Puzzle Warriors 3 Episode #59!

XaOs72

* All the anniversary news
* Boss Rush
* Devil Dino change
* Gwenpool
* Scaling change on easy missions
​​* And, this week featured character: Nova!

http://www.puzzlewarriors3.com/pw3-e59.html

shartattack

Keep up the good work guys! I started playing 99 days (100hp tomorrow!) ago, and discovered your podcast 3 weeks ago. I have been listening to your old episodes with your most recent first. It does get a bit sad to listen to your rosters get progressively worse the more I listen. I appreciate that you conduct the show as somewhat "men of the people" or "average joe's" as you will, competing against the globo gym-types atop most leaderboards.

Question: Craig loves to sing. Do you guys have any theme music or certain songs that pop in your head when you play certain characters or activate certain powers? obvious ones would be
Battery by Metallica for IM40
when playing Kamala Khan and IM40 together, "purple yellow red and blue" by portugal the man
guardians of asgaard by amon amarth whenever Thor drops something nasty
yakaty sax whenever Loki is loki'ing the board up.

shartattack

Also, I would love to hear your thoughts on the new and improved Cho. He was tons of fun in the inferno.

stochasticism

Really disagree with your analysis of Nova. He is one of the top 10 2* characters in the game. 5/5/3 is the most common build to run him at because there's almost always strike tiles on the board making his red send people airborne. It's very useful to do so preventing that character from using skills and doing 4.5k damage for 6AP at 270. When boosted my champ Nova is doing 10k for 6 AP. Getting the secondary condition for black to kick in is also pretty hard to do, so it really is just a strike tile generator meant to feed red though at 5 covers it generates 884 in strikes and if you can get the special to trigger its a big nuke. Yellow is cheap and another skill to power red with strikes while doing reasonable damage, 3k for 7AP. So his 3 skills are all cheap, can do big damage and pump out strikes. Nova can finish matches incredibly fast.

There are cases where I will use other builds. In Black Vortex I ran him 5/3/5 with IM40 and JG or Iceman depending on opponent. Recharge and collect black then cast Nova red -> Nova black -> Purple -> Green and things die fast. If anything still stood send them airborne with another red for 10k damage + strikes. Brutal killing machine.

I also like running 3/5/5 Nova with 3/5/5 PunMax for a strike tile bonanza. Things can get out of hand there quickly with that team.

It seems that none of the hosts have Nova reasonably covered. I suspect that's where most of the dislike comes from.

For more perspective also read Colognoisseur's posts (Part 1 and Part 2) on the newest 4* as they are great insights as to how the characters work when cover maxed.

MarcieHintz

all the best with your work.

Tatercat

Another good episode but I gotta agree with all the Nova love in this thread, he's easily top tier of the 4*'s, top 3 even. Champed when we got all that grandfathered ISO and he's been unbelievable. He's one man wrecking crew i the current Simulator and on the Black Vortex PVP, I got to the 575pt reward of the 10 cp within the first 6 hours of the event with Nova. I didn't want/need the higher rewards from there so I stopped playing. Only got attacked twice the for the next two days, keeping me in the top 30 the whole time. (The champ JG and 250lvl Iceman helped too )

I have him at 5/5/3 too. Just use any of his powers to get black strike tiles on the board and you're off to the races.
He's really great, even unboosted. No need to fear champed Iceman teams or 360+ OML's anymore in PVP or even the odd PVE because of him. Nuking, enemy control, and crazy strike tiles - what's not to love in that package?

JeffCascadian

stochasticism wrote:

Really disagree with your analysis of Nova. He is one of the top 10 2* characters in the game.

I bet he's twice as good as any other 2*.

Mitchjewitz

Can I suggest that we add to the feature character of the week?

At the end of the segment add a "and next week's character is..." that way some of the more experienced listeners can leave advice and input for the next character.

JeffCascadian

Mitchjewitz wrote:

Can I suggest that we add to the feature character of the week?

At the end of the segment add a "and next week's character is..." that way some of the more experienced listeners can leave advice and input for the next character.

I think that's a terrific idea.

jojeda654

Mitchjewitz wrote:

Can I suggest that we add to the feature character of the week?

At the end of the segment add a "and next week's character is..." that way some of the more experienced listeners can leave advice and input for the next character.

