*** Loki (Dark Reign) ***

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Comments

  • Moon Roach
    Moon Roach Posts: 2,863 Chairperson of the Boards
    I just pulled a Loki green from a Heroic token. Makes up for not being able (i.e. good enough) to finish Gauntlet.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Phantron wrote:
    daibar wrote:
    ... so if you destroy all Blues with a Polarity shift, or all Greens with a Deceptive Tactics, does it not do anything?
    Don't see why it wouldn't be any different from how you can't create a Recovery tile with no yellow tiles on board. I don't remember the timing on when Mischief triggers though, as some abilities trigger immediately on a match and some triggers at the end of a cascade. If it triggers at the end of a cascade new tiles may have been dropped that meet the requirement. I think the defense tend to trigger their passive at the end of a cascade though. That is, if you've Daken vs Daken you'll notice that your strike tiles get formed as you make your cascades but the enemy's Phermone Rage only comes at the end of the cascade, so in that case if you probably end up refilling those colors from the cascade you caused.
    But if it's Daken vs Daken, and there are no reds initially, but one comes in, the AI Daken doesn't claim the red tiles either... definitely something I'll try to test next time I'm in a Loki Lightning round.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    ^that right there is not true^

    If someone matches a green with no red on the board, in Daken V Daken, you get no Strike Tile, but if red drops in, the AI gets Strike Tiles. The timing is weird, and it's ONLY in Daken v Daken that this is true.

    Speed Shot works similarly to Mischief so I'd expect the result to be the same. If you Polarity Shift all the blue off the board, in 2 separate 4+ matches it will try to make Mischief tiles, fail, drop tiles on the board, and then try to make Mischief tiles a second time with whatever blue is out there. Speed Shot does the same thing with 2 crits. CDs, drop in tiles, CDs again for second trigger.
  • Phaserhawk
    Phaserhawk Posts: 2,676 Chairperson of the Boards
    player abilties trigger on match, AI's abilties, even if same character trigger after match/cascade and Loki's passive is technically an ability the player has, it just so happens to be a negative ability. Say you match 4 green, they have Loki/Daken and whoever, you have Daken, OBW, IM440. You matched so you trigger Daken's 2 tiles plus Loki's CD tiles, then if no cascade enemy Daken's tiles come in. If you match 4 green, which causes a cascade and say 2 more match 3 greens happen, you will get 6 strike tiles and eat up the red before the enemy Daken gets their 6 when the cascade stops.
  • OzarkBoatswain
    OzarkBoatswain Posts: 693 Critical Contributor
    It's really scary to go up against AI Loki now. I like the new passive.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    One way to think about this ability is that anytime you're forced to avoid a match 4 you lost at least 5 AP. It's likely more because match 4 tends to lead to bigger cascade and the process of breaking them up often leads to a pretty bad move. Of course if you do take the match 4 you could have a potential 16 AP turn around (-8 for you, +8 to them). It can also steal TUs, which probably makes it slightly weaker when you're using Loki but is quite strong for the AI who has an endless supply of surprisingly good TUs.
  • MarcusGraves
    MarcusGraves Posts: 495 Mover and Shaker
    after playing against loki in gauntlet, he's pretty baller on defense. he's obviously not an AP steal over time kinda support like hood, but his ability to suddenly gather large chunks of AP can be very jarring if you aren't ready for it. he's incredibly good at keeping the board from going stale by constantly keeping it moving with illusions and mischief's CD tiles once they trigger and vanish making the board shift.

    -nice cheap 5 cost board shift on a color that isn't in high demand
    -illusions plays nice with strike tiles on the board (i've racked up a surprising amount of damage with illusions+strike tiles)
    -easy to get a green "tank" for him since its his 3rd strongest color
    -gathers AP at a nice pace with the new passive + illusions
    -850 more health than hood which is nice

    10/10 very happy, loki came out really good.
  • atomzed
    atomzed Posts: 1,753 Chairperson of the Boards
    MarcusGraves wrote:
    after playing against loki in gauntlet, he's pretty baller on defense. he's obviously not an AP steal over time kinda support like hood, but his ability to suddenly gather large chunks of AP can be very jarring if you aren't ready for it. he's incredibly good at keeping the board from going stale by constantly keeping it moving with illusions and mischief's CD tiles once they trigger and vanish making the board shift.

    -nice cheap 5 cost board shift on a color that isn't in high demand
    -illusions plays nice with strike tiles on the board (i've racked up a surprising amount of damage with illusions+strike tiles)
    -easy to get a green "tank" for him since its his 3rd strongest color
    -gathers AP at a nice pace with the new passive + illusions
    -850 more health than hood which is nice

    10/10 very happy, loki came out really good.

    Agree 100% with your assessment. In the gauntlet I actually went "****, it's Loki, I can't match 4. " and his green actually can result in cascades when the CD resolves.

    His cheap illusion is a good board shake. His trickery is good against strike tiles or protect tiles.

    A great utility support character. Definitely filled up a niche.
  • Renaldoo
    Renaldoo Posts: 114
    I honestly feel it's pretty good, in and of itself. Maybe not gamebreakingly amazing, but a solid, well-balanced ability.

    It is, however, the only ability in the game that makes me literally cackle to myself maniacally as I set the computer up for worthless 4-of-a-kinds, and thing phrases to myself like "You think you've won, but you'll see... you'll all see!" when the enemy gets a crit. This ability fits Loki better than any other ability fits any other character. I love it!

