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

658_2

Jimsta_rooney said:

658_2 said:

I’m going to pull tomorrow so my Garg is only 1/1/1, but I’ve messed with him enough to get a good feel for his powers and (while recognizing you’re adjusting his ranking already), I don’t think he’s a little too high at 10, he’s WAY too high. The limiters on all 3 of his powers are so heavy. Tentacle Thrash will only do damage once or twice a match, black’s problems are obvious (the damage component should work whether there are opposing specials or not), and the blue draining all blue leaves you out in the wilderness after the cast. He doesn’t play well with anyone but Hawkeye or AB, not even Okoye (because TT will almost always hit a color that has ap, so she has nothing to boost). And even with Hawkeye, it’s healthpack city because it’s so slow. I’ll hit that team all day long boosted. Get rid of Hawkeye quick and then Garg does…nothing?

Looking at the list, who is he better than? He’s not better than Ronan. He’s not close to better than Crystal. He’s not clearly better than Havok (I think he’s probably worse). You’re in the 40s before you get to characters he’s definitely better than.

Theres absolutely no way you can tell hes bad at 3 covers sorry.
As with all new 5 stars hes a monster boosted and he doesnt just have one good power he has two.

I champed him. I stick with everything I wrote. He’s got one good power and he’s not a monster boosted with anyone but Hawkeye. I hit at least 7 Garg/HEs in pvp when Garg was boosted. Never ate blue once. He’s total meh

Jimsta_rooney

Fair enough.
I dont have hawkeye at a decent level either.
He was actually my mvp in the last puzzle gauntlet the only one that required some thought.

IrisRyu

I wanted to love Garg and sharded the s$&! out of all Hawkeyes the second I read his kit. I was fully “Team HawkEyeball is the New Meta.”  Yeah, I was wrong! Those 2 paired with Elektr5 definitely let you punch up, if you’re in your 5* infancy, but you’ll lose multiple matches in that time, so it’s not really a viable trade off. I leveled him up to the 470’s and can honestly say there’s pretty much zero value to the additional covers. I’m hoping that Garg’s Tentacle Thrash has some increased utility with Chasm, but I’m not getting my hopes up (see FosThor).  

I think that he’s going to be collecting dust on my roster outside boost weeks… and even then there are likely to be faster options. Definitely not the outcome I expected after his first Boss Event!

658_2

Jimsta_rooney said:

Fair enough.
I dont have hawkeye at a decent level either.
He was actually my mvp in the last puzzle gauntlet the only one that required some thought.

Jmo, ymmv. I don’t want to overstate. He’s not like useless or anything. “Total meh” is too far. Underwhelming might be a better word.

I’m interested where Daredevil puts him when he gets time to update his list. I’m also quite interested where Chasm is gonna fall. Talk about tough to rank. The guys who champed Chasm early all probably hate my guts because I kept hitting them just to get a real feel for how he actually plays. He’s legitimately super annoying but I also only lost once after hitting him 12 or so times (he *owns* BRB). The first turn stun is off putting and ime it always felt like something horrible was going to happen as those abyss tiles pile up everywhere, but without any active powers he doesn’t do much damage. But, you feel the ap drain the entire match, and those fights are looong. I would avoid him on a hop when possible, which puts him in rare territory. Obviously, he’s one I don’t think you can get a feel for offensively until he’s covered, and I look forward to hearing the strategies people are using to exploit his stun. And with this new Hulk (or whoever it is)…I think we’re going to be quite thankful Hulk’s revive takes a turn, but whittling them down as a pair enough to take them both out in one final turn is going to be a pain, to say the least. 

atomzed

The rebalanced Banner would probably be mid tier now, with the full health generation, green generation and hefty strike tiles.  