I thought they are teased at the end of the show. I am not sure though, since I never understand the clues.

PUM_SPAK

Another great episode, guys. As many before me have said, I love the "everyman" attitude toward the game. The only pretentious moments of the podcast seem to be apparel-related.. paper fedoras and wooden bowties!

My long-time alliance commander abruptly quit this weekend, retiring from MPQ. On his way out the door, he made me co-commander. Wait.. What?!? I've been thrust into a position of authority - I'm so unprepared. Would you please devote a segment of an upcoming podcast to tips for being a good alliance commander? I would love to hear your advice in areas like

Setting play / roster goals Why/ when to boot members How to rally the troops for Ultron and Civil War events

Thanks!

PUM-SPAK
MickJ in-game
Commander, InjusticeSquad Alliance

IamTheDanger

aesthetocyst wrote:

Getting schooled by your audience is great engagement! In future episodes, if unfamiliar or unsure about the featured character, why not arrange for a guest "expert". Have them on the show, but then swear them to silence while you give your initial impressions, and let the "expert" weigh in and let you know whether you're right.

Great idea. I volunteer to be a guest when you guys have Peggy as featured character of the week. Which is next week, right? She'll be the FCoTW, Right? Next week?

Anyway, about the Iceman art. I agree, he is kinda freaky looking, but I'm giving a quick history lesson for those unfamiliar with his history anyway.

That's his teenage version. In the early issues of Uncanny Xmen, that is what Bobby looked like. He was written to be the opposite of Human Torch and would appear to be to covered in snow. Then, in Uncanny Xmen, issue #8, Nov. 1964, during a training session, Cyclops told Bobby to "refine his ice crystals". This made him "more icy, almost transparent". Since then, his powers have evolved quite a bit, making Iceman an Omega Level mutant.

So even though he's weird looking, that's just what he looked like. And it could be worse. At least he doesn't have those stupid boots on that he wore in the early issues.


P.S. edit. Yes, the in game version is from the "All New Xmen", but in that series, Beast goes back in time and tells the teen versions that Scott needs to come forward to the future so that teen Cyc can see what he has become and old Cyc can see how far he's fallen. So, while a different series, it is the same character. Just in a different decade. Which is why he looks different.
Seriously, I actually heard someone ask why he was covered in snow instead of ice the other day. They wanted to know why it was changed and wanted him to go back to his "original" icy form.
This post was more about the history of the character Iceman and less about the game.

jffdougan

jojeda654 wrote:

Mitchjewitz wrote:

Can I suggest that we add to the feature character of the week?

At the end of the segment add a "and next week's character is..." that way some of the more experienced listeners can leave advice and input for the next character.

I thought they are teased at the end of the show. I am not sure though, since I never understand the clues.

They are teased, even if we don't always get it (I thought this week's would be Star-Lord). The Princess Bride reference teasing Teen Jean came about because one of the reddit commenters likened her to Fezzik.

Vhailorx

Haven't yet listened, so may have some more thoughts later.

But I can infer from the prior comments that the hosts dislike nova.

So if I remember correctly, the hosts:

(1) Loved Drax
(2) Though JG was the best
(3) Disliked Nova
(4) Recommend Iceman at 5/3/5 and thought he was just pretty good

That's more or less 0/4 (JG is still good, but your analysis was accurate for August 2015, not Sept. 2016; she has been passed by subsequent releases). I don't mean to suggest that you aren't entitled to your own opinions; you certainly don't have to like strong characters, and you don't have to dislike weaker characters. I kind of have a soft-spot for elektra because of all the good times we had stealing muscle tiles in early 2015. But liking a character is not at all the same thing as recognizing character strength.

I really enjoy your podcast guys, but if you care at all about including accurate character analysis information in your show then you might want to think about something like Aesth's suggestion.

There are tons of resources here on the forums that can give you lots of information about any and all tiers of play. From Ebolamonkey's rankings for older 4*s to Colog's analysis newer 4*S, to the 5* rankings thread. There are also several players that would be happy to contribute. If arranging for a guest every week is too complicated (and I'm sure that it's an added pain in the **** above the already logistically frustrating challenge of recording a weekly podcast), then exchanging quick emails with one of your frequent commenters before taping the show would be relatively simple, and even having a quick 1-paragraph analysis to share after stating your own opinions would be a big improvement.