Character Rankings Holiday 2016 Edition - The Results
Comments
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carrion pigeons wrote:Are you rolling out character descriptions one at a time? I submitted a handful for 3*s that aren't up and I was want to make sure you noticed them. I know you got the PM, since you used the OBW description from it, but there should have been a lot more in that message.
Yeah, I'm slowly adding the content in when I get a few minutes here or there.0 -
30. Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew)
29. Sam Wilson (Captain America)
Analysis
Write up by _Daywalker_
Very much a support character, like his 3* counterpart, Falcap is centered on defense, buffing special tiles and reducing countdown tiles. He has a very powerful attack in his red, but at 14 AP is quite slow to fire off, and is also dependent upon the number of protect tiles on the board. Captain Falcon doesn't work as well with as many characters as 3* Falcon, primarily because of his blue power. Whereas 3* Falcon only buffed tiles when making yellow matches, 4* Falcon both buffs special tiles and reduces random friendly countdown tiles by 1 when making blue matches. This makes Falcap a poor partner for any character who benefits from having their countdown tiles stay on the board longer (e.g., 3* Luke Cage, Iceman (if you want to punch a snowman rather than stun), Star-Lord) or needs multiple countdowns to go off simultaneously (IM40). But if you pair 4* Sam with characters that want their countdowns going off quickly, to generate AP or cause damage quicker, he can be quite useful, even while underleveled.
Yellow: Fairly cheap (9 AP) and creates protect tiles on all basic yellow tiles on the board.
Blue: Passively strengthens friendly tiles and reduces countdowns -- at 5 covers and max level, is strengthening 2 tiles by 129 and reducing 1 random friendly countdown tile on each blue match.
Red: Does great damage at max level but is expensive at 14 AP (and best fired when you have multiple protect tiles on the board, for even more damage).
Pros- Can be a helpful support character when on the right team
- A support character that can be hard to find a slot or team for
- His blue countdown-reduction only works with certain characters and hurts others
- Red can be powerful but requires lots of AP and, preferably, protect tiles on the board
Good partners: Anyone who benefits from countdown reduction (e.g., Scarlet Witch, Ghost Rider, Nick Fury, TAHulk, Peggy Carter, Wasp), or special tile creators (e.g., Daken, Blade, Beast, Iron Fist)
28. Miles Morales (Spider-Man)
Analysis
Write up by GrimSkald
A cheap, quick blaster, Miles Morales will have you spam the board with web tiles to build up a big hit, occasionally zapping a single target for some good damage and stun.
Purple: A two-part attack that self-accelerates, it hits hard particularly when boosted (I’ve gotten over 20K.) Since the “Reality Season” change to this power you need to be more careful – either you want to use it as a web tile spammer, or else try to keep that invisibility tile safe. If you exercise some care in the board, it is possible to get the power off about ¾ of the time.
Yellow: Creates web tiles and gives different AP at higher levels. The change for the “Reality Season” made it generate a bit more regularly.
Red: A fairly solid hit for its AP cost plus 1 turn stun.
Pros:- Low cost powers.
- You get AP from yellow when either you or the computer matches a web tile.
- Can spend a significant time in the fight invisible.
- Can be used as a diverse AP Battery (purple/red/blue) though it is not particularly fast.
Cons:- You don’t get AP from yellow when a web tile is destroyed by a power or a match-4.
- Purple requires 14 AP for damage, though you can use 6, then get 8 if you can keep the invisibility tile from being matched.
Recommended Build: 5/3/5 – Both red and purple require 5 to do real damage. Yellow at 5 can accelerate red and blue, but is only good if you have another red or purple user.
Good Partners: Miles was clearly designed to be used with 3* Spider-Man, and he does in fact make Spider-Man’s Blue much better. He generally pairs well with anyone who benefits from having cheap powers – Old Man Logan, Kamala Khan, etc. A 5/5/3 Miles plays well with a 5/5/3 Spider-Gwen (use Gwen’s red, Miles yellow, and either’s purple depending on the situation,) but they overlap completely in colors.
27. Invisible Woman (Classic)
Analysis
Write up by Saeva
Once in the dredges of the 4⭐ character list Invisible Woman has recently got buffed.The buff puts her at the high-end of the mid-tier, moving her from a ‘use when Essential’ necessity into a complex utility player well worth having in your arsenal. Her greatest weakness is that she doesn’t have obvious synergy with a lot of characters, doing a little too much of a little bit of everything to rely on a clear strength.
Health:- @ 70: 3520
- @ 170: 8244
- @ 270: 13034
Blue | Creates force bubbles that stop 1-3 enemy tiles - including countdowns - in their tracks, taking them out of game play while the bubbles are on the board, and aids her team with 1-3 friendly Strike tiles.
Green | Hits a single target hard and creates force bubbles, locking up to 4 random tiles into place. If used while 4 or more force bubbles are on the board, destroys those bubbles and converts enemy tiles back to basic ones, doing damage for each popped bubble.
Pros:- Great utility player, with both a cheap protect ability and a strong nuke.
- Cheap abilities, ranging from 7AP for multiple 200+ strength protect tiles to 10AP for a 8000+ pt hit.
