Underrated/Overrated

LavaManLee

As mentioned WAY upthread, overrated/underrated will change once you hit 5* land.  There are only two 4*s I will ever use unboosted in non-essential nodes/fights: Chavez and RG.

To get back to the original thread, I think that 5* Ghost Rider is underrated.  Was very surprised at how my undercovered GR could do some major damage in the Shield Simulator.

Overrated 5* is probably Thanos.  Yes, he can do some major AOE but it can only happen twice per game and his other powers are ok.

Huntah86

Borstock said:

Huntah86 said:

 He's the only 4* I use un-boosted consistently.

There are at least 10 4* characters I would use before him un-boosted.

Obviously this is going to depend on your roster.  The only 5* I have champed is Parker so Vulture is a very natural fit considering that.  When I was only in 4* land typically I'd build a team around who is boosted and mix in whoever supports them well. But out of curiosity, which 10? I can't imagine there being that many who would be more useful unboosted (without special circumstances).

Dormammu

I'm done talking about Vulture. You want to know who's overrated? 4-star Rocket & Groot.

Every time I use their green that little baby twig starts running around and making matches for me, usually matching away my own strike tiles. I need those strike tiles! And don't get me started on the button. I've told that annoying little Groot over and over not to press the button, but what does he do? He presses the tinykitty button and blows a bomb up in my face! How is that useful?!?

So overrated.

Huntah86

Dormammu said:

I'm done talking about Vulture. You want to know who's overrated? 4-star Rocket & Groot.

Every time I use their green that little baby twig starts running around and making matches for me, usually matching away my own strike tiles. I need those strike tiles! And don't get me started on the button. I've told that annoying little Groot over and over not to press the button, but what does he do? He presses the tinykitty button and blows a bomb up in my face! How is that useful?!?

So overrated.

I agree here. For me he's great for the strikes and completely useless after that.  His powers aren't terrible but I always have somebody with a way better green or blue on my team anyways.

Tensuun

R&G are a bit like Moonstone was way back in the 2* tier; I don't like using them on my team because they are boring in so many ways, and because their active powers feel expensive and weak when I'm using them. But, I hate fighting against them; they're still boring, but they also force me to use health packs most of the time.

In particular, R&G's green power is bad for me when I use it and it backfires, but it isn't good for me when my opponent uses it and it backfires. I pretty much never want to see that tile matched no matter whose team it's on. My opponent doesn't have to spend health packs to heal up after I beat them, but I definitely have to spend health packs to heal up after I beat them. It makes R&G overall one of the stronger "defensive" teams, because for every player who finds them easy to beat, there are several more who will (like me) skip roughly half of the R&G teams they see, either out of boredom and annoyance or just low health pack supply.

By sheer chance, of all the 31 four-star characters I've champed so far, none of them appear in most people's lists of counters to R&G. I just haven't found that many covers for Thing or XFDP or Drax or Rulk or whoever (Red Hulk, in particular, happens to be 5/0/4). I still generally have the easiest time winning with Red Hulk (or Indestructible Hulk) plus Cap'n Carol plus Daken, but I often have to use at least one Health Pack before each battle, and the presence of 3* and/or un-champed 4* characters usually means that my Victory screen transitions to a scrolling list of all the hundreds of points I lost.

Edit: So my point I guess is that I don't think it's possible for R&G to be overrated; anyone entering SCL8, or maybe even SCL7, wants a champed Rocket & Groot ASAP to have a reasonable chance of 4-clearing the easy missions before everyone else has 4-cleared the entire map. And in PVP, they're obnoxious enough on the AI-controlled defense that, although you're guaranteed a loss against any attacker who has good 5* characters or specific 4* characters, everyone else is just skipping you rather than risk points and/or health packs. And once in a while, your defensive AI just happens to make a turn-one match-3 that brings a match-4 from the sky that brings a match-5 from the sky, and then you get free points, or at least punish your attacker by forcing them to revive somebody. (This is also true of other teams, obviously, but it's fairly pronounced with R&G on top of other benefits).

Back in Marvel Strike Force, I find that if my defensive team is a very efficient group with lots of synergies, I drop ranks much faster than if my defensive team is full of lemons that the game likes to pretend have high "power ratings". This is because other players will actually bother challenging a team that says its total power is 13k, and get lucky sometimes even if the team is usually surprisingly strong; meanwhile a team that claims its total power is 24k will get skipped over for someone with allegedly a higher rank and a "weaker" team. PVP ladders that let players choose their opponent, and that artificially impose limits on how far a player can progress (e.g. by making any battle between players above a certain point value be a net loss for both players), will inevitably run into situations where perception is reality.)

Borstock

Huntah86 said:

Borstock said:

Huntah86 said:

 He's the only 4* I use un-boosted consistently.

There are at least 10 4* characters I would use before him un-boosted.

Obviously this is going to depend on your roster.  The only 5* I have champed is Parker so Vulture is a very natural fit considering that.  When I was only in 4* land typically I'd build a team around who is boosted and mix in whoever supports them well. But out of curiosity, which 10? I can't imagine there being that many who would be more useful unboosted (without special circumstances).

I would have use for America, Medusa, Coulson, Rogue, Riri, Blade, Carol, RG, MEHulk, Hulkbuster, and Thoress when NOT boosted. 

Boosted is a different ballgame.

Borstock

Dormammu said:

I'm done talking about Vulture. You want to know who's overrated? 4-star Rocket & Groot.

Every time I use their green that little baby twig starts running around and making matches for me, usually matching away my own strike tiles. I need those strike tiles! And don't get me started on the button. I've told that annoying little Groot over and over not to press the button, but what does he do? He presses the tinykitty button and blows a bomb up in my face! How is that useful?!?

