*** Magneto (Classic) ***

poomermon

I don't like mags red simply because it wastes so much time. The animation lasts too long and you have to evaluate the board after each use for optimal play. Sure it is a great ability but I can't be bothered to use it unless it is a close game.

My preferred build is 5/4/4. 5 blue is just stupid good. 4 red is still good enough. 4 purple does massive damage and going to 5 is kinda overkill plus having more than 9 blues on board is rare when I like to eat them up with my blue ability. Also it is easier to respec after the nerf hits.

NorthernPolarity

Phantron wrote:

Unless you have no character with good strike tile generation I don't see how 5/5/3 could possibly lose to any other build. About the only thing that'd favor Magnetic Translocation is if Magneto is somehow the only person remaining, in that case being able to drop a big MT will save you a ton of time. Otherwise even with just 3 Judgment tiles on the board you end up doing insane damage for spamming Magnetized Particles.

I guess having a high MT is good for defense too, but Magneto sucks at defense anyway, and it's still more likely the AI accidentally used Magentized Particle enough times to get something good to happen than hoping they get enough for a MT.

5/5/3 completely slipped my mind for some reason: it's definitely the better build for PvP for the 2AP spam with strike tiles. Something I've noticed in PvE though was that when using Punisher/Mags, you tend to want to save up red for Punisher (which is actually more efficient than projectile spam against extremely high level enemies) and use translocate/retribution to 1 shot a level 230. If you use this strategy, having level 4/5 on purple really really helps. I'm guessing that 3 purple is ~450 per swap, which means 3.1k max damage, compared to 4 purple's 546 damage per swap, which represents 5k max theoretical damage (9 blue isn't hard to conserve on the board either with judgment spam and just not matching blue when you want to one shot people).

Unknown

Puritas wrote:

In the lr today my mags oneshot a 13k hp enemy mags with MT.
Enough reason for me to keep it at 5

Its pretty much like berserker rage
Sure a nice setup strike tile plus combo abilities will do more damage overall
But one shots are consistent in almost every situation

Since you can often kill an entire team using nothing but Magnetic Fields, you certainly have some room for overkill at the expense of power, but strike tile of any kind + red/blue spam is still far more consistent than MT. A big MT requires a large amount of blue and a large amount of blue on board pretty much means the game is already over due to Magnetic Field.

Puritas

^ what NP said

Phaserhawk

So 5/5/3 is better PvP

5/3/5 is better PvE

So by that is 5/4/4 probably the best for both? I see the merits of going 5 red for spamming, but 5 purple seems so awesome especially with all the damage of swapping. Sigh, I got my free blue coming which will make him 5/3/4 for me and I have enough HP to make him 5/4/4 or 5/3/5, I would need another red cover to go the other way.

Unknown

Phaserhawk wrote:

So 5/5/3 is better PvP

5/3/5 is better PvE

So by that is 5/4/4 probably the best for both? I see the merits of going 5 red for spamming, but 5 purple seems so awesome especially with all the damage of swapping. Sigh, I got my free blue coming which will make him 5/3/4 for me and I have enough HP to make him 5/4/4 or 5/3/5, I would need another red cover to go the other way.

5 in purple is good for your sanity, especially if you inexplicably lose your strike tile generator guy and is forced to go through 20K of HP with Magnetic FIelds in PvE. It's also a lot of fun to pump out ridiculous damage and since Magneto is overpowered personified, you can definitely afford to sacrifice some of his overwhelming power for some fun instead. He's basically already unstoppable even if his only skill is 5 in blue, so you might as well build him however you want before he's nerfed. I remember back in the Ares tournament there are people trying to setup scenarios for Ares to kill 3 guys with a single rampage just because it's hilarious to see 3 guys go down at once, and it's pretty much the same issue here. Seeing a 5 digit damage on some enemy is a lot of fun, even if it's total overkill because you can spam 30K of damage between red/blue quite easily.

Phaserhawk

Phantron wrote:

Phaserhawk wrote:

So 5/5/3 is better PvP

5/3/5 is better PvE

So by that is 5/4/4 probably the best for both? I see the merits of going 5 red for spamming, but 5 purple seems so awesome especially with all the damage of swapping. Sigh, I got my free blue coming which will make him 5/3/4 for me and I have enough HP to make him 5/4/4 or 5/3/5, I would need another red cover to go the other way.

