***** Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes) ***** - Rebalance Details (10/26/21)

Neko

Greetings ghouls, ghosts and other denizens of the underworld. We’ve got an update to celebrate not only the Halloween season but the Day of the Dead in particular with an update to the hot-rod-iest Ghost Rider, Robbie Reyes!

Robbie will be receiving a number of updates to his powers, not the least of which is the ability to team him up with any of the other Ghost Riders! Deadpool has already proven that taco fueled vengeance can coexist with Johnny and Robbie, so there’s no reason that a triple team of penance isn’t in the cards. So rejoice, Ghost Rider fans! Now you can bring a full onslaught of flaming skulls to harrow any opposing sinners!

Without further ado, here’s the new improved Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes)!

Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes) 
5-Star Rarity
Affiliations: Heroes
    

"Robbie Reyes is a hard-working, young mechanic working to support himself and his brother, Gabe. But when an underground street race went sour, he found himself haunted by an evil spirit which granted him the power to transform into the All-New Ghost Rider! As Ghost Rider, Robbie must learn to suppress the darker urges of the spirit and use his powers to exact vengeance on the wicked!"

(Abilities listed at level 255, followed by 450)

OLD:

14392 Health / 57846 Health

 23 | 160 | 21 | 19 | 180 | 140 | 90 | 4.0x
 91 | 642 | 84 | 77 | 722 | 562 | 363 | 4.0x

NEW:

17518 Health / 70413 Health

 30 | 214 | 28 | 26 | 241 | 187 | 121 | 4.0x
 122 | 860 | 113 | 103 | 968 | 753 | 486 | 4.0x

OLD:
Hell Ride - 9  AP
Ghost Rider tears through the battlefield leaving trails of fire to scorch his enemies.  Creates 2 Green Repeater tiles that destroy up to 3 surrounding Green, Red, or Black basic tiles every 2 turns.

• Level 2: Destroyed tiles deal 2 times their damage.
• Level 3: Creates 3 tiles.
• Level 4: Destroyed tiles deal 3 times their damage.
• Level 5: Repeater tiles last 1 turn.

NEW:
Hell Ride - 9  AP
Ghost Rider tears through the battlefield leaving trails of fire to scorch his enemies.  Creates a 1-turn Countdown tile that destroys up to 3 surrounding enemy Special or basic tiles, dealing 161 extra damage for each destroyed Green, Red, and Black tile, then recreates itself (destroyed tiles do not generate AP). (Max level 646 damage)

• Level 2: Deals 201 damage for each destroyed Green, Red and Black tile. (Max level 808 damage)
• Level 3: Deals 242 damage for each destroyed Green, Red and Black tile. (Max level 969 damage)
• Level 4: Destroys 4 tiles.
• Level 5: Destroys 5 tiles, dealing 294 damage for each destroyed Green, Red and Black tile. (Max level 1179 damage)

This ability has been improved in nearly every respect. Instead of creating Repeaters that go off every 2 turns till Level 5, it now creates a 1-turn CD tile that *moves* every time it goes off. This means that the Repeaters would eventually just kind of settle at the bottom of the board, while now the tile will keep hopping around blowing up tiles. But that’s not all! It now destroys *any* surrounding tile, including special tiles, and deals bonus damage on Green, Red or Black tiles, the bonus damage of which has also been majorly increased. Enemies should leave this tile on the board at their own peril!

OLD:
Chain Whip - 7  AP
Ghost Rider hurls his chain at an enemy, binding them in place.  Stuns the target for 1 turn and creates a 5-turn Red Countdown tile targeting the Stunned enemy.  While this tile is on the board, this power becomes Judgement Day and whenever that enemy makes a match they take 224 damage.

• Level 2: Deals 386 damage when the targeted enemy makes a match.
• Level 3: Countdown tile lasts 6 turns.  Deals 412 damage when the targeted enemy makes a match. (Max Level 1654 damage)
• Level 4: Countdown tile lasts 7 turns.  Deals 655 damage when the targeted enemy makes a match. (Max level 2632 damage)
• Level 5: Countdown tile lasts 8 turns.  Deals 914 damage when the targeted enemy makes a match. (Max level 3672 damage)

Judgement Day - 7  AP
Ghost Rider Slams his enemy hard into the ground.  Remove all of Ghost Rider's Chain Whip tiles to deal 1739 damage to the targeted enemy.  This power becomes Chain Whip.

