Mostly New Builds for Bottom-tier Characters

ErikPeter

Invisible Woman (Classic)

Grant Invisibility - Cost: 9 Yellow AP
The Invisible Woman hides the weakest member of the team. Converts a random basic Yellow tile into an Invisibility tile. While it’s on the board, the invisible character can’t be targeted. Also creates 2 Protect tiles of moderate strength.

Level 4: Creates stronger tiles. Level 5: Creates 4 tiles.

Force Bubbles 7 AP
Susan focuses her power to lock the enemy down and save the team. Locks 3 chosen Basic, Strike, Protect, and Attack tiles in Force Bubbles before creating a Blue Protect tile.

Level 4. Locks 4 tiles, makes a stronger tile. Level 5. Locks 4 tiles of any type and makes a stronger tile.

Force Field Crush 12 AP
Invisible Woman shatters the tiles surrounding 2 random Force Bubbles. Does not generate AP. Each Force Bubble deals minor damage and is unlocked (but not destroyed). If there are no Force Bubbles, she creates 2 in random locations.

Level 4: Destroys 3 Force Bubbles and the tiles surrounding them. If there are no locked tiles, makes 3. Level 5: Deals moderate damage per unlocked Force Bubble.

Edit: IW got an update, and is now decent. My alternate spec is collapsed below.

IW needs a total overhaul. Her current build is strong in PvE battles but too slow to be fun. The build below is designed to be a fast, "aggressive defense" build.
Invisibility 9 AP / Passive
Invisible Woman uses her powers to find a safe, tactical position. If there are no friendly Invisibility tiles on the board, create one Yellow Invisibility tile targeting the team member with the lowest Health.

(PASSIVE) At the start of the battle, converts a random basic Yellow tile into an Invisibility tile targeting Invisible Woman.

Level 2: Creates 2 tiles at the start of the battle. Level 3: Can now be activated even if friendly Invisibility tiles exist. Level 4: At the start of the battle, creates 2 tiles targeting Invisible Woman and 1 tile targeting a random ally. Level 5: At the start of the battle, creates 2 tiles targeting Invisible Woman and 1 tile targeting each ally.

Force Bubbles 3* AP
Susan focuses her power to deflect enemy attacks and save the team. Creates 3 Blue Protect tiles of low strength. Costs 1 more AP per friendly Protect tile on the board.

Level 2: Creates stronger tiles. Level 3: Also lowers the Strength of up to 3 enemy Strike tiles by a moderate amount. Level 4: Creates tiles of high strength. Level 5: Creates stronger tiles and lowers the Strength of all enemy Strike tiles by a moderate amount.

Force Field Crush 12 AP
Invisible Woman causes a devastating forcefield collapse. Select 1 friendly special tile; that tile and the surrounding tiles are destroyed (not gaining AP), dealing moderate damage to the enemy team. For each friendly special tile destroyed in this way, deal minor additional damage to the target.

Level 2: Targets up to 2 tiles (dealing 2x moderate base damage). Deals moderate damage for each friendly special tile destroyed. Level 3: Deal high bonus damage for each friendly Invisibility and Protect tile destroyed by the blast. Level 4: Targets up to 3 tiles (dealing 3x moderate base damage). Level 5: Deal extreme damage for each friendly Invisibility tile destroyed.

Spider-Man (Classic)

Web Bandages - Yellow 12
Spider-Man webs makeshift slings, healing his team for 142. If 3 or more Web tiles exist he converts them to bandages, healing his team for an additional 149.

Levels 2-5: Increases base healing.[/u]

All Tied Up - Blue 5
Spider-Man slings webs, stunning the enemy for 1 turn. He then adds a Yellow Web tile to the board.

Level 2: +1 turn of stun if 3 Web tiles exist Level 3: +1 turn of stun if 2 Web tiles exist Level 4: +1 turn of stun if 1 Web tile exists Level 5: +1 or +2 turns of stun when 1 or 2 Web tiles exist.

Spider-Sense - Purple PASSIVE
Spider-Man's senses tingle and he moves to protect his team. If there aren't any friendly Purple Protect tiles, he creates one when his team matches Purple tiles. New Protect tile Strength is based on the number of Web tiles in play.

