Next to be rebalanced *cough* Nerfed???

KGB

@Mr_F

I'm having success using Karnak/America against Polaris teams, particularly those that are just Polaris/Grocket (which I see a lot in 4* land) or Polaris/L300ish BRBs. Mine are L295ish and at that point Karnaks defense tile helps quite a bit and since you aren't bringing your own specials it keeps her damage down while you match off all special tiles to deny Polaris her bonus damage.

If need be, you can boost AP but normally I have America churning out crits on turn 2-4 and she won't live long once Karnak transforms on turn 4.

KGB

HoundofShadow

I find it unlikely that Polaris's passive is dealing 4k damage per turn for the first few turns every turn right at the beginning, unless you are talking about pick-3.

Using 270 Polaris and R4G as a guide:

Her passive at the start of the turn is 135 * 7 + 7 * 132  = 1869

When special tile is matched, she deals 1014 + 924 = 1938 damage

There's a 11% chance of them matching strike tiles to create more strike tiles.

If you are using protect tile spammers (BRB) or attack tile spammers like 4* Carnage, you are helping her to deal more damage to your team, and also to help her spam special tiles more easily. By pitting BRB against them, the chance of them matching special tiles is 17%, and with 4* Carnage, it's 20%.  

Medusa and G4Mora/Iceman/Mr Fantastic can take care of her. If she matches too many of her own tiles, you gain a lot of aps, which feed purple, green or blue. My Polaris/R4G has lost matches against the above teams.

Even though your America Chavez is 5/5/1, she can deal with Polaris easily. America Chavez/Juggernaut is another option for me to deal with Gritty or Polaris/R4G. Just add all 3 colour boosts and she will be downed quickly. 

ThaRoadWarrior

Mr_F said:

ThaRoadWarrior said:

 she seems strong but not Problematic to me mechanically, but i"m a 5* player so my perspective is skewed.

TY for advices. Yes, exactly. In 4* land Polaris is a beast. Its not like there are no options but those are limited.

Lets look at Bishop: he was hard. But he required from me a bit of strategy how to approach him. I had few dozens of option who to bring to deal with him. I could use same team and do 3 times in row Peggy/XF Deadpool/prenerf Bishop with 1-3 healthpacks used.

But Polaris is kinda different. Unless I use BRB or other protect tiles spammer I may not survive or will need to use health packs if I have to use same characters for whatever reasons. And it is no matter who will I use as 2nd (& 3rd) option. Thats the problem.

Nebula may not survive long enough to collect & use Green. Dazzler... I dunno. Mine is 3/3/3 lv 131. Juggernaut is shredded. X-23 (x/5/x build) may not keep up with healing (4k damage per turn from Polaris requires for Laura to make 3 moves per turn to keep. 4k Polaris can do easily with Rocket). Karnak is too squishy and later he tanks. I may not be even be able to use invisibility. Medusa... Maybe. But I have to bring Carnage or Polaris. Iceman and other stunners are risky (I may not be able to collect AP). Etc.

Basically: forget what ya have. Bring own Polaris.

That is the problem for me. The only viable counter for Polaris requires Polaris and Rocket/Medusa/Carnage/whatever to reduce the healthpack used. Its like prenerf Gambit for me. Use hammer to deal with hammer.

We're always caught flatfooted when you don't have everyone champed and usable. The good news is that as a 4* player, you can purposefully finish up any given counter character in a much more reasonable amount of time through sharding than you can when you're caught flatfooted by a new 5*. When Kitty/Rocket first became a problem for me, i tried all kinds of things because I didn't (and still don't) have a functional Black Suit Spider man, and we were a year or so away from Sabretooth. I was convinced it would be Dazzler, but because i only had a champed Ghost Rider, she didn't tank anything being 100% overlapped, and the opponent teams I was seeing had max-champ rockets anyway due to some other roster leveling decisions I'd made. So I then started messing with a suicide GE Doom/Lumbercap play, but my Lumbercap build was too weak to solo it without a partner. 

Dazzler works really well - I've used BRB/Kitty/Dazzler to take out Hulkoye before, because the AOE will trigger her. The big limitation I've always found using Dazzler is that her health is low at low champ levels, and she needs to be tanking. Since she came out really late relative to other characters, she doesn't tank anything at the 4* level and certainly not at the 5* level. From  roster management standpoint, we all have to say "is growing this counter up worth derailing whatever other roster growth plans I may have had?"

TH4nos removes tiles very well too - you may think about finishing him instead.

PiMacleod

ThaRoadWarrior said:

TH4nos removes tiles very well too - you may think about finishing him instead.

I was JUST gonna mention this.  Th4nos has a great green, and a passive that works against tile spammers.  I mention the green because....

Polaris/Medusa/Th4nos

Polaris uses blue.
Medusa uses purple.
Th4nos uses green.

Medusa makes all 3 colors of AP for you, based on the matches made.  You'll get healing and/or AP generated, and all 3 of those colors would do well for this team.  Just target enemy Polaris first, obviously.

If you try it, let us know how it goes!  Honestly, this was just my first thought based on the problem presented.  I hope it helps.  If not, I hope we learn something from it. 

