When to switch 3* Bonus Hero away from Dr Strange?

froggerjohn

Yes! The Prof X fight was a great test for me at SCL 5. When things lined up at the beginning, I could get through quickly with near-0 damage. But if he got a big start before I could get him stunned, well, it was a scramble to survive, and health pack time.

Almost forgot 3* Cap. I definitely played with him too (I think he was also recently boosted, and/or essential), and the red was pretty efficient once it got going with multiple shields. Blue and yellow would be pretty much unused in the trio with Dr. Strange, but the blue might work out if picking a different 3rd. On multiple occasions it was cool for killing a nasty countdown tile.

DAZ0273

An alternative green user to bonus hero would be Kamala Khan. Her AOE isn't as powerful as Widow's but is cheaper and she also has a purple self fuel capable of making match 4 & 5's in green which is also 3AP cheaper than Widow (although not quite as targetable). Then of course there is her burst heal with activates any time you fire a power from an ally (so every Recharge for example). Then add in her 4* champion path is Medusa and you can't go too wrong.

froggerjohn

I had a 3-cover Kamala Khan from the initial "starter pack" purchase, and used her extensively in the early days. That burst heal was almost godly for 1* and early 2* characters, but eventually the magnitude of that benefit got leveled-out. It could definitely be useful again with more covers/levels, so it's an interesting choice.

Thanks also for the note about 4* champion path. That will be on my radar soon enough, and worth planning for. Too bad there isn't such a path to America Chavez. Are there other low-cover 4* characters with great utility to 3* players?

Dormammu

froggerjohn said:

 Are there other low-cover 4* characters with great utility to 3* players?

Not really. Most 4-star characters won't out-perform champed 3-stars until they are nearly fully covered and level 200+. Chavez is one of those rare exceptions, mostly because she's entirely passive, that offers some utility that others can feed off. Unlike 5-stars who start at level 255 and can be of some value, 4-stars start at level 70; any that do offer some utility with low covers still aren't usable - they're a liability due to low health.

Heartbreaksoup

Frogger, I think you'll find that most of your one-cover level 70 4* characters will just hang out waiting for new covers.  I think that's just fine myself - I've got 13 of them idling that way - because they'll get new covers eventually and they'll let you into the Behemoth Burrito phase of DDQ even if you're not very likely to win it unless the other two on your team are well-covered! 

Many 4*s don't get really useful until they have about six covers.  There are exceptions, certainly, but I usually don't wheel any of them out in PVE until they're level 100, and only then in the first three nodes.  (In PVP, they really need more than six.)

One thing to consider is whether you'd prefer to use a lot of health packs or have a deep bench of substitute players.  No, my level 147 Sandman with 7 covers is not as useful as my level 177 Kamala Khan (who has a similar green power that hits everybody), but I can use him - and his delightfully high 9513 health - a couple of times in the typical nodes 4-6 and then bench him for Kamala as the opponents get stronger and their health gets higher, without spending any packs.

DAZ0273

Dormammu said:

froggerjohn said:

 Are there other low-cover 4* characters with great utility to 3* players?

Not really. Most 4-star characters won't out-perform champed 3-stars until they are nearly fully covered and level 200+. Chavez is one of those rare exceptions, mostly because she's entirely passive, that offers some utility that others can feed off. Unlike 5-stars who start at level 255 and can be of some value, 4-stars start at level 70; any that do offer some utility with low covers still aren't usable - they're a liability due to low health.

I suppose Vulture's black could technically be useful at low covers as a pure battery and with him being airbourne he would be protected most of the time.

TPF Alexis

DAZ0273 said:

Dormammu said:

froggerjohn said:

 Are there other low-cover 4* characters with great utility to 3* players?

Not really. Most 4-star characters won't out-perform champed 3-stars until they are nearly fully covered and level 200+. Chavez is one of those rare exceptions, mostly because she's entirely passive, that offers some utility that others can feed off. Unlike 5-stars who start at level 255 and can be of some value, 4-stars start at level 70; any that do offer some utility with low covers still aren't usable - they're a liability due to low health.

I suppose Vulture's black could technically be useful at low covers as a pure battery and with him being airbourne he would be protected most of the time.

I can confirm this, as my Vulture was 3/1/1 for quite a while, and I still got really good use out of him. His black is probably second behind America's green as the best single cover 4* to use.

froggerjohn

Professor X purple might be on that single-cover list as well, for the invisibility-solo option.
Rocket & Groot yellow makes decent initial strike tiles, which would be great for fast clears of easy nodes.