A Mostly Accurate 4* Ranking (Final Update 8/11/18)

Jarvind

No more giant post! It's all on Google Drive now! Click here and enjoy, you info-thirsty bloodhounds.

8/11 Edit: As I've decided to drop the game, this will be the last update for the foreseeable future. I'm leaving the guide up though, for anyone who cares to take a gander.




Here is the original intro, which is on the doc as well:

Well, we've reached the fabled point where 4* characters are more numerous than 3* characters.

So, I've taken it upon myself to rank them all in order of general usefulness. I know there are some ranking threads and such out there, but I didn't see any that focus specifically on the 4* tier, at least none that have been updated recently.

 

Disclaimers: 

- This is just my opinion and should in no way be construed as the "definitive" or "official" 4* ranking in any way. I mostly wrote it for fun.

- At any given time, I won't have used a couple of these outside of their demo node in the release event because they aren't covered yet, so their ranking will be based off of that small amount of experience, forum input, and some educated guessing.

- Characters are listed in descending order of awesomeness. Assume a margin of error of around 2-3 ranks since this is obviously subjective.

- In general I'll be assuming the characters are at or around level 270, as I very rarely use underleveled 4*s.

- Devil Dino and Howard are not included as they are extremely difficult to cover and not really serious contenders.

notamutant

I don't agree with 100% of this, but overall, it is a pretty good list. You might want to consider making some minor modifications and posting it in the tips and guides section of the forum, to complement Dauthi's 3* guide.

sambrookjm

Nice to see a 4* equivalent to the 3* thread that's been up for ages. I'm sure everyone will have their quibbles with the ranking, but that's what makes this fun!

And for what it's worth, I agree that X-Force Wolverine isn't the worst character ever... I use him quite regularly with 4-star Cyclops and Iron Fist in the Simulator, and they work great together.

Then again, I willingly use Mr Fantastic in there as well, teaming him with X-23 and 3-star Daken. Granted, it's because I don't have a yellow OML cover, but three true healers really saves on the health packs.

Cousin Simpson

Looking forward to reading the whole list when I have the time, just wanted to point out:

Holding Back/Berserker Fury has the potential to crank out a couple of monster strikes, however you'll need to collect a total of 18 green and 9 red before that happens.

Holding Back/BF is only 8 green AP, so you only ("only") need to sit on 16 AP until you get red.

Jarvind

Cousin Simpson wrote:

Looking forward to reading the whole list when I have the time, just wanted to point out:

Holding Back/Berserker Fury has the potential to crank out a couple of monster strikes, however you'll need to collect a total of 18 green and 9 red before that happens.

Holding Back/BF is only 8 green AP, so you only ("only") need to sit on 16 AP until you get red.

Fixt! Thanks. I always make that mistake even when I'm using her, no idea why.

DaveR4470

Really enjoyed this! As a regular 4hor user, though, I want to take a little exception to your comment on Jane's yellow.....

I agree that yellow is the one you keep at three. But it's wrong to view it as a damage generator (terrible) or a special tile remover (meh). What it is is a charged tile generator. If you've got nothing else to use your yellow on, and there are enemy specials on the board, your 3-star yellow power will add up to another 2200 damage to your red smite. It has only situational usefulness, but it's not a useless power.

And Cho's rework made him a logical partner for Mme Thor and her caddy IM40. If you spec him at 5-3-5, he (a) uses the green AP that 4hor/IM40 do not utilize, and (b) generates SIX charged tiles -- that's another 4000 damage for Smite -- for only 7 black AP (another color not used by the core 4hor/IM team).

The Thor/IM/Cho team-up is truly one where the whole is better than the sum of its parts. So long as you get that first Recharge -- and your only goal should be to match yellow until you do, with blue and red (respectively) as fallbacks -- you'll snowball into an easy win. When 4hor is boosted.... forget it. I can quickly get to 14k-20k Smites, with no retaliation because everyone on the other team is stunned. It's fabulous.

rc35

Thank you very much for this very informative and entertaining post! Great work!

