But what is the real usefulness of that? OML yellow or GG black are powers that make these 5s useful with a very small number of covers, but BB yellow needs to be cast (so spend yellow) and then BB is useless if he has just yellow. So, to experiment and have fun with other chars? Yeah definitely, but use him in a team, even just for PvE or DDQ, I don't think he is that useful. And then of course, when you pull your second OML yellow or GG black it makes the power even better, on BB yellow... not that much.

After watching all videos, I have to say that I am starting to like his black power A LOT, this power might be really really good, like the best power he has. If you add strikes, this can hit really hard. In just three turns it is doing 5k every turn + strikes. This is IF black level good, or even more. With OML that is 5k+2k and then 1.5k+2k that is around 10k dmg just matching tiles (and casting OML black of course ). The only bad thing of teaming OML and BB is that the AI will fire BB yellow instead of transforming OML so maybe PH+BB is even better.

ZootSax

hodayathink wrote:

When I say single 5* cover, I mean that if you could add any 5 star to your roster with only one cover for him, which character and which cover would you choose? OML Yellow would be first. Black Bolt Yellow would be second, IMO, but I'm willing to hear arguments for Banner's Transformation or GG Pumpkin Bombs or Fortified tiles.

I have a Banner with a single purple cover. It's a LOT of fun to screw around with, but it's not as actually useful as OML yellow or BB yellow would be for a single cover character. The fact that AI matches can disrupt better moves you could make and because Hulk doesn't gain you the AP from matches, there's more of a trade off than you might initially think.

Back to the topic of Black Bolt, the worst thing about him appears to be the repetitive animation, so all in all, not too shabby...

wymtime

I pulled a BB black and would argue that the black as a single cover is better then his yellow. It gives a charge tile to add AP for what ever other character you use. as a single power getting extra AP for some matches is a big help. The big issue with his yellow is the build up of AP where the charge tile as random as it is can speed up all of your powers. 5* powers really jump up with levels over covers so a 255 5* adding a cover isn't going to add that much. Adding Another to a 360-450 5* is deadly

Mitchjewitz

wymtime wrote:

I pulled a BB black and would argue that the black as a single cover is better then his yellow. It gives a charge tile to add AP for what ever other character you use. as a single power getting extra AP for some matches is a big help. The big issue with his yellow is the build up of AP where the charge tile as random as it is can speed up all of your powers. 5* powers really jump up with levels over covers so a 255 5* adding a cover isn't going to add that much. Adding Another to a 360-450 5* is deadly

I don't know where your roster is at but from my own roster (of 5*s) one cover of yellow is much better than one cover of black.
If you're other 5*s are already maxed then fine there isn't as much of an argument.
At one cover:
Black only puts out one charge tile per turn. It would take 4 turns at least to activate his secondary power which isn't very likely since he puts a charge tile on the most abundant color on the board and then he starts to injure himself. Yes two extra AP per turn can help but the enemy can also match and use the AP.
Yellow does cost AP but it adds one cover of each color on a designated ally. My OML 0/4/2 can transform and GG 1/0/2 can throw pumpkin bombs with this power.

Active(yellow) vs Passive(black):
There is no argument that the passive power is great but yellow isn't that hindered for be active.
Lets guess and say that 70% of powers in mpq are active so 70% of powers need time to gather AP and use. Yellow doesn't need to activate from the first turn. 8 AP isn't that expensive and when you obtain enough AP for your other powers, throw yellow then the other powers.

When I play with BB and GG, I gather 8 black, 10 purple and 17 yellow before I use any powers. Yes it's a lot of AP but this isn't my A team and if you have only one cover of black, he isn't on your A team either. Anyways I fire BB's yellow to increase GG's black damage and give me his purple power. Then I use GG's yellow to speed up the purple cds.

Again this is just one cover vs one cover. Overall yellow is BB's weakest power.

zodiac339

Lucked into his yellow power. I was sad to find out that it won't let Banner transform unless you accelerate his countdown. Motivation (at rank 1) expires before the transformation countdown can finish on its own, since the tile won't come out until the start of your next turn. I might pair him with XF Wolverine so he'll be 5/5/5 (oh so much ISO needed to champ the legend from 4/4/5).