5 in purple is good for your sanity, especially if you inexplicably lose your strike tile generator guy and is forced to go through 20K of HP with Magnetic FIelds in PvE. It's also a lot of fun to pump out ridiculous damage and since Magneto is overpowered personified, you can definitely afford to sacrifice some of his overwhelming power for some fun instead. He's basically already unstoppable even if his only skill is 5 in blue, so you might as well build him however you want before he's nerfed. I remember back in the Ares tournament there are people trying to setup scenarios for Ares to kill 3 guys with a single rampage just because it's hilarious to see 3 guys go down at once, and it's pretty much the same issue here. Seeing a 5 digit damage on some enemy is a lot of fun, even if it's total overkill because you can spam 30K of damage between red/blue quite easily.

Okay, so I have been playing around with my 4/3/4 lvl 47 C. Magneto and wow, there is no really wrong way to build him. I do agree 5 in blue is mandatory as I have wished it cost one less so many times. Playing him with Punisher, I see the abuse of his blue and red with strike tiles, however, since Punisher is my main right now, having the 5/5/3 C. Magneto monster isn't needed since Punisher's red is 8, I can with 4 matches, cast Punisher red and Magneto Red at lvl 3 or 4 red, even if C. Mags red was 2AP, it would still take me 4 matches to get the AP to do this as well. In theory I could do this at 5/3/5 as well.

So I'm for sure going 5/x/x. but I'm seeing 4 viable builds from the forums
5/5/3 -- Fast, but strike tile reliant
5/3/5 -- Blue and Purple, red is only for board adjustment
5/4/4 -- Hybrid for those that prefer the 5/3/5 playstyle and want more spam
4/5/4-- Hybrid 2 for those that prefer the 5/5/3 playstyle and want more raw power

I'm leaning towards a 5/4/4 build for the sole fact it will be easier to respec him unless they trash blue. I think C. Mags funbalance is really going to be blue at a 6-8 cost to stop the free spam. I then see his shields getting buffed to where you would want them out and would have to choose, do I want to match 5 in a row or have defense, much like Captains yellow. Red I sense will get an AP increase but a damage increase as well, again to cut down on the spam. I think purple stays as is, but actually adhering to what it says, up to x amount of matches, so it will swap 5,6,7,9,13 blue with that number of red, but if you don't have that number of blue or red it will only do that, ie. you have 8 blue and 9 red, it will only swap 8 blue, and do x damage a swap, same if you had 10 blue but 7 red, it will only swap 7 blue, with 7 red, and do 7 times x damage. I really think this is how C. Mags gets fun balanced in which case a 5/3/5 build will be high damage ulimate (purple) and defense, 3/5/5 will be more offensive,

Unknown

My mags is 4/5/4. I use his red when I am in a tight spot and need to hammer at a guy while re-arranging a bad board. At 2AP it is extremely spamable and that is useful to me. At 6AP his blue is still entirely viable as a crit-generator and his purple remains extremely deadly at lvl 4.

I just wish his purple match damage was higher, though I often team him with Spider-Man and Spidey does decent purple match damage. Also, with the two of them, I can routinely maintain 4 defense tiles and seriously mitigate incoming match damage.

Unknown

Mine just got to 4/4/4, I'll obviously apply any next cover .

Originally was thinking in 5/5/3 but now more inclined to 5/4/4. And 4/5/4 makes sense too. I use red like crazy (that one got to 4 for longer time) both for board-fixing and extra damage with strikes. Of course blue is practically self-sustaining at 5 cost.

Phaserhawk

How does red calculate damage?

Obviously it destroys 5 tiles which you do the damage of those tiles, then you get the bonus damage. Does it stack at once? or does it do like OBW where you get the 5 tile damage first (strike tiles apply) then you get the bonus damage (strike tiles apply again)

Unknown

Phaserhawk wrote:

How does red calculate damage?

Obviously it destroys 5 tiles which you do the damage of those tiles, then you get the bonus damage. Does it stack at once? or does it do like OBW where you get the 5 tile damage first (strike tiles apply) then you get the bonus damage (strike tiles apply again)

It's just bonus damage + 5 tiles you destroyed (at Magneto's strength) + strike tile bonus. You don't get to double dip there like OBW but it's still pretty insane with strike tiles due to how cheap it is and that cascades are pretty often.

Thanos

I went 5/5/3 . Love his red at two cause i use him with Punisher and spamming his red at 2 ap with strike tiles is just too good. I have purple at 3 cause by the time i'm done using his blue ability there's very few blue left for translocation. At three purple he still does 2800 damage at level 125. Now if only they'd change his yellow to purple all would be good.

Phaserhawk

Thanos wrote:

I went 5/5/3 . Love his red at two cause i use him with Punisher and spamming his red at 2 ap with strike tiles is just too good. I have purple at 3 cause by the time i'm done using his blue ability there's very few blue left for translocation. At three purple he still does 2800 damage at level 125. Now if only they'd change his yellow to purple all would be good.