Kjempen

Very good character ranking! Agree with most of this. Though I think all from rank 8 to rank 13 can be more scary than number 7 (Hulk Buster) . The AI Hulk Buster is too easy to beat if you can deny his black power from firing. His red is 'weak' if he only fires the required AP, which the AI will do 90 percent of the time. But many are spot on! Good work!

Jarvind

Kjempen wrote:

Very good character ranking! Agree with most of this. Though I think all from rank 8 to rank 13 can be more scary than number 7 (Hulk Buster) . The AI Hulk Buster is too easy to beat if you can deny his black power from firing. His red is 'weak' if he only fires the required AP, which the AI will do 90 percent of the time. But many are spot on! Good work!

Glad you liked it! To your point, I wasn't really factoring defense into the equation - you'll notice I never even mention it unless a character happens to perform particularly well on D. The way the AI plays makes it rare that a character is overly threatening on defense unless they cascade into a ton of AP. On the other hand, when controlled by a competent human, Hulkbuster can beat a team into submission really quickly, which is why he ranks where he does.

sambrookjm

#7 Iron Man (Hulkbuster) Recommended Build: 5/5/3

I just about always use him as a 5/3/5 to help power the red generation. Team him with 3-star Cyclops with 5 on his yellow and black abilities, and you have three abilities focused on creating the uber Repulsor Punch. Cyclops black at 5 with a lot of the red on the board really packs a punch as well. Green and Purple are the only two abilities that aren't covered by this due, so use 4-star Jean Grey for fun, or 5-star Jean Grey for even MORE red generation...

fanghoul

One additional comment on Agent Venom, his self-damage board shake also deals damage to the enemy that can be boosted by strike tiles. If you're already using a strike tile strategy, this can be a nice little extra chunk of damage per turn.

fnedude

Great list, just two comments:

For Cyclops' Combined Forces, you should put a note in their about teaming him with boosted 3*'s, his Yellow will then provide other colors than Red, which screws up his timing sometimes. (3* Kamala K.+4*Cyclops will give you Pink for instance).

For Elektra, I like her w/ 5-Black, 5-Red, 3-Purple, so she needs to be out in front when Shadow Step is out, so it's hard to team her with other Pink/Black/Red characters (meaning only other Green/Yellow/Blue), you want her icon on 3x covers, so Shadow Step will absorb the damage, and bash the enemy.

I also like TAHulk+Sam Wilson+RHulk defensively.

Sam Wilson matching Blue, makes TAHulk's Blue go faster, to generate Green for RHulk. If you ever bank up enough Red, you can almost 1-shot anyone.

GrumpySmurf1002

I'd personally swap Drax and Falcap, and move Carnage and XDP way up.

Few other minor quibbles (think Antman/PX are too low, Blade maybe a bit too high), but overall pretty good list.

dbfclark

First, thanks a million for making the ranking! That's a ton of effort and I know the playerbase will really appreciate it.

One comment: it seems pretty clear to me, as a 450-oml player now and a 4* transitioner within the last year, that this ranking is based firmly on the 4* tier and a 4* meta that only kind of exists -- based on the way the game is currently letting rosters develop, it feels like a ranking of the future rather than the present, of a time when many players have well-developed 4* rosters and no good 5*s. Transitioning to 4* is a level where Charlie's angels is kind of mandatory, while the 5* synergies can hardly be neglected if you do have a few at a usable level. If this is your philosophy, it might be better to clarify that a bit upfront. I know that deadpool is the only reason I felt good about leveling my oml to high-300's, and this is key to a global evaluation.

It'll be really interesting to compare this to the forum survey -- by its nature, you won't be able to limit it to just a tier, so the contrast will probably be sharp.

GrimSkald

Jarvind wrote:

Cousin Simpson wrote:

Looking forward to reading the whole list when I have the time, just wanted to point out:

Holding Back/Berserker Fury has the potential to crank out a couple of monster strikes, however you'll need to collect a total of 18 green and 9 red before that happens.

Holding Back/BF is only 8 green AP, so you only ("only") need to sit on 16 AP until you get red.

Fixt! Thanks. I always make that mistake even when I'm using her, no idea why.

