New Character Blog - Mister Sinister (Nathaniel Essex)

LakeStone

Hi Everyone - 

The new character blog continues today with Mister Sinister (Nathaniel Essex) We hope you enjoy some fun information that helps you get familiar with the character and the design from the team.

Enjoy the brief read!  

New Character Blog - Mister Sinister

PiMacleod

Huh.  Nice to see the logic behind it all.  Looking forward to trying it out.  ...you know, after a few months of hoarding. 

JHawkInc

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, these character insight blogs are always enjoyable to read.

As for Mister Sinister himself, I look forward to building some teams with him later this spring. He looks like a lot of fun!

LakeStone

JHawkInc said:

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, these character insight blogs are always enjoyable to read.

As for Mister Sinister himself, I look forward to building some teams with him later this spring. He looks like a lot of fun!

We appreciate it.  We enjoy knowing that people are reading it and enjoying the material.  Thanks for reading!

TPF Alexis

I think this might be the best of the 5* character blogs so far. Great read!

HoundofShadow

Reading this is like reading short stories that fire up your imagination. 

I was thinking of Mysterio too. 
It seems like Behold deals a total of 81k damage max. 

atomzed

I really enjoyed this read, as it clearly explains the design thinking behind the mechanics! 

Polares

I must say this is probably the best 5 character blog I have ever read BUT one thing that still annoys me is that when we get to the "works well with" they keep trying to pair him with 4s and even 3s !!!! 5 players don't use 4s except with broken combos (like Bishop or Worthy), and they never use 3s AT ALL. So reading that he doesn't have any teammate in 5 land is a bit sad (basically just JJ).

As said somewhere lease, I am really, really annoyed that it is not possible to get ProfX and him in the same batch, I know he is not amazing, but I love the character and I wanted to get him and Xavier It is very unfortunate that Devs don't help players a bit getting the characters that they love.

Daredevil217

Polares said:

I must say this is probably the best 5 character blog I have ever read BUT one thing that still annoys me is that when we get to the "works well with" they keep trying to pair him with 4s and even 3s !!!! 5 players don't use 4s except with broken combos (like Bishop or Worthy), and they never use 3s AT ALL. So reading that he doesn't have any teammate in 5 land is a bit sad (basically just JJ).

As said somewhere lease, I am really, really annoyed that it is not possible to get ProfX and him in the same batch, I know he is not amazing, but I love the character and I wanted to get him and Xavier It is very unfortunate that Devs don't help players a bit getting the characters that they love.

Jess and Sinister don't really work together.  She spams enemy traps, Sinister works off friendly ones.  He's great against her though.

fight4thedream

Polares said:

I must say this is probably the best 5 character blog I have ever read BUT one thing that still annoys me is that when we get to the "works well with" they keep trying to pair him with 4s and even 3s !!!! 5 players don't use 4s except with broken combos (like Bishop or Worthy), and they never use 3s AT ALL. So reading that he doesn't have any teammate in 5 land is a bit sad (basically just JJ).

As said somewhere lease, I am really, really annoyed that it is not possible to get ProfX and him in the same batch, I know he is not amazing, but I love the character and I wanted to get him and Xavier It is very unfortunate that Devs don't help players a bit getting the characters that they love.

Not entirely accurate. Some 3*s offer useful abilities even for 5* teams. For example, Mystique's Shapeshift proved indispensable for me in the last PvP. I also imagine 3* Iron Fist's Exquisite Technique is also quite useful for Gritty Teams. And with the addition of Beta Ray Bill, Magneto's Coercive Field and Sam Wilson's Bird Strike will prove to be helpful especially with Kitty as a third. 

If anything, it would make sense for the dev team to try to establish such links between tiers since 3* still feature prominently in the standard PvP format. It helps encourage players to try to use different characters in their 5* roster and makes the meta more nuanced. I will never forget when a 3* Magento fueled by 4* Worthy/5* Hawkeye proceeded to wreck my Surfer/Thor team. It's actually refreshing to see 3* playing a significant role in the match.

It will be interesting to see how well 3* Doom and Sinister player together. 

Anyway, the art team has really outdone themselves with Sinister. They did a fantastic job! I also very much appreciate the underlying design concept. I think they have captured the character well. Thanks for the blog!