- One of only five characters with this color combination Invisible Woman is the only character, besides Beast, who has an active ability in all three colors.
- Her blue ability, when maxed to make countdown tiles lockable, potentially weakens her green ability by reducing the damage caused.
- Her green ability, by locking down multiple random tiles, can block off matches you were intending to make.
4/4/5 is the most popular build, allowing the player to protect the entire team with temporary invisibility while also enabling Invisible Woman’s blue ability to isolate enemy countdown tiles.
However, for those more interested in generating protective tiles than temporarily arresting countdowns/potentially destroying them 5/3/5 is useful build with stronger protect tiles. The 5/3/5 is especially useful with friendly tile strengtheners like Professor X, Captain America (Sam Wilson), and Sam Wilson (Falcon).
Partners:
Realistically, Invisible Woman is an ideal utility/support character which means that she pairs well with nearly any character without conflicting colors. More actively, she does best with tile strengtheners, attack tile producers, batteries, and those characters that don’t shake the board, disrupting her protect, strike, and force bubble tiles in the process.
In particular, she’s tailor-made to pair with Elektra, an otherwise relatively low-tier 4★ character. At 3/5/5 Elektra’s black ability protects herself from harm while her red deals out damage each turn that can be easily augmented by Invisible Woman’s strike tiles.
Combined with Professor X, the IW/Elektra/PX is a rainbow team without color or ability conflict, with AP costs ranging from 7 to 11, making them low cost and well-protected so that once established you can sit back and gather green AP to shoot Invisible Woman’s nuke while Elektra’s black and Professor X matches dole out damage for you.- 2★| Black Widow, Magneto
- 3★| Blade, Captain Marvel, Doctor Doom, Human Torch, Iron Man 40, Kamala Khan, Sam Wilson, Vision.
- 4★| Deadpool, Elektra, Professor X, Sam Wilson, Star-Lord, Winter Soldier.
26. War Machine (James Rhodes)
Analysis
Write up by GrimSkald
Rhodey is a bit of a mixed bag of versatility. Two of his powers have some real synergy (his green and his red,) while his blue does good damage and allows him to fill some rather specialized niches.
Red: Generates attack tiles at random – mix in a little controlled board shake (like his green,) and you can have some impressive damage/turn. At level 5 the tile is fortified, which helps it survivability a lot.
Blue: A niche power, but fairly good for that. There’s a distinct shortage of good blue attacks and it does pretty good damage.
Green: Good board shake and some damage. It is on a timer, but at higher levels it is only one turn so it generally resolves successfully.
Pros:- Does some solid damage with his powers.
- Can generate a decent amount of Attack tiles.
- Can deal with the hard-to-match invisibility tiles.
Cons:- His red and green depend on Countdowns, so board shake can really shut you down.
- Red generates Attack Tiles at random, so can be unreliable.
- A little on the slow side, since you want to use red and green together.
Recommended Build: 5/3/5 is probably the best build in a vacuum, but 5 blue does good damage and is definitely be useful with certain partners and against certain teams. He definitely benefits well from being a Champion.
Good Partners: Strike Tile generators get a lot of value from his attack tiles. Controlled board shake increases the number of Attack Tiles his red generates.
25. Nick Fury (Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.)
Analysis
Write up by _Daywalker_
One of the oldest 4* characters, Fury’s main detriment are his powers' high AP costs, which were common at the time he was created. His yellow, when at 5 covers and aiming for the most damage output, needs the player to have a total of 32 AP in five different colors. His purple, while fairly powerful at high levels, takes 12 AP. His most reasonably costed (10 AP) and best power is by far his blue, Demolition. Due to his high AP costs, he's not a preferred character in the fast-paced world of PVP, but can be useful in PVE, especially when boosted.
Yellow: This is one of those "might as well use it if you have the required AP" kind of powers… Yellow is in general an under-utilized power so this might fill a hole on your team, but will cost 12 AP for its base effect, plus 5 more AP in other colors for additional effects. It's nice the other colors don't get drained, but it's rare to find a match going long enough that you have enough AP to make full use of this power (and where you won’t want to use the AP from those other colors with other characters).
Blue: By far his best power, putting out trap tiles for 10 AP that when matched by the enemy will all simultaneously explode. Super-effective when boosted.
Purple: At max level does decent damage, steals 9 AP from the enemy's strongest color and creates a 2-turn countdown that puts out a super-strong strike tile. If it didn’t cost 12 AP and relied on a randomly-placed countdown tile to get the strike, this would be an awesome power.
Pros- Demolition is incredibly fun and satisfying when triggered
- His high yellow & purple AP costs make him slow to use
- Demolition requires the other team to match tiles for full effectiveness -- so if you use him in PVE and you’re against non-tile-moving goons, his blue is useless.
Good partners: IM40 (for AP generation), Star-Lord (to reduce AP costs), Captain Falcon (reduce purple countdown tile and buff the strike the countdown creates)
24. Winter Soldier (Bucky Barnes)
23. Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze)
Analysis
Write up by _Daywalker_
Ghost Rider is primarily a PVE character, specializing in boss and wave battles. His black, Penance Stare, can completely turn the tables when a battle goes awry, and his green and red powers are so cheap he can keep pumping out attack tiles (great for waves). But since his only hard-hitting power (Penance Stare) requires both 12 AP and him and/or his team to take significant damage, he isn’t a strong PVP character.
