*** Loki (Dark Reign) ***

ClydeFrog76

Puny god.

Unknown

I really have a hard time seeing how if players considered Phermone Rage and Adamantium Bones as frustrating (because you can't stop it short of never matching that color) how Loki's 'try to make all your moves as bad as possible' gameplay is going to last. Sure, it works well when you're using him and you just made some terrible moves and Loki's there to bail you out, but it's really stupid when facing him you see a great move and have to always remind yourself that you can't take it. That ability should be reserved for a boss only, and hopefully one we don't see very often either, because it's really dumb to have never be able to make a good move until he's downed.

konannfriends

Loki is super annoying. and his purple always leads to cascades

i try to instaskip him if possible. but hes always worth alot of points. so ussually ill end up heavily injured because its kill him or get xforced.

Unknown

No one with sub 6000 HP can be considered annoying or skip material. All it takes is 8 green to mess them up.

Square

I'm never scared of him, but I do take him out first. He's a good player, but not a game ender.

scottee

Phantron wrote:

I really have a hard time seeing how if players considered Phermone Rage and Adamantium Bones as frustrating (because you can't stop it short of never matching that color) how Loki's 'try to make all your moves as bad as possible' gameplay is going to last. Sure, it works well when you're using him and you just made some terrible moves and Loki's there to bail you out, but it's really stupid when facing him you see a great move and have to always remind yourself that you can't take it. That ability should be reserved for a boss only, and hopefully one we don't see very often either, because it's really dumb to have never be able to make a good move until he's downed.

You can take the match 4/5, but it has to be selective. Does it give a move that will kill him on the next turn? Will his countdown tiles pop up on a color you'll likely be able to match 2 of them away on next turn?

He definitely ups the level of thinking required.

Unknown

scottee wrote:

Phantron wrote:

I really have a hard time seeing how if players considered Phermone Rage and Adamantium Bones as frustrating (because you can't stop it short of never matching that color) how Loki's 'try to make all your moves as bad as possible' gameplay is going to last. Sure, it works well when you're using him and you just made some terrible moves and Loki's there to bail you out, but it's really stupid when facing him you see a great move and have to always remind yourself that you can't take it. That ability should be reserved for a boss only, and hopefully one we don't see very often either, because it's really dumb to have never be able to make a good move until he's downed.

You can take the match 4/5, but it has to be selective. Does it give a move that will kill him on the next turn? Will his countdown tiles pop up on a color you'll likely be able to match 2 of them away on next turn?

He definitely ups the level of thinking required.

There's really not much thinking involved. If taking a match 4/5 can kill him next turn you'll do it. Otherwise, you really should never do it because even 2 Mischief tiles is likely +4 AP to him (could be as few as +2AP). You get 8 AP on a match 4, so just 2 Mischief tiles canceled out your move (you got +4 AP but so did he, so you gained nothing) and thus your move is roughly the same as losing your turn, so you'd be better off breaking up and take a +3 AP instead of +0 AP (+4 AP to you, +4 AP to them) and possibly a lot worse. Obviously some colors are worth gambling (like green) but if it's not a primary attack color there's no reason to take the risk. Note that the cascade caused by Mischief itself can be nontrivial as well. I mean, I can deal with him, but he's got the same 'lol more protect tile' ala Adamantium Bones, which from what I understand is one of the most hated abilities in the game despite doing practically nothing meaningful, and unlike Adamantium Bones, Mischief can definitely hurt you a lot. What's particularly aggrevating is when you get say a blue match 4 that you didn't even know was there and watch it blow up in your face. You shouldn't have to feel bad about lucking into a match 4 but against Loki you obviously do. Playing against Loki is quite literally 'good moves are bad and bad moves are good (or at least they won't get you killed)' and I think while that might be cool as a boss mechanism, it's not very fun as a common opponent.

lokiagentofhotness

he's a perfect support character, but as he has literally 0 attack moves that don't involve the other side having strike / protect tiles, he's not OP. he also works perfectly now as a character related to his gameplay.

loki will mess your **** up and have it be your own fault.

Mikaveus

Loki and Hood are great support characters, but they're not impossible by any means. If you're going after Hulk or Thor or Cap before taking them out first, then your priorities are out of whack.

Unknown

Have to agree with the OP. Loki is a great addition to this game and one of the best examples of what character designers can do in MPQ. He went from a totally irrelevant character in my roster to one I prioritized and maxed. I love playing with him, and his new reputation as "**** Cascade insurance" is spot on.

