Week 25 Boost: Daredevil (Matt Murdock), Loki (God of Mischief), Professor X (Classic), Star-Lord

HoundofShadow

Caution: Please prepare for more than usual healthpack usage this week because of Prof X and his match-4 shenanigans in pvps.

Unfortunately, I have none of the 5* champed. Prof X is easily the most common opponent,  teamed with DD. Prof X is nice with Starlord for green cascades. Onslaught might be in there with Prof X with even more destruction.

For 4* players,
Emma Frost, Hellcat, Maria Hill, M.O.D.O.K., Thanos (Endgame)

Hellcat and Thanos is probably more useful. Thanos and MODOK can also create cascades with Prof X.

Share your strategies for this week!

ThaRoadWarrior

Yeah this is going to be interesting. All these characters are competing for purple and/or green so they aren’t likely to be that helpful altogether. I did just finish up Star Lord last week, so I’ll get to try The Whole group for once.

HoundofShadow

I noticed this has been happening for some boost weeks. Is this their subtle way of determining each 5* ranking? 

ThaRoadWarrior

When you say “this,” you mean teams with a high degree of overlap?

If Loki is in line for a rebalance, Destroyer Armor just needs to be a 1-turn repeater, ideally one that refortifies itself. Please do not remove its ability to clear friendly specials.

Star Lord can get a total rework as far as I’m concerned, he is a big old 3*. If we really want to preserve his deal, he needs to improve the tiles he steals at least.

Daredevil just needs a number pump, maybe a cost reduction on purple.

profe$$or X is perfect, please don’t change his powers lol.

HoundofShadow

Yes, that's what I meant. They are probably working out the ranking of characters who share at least 2 same colour schemes. 

I'm not sure if I want to see Loki's green repeater become a 1 turn repeater. That's eating a guaranteed AoE every turn. At least you have some way to stop iHulk's AoE. For Loki's, you need to remove it or replace it with something else and there aren't a lot of 5* who can do that.

I like Starlord's green because it can actually differentiate friendly charged tiles from enemy or charged tiles. 

I think there can only be one green/purple 5* that needs a buff and it's a coin toss between Starlord, Phoenix and Loki. The rest are fine

ThaRoadWarrior

Destroyer Armor is 11 green to fire, so best case 4 turns to gather the AP, then 3 more turns to do 7k AOE? Hulk does that passively on player turn 2. That was not a viable ability at release and it’s even less so now. I’d trade AOE for a random single target, 1 turn repeater, and 7-8 AP cost myself.

HoundofShadow

My memories of green aoe is that they always cost 12 aps. There are some odd one that cost fewer than that but generally that's the cost. At best, I see them reducing it to a 2-turn repeater  instead of 1.  His green is supposed to synergise with his purple some way. Maybe they can pair Loki with those goons that can reduce repeaters in challenge nodes to see the players' responses. I think Thor and Loki would be a great thematic team of brothers if that change takes place.

ThaRoadWarrior

The ones that cost that much have an AP accelerant for the most part, with a few interesting exceptions. Sorting my roster on "green" and a-z, I see:

Dark Beast: 9ap, does 1244 AOE and converts 4 basic tiles to blue charged

Basic Beast: 9ap, deals 791 AOE and destroys 12 basic tiles conditionally

Beta Ray Bill: 12ap for 4x random hits of 9k, with maybe the best green accelerant in the game after Gladiator Thor

Bolt: 10 green + 5ap on all colors to do a total board wipe and 30k AOE - kind of a next level example but he does have a random tile charger passive as an everything battery to compensate

Grey suit widow 19(!)AP for targeted board destruction and some AOE but on purple she can do 6 targeted green tile placements as a battery

BL4De: 9ap for 4K AOE + self heal

cable: 12ap for ~23k single target that blends out to AOE of it downs the enemy. Has a blue that can charge green for you as a battery

Dazzler: 7ap for 1800 team damage + up to 5240 additional depending on board conditions

Doc Oc 5*: puts out a repeater for 6ap that does damage if matched, and does passive AOE if you sink 18 total AP into it. No battery

Doc Oc 3*: 12ap and does 1541 AOE along with some tile effects, no battery

3* Gamora: 12ap for 1250 aoe and stuns 2 random enemies, no battery

Ghost Rider (johnny Blaze) - 12ap*, does 4179 aoe and creates 2x 459 attack tiles. Costs 1 less for each friend attack tiles on the board to a minimum of 6. Has a red power that creates attack tiles off a repeater as a sort of rollilng discount rather than a battery

Gwenpool: 10ap after matching a unique tile to do up to 3x hits of 6300 - no battery unless there is a Sploits code to add green?

