**** Medusa (Inhuman Queen) ****

Vhailorx

Orion wrote:

This is the kind of character that needs to be in the 5* tier. Could you imagine if she were a 5*? Probably 2-3k damage from her countdown a turn, with AP generation and an ability to steal enemy special tiles? She'd be one hell of a support character. Instead we get another one to add to Colog's list of irrelevant 4*s.

This post is an excellent example of the growing stratification within the game.

Releasing her as a 4* renders her useless to orion. but releasing her at a 5* would make her effectively beyond my reach. As is, I need 6 more covers and probably won't be able to cover/champ her for several months yet (and I am already a mid-level 4* player. . .imagine what 5* releases look like for 2* or 3* players).

Jaedenkaal

Vhailorx wrote:

Orion wrote:

This is the kind of character that needs to be in the 5* tier. Could you imagine if she were a 5*? Probably 2-3k damage from her countdown a turn, with AP generation and an ability to steal enemy special tiles? She'd be one hell of a support character. Instead we get another one to add to Colog's list of irrelevant 4*s.

This post is an excellent example of the growing stratification within the game.

Releasing her as a 4* renders her useless to orion. but releasing her at a 5* would make her effectively beyond my reach. As is, I probably won't be able to cover/champ her for several months yet (and I am already a mid-level 4* player. . .imagine what 5* releases look like for 2* or 3* players).

Well I've champed 3 4*s so far... so there's actually not much difference between new 4 and 5*s for me. I have about the same chance of seeing covers for them at this point.

Tromb2ch2

I've been using her with mostorm. In one cascade I healed 7k health at 3 yellow covers.

notamutant

My character analysis is finally up. Sorry for the delays. I have to say, I have very mixed feelings about her. She is either awesome or horrible depending on the situation. Boosted for sure she will be annoying. Unboosted, useless, except with the right team. Carnage and War Machine will churn through any node in PvE. In PvP you only get one partner, and I can't imagine many partners for her that will work.

https://youtu.be/0WDqaNfe_5o

Jaedenkaal

notamutant wrote:

My character analysis is finally up. Sorry for the delays. I have to say, I have very mixed feelings about her. She is either awesome or horrible depending on the situation. Boosted for sure she will be annoying. Unboosted, useless, except with the right team. Carnage and War Machine will churn through any node in PvE. In PvP you only get one partner, and I can't imagine many partners for her that will work.

https://youtu.be/0WDqaNfe_5o

Carnage, Ant-Man, Moon Knight, Ghost Rider, Blade, and Punisher all seem like they'd work pretty well.

The AP gain would have to be random, otherwise it would be way to easy to gain huge amounts of AP of a color of your choice; 12 purple AP for making a purple match with 3 enemy (purple) special tiles.

I don't think it's really that situational, in the sense that it only asks that one of the teams create special tiles (and she does create some on her own). It's certainly less situational than Radar Sense (not a glowing review, certainly)

Also, you're still wrong about how Entanglement works. A 4 turn countdown will deal damage 4 times

Turn 1: Created, does damage (countdown shows 4)
Turn 2: Damage (countdown shows 3)
Turn 3: Damage (countdown shows 2)
Turn 4: Damage (countdown shows 1)
Turn 5: Disappears, no damage(countdown shows 0 briefly)
Turn 6: Created, does damage (countdown shows 4)
Turn 7: Etc...

So at worst you have 80% uptime, for an average damage per turn of 531. That's a little worse than Iron Fist's Attack tile (at ~270) BUT that's comparing the absolute worst case of Entanglement (Never gets matched away and does damage 4 turns out of 5) against the absolute best case for Exquisite Technique (Never gets matched away and no other attack tiles prevent it from being re-created)

I think you're significantly underrating this ability.

notamutant

Jaedenkaal wrote:

notamutant wrote:

My character analysis is finally up. Sorry for the delays. I have to say, I have very mixed feelings about her. She is either awesome or horrible depending on the situation. Boosted for sure she will be annoying. Unboosted, useless, except with the right team. Carnage and War Machine will churn through any node in PvE. In PvP you only get one partner, and I can't imagine many partners for her that will work.

https://youtu.be/0WDqaNfe_5o

Carnage, Ant-Man, Moon Knight, Ghost Rider, Blade, and Punisher all seem like they'd work pretty well.