Mr_F

HoundofShadow said:

I find it unlikely that Polaris's passive is dealing 4k damage per turn

Oh boy. Super-Skrull/Cyclops/Juggernaut vs. Polaris/Cyclops/Rocket in PVP.  She ate ~16k from my Juggs in 4 turns. Took a lesson. It was stupid from to think that my combined 90k health pool was enough to bring it down.

Anyway, I know she can be beaten. Bishop was too. But I still believe that she is OP and deserve some changes. We are speaking about character so good that my simulator looks like this: 45% Polaris Team, 40% Grockenaut/Gamora, 5% meatballs and 5% 390lv+ 5* (cause of my Apoc 360 and Stom 375 and few other 345 characters). A characters who was/is used with 2/2/2 upward builds.

Grockenaut/Gamora was last team I was skipping. This season I was aiming them because it was the most common, easiest team for me to beat. The other half I was skiping Polaris and 5*. So... you know.

DAZ0273

I really hope "meatballs" is a team nickname and not some sort of predictive text shenanigans! And if it is - what is that team?!?!? 😁

PiMacleod

I think it's a slang for "easy" teams.  

Like, when someone throws an easy pitch for you to hit, "...he's serving him up a fat meatball!"

It's an older term, but used for easy-to-hit-out-of-the-park stuff.

Of course, I could be wrong... maybe it's a team name for him! 

Mr_F

DAZ0273 said:

I really hope "meatballs" is a team nickname and not some sort of predictive text shenanigans! And if it is - what is that team?!?!? 😁

In this case: hit and forget that you hitted. Hit, win, forget. A composition/team that easily forget and not common/meta/whatever. You know: like a meatball. Eat and ask what is for dessert? A Cannon fodder.*

For example: I just won against Carol/Peggy/Medusa team. With Carol/Wasp/Wolfsbane. Both composition are meatball. Hit, win, forget. Not much thinking.

But despite the fact that Grockenout/Gamora are same for me - hit, win, forget - I have to bring counter, carefully much so Juggs is tanking, keep blue away from Gamora etc. So its not a meatball.

So I would face Polaris/Emma Frost/Talos - I would not call it meatball. Even though I would propably easily win, its still Polaris.

*I, for whatever reason, has used "meatballs" in place of "cannon fodder". Still kinda works and I hope ya all get the idea.

DAZ0273

PiMacleod said:

I think it's a slang for "easy" teams.  

Like, when someone throws an easy pitch for you to hit, "...he's serving him up a fat meatball!"

It's an older term, but used for easy-to-hit-out-of-the-park stuff.

Of course, I could be wrong... maybe it's a team name for him! 

All these rounders terms!

MrPlow

iHulk totally nerfed for the latest PVP.

Michael1957

MrPlow said:

iHulk totally nerfed for the latest PVP.

You won’t see Hulkoye teams should be interesting 

ThaRoadWarrior

Brb Polaris with the poor man’s win finite is doing my heavy lifting (and most of my queues) in there

SnowcaTT

Michael1957 said:

MrPlow said:

iHulk totally nerfed for the latest PVP.

You won’t see Hulkoye teams should be interesting 

It is what a world without iHulk would be.

BRB/Kitty
BRB/Polaris
BRB/Apoc

By far the three most common teams I saw. So....just a 'normal' pvp, but with even less variety because iHulk wasn't an option. Instead everyone switched to the slower (and arguably stronger) character.

Michael1957

SnowcaTT said:

Michael1957 said:

MrPlow said:

iHulk totally nerfed for the latest PVP.

You won’t see Hulkoye teams should be interesting 

It is what a world without iHulk would be.

BRB/Kitty
BRB/Polaris
BRB/Apoc

By far the three most common teams I saw. So....just a 'normal' pvp, but with even less variety because iHulk wasn't an option. Instead everyone switched to the slower (and arguably stronger) character.

I agree , I’ve found already on numerous nodes that Okoye/ Polaris is much more effective ( slower but I don’t care about that ) than Hulkoye. As is BRB and Apocalypse teamed with her . You don’t worry about goons filling green tiles with spam . 

HoundofShadow

I'm getting fewer retals in this PvP, making my climb easier. 

Daredevil217

I definitely enjoyed the Hulk PvP more than any other standard one I’ve played in a long time (and it’s not like 3* Hulk is the most fun opponent to fight). Very nice to have a break from high level Okoye and IHulk teams.  By virtue of that I saw a lot more variety.

I don’t think Hulk needs a nerf, but a hard counter for him would be great.  Maybe a 5* with Quake’s AOE neutralization or a passive autostun that hits characters that do AOE damage. I feel all other meta characters are easily managed, especially Polaris who can be one shot by Onslaught or Hulkoye’d. A counter to Hulk that makes him riskier to leave on defense would give more of a rock/paper/scissors feel to 800+ PVP (where I usually hit the Hulkoye wall). 

LavaManLee

Well, this has now been answered.  Carol5

St_Bernadus

LavaManLee said:

Well, this has now been answered.  Carol5

Who had Carol in the sweepstake?

What, no one?

Blackstone

Came here to see if anyone commented about Carol.

I don't think anyone could have seen it coming.

MegaBee

Blackstone said:

Came here to see if anyone commented about Carol.

I don't think anyone could have seen it coming.

Polaris was the smart bet.