5* Tier Guide and Ranking (new poll opened - 12 Mar 18)

jackstar0

Voted late. Looking forward to the results.

658

OML is quite underrated in the initial rankings.  I took a break in 2016 that severely **** my progress and I ended up stuck with OML and Pho for a loooong time.  The only problem with OML now is that he’s so slow.  If he had an active red nuke, he’d still be one of the best fives.  As is, the heal is still pretty huge and he’s super deadly once transformed. He’s much much better than Phoenix. 

I go back and forth on Daredevil.  Used both extensively.  It’s super close.  Daredevil is more fun, but he’s mostly just a meat shield until sub 50%, particularly if playing with Gambit, and OML is a better meat shield.  Daredevil can almost instantly turn a match around with his purple, in the right condition, and OML has nothing like that, but DD purple is expensive and only a nuke if strikes are out.  

atomzed

Survey is closed! I will be collating the results. The format of the post will most probably change to accommodate the separate ranking for PVE and PVP. 

Zen

Great thread atomzed. Some very good advice. I've finally got my first 5* to 13 covers, Thor. I also have Thanos and Peter Parker sat at 12. I've just set Thanos as my BH praying for anything but black as he's 5/3/4, same stats as my PP

Quebbster

Zen said:

Great thread atomzed. Some very good advice. I've finally got my first 5* to 13 covers, Thor. I also have Thanos and Peter Parker sat at 12. I've just set Thanos as my BH praying for anything but black as he's 5/3/4, same stats as my PP

What's your Gamor4 like?

Zen

Quebbster said:

Zen said:

Great thread atomzed. Some very good advice. I've finally got my first 5* to 13 covers, Thor. I also have Thanos and Peter Parker sat at 12. I've just set Thanos as my BH praying for anything but black as he's 5/3/4, same stats as my PP

What's your Gamor4 like?

She's champed level 294

atomzed

Zen said:

Quebbster said:

Zen said:

Great thread atomzed. Some very good advice. I've finally got my first 5* to 13 covers, Thor. I also have Thanos and Peter Parker sat at 12. I've just set Thanos as my BH praying for anything but black as he's 5/3/4, same stats as my PP

What's your Gamor4 like?

She's champed level 294

BH your 4* Gamora. with 6 more levels you will get a purple Thanos cover and you can champ thanos!

i think that is safer than BH thanos, since you may get a black cover duplicate instead. 

Zen

atomzed said:

Zen said:

Quebbster said:

Zen said:

Great thread atomzed. Some very good advice. I've finally got my first 5* to 13 covers, Thor. I also have Thanos and Peter Parker sat at 12. I've just set Thanos as my BH praying for anything but black as he's 5/3/4, same stats as my PP

What's your Gamor4 like?

She's champed level 294

BH your 4* Gamora. with 6 more levels you will get a purple Thanos cover and you can champ thanos!

i think that is safer than BH thanos, since you may get a black cover duplicate instead. 

Zen

Nice one! I must remember about 5* feeders. She's now set as my BH.

Yeah you're not wrong on that one aesthetocyst. Time to run out and play the lotto when it happens

atomzed

Latest update before April's Fool, I have posted the PVE rankings, PVP rankings and also the character write-ups!
i have restructured the write-up to be in order of their release, as it is difficult to decide on whether i should post in terms of their PVE/PVP ranking.

Many thanks to the 136 people who responded to the 2nd survey! It's a lot of questions to plow through so thank you for the patience.

There is actually much statistical insights that can be glean from the demographics, as i can analyse the data based on the participants' rosters (champ 5* and max champ 5*) and typical performance (PVE and PVP). But it will take some time to do so....

Comments are welcome!

atomzed

OJSP said:

There’s a typo: IM46’s PVE rank is 91..

thanks! corrected! 

lokiagentofhotness

Great survey atomzed! Sounds about right...although I'll say that JJ will probably get a higher ranking once more people have her - I tried against someone who has her...she's pretty wicked boosted, and will probably be decent after. Also, as a note, last season every game I played in SHIELD would be against some combination of Gambit and BB, this season it's a lot of Gambit and Thor, or Gambit and DD. Gambit seems to be still an (irritating) constant, but I appreciate that it's not overwhelmingly One Team To Rule Them All.

Daredevil217

Wait, is Gambit really the king of PVE? Like all things equal he gives you faster clears than Thanos? Is he faster than half health Thor and Chavez?

Or are the people who want him nerfed overrating his excellence in that game mode. Honest question here not being a 5 star player myself. 

atomzed

Daredevil217 said:

Wait, is Gambit really the king of PVE? Like all things equal he gives you faster clears than Thanos? Is he faster than half health Thor and Chavez?

Or are the people who want him nerfed overrating his excellence in that game mode. Honest question here not being a 5 star player myself. 

First, i don't think there is any "conspiracy" to get him nerf. At least not through the survey. 

In my opinion, Gambit is much less useful in PVE than Thor and Thanos. He is slower than them. However, speed aside, Gambit guarrantees a win. he is consistent and his purple can deal with 4 enemy CD tiles. He is definitely very good in PVE, which explains his high rating in PVE. 

Notice that his PVE rating is not as high as his PVP rating, which is aligned with the fact that he is more useful in PVP.

Daredevil217

atomzed said:

Daredevil217 said:

Wait, is Gambit really the king of PVE? Like all things equal he gives you faster clears than Thanos? Is he faster than half health Thor and Chavez?

Or are the people who want him nerfed overrating his excellence in that game mode. Honest question here not being a 5 star player myself. 

First, i don't think there is any "conspiracy" to get him nerf. At least not through the survey. 

In my opinion, Gambit is much less useful in PVE than Thor and Thanos. He is slower than them. However, speed aside, Gambit guarrantees a win. he is consistent and his purple can deal with 4 enemy CD tiles. He is definitely very good in PVE, which explains his high rating in PVE. 