On another note, the motivation time gives an idea of how Rogue could work. I'd thought a countdown that steals an enemy ability was the thing, but a Drain countdown, reducing the power ranks of an enemy, would also work. How about making that person's new Old Man Logan to 0/0/0?

monsieurmojo

Polares wrote:

After watching all videos, I have to say that I am starting to like his black power A LOT, this power might be really really good, like the best power he has. If you add strikes, this can hit really hard. In just three turns it is doing 5k every turn + strikes. This is IF black level good, or even more. With OML that is 5k+2k and then 1.5k+2k that is around 10k dmg just matching tiles (and casting OML black of course ). The only bad thing of teaming OML and BB is that the AI will fire BB yellow instead of transforming OML so maybe PH+BB is even better.

I just pulled a black this morning to go with the green, and I think I agree with you. First, it is going to go so, so well with Thoress. Like, crazy well, especially if you wait to fire off her yellow/blue till after he's saturated the board with his charges, and then Smite can just about one-shot anyone, and my Thoress is only 2/1/2. Second, his green does great AoE damage as Quasi-Sonic Scream, but it takes absolutely forever to get the AP for it. With the black, it doesn't take long at all, if you keep matching the charged tiles.

monsieurmojo

wymtime wrote:

I pulled a BB black and would argue that the black as a single cover is better then his yellow. It gives a charge tile to add AP for what ever other character you use. as a single power getting extra AP for some matches is a big help. The big issue with his yellow is the build up of AP where the charge tile as random as it is can speed up all of your powers. 5* powers really jump up with levels over covers so a 255 5* adding a cover isn't going to add that much. Adding Another to a 360-450 5* is deadly

The more I use him with his black, the more I agree...it might be his best power, and as a passive, there is almost no drawback (other than giving a notoriously terrible AI more AP to use, and the minimal self-damage). If you match the CTs, you're basically getting 5 AP per match. If you can't match them, you're basically doing an extra free 5* match damage per turn. If only Banner Hulk's Gamma Ray Experiment had been something like this....

Vhailorx

I don't think we should be too surprised that his passive is very good. Free damage is one of the more powerful passive abilities (c.f. iron fist, xpool), and passive ap generation is similarly good (c.f. switch).

My concern was that generating charged tiles randomly is a double edged sword, since this doesn't generate any extra matches and the ai might be able to scoop them up instead of the player. But if, once people start playing with him a bit more, it's clear that the player will generally benefit more than the ai from extra charged tiles, then this power will be very very strong. Having more ap is the key to victory, so any passive power that reliably accelerates the player will be dominant (even without extra damage).

hodayathink

Vhailorx wrote:

I don't think we should be too surprised that his passive is very good. Free damage is one of the more powerful passive abilities (c.f. iron fist, xpool), and passive ap generation is similarly good (c.f. switch).

My concern was that generating charged tiles randomly is a double edged sword, since this doesn't generate any extra matches and the ai might be able to scoop them up instead of the player. But if, once people start playing with him a bit more, it's clear that the player will generally benefit more than the ai from extra charged tiles, then this power will be very very strong. Having more ap is the key to victory, so any passive power that reliably accelerates the player will be dominant (even without extra damage).

Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but the AI isn't going to prioritize charged tiles like an actual player would. Meaning if there are two matches out there of different colors that are both active for the AI, and one includes a charged tile and one doesn't, does the AI choose the match randomly or does it go for the charged tile first? In my experience it has seemed like the former is true.

Vhailorx

I think that's correct hodoyathink. The ai treats charged tiles just like any other tile.

monsieurmojo

Vhailorx wrote:

I think that's correct hodoyathink. The ai treats charged tiles just like any other tile.

If you're prioritizing the CTs, and can match them, the APs are yours, as the power fires right before your turn. The problem arises when you can't match them right away. If they build up, you get the per-turn damage to start firing, but you also leave a board littered with CTs for the AI to "luck" into cascading into their bank.