• Level 2: Deals 1913 damage.
• Level 3: Deals 2087 damage. (Max level 8388 damage)
• Level 4: Deals 2435 damage. (Max level 9786 damage)
• Level 5: Deals 3130 damage. (Max level 12582 damage)

NEW:
Chain Whip - 7  AP
Ghost Rider hurls his chain at an enemy, binding them in place.  Stuns the target for 1 turn and creates a 5-turn Fortified Red Countdown tile targeting the Stunned enemy.  While this tile is on the board, this power becomes Judgement Day and whenever that enemy makes a match they take 723 damage. (Max level 2907 damage)

• Level 2: Deals 983 damage when the targeted enemy makes a match. (Max Level 3954 damage)
• Level 3: Countdown tile lasts 6 turns.
• Level 4: Countdown tile lasts 7 turns. Deals 1323 damage when the targeted enemy makes a match. (Max level 5320 damage)
• Level 5: Countdown tile lasts 8 turns. Deals 1677 damage when the targeted enemy makes a match. (Max level 6744 damage)

Judgement Day - 7  AP
Ghost Rider Slams his enemy hard into the ground.  Remove all of Ghost Rider's Chain Whip tiles to deal 2784 damage to the targeted enemy. This power becomes Chain Whip. (Max level 11192 damage)

(PASSIVE) Whenever an enemy targeted by a Chain Whip tile makes a match, they take 723 damage. (Max level 2907 damage)

• Level 2: Deals 3062 damage. (Max level 12311 damage)
• Level 3: Deals 3341 damage. (Max level 13430 damage)
• Level 4: Deals 3898 damage. (Max level 15669 damage)
• Level 5: Deals 5011 damage. (Max level 20146 damage)

Chain Whip receives a double upgrade, both in flat damage increase for the matches opponents make while they’re on the board, and in the fact that it now places on the board as a Fortified tile. More bang for your chain buck! Judgement Day meanwhile gets a flat damage upgrade and a bit more clarity that the Chain Whip tiles still deal their damage while the Judgement Day ability is active. It did before this as well, but now it’s less confusing.

OLD:
Damnation - 10  AP
Ghost Rider punishes those with evil hearts, dragging them to the Underworld to atone for their sins.  Deals 2035 damage.  If the target has dealt the most damage on the enemy team, deal 2802 damage instead.

• Level 2: Deals 2238 damage or 3082 if the target has dealt the most damage on the enemy team.
  
• Level 3: Deals 2442 damage or 3362 if the target has dealt the most damage on the enemy team. (Max level 9814 or 13514 damage)
  
• Level 4: Deals 2849 damage or 3923 if the target has dealt the most damage on the enemy team. (Max level 11449 or 15767 damage)
  
• Level 5: Deals 3663 damage or 5044 if the target has dealt the most damage on the enemy team. (Max level 14720 or 20272 damage)

NEW:
Damnation - 8  AP
Ghost Rider punishes those with evil hearts, dragging them to the Underworld to atone for their sins.  Deals 2431 damage.  If the target has dealt the most damage on the enemy team, deal 3889 damage instead. (Max level 9771 or 15633 damage)

• Level 2: Deals 2674 damage or 4278 if the target has dealt the most damage on the enemy team. (Max level 10748 or 17196 damage)
  
• Level 3: Deals 2917 damage or 4667 if the target has dealt the most damage on the enemy team. (Max level 11725 or 18760 damage)
  
• Level 4: Deals 3403 damage or 5445 if the target has dealt the most damage on the enemy team. (Max level (13679 or 21886 damage)
  
• Level 5: Deals 4376 damage or 7000 if the target has dealt the most damage on the enemy team. (Max level 17588 or 28139 damage)

Here we’ve got Robbie Reyes’s particular version of a Penance Stare, which was already pretty effective in practice, but has been given an upgrade to be in line with the rest of his powers. Damnation receives an across the board damage increase, making it more effective to use in general. But as well, the ability is now even cheaper than before, making it faster to get out. At this point, it’ll do more than half Hela’s health if she’s unfortunate enough to have dealt the most damage on the team so far. Not bad for a single shot of 8 AP!