The AP gain would have to be random, otherwise it would be way to easy to gain huge amounts of AP of a color of your choice; 12 purple AP for making a purple match with 3 enemy (purple) special tiles.

I don't think it's really that situational, in the sense that it only asks that one of the teams create special tiles (and she does create some on her own). It's certainly less situational than Radar Sense (not a glowing review, certainly)

Also, you're still wrong about how Entanglement works. A 4 turn countdown will deal damage 4 times

Turn 1: Created, does damage (countdown shows 4)
Turn 2: Damage (countdown shows 3)
Turn 3: Damage (countdown shows 2)
Turn 4: Damage (countdown shows 1)
Turn 5: Disappears, no damage(countdown shows 0 briefly)
Turn 6: Created, does damage (countdown shows 4)
Turn 7: Etc...

So at worst you have 80% uptime, for an average damage per turn of 531. That's a little worse than Iron Fist's Attack tile (at ~270) BUT that's comparing the absolute worst case of Entanglement (Never gets matched away and does damage 4 turns out of 5) against the absolute best case for Exquisite Technique (Never gets matched away and no other attack tiles prevent it from being re-created)

I think you're significantly underrating this ability.

Like I said, I had a very hard time really evaluating her compared to other characters. So much of her skillset is both situational in terms of teammates, and luck of the draw for whether or not her countdown tile and special tiles show up in the right locations to be matched.

Regarding PvP teammates, where you can only take one teammate.
Carnage would not be good in many situations, as you need his passive to activate a lot. Remember, Medusa only has one active skill to activate Carnage's black, and its not cheap. Carnage has one cheap skill, and one expensive skill. So you are reliant on the featured character and your opponent.
Ant-Man has purple conflicting with Medusa. Stealing tiles with Ant-Man's blue instead of Medusa's purple would be a waste. His yellow could be good, but with his other two skills not desirable to use, he again brings you down to only two desirable actives.
Moon Knight is random in creating special tiles.
I love using Ghost Rider, but I also understand he stinks to build a team around since his only damaging move is black; however, with Medusa, he might actually be usable since you will be more likely to get his black off with the healing keeping Ghost Rider around longer. So that might work depending on luck.
Blade is a bit too random to rely on.
Punisher might also work.

I think the reality is, a huge amount of her usefulness in PvP will be based on the featured character, more so than others. Realistically, I said whenever she is boosted, she will be good, and most 4 star players only use boosted characters anyhow, so all this analysis is pointless. All that really matters is who is boosted that week.

And her skill doesn't create the countdown on the first turn, like all other passives.

Jaedenkaal

Ant-Man has purple conflicting with Medusa. Stealing tiles with Ant-Man's blue instead of Medusa's purple would be a waste. His yellow could be good, but with his other two skills not desirable to use, he again brings you down to only two desirable actives.

Well you said yourself that Medusa's Purple skill is pretty situational and not that great even when it applies, so I don't really see the conflict here. Just use Pym Particles and flood the board with special tiles. As for the Blue, sure, there's some overlap in kit, but you could also just use it to, in longer matches, fire off a Grow without waiting to steal any tiles. Yes I realize it's 18 AP to do that, although in the Iron Man PVP that's just wrapping up that would be pretty doable.

Moon Knight is random in creating special tiles.

2/3 of the time, sure.

I love using Ghost Rider, but I also understand he stinks to build a team around since his only damaging move is black; however, with Medusa, he might actually be usable since you will be more likely to get his black off with the healing keeping Ghost Rider around longer. So that might work depending on luck.

I was also thinking his Green might be more useful than usual with the extra attack tiles that Medusa creates and the Green AP that she (might) generate.

Blade is a bit too random to rely on.

Well, even one or two Strike tiles would boost Entanglement damage to pretty scary levels. And there are a number of 3*s that generate Red tiles or Red AP, so in those cases the randomness is significantly reduced.

