Anti-Stun Characters & Supports

Steve111
Steve111 Posts: 160 Tile Toppler
in MPQ General Discussion
There are two 5* characters that cant be stunned - Silver Surfer & 5 Otto. 

But at a rough estimate there are

seven 5* characters who can stun
fifteen 4* characters who can stun
eight 3* characters who can stun
three 2* characters who can stun
and a 1* with the best stun in the game

Is it time for some more 'un-stunnable' characters? 

Or some supports that can prevent stun?

Comments

  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,822 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited May 2019
    5 Hour Energy Drink Support - make it happen!

    Making more un-stunnable characters...boy, that's tricky.  In general I don't think they should make too many, as each one significantly nerfs a whole bunch of characters who have been "balanced" around that stun giving them an advantage.

    As you observe, there are only 2 characters, both 5*s, that can't be stunned.  Surfer is slow otherwise and Ock is both relatively slow in general and his anti-stun is somewhat tricky to implement (and keep in effect).  My guess is a new character that can't be stunned would also be in the 5 tier and would otherwise be a bit slow/underwhelming to balance out that significant advantage.

    Newer players could obviously benefit from having a character in Latest who couldn't be stunned vs chasing covers Classics or hoping for a lucky popup store.  So I suppose a 3rd 5* with that benefit is about due sometime in the relatively near future.

    Cue Bishop nerf talk taking over this thread in 5....4...3...2....
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,456 Chairperson of the Boards
    Alternatives to Stun Immunity are characters who can do things to the team that override it once it's happened:
    • Danver5, Gwenpool, Colossus can throw a teammate airborne, which will clear a stun (which makes them less damageable, but doesn't get your move back)
    • Agent Venom, Invisible Woman can do the more useful thing of making your squad invisible, which also clears a stun
    • 3/5 Hawkeye can do team invis somewhere in the chain of blue arrow powers, but that's just the one time
    I think the big issue with all those kinds of powers is that it costs AP, and generally a not-insignificant amount of it, for it to happen. So they won't be as attractive or effective as a flat out passive immunity would be. 

    I kind of like the Old Doc Ock behavior of auto-moving if there were tentacles on the board and he was stunned. It was not as easy to pull off, but it was more ineresting than just being immune. Maybe if we ever get Sleepwalker (or maybe Mysterio at the Homecoming 2 celebration?) there will be a power that lets stunned characters do things besides eat damage.
  • CaptainFreaky
    CaptainFreaky Posts: 451 Mover and Shaker
    edited May 2019
    Yeah outright immunity to stun means you remove the ability of 34 characters as you mention, which means that the character's other abilities will probably be somewhat underwhelming (eg Silver Surfer is not bad, but really not that great).  

    I think a more interesting mechanic would be passives or other abilities that trigger when the character is stunned.  That way, you can still stun them, but you need to be willing to deal with the consequences.  One example might be a passive that always shortens stuns to one turn (call it "Shake it Off' ....cue Taylor Swift music) or a passive that generates AP while the character is stunned (which would have all kinds of strategy implications).

  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    The support you are looking for is Soul Stone.
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,456 Chairperson of the Boards
    CaptainFreaky said:
    Yeah outright immunity to stun means you remove the ability of 34 characters as you mention, which means that the character's other abilities will probably be somewhat underwhelming (eg Silver Surfer is not bad, but really not that great).  

    I think a more interesting mechanic would be passives or other abilities that trigger when the character is stunned.  That way, you can still stun them, but you need to be willing to deal with the consequences.  One example might be a passive that always shortens stuns to one turn (call it "Shake it Off' ....cue Taylor Swift music) or a passive that generates AP while the character is stunned (which would have all kinds of strategy implications).

    This would be cool in that Ronin already counters this on purple by having each turn perform a 1-turn stun
  • Malcrof
    Malcrof Posts: 5,971 Chairperson of the Boards
    5* Natasha stuns you back!
  • Vhailorx
    Vhailorx Posts: 6,085 Chairperson of the Boards
    How about a support that is -1 or -2 to all stun effects.  So the character would be immune to all shorter stuns and would suffer a lot less from long stun effects?

