**** Kraven the Hunter (Sergei Kravinoff) ****

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Comments

  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,816 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2018
    You need to level him up and use those boosts we keep getting.  But it’s a hard fight. 

    Edit:  the loaner node in Webbed Wonder, sub 1, showed how situational Kraven really is.  Unless you face a special tile team he mostly sits there.  
  • tph_james
    tph_james Posts: 197 Tile Toppler
    bluewolf said:
    You need to level him up and use those boosts we keep getting.  But it’s a hard fight. 

    Edit:  the loaner node in Webbed Wonder, sub 1, showed how situational Kraven really is.  Unless you face a special tile team he mostly sits there.  
    I only have 2 covers, can only max his level to 74. 
    He "maybe" useful if the enemies are with lots of special tiles.. Otherwise, meh. Stop the medusa/grocket/gamora reign? Probably not. 
  • Orion
    Orion Posts: 1,295 Chairperson of the Boards
    Kraven is hot garbage. His only purpose is to mess with Grockett. He may be useful with Carnage, but that’s a novelty team at best.  In his 1-v-1 fights in Shield Training he’s completely useless.
  • D4Ni13
    D4Ni13 Posts: 745 Critical Contributor
    5/5/3
    Orion said:
    Kraven is hot garbage. His only purpose is to mess with Grockett. He may be useful with Carnage, but that’s a novelty team at best.  In his 1-v-1 fights in Shield Training he’s completely useless.
    To be fair, he is very good against any special tile creator, not just Grocket (and we have plenty in MPQ). But I agree that he is weak (not quite garbage - his passive makes up for that), and I would encourage the dev team to take a closer look and adjust his power. His black is decent at best, and his blue is very very underwhelming (considering that we have a lot of other 4* tier heroes that have better blue ability for lower cost, or even better AP steal and generation). 
  • sinnerjfl
    sinnerjfl Posts: 1,275 Chairperson of the Boards
    5/5/3
    His blue ability is so terrible, 10 AP for a trap that steals 1 random AP which is often completely useless.
    The damage is way too low, and putting AP on the board is...  not very useful.

    If black and purple were incredible I'd understand his blue being that bad but that is not the case. Purple will be useful sometimes but this guy will not see much use.

    Damage tied to a CD and a trap power... yikes, unreliable as well.
  • Tiger_Wong
    Tiger_Wong Posts: 1,056 Chairperson of the Boards
    5/5/3
    Newsflash: there are a number of characters that aren’t good in one-on-ones. Doesn’t mean they’re hot garbage. To include, Prof X, Medusa, and Nico. 

    Theres some things here you can work with. Just have to 1) wait until you get more covers so that you can 2) properly find a team that flows with him. 
  • fork1977
    fork1977 Posts: 94 Match Maker
    5/5/3
    Not all characters need to be instantly viable in the 4* meta. He is a specific  counter to th current dominant shield sim team in 4* land.  He is also a wizard against teiatsu heavy nodes. Yes, alone he is weak, but that’s not his role

    a parallel in 5* land is BSS who was a clear counter t o PHX OML teams that dominated.  BSS has a green that is way to pricey for what it does and his blue doesn’t hit very hard unless you have stun.  But BSS is a situational character and he did help counter OML very well, even if he is now out of rotation due to power creep. Kraven will be the same. 
  • Daredevil217
    Daredevil217 Posts: 3,965 Chairperson of the Boards
    Newsflash: there are a number of characters that aren’t good in one-on-ones. Doesn’t mean they’re hot garbage. To include, Prof X, Medusa, and Nico. 

    Theres some things here you can work with. Just have to 1) wait until you get more covers so that you can 2) properly find a team that flows with him. 
    Professor X can murder anyone 1 on 1.
  • Tiger_Wong
    Tiger_Wong Posts: 1,056 Chairperson of the Boards
    5/5/3
    He can’t ‘murder’ jack one on one. Unless you consider sitting behind an invisibility tile, praying for an almost impossible 5-match, and doing normal 3 match damage.

    is water torture considered ‘murder’?
  • Anon
    Anon Posts: 1,455 Chairperson of the Boards
    3/5/5/
    Well if he's invisible and there's at least 1 strike or attack tile out, things can indeed get really messy.
  • Tiger_Wong
    Tiger_Wong Posts: 1,056 Chairperson of the Boards
    5/5/3
    Anon said:
    Well if he's invisible and there's at least 1 strike or attack tile out.....
    That’s the point. ‘One-on-one’ he’s not getting a special tile out. 

    Water torture. 
  • Bowgentle
    Bowgentle Posts: 7,926 Chairperson of the Boards
    Anon said:
    Well if he's invisible and there's at least 1 strike or attack tile out.....
    That’s the point. ‘One-on-one’ he’s not getting a special tile out. 