ThaRoadWarrior

3* Fist is a massive liability against enemy Gritty teams. I always use a loaner and try to get him killed immediately in that PVP so he stops triggering circuit breaker every turn.

wymtime

fight4thedream said:

Polares said:

I must say this is probably the best 5 character blog I have ever read BUT one thing that still annoys me is that when we get to the "works well with" they keep trying to pair him with 4s and even 3s !!!! 5 players don't use 4s except with broken combos (like Bishop or Worthy), and they never use 3s AT ALL. So reading that he doesn't have any teammate in 5 land is a bit sad (basically just JJ).

As said somewhere lease, I am really, really annoyed that it is not possible to get ProfX and him in the same batch, I know he is not amazing, but I love the character and I wanted to get him and Xavier It is very unfortunate that Devs don't help players a bit getting the characters that they love.

Not entirely accurate. Some 3*s offer useful abilities even for 5* teams. For example, Mystique's Shapeshift proved indispensable for me in the last PvP. I also imagine 3* Iron Fist's Exquisite Technique is also quite useful for Gritty Teams. And with the addition of Beta Ray Bill, Magneto's Coercive Field and Sam Wilson's Bird Strike will prove to be helpful especially with Kitty as a third. 

If anything, it would make sense for the dev team to try to establish such links between tiers since 3* still feature prominently in the standard PvP format. It helps encourage players to try to use different characters in their 5* roster and makes the meta more nuanced. I will never forget when a 3* Magento fueled by 4* Worthy/5* Hawkeye proceeded to wreck my Surfer/Thor team. It's actually refreshing to see 3* playing a significant role in the match.

It will be interesting to see how well 3* Doom and Sinister player together. 

Anyway, the art team has really outdone themselves with Sinister. They did a fantastic job! I also very much appreciate the underlying design concept. I think they have captured the character well. Thanks for the blog!

I don’t disagree that some 3* have synergy with 5* and those synergies can work well. You have Professor X buffed with any X-men character in their PVP, as you mentioned IF with Gritty.  What I disagree with is promoting it in the Blog.  5* character blogs should find more synergy within their specific tier or one tier below.  The reason why is most players looking to cover a new 5* are looking for synergy within the 5* tier not a synergy with a 3* or 4* tier.  You personally might want to see this but I have seen a large portion of the community looking for the 5* synergy.

ThaRoadWarrior

I often wonder if Villains aren't really intended to synergize more with the artificially pumped up down-tier goons and villains that show up in PVE more than to actually be on player teams. Like the "rebalance" we saw 4* kingpin get, that was very obviously intended for one paired with some Maggia goons. So to put Mr. Sinister on a 5e node in pvp with a jumped-up 3* Doom and blue battery of some kind feels like a thing we'll see. Probably in the Simulator PVE that seems to be regularly updated with new releases more than most other PVEs are.

fight4thedream

wymtime said:

fight4thedream said:

Polares said:

I must say this is probably the best 5 character blog I have ever read BUT one thing that still annoys me is that when we get to the "works well with" they keep trying to pair him with 4s and even 3s !!!! 5 players don't use 4s except with broken combos (like Bishop or Worthy), and they never use 3s AT ALL. So reading that he doesn't have any teammate in 5 land is a bit sad (basically just JJ).

As said somewhere lease, I am really, really annoyed that it is not possible to get ProfX and him in the same batch, I know he is not amazing, but I love the character and I wanted to get him and Xavier It is very unfortunate that Devs don't help players a bit getting the characters that they love.

Not entirely accurate. Some 3*s offer useful abilities even for 5* teams. For example, Mystique's Shapeshift proved indispensable for me in the last PvP. I also imagine 3* Iron Fist's Exquisite Technique is also quite useful for Gritty Teams. And with the addition of Beta Ray Bill, Magneto's Coercive Field and Sam Wilson's Bird Strike will prove to be helpful especially with Kitty as a third. 

If anything, it would make sense for the dev team to try to establish such links between tiers since 3* still feature prominently in the standard PvP format. It helps encourage players to try to use different characters in their 5* roster and makes the meta more nuanced. I will never forget when a 3* Magento fueled by 4* Worthy/5* Hawkeye proceeded to wreck my Surfer/Thor team. It's actually refreshing to see 3* playing a significant role in the match.

It will be interesting to see how well 3* Doom and Sinister player together. 

Anyway, the art team has really outdone themselves with Sinister. They did a fantastic job! I also very much appreciate the underlying design concept. I think they have captured the character well. Thanks for the blog!

I don’t disagree that some 3* have synergy with 5* and those synergies can work well. You have Professor X buffed with any X-men character in their PVP, as you mentioned IF with Gritty.  What I disagree with is promoting it in the Blog.  5* character blogs should find more synergy within their specific tier or one tier below.  The reason why is most players looking to cover a new 5* are looking for synergy within the 5* tier not a synergy with a 3* or 4* tier.  You personally might want to see this but I have seen a large portion of the community looking for the 5* synergy.