I think the reality is, a huge amount of her usefulness in PvP will be based on the featured character, more so than others. Realistically, I said whenever she is boosted, she will be good, and most 4 star players only use boosted characters anyhow, so all this analysis is pointless. All that really matters is who is boosted that week.

Must feel nice to have maxed versions of all the boosted characters every week Maybe it would be worth rating her based on which boosted 4*s she counters, then?

And her skill doesn't create the countdown on the first turn, like all other passives.

Yes; that wasn't really my point. Increase all those turn numbers in my post by 1. You still get 4 turns of damage out of the 4-turn countdown tile, which is not what you claim in your video.

Rick_OShay

Does anyone know how 3* Sam Wilson's blue will work vs Medusa's CD tile?
Sine it's 'removed' and not exactly destroyed, I wanted to ask before trying in PvP.
Thanks

RogueZeroOne

I was fortunate enough to place well in the events where her covers were prizes and I got lucky with a pack and pulled a bunch more, so as a result, I was able to fully cover and champ Medusa early. She plays extremely well with Patch and IM40 or Patch and Carnage. When there are a lot of special tile out (think IM 40 charge, hit Patch red and green, then Medusa purple), you are suddenly making matches for about 4-5K per (conservatively). Then as you match the strike or attack tiles, you gain AP and heal the team. It borders on ridiculous. Then if you are fighting, say, Nova, OML or Phoenix, you fire purple again (from all the AP you are collecting) and steal their strike tiles (buffing by a lot in the process). Imagine a board filled with strikes and attacks, all pointing at the enemy team. Medusa is one of my new favorites.

fanghoul

Tried fighting against a fully covered Medusa recently, as a 3* player moving slowly into 4* land, and she was a nightmare. She matched her count down tile twice, and was doing over 1000 points of damage a turn. I match the attack tiles away and she's healed all the damage I've managed to do.

She doesn't have the big punch that a bunch of 4*s have, but I think I'll be avoiding fighting her when possible. I can counter many 4* characters by just controlling their access to AP, using Hood or Peggy. Medusa is a different beast.

Mr_Sinister

For PvE, Star Lord 5/5/3, Medusa 5/5/3, War Machine 5/3/5.


PvP 4 Cage 5/5/3, Medusa can vary depending on matchup, 4 Blade 5/5/3

For 3*, Daken 5/5/3, Beast 5/5/3, Bullseye 5/5/3

Buret0

I've been using her in all of the PvP events when boosted.

Medusa + Carnage (5/3/5) is great. 2,400 health restored on a match or 3 Purple, Green, or Blue AP. Every attack tile you steal with her purple is doing an extra 1K in damage per turn. In the Vision event, so many powers fire that the board is filled with tiles to absorb and steal. Medusa's bursy healing means that you can likely us Carnage's red ability without any permanent effect to your team health.

Patch (5/5/3) + Medusa in PvE is fantastic. Use his Green and her Purple on the same turn and you are doing 5-9K damage per match. Her attack tiles and her CD tile damage are both dealt at the same time, but they are each separately boosted from the strike tiles. Expect to do 12K damage at the end of your turn if both attack tiles and her CD tile are in play.

Peggy (5/3/5) + Medusa in the Blade PvP is great. Let the enemy build up their Red Strike tiles and then steal a bunch of them. Alternatively, Peggy's blue can keep the Hulkbusters and Icemen frozen, then her blue CD tiles can wipe 1-2 of the boosted 4* characters away, so just match away the enemy strike tiles to power her Blue. Medusa keeps healing Peggy, so she is going to keep all enemy power costs at +3. Most of the time, I can finish off HB + Ice without a single enemy power firing. However, I do note that I seem to gain a lot of green AP when I have no use for it on the team.

I've also been using Medusa with boosted Iceman. She provides the Blue and Green needed for Ice to freeze the other team and AoE them to death. However, fro this to work well you need the enemy team to manufacture special tiles, like in the Blade PvP or against an OML + Phoenix team.

I have also used Medusa with Phoenix (only five cover). Using Phoenix's red to give strike tiles to me and attack tiles to the enemy (which are heavy hitters, so perfect for stealing with Medusa).

In PvE, she's fun with MoStorm, bulls3y3, carnage, and patch because of the massive number of special tiles. PX works well too.

