MPQ at Marvel.com (Kraven the Hunter) (1/9/18)

TPF Alexis

jamesh said:

TPF Alexis said:

HoundofShadow said:

"Kraven the Hunter (Sergie Kravinoff) is a 4-Star character that was designed to utilize what makes him a unique foe for not only Spider-Man but also Squirrel Girl!"

I can understand why Squirrel Girl is affected but not Spider-Man. I believe that web tiles are neutral? I'm still new to this game, so is there any experienced player who can help me see the light?

I can't even see how he works against Squirrel Girl. Who actually uses her yellow?

I was actually kind of hoping he would have a really interesting matchup with Squirrel Girl and she'd end up being his Crash opponent.

It sounded like a reference to the comics to me.  Squirrel Girl defeated Kraven when he was attacking the Squirrels of New York by convincing him to fight sea monsters instead.

Maybe this will be worked into the power set of 5* Squirrel Girl.

Yeah, I know. Spidey was never one of my particular faves, so I've actually read more issues of Squirrel Girl that had Kraven in them than issues of Spidey that he showed up in. He also showed up again later in that Squirrel Girl crossover with Howard the Duck, but they were on the same team in that one.

LakeStone

Our friends at Longbox Heroes are giving away a free Kraven the Hunter this week if you want to check it out. You can listen to them HERE (mention of contest is located around 55:30 mark).  

JackTenrec

Wumpushunter said:

What's the point of building up good teams just for them to release counters to very specific teams. Kraven is a grocket hunter plain and simple.

It's for those of you who haven't discovered Medusa/Thing yet.

DarthDeVo

Daredevil217 said:

Bowgentle said:

Daredevil217 said:

Do we know the two classic 4s needed for his Shield Training. Hoping it’s ones I have Champed already. The Iso crunch is real!

Thing and Ant-Man.

Dang.  Again a classic I don't have leveled (Thing).  Seems like there's always one despite 49 champs. 

I think I'm slightly behind you with 42 champs, but I said the same thing (except it's Ant-Man for me, who's 4/5/3 but stuck at Level 147).

I fully expect the next SHIELD Training to require either Flaptain (4/4/5 Level 131) or Brock Venom (2/4/4 Level 115). Although I'm planning to have Sam champed relatively soon, but that can always change.  Months ago I had planned to have him champed before his Crash (which got bumped anyway), and that clearly didn't happen. And I do want to take Eddie to 209 before his Crash anyway too.

ThaRoadWarrior

After playing 1 round with Kraven in shield training, i found his powers to be very AP expensive. At least he didn't die right away like usually happens with the loaner new release character. The art is pretty cool, i'm glad turning off animations didn't result in new release characters getting phoned in art.

Trilateralus

I’ll reserve judgement until I see some final numbers on his damage but right now Kraven is looking like one of the most disappointing MPQ characters ever released. AP removal abilities, be they steal or destroy, need to be cheap. Ideally no more than 8 AP. At 10+3 I feel his final damage needs to be at least in the 1000 per AP range to be at all useful. That seems unlikely however. 

ThaRoadWarrior

Every 4* is garbage at 1/1/1, and doesn't start to come alive until 10 covers or so. Every new release always feels underwhelming, so I'm also reserving judgement. All I know is I banked up 10 black ap, fired off his countdown, and it got matched away on the subsequent turn lol. #Expensive

HoundofShadow

Just tried out Kraven @ 5/5/3 in the Shield Training. I was able to deal max damage easily for his black ability twice. I think the trick is to make your strongest colour a passive ability or a non-black, so that you won't feel the pain when you activate his black ability. Even without making it a passive, you still can deal max damage easily. 

I forgot about Kraven's passive ability until Dr.Doom's attack tiles  was flashing on my turn. After 2-3 turns, Dr. Doom's attack tiles did 1 damage each. His blue ability still doesn't impress me. Personally, I think 5/5/3 is still the way to go. 

ThaRoadWarrior

Oh dang, I guess they do let you try them out at champion in training; I always thought they were like the PVP loaners

Daiches

He seems so bad from using him in SHIELD Training. Oh well.. he's only there to generate Cp and LTs via champ levels anyway.

HoundofShadow

Everyone is at 13 covers, level 270. So, you can try out their full potentials. You can even replay the mission if you feel that you want to get the feel.

Pr0spect0r

i didnt even use his black once during that fight, use the blue once, and was meh. im probably play that node again later to see anything different. America just out classes him imo

whitecat31

As a stand alone character Kraven the Hunter appears to be an underwhelming second tiered niched character.  Although, I do like his color scheme of Black, Purple, and Blue, he has average hit points and average match damage for a four star, and the majority of his abilities are directly dependent on your opponents actions.

