Character Rebalance **** Lockjaw (Royal Bulldog) ****

OneLungDave

sambrookjm said: 

Has anyone ever received an error message using Lockjaw saying that they couldn't fire his blue power?  I got one of those in the SImulator today.  The mode of his blue was the one that would have given you a strike, attack, and protect tile...there were open tiles in each of the colors that the special tiles would be on, but the power just would not fire.  I've submitted a bug report, but I'm curious if anyone has ever had any of his other modes not fire properly.

This just happened to me in the current Simulator PvE during a match on his essential node. After checking the board to make sure required tiles were available, I re-fired the ability and it worked. 

sambrookjm

OneLungDave said:

sambrookjm said: 

Has anyone ever received an error message using Lockjaw saying that they couldn't fire his blue power?  I got one of those in the SImulator today.  The mode of his blue was the one that would have given you a strike, attack, and protect tile...there were open tiles in each of the colors that the special tiles would be on, but the power just would not fire.  I've submitted a bug report, but I'm curious if anyone has ever had any of his other modes not fire properly.

This just happened to me in the current Simulator PvE during a match on his essential node. After checking the board to make sure required tiles were available, I re-fired the ability and it worked. 

Huh.  I tried three or four times, and got the same error each time.  I was using Medusa/Carnage with Lockjaw, because boosted Medusa is awesome no matter who she's paired with.

Tiger_Wong

Here’s a strange, low-key team with Lockjaw that works.....

5* Gambit 5/5/3
4* Hulk 5/3/5
Lockjaw 5/4/4

a couple things about this team.....

1) the special tiles that your opponent will be matching will be your CDs. So....
2) you’ll be chasing yellow more than anything. Hulk throws out 5 fortified CDs when set at 5. Lots of random stuff happens when these CDs go off. But whether they’re matched or go off, it’s good for you.
3) because you’re running Gambit, there’s no point in running Gamma Powerbomb at 5. Which makes it easier to put Crowd Goes Wild and Grand Entrance at 5 and not feel like you’re missing out on anything.
4) lockjaw’s green + Gambits red are great together. Those 2 powers combined with Grand Entrance gives you multiple chances to get more AP for your powers. Gambit’s are self replicating so the cost doesn’t matter. But for the others (especially Hulk) chasing them does, so you need help.
5) Royal Escorts Resonance Frequency is the best in this setup because it cuts a color down for you.

hopper1979

If you have a maxed 5 Gambit do the other partners even matter?   I though Lockjaw might work well with Gambit due to the fact that his powers do not overlap at all and he generates plenty of charged tiles for Gambit to exploit.  I would use Chulk in place of GladHulk though.  Chulk generates charged tiles better than Lockjaw, he feeds blue and green, blue goes to Lockjaw green goes to who needs it but probably Chulk for damage or board shake and Gambit does what Gambit does.

I championed Lockjaw and really wanted him to be useful, he is just way too underpowered to be good.  His yellow, which I really though you could build a team around does not work well in practice.  It only blocks that match so any cascades or powers do full damage and it is just too difficult to flood the board with useful tiles (even with Carnage) to exploit this power properly.  He needs a mechanic similar to Rogue, something like "upon match of a friendly tile all following damage is reduced by X%."  Than it would be a good power and make him into a viable tank.  His green is solid but needs to deal some damage upon casting or more from the passive and his blue is fine as is but suffers from the same problem that Furry's yellow did before the fix, it is to conditional.  He has been one of the rare 4 misses in a while.  (Before everybody says Craven not far enough along on him to comment)

jamesh

Lockjaw was my only boosted 4* this week, so I was having fun with him in the Storm versus event.

Storm, Lockjaw, and Cloak and Dagger made a pretty good team that was light on the health packs.  C&D was there to help collect black.  Cast Hailstorm to cover half the board in special tiles, and the enemy team would trigger Loyal Protector almost every turn for the rest of the match (negating the damage and dealing out a nice bit of bonus damage).  I'd just continue collecting black to replace the matched attack tiles and the match would be over fairly quickly.

Yepyep

jamesh said:

Lockjaw was my only boosted 4* this week, so I was having fun with him in the Storm versus event.

Storm, Lockjaw, and Cloak and Dagger made a pretty good team that was light on the health packs.  C&D was there to help collect black.  Cast Hailstorm to cover half the board in special tiles, and the enemy team would trigger Loyal Protector almost every turn for the rest of the match (negating the damage and dealing out a nice bit of bonus damage).  I'd just continue collecting black to replace the matched attack tiles and the match would be over fairly quickly.

Really good team idea. Thanks!

hopper1979

I have to say seeing Storm and Lockjaw in the recent pvp event was a revelation (one I am mad at myself for not seeing earlier).  It was definitely one of the better teammates for Lockjaw I have seen outside of the charged tile teams.  Storm and lockjaw is much better than Carnage and Lockjaw which was what I though would be the ideal team for exploiting his yellow power.  The more I use him though the more I think blue and green is the way to go, since only the match is reduced he still gets nailed by powers which makes it a less useful power.  He needs a damage boost or more resistance to his yellow to be used beyond his boosted days.

AlexR

The main issue with Lockjaw is that his kit is completely incoherent.
His yellow wants you to play him in a special tile spam team (while he basically makes no reliable special tiles himself and even if you get some from blue, none of it is spam-y), and his green wants him to play in a charged tiles team (he can make charged tiles, but not fast). Both of these abilities are pretty decent, but you will almost never get use out of both on the same team. And his blue is a roulette, which doesn't help.
I generally prefer to use him on charged tiles teams beause his green does actively contribute in a way that's different to other charged tile characters. For his yellow to shine, you need a special tile spam team, which usually means running either Polaris or Carnage. Mostly Polaris tbh. Carnage is great at spam, but only half of his tiles are FRIENDLY tiles, so he's actually not that good at giving Lockjaw the required tile spam.
Now, don't get me wrong, Lockjaw's actually really mean as a third in PolarisBRB. But... so are others. There are so SO many characters competing for the spot of "third character in Polaris team" and ultimately, Lockjaw's yellow loses out to characters that can give Polaris board shake instead.   

jamesh said:

Storm, Lockjaw, and Cloak and Dagger made a pretty good team that was light on the health packs.  C&D was there to help collect black.  Cast Hailstorm to cover half the board in special tiles, and the enemy team would trigger Loyal Protector almost every turn for the rest of the match (negating the damage and dealing out a nice bit of bonus damage).  I'd just continue collecting black to replace the matched attack tiles and the match would be over fairly quickly.

Ohhh, I like that! This is a great team that actually works and one of the few ways to get consistent, reliable and full use out of Lockjaw's yellow without Polaris. Good find! 

On the charged tile front though, things are looking better! Throg. Throg is perfect as a partner to Lockjaw! He gets Lockjaw to start biting from potentially very early on. And as long as Lockjaw is higher level than Throg, he hides Throg completely which Throg appreciates. The Pet Avengers actually working great together in practise is really nice design-wise.

Mordo does okay with Lockjaw/Throg, giving missing colors, damage and black charged tiles. But there's someone who does it so much better and that's (undercovered) 5* Jane Foster who can work with any combination of Lockjaw, Throg and Lokigator. Jane and her pets, all the charged tiles!