Green: For 7 AP, this is a nice, cheap way to get some attack tiles on the board, with some OK (not great) AOE damage.
Red: For just 8 AP, this creates a countdown tile that does damage to the target and creates an attack tile... doing bonus damage if there are more Villains than Heroes on the enemy team. This is a power that truly shines in PVE, where you’re almost always battling Villains. His countdown sticks around, making him a good pair with anyone who uses/manipulates countdowns (Green Goblin, Star-Lord, Falcap).
Black: This is arguably everyone's favorite power, since you don’t even need to level up GR to get its full effect. At 5 covers it's doing 200% of the enemy’s total damage back at them; 100% at level 3. It’s especially effective against bosses or any enemies who have fired off one or more AOE attacks
Pros- Penance Stare can do amazing amounts of damage, as long as your team's able to survive until you can fire it
- Great in PVE, especially in boss and wave battles
- Aside from Penance Stare, not a hard-hitter
- Penance Stare requires your team to take damage from specific characters in order to do any damage to those characters, plus it costs 12 AP
Good partners: Silver Surfer or OML (tanking and healing damage, so GR’s black is super-effective), Iron Fist (generating black), Captain Falcon (reducing GR's countdown & strengthening his Attack tiles), Star-Lord (reducing GR’s power costs & using GR’s red countdown tile)
22. Wolverine (X-Force)
21. The Hulk (Totally Awesome)0 -
20. Luke Cage (Power Man)
19. The Thing (Classic)
Analysis
Write up by Fightmaster
One of the more underrated 4*s Thing excels as a defensive threat in the 4* PvP tier due to his passive yellow that will jump him in front of any hard hits and generate some pretty beefy protect tiles that can really prolong battles. Pair him with XFDP at 5 black to create a defensive duo that will earn you some skips. When boosted I actually see Thing being used over 5* champs, and honestly any 4* character that gets play over 5* champs should probably be more highly regarded than Thing typically is. Poor Ben.
For 10 AP Thing's red damage is low, but it packs a stun which is pretty rare among red abilities, and I think makes him a good match with IM40 and someone like Iceman where you can use both your red and blue abilities to stun.
Thing is a little lacking in green as well at 12 AP for a bit more damage than his red with a board shake that is nice but random. Compared to Chulk for example who gets targeted destruction and similar damage for the same cost.
I typically run him at 5/3/5, but if you are using him with XFDP as strictly a defensive team then 5 yellow works. I would prefer to use XFDP's red in this duo, but on defense Thing's 10 AP red is going to get used a lot more than XFDP's 13 AP ability, and so 5/5/3 actually works a little better since it packs a 2 turn stun.
I suppose I should at least mention that Mr. F was actually designed to work mostly with Thing, and this combo is kind of fun to play, but Thing isn't quite good enough to justify running Mr. F, and if you think champing Mr. F is a good idea because you have a champed Thing you should feel bad.
Pros: Defensive threat, large health pool
Cons: Low damage output, vulnerable to 3* Pun red TUs
18. Ant-Man (Scott Lang)
17. Kingpin (Wilson Fisk)
16. Kate Bishop (Hawkeye)
15. Professor X (Charles Xavier)
Analysis
Write up by _Daywalker_
One of the few 4* characters that can be useful to players when under-leveled, Professor X is a key component of the popular "Winfinite" or "Charlie's Angels" team (traditionally, Grey Suit Black Widow and Prof X, with Scarlet Witch to generate purple and possible 5-matches). His blue ability, generating AP in the team's strongest color and dealing damage on every 5-match is the linchpin in that team's success. Professor X can be just as useful and fun to play when fully leveled, however -- reducing his blue power and increasing his yellow makes him a special tile generating machine. Get Prof X invisible and start buffing tiles... then win as your buffed special tiles start taking out the other team on every turn.
Blue: At level 5 this power is generating decent damage as well as 4 AP in the team's strongest color. If you don't tailor your team to making 5-matches, however, this power can sit on the sidelines for battles at a time without activating.
Purple: Professor X's invisibility tile is one of the few powers in the game that someone can win his Crash of the Titans with just one cover. Get Prof. X invisible, protect the invisibility tile, and safely battle against your opponents (as long as they don't have AOE or random enemy attacks, which can still hit invisible characters).
Yellow: A power that is generally ignored when he is in the winfinite team, when fully leveled and at 5 covers, this becomes Prof. X's strongest power, creating protect, attack and strike tiles when his allies fire their powers. Those tiles can then be buffed by Charles when invisible.
