Daredevil217's 5* Character Ranking and Analysis 2.0 (Updated 06/20/2022)

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  • Daredevil217
    Daredevil217 Posts: 3,965 Chairperson of the Boards
    I have to say, as I’m getting faster with Shang-Chi, he’s being used in more and more PVE nodes where the enemies have higher health. 

    Thor is my go-to for him. Cyclops if I can bring a third. I don’t know if someone else is better served in that third slot, but I’m shocked how well just Thor and only 3 in red for Shang-Chi have worked for me. He really is a game-changer for me in PVE with no characters close to 500. 
  • Sekilicious
    Sekilicious Posts: 1,766 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2022
    Daredevil217 said:
    I have to say, as I’m getting faster with Shang-Chi, he’s being used in more and more PVE nodes where the enemies have higher health. 

    Thor is my go-to for him. Cyclops if I can bring a third. I don’t know if someone else is better served in that third slot, but I’m shocked how well just Thor and only 3 in red for Shang-Chi have worked for me. He really is a game-changer for me in PVE with no characters close to 500. 
    Do you bring boosts with that pair? Have you tested SC with Colossus and Chavez? I’ve heard it is very fast with boosts. I don’t have Colossus sufficiently covered to test it myself. 
  • Daredevil217
    Daredevil217 Posts: 3,965 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2022
    Sekilicious said:
    Daredevil217 said:
    I have to say, as I’m getting faster with Shang-Chi, he’s being used in more and more PVE nodes where the enemies have higher health. 

    Thor is my go-to for him. Cyclops if I can bring a third. I don’t know if someone else is better served in that third slot, but I’m shocked how well just Thor and only 3 in red for Shang-Chi have worked for me. He really is a game-changer for me in PVE with no characters close to 500. 
    Do you bring boosts with that pair? Have you tested SC with Colossus and Chavez? I’ve heard it is very fast with boosts. I don’t have Colossus sufficiently covered to test it myself. 
    Sometimes no boosts. Usually +2 red/purple. Sometimes +2 all as well for super tough nodes where I need to winfinite in 1-2 turns (or die lol).  I find supports to be a much bigger factor for me than boosts.

    I have a 4* Chimi on Shang which gives around a 1/3 chance of netting 2 extra red/purple when matching said colors.

    Thor has a 5* Vibranium Ore which gives a 40% chance of getting +2 AP in the team’s strongest color (red) when ANYONE matches the teams strongest color. This is huge because most supports need the supported character to make the match and this one doesn’t.

    As an aside, putting the Ore on Thor (and removing one of the yellow gathering supports) hurts when running ThorPoc (but at least he can grab black or whatever the 5E’s color is on those matches). Awhile back I got 3 Thor covers in a special store and decided rather than have him tank over Okoye again, I’d start a dupe. I’d really like to finish the dupe (so I can have different supports/saved teams for each), but he’s never featured in PVE or special stores anymore it seems!  I have 6 more saved covers in shards, so 4 more to go!

    Cyke has a 3* Quantum Realm (47% chance to start with 5 purple).

    These three supports work well enough for me to start and keep the winfinite train moving it seems (though the occasional bad board gets everyone). 

    I’ve not tried Chavlosus. I’m curious what role Colossu plays in that trio. Is it because he has +126% match damage? with Shang aren’t you trying to not match his colors anyway and once you do, hasn’t SC gotten enough combo points that he’s tanking anyway?
  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 5,820 Chairperson of the Boards
    The people using that team have Colossus at or near 550.
  • Daredevil217
    Daredevil217 Posts: 3,965 Chairperson of the Boards
    entrailbucket said:
    The people using that team have Colossus at or near 550.
    That makes sense haha.

    I currently have my 4* shardget on Thanos because I figured extra damage for the BRB/Kitty winfinite couldn’t hurt.  But that winfinite has effectively been replaced by Shang. So, I think I’m going to switch my target to Valkyrie. I have a 360 Valk but stopped (because no more Thor past that point) and rostered a dupe which is currently 2/2/2. It’ll be a long road, but can nab some covers there maybe. 
  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 5,820 Chairperson of the Boards
    I'm really finding that practice is the biggest driver of speed with Shang-Chi. 

    I am still using Spin Cycle on every challenge node, and the biggest advantage of that team is that you can go infinite on 5 different colors.  On a bad board that's a huge help, and it means you don't have to worry about bringing an AP accelerator or boosting. 

