Colognoisseur Guide to Supports September 2018

Colognoisseur
Colognoisseur Posts: 806 Critical Contributor

Now that the flow of Red iso has increased it is probably not too far away that the supports themselves will be more available. I’ve found them to be useful in PvE and thought I’d write down my thoughts on them. As a reference I have 33 of the 35 non-Infinity Stone Supports and none of the Infinity Stone Supports. I leveled each one I own to lvl 50 and have leveled four above that. I use every opportunity I have to test them out in DDQ, SHIELD Training, and PvE. I have used all of them but there are some I’ve used more than the others.

I have found that the synergy perks when they exist are one of the things which elevate a support above the others. The two best supports at this time have synergy perks with two of the best characters in the game which are used in PvE. They are:

Royal Talon Fighter attached to Okoye

The Milano attached to 4* Rocket & Groot

Even a level one carries the synergy perk of lowering Okoye AP costs by one for every 5 TU AP. Or the three-turn countdown that goes along with Grocket even at level one still gets enhanced by the strike tiles from the character.

These are the two most useful supports in the game which are applicable to PvE. If you have them this is where you should put some of the red iso you earn.

Other Synergy Perks that are good are:

Element Guns on Star-Lord any * level because it gives you an AP head start if you’re using other Guardians

Korg on Thor any level because you are always firing powers and the protect tile generated can be nice.

Quantum Realm on Ghost the healing generating invisibility is great with characters like Dr. Strange or OBW or any team healer.

Wong on Dr. Strange adding an extra turn to the blue stun power makes it worth attaching to him.

Some Synergy Perks which are not too impressive are:

Destroyer Gun on Agent Coulson

Chimichanga on Deadpool

Yaro root on Nebula

Shuri’s Lab on Shuri

All of the ones in this category are better used for other reasons.

One reason is a common perk is to raise the match damage for a color or colors. All of The Black Order supports raise a single color. It is one of the unsung advantages of the supports is their ability to shift who tanks colors. Over half increase one color; a couple will add a second color at a higher perk level.

I like using Bullseye in DDQ and SHIELD Training but I want to make sure he tanks all of his colors. Depending on who he is paired with there is a support which will increase the match damage enough so that I get an extra set of tiles to match to trigger his passive.

Another common perk is the ability to generate, or fortify, special tiles. This requires putting some red iso into these supports to make them get some heft to them. Once they do attach them to characters like Nico who buff tiles. Or to Nebula or Dazzler who use them to add more damage when they fire their powers. Or Shuri, C4ge, or Tron Panther who like fortified tiles

The final common perk is the generation of AP. This is another usable way to get things started. The best are the ones which give you a boost at the start of battle. Yaro Root has a chance of giving me 5 green AP. It can be a nice head start when it happens. Sharon Carter gives you a chance at more purple for every purple match. The odds go up the more levels and red iso that are added.

I really like the addition of supports to the game and hope this can give you some different ways of looking at them as your Red Iso levels increase.

Please limit comments to the way you have used supports and have the debate on the way they’ve been introduced in a different thread. Plenty of valid comments on that but I’d like this thread to be a resource and not a referendum on supports.

Thank You.

«1

Comments

  • Phumade
    Phumade Posts: 2,495 Chairperson of the Boards
    Level 4 destroyer gun on Okoye
  • tiomono
    tiomono Posts: 1,654 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited September 2018
    I have 3* elemental guns on my 5* daredevil. They are up to level 125/150. I pair him with 4*Carol and 4* wasp a lot so once you get some specials on the board there is a 42.7% chance that they get fortified every time dd makes a match.

    Unfortunately my wasp just recently got high enough leveled that she tanks blue. Before that the only color dd was not tanking was black. This team has silly sustain and brutal match damage the longer a match goes. I also have a 4* destroyer gun that I put on wasp it is at level 90 with a 19.44 chance to fortify a special at the start of every turn.