Pros- Key member of "winfinite" team "Charlie's Angels"
- Can win battles simply by going invisible and buffing special tiles
- A little squishy -- not a lot of HP makes him a target in PVP
- His blue power depends on making 5-matches, something that is really random if you don't build a team specifically to do so
Good partners: Scarlet Witch & Black Widow Grey Suit (for winfinite), anyone with low-AP powers or who creates special tiles (as long as Prof X keeps at least one strong color for matches)
14. Star-Lord (Legendary Outlaw)
13. Moon Knight (Marc Spector)
12. The Punisher (MAX)
Analysis
Write up by elvy75
After a long time MPQ finally got the Punisher it deserves. This is definitely one of the best 4* character in the game, and real army of one. He is not particularly fast on his own, and requires someone to accelerate him, but once he is on the roll he is deadly. He is another one of the characters that shines both in pvp and pve.
Black: Originally this ability costs 10 AP and deals moderate damage/ap, but if his allies are downed or stunned the ability transforms into Army of One where AP cost is reduced to 7 and damage increased.
Green: This is in my opinion the best designed AOE that is increasing damage per downed opponent. It also stuns his allies for 2 turns, thus enabling condition for Army of one.
Blue: This ability is black strike tile generator. It also contains passive component of improving friendly strikes
Pros
That AOE that gets higher in damage the more opponents you downed
Reduced costs upon transformation and increased damage
Cons
Leaving himself exposed for two turns when transformed
Recommended build: 5/5/3
Good partners: 3* Bullseye, Phoenix, Iron Fist, IM40+Red user
11. Quake (Daisy Johnson)
Analysis
Write up by Fightmaster
Quake is new this time around and IMO one of the best new additions since the last ranking. She introduced some new mechanics as most new 4* releases have been doing including a reshuffle ability, as well as AoE damage reduction. She is great against AoE goons (who doesn’t hate those Caltrops?), and has great board shake.
One of my favorite PvE teams has been IM40/Quake/PHX especially against goons. Once IM40 Recharges the match is usually over as I have several opportunities to shake the board to my liking using blue to clear out unwanted black/TU tiles, purple to flood the board with red, and then green to shuffle up some match-5s to boost strike tiles.
Quake also pairs well with XFDP since you can use her blue to get rid of his CDFW tiles regardless of what the enemy’s strongest color is.
Best build: I like 5/3/5 the AoE reduction more than doubles going from 3 to 5 yellow but honestly I prefer to use her for board control, not defense. The damage on her green doubles from 4 to 5 as well so I think 5 green is a must. Still a 5/5/3 build is definitely viable against AoE heavy opponents.
Pros: Great board control, unique abilities
Cons: Yellow can’t keep up with 5* scaled goons0 -
Woo! Mr. Fantastic rated 41. I don't have to re-write my analysis.
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I'm blown away by how low Howard is. I guess just becuase it's so hard to get covers for him.0
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10. Nova (Sam Alexander)
Analysis
Write up by elvy75
Nova is one of the fastest characters in 4* land, although he does require proper sequence of his abilities in order to be used properly. Regardless he is very fun to play, and deals decent damage/ap. He equally excels in pvp and pve, and his speed allows him to take on much stronger opponents.
Red: For just 6 AP it can send targeted opponent airborne, and deal damage on landing, but requires that either yellow or black is used before.
Yellow: Another cheap ability at only 7 AP, deals decent damage especially when boosted and with 5 covers and puts strike tiles.
Black: This is the most costly ability, and still costs only 8AP. Like red it has conditional damage: if you have 5 or more strikes on board it will deal damage and remove all strikes otherwise it will create strikes.
Pros
Incredibly fast with decent damage/AP
Airborne acts like a stun, which is handy for fighting difficult opponents (Rulk I’m talking about you here!)
Cons
Conditional damage of red and black abilities
Recommended build: 5/5/3 or 5/3/5
Good partners: OML for 5/5/3 build, Iron fist for 5/3/5 build, Punisher (MAX), rulk, JG and Iceman as complimentary colors
9. X-23 (All New Wolverine)
Analysis
Write up by dbfclark
Let's get this out of the way first: as a character intended to self-synergize with strike tiles, x-23 is a total bust. You need a full 25 ap in order to generate your very first tile (save 9 red, fire green twice) and you can't even fire your first ability until you've saved 17 out of that 25.
If you ignore that, though, she's pretty great. Green deals regulation-level damage/ap in a color without great single-target nukes on the tier and purple is decent at full cost and amazing if you can get a few strikes out and time it right. Add a strong true healing passive and the overall package is looking up.
As such, X-23 is in fact good, but at higher levels she's harshly penalized by the meta: out of five non-novelty 4*s with green/purple actives, she pretty clearly ranks fourth, and only nova, punisher, and sometimes moon knight among the top-tier 4*s even make strike tiles at all. You'll mostly use her when you don't have another choice, but you'll be surprisingly happy when you do.
That “having another choice” caveat is definitely meaningful, though, as this full player survey is the first major ranking where she’s cracked the top ten. Xenodragon’s tier list has her at 20, Jarvind’s recent ranking put her at 16, Colog’s top 4*s doesn’t have her cracking the top 10, and last year’s survey put her at 11, under Kingpin and Thing, with a big gap to the “true” top few. Admittedly, the gaps in the lower end of the top 14 are small, but this is still a material difference requiring explanation. X-23 was released in an awkward period where it was actually slightly easier to come by OML covers than X-23 covers, so a goodly chunk of the top of the player base, myself included, overlooked her almost entirely, because the “true healing tank” slot was already occupied so well. That time being past, having the strongest true healing powers on the 4* tier and the best you’ll see short of OML is clearly a giant argument in her favor for lots of players.