Notice that his PVE rating is not as high as his PVP rating, which is aligned with the fact that he is more useful in PVP.

I didn't say there was a conspiracy, so I don't know why the quotes.  More the fact that people talk about how he's god, and if true, he should be the best at everything and have no flaws.  Like because everyone talks about how OP he is, he MUST be number 1 in all game modes.  Does that make sense?  Yet in some of the many Gambit threads people were saying they don't usually bring him to PVE unless boosted, as there are much better options.  So I was confused at his ranking there.

Also, I didn't ask if he was better at PVP than PVE.  I know the answer to that.  I asked if we were just talking about PVE, where speed is king, would he be considered the best character?  I mean Charlie's Angels could guarantee wins too, but ask if I'd take them over a champed Thanos or Thor in PVE...

atomzed

Daredevil217 said:

Also, I didn't ask if he was better at PVP than PVE.  I know the answer to that.  I asked if we were just talking about PVE, where speed is king, would he be considered the best character?  I mean Charlie's Angels could guarantee wins too, but ask if I'd take them over a champed Thanos or Thor in PVE...

The survey asked the participants to rate the "usefulness" of the characters. 

"Rate the characters based on how useful you find him/her in PVE or PVP. Define "useful" in whatever way you see fit. You may see usefulness as saving health packs, help you clear nodes quickly, give you a fun experience, or just make you feel powerful!"

It was intentional to keep 'usefulness' as self defined. The survey will be overly complicated if i tried to get people to rate them based on speed, strength health pack savings or whatever factors people are interested in. 

Back to your question about Gambit usefulness in PVE, i would personally rate Thor over Gambit. I also find thor faster than Gambit, mainly because the cascades generated can tap on the increased match dmg of 5* essentials. 

But YMMV.... some may like gambit simply because he has all the tools to deal with overscald enemies. 

ZeroKarma

Finally looking through those results and I have to agree with @Daredevil217. Gambit is not close to #1 in PvE. Speaking from the perspective of a T5 player and having had the discussion with others, I would never bring him unless it’s a severely overpowered node and I have a weak 5E or he’s boosted and you need match damage.

PvE is 100% about speed, and he is slow in the current meta. By the time you’re on your second casting of red the opposing team should already be dead, and if it’s a 5E, Thor and America Chavez are clearly superior in terms of speed.

Thanos and Thor are the kings of PvE. (At least in the 5* tier.

Personal 5* PvE Ranking

1. Thanos
2. Whoever is boosted
3. Thor
4. Starlord
5. Strange
6. Gambolt

stochasticism

I went ahead and broke down the pve and pvp rankings into more easily digestable lists. Here they are.

PVE

1. Gambit

2. Thanos

3. Thor

4. Dr Strange

5. Black Bolt

6. Daredevil

7. OML

8. Hawkeye

9. Black Panther

10. Peter Parker

11. Jessica Jones

12. Silver Surfer

13. Starlord

14. Jean Grey

15. Ghost Rider

16. Green Goblin

17. BSSM

18. Iron Man

19. Black Widow

20. Archangel

21. Steve Rogers

22. Doc Oc

23. The Hulk

PvP

1. Gambit

2. Thor

3. Thanos

4. Black Bolt

5. Daredevil

6. Black Panther

7. Dr Strange

8. Hawkeye

9. Peter Parker

10. Jessica Jones

11. Silver Surfer

12. Jean Grey

13. OML

14. Green Goblin

15. Ghost Rider

16. BSSM

17. Archangel

18. Black Widow

19. Iron Man

20. Starlord

21. Steve Rogers

22. The Hulk

23. Doc Oc

atomzed

stochasticism said:

I went ahead and broke down the pve and pvp rankings into more easily digestable lists. Here they are.

PVE

1. Gambit

2. Thanos

3. Thor

4. Dr Strange

5. Black Bolt

6. Daredevil

7. OML

8. Hawkeye

9. Black Panther

10. Peter Parker

11. Jessica Jones

12. Silver Surfer

13. Starlord

14. Jean Grey

15. Ghost Rider

16. Green Goblin

17. BSSM

18. Iron Man

19. Black Widow

20. Archangel

21. Steve Rogers

22. Doc Oc

23. The Hulk

PvP

1. Gambit

2. Thor

3. Thanos

4. Black Bolt

5. Daredevil

6. Black Panther

7. Dr Strange

8. Hawkeye

9. Peter Parker

10. Jessica Jones

11. Silver Surfer

12. Jean Grey

13. OML

14. Green Goblin

15. Ghost Rider

16. BSSM

17. Archangel

18. Black Widow

19. Iron Man

20. Starlord

21. Steve Rogers

22. The Hulk

23. Doc Oc

thanks! i quoted your post in the front for people's easy reference. 

atomzed

ZeroKarma said:

Finally looking through those results and I have to agree with @Daredevil217. Gambit is not close to #1 in PvE. Speaking from the perspective of a T5 player and having had the discussion with others, I would never bring him unless it’s a severely overpowered node and I have a weak 5E or he’s boosted and you need match damage.

PvE is 100% about speed, and he is slow in the current meta. By the time you’re on your second casting of red the opposing team should already be dead, and if it’s a 5E, Thor and America Chavez are clearly superior in terms of speed.

Thanos and Thor are the kings of PvE. (At least in the 5* tier.

Personal 5* PvE Ranking

1. Thanos
2. Whoever is boosted
3. Thor
4. Starlord
5. Strange
6. Gambolt

Interesting! why did you rank SL above Strange? Because of his steal? 

Personally, i don't rank Thanos so high because of the hp drain. I don't aim for top placement rewards in PVE, hence i prioritise health packs over speed.