    And no, the soul stone doesn't count.
  • MegaBee
    MegaBee Posts: 1,044 Chairperson of the Boards
    There's also 5-star Panther who punishes stuns.
  • PiMacleod
    PiMacleod Posts: 1,786 Chairperson of the Boards
    Could do a passive thing like Wiccan or Chavez...

    Immune to stun when blue AP is 6+.

    Team is immune to stun when all AP is 6+.

    Of course, number/color can change to fit.  This was just an example.
  • sambrookjm
    sambrookjm Posts: 2,163 Chairperson of the Boards
    Malcrof said:
    5* Natasha stuns you back!
    Was wondering if anyone was going to mention this...  It would be nice if her stun matched the length of stun that your teammate received, but she does stun back for one turn any time someone else on her team gets stunned.

    Unless I'm missing one, it seems like pure anti-stun abilities are exclusive to the 5-star tier.  (Not counting the Invisibility, Airborne, etc...)
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,456 Chairperson of the Boards
    You could make a case for Army of One maybe
  • GrimSkald
    GrimSkald Posts: 2,644 Chairperson of the Boards
    ThaRoadWarrior said:
    Alternatives to Stun Immunity are characters who can do things to the team that override it once it's happened:
    • Danver5, Gwenpool, Colossus can throw a teammate airborne, which will clear a stun (which makes them less damageable, but doesn't get your move back)
    • Agent Venom, Invisible Woman can do the more useful thing of making your squad invisible, which also clears a stun
    • 3/5 Hawkeye can do team invis somewhere in the chain of blue arrow powers, but that's just the one time
    I think the big issue with all those kinds of powers is that it costs AP, and generally a not-insignificant amount of it, for it to happen. So they won't be as attractive or effective as a flat out passive immunity would be. 

    I kind of like the Old Doc Ock behavior of auto-moving if there were tentacles on the board and he was stunned. It was not as easy to pull off, but it was more ineresting than just being immune. Maybe if we ever get Sleepwalker (or maybe Mysterio at the Homecoming 2 celebration?) there will be a power that lets stunned characters do things besides eat damage.
    The team invis "smoke bomb" arrow for Hawkeye is next to last, as I recall (the last one is the group damage "shrapnel" arrow.) It's honestly super-hard to rely on any particular arrow for a strategy - in general the best Hawkeye strategy is to just spam arrows that other characters also use to enhance things (Coulson's AP gain, Carol's special buffing, Drax's Damage) and then just beat people senseless with bow.  The effect of the arrows is an unpredictable bonus (even with Hawkeye fortifying the arrows at the beginning of his turn, you do lose the blue ones somewhere around 20-30% of the time.)

    I did like Ock's old ability with the tentacles in theory, but in practice I literally never got to use it - it's such an uncommon set of circumstances (having a tentacle on the board, Ock getting stunned.)  Even though he's still not great, I think we can all agree he's a lot better now.

    Malcrof said:
    5* Natasha stuns you back!
    Another power that is neat in theory, but in function almost useless. :(  Natasha was my second 5* and I played BB/BW a lot.  The trouble is it only lasts one turn, so unless you actively interrupted what they were doing, it had no effect on play.  That's a power I'd love to see buffed.
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,456 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited May 2019
    GrimSkald said:

    I did like Ock's old ability with the tentacles in theory, but in practice I literally never got to use it - it's such an uncommon set of circumstances (having a tentacle on the board, Ock getting stunned.)  Even though he's still not great, I think we can all agree he's a lot better now.
    If you were using Thano5 or Pun Max, you could self-stun and make it a thing. I was always interested in trying to take Banner, 5-Ock, and 4ocket into a match against a stunner and try to see how many auto-turns I could get my team to take in one round, but i never had that color for Ock to do it (1/0/2)

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