Pro: True healing with a few at-the-level powers is pretty good
Con: Synergy is lacking; needs a person to play well, so better on offense than defense.
Green: fine. As previously mentioned, it's a standard-level nuke if you need one, with a bonus that is waaaay too little too late.
Red: great. If you're clever you can make it go off when she's not tanking or get multiple blasts in a single turn, which really pushes this into overdrive. The downside is that it only works when she tanks her colors, which just makes her position in the meta more painful.
Purple: Decent-quality trap tile — you’ll be happy to match it and happy when your opponent does too, but it does take timing.
Preferred spec: you'll end up respeccing her to match her partners, but I tend to go 5/3/5 and she rarely drops below full health. Definitely experiment with increasing red if you find you need the healing, but green and purple do take substantial damage hits if you move them below 5.
Recommended partners: the best partner is of course OML -- a true healing partner in complimentary colors with a bucket of strikes to help out. Nova is great on the tier, or Daken and Black Panther for 3*s.
8. Deadpool (Uncanny X-Force)
Analysis
Write up by Fightmaster
Previously coming in at #7 among the 4* characters I think Deadpool has held his ground ground among other 4* characters despite the release of several new top tier characters I think because he fits in well with several different metas:
5* PvP - I think the team I see more often than any other in Sim is OML/PHX/XFDP. Why? Because of his black, and because he doesn’t tank ANY colors. So every single enemy match results in a 1-turn CD that does upwards of 3400 damage. It REALLY speeds up battles.
4* PvP – XFDP gets along really well with his X-Force brother Wolverine, and clearly this was by design. I think he was ranked highly last time because of this synergy and the fact that so many people already had XFW maxed from the Thorverine days. Deadpool’s purple CDFW into Wolverine’s Surgical Strike is a deadly combo that I especially like because his CD tiles do damage one at a time allowing them to hit multiple targets as they are downed. There is also good synergy with Quake’s blue making him even more useful with her emergence as a top tier 4*. And if that wasn’t enough XFDP/Thing makes an incredibly annoying defensive team in 4* land as well.
Usefulness with accelerators - Speed is a key component of competitive play and 3* AP generators like IM40 and Switch have become a large component of the game. When picking a speed team I often find myself running IM40 with a strong green/blue/purple user (Iceman, Quake, Rulk, JG, etc.) which leaves a hole in a strong red user – enter XFDP (Peggy/4Clops/etc. work here as well). I like XFDP especially with Iceman/Quake since I’m primarily using their green and blue, which allows me to run XFDP at 5/3/5 and get some usefulness out of his purple at times as well. With green/purple users like Rulk/JG I typically go with a 4clops/Peggy type of red/blue powerhouse, but almost any of these combos work well. Deadpool’s red is a bit expensive, but when you have IM40 generating 12 of the required 13 it’s almost a free 7500 dmg/4500 health.
All in all XFDP is ranked highly because he is versatile. A good sign of a versatile character is an absence of the perfect build. If you are running him with 5*s you want 5 black, with XFW/Quake you want 5 purple. I think you want 5 red in the vast majority of builds though.
Pros: Versatility, true heal
Cons: Red is expensive, the CDFW animations are SO SLOW now! Please take them back to Speed Shot levels of fast, thanks.
7. Thor (Goddess of Thunder)
Analysis
Write up by _Daywalker_
Goddess Thor had a resurgence in popularity this year, as she became best friends with a reworked Iron Man Model 40. 4* Thor was seen as a slow-moving powerhouse -- once she gets the AP she needs, she does well. When IM40 began giving her 12 red and 12 blue AP from his countdown tiles, Thor became a great character for anyone in the 3* to 4* transition. Pair her with IM40 and anyone who can use green and purple, and you can take down pretty much any team. Focus on two yellow matches (or start the match with +2 Y/R AP and +1 All AP when you're in a hurry), get IM40's countdowns off, and proceed to stun and take down your opponents. When she's boosted, watch out, because her red can take down 20,000+ health opponents in one shot, with the right amount of charged tiles on the board.
Red: Her big damage dealer; does more damage with every charged tile on the board. At 5 covers it's also converting an additional 3 tiles to charged tiles.
Yellow: The power you keep at 3; there's never a reason to use it if you're bringing along IM40. It does decent damage at 5 covers and gets rid of enemy countdown tiles, but you lose the power from her red or the length of stun from her blue, both of which are superb.
Blue: At 5 covers, stuns the targeted enemy for 3 turns and converts 5 random tiles into charged tiles.
Pros- Her red, with lots of charged tiles out, does great damage -- and absolutely ridiculous damage when boosted
- The AI plays her very poorly, making her a target when on your defensive team in PVP
- Charged tiles can make a battle go the wrong way if your opponent matches those tiles (keeping the enemy team either stunned or downed if the best way to avoid this)
Good partners: IM40, green/purple users (X-23, Jean Grey, etc.)