His ability Wounded Pride cost 10 black and at level 270 with 5 black covers in his ability he can create a 1 turn count down tile.  That count down tile can do up 9420 damage, but it is situational dependent. It requires you to have 3 extra AP to be destroyed in your inventory. It also requires the opposing team to have 3 AP in it's highest damage color.  If Kraven is your strongest character, that means this ability will cost you 13 black to do max damage.  So try to pair him with somebody that has a higher tile damaged in a different color that is hopefully a passive.   For damage purposes, the destroy 3 AP in the enemies highest damage color is usually a given, since the AI usually goes for the strongest match damage first and is very likely to have that color.    If everything is going right for you, than this ability can help you down an opposing character. In most cases, I would assume it would do a minimum of 1570 times three damage for 4710 damage.   A draw back is, it is a randomly placed count down tile, and can be matched away or destroyed somehow.  In any case, 5 covers in this ability seems ideal.

His second ability, think Like the Enemy, is a passive. It depends on the enemy having at least 4 enemy strike, attack, or protect tiles on the board. It reduces their damage by 162 and does 1305 damage at level 270.    It requires 6 enemy tiles and does lower damage if less than 5 covers in the ability.    In general this ability is useless, unless facing certain characters. On the other hand, Kraven is the anti grocket and carnage character.   He seems rather useful for certain PVE goons. Against tile generators you will want 5 covers in this ability.

His last ability, Most Dangerous Game, seems like absolute garbage at 3 covers.  For a cost of 10 Blue AP, you generate a tile, that is a trap tile.  Whenever any of these tiles are present, Kraven will steal a random 1 AP from the enemy.  If this trap tile is matched, it converts 3 random board AP to  Kravens team strongest color and deals some mediocre damage.  At 3 covers the damage is 788, at 4 covers the damage is 1138.  At 5 covers it converts 4 random board AP to the strongest color and deals 1469 damage.    One annoying note, this AP conversion occurs for the enemy, if the enemy makes the trap tile match. In some cases it will cause a cascade and do damage to Kraven's team.  So that 5 cover blue ability might be a liability.

Compared to  the other four star with Black, Purple, and Blue colors of Mordo and Kate Bishop, Kraven seems underwhelming. On the hand, if all you face in PVP is Rocket Medusa, and Gamora teams, than Kraven might be a choice.

 

ThaRoadWarrior

On that trap tile, is it stealing AP per trap, or just 1 ap if there are any trap tiles out?

whitecat31

ThaRoadWarrior said:

On that trap tile, is it stealing AP per trap, or just 1 ap if there are any trap tiles out?

You can have more than one trap tile, but you still only steal 1 AP.

ThaRoadWarrior

That is...decidedly underwhelming considering the cost to bring out a trap tile.

D4Ni13

whitecat31 said:

As a stand alone character Kraven the Hunter appears to be an underwhelming second tiered niched character.  Although, I do like his color scheme of Black, Purple, and Blue, he has average hit points and average match damage for a four star, and the majority of his abilities are directly dependent on your opponents actions.

His ability Wounded Pride cost 10 black and at level 270 with 5 black covers in his ability he can create a 1 turn count down tile.  That count down tile can do up 9420 damage, but it is situational dependent. It requires you to have 3 extra AP to be destroyed in your inventory. It also requires the opposing team to have 3 AP in it's highest damage color.  If Kraven is your strongest character, that means this ability will cost you 13 black to do max damage.  So try to pair him with somebody that has a higher tile damaged in a different color that is hopefully a passive.   For damage purposes, the destroy 3 AP in the enemies highest damage color is usually a given, since the AI usually goes for the strongest match damage first and is very likely to have that color.    If everything is going right for you, than this ability can help you down an opposing character. In most cases, I would assume it would do a minimum of 1570 times three damage for 4710 damage.   A draw back is, it is a randomly placed count down tile, and can be matched away or destroyed somehow.  In any case, 5 covers in this ability seems ideal.

His second ability, think Like the Enemy, is a passive. It depends on the enemy having at least 4 enemy strike, attack, or protect tiles on the board. It reduces their damage by 162 and does 1305 damage at level 270.    It requires 6 enemy tiles and does lower damage if less than 5 covers in the ability.    In general this ability is useless, unless facing certain characters. On the other hand, Kraven is the anti grocket and carnage character.   He seems rather useful for certain PVE goons. Against tile generators you will want 5 covers in this ability.