    It is so fun getting wasp to 6 blue having her countdown get fortified then the enemy matching it and getting smacked hard and me still getting the 2 ap steal from it when it's my turn. 

    It has been very hard to lose with this team. But it is not near as threatening when you remove the fortifying of tiles.

  • ZootSax
    ZootSax Posts: 1,819 Chairperson of the Boards
    Lucky’s synergy perk with Kate Bishop helps her more than it may appear on first glance.  That being said, it’s lackluster otherwise, so that is one support where even having a Level 1 on Kate but focusing your red iso-8 on other supports is a good general use of resources.  At least IMHO.
  • Phumade
    Phumade Posts: 2,495 Chairperson of the Boards
    ZootSax said:
    Lucky’s synergy perk with Kate Bishop helps her more than it may appear on first glance.  That being said, it’s lackluster otherwise, so that is one support where even having a Level 1 on Kate but focusing your red iso-8 on other supports is a good general use of resources.  At least IMHO.
    All of those points are true,  but Lucky has one advantage that makes him better than avg.  Specifically,  his powers work for the weakest char on your team.  Most supports require the char to be tanking that color.

    Specifically, his powers activate when for team matches not specific supported char matches.  (yes I know r4/r5 are supported char specific)

    and thats a rare feature to find a support that will actually benefit the weak third char.
  • ZootSax
    ZootSax Posts: 1,819 Chairperson of the Boards
    I never noticed that.  Good catch, @Phumade
  • CT1888
    CT1888 Posts: 1,201 Chairperson of the Boards
    The first one I put RIso into was Corvus Glaive to put on Thanos, mostly because I run him in Pve with DD a lot - it fires off often enough that double dipping on DD's strike tiles help when trying to clear quick. 
  • Ragnoluce
    Ragnoluce Posts: 50 Match Maker
    I have to say my most-used support is the Chimichanga on Deadpool, his synergy bonus means you have a not-insignificant chance of spawning a countdown tile for free. That does wonders with any team with Captain M4rvel's tile buffing build--Bl4de, Rocket or Cloak&Dagger will start doing more damage fast!


  • helix72
    helix72 Posts: 995 Critical Contributor
    The increased match damage bonuses are especially useful when pairing with Valkyrie. For example, in the Galactus event putting the Destroyer Gun on ME Hulk makes purple his strongest color. Then pairing him with America and Valkyrie I’ve been crushing Galactus as it just takes a few turns before Valkyrie’s passive is triggering every turn and I’m firing off Gamma Powerbombs. I’ve done the same with 4* Grocket + Gamora, making sure blue is strongest color by putting the right support on the right character. Two matches and you’re already stunning the enemy team.
  • CCW1208
    CCW1208 Posts: 140 Tile Toppler
    My first Lv 200/200 support is Chimichanga This support is very useful for any character who can tack purple-red color. (PHX 5BW 5Gambit).  5DD can be also good with this support.  I can collect purple ap very fast. I

    Now I put my other RISO to the other 2 support. LV4 Wong and LV4 Vibranium ore. Thorvez is my main PVE team for some difficult nodes. I let thor wear vibranium  and chavez wear Lv4 wong
    So the combination effect of this team could be
    1. Match 4 to create protect tile ( Can boost thor red power)
    2. Match strongest color to generate ap (Thor green power)
    3. Match 5 to decrease enemy ap ( Trigger Chavez power)

  • spidyjedi84
    spidyjedi84 Posts: 514 Critical Contributor
    Ebony Maw on Vulture is one of the ways to get him up as a battery faster. The 3 quick Black AP can change a 3 turn hunt for Black matches into one turn.
  • TPF Alexis
    TPF Alexis Posts: 3,826 Chairperson of the Boards
    Thanks for the tips! Wish I'd thought of some of the ones that can shift strongest colour a few days ago. They would have made both BFF and Galactus significantly easier.

