Outside of meta, what makes a character valuable to you

zaku
zaku Posts: 43 Just Dropped In
in MPQ General Discussion
generally the cool factor for me. The last few releases haven't been so inspiring

Comments

  • TPF Alexis
    TPF Alexis Posts: 3,826 Chairperson of the Boards
    Who the character is in the comics/movies. If they're one of my faves, I'm picking them up no matter how terrible they might be.

    Interesting mechanics are also a factor, but really, it's all about the characters.
  • smkspy
    smkspy Posts: 2,024 Chairperson of the Boards
    What can that character do to my roster better is now my standard. 

    Take Reed for example. I've probably.sold off a dozen or so of his covers along the way because he very bottom tier. Even champ levels was not worth the investment when I had top ten legit 4s to champ instead. But with a champed medusa and carnage, and taking into account his rework, I decided that finally champing him was actually worth it.

    I stick him and those two as my simulator defense team and I pretty much remain untouched now. 

    Values of characters change over time, a very good thing for the game.
  • FokaiHI
    FokaiHI Posts: 272 Mover and Shaker
    I always liked the self healing features. XFDP got me through with OML for a lot of pve. Characters that you can keep running without burning health packs. X23 is awesome when boosted. She'll be fun this week with Rulk. 
  • Moon Roach
    Moon Roach Posts: 2,863 Chairperson of the Boards

    A couple of reasons.  Being fun to play and useful, even when not boosted (C & D, I'm looking at you).  Being different and letting me run a team that's not the same as 90% of those out there (not telling).

  • SpringSoldier
    SpringSoldier Posts: 265 Mover and Shaker
    TPF Alexis said:
    Who the character is in the comics/movies. If they're one of my faves, I'm picking them up no matter how terrible they might be.

    Interesting mechanics are also a factor, but really, it's all about the characters.
    Same for me. I do have characters I love and never play with though (Winter Soldier, Quake, Wolverine) and I'm really happy that some of my favorites are really strong (Peggy, Carol, Medusa).
  • Berserk_Al
    Berserk_Al Posts: 411 Mover and Shaker
    Characters I like.
    Characters that have fun combos.
    Characters that are Carol Danvers.
  • Hendross
    Hendross Posts: 762 Critical Contributor
    Faster characters...not talking about meta but rather my quality of life.  Characters with fewer or faster animations , that can AoE bomb, or high base damage and crit multipliers.  
  • TetsujinOni
    TetsujinOni Posts: 181 Tile Toppler
    Calnexin said:
    Synergy.

    Characters that are self-contained are nice for beginning play because they're simple.  Characters like Thing, for instance - two nukes and a passive protect.  His skills don't really interact with other abilities.  He benefits from boosters, but not more so than anyone else.  He's just someone you drop into your team if you need a big piece of meat with his color complement.

    A lot of the newer characters have board-play skills that interact in interesting ways.  Carol's passives work in a lot of different ways.  You can manipulate your strongest color to match your opponent for passive pain (unless Carol's your strongest, then you're stuck with black).  You can maximize the strength boost to tiles by picking an appropriate generator.  You can maximize them the other way by pairing characters with frequent countdowns.  Her active yellow can be used on other characters' countdowns, so you can expedite Groot's bomb or Switch's purple generation.  She fits a lot of different roles.

    Cage, Fist, Medusa, Mordo, Jessica, C&D, Rocket & Cute, etc. - all have skills that either boost or benefit from other characters' powers, making the effects more powerful when used in tandem.

    Now granted, this is part of what makes them a part of the meta.  But it's not the in-and-of-themselves being powerful that makes them valuable to me.  It's the strategy of how best to utilize and combine their powers for better effects.  That's a strategy element that's missing from your typical match-3 game.
    And this is why I take such a disbelieving view of people who complain they'll never get the POWERFUL characters from the vault.

    Maybe you're enamored of their comic or cinematic power. But breadth of capability, beyond "I hit it hard from this color combo of powers," makes for a far richer game.
  • broll
    broll Posts: 4,732 Chairperson of the Boards

    1.  Do I like the character from other media (comics, MCU, etc)

    2.  Is the in-game artwork good?  (Even with the better cho his cheesy style makes me not want to play him)

    3.  Do they work well with others / are they fun to play?

  • Wumpushunter
    Wumpushunter Posts: 627 Critical Contributor
    I like when they use traditional comic costumes and characters. Moonstone's costume has not been "updated" for 2017 feelings for example. 
  • Jarvind
    Jarvind Posts: 1,684 Chairperson of the Boards
    I've never understood the "I don't like the artwork" folks. Like, there are plenty of characters whose look I'm not crazy about, but I have a hard time wrapping my head around refusing to use a character just because I don't love what they look like. 

    Then again, I'm that guy in MMOs that will wear the most hideous armor imaginable if it has the best stats, so I guess it's probably just some aesthetics gene that I'm missing.
  • Sim Mayor
    Sim Mayor Posts: 309 Mover and Shaker
    Jarvind said:
    I've never understood the "I don't like the artwork" folks. Like, there are plenty of characters whose look I'm not crazy about, but I have a hard time wrapping my head around refusing to use a character just because I don't love what they look like. 

    Then again, I'm that guy in MMOs that will wear the most hideous armor imaginable if it has the best stats, so I guess it's probably just some aesthetics gene that I'm missing.
    Argh. I really WANT to agree with this...but then I look at how much I HATE Medusa's costume and powers (comic powers, not game powers) and how that kept me from picking her up for so long. I admit that I play certain characters more because I like their animations / artwork, even if they're not 100% the bestest most powerful character out there (Th4r, I'm looking at you).
  • Nepenthe
    Nepenthe Posts: 283 Mover and Shaker
    Meanwhile, I love Medusa and her hair, and I'm very happy that her in-game powers make her an effective part of the current meta.
  • Landale
    Landale Posts: 157 Tile Toppler
    edited July 2017
    I like characters that have a wide array of synergy with other characters.  For example, C4rol is fun with anyone who can produce CD tiles or other special tiles.  Blad3, Bl4de, Beast, SWitch, Star Lord, Coulson, Medusa, and even Cho are fun to use with her.  By herself she's great, paired with someone else she's amazing.  Coulson is great with anyone who has cheap powers and CD tiles.  Stuff like that leads to fun for me.

    I like fast characters too - Thanos, Bl4de, and Agent Venom can be good for that, board permitting (also Agent Venom teamups can be pretty great).  I spend a lot of time playing to make sure I can get rewards, and anything I can do to lessen that time spent is better in my book.  It's one of the reasons I use IM40 so much.  He speeds up the fights so I'm not slogging along trying to get 12 red AP to do any decent damage - He makes other characters faster.

    Ultimately, I like it when I can play a group of characters that cause me to audibly giggle at how awesome they are together.  C4rol being boosted during DPvMPQ was one of those times.
  • PresidentDoom2020
    PresidentDoom2020 Posts: 180 Tile Toppler
    if I like the character in general. like Mordo can be secretly a good character but I'll never have this boring charisma vacuum on my roster, whereas all of the Venoms can technically suck but the 8 year old me will never forgive me if I turn my back on our favorite Spiderman villain when growing up. Modern Captain Marvel might be my least favorite design for her but I still love Carol Danvers and I was 100% behind her even before it turned out she was actually one of the best characters in the game

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