    I used to full boost into difficult matches with Shang-Chi, and now (after an absurd amount of practice) I've found that I don't have to.  I never liked using Thor, even during his heyday, because I found the reverse-prologue-healing thing to be annoying. 
  • Sekilicious
    Sekilicious Posts: 1,766 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2022
    Daredevil217 said:

    I’ve not tried Chavlosus. I’m curious what role Colossu plays in that trio. Is it because he has +126% match damage? with Shang aren’t you trying to not match his colors anyway and once you do, hasn’t SC gotten enough combo points that he’s tanking anyway?
    It probably is that whoever I’ve seen who recommends it has Colossus at 550 but it is less winfinite and more each turn a critical is put down and that can do massive damage in 5 colors. It can be a free nuke with only a few combo points. But yeah, I have no idea if it works with baby champs. 
  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 5,820 Chairperson of the Boards
    That team is for speed PvE grinds.  You'd bring a +1 all AP and +% match damage, possibly a +crit damage, and just play match damage meta with the criticals from AC.  You're not trying to go infinite, you're just making the highest damage move you can make every turn.

    It's probably pretty fast -- the downside would be the expense of boosts, and I think your Colossus is going to need to be really high level to make it work.
  • Sekilicious
    Sekilicious Posts: 1,766 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2022
    entrailbucket said:
    That team is for speed PvE grinds.  You'd bring a +1 all AP and +% match damage, possibly a +crit damage, and just play match damage meta with the criticals from AC.  You're not trying to go infinite, you're just making the highest damage move you can make every turn.

    It's probably pretty fast -- the downside would be the expense of boosts, and I think your Colossus is going to need to be really high level to make it work.
    Yeah that’s the one. There was a post on discord that an SC critical achieved 2.3 million damage. That SC was probably much larger than my baby champ with a uniquely beneficial board. We are probably all luck that SC doesn’t have Cable’s ability to turn excess damage to AoE. 
  • Djbob101
    Djbob101 Posts: 21 Just Dropped In
    The health you have for Ultron is wrong. It should be 75k not 57k. Also I believe that Ultron's best partner is Knull. 

    Also is Big Wheel a good partner for Shang Chi or no?
     
  • Sekilicious
    Sekilicious Posts: 1,766 Chairperson of the Boards
    After playing both a bit I have changed my mind. I find Shang-Chi easier to use than Apocalypse. I might change my mind when I get Thor at 5 green. Still trash defensively but, frankly, all my characters get hit quite often. Maybe that will change if I ever find Wanda. 
  • Daredevil217
    Daredevil217 Posts: 3,965 Chairperson of the Boards
    Djbob101 said:
    The health you have for Ultron is wrong. It should be 75k not 57k. Also I believe that Ultron's best partner is Knull. 

    Also is Big Wheel a good partner for Shang Chi or no?
     
    Good catch on the typo! I assume that he’s a great partner, but my wheel is at a solid two covers. 

    Sekilicious said:
    After playing both a bit I have changed my mind. I find Shang-Chi easier to use than Apocalypse. I might change my mind when I get Thor at 5 green. Still trash defensively but, frankly, all my characters get hit quite often. Maybe that will change if I ever find Wanda. 
    Apoc is definitely easier than Shang to use but having Thor is a big big part of that. With a half Thor, Apoc becomes almost autopilot. Cast yellow, then red/black.  Repeat step 2 until there’s nothing left. That said, though more complex to use, I’m finding I’m using ThorChi more and more and ThorPoc in less situations for PVE. It feels like Gritty/Juggs (plus Guardian), Hulkoye (plus Valkyrie) and ThorChi (plus Cyke) can handle most things. 
  • Sekilicious
    Sekilicious Posts: 1,766 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2022
    It is most definitely the partner’s I have on my roster. With Apoc and Brolaris it can be insanely fast if I find yellow. It get frustrating when I start and the yellow are scattered, and too often there is little I can do to rectify the situation. Thor don’t care if there are matches to be made just if there is red/yellow/green on the board. 

    With SC and Valkyrie if the combo matches are scattered I can still generate red with Valkyrie. Once I get red I can usually get more to winfinite or at least enough other ap to get the Chavez train going. It is far more reliable than anything other team I have. 