Lol, thats why you would put more into purple, so you get more damage for less tiles out

I really think 4/4/4 is the most optimal build after reading everyone's posts, you just get the best of every situation. The question, where for the 13th point. Not Purple, since 4/4/5 seems really inefficient. That would leave 4/5/4 or 5/4/4. I'm not saying that 5/5/3 or 5/3/5 are bad, quite the contrary, but a 4/5/4 or 5/4/4 is sort of the jack of all trades builds, good in all but not great. I'm leaning towards 5/4/4 just because it makes blue self-sustaining and with the crits generated and cascades. 2AP red vs 3AP red, meh, that means you cast it once more every 6 AP, which while being a lot I don't think is huge.

a 5/4/4 build will let me still spam red, self-sutain blue, and if I run into trouble with those, allow me to smack someone in the face with purple. the 4/5/4 and 5/4/4 hyrbid builds just give you more flexibility if you are faced with a bad board, I would rather have more options, thats my prefernce.

NorthernPolarity

Phaserhawk wrote:

Thanos wrote:

I went 5/5/3 . Love his red at two cause i use him with Punisher and spamming his red at 2 ap with strike tiles is just too good. I have purple at 3 cause by the time i'm done using his blue ability there's very few blue left for translocation. At three purple he still does 2800 damage at level 125. Now if only they'd change his yellow to purple all would be good.

Lol, thats why you would put more into purple, so you get more damage for less tiles out

I really think 4/4/4 is the most optimal build after reading everyone's posts, you just get the best of every situation. The question, where for the 13th point. Not Purple, since 4/4/5 seems really inefficient. That would leave 4/5/4 or 5/4/4. I'm not saying that 5/5/3 or 5/3/5 are bad, quite the contrary, but a 4/5/4 or 5/4/4 is sort of the jack of all trades builds, good in all but not great. I'm leaning towards 5/4/4 just because it makes blue self-sustaining and with the crits generated and cascades. 2AP red vs 3AP red, meh, that means you cast it once more every 6 AP, which while being a lot I don't think is huge.

a 5/4/4 build will let me still spam red, self-sutain blue, and if I run into trouble with those, allow me to smack someone in the face with purple. the 4/5/4 and 5/4/4 hyrbid builds just give you more flexibility if you are faced with a bad board, I would rather have more options, thats my prefernce.

5 blue is a must for any Mags build: it nearly doubles the amount of times you can use it due to being down only 1 blue ap instead of 2 when doing match 4s.

Unknown

I have a 5/5/3 mag and am completely certain that it is the best build for killing anything other than lvl 230 goons. The main goal of C. Mag should be to perpetually make match 4s and greater with his blue ability in order to generate AP and deal damage without ever passing the turn back to the AI. For this purpose 5/5/3 is the only build. 5 in blue is 100% mandatory and 5 in red is reccomended for the value it provides in finding more blue match 4s or greater. I often find myself dealing well over 5000 damage in a single turn by continually chaining blue and red ability activations. This kind of perpetual damage cycle can frequently be achieved on the third or fourth tourn of a match before the opponent can activate a single ability.

Unknown

I've been running 4/5/4 due to anticipation of the nerf. If the nerf wasn't looming, I'd definitely go 5/5/3.

Unknown

Alright, got home editing for thoughts.

I have a 5/5/3 C. Mag and 2 Purple covers waiting to go. Do you guys thing 3/5/5 is the ideal build? Does anyone think impending nerfs are likely to hit his blue and/or red and leave his purple alone?

Unknown

I went 3 red as most likely its the 2 ap skill they were targeting (rag red, spidey blue)
5 purple has its use, you do more damage per match and its unlikely you have a bunch of blue on board to hit max amount with 5 blue so each hit counts more.

Dormammu

I've read awesome arguments for just about every build possible for 3* Magneto. Honestly, in his current state, I don't know if there is a 'bad' build for him. I wouldn't worry about potential nerfs, build him now and worry about that later - you can always respec.

Personally, I went 4/5/4. I almost went 5/4/4. Either of those builds makes either blue or red spammable. I decided I wanted his red really spammable, and at 2AP it is really nice to spam that power and re-adjust a bad board while doing pretty good damage (especially if cascades start falling). 4 purple still does ridiculous damage.

I think the ideal build depends on who you plan on pairing him with most often, and what colors you need to fuel them. If you have someone else that uses red a 5/3/5 build makes a lot of sense, for example.

NorthernPolarity

I personally think it's a mistake to not go 5 blue: generating extremely easy crit tiles on desert/oasis and endlessly chaining match 4s is one of the most powerful things you can do in the game right now.