We’re looking forward to getting this updated version of Robbie Reyes out to the MPQ battlefield. The update is planned to hit with the normal morning server update on Friday 10/29, so you’ll be able to take this younger Ghost Rider against your foes in time for the witching times!

Pantera236

First off, the health increase and match damage increase already make him better than before. However his green is kinda 2 steps forward and one step back. Great that it moves around but only one tile, not generating AP and the fact that you only get bonus damage "if" it destroys a black red or green tile means sometimes you get no bonus damage. I could see myself using red against a scarlet witch colossus team, after you take out switch hit colossus with chain whip and watch him melt himself away. Black is ok but if I'm using him with Apoc (and I am 😈) I'm using his black. I realize using GR red over Apocs might seem silly, but again I think it will be fun to watch colossus kill himself.

entrailbucket

His new green is all kinds of broken with Hawkeye (who will also feed him red).

Overall GR gets much better, he'll be great when boosted, but won't be usable unboosted like the best guys are.

Omegased

I do like how green moves around now, but whenever I see a countdown - I just see kitty smooshing them.

all in all - it looks like a positive change. let's hope this is the start of MORE! (ahem Bruce)

marvel075

wish his green was still a repeater tile that moved itself around the board, kinda like kitty's does, but overall thank you for this! i like using my champed ghost rider alot of times, but i will most definitely use him more often!

Borstock

He's not THAT bad with Hawkeye. It'll feed nicely, but it's just one tile. When Hawkeye gets going, you're relying on a lot of tile spamming. By the time this gets going, you'll probably be able to knock out one of them, since they offer no real defensive boost.

entrailbucket

Borstock said:

He's not THAT bad with Hawkeye. It'll feed nicely, but it's just one tile. When Hawkeye gets going, you're relying on a lot of tile spamming. By the time this gets going, you'll probably be able to knock out one of them, since they offer no real defensive boost.

You need somebody who can stun with blue...and the Ghost Rider CD tile can also destroy special tiles, so I can think of someone who might work.

It's not good in PvP at all though, it's just another infinite/stunlock team for challenge nodes.

ThaRoadWarrior

I’m really torn on the changes to Hell Ride. It was my favorite power from his old set. However if this new flat damage can be boosted by Okoye and Apocalypse maybe that changes things. His old power did 300% match damage which could benefit from Sighclops, and that AP gain combined with green tile clogging was pretty legit. Between Hawkeye and C4rol, there are still ways to exploit short CDs, and it destroying any type of tile could be a new way to try and do some kind of thing with Danver5…I will be really curious to run him. Countdowns are just so much more vulnerable than repeaters.

ThaRoadWarrior

Oh, and thank you for lifting the Johnny restriction. I’d love for the same thing to happen with Cho Hulk and the Banners as well as Lady Thor and at least Gladiator Thor.

ThaRoadWarrior

I think without the AP gathering of Original Hell Ride, he is probably still a 5/3/5 build for me. Gathering 14 red without a battery means you'll probably fire it once in a match if at all, depending on who you've brought with him. I do kind of think that Original Hell Ride + this new match damage would have been a power more to my taste than the new one on paper but that opinion may change once i play with it some.

wymtime

Green will really depend on the cascades to determine if it is better or not.  If the cascades can make up for the loss of AP generation on the old power it might be ok.

red does less damage when the enemy makes a match, but last longer. Judgement day got a huge buff in damage.  Also with the increased CD to 8 and being fortified it could be fired more often.

Black much more damage and cheaper.  Still a much more consistent damage than 5* ghost pool.

