Role of black AP in the current game

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Now that the Preview Version of the game has had a chance to breathe, I think we're starting to get a handle on the use/value of different colors among the game's 26 characters.

Red is unquestionably a direct-damage color. 13 of the game's entire cast at present have red abilities that deal direct damage (Modern Hawkeye & Magneto Marvel NOW are kinda arguable because they setup countdown tiles, but those countdown tiles also do direct damage).

Yellow mainly seems to be mostly for passives, utility, and some minor direct damage. Most notable examples are C. Storm and 2-star Wolvie.

Green seems to be secondary direct damage (perhaps not as AP efficient as red) and support/buffs in the form of the various Wolvie incarnations' strike tiles.

Blue seems to be primarily stuns, some damage, and support, such as in the form of C. Storm's blue, Modern Hawkeye's countdown damage + stun, Modern Widow's stun, etc.

Purple seems to mainly be support and/or board manipulation with some passives. Most notable examples are Modern Widow's AP stealing, Loki's/Moonstone's/C. Magneto's questionable random tile rearranging, etc.

Black mainly seems focused on special tiles. Most notable example is Modern Storm's attack tile ability, but there's also Doom's red strike tile ability, Moonstone's "steal special tile ability," etc. The Dr. Doom map's environment tiles also specifically make black strike tiles.

Of all the colors in the current game, I would say that black AP is clearly the weakest/most lacking. I'm not even sure special tiles are the problem (Classic Storm's spammy attack tiles are the most obviously powerful, though I've heard good things about Wolvie strike tiles). I think it's more than black abilities are ridiculously expensive almost across the board. Doom is 12, Loki is 15 (on down to 11 with level-ups), Dark Widow is 13, Moonstone is 17, Bullseye is 18. (Venom is 7 and The Hood/Modern Storm are 9, but they're the exceptions).

If you consider this to be a "problem" (like I do ), what do you suggest as the best way to address this?

Some obvious alternatives:
- Rework every high-cost black AP character to reduce their black AP costs (Yeah...no)

- Buff special tiles - Not sure this is the best way to go...I actually think most special tiles are fine and balanced OK, the issue more seems to be the cost of black abilities that create/manipulate them.

- Add characters/abilities that generate black AP actively

- Add characters/abilities that generate black AP passively

- Add characters/abilities that change existing tiles on the board to black (again, we already kind of have this on the Doctor Doom map)

- Something else? Thoughts?


I'm thinking the obvious solution is one or more characters that generate black AP. I also think there are at least a few Marvel characters for whom it would be "in-character" to change existing tiles on the board to black...Venom is the obvious example here.

(Edited to add blue because I'm dumb and forgot to mention it before)

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I view Black as the DOT tile. It's won me many a game. I maxed Storm's black ability and I don't regret it. 200-250+ extra dmg per turn? I'll take it.

That being said, I've only used Storm, Doctor Doom, Venom and Yelena that I can recall offhand. Venom's and Yelena's are kind of DD attacks though, so they basically contradict what I just said...

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pumkin wrote:

I view Black as the DOT tile. It's won me many a game. I maxed Storm's black ability and I don't regret it. 200-250+ extra dmg per turn? I'll take it.

That being said, I've only used Storm, Doctor Doom, Venom and Yelena that I can recall offhand. Venom's and Yelena's are kind of DD attacks though, so they basically contradict what I just said...

I mean, yeah, with the exception of Venom, we're pretty much talking about black abilities that involve special tiles.

Doom / Modern Storm - Creates attack tiles (create special tiles)

Dark Widow / Bullseye - Creates/triggers criticals (create special tiles)

The Hood - Reduces countdown tiles (modify special tiles)

Loki / Moonstone - Steals special tiles

Doom's Latveria map - Creates black strike tiles with environment points (create special tiles)

Like I mentioned, one of the obvious ways to buff black skills seems to be buffing or increasing utility of special tiles. For instance, having a character that gains a passive bonus for each special tile on the board (maybe an alternate Spidey's representation of spider-senses), or a character that can consume special tiles for some unspecified bonus (The Blob, alternate Venom, Carnage, etc.). But I wonder if that might just end up making the various Wolvie versions OP. Aside from Modern Storm, the Wolvies seem to make the best use of special tiles, and those abilities don't cost black AP.

The problem right now as I see it is that the majority of black AP abilities cost way too much to be practical. In contrast, two of the current reigning champion abilities in the game cost 2AP (Ragnarok red) or 0AP (C.Storm's yellow).

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there are pretty much 0 (good) black abilities/characters in this game