So overrated.

In this game, his green is more valuable because it gives you an extra turn. When you have a lot of strike tiles on the board, and are using them to do a lot of the work, any chance you get to use them is huge. Put his green on the board, a single attack tile, and your regular turn... You end up doing the strike tile damage 3 times. Add MEHulk and you might even get 4 in 1. 

jackstar0

Because there was no neutral option, I am making one.

These characters match the consensus opinion about them (good or bad or meh).

Rated 4*s:
Coulson
Gamora
Riri
Iceman
Cyclops
Rulk
Winter Soldier

Rated 5*s:
Banner
Strange
Surfer
Black Widow
Phoenix

Tensuun

I think Lockjaw is underrated. He's in a bit of a weird place as a support character who needs support (can't easily generate his own specials to trigger his yellow, nor manipulate the board on his own to control the effects of blue or green), but there are loads of great allies available for him in the 4* tier, like Sandman, Medusa, Wasp, Coulson, Nico, Flaptain.... He can even use enemy board control to his advantage, e.g. playing against Cloak & Dagger, you'll get Karnak (probably his best blue power) pretty often. His worst blue power is blue; destroying some tiles in your opponent's strongest color, as long as the board is mostly blue, usually isn't very useful unless your opponent's strongest color happens to be blue. That said, the board is unlikely to be mostly-blue by the time Lockjaw has enough AP to use his blue power, so even with an AI auto-firing his powers, Lockjaw usually won't behave too stupidly.

I think Ant-Man is underrated, or at least underutilized. He has one of the most AP-efficient tile-stealing powers, and it's not even purple. Even better against characters who would otherwise exploit AP-efficient tile-generating powers, like Pink Panther and, well, most of the PVE goons. He can spam the board with friendly tiles, which greatly benefits characters like Lockjaw and Shuri. And... I'm not sure if it's Working As Intended or not, but each turn you start with an Ants! Ants! Ants! tile is technically "power damage", so supports and passives (such as Okoye's thing) get a nice benefit — and it's way easier to keep these out than a Yaka Arrow.

hopper1979

Underrated: Mordo - one of the most dangerous characters as the match progresses or an AOE monster on the right team Fury - after the rework really good, arguably the best stun in the game C&D - one of the most flexible supports in the game and great AP to damage ratio 4Fist - self acceleration and very fast high damage Gwenpool - best board control in the game Agent Venom very flexable and high damage to ap ratio Sandman - great stun  if you need a green outlet, Nico - one of the best supports in the game as long as you are generating attack/strike/defense tiles great stun and a surprisingly good tank, finally Ghost Rider - forget his black (unless a boss fight) max his green and red and mow through groups.

Beast is probably the only 3 I think is underrated, great AOE his blue is one of the best tile spammers at that level and his heal is useful if you have no yellow outlet.

Overrated:  Mockingbird and Rogue - pvp monsters but neither are particularly good in pve especially against goons.  Hulkbuster - game-play has passed this guy buy his blue is now his best power.  Possibly Medusa - she is really good but she is not the Gambit of the 4's on the wrong team she sucks, you can't be #1 if you need specific characters to make you #1

Borstock

hopper1979 said:

Underrated: Mordo - one of the most dangerous characters as the match progresses or an AOE monster on the right team

Overrated:  Hulkbuster - game-play has passed this guy buy his blue is now his best power. 

Mordo doesn't do AOE damage.

I would argue Hulkbuster's black is his best power.

sinnerjfl

Underrated (criminally): 5* Doc Ock, yes yes, he has been the subject of mockery for the longest time but I champed him a few months back and I now use him every PVE pretty much. Forget about his green ability, it might as well not be there because I never use it.

On the other hand, black is a very good stun (if you read the ability, it is a 4-turn stun in reality) that's expensive but gives you 2 very strong strike tiles and some decent damage at the end. That CD is vulnerable but it lives more often than not (bringing another stunner is ideal).

Those strike tiles makes his blue actually more than OK and considering blue abilities in 5* land, he fills that hole rather nicely. On the 2nd & 3rd use, it starts do some serious damage if the tentacles live.

I obviously use him with 5* DD because they just go too well together, both of them stun and the bonus dmg of sonar strike. Ock is slow so he's better suited at tackling those nodes at 400+.

(pssst, he still needs buffs though)

hopper1979

Borstock said:

hopper1979 said:

Underrated: Mordo - one of the most dangerous characters as the match progresses or an AOE monster on the right team

Overrated:  Hulkbuster - game-play has passed this guy buy his blue is now his best power. 

Mordo doesn't do AOE damage.

I would argue Hulkbuster's black is his best power.

Correct before Mordo's update I believe he did aoe damage once 4 black charged tiles were on the bord, I forgot they changed that power.  Either way he is very dangerous attack once you get the black charged tiles out, and on the right team it can be more dangerous than his pink power which is what most people focus on. 

As for Hulbuster, I don't like self harm in most cases (Rogues nuke might be the one exception), his blue generates red as well, puts out excellent defense tiles and has the potential for match damage for 1 more ap.  Black does damage to him, yes the red ap is consistant but you usually need to cast it twice to get enough red ap to make his red worth casting.  His red is just not what it was back when he was king, he is still a solid toon but overrated in my opinion

Borstock

I don't like the blue because the protect tiles aren't really enough at the 4* level to protect you from all that much and because RNG determines if the red is useful. You're guaranteed the AP with black, and I use him as a battery for someone else's red, not his own. When used that way he's a no-offense character, so I don't really care if he goes down.