Best build and team for Taskmaster?

Falconfreak

I know that he is limited and does not get boosted. But if you were able to champ him out or have already champed him out what are the best choices for his powers? Who is a good team to put him on?

I am trying to get lucky with stored HP to get his covers during the Anni vault. He's my favorite villain in comics so I am motivated to try and make the most of him.

DAZ0273

Having a 4* version of Speed Shot is absolutely a must have! Everything else is down to personal choice although I seem to remember he could outperform the original character on another power. Maybe the Winter Soldier power? Somebody will know. Oldest Trick in the Book would pair nicely with Speed Shot to get damage from all those countdowns and his black power has some nice choices such as the heavy damage of Moonsilver Blades or Gamor'a stun and damage power.

As for good teams - Speed Shot means match 5's so anybody who can cascade or has board control powers. Obviously his colour set means no yellow, green or purple so anybody heavy on those like say Meh Hulk (although his auto-move could potentially cause speed shot countdowns to be matched away) for rainbow coverage if that is your thing.

ThaRoadWarrior

He has a couple of trick builds, and a couple of interesting quirks - he can stun on 2 colors (Blue - billy club, and Black - skullcracker). Many of his borrowed powers are on new colors, so you no longer have to collect green to fire Quack FU and destroy all the green (for instance), you can do that on black. Also his version of Speed Shot places the CDs on Blue (rather than purple), so you have a lot more options for purple-using color changers/swappers like Nightcrawler, Coulson, etc. that won't need to cannibalize the CDs when they appear.

Because his powers are so expensive, I'd be tempted to run him with somebody that gives an AP discount, like 4* Lord or Shuri (or both - they stack). 

He has the ability to generate a good number of Countdowns, as well as making use of Dar3Devil's billy club (which survived the great Repeater-pocalypse on most such powers and remains a countdown that regenerates). Seems like at the 4* tier that might go well with C4rol/G4mora. Get some specials out, get that stun train running, burn the CD down with C4rol's yellow. In that case, I might set his black to Quack-Fu.

For solo purposes in his crash, I keep mine with Buncha Fiddle Faddle, Billy Club, and Moonsilver Blades since it's 2 colors with relatively high damage output and a recurring stun.

As with Howard, if he were more available and his powers weren't so costly, I'd probably run him un-ironically.

ZootSax

@TheRoadWarrior beat me to the punch, but it's worth noting that although more of a niche build than a truly "best build", his black set to "Quack-Fu One-Two" (no matter how many black covers a partially-built Taskmaster may have) can be a much more effective means of green denial than it is for Howard, as you're spending black to destroy green rather than needing green to destroy green.  While it won't matter the first time you fire, it's much easier to collect black than green after you've destroyed every green tile, so every subsequent use is easier for Taskmaster than Howard.   It's only truly crippling against goons that only use green, like Pyros & Grenadiers, but it's still potentially useful against anyone with a strong green or who uses green special tiles.

Another black worth highlighting IMHO is Shadow Step.  Being about to effectively counter any nuke you know is coming next turn is a HUGE advantage, but people tend to not think of it because Elektra's purple is so niche and her red (at least the 4*'s; many vets on the forum tend to forget about the 3*) is so fragile.   With Taskmaster, you can get what amounts to a counterspell (assuming you can leave him in front at the end of turn), for all intents and purposes, and pair it with two powers of your choosing.  It's a strong option, depending on who you're facing

Otherwise, the other advice here covers the other relevant options I'm aware of.  Generally, if you are using powers you like & are familiar with which don't utterly undermine your teammates somehow you can't go too wrong here.

ThaRoadWarrior

On that note, try running him with Domino to keep the board flooded with black, and maybe Professor X (either flavor) for N-Match hilarity.

Tony_Foot

For crash last time I just used moonsilver blades. Watching this with interest for decent builds.

AXP_isme

So taskmaster (speedshot, x, quack fu), domino and... maybe nightcrawler. Bring along a 3* mags red TU, maybe a 3* Loki purple and let the chaos begin. Green, red, black, purple, TU boardshake. Sounds like fun. 

Sm0keyJ0e

It's an interesting team in theory, but Tasky is going to tank two of the key colors here (red/black) and unless he's boosted (which he never is outside of specific anni events) he's going to die quickly. It's also expensive to get going: need 8 red, 7 blue, and 8 black.

ThaRoadWarrior

5torm can fill several of those roles by herself if you have access - yellow to make all the Team ups be whatever color you want, Green to remove an unwanted color from the board, black for a team nuke. I guess at that point, what are the other characters for...

Daredevil217

I like Tasky in Combined Arms. 

I use both 3* Iron Man (Yellow) and 2* Magneto (Purple) to fuel Taskmaster’s Red/Blue. Almost a complete rainbow of not for the lack of green outlet. Really good team though. 

Falconfreak

With the special sale of 2 of each Tasky covers I now have him 13/13 with some luck in the anniversary vault draws. I have to grind out the iso to get him to champ out status tho.

Falconfreak

Just a thought: Since Ronin's red is passive and fires when you make a red match he seems like he would pair well with Tasky. Ronin's green and purple actives cover more colors with tasky doing red/blue/black. The only color missing is yellow and the third slot could be an AP generator or healer.

I don't know what 4 or 3 star would fill the yellow and AP/healer slot though.

TPF Alexis

OJSP said:

Falconfreak said:

Just a thought: Since Ronin's red is passive and fires when you make a red match he seems like he would pair well with Tasky. Ronin's green and purple actives cover more colors with tasky doing red/blue/black. The only color missing is yellow and the third slot could be an AP generator or healer.

I don't know what 4 or 3 star would fill the yellow and AP/healer slot though.

My go to Yellow 3* is usually IM40. For the 4* I enjoy using Black Widow.

Cloak and Dagger might also be worth trying.

ThaRoadWarrior

Medusa is passive on yellow, but if you're chasing attack spam she could be pretty useful there and comes with that heal.

Coulson has a good yellow, plus the tile-swap on purple if you want it. 

Falconfreak

ThaRoadWarrior said:

Medusa is passive on yellow, but if you're chasing attack spam she could be pretty useful there and comes with that heal.

Coulson has a good yellow, plus the tile-swap on purple if you want it. 

Medusa, Carnage and Tasky? Only power overlap is Carnage/Tasky red.

Falconfreak

I can definitely say that Tasky/Ronin/Medua works very well.

purplemur

I usually have fiddlefaddle/Billy/Moon blades -
Blue is his most dynamic, with quick shot and deez nutz
Black has quck fu which could be a great compliment to the right team/ those mindless ones AoE etc

best team:(full-on troll mode)
5Hawkeye/Worthy Cap!

30 red/30blue on turn 1?!? stun em all! and devil went down to Georgia them into dust