I like the buff overall.  I do wish you made him buffed this week in as most weeks 5* buffed characters get the most play 

HoundofShadow

His new green reminds me of Anti-Venom's purple: It hops around removing enemy special tiles. If you are thinking of putting him with Polaris/BRB, his green won't recreate itself once the board is filled with special tiles. All your cd guys like C4rol, Drax, Hawkeye, Coulson etc will be benefitting. I think Domino could pair well with him since he will be destroying 5 tiles every turn and Domino feeds black. 

The rest of the abilities are simply damage buff and ap cost decrease.


I'm a sucker for board destruction, so I like his nee green ability.

sinnerjfl

Omegased said:

I do like how green moves around now, but whenever I see a countdown - I just see kitty smooshing them.

all in all - it looks like a positive change. let's hope this is the start of MORE! (ahem Bruce)

Kitty will never catch up to that CD tile unless I'm wrong, she's always gonna be chasing the new one popping up and her repeater won't resolve.

HoundofShadow

Actually it will resolve.

Player turn 1: creates 1-turn Hell Ride CD, makes a match and ends turn.

Kitty: sees enemy cd and creates repeater

Player turn 2: CD resolves, destroy tiles and creates another CD. Players match a match and ends turn.

Kitty: repeater is still on the board and gobbles up Hell Ride CD if it is the only enemy special tile on the board, explodes and gains ap.

However, some players' Kitty Build is 5/4/4 so cd won't trigger her repeater. I guess it's to deal with Mindless Ones.

Anon

Loving the new changes. I'd love to team him with Polaris and Carol for buffing shenanigans. Obviously Hawkeye is also a good partner as well. 

HoundofShadow

I think his green destruction damage seems to be calculated this way:

Total value of 5 tiles destroyed + (1179 x no of green/red/black tiles destroyed, capped at 5).

dianetics

So it looks like the green does damage for all tiles it destroys and an additional buff for red green and black tiles.

The wording is pretty interesting here " destroys up to 3 surrounding enemy Special or basic tiles, dealing 161 extra damage for each destroyed Green, Red, and Black tile"
Then the qualifier at the end of (destroyed tiles do not generate AP)

So a destroyed green tile would do around 2k damage? So if you are knocking out 5 red green or black tiles it's up to 10k a turn?
Am I reading this right?

Srheer0

Gh5strider was the first ever 5star cover I pulled in Latest Legends. Good on you for finally improving him. 

Maybe to avoid the whole "falling to the bottom of the board" thing could have been solved with the repeaters being locked in place similar to Str5nges pink.  

Looking forward to other 5star improvements to bring them up to date. Please do some for characters like 5star ironman and 5star Cap (not IW cap).

Bzhai

Feels like a similar change to 5* Cyclop's red could improve his gameplay dramatically.

jp1

Already have him champed so I’m happy for the buff. Not sure if it’s enough to take him off the bench when not boosted, but it’s a nice change. Thanks!

KGB

BlackBoltRocks said:

Nice buff overall. I really like the Robbie version of Ghost Rider, so this is delightful.

As for his Green, do the destroyed tiles deal damage (before the bonus)? Because the text doesn’t state something like “destroyed tiles don’t deal additional damage”. Going by this, let’s say a 5-green, lv450 Ghosty destroys 5 Green tiles (for simplicity’s sake). Will he do (968 + 1179) x 5 damage, i.e. 10,735 damage? If yes, it’s going to be a sleeper wrecking ball. I’m also wondering if the bonus damage will be boosted by Apocalypse and Okoye, because precedent (Juggernaut Green, Yellowjacket Blue) would suggest no.

It says that Green, Red and Black tiles destroyed do *extra* damage. That implies to me at least that all destroyed tiles do regular tile damage and then you get extra damage if you get Red/Green/Black tiles. So in your example it would be 10735 as you surmised.

This power will be very handy in PvE where goons can't match away your CD.

KGB

P.S. Note the wording on this says *extra damage*. That's the same wording on Original Black Widows Black power. I would hope for consistency sake that Okoye/Apoc boost works the same on both powers.