    But yeah, it is amazing I still get hung up on which characters are great when it is more about the teams that can be made with them. So I guess I misspoke. SC is easier to use with my roster than Apoc is. Apoc is still great here, though maybe part of the 3rd or 4th best team I can make. 
  • Jacklag
    Jacklag Posts: 316 Mover and Shaker
    Can anybody tell me if Gambit's passive block on Red and Purple actives stays when he is Airborne? I'm wondering if it would be viable to use him with Heimdall. Gambit gathers red and purple while Heimdall gathers blue. Use Heimdall's blue to fortify Gambit's countdown tiles and then, once the team is loaded with red AP, send Gambit airborne and spam Heimdall's red.
  • Glockoma
    Glockoma Posts: 555 Critical Contributor
    Jacklag said:
    Can anybody tell me if Gambit's passive block on Red and Purple actives stays when he is Airborne? I'm wondering if it would be viable to use him with Heimdall. Gambit gathers red and purple while Heimdall gathers blue. Use Heimdall's blue to fortify Gambit's countdown tiles and then, once the team is loaded with red AP, send Gambit airborne and spam Heimdall's red.
    I was just reading about this and I believe it does in fact go away when airborne. Good luck!
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,451 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2022
    I can confirm if gambit is stunned or airborne the block lifts. I’ve tested it a number of times just to know.

    My go to team for Shang-Chi is Onslaught and Negasonic because it means I only have to focus on one very complex character with two that are going to do a huge amount of board shake passively around the edges. Personally I feel like Shang-Chi is far and away the best transitional 5* for somebody coming up because he is like a combination of Thor and Okoye. He doesn’t make the rest of your roster better, but he doesn’t need to because he self accelerates so efficiently.
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,451 Chairperson of the Boards
    As far as novelty Gambit plays go, I was trying to figure a way to make use of Danver5’s vestigial passive yellow gathering power for destroying strikes to create Yellow AP so she can pinpoint Ross him up, allowing you to….something. So far all the powers you’d want to try and put together seem to require a 4 person team. I think you want either a CD specialist like Goblin who can shorten and fortify them, or someone like Hawkeye who will produce AP when they go off and fortify them for you on a team with Gambit. I am less bothered by color overlap and tend to play for power synergy myself, so locking out Hawkeye’s red and using him strictly as a battery is absolutely a thing I’d do. I am really curious what this new 5* with her Repeater shortener might do for a pick 3 team with gambit or Ronan on it.
  • Jacklag
    Jacklag Posts: 316 Mover and Shaker
    B-b-b-b-b-breaking news! Phoenix has been reworked! And in a major way, it seems to me. How does that change her score and evaluation? Stand in for an update!
  • Tiger_Wong
    Tiger_Wong Posts: 1,056 Chairperson of the Boards
    Jmo…. She’s top 30 now. I can revolve a team around her and throw her on a Hulkoye team with good results. With her now having VERY STRONG green match damage, she runs well with Valkyrie/cyclops vs brb/Polaris teams that don’t have Kitty. I’m also very much looking forward to champing Sersi and seeing how a Sersi/Phoenix/Valkyrie team runs. With her now strong match damage, she tanks much better and hits harder and has more of a chance to revive and crush with her AOE, which REALLY hits hard now. 
  • atomzed
    atomzed Posts: 1,753 Chairperson of the Boards
    Tiger_Wong said:
    Jmo…. She’s top 30 now. I can revolve a team around her and throw her on a Hulkoye team with good results. With her now having VERY STRONG green match damage, she runs well with Valkyrie/cyclops vs brb/Polaris teams that don’t have Kitty. I’m also very much looking forward to champing Sersi and seeing how a Sersi/Phoenix/Valkyrie team runs. With her now strong match damage, she tanks much better and hits harder and has more of a chance to revive and crush with her AOE, which REALLY hits hard now. 
    I agree with Tiger assessment. Phoenix always have good mechanics, but was suffering from poor numbers. Especially match damage. Changing her match damage to “modern” numbers allow her to tank, which aids in her core mechanics of reviving. 

    I can put her in my Hulkoye team, and hulk tanks zero colours now. That’s huge. Add on the fact that on defence, the opponent must face down two immortal heroes, it does raise some difficult questions of the best order to kill them. If SW wasn’t such a hard counter to hulkoye (which I am glad that we have such a counter), then Phx + Hulkoye team may be a force to reckon with. 

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