Level 2: Creates up to 2 Purple Protect tiles. Level 3: Increases base Protect Strength by 25% Level 4: Creates up to 3 Purple Protect tiles. Level 5: Increases base Protect Strength by 25%

This 3-star Peter Parker would keep his role as "pure" support (with a little ramping damage added to Blue), and even better at supporting his 4-star Spider-friends with web tile generation.

Hero of the People 6 AP / Passive
Spider-man swings onto the scene, invigorating his team. Creates 1 web tile.

(PASSIVE) When a web tile is matched, heal his team for a moderate amount.

Level 2: Creates 2 web tiles. Level 3: Increased healing. Level 4: Increased healing. Level 5: Creates 4 web tiles.

All Tied Up 5 AP
Spider-man slings webs, dealing minor damage per Web tile on the board, and stuns the target enemy for 1 turn. Then adds a Web tile to the board.

Level 2: Increased damage. Stuns the target for 2 turns if 3 web tiles exist. Level 3: Increased damage. Stuns the target 2 turns if 2 web tiles exist. Level 4: Stuns the enemy for 2 turns, or 3 turns if 2 web tiles exist. Level 5: Increased damage. Stuns the target for 3 turns. If at least 3 web tiles exist, stuns another random enemy for 1 turn.

Spider Sense / Passive
Spider-Man's senses tingle and he moves to protect himself. (PASSIVE) Creates a Purple Web tile whenever his team matches Purple tiles.
(PASSIVE) Reduce damage done to Spider-Man by a minor amount for each Purple Web tile on the board.

Level 2: Damage reduction improves. Level 3: Damage reduction improves even more. Level 4: Damage reduction improves. Spider-Man confers 1/3 of this benefit to his allies. Level 5: Creates 2 Purple Web Tiles when making a Purple match.

Psylocke (Classic)

Psychic Knife - Red 8
Psylocke gains momentum, fluidly chaining attacks together. Deals 59 damage and creates a strength 12 Red Strike tile whenever fewer than 3 exist. Costs 1 less for each Red Strike Tile (min cost 5)

Level 2: Increases Strike tile strength to 19 Level 3: 94 damage Level 4: Increases strike tile strength to 31 Level 5: 153 damage

Max Level: Deals 1131 damage, creates a 226 strength red strike tile.
Bewilder - Blue 10
Psylocke steadies and channels her telepathic power, reaching into the minds of the enemy to disrupt their attack. Converts a basic Blue tile to a 3 turn Countdown tile that steals up to 9AP from the enemies largest color pool.

Level 2: Steals up to 12 AP Level 3: Steals up to 15 AP Level 4: Steals up to 19 AP Level 5: Countdown reduced from 3 turns to 2 turns.

Psi-Katana - Black 6
Psylocke carves the enemy up with her psionic katana. Deals 59 damage and leaves the enemy bleeding, converting a basic Black tile to an Attack tile that deals 14 damage to the current target each turn.

Level 2: Deals 94 damage Level 3: Increases attack tile damage to 22 Level 4: 153 damage Level 5: Increases attack tile damage to 36

Max Level: Deals 1131 damage and leaves the enemy bleeding. Converts a black tile into a 270 attack tile that damages the current opponent each turn.

My total overhaul for Psylocke is designed to keep the mechanical flavor of her powers intact, but amp them up a lot. She should be fast and scary.

Psychic Knife 3 AP*
Maintaining intense concentration, Psylocke fluidly chains attacks together. Deals 59 damage and creates 2 strength 8 Red Strike tiles. Costs 1 more for each friendly Strike Tile on the board (max cost 8).

Level 2: Increases Strike tile strength to 12 Level 3: 94 damage Level 4: Increases strike tile strength to 20 Level 5: 153 damage

Level 166: Deals 1131 damage, creates 2 Strength 140 Red strike tiles.
Bewilder 10 AP
Psylocke steadies and channels her telepathic power, reaching into the minds of the enemy to disrupt their attack. Converts a basic Blue tile to a 4-turn Countdown tile that destroys up to 2AP from the enemy team's largest color pool each turn.

Level 2: Destroys 3AP/turn. Level 3: Destroys 4 AP/turn. Level 4: Destroys 5 AP/turn. Level 5: Countdown increased to 6 turns.