The two don't have to be mutually exclusive. Ideally you would want to have a mix of strong 5* synergy and inter-tier synergy, some of which incorporates the basic mechanics found in the 3* tier. That way it will encourage players to try to use more of their roster instead of just their A team while keeping the 3* tier somewhat relevant for players in all tiers. Additionally, it allows more casual players opportunities to participate in higher tier play since they can focus their efforts on building a relevant 4*/5* pair.

And who is to say that Sinister might not mesh well with a future 5* release? The 5* tier is still the youngest tier and has plenty of room for growth. For example, Kitty is branching away from Grocket, at least in Simulator; Kitty/Beta/ Prof X and Kitty/Beta/Carnage have excellent synergy and seems to have made a mark in the current Sim meta. It's really interesting to see Carnage seeing use, considering how negatively he was received here on the forum. It's why I don't like to jump the gun and rather see how things play out first before deciding on a character's value. 

ThaRoadWarrior

5* Characters that make friendly traps currently:

• Loki: Feign Death: Passive (when he dies, create a trap that will revive him when matched)
• Opponent Jessica Jones: Damning Evidence: has the advantage of not taking up a slot on your team, has the disadvantage these days of being paired almost exclusively with Bishop or WCap

4* Characters with friendly trap-spam you could attempt to synergize with, in what I consider to be order of usefulness:

• Black Cat: A Pur-fect Plan Passive (if she has less than 3 traps out, make one at the start of your turn)
  
• Chavez: Ticket to the Multi-Verse Passive (match 4 or greater create 2x traps, once you have traps on at least 3 colors remove for damage and AP gain) - free, plus she makes random crits that should trigger
• Mysterio: From Thin Air 7 purple (turn invisible and make 5 blue traps)
• Spider-Woman: To Love and Fear 8 purple (create 4 traps or remove 6 enemy specials)
• Elektr4: Ballet of Death 8 red (create a red/purple/or black trap that steals 1ap on those colors and does nibble damage)
  
• Elektr4: Shadow Step 10 black (create 5 black traps that absorb damage and clap back) - expensive, but Elektr4 is the only other character I can think of that has multi-colored trap powers
• Taskmaster: Shadow Step 10 black (create 5 black traps that absorb damage and clap back) - Same as Elektr4, but on Taskmaster who presumably can be made to do something useful, with some kind of power
• X-23: Tracking Prey 12 purple (create a purple trap) expensive, but at least it's on an off-color
• Fury: Demolition 10 blue (7 traps that do damage) - this one makes enough trap spam it might be worth it if you're swimming in blue, but you really need to spend blue on Sinister for maximum benefit
  
• Bucky: Detonator 10blue (2 turn cd and 4 random traps) - this one seems like a bad choice for being expensive
• Kraven: Most Dangerous Game 10 blue (put out a single blue trap that steals ap and makes your strongest color if matched)
  

3* Characters that make traps:

• Doom - makes a purple trap passively every turn
• 3lektra - makes traps on black, same is Elektr4
• Dar3devil - makes traps on red

That's everyone I can think of; anybody I missed? I don't know what all the NPC goons do, surely some of the ninjas do #TrapStuff, right? I feel like Caltrops is trap based for some reason.

TPF Alexis

ThaRoadWarrior said:

I feel like Caltrops is trap based for some reason.

I think Caltrops is the only Minion Trap ability. It always kind of bugs me that the Maggia Don ability named "Trap" doesn't actually use trap tiles.

jamesh

Daredevil217 said:

Polares said:

I must say this is probably the best 5 character blog I have ever read BUT one thing that still annoys me is that when we get to the "works well with" they keep trying to pair him with 4s and even 3s !!!! 5 players don't use 4s except with broken combos (like Bishop or Worthy), and they never use 3s AT ALL. So reading that he doesn't have any teammate in 5 land is a bit sad (basically just JJ).

As said somewhere lease, I am really, really annoyed that it is not possible to get ProfX and him in the same batch, I know he is not amazing, but I love the character and I wanted to get him and Xavier It is very unfortunate that Devs don't help players a bit getting the characters that they love.

Jess and Sinister don't really work together.  She spams enemy traps, Sinister works off friendly ones.  He's great against her though.

If you saw one of Sinister's traps mysteriously disappear at the start of your turn, it would tell you exactly where JJ's new trap was though...