**** Rocket & Groot (Awesome Mix Volume 2) ****

Polares

Vhailorx said:

I am pretty sure that human torch green and blade black do proc carol, so this one should too.  

Carol is a great partner for new r&g.  But i hesistate to say that makes 4* grocket good, mostly it just says that carol is awesome.

Yep Carol is awesome, but I think you have been too harsh with R&G. His green is amazing, for the same cost than Jean's it does 60-70% more damage. And yeah you have to wait, but if it gets matched it does a lot of damage too. And meanwhile, you get extra AP from Groot matches! (At least 6 AP a turn is big!) Blue is a bit expensive but the damage ratio can be also really good (specially if you add Coulson or Carol).

For me the worst one is yellow. Those strike tiles are great, but a power that does one thing and it does not do anything else for the whole match is not something I like. Those tiles might be destroyed by turn 3 or 4 and then the power is useless. But I guess it helps R&G do some early damage while you get the AP for the other two powers...

Vhailorx

I don't mean to suggest that this is a bad character.  Just that this is not a character I see becoming a dominant top tier 4* in the current meta for reasons that have little to do with the character. 

Green is a good 4* aoe, with 6k aoe damage for 10ap (plus some random ap gen and boardshake).  But it takes 3 turns to resolve (unless it's matched, in which case it does self damage too.  Though it does hurt the enemy team a fair bit even then, which is nice).  I think the analogy is Thanos green, which costs 2 more ap for a bit more damage (relative to tier.  4.5k aoe for a 3* is a bit more than, 6k aoe at the 4* tier).  It also takes takes 3 turns to resolve, and have some potentially beneficial, but also potentially dangerous, side effects (namely forcing thanos out front, which protects teammates, but is risky if thanos is damaged).  Thanos green is a solid power.  But it isn't really something i plan around.  When I want to use thanos, it's for the black passive (or the board lock purple for 5* thanos).  I will definitely throw out thanos green if he is around and i have no better options, but it isn't very reliable unless I bring a tile fortifier. 

Nor can new grocket's blue offer direct damage.  Instead it's 4 matches to get started with a permanent (but unfortified) CD.  That's a pretty slow burn fuse, even though it's easy to see the power eventually producing tons of damage. 

I think the concept for grocket is that his actives take a long time to get going, and the instant strike tiles are meant to mitigate that delay with instant damage to start a match.  And that would be a perfect reasonable concept in a game that had longer matches.  But we players tend not to have long matches; in fact MPQ heavily rewards a "guaranteed win by turn 5" play style. 

So grocket will do some heavy match damage early on, but will take a while to charge up his powers, and which point the damage can really come on fast.  You know what that description sounds like to me? old OML.  And he wasn't much of a deterrent in PVP even before his nerf.  By the time he had 9 black and 12 yellow to transform, the other team generally had plenty of AP too and could just steam roll him using stunlock and/or powerful nukes. 

So my critique is less directed at new grocket, they are fun new design, it's more about MPQ in general and the fact that game's current scoring and reward systems are so heavily slanted towards one particular style of characters.  And the result is that even fun new characters like grocket may have a hard time finding a niche to fill.

Rick_OShay

Going up against new R&G, St4r-Lord, and Medusa/C4rol will be very ugly. With those starting strikes, potential reduced ability costs, continual damage, CD's and special tiles everywhere... they may earn a skip from me in PvP.
It's surprising how quickly Medusa can gain green and blue AP for teammates, and heal, and how quickly Carol can buff specials against you. Who do you target first? Is it worth the health packs at all?
I too wish there would be a way to reactivate R&G's yellow at some point during the match. But even with 3* R&G, in most matches you would hope to not even need to be using his yellow (passive) ability anyway.
[Admittedly, I would plan to play another match with an injured grocket, and instantly heal on the first yellow match]

bbigler

This game is quickly turning into a "find the best passive combos" quest.  We have a ton of them right now and this adds to it. 

His strike tiles are killer!  Something I don't want to fight against.  Add Medusa and Star Lord|Drax, and it's a nightmare for your opponent (or you if defending). 