Psi-Katana 6 AP
Psylocke carves the enemy up with her psionic katana. Deals 59 damage and leaves the enemy bleeding, converting a friendly Strike tile to an Attack tile and increasing its Strength by 14.

Level 2: Deals 94 damage Level 3: Increases attack tile Strength by 22 Level 4: 153 damage Level 5: Increases attack tile Strength by 36

Level 166: Deals 1131 damage and converts a friendly Strike tile into an Attack tile, increasing its Strength by 270.

Devil Dinosaur (Gigantic Reptile)

Prehistoric Bite 7 AP
Devil Dinosaur grabs the target in his fierce jaws, dealing 2575 damage and taking a bite out of a random 2x2 block of tiles.

Prehistoric Chomp 10 AP
Devil Dinosaur snatches the enemy in his massive teeth, dealing 4851 damage.

Prehistoric Arms 6 AP
Devil Dinosaur waves his foreshortened forearms ferociously, swapping two random tiles and dealing 1819 damage.

Devil Dino is kind of weak by design, but the following changes would make him considerably more competitive.

Prehistoric Bite 7 AP
Devil Dinosaur grabs the target in his fierce jaws, dealing 2575 damage and taking a bite out of a random 2x2 block of tiles. If Devil Dinosaur has less than 25% Health after the board settles, he lashes out, destroying 12 additional tiles.

Prehistoric Chomp 10 AP
Devil Dinosaur snatches the enemy in his massive teeth, dealing 4851 damage, plus 4851 damage for each downed ally.

Prehistoric Arms 6 AP
Devil Dinosaur waves his foreshortened forearms ferociously, making one free match and dealing 1819 damage.
npxo

ErikPeter

Here are some single power replacements that would make underutilized characters more competitive.

Ragnarok (Dark Avengers)

Godlike Power 14 AP
Ragnarok slams his hammer down, releasing a wave of electricity that scars the battlefield. Deals moderate damage to all enemies and minor damage to allies. Destroys a random column. Does not generate AP.
Thunderclap 6 AP
Ragnarok gathers dark clouds and calls down a bolt of lightning. Adds 2-4 Blue tiles to the board, then deals moderate damage.
Lightning Rod 8 AP
Ragnarok hurls his hammer into the thunderclouds, where it absorbs the power of the storm. Creates 1-3 Green Charged tile. Catching the hammer charges the cyborg with electricity, giving him a burst of health.

Rags doesn't feel very effective in battle. His Red provides decent Blue generation, fueling a subpar Blue power. I'd transform Lightning Rod into a powerful way to remove Charged tiles, which would make him a good teammate or counter for Thor.

Lightning Rod 8 AP
Ragnarok hurls his hammer into the thunderclouds, where it absorbs the power of the storm. Creates 1 Green Charged tile. Catching the hammer charges the cyborg with electricity, giving him a burst of (minor) health. Then, if there are are 5 or more Charged tiles on the board, destroy all Charged tiles (not gaining AP) and deal moderate damage to the enemy team.

Level 2: Creates 2 Charged tiles. Increased damage. Level 3: Increased healing and damage. Level 4: Creates 3 Charged tiles. Increased damage. Level 5: Increased healing and damage.

Daken (Classic)
This addition to Healing & Heat would give Daken some good finishing potential, generating many weak strikes (and possibly green cascades) to eat with Chemical Reaction. It would also void the board of Blue, potentially dangerous "Heat" loss, which creates some decent risk/reward.

Healing & Heat 15 AP / Passive
Daken enters a "Heat"-fueled rage, converting all Blue and Green (non-Countdown) tiles into Green Strike tiles of Strength 10.
(PASSIVE) Daken’s healing factor allows him to recover 3% of his health every turn. If there are fewer than 8 Blue tiles, the terrible drug “Heat” kicks in, and he loses 3% of his health instead.

Level 2: Heals 5% per turn. Level 3: Creates Strike tiles of Strength 20. Level 4: Heals 7% per turn. Level 5: Creates Strike tiles of Strength 40.

Sentry (Dark Avengers)
To be meaningful again, Sentry just needs a little nerf-reversion. His Red is good, and Yellow can remain woefully inefficient; Green's great Strike synergy should be recaptured simply by lowering the price to about what it used to be.