    Water torture. 
    Medusa, on the other hand, WILL murder you one on one.
  • Daredevil217
    Daredevil217 Posts: 3,965 Chairperson of the Boards
    He can’t ‘murder’ jack one on one. Unless you consider sitting behind an invisibility tile, praying for an almost impossible 5-match, and doing normal 3 match damage.

    is water torture considered ‘murder’?
    I think you are getting caught up on the word "murder".  So to clarify, there was once a point (when I was JUST doing the 4* transition) Professor, and IW were the ONLY crashes I could do, and did them at level 70.  And yes, it was hiding behind an invisibility tile and match-damaging to death, but the point is that tile actually makes him really great one vs. one.  As long as you prioritize Purple and deny AOE colors for the opponent you are golden.

    I get the point you are making, I just thought Professor was a bad example (Medusa too.  Loki and OBW would have been much better), because with a single Purple I'm pretty sure you could complete Shield Training where Kraven is struggling.  
  • Orion
    Orion Posts: 1,295 Chairperson of the Boards
    mexus said:
    Newsflash: there are a number of characters that aren’t good in one-on-ones. Doesn’t mean they’re hot garbage. To include, Prof X, Medusa, and Nico. 

    Theres some things here you can work with. Just have to 1) wait until you get more covers so that you can 2) properly find a team that flows with him. 
    Professor X can murder anyone 1 on 1.
    It might or might not take  while though.
    In Prof X's recent crash I started with 3 straight match-5s and won on the first turn.  Improbable?  Sure.  Straight up butt-kicking?  Absolutely.
  • Cactus_Jack_87
    Cactus_Jack_87 Posts: 210 Tile Toppler
    People thought Agent Venom sucked at first too. The only difference is that Agent Venom is actually really good, and Kraven actually does suck :D
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,816 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2018
    People thought Agent Venom sucked at first too. The only difference is that Agent Venom is actually really good, and Kraven actually does suck :D
    True!  It is the difference between not really understanding how someone works, and understanding how someone doesn’t work.
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    5/5/3
    It could be due to him having only 1 "real" power. To me, his black power is quite weak. Yellow is okay, I guess. I like his blue, it's like 3* iron fist green ability but you are actually attacking two characters per turn, provided that the lowest health character is not in front.

    As for Kraven,  he's definitely a niche character. At least his passive ability has no maximum limit on the number of attack, strike and protect tiles (asp tiles) he can affect.

    Do you think it would be better if countdown and invisibility tiles are taken into calculation for 6 special tiles but the reduction of power affects only those three asp tiles? Would it be op? 
  • sinnerjfl
    sinnerjfl Posts: 1,275 Chairperson of the Boards
    5/5/3
    It could be due to him having only 1 "real" power. To me, his black power is quite weak. Yellow is okay, I guess. I like his blue, it's like 3* iron fist green ability but you are actually attacking two characters per turn, provided that the lowest health character is not in front.

    As for Kraven,  he's definitely a niche character. At least his passive ability has no maximum limit on the number of attack, strike and protect tiles (asp tiles) he can affect.

    Do you think it would be better if countdown and invisibility tiles are taken into calculation for 6 special tiles but the reduction of power affects only those three asp tiles? Would it be op? 
    Regarding Yondu, he doesnt seem that great at first glance and I can understand that. After champing him, I realized he's a lot better than my initial impression.

    Yellow can bring him back to basically full health at 5 covers. Black, the strike tiles are bad, but its a pretty strong deny tool which is the main reason to use it, gives you some direct control over enemy AP.

    His blue is his best ability of course because its pretty top-tier and in a color thats not well represented for damage.
  • justsing
    justsing Posts: 510 Critical Contributor
    edited January 2018
    I found Yondu paired extremely well with C4ge during the Best Friends Forever PVP event. His black, while not being very strong, came in handy and worked very well with C4ge's yellow. His blue is definitely great.

    As for Kraven... I don't even know what to do with him. Using him during the loaner nodes was just painful.
  • bigsmooth
    bigsmooth Posts: 375 Mover and Shaker
    People thought Agent Venom sucked at first too. The only difference is that Agent Venom is actually really good, and Kraven actually does suck :D
    To be fair, AV does suck more than most characters when he's at very low covers, so I can see how people formed that opinion initially. I still see people say he's not that good, though, which I don't understand. You have to be a bit careful with your AP, but I think he is fun to use and his yellow is an awesome teamup.

    Unfortunately, I can't see my opinion improving significantly on Kraven as currently constructed. Black is not very good value since it basically costs 13 AP, and blue (even at 5 covers) is just plain bad. Trap tiles are inherently weak and the AP steal is pretty sad for a 10 AP active power. The passive is nice, but he will be very niche if he stays this way.