Forget Peggy, 4*R&G is the new fear in PVP!

bbigler

SO.....MANY......COMBOS......HERE

4*R&G + 4*Star Lord + Wasp
Collect 6 Yellow and flip the 7 strike tiles twice becoming 880+ Strike tiles!  That's 6,160 extra damage per match!

4*R&G + Carol + IM40
Recharge ASAP to pump strikes and fuel R&G's Blue and Green powers, which allows Carol to continue to pump the strikes each turn.  Then IM40 hits with red.

4*R&G + Star Lord + Carol
Goon Killer, but Wasp is still faster

4*R&G + Star Lord + IM40
Recharge to fuel R&G Blue and Green, then your strike tiles boost at least 4 hits per turn (Baby Groot match, R&G Blue Tile Damage, Regular Match, Attack Tile damage).  I believe the character was designed to do this exact thing - 4 hits per turn!

CrookedKnight

I think the concept for grocket is that his actives take a long time to get going, and the instant strike tiles are meant to mitigate that delay with instant damage to start a match.  And that would be a perfect reasonable concept in a game that had longer matches.  But we players tend not to have long matches; in fact MPQ heavily rewards a "guaranteed win by turn 5" play style. 

I think you're undervaluing those instant strike tiles and the role they can play in a quick-hit strategy. Nova is justifiably high-tier because he gives you cheap, beefy strike tiles; these guys give you free, beefy strike tiles, from turn 1. That's AP you don't have to spend in order to put tiles on the board for whatever teammate you've picked out to take advantage of them.

vinsensual

R+G vol. 2 is gonna shred any Peggy with only 3 in yellow. 

notamutant

Anyone else just play the new loaner node in the Guardians side event? Even at a lower level he was doing crazy damage. Total boss.

bbigler

4*R&G is my new Holy Grail to seek after.  I'm only afraid that they will nerf him when he gets beyond 10% play in matches. 

CCW1208

Carnage medusa 4 * R&G
Auto attack
green ap for carnage
Purple ap for medusa
blue ap for R &G

Jaedenkaal

notamutant said:

Anyone else just play the new loaner node in the Guardians side event? Even at a lower level he was doing crazy damage. Total boss.

Yeah, that was fun. Can't wait to have him fully covered in 5 yea- wait. 6 months.

fork1977

Can confirm Carol + SL and 4* Grocket is insane goon killer.  Carol's yellow does NOT cause Rocket's blue to activate for dmg, only her own effect.  His damage must come at the beginning of the turn.  Not sure if this is how Torch or blade work?

Running Grocket at 553 with 553 SL and 553 Carol against goons.  His blue is pricey but SL helps get it down.  SOLID 4* here..

Lukoil

Jaedenkaal said:

notamutant said:

Anyone else just play the new loaner node in the Guardians side event? Even at a lower level he was doing crazy damage. Total boss.

Yeah, that was fun. Can't wait to have him fully covered in 5 yea- wait. 6 months.

With vaulting it will take you less then 2 month without cash and hoarding. With hoarding - 1 day.
Coulson took me basically 2 months to champ without hoarding and spending a dime.

Jarvind

Holy **** this character is sick. I don't even care about green. The passive starting strikes plus blue are utterly savage all on their own.

notamutant

zodiac339

I Aaaaaam Grooooot! animation is adorable, as expected. It does cause a slowdown though. I suppose they started us with the best ability for now, but Rocket's Pack may have been the better second power, despite the higher cost. What's the bet on the 900 point cover for PVP? Another green? 99 to 1 odds?

atomzed

R&G green animation is just the cutest ever! the artist did a really good job!!

i tried so hard to post the green animation as a picture using my mobile phone. I gave up. it's impossible to use that image attached function on the mobile. 

Tiderian

My thought is a combo of Drax (for the extra countdown damage once you get Rocket's blue out) and 4Pun, to make the strikes even stronger.

Until I get some more Drax covers (no time soon) it won't be feasible for me to test out, but he's definitely on my list now.

zodiac339

Hey, look at that! PVP at 900 is green! Looks like I win. A green. Smolcat.

Player1575

Anyone know who will get vaulted when R&G get added to legendary tokens?