Havok: 12ap to destroy 3 enemy SAP tiles and dealing 2144pts per tile destroyed, followed by 5726 AOE. Has a complex internal battery system that isn't great in practice but thematically feels like converting engery around. You can spend 9 red to charge 3 blue tiles, then spend 7 blue and pick red to convert 3red ap to green

Ronin: 6ap for 5011 single target damage that will strike again if it deals a finishing blow to the target until it runs out of targets

Hela: 8ap to deal 6799 to the target and 2x hits of 4435 to random enemies, along with a passive to punish the enemy gathering green - deal 4435 to the target and destroy 2 enemy green

4* Torch: 6 green to create a 1-turn repeater that deals 314 damage to a random enemy, and replicates itself every turn up to 5 simultaneous on the board

5* Bobby: 7ap to create 5 2-turn repeaters that deal 2999 random damage, and when matched deal 2481 to the enemy team

Teen Jean: 12a;, deals 5228 aoe and creates up to 4 friendly SAPs, no battery

Jubilee: 9ap to create 4x charge tiles and doing 3389 aoe. battery of debatable efficacy with random tile charging

4* Juggernaut: 0ap green passive that does 420 aoe every time he makes a match. secondary passive that pumps up his match damage making sure he tanks as much as possible

Kamala: 12ap to do 3796 aoe, 8purple AP to convert 7 tiles of a chosen color to green as a battery

Karolina: 8ap deals 3242 to the enemy team, may heal based on board conditions

Knull: 0AP - create a start of turn CD passively that creates a friendly strike every turn, when the CD counts down do 2189 permanent health reduction to the enemy team

Lizard: 7ap deal 2209 aoe; if there are 11 or fewer blue on the board deal an extra 1182 to a random enemy, if there are at least 7 red deal an extra 1182 to a random enemy

Loki 5*: 11ap to create a 3-turn repeater that destroys a random row and deals 6596 damage to the enemy team (destroyed tiles do not deal damage or generate ap) - no battery

Moon Knight: 12ap to deal 18,770 to a random enemy. no battery not AOE, but random targeting has some of the AOE benefits

Nebula: 10ap deal 858 AOE for each special on the board up to 10, no battery

Negasonic: 8ap to do 2203 aoe and create a 6-turn cd that if matched or destroyed will charge a number of tiles equal to the counter. passively will destroy 2x random tiles when you match or destroy a charged tile. she charges tiles left and right, so this power is cheap and has a battery

Quake: 11ap, shuffles the board and does 6664 aoe. No direct battery, but has a 7ap blue that will bust out 8 random tiles of the chosen color for some board shake

Ragnarok: 14ap to do 2747 aoe and 525 self harm along with a random column destruction. Has an 8ap blue that charges green tiles and does burst heal, but this character was subjected to a nerf at some point in antiquity so he is likely deliberately horrible at this point

Red Hulk: 9green for 3692 aoe, or if you have 18 it will drain all green to do 9715. Has a 7 purple battery that drans all enemy green and generates 7 green for the friendly. Once upon a time this was the gold standard in AOE capability. Also has a passive that if he takes 899 or more damage he will create a 1 turn red cd that destroys 6 random basic tiles

4* Rocket: 10ap to create a 3-turn CD that does auto-matches while on the board, and does 10,500 aoe when it goes off, unless it's matched away, where it will do 8862 offense and 2904 self harm. no battery

Sandman: 9ap, 5382 aoe and stuns the target for 2 turns. no battery

Scorpion: 7ap buff up to 7 friendly strikes, reduce 7 enemy protects, and deal 2432 to the enemy team

