Luke Cage node in SCL5 Simulator

froggerjohn

I'm looking for advice on the required Luke Cage node for the SCL5 simulator, where my Luke is 3/0/2, so he needs some help.
https://mpq.gamependium.com/rosters/froggerjohn/revisions/51

I'm currently trying Dr. Strange and 2* Daken. That got me through round 1, but the first battle of round 2 was pretty costly with 1 char downed, and the other two on life support.

The opponents are 4* Sam Wilson, Ant Man, and Carnage (I was targeting them in that order). I think Dr. Strange is necessary, because of his blue stun+damage+AP-drain, and also the free yellow damage. But I can't stun them all, and they eventually get out the large nukes and heavy special tiles. I picked Daken because he's boosted, self-healing, and the strikes help a bit. (Not too much though, since I don't have a good green user). I didn't take IM40, since Luke has a good nuke on the yellow.

I'm also going to pay more attention next time to the colors they need, so I can more strategically avoid some of the worst pitfalls. I don't have too much experience with most of those enemies. Also seems like I could take better advantage of the the friendly attack tiles created by Carnage (like having better strikes). So maybe respec my Daken to 5/5/3, and make a few more green matches even though I don't need the color. Other suggestions welcome.

Polly_P1

Is darkens boost putting his level higher than that of your iron man? If so then respec him for sure, you will be using Stranges blue stun anyways.  I might try iron man and strange instead of darken. 

Polly_P1

Also take advantage of you team up request. If people in your alliance have a madusa team up request that. Once carnage spams a few attack tiles use that to steal them.

froggerjohn

Yes, Daken gets boosted to 183, while IM40 is at 167.

I tried substituting IM40, and survived the match a bit better. The loss of Luke's nuke is made up by IM40 red, albeit at the very end. Having multiple and faster paths to Dr. Strange's blue seems to be the real key to this, since it's both offensive and defensive at the same time.

Two characters still ended up very low health, but that's better than 3. IM40 was essentially untouched, since his only exposure is red, and I don't need to match those.

Still no green usage, but no motivation to match the greens, so less waste.

I also did the Daken respec to 5/5/3 for his own required nodes, which certainly makes sense if I'm using Strange's blue.

TPF Alexis

Another teamup worth asking for is Moonstone. Lots more people have her than Medusa, especially if you're in a lower-level Alliance. Just toss all the red and purple ones and keep the Control Shifts.

HoundofShadow

I assume this is the last node you are playing.  I'm playing SCL 6 and about 6 of my characters got knocked out clearing 4 nodes. This could be due to my Luke Cage having 2 covers only.

Since you would be eating damage every turn, try this:

1) 2* Storm @ ?/?/5 and Ares/Daken. Get everyone to less than 50% health and let Storm's passive do the damage. You need to do some calculation on this. If you are using Ares(4/5/4), use his yellow and then red when his hitpoint is less than 30%.  That should net you close to 5000 team damage.

2) IM40 and 2* Magneto. Use IM40's battery to use Magneto's red to destroy up to 25 tiles and earn ap as well.  Keep repeating this and finish with LC's black when necessary

3) 2* Captain Marvel and 2* Bullseye. This is a defensive tactic. Use Captain Marvel yellow to clear the tiles and use Bullseye's passive to reduce damage.

The above suggestion is based on a simple theory of mine, so I'm not sure how it's going to work out for you.

Quebbster

Hit Carnage first, then Ant-man, and save Sam for last. Sam has a huge nuke, but it is so expensive it is unlikely to ever be used and even if it is it is likely to be overkill. Carnage does a lot of damage to the entire team, both with attack tiles and his powers. He needs to die ASAP. Ant-man can be very dangerous too but takes a little longer to get started.

froggerjohn

I was hitting Sam first not really for the nuke, but to get rid of him improving the Strikes and also potentially turning all yellow tiles to Protects (preventing me from using Recharge). I was getting a fair amount of my own Strikes from Carnage, sometimes reaching damage parity or in my favor (when I could eliminate theirs effectively, and/or stun Carnage).

Ultimately IM40 and Dr. Strange owned this node.

I'M40 a believer!

I concentrated on picking up yellow and blue, and could usually get enough for two applications of Strange's blue before things got nasty. The combo of being able to stun two characters and deny AP to the third, is a position of relative safety.

The go-to team for most of the other nodes was IM40 + Dr. Strange + 2* Bullseye. I'd start the same way, but then use Bullseye's green to grab AP and set up a number of secondary attacks, depending upon what lined up the best.

- more blue for Dr. Strange
- black for Bullseye (that double-crit is usually 5K+)
- more yellow for a second recharge
- more red for a second Unibeam

It was clockwork except for one disastrous node where out of three Recharge cycles, I picked up ONE single tile -- combined. And none of those were fired off with potential yellow matches on the board. I always waited until I could spawn them 'safely', but the craziest cascades and weird luck just kept wiping out all the tiles.

In contrast, my best node had one downed character and two stunned on turn 3, with 2 more active recharges for the next turn. It was all over, with barely a scratch.