Here's the thing, though, you don't need to sit on 16 green. Once you activate Berserker Fury, it will last until the end of the fight. Holding back does damage by itself (not great damage for 8 green, but not bad,) so once you get 8 green you need to make a decision based on the following factors:

1) how much red you have and how much is on the board?
2) how much green is on the board?
3) how quickly will the damage end the fight?
4) Do you have a better green to use?

If you've got the red AP, you can just fire it - if you get more green the power will be better, but the damage will do good things by itself. If it will be hard to get the red AP, hard to get another 8 green AP, or the damage will bring you substantially closer to ending the fight, you may well want to fire "Holding Back" without transforming the power.

I used to use her all the time in the Big Enchillada - honestly it is hard to get "Berserker Fury" in a single fight. Sometimes the damage by itself is all you need.

Mr_Sinister

Sam Wilson is actually really good you've short changed him by a lot.

There is no way venom is the worst. He's not great, but he is not worse than Mr Fantastic.

I'd put Captain Carter #1.

Fightmastermpq

Obviously everyone is going to have some different opinions, but I think you really underrated XFDP. Spec him with 5 black and against 5* teams with rainbow coverage it's at least 3.4k damage every single turn - enough to completely counter OMLs healing. He is hands down the best 3rd character to pair with a 5* duo for climbing and makes sim a breeze. Other than that a pretty good list. I would rank XFW, Carnage, and ProfX a bit higher, with Nova, Thor, and War Machine a bit lower.

Straycat

Seems like a pretty good list, nice work. Its a little disheartening to realize how many of the top characters I don't have champed, but thats part of the game. I only have 4 of the top 20 champed. I would say invisible woman is too low. I think she is solid. Green does good damage, she is one of the rare characters that makes both strike and protect tiles. Timing out invisibility to negate a single target attack can be awesome.
I would say star lord is too low but can't see who he goes above. Maybe blade or warmachine since I don't have them usable yet. Pair him with antman, they help each other so much. Makes grow a possibility.
I'm glad spidergwen got some love. Sure she has one almost useless power, but she is not bad, especially as shes boosted right now. And thank you, charlies angles is boring. Prof x is better for creating super boosted tiles.
I'm just going to bat for my champs, I think this list is pretty accurate.

Jaedenkaal

My experience with Wasp is that she creates a new 1-turn CD tile on the same turn as the old one expires and generates AP, so you're actually stealing 2 AP every turn, unless it gets matched or removed.

The 9-10 Blue AP set-up requirement really hurts it, and you're still not even guaranteed to get the AP if the enemy team doesn't have any AP of that color (although that's less of a concern as the game goes on)

I think the biggest problem with Wasp is that her Black and Blue powers don't do enough to make up for her Yellow. Pretty much anyone who makes decent Protect tiles that you'd want to boost use Yellow AP to do so. I guess there's Thing and Gwenpool? And if you only bring someone who makes Strike tiles, then you've got the same problem as Elektra where you have to use the power twice to get the effect you actually want (only worse, because it costs more and doesn't even make the strike tiles itself).

Leugenesmiff

Is Charlie's Angels the same thing as Winfinite? If not, never mind, if so then I'd have to disagree with the "it sucks and is boring" comment.
For me it's one of the most fun teams to play. Playing around making match 5s kind of switches up the entire general gameplay style you get with most teams and makes the team feel unique and different. I wish more character combinations had this kind of chemistry. The way it makes you change how you play is refreshing in a match 3 game and for me adds a lot of fun.

Fightmastermpq

Leugenesmiff wrote:

Is Charlie's Angels the same thing as Winfinite? If not, never mind, if so then I'd have to disagree with the "it sucks and is boring" comment.
For me it's one of the most fun teams to play. Playing around making match 5s kind of switches up the entire general gameplay style you get with most teams and makes the team feel unique and different. I wish more character combinations had this kind of chemistry. The way it makes you change how you play is refreshing in a match 3 game and for me adds a lot of fun.

Yes they are the same. It doesn't suck, but it is slow which makes it bad for competitive PvE, and weak on defense which makes it bad for competitive PvP. I do think that ProfX is still underrated on this list though. I've also started using 5* BW with ProfX and IF for a near-winfinite combo that is considerably faster than Charlie's Angels.