World Rupture 8 AP
(Same effects as existing power)


TBD

658

I love the idea of a passive that makes IW invisible from the start. I also like that you abandon lock tiles. Locked tiles don't add anything strategic or fun to the game, just annoyance.

I think the yellow could be simpler. At the start of match, IW makes one, two, or three invisible tiles, depending on covers. And then for an active, 9 yellow ap to make new invisibility tiles if none on the board.

Blue I don't like. Cheap protect tiles are useless and not fun. I'd rather see her fortify tiles. For 12 blue, fortify two tiles as covers go up (fortifying different types of tiles with the other covers). Would keep this power very expensive, as fortifying invis tiles particularly would be an extremely powerful ability. I think fortifying 3 tiles would be too op, but could be convinced otherwise.

Green I like, but swapping fortified tiles (destroyed completely) for protects. Crushes would be random not targeted.

OzarkBoatswain

I like how your IW can put multiple invis. tiles on a single target, making the skill always usable.

Your Psylocke redesign is great. I like how Bewilder would always do something if it lasts one turn. It might be too powerful, though. Green Goblin can only drain up to 27 AP for 10 AP; Bewilder would be able to drain 30.

ErikPeter

658 wrote:

Blue I don't like. Cheap protect tiles are useless and not fun.

The idea was to make them not useless. One blue match and you are set against 5* match damage, like, close to 1k out of the gate for 3 AP. "Aggressive defense". The increasing cost is a drawback to offset the strong ability, and to make fighting her not just completely awful.

Ozark Boatswain wrote:

I like how Bewilder would always do something if it lasts one turn. It might be too powerful, though. Green Goblin can only drain up to 27 AP for 10 AP; Bewilder would be able to drain 30.

I don't think it would be OP; it's only function is slowdown, to give Psy more use of her turnover (strike/attack) abilities. It destroys the AP (it doesn't steal it), deals zero damage. Enemy Psylocke using Bewilder would be frustrating, but you have some control over how it plays out: You might be able to match an undesired color to be drained first, or just match away the CD. Compared to CMags doing Magnetized Projectiles, for tons of damage and red/blue gain? I'm not too worried about it being broken. But I do think 4/5/4 would be a strong defensive build for maximum AP denial.

658

ErikPeter wrote:

658 wrote:

Blue I don't like. Cheap protect tiles are useless and not fun.

The idea was to make them not useless. One blue match and you are set against 5* match damage, like, close to 1k out of the gate for 3 AP. "Aggressive defense". The increasing cost is a drawback to offset the strong ability, and to make fighting her not just completely awful.

1k in protects from 3 ap would be incredibly OP and totally out of balance. Captain Falcon's protects are 115/ap. Even at 6ap, she would crush that with 1k in protects. I wouldn't advocate it, but could see a power like that in 5* land, but a power that strong would complety shut down the four star tier.

The inherent balance issues are why protects generally just suck. I wish they'd 86 them from all future builds.

ErikPeter

Sure, 1k for 3 AP is too much. But that's why I didn't put numbers in the spec, the balance would have to be found. The idea is to be really strong, bonkers efficient on a clean board. I.e. a Protect tile power worth using (because face it, without Dive Bomb, Falcap's yellow is only just decent. Maybe instead of 3 tiles of 200ish, it could make 6 of strength 100 or so. That way a second use immediately after would cost 9 and probably only provide 2-4 more tiles (since all the blues would fill up). Or maybe the solution is to make it only fire on a board without protects, and otherwise do something else.

But I think there's a place for Protects; in terms of game interactions, Protects can cause aggravating slowdown, but there is still counterplay (special targeting, tile destruction, etc). The only real problematic issue I see is that the Devs don't seem worried about strength increasing passives. Like, the 1k+ from Falcap's yellow isn't scary, you can shred them over a few rounds; but once you take out most of the tiles, he can passively boost the hard-to-reach ones forever, to the point of being totally impenetrable. It's kind of like invisibility--another mechanic that can kind of suck the fun out of the game--it can lock the game down, but as long as there's counters available it's not so strong.

Anyway I don't think her power would be as obnoxious as Luke Cage's, it'd just be faster to get going. And at least she has to spend AP on it, AP in the color of the tiles she's making. I feel like the Yellow I proposed is more game-breaking than the Blue.