Which PVE support do you use for PVE essentials or extras?

Malcrof

Just curious, as it had never occurred to me to until @Toughwolf13 brought it up, using a support on the essential 3* or 4* makes the yellow nodes trivial, and helps with less than useful chars in essential nodes, or for a boosted char...

So which do you use? Looking for good all around ones for PVE extras, ideas?

BoyWonder1914

This interesting, I never thought to use my supports this way either. I generally equip them to the character they have a synergy perk with, or if not, to a character I use regularly that would benefit from the perks. For this purpose though, I could only imagine myself using the ones that increase match/power damage, or fortify/strengthen/produce special tiles. 

Quad Blasters - I have this one up to rank 4, and it checks off increased match damage on 2 colors, a chance to fortify a friendly tile with every match, and a chance to produce an attack tile with each fired power. The latter 2 perks refer to the supported character specifically, but still a pretty all around awesome set of benefits. 

Avengers Tower - I really enjoy the 3rd rank of this support, where you get a decently strong protect tile for every match-4. I don't have rank 4, but it'd offer a pretty nice boost to red match damage. Also the chance to fortify friendly tiles with a match by the supported character, the value of the potential yellow AP at the start of the match depends on your team of course. 

Quinjet - Rank 1 requires your supported character and the strongest color on the team being aligned so this may not help for a 3E or 4E you're dragging into battle, but the perk of doing extra damage to Dark Avengers and even more based on having Avengers on your squad is quite handy. At rank 4 & 5 you get boosts to red & green match damage. 

Vibranium Ore - Your powers deal extra damage, a protect tile for every match-4, potential to gain extra AP for matches that don't require the supported character, damage reduction that is %-based rather than on a specified threshold.....probably my favorite of them all. Too bad I only have rank 1. 

helix72

If I understand your question correctly, you just want to know about supports specifically for throw away characters you will only use on the 3e or 4e or opening nodes? That's a tough one, because you'd want the best supports equipped to the characters you'll be using on every node. I'd suggest deciding which supports those are first, then, then pick from the best of the rest based on synergy/strategy:

Color damage increases:

Do you want to use them to get a certain character to tank a certain color?
Do you want to use them to change which color is your team's strongest (related to many powers)?
Most supports (not all) have at least one match damage color-based boost, though the amount of boost varies: my 4* level 175 Kra-Van adds 285 to blue match damage for villains, while my 4* level 200 Kimoyo Beads adds only 90 blue match damage for heroes.

AP generation:

Several generate extra AP when the supported character makes a match, but you'll have to make sure that character will tank that color. My best ones here are Shuri's Lab (Red), Sharon Carter (Purple), and Kimoyo Beads (Blue) which are all 4* and level 200 and give between 34%-38% chance to generate an extra 2 AP for every match in that color.

Several others give a chance to generate extra AP on start of battle. Too many to list, but Yaro Root (5 Green), Quantum Realm (5 Purple), Sanctum Sanctorum (5 Yellow) stand out.

Other useful powers:

Black Widow's Batons with the chance every turn to create a 3-turn CD tile that stuns a random enemy 1 turn has actually been useful at times.

Hydra Henchmen and Chimichanga with the chance to fortify a random special at every start of turn. There are others where the chance is triggered when the supported character makes a match, but again, that character needs to tank that color.

abenness

Extra match damage all the way.  Pocket Radio 3* for Red/Green damage boost, Wasp Gauntlets for Blue damage boost.

This work simply because I can't rely on usable powers from the 3e/4e, and also can't rely on having the 4e at a usable level.
In some cases for me it is better to use the loaner 4e (when they are fully covered and may have usable powers), but remember that this would mean they don't use the support.

bluewolf

Support advice works best if we have an idea of what kind of high rank Supports are in your possession.  

I think match damage boosts are the most useful ones for loaner node speed.  Wasp Gauntlets are good for increasing blue damage, and almost everyone has one.

One thing people aren't mentioning much yet is Villain-only Supports.  Corvus Glaive is nice for dealing damage randomly at the start of the turn.  Other high end Black Order Supports can be useful on a number of characters.

Taskmaster's Sword is nice if you are playing nodes vs Heroes.  Chewie is pretty good for making Attack tiles.

I rotate a Rank 5 Blackbird among various essentials when applicable, but I'm sure that's not something most players will have.