6. Cyclops (Classic)
Analysis
Write up by Punisher5784
Cyke is so good that when it was announced that you could not purchase covers with HP anymore, I quickly bought all his covers! If there was ever a character to whale, it was him and I never regretted it. All of his powers are useful.
His red, Combined Forces, can be fueled by his blue and potentially yellow (depending on the strongest color). You will want to collect 10 T/U’s to get the most out of his red (12k at max). What’s great about this is the AI often loves to match T/U’s plus his Yellow ability generates 2-4 AP per T/U match so reaching 10 T/U isn’t too bad. Once you have 10 T/U, Cyke will destroy an entire row, however if you do not have 10 T/U, Cyke will only destroy a single tile for half the damage (5k+ at max). I have used his lesser red to setup cascades and 5-matches so it’s always useful.
Speaking of setting up cascades and 5-matches, I do the same with his Blue. His blue, Called Shot, will destroy but generate all red tiles in a surrounding area. My favorite part about this power isn’t just generating red, but the tile you select also generates AP in that color. For instance if you select a Blue tile, Cyke will destroy the nearby Red AP and gain the 1 Blue AP. This is extremely useful if you need that 1 specific AP for power. Oftentimes you’ll likely use it to gain more blue or yellow but keep this in mind! I recommend his Blue at 5 covers because at 3, the surrounding area is almost useless and the damage is lousy.
As a result of needing Red and Blue both at 5 covers, leaves Yellow at 3. Having yellow at 5 allows you to increase the CD duration by 2 and gain 1 extra AP. This won’t make a huge difference as damage is more important plus you can just bring IM40 and use his Yellow which helps you gain Red and Blue much faster.
I often pair Cyke with Rhulk. Why? Because he was the fellow 4* I bought max covers for before the devs took away HP buying covers but it does give you a rainbow (except black). Nonetheless these two together dominate teams with IM40 because Stark fuels them both very nicely. I have also paired Cyke with JG and IM40/SW.
5. Iron Man (Hulkbuster)
Analysis
Write up by GrimSkald
One of the best 4* Transition characters in the game, IMHB is a very solid character. Until you have a good 5*, you will play with him frequently once you have him covered and leveled.
Red: An extremely solid single-target hit with open-ended damage
Black: At 5 covers, creates two big strike tiles and gives IMHB enough AP to use Red.
Blue: Somewhat lackluster, but can create some good cascades depending on the board. It has set conditions (converts green to red,) so you will know in advance if it has a chance of being effective.
Pros:- Quite possibly the best “Shield Hop” character in the 4* tier.
- Works very well with a 3* roster.
- Good character even unboosted – does amazing damage when boosted.
Cons:- Depends on black, so doesn’t couple well with Old Man Logan.
- Black does self-damage and only creates two strike tiles - they go away somewhat easily.
Recommended Build: Definitely 5/5/3 – Blue’s protect tiles are very weak, and the difference between 5 and 7 converted tiles is low.
Good Partners: Iron Fist will have you ending fights within minutes – this is the classic hop team. 3* Cyclops also works well. Jean Grey (All-New X-Men,) Red Hulk, or Iceman are all good at the 4* tier.
4. Red Hulk (Thunderbolt Ross)
Analysis
Write up by Fightmaster
Previously 5th among 4*s Red Hulk is holding his own with the new releases as well as in the 5* meta. In fact, during his boosted weeks it’s very common to see people using Rulk instead of a champed 5*. He is great against 5*s because of his red ability where virtually every match made against him will spawn a 1-turn CD tile that immediately generates cascades. Cascades can get scary in 5* battles – especially with some massive strike tiles from OML/PHX out as are so common.
He works well with any character that helps to generate green or purple AP – Switch, IM40, Thor, and even Hulk strangely enough. He can be kind of slow since you need 4 green matches and 3 purples to get his full power green off, but +2 B/G & +1 B/P or +1 B/G & +1 All AP boosts can get him going with just 3 green and 2 purple matches. Pairing him with Switch as a duo works well in 3*/4* PvP and is pretty fast. This also works pretty well in easier PvE nodes where you can make 3 green matches or 1 green match and a Switch blue CD resolving, and win with a single 9 AP Hammer & Anvil. IM40/Rulk/Peggy or 4clops was a common team in BoP and in Sim as well.
The best counter to Rulk? Rulk. Just pray that you get your 7 purple before they do. The one nice thing about fighting Rulk is the ability order of operations – green always goes before purple so you almost never get hit by the full 18 AP Hammer & Anvil. And making green/purple matches with your Rulk won’t have their Rulk seeing red.
Best build: 3/5/5, hardly any reason to go with anything other than this. Green and Purple both nearly double in effectiveness when going from 4 to 5, and there is little benefit in destroying 6 tiles instead of 4 going from 3 to 5 red.
Pros: Versatile, big health pool, works well as a last man standing against a team
Cons: Slow to start, his animations are totally backward, right?
3. Peggy Carter (Captain America)
Analysis
Write up by fanghoul
Peggy Carter was introduced as a MPQ exclusive character for Captain America's 75 year anniversary. Peggy is an exception to the rule that people prefer offensive to defensive characters, likely because she's capable of almost completely mitigating incoming enemy attacks, using her combined ability raise enemy AP costs, and to stun over half of the enemy team for 3 turns. Peggy is perhaps unique, in that she can be a useful member of a team even with a single yellow and blue cover.