His last ability, Most Dangerous Game, seems like absolute garbage at 3 covers.  For a cost of 10 Blue AP, you generate a tile, that is a trap tile.  Whenever any of these tiles are present, Kraven will steal a random 1 AP from the enemy.  If this trap tile is matched, it converts 3 random board AP to  Kravens team strongest color and deals some mediocre damage.  At 3 covers the damage is 788, at 4 covers the damage is 1138.  At 5 covers it converts 4 random board AP to the strongest color and deals 1469 damage.    One annoying note, this AP conversion occurs for the enemy, if the enemy makes the trap tile match. In some cases it will cause a cascade and do damage to Kraven's team.  So that 5 cover blue ability might be a liability.

Compared to  the other four star with Black, Purple, and Blue colors of Mordo and Kate Bishop, Kraven seems underwhelming. On the hand, if all you face in PVP is Rocket Medusa, and Gamora teams, than Kraven might be a choice.

 

It requires only 4 covers to keep the condition of 4 special tiles for the enemy. The 5th cover only boosts the damage of the purple ability. The problem is that even if you would want to keep 4 covers in purple, his blue is not worth having more than 3 covers. 

Otherwise good review. In addition, I also think that Kraven will be played both against and with Grocket teams. 

twistmonkey

Another way to look at his blue is to compare to Wasp's: for 10AP (at level 270, 5 covers) he steals 1AP per turn, then if the trap is matched does 1,469 dmg and converts 4 tiles to your strongest colour.

Wasp's requires you to hold 6 AP, steals 2 AP per turn, then if matched does 6k damage (mine is level 292, also at 5 covers).

So for 4 less AP, Wasp steals double the AP (which, let's face it, is the main utility of Kraven's blue - not the damage) and hits four times as hard. On top of that, Wasp's CD tile could be matched turn after turn after turn doing multiple damage (for no AP expenditure), while Kraven has to recast the power.

You could argue Kraven gets some cascade potential from converting four tiles to one colour, but Wasp's CD expiring every turn has some (admittedly lower) cascade potential of it's own.

5/5/3 - but I suspect he'll just end up being a source of CP/ISO/LT like so many from the 4* tier.

ThaRoadWarrior

I guess also for perspective: Blad3's Nightstalker power costs 8 black to do 1877pts of damage immediately, then creates a repeater tile that every turn steals 3AP from the enemy's strongest color. Now being a 3* power, this has the disadvantage of being a tile the opponent can see compared to Kraven's trap, and the additional limitation (may or may not be advantageous circumstantially) of targeting one color vs the random steal from Kraven's trap, but it has the huge advantage of stacking the AP steal when there are multiples on the board. 

Daredevil217

DarthDeVo said:

Daredevil217 said:

Bowgentle said:

Daredevil217 said:

Do we know the two classic 4s needed for his Shield Training. Hoping it’s ones I have Champed already. The Iso crunch is real!

Thing and Ant-Man.

Dang.  Again a classic I don't have leveled (Thing).  Seems like there's always one despite 49 champs. 

I think I'm slightly behind you with 42 champs, but I said the same thing (except it's Ant-Man for me, who's 4/5/3 but stuck at Level 147).

I fully expect the next SHIELD Training to require either Flaptain (4/4/5 Level 131) or Brock Venom (2/4/4 Level 115). Although I'm planning to have Sam champed relatively soon, but that can always change.  Months ago I had planned to have him champed before his Crash (which got bumped anyway), and that clearly didn't happen. And I do want to take Eddie to 209 before his Crash anyway too.

Off the top of my head I didn’t have Kingpin, Invisible Woman, Thor, or Thing leveled. 

ThaRoadWarrior said:

Every 4* is garbage at 1/1/1, and doesn't start to come alive until 10 covers or so. Every new release always feels underwhelming, so I'm also reserving judgement. All I know is I banked up 10 black ap, fired off his countdown, and it got matched away on the subsequent turn lol. #Expensive

This is absolutely untrue. People are chasing America covers like hot cakes and while I found her underwhelming (still hope I’m wrong) most saw her as one of the best 4* releases to pair with 5s and a PVE goddess. 

Nico was crowned an amazing support as soon as she was revealed. 

Rogue also probably had the fastest catapult into people’s top 10 lists I’ve ever seen.

Hulk I think was overrated because of crit-smash upon review but I think people very quickly calmed down on him after realizing how it expensive and random the power is. 

And Nightcrawler I think had mixed reviews. People seem to love him. I have him Champed and can’t seen to find a team he works on yet. 

Point of all this is that every new release does not feel underwhelming if you read the forums. In fact one area the developers have been getting consistent praise for is knocking these new characters out of the park. 

Characters like Kraven are easier than all of the above characters to assess pre-covering because his abilities are more straight-forward. It’s easier to compare his damage and AP steal to similar characters and assess his relative strengths than it is to know how Rogue’s AP stoppage, Nightcrawlers random color spam, Hulks crit bomb, or any of Chavez’s powers will work in practice.