Sentry: 12ap to create an X of CDs across the whole board that each do 186 enemy and 65 ally damage. subject of a historical nerf, so not a good benchmark

Spider-Man (peter parker): 10 ap to do up to 6 total random hits of damage (mine is unchamped so i don't know how much. 1490 at my current level). No direct battery, but for 7 red you can conditionally turn some webs to crits for cascade damage and board shake

5* Lord: 12 green to destroy 3 random columns, leaving friendly tiles, for 8159 aoe. has a yellow battery that converts 5 basics in enemy strongest color to green charged, and does conditional burst heal. Not a great powerset

3* Lord: same as above but does 1/3 the damage. These may be the laziest releases to date?

Super-Skrull: 10ap to destroy random 3x3 block and do 5098 aoe. conditionally does more tile damage that gathers ap

Thanos 3*: 12ap to create a 3-turn cd that does 5214 damage, no battery

Thano5: same as above but does 20,430 damage

Immortal Hulk: 0ap, converts 1 random basic tile to green, then if there are at least 8 on the board, deal 5576 aoe and destroy 2 green to do damage but not generate AP

4* Punisher: 10ap stun allies for 2 turns and deals 3477 aoe + 4515 per downed enemy. no battery

Gladiator Thor: 12ap for 13,432 aoe. at 50% health, destroy 5 basic green/yellow/red (gathers AP) passively - has a battery so good this power is more useful to power other things

2* Thor: 14 green, does AOE and has a red that feeds yellow that feeds green

3* Thor: same as above, does 5333 to the target and 2665 to enemies

Throg: 8ap deals 1720 to the enemy team and converts 5 random basic or enemy SAP to charged tiles. repeats if any enemy tiles are so converted until they aren't. This character has an excellent coherent design concept

Vulture: 9ap for single target 10450 damage unless airborne, then does that amount as AOE. while airborn generates 4 green, 2 blue, 2 black, 1 red ap per turn

So you can see that costs, damage values, and secondary effects are all over the place based on the state of the game at whatever tier the character was release to play in and when. Recent 4* characters have better green AOE than 5* Loki does - they are cheaper, do more damage immediately, and often have useful secondary effects. Obviously characters like iHulk are hard to compare to, but at the 5* tier sadly that's who you're comparing to. By the time Loki will have done 6k AOE one time, your opponent iHulk will have done 40k damage to you passively assuming he is unboosted and you haven't brought Wanda.

ThaRoadWarrior

I forgot to include Banner Hulk's Hulkform green because it didn't sort by green powers. Once you have 6 green ap, he creates a 2-turn cd that turns him into the hulk. And due to the hilarious way Banner was implemented, you can't actually preview his hulkform from the roster screen, but it's a lame power as I recall. I'm 76 shards away from finishing him, I'll check in once he is done and let you know if nobody wants to chime in before then though.

HoundofShadow

That's a lot of list for greens. You must have spend a lot of time on that list.  

Banner's Hulk green is simply an aoe with no effect and he has a red power too. I think it has no effect too.

Loki does generate 3 green aps when he's revived. But nobody plays him with 1% health left. I think his purple power also plays a part in the number of turns his repeater is at.  7 purple aps for 4 Shadow Play tiles on the board, which multiplies regardless of who destroys it. Then you spend another 4 purple ap for 26, 673. It's 2424.8 damage per purple ap. Spend another 4 purple aps and it's 2807.6 per purple ap. If it's 1 turn repeater, his black cds will be all over the place. Paired with 5* Hawkeye and it'll probably be crazy.  

The thing about how the dev designs characters are based on how they translate selected traits into MPQ, which largely involves creative gameplay, rather than practical gameplay.  Loki is more about deceit and illusion and as such trickery requires time to build up. Just like all the trap tiles characters out there, a few turns would have passed before those trap tiles succeed in doing anything. Creating a character who can accelerate repeaters is more probable than them turning his repeater into 1-turn without touching anything else. I think if his repeater become 1 turn, his purple power will probably be nerfed and his green damage will be nerfed as well.