At higher coverage though, she begins to provide some decent damage along with this. The way I most often use her is to save up AP till I've filled up both her red and blue, and stun all but the weakest character, and punch out the remaining unstunned one with Ultimate Soldier.
Pros:
Group stun
Prevents enemies from using abilities
Cons:
"Do as Peggy Says" while a fantastic stun, does still cost 11 ap. Pairing her with IM40 can help this, but they do have the exact same colors.
"Do as Peggy Says" tiles can be matched away, significantly decreasing her damage.
Recommended build: 5/3/5, if you don't have a better red power to use, 3/5/5 if you do.
Good partners: IM40, Iron Fist
Bad partner: Dr. Strange
2. Jean Grey (All New X-Men)
Analysis
Write up by Punisher5784
The first 4* I thought was a must and still is! At first glance you’ll see all three powers are AOE, but at my first glance I saw “Covert up to 6 tiles of any enemy special type to basic tiles”…. What?! That’s insane and it is against Goons. As long as you have 10 purple, goons are no longer a threat.. this includes annoying ninjas, Ultron goons, the new Mindless ones, and even those pesky symbiotes! I rarely stress against goons because JG has a friend.. a best friend.. that is a witch. Scarlet Witch will fuel JG every few turns making Mind Over Matter much easier to pull off. Her purple also does nearly 4K AOE damage on top of the special tile removal.
That power alone makes her awesome except her other two powers are just as useful and awesome. Her passive blue, Psychic Feedback is powerful against the lucky AI that often cascades 5-matches. Upon the AI’s 5-match, JG deals okay damage then stuns the enemy team for two-turns and destroys up to 6 AP in their strongest color. This has helped me get out of some awful situations because I constantly accidentally setup the AI for a 5-match, this at least gives me a turn to recover (e.g. allow SW’s blue CD to burst).
Lastly her Green, Full of Surprises, is always a surprise as it randomly gives you up to 4 special tiles. You’ll hope for attack and strike tiles for extra damage but the protect tile is strong enough to at least negate match damage. If you have enough AP for Green and Purple, you’ll want to cast Green first then Purple because the potential of strike tiles from her Green can add some extra damage to her Purple. I use her at 5/3/5 as her passive is not a guarantee but I know players use her at 5/5/3 for PVP except you won’t see her PVP much anymore. In fact whenever I use her in PVP, I will get hit more often than if I use someone else (e.g. Rhulk), but for PVE she is a goddess to me. I always pair her with SW to maximize her Purple and I’ll bring IM40 as the third for more AP or I’ll bring Cyke for more damage.
1. Iceman (All New X-Men)0 -
Peggy at #3. Lol. Get ready for the fun.0
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But... the top 3 4-stars are within 0.1 'points' of each other. Wow.0
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Write up by SaevaPros:
- Great utility player, with both a cheap protect ability and a strong nuke.
- Cheap abilities, ranging from 7AP for multiple 200+ strength protect tiles to 10AP for a 8000+ pt hit.
- One of only five characters with this color combination Invisible Woman is the only character, besides Beast, who has an active ability in all three colors.
- Her blue ability, when maxed to make countdown tiles lockable, potentially weakens her green ability by reducing the damage caused.
- Her green ability, by locking down multiple random tiles, can block off matches you were intending to make.
Not sure if that last Pro shouldn't be a con, or at least neutral. Passive abilities are good to have.Combined with Professor X, the IW/Elektra/PX is a rainbow team without color or ability conflict, with AP costs ranging from 7 to 11, making them low cost and well-protected so that once established you can sit back and gather green AP to shoot Invisible Woman’s nuke while Elektra’s black and Professor X matches dole out damage for you.
Elektra and Professor X both have purple actives. I take it you are dismissing Elektra's purple, which is understandable, despite the ability being occasionally useful. Still, sounds like a fun team to try once my Professor X is a bit more developed.0 -
I've had a lot of fun with Patch/IW/Loki. A different kind of experience that's surprisingly effective (so long as you can get some black for Loki).0
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I consider it more a pro than neutral and definitely not a con. Sometimes having three active abilities is the difference between wiping out and getting a match done, such as when dealing with a 4★ Essential node in PvE where your required 4★ is extremely under-covered. Passive abilities can be really great but having more options than Beast -- who I actually like despite his lackluster yellow -- is definitely a pro.Spiritclaw wrote:
Not sure if that last Pro shouldn't be a con, or at least neutral. Passive abilities are good to have.Write up by SaevaPros:- Great utility player, with both a cheap protect ability and a strong nuke.
- Cheap abilities, ranging from 7AP for multiple 200+ strength protect tiles to 10AP for a 8000+ pt hit.
- One of only five characters with this color combination Invisible Woman is the only character, besides Beast, who has an active ability in all three colors.
- Her blue ability, when maxed to make countdown tiles lockable, potentially weakens her green ability by reducing the damage caused.
- Her green ability, by locking down multiple random tiles, can block off matches you were intending to make.