    The two main ones I use are Avengers Tower with Chavez (for the chance of starting with a couple of yellow), and Hydra Henchmen on Vulture (for the chance to Fortify his countdowns until he comes back down).
  • Andy9009
    Andy9009 Posts: 170 Tile Toppler
    Not to be underestimated are the Kimoyo Beads and Lucky's boost to the critical tile multiplier. I have a rank 4 Lucky that I equip to the boosted 5 for the pve event. With Thor and Chavez, there are plenty of critical tiles and those multiplier boosts equals big damage increases. 
  • DeNappa
    DeNappa Posts: 1,390 Chairperson of the Boards
    One particular supports equip that I use myself is Lucky on 5* Thor. 

    You usually want to keep him below half health, but during play you often run into some damage anyway, either by AoE powers or if he's forced to tank a match because no other moves are available. This will eventually cause him to reach 'dangerous' HP levels (as in, very easily killed if not careful) and you may have to heal up and then bring him down to half again. Having micro heals from Lucky rank 2 helps mitigate this somewhat. And if you accidentally heal up above 50%, you just put him in front for 1 or 2 moves, putting him below that threshold again.
  • GrimSkald
    GrimSkald Posts: 2,581 Chairperson of the Boards
    I like the fortifying tiles supports - for me it's kind of fun to make it so my special tiles last quite a bit longer.  As a result, I leveled the destroyer gun as far as I could (150, level 3,) and am doing similar things with the Chimi.  I got a bit derailed as I ended up with both the Yaro root and the Quantum realm, and as you say, a boost in AP at the start of the fight is really useful.
  • ZeiramMR
    ZeiramMR Posts: 1,357 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited September 2018
    My highest leveled boosts are Sharon Carter and Kimono Beads (both only 2*) for the match damage & critical boosts. Don't sleep on the crit boosts: in 5* land using both of them is about 1000 extra damage a round at support level 90-100 if America is generating crits per turn.

    Pro-Tip: The critical boost perks max out lower than the level caps, so by leveling them to 90 instead of 100 the characters only lose a few points of match damage increase.
  • Wonko33
    Wonko33 Posts: 985 Critical Contributor
    my question is how the hell do you guys get them? The vaults are terribly overpriced and the rest is just getting lucky once in a while
  • GrimSkald
    GrimSkald Posts: 2,581 Chairperson of the Boards
    Wonko33 said:
    my question is how the hell do you guys get them? The vaults are terribly overpriced and the rest is just getting lucky once in a while

    In general, my HP income is adequate to burn 100 hp on any token that costs that little - as a result I draw from a lot of vaults.  I've indulged in a few of the HP deals as well - at least when the support looks very appealing - but I've come to think that they're just too expensive to really do more than once in a great while.

    Still, hitting the "New Support Vault" 3 times have gotten me a few of those.  I'm missing a lot more than Colog, myself - I have 28 of the non-Gem supports.

    Speaking for myself, I think they need to increase the frequency of the support tokens, but that threatens to derail the subject and we should probably leave that for it's own post.

  • broll
    broll Posts: 4,732 Chairperson of the Boards
    Broll's Guide to Supports

    Just Say No
  • Straycat
    Straycat Posts: 963 Critical Contributor
    These are the ones I have that I sometimes notice.
    5*s
    1* Hulkling on Daredevil - The idea was to make him tank green over Thor, didn't work tho
    2* Chimichanga on IW Cap - chance at more red
    1* Wong on Strange - chance at more blue ap
    3* Homemade web shooter on Parker - match 5 makes 2 webs

    4*s
    2* Destroyer Gun on Cage - free fortification
    2* Vibranium ore on Panther  - free protect tiles on match 4
    1* Element guns on Gamora - free attack tiles mainly for when paired with DD
    2* Milano on GRocket

    I only have 22 supports, and some of my higher stars are for children of thanos, which are very limited by the villain only tag. Parker's web tiles are the only support perk I regularly see, and thats because its not % based or a minor increased in health or damage