ThaRoadWarrior

His purple power isn't that good either. You need 11 purple AP do to that 26k damage, and there really are no good purple batteries at the 5* tier. 

I would say that he and Danver5 have a very similar issue (Fi5k also)- they have very expensive repeater droppers that then take N more turns to do something. If nothing changed about Destroy Everything except that it fired off for damage immediately AND made a 3-turn repeater, then it would be something at least. 

Maybe they could have the Dagger Surprise tiles generate purple and green when matched, or when allowed to burn down to 0? Then you have a bit of a give and take on leaving them out or using the power?

entrailbucket

They can make powers that are slow, to support different kinds of gameplay.  The problem is when they make powers that are slow *and* weak.

For a power that only puts a 3-turn repeater on the board, the effect of that repeater needs to be insanely good to be playable at all.  Loki's is not.

It's the same with AP costs.  They can make expensive powers, and expensive powers can have a role in the game, but they have to be really, really strong.  A 13AP power needs to be essentially game-ending to be worthwhile.  The current crop of powers at that level don't reach that threshold.

ThaRoadWarrior

Characters like Loki were designed for a different game than the one they exist in. Fights just don’t run that many turns at the 5* tier for Destroy Everything to be a factor. Especially now in a post-Wanda environment. He is a 5/5/3. I would say that he would go well with Knull, if Knull’s black made a meaningful amount of purple but it really doesn’t.

mdreyer93

So, I've been reviewing the history of the weekly boosted 5s to see how they might correlate to potential future 5* rebalances. Only one 5 has been boosted 4 times so far: Ghost Rider. He was boosted twice in pretty close succession (weeks 19 and 21). 

Five characters have been boosted 3 times so far: Daredevil, Iceman, Jean Grey, Star Lord, and OML. For most of those, their first two boosts came pretty early on (in the first 9 weeks) and they've just had one recently. OML was recently boosted twice in close succession (weeks 20 and 22), similar to Ghost Rider. 

If one of these five is boosted again in the next few weeks, I'd guess they'll be the next 5* rebalance. *fingers crossed

ThaRoadWarrior

I'd be pretty surprised if OML got it; I can't think of a time other than Gambit where a character got re-rebalanced. I'd welcome it, but would be surprised is all. I feel like Star Lord is probably getting looked at pretty hard since he has been a bench warmer since day one myself.

mdreyer93

Maybe a new $75 costume bundle for a rebalanced Star-Lord too to go with the new game?? 

entrailbucket

ThaRoadWarrior said:

I'd be pretty surprised if OML got it; I can't think of a time other than Gambit where a character got re-rebalanced. I'd welcome it, but would be surprised is all. I feel like Star Lord is probably getting looked at pretty hard since he has been a bench warmer since day one myself.

There are more than a few who've been changed more than once.  Off the top of my head, X-Force got a massive buff and then a massive nerf, and Invisible Woman has been changed so many times I can't even remember what she originally did.

ThaRoadWarrior

I do think it would be highly scrutinized given the high profile nerf and sellback options and all that back when it was done to OML though. 

Captain_Trips88

Hate to burst your bubble but boosted Starlord is pretty meh. I thought last time I'd finally get some use out of him but sadly he isn't great.

Daredevil on the other hand starting with 1/2 health is awesome 

Bzhai

ThaRoadWarrior said:

Star Lord can get a total rework as far as I’m concerned, he is a big old 3*. If we really want to preserve his deal, he needs to improve the tiles he steals at least.

A totally missed opportunity to rework and re-release him for the GotG launch. It would be great if they tweaked him to have some synergy with G5mora and the GotG supports.

Srheer0

Bzhai said:

ThaRoadWarrior said:

Star Lord can get a total rework as far as I’m concerned, he is a big old 3*. If we really want to preserve his deal, he needs to improve the tiles he steals at least.

A totally missed opportunity to rework and re-release him for the GotG launch. It would be great if they tweaked him to have some synergy with G5mora and the GotG supports.

I'd like to see a Starlord based on his brief appearance in the "king in black" event.