I'd suggest 3/5/5 for Elektra, yes, to maximize her turn/retaliatory damage and because IW takes care of enemy tiles, but you don't necessarily have to dismiss her purple entirely. If you have enough extra purple -- since PX can only have one Invisibility tile at a time -- you can still use Elektra's purple to create enemy tiles for IW to bubble. Sometimes that's a good strategy if you can shoot off IW's blue twice in a row, then her green. It's a niche team, for things like hard PvE nodes where you're low on health packs, but it's definitely fun to play.Spiritclaw wrote:
Elektra and Professor X both have purple actives. I take it you are dismissing Elektra's purple, which is understandable, despite the ability being occasionally useful. Still, sounds like a fun team to try once my Professor X is a bit more developed.Combined with Professor X, the IW/Elektra/PX is a rainbow team without color or ability conflict, with AP costs ranging from 7 to 11, making them low cost and well-protected so that once established you can sit back and gather green AP to shoot Invisible Woman’s nuke while Elektra’s black and Professor X matches dole out damage for you.
I really like the new IW. I used her, GSBW, and Cyclops against Galactus for the first 7 rounds and I only had to dole out a health pack here or there in the first 6 rounds. Eventually Galactus got powerful enough to make Hulkfinite a better choice but IW's nuke is very useful at the cost.0 -
It's a great list but the higher the star ranking the bigger the influence of hype. 5stars would look completely different if it was ranked by 5star players only. Good job tho, thanks0
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Saeva wrote:
I consider it more a pro than neutral and definitely not a con. Sometimes having three active abilities is the difference between wiping out and getting a match done, such as when dealing with a 4★ Essential node in PvE where your required 4★ is extremely under-covered. Passive abilities can be really great but having more options than Beast -- who I actually like despite his lackluster yellow -- is definitely a pro.Spiritclaw wrote:
Not sure if that last Pro shouldn't be a con, or at least neutral. Passive abilities are good to have.Write up by SaevaPros:- Great utility player, with both a cheap protect ability and a strong nuke.
- Cheap abilities, ranging from 7AP for multiple 200+ strength protect tiles to 10AP for a 8000+ pt hit.
- One of only five characters with this color combination Invisible Woman is the only character, besides Beast, who has an active ability in all three colors.
- Her blue ability, when maxed to make countdown tiles lockable, potentially weakens her green ability by reducing the damage caused.
- Her green ability, by locking down multiple random tiles, can block off matches you were intending to make.
The "pro" at issue here isn't having or not having a passive. It's being a character with a unique selection of active powers. In a lot of circumstances passives in this game are very strong (many of the very best powers in the game are passive). But it's also very helpful to have active powers in all 6 colors so no ap ever goes to waste. And towards that end, characters with unusual color groupings should get some bonus credit.0 -
Awesome work Ebola.. but I'm the only writer that got a special sidenote (for Gamora) lol
I composed the write-ups for:
2*: Daken, Wolverine
3*: Gamora, Mohawk (Wow T20!)
4*: Cyke, Jean Grey
Surprised there was not more writers for the 4* tier and barely none for 5*0 -
Ebolamonkey84 wrote:
27. Invisible Woman (Classic)
Analysis
Write up by Saeva
Combined with Professor X, the IW/Elektra/PX is a rainbow team without color or ability conflict, with AP costs ranging from 7 to 11, making them low cost and well-protected so that once established you can sit back and gather green AP to shoot Invisible Woman’s nuke while Elektra’s black and Professor X matches dole out damage for you.
Glad to see the revamped IW getting ranked higher than before.
I use the Invisible Woman/Elektra duo fairly often (with Hood as the third for AP denial) Prof X and Elektra both have a
ability, although Prof X's purple is used MUCH more frequently. IW and Elektra for a rainbow duo all by themselves. 0 -
It looks like Ebola hasn't had a chance to add all the character write-ups. Four of my write-ups are present but I also did write-ups for Star-Lord and Ant-Man that aren't there yet. I imagine there's others in the same position. It's a huge project so I'm not surprised it's taking some time still to roll out.Punisher5784 wrote:Surprised there was not more writers for the 4* tier and barely none for 5*0 -
Same, only 1 of the 5 or 6 that I did is up.Saeva wrote:
It looks like Ebola hasn't had a chance to add all the character write-ups. Four of my write-ups are present but I also did write-ups for Star-Lord and Ant-Man that aren't there yet. I imagine there's others in the same position. It's a huge project so I'm not surprised it's taking some time still to roll out.Punisher5784 wrote:Surprised there was not more writers for the 4* tier and barely none for 5*0 -
I'm pulling the rest out of my inbox today. Then I just need to pester the other volunteers and finish up my own.Fightmastermpq wrote:
Same, only 1 of the 5 or 6 that I did is up.Saeva wrote:
It looks like Ebola hasn't had a chance to add all the character write-ups. Four of my write-ups are present but I also did write-ups for Star-Lord and Ant-Man that aren't there yet. I imagine there's others in the same position. It's a huge project so I'm not surprised it's taking some time still to roll out.Punisher5784 wrote:Surprised there was not more writers for the 4* tier and barely none for 5*0
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