    Or perhaps I'm just insane...
  • fmftint
    fmftint Posts: 3,653 Chairperson of the Boards
    It's good on offense since the AI can't pass up a match 4, wasted on defense though since a player will target Loki first and just make the match 3 till he is out of the way
  • Seasick Pirate
    Seasick Pirate Posts: 280 Mover and Shaker
    I'm not getting the importance of targeting Loki first. Without regret, I've always saved Loki for last. Even in the current Gauntlet, with his new green power, I killed him last as I don't see him as a major threat. Kind of like Falcon, as long as he is by himself there isn't much he can do beyond being annoying.
  • nimvin
    nimvin Posts: 81
    Typically you always target the AP thief first (Hood/OBW) because they are stealing your ap and powering up their teammates. Loki is not dangerous in and of himself typically. And you don't have to target him first to avoid his AP steal unlike OBW & Hood. You just can't use match 4/5's or boardshakers. So as long as you're happy to match 3 the entire time it's no big deal. But if you use thor, lthor, cmags, mmags, any storm, ms.marvel, gsbw, juggs, hulk, mystique, doom, xf, beast, shehulk, devil dino, loki, rags, hood, and I can't remember who else and you don't target him first your asking for all your ap to be drained.
  • GuntherBlobel
    GuntherBlobel Posts: 987 Critical Contributor
    Re: Loki on defense. It sounds like a simple strategy to match 3 until Loki is dead, but it's harder than it sounds. Match 4's and 5's just magically happen at the top of the board, which complicates matters. But there is something else, and this may just be a problem for me now, but finding and executing matches is now muscle memory for me. It actually hurts my head to avoid the "best" matches after so much training to the contrary.
  • PuceMoose
    PuceMoose Posts: 1,445 Chairperson of the Boards
    GuntherBlobel wrote:
    Re: Loki on defense. It sounds like a simple strategy to match 3 until Loki is dead, but it's harder than it sounds. Match 4's and 5's just magically happen at the top of the board, which complicates matters. But there is something else, and this may just be a problem for me now, but finding and executing matches is now muscle memory for me. It actually hurts my head to avoid the "best" matches after so much training to the contrary.

    Yep, this sums it up nicely. It seems to be such a "Loki" ability, to turn a strength into a weakness. "Ah-ha! With this Match-Four I will devastate the enemy and... arggh, TINYKITTY!!?!" It's tough to turn off the match-four autopilot, especially if you are preoccupied with something else (work, interactions with others, etc.) I wonder if Loki's green came from the same person who thought up Hawkeye's speed shot? They seem kindred spirits.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Match 4s are overwhelmingly the best moves in the game. Godlike Power is just 2 match 4s that generate no AP on the match itself and you can find plenty of conspiracy theories about how AI gets unfair cascades but all it does is illustrate how good match 4s are in general. There is no such thing as a worthless match 4, unless your opponent is Loki. And Loki's power goes far beyond habits. There is often no safe way to break up a match 4 so you're pretty screwed either way. It is also not uncommon to have an opening board with more than one match 4s on the board and again no matter what you do here you're screwed when facing Loki.
  • mouser
    mouser Posts: 529 Critical Contributor
    Loki's passive is fun and I applaud D3 for adding it. But Loki on defense wouldn't scare me outside of PVE's like the Gauntlet where AI teams are scaled to 200 or 300+.

    PVP play, Loki isn't a scarecrow.
  • Renaldoo
    Renaldoo Posts: 114
    Perhaps he's not a major scarecrow, but he's the only character for whom I can honestly say, when I play Loki, I feel like Loki!

    And honestly, there are plenty of scarecrows in the game. I like the idea of there being more characters which are genuinely fun to play!
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Phantron wrote:
    Match 4s are overwhelmingly the best moves in the game. Godlike Power is just 2 match 4s that generate no AP on the match itself and you can find plenty of conspiracy theories about how AI gets unfair cascades but all it does is illustrate how good match 4s are in general. There is no such thing as a worthless match 4, unless your opponent is Loki. And Loki's power goes far beyond habits. There is often no safe way to break up a match 4 so you're pretty screwed either way. It is also not uncommon to have an opening board with more than one match 4s on the board and again no matter what you do here you're screwed when facing Loki.
    Uhm what? You can always diffuse a match four by making a match three (except for extremly rare cases where the board forces you to make a match 3 which results in a match four):
    none.pngbluetile.pngbluetile.png
    none.pngyellowtile.pngredtile.png
    none.pngredtile.pngyellowtile.png
    bluetile.pngredtile.pngyellowtile.pngbluetile.png
  • DrNitroman
    DrNitroman Posts: 966 Critical Contributor
    I must confess that when we had the first news about new Lok'is green power, I was interested but greatly underestimated this power.
    I thought this was a power with limited use

    Now, after facing a leveled Loki several times in the Gauntlet, I completely changed my mind: avoiding match-4 is annoying... while triggering Loki's power is really annoying icon_e_confused.gif

    Pretending to ignore that Loki is in the adverse team can result in very unfortunate consequences.
    Of course, this is an incentive for me to earn green covers ... and to annoy my enemies icon_twisted.gif
  • himatako
    himatako Posts: 269 Mover and Shaker
    In case someone doesn't know about this, making a match 5 that doesn't include any 4 gems in a straight line WILL NOT activate Loki's greenflag.png.

    You can take this advantage to get extra turn & critical gem from gem placement skills. It's still a bit risky though since a critical gem can cause a series of cascade that might activate his greenflag.png anyway.

    With just one skill, they've turned Loki from an annoying character into a character you want to avoid fighting. I'd say this green is very good.

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