GuntherBlobel

He is perfect, but I will forever think that the names of his abilities should be:
Mischief; "Let's see what happens when I do this..."
Illusions; "Hunh, where did all your protect tiles go?"
Trickery; "Oooh, look at all the AP you'll earn with that match over there!"

thbrown81

Yeah, I just use those match 4 & 5s to kill him quickly before his timer goes off. Even at the absurd 290 level he still can't survive a B2B XForce. Not enough HP. The other problem with Loki is that none of his abilities scale up with leveling. The only reason to dump ISO in to him is to increase his HP, but that goes up at a lower rate than nearly every other character. So he gives you one of the lowest possible returns on ISO. He's good, but still not useful enough to be in my lineup on the 800-1000 PVP push.

PeterGibbons316

I'm really not afraid to fight Loki teams at all. You just look at the board before you make your match 4/5s. The CD tiles will always be the same color that you match, so if a match 4/5 will generate another match of the same color, go ahead and make it because it is likely that you will be able to get rid of the CDs before they steal your AP. Not to mention, the AP stolen is random, so there is no guarantee that he will steal something you need, or gain something he needs.

Marc_Spector

camichan wrote:

Have to agree with the OP. Loki is a great addition to this game and one of the best examples of what character designers can do in MPQ. He went from a totally irrelevant character in my roster to one I prioritized and maxed. I love playing with him, and his new reputation as "**** Cascade insurance" is spot on.

Ditto. The devs frequently use the slightly cringeworthy marketing buzzphrase "creating stories" in reference to playing with certain characters, but in that regard I think Loki's design captures the essence of the character's source material better than almost anyone else in the game.

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

I really have a hard time seeing how if players considered Phermone Rage and Adamantium Bones as frustrating (because you can't stop it short of never matching that color) how Loki's 'try to make all your moves as bad as possible' gameplay is going to last. Sure, it works well when you're using him and you just made some terrible moves and Loki's there to bail you out, but it's really stupid when facing him you see a great move and have to always remind yourself that you can't take it. That ability should be reserved for a boss only, and hopefully one we don't see very often either, because it's really dumb to have never be able to make a good move until he's downed.

This is why people accuse you of being a robot created to troll people.

Unknown

AGREED!!!

Dude is the ultimate grease to keep the wheel moving. He just makes the game so much easier by simply being there. I run him 80% of the time still.

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

I really have a hard time seeing how if players considered Phermone Rage and Adamantium Bones as frustrating (because you can't stop it short of never matching that color) how Loki's 'try to make all your moves as bad as possible' gameplay is going to last. Sure, it works well when you're using him and you just made some terrible moves and Loki's there to bail you out, but it's really stupid when facing him you see a great move and have to always remind yourself that you can't take it. That ability should be reserved for a boss only, and hopefully one we don't see very often either, because it's really dumb to have never be able to make a good move until he's downed.

puppychow

I started making my push in shield sim, and the team I'm running right now is 180xf/166hood/130+Loki. This team is absolutely wrecking havoc. Last nite I took out a full health, maxed out 4* team of Dino/xf/goddess (sorry Dark Entry!) All I received in terms of damage is 3 match dmg, because the only ability AI could off is Dino's 3 purple board shaker. This team reminds me of my old Magic The Gathering Days, when blue was my favorite color to use for mana denial and permission denial decks. Out of some 2 dozen matches I've played using this team, I lost only 1x because of a crazy AI board cascade to feed goddess attacks.

Loki is evil. Hood is evil. XF tanks dmg and cleans up the mess.

wymtime

PeterGibbons316 wrote:

I'm really not afraid to fight Loki teams at all. You just look at the board before you make your match 4/5s. The CD tiles will always be the same color that you match, so if a match 4/5 will generate another match of the same color, go ahead and make it because it is likely that you will be able to get rid of the CDs before they steal your AP. Not to mention, the AP stolen is random, so there is no guarantee that he will steal something you need, or gain something he needs.

With the new buffs I rode Patch, Loki, Daken to 1000 points in PVP. His Trickery was what I wanted to use so I could match people to death.
I would always take out Loki first for 2 reasons. Number one I did not want to get hit with trickery after I used Berserker Rage, and 2 he was almost always paired with Patch so he was the only non true healer. He is actually much better on offense as I would set up match 4's for the AI in week colors so I could steal the enemy AP. If a match 4 or 5 got me to BR and Trickery then I matched it because I could kill Loki before he stole my AP. I think he is much better on Offense and Hood is MUCH BETTER on defense. Hood steals always and Loki steals conditionally. Always is better than conditional.

Unknown

Hoods steal is also conditional based on board make up. Loki is better on both Offense and Defense, he has slightly more HP and he causes sub optimal play by the player if they choose not to take the 4s OR if they take the 4s and give you AP. Hood does at least have one offensive power tho.