I had a fun survival match against goons where I had Patch, Medusa, and Strange. By the end of the first round I had 4K stolen purple strike tiles, plus 2K in greens. Every time the enemy dropped a CD tile, Strange killed someone. When I made a match, someone died. When my turn ended, the attack tiles killed someone.

When boosted, Medusa can be sneaky good on D. I have her at 5/3/5, so her CD tile is doing about 600 damage less per turn, but her magic comes in healing and stealing for a sudden game ender.

Unboosted, she will sit on the shelf with the other 4*s. Boosted, she's going to be on almost every team unless there's no good boosted 4* combination, then I'll probably just go back to 10 and 9 cover Surfer + OML.

Mr_Sinister

For what she does, she does it so well it's broken. With the right team, she makes them almost unbeatable unless you can 1 shot her out of the match. Outside of those select team members, she's totally useless.
Bringing any special tile creator against her is stupid.

Gmax101

Just used a level 168 version at 4/4/4 in PVP against a championed boosted Carnage...

after one amusing use of her purple I gained over 4,000 health and a LOT of strengthened tiles...

she survived 2 of his red due to health bursts...

Punisher just sat there hoarding the Green and Blue AP before finishing Carnage off... but Medusa made Carnage irrelevant.

She is awesome against special tile spammers....

mpqr7

I just realized that Medusa/OML/Carnage is an amazing trio. Set Carnage to 3/5/5, because you'll never use his red, but you'll sometimes use his green.

You basically get non-stop special tiles all of the time, healing, more ap, and OML heals too! Great against symbiotes and ultron sentries, maybe even better than St3nge! Although he's great too!

Anon

275 5/5/3
152 4/3/4
152 1/4/2

This is my Big Enchilada team and it gets pretty out of control at times. Gather blue while trying to match Medusa CD tiles. Once you get enough blue ap, it's almost game over. Every turn I'm stealing ap and buffing the **** out of those attack tiles.

If I feel like being a jerk, I can place Carol's CD tiles, but that's usually overkill. I love this team.

tonypq

Is her purple bugged ?

I have it at power level 3 and use her constantly in pve as she's great against goon teams. I've found with special tiles on board for the enemy, I'll use her purple and see some of their tiles get swapped but they aren't getting stolen or boosted. 

In Just finished a battle, used her purple seen it swap some protect and strike tiles and didn't steal any of them. Then I used it a second time and it stole some protect tiles. Don't understand why sometimes it's stealing tiles and other times it's not when swapping them.

Anyone else notice this lately ?

I thought she was bugged before but that D3 had fixed any issues she had.

bbigler

Now everyone can see her true power!  This is the week where Medusa is buffed and most people have her champed too, so she will destroy PVE and strike fear in PVP.  Just imagine a week when 4*Rocket AND Medusa are both buffed.  Holy Cow, that would kill!

Jarvind

bbigler said:

Now everyone can see her true power!  This is the week where Medusa is buffed and most people have her champed too, so she will destroy PVE and strike fear in PVP.  Just imagine a week when 4*Rocket AND Medusa are both buffed.  Holy Cow, that would kill!

Ugh, I'm glad it'll only be for one season PVP. It's annoying enough fighting Medusa every other match when she's not boosted.

bbigler

Jarvind said:

bbigler said:

Now everyone can see her true power!  This is the week where Medusa is buffed and most people have her champed too, so she will destroy PVE and strike fear in PVP.  Just imagine a week when 4*Rocket AND Medusa are both buffed.  Holy Cow, that would kill!

Ugh, I'm glad it'll only be for one season PVP. It's annoying enough fighting Medusa every other match when she's not boosted.

True, but I knew this day would come.  Everyone loved 3*Fist's auto-attack tile and people would avoid those PVP matches (including me) because of the health pack drain.  After Medusa, the new hotness will be 4*Rocket.  His auto-strikes are even stronger than Medusa's tile.  By the time you've matched them away, the damage has been done (literally). 

A good PVP win is one where you don't need health packs for the next match (mostly for climbing, not so much for shield hopping).  If health packs weren't a "limited" resource, then people wouldn't care about Medusa's damage.