Vhailorx

658_2 said:

Jimsta_rooney said:

658_2 said:

I’m going to pull tomorrow so my Garg is only 1/1/1, but I’ve messed with him enough to get a good feel for his powers and (while recognizing you’re adjusting his ranking already), I don’t think he’s a little too high at 10, he’s WAY too high. The limiters on all 3 of his powers are so heavy. Tentacle Thrash will only do damage once or twice a match, black’s problems are obvious (the damage component should work whether there are opposing specials or not), and the blue draining all blue leaves you out in the wilderness after the cast. He doesn’t play well with anyone but Hawkeye or AB, not even Okoye (because TT will almost always hit a color that has ap, so she has nothing to boost). And even with Hawkeye, it’s healthpack city because it’s so slow. I’ll hit that team all day long boosted. Get rid of Hawkeye quick and then Garg does…nothing?

Looking at the list, who is he better than? He’s not better than Ronan. He’s not close to better than Crystal. He’s not clearly better than Havok (I think he’s probably worse). You’re in the 40s before you get to characters he’s definitely better than.

Theres absolutely no way you can tell hes bad at 3 covers sorry.
As with all new 5 stars hes a monster boosted and he doesnt just have one good power he has two.

I champed him. I stick with everything I wrote. He’s got one good power and he’s not a monster boosted with anyone but Hawkeye. I hit at least 7 Garg/HEs in pvp when Garg was boosted. Never ate blue once. He’s total meh

It's about synergy. HE is the best blue battery right now, but he is squishy and slow to get started.

But imagine if garg were around in the stunner bro days when you could reliably have 10 blue ap at the start  of turn 2. Garg's blue hits hard enough that he could become a primary damage play if any sufficiently good blue battery is added to the game.  That's valuable.

It's also just about his only value as his black is super niche and his green doesn't do enough damage or enough ap suppression to be a reliably useful power.  If it just did 2 or 3ap per CD, or had nuke damage rather than chip damage it would be a real threat.

dianetics

After using Gary quite a bit more I have to push him even farther down. His nuke sends him invis leaving his best partners open for attack.
the people who would boost him do it after tentacle thrash stops doing damage.
I’m having some issues with him even when he is boosted. He is quite slow and his nuke needs a lot of ap that leaves his partners open for attack.
He has such a huge health pool he should be willing to take hits. As a last stand opponent he can be troublesome.

I think he should land 27-30ish only because he can work solo like Yellowjacket. 

IrisRyu

dianetics said:

I’m having some issues with him even when he is boosted. He is quite slow and his nuke needs a lot of ap that leaves his partners open for attack.
He has such a huge health pool he should be willing to take hits. As a last stand opponent he can be troublesome.

I totally agree that leaving his best partners vulnerable is a huge liability, but I’ve found that pairing him with FosThor in pick-2 in Robbie’s PVP helps to overcome his AP requirements (with the added benefit of neutering any opposing HE teams). Boosted, Garg has been able to one shot (or close) the most dangerous character on the opposing team, so the vulnerability hasn’t been the issue in matches that I feared heading in. I’m not sure if that’s more a testament to FosThor’s versatility or Garg’s abilities, but he’s much more useful boosted w/out HE than I expected! Yay!

Sekilicious

Where would you guys put Chasm and Dr.Thor? Jane looks like a lot of fun if you like board shake and charged tiles. 

IrisRyu

Jane deserves a Top 10 placement just for shaking up (terrible pun, intended) the defensive meta. This Simulator Season has been the most diverse in terms of team compositions that I’ve personally seen and I think we can thank Jane for that. She’s great strictly as a support or the primary damage dealer, but she can be slow to start up and that lag time (plus the double-edged sword of charged tile creation) makes her pretty easy to beat. Still, I could see her taking Half-Thor’s spot at no. 5 given that she’s better at what he does + plus she’s tank-ish.

Chasm deserves rank No. 1++++++. The match damage and stun are fun, but he really shines in being a meat shield to provide cover for the other two characters that you actually care about. With Chasm’s cover, I’ve been able to explore team synergies that I never would’ve approached before his arrival. It’s still early days and I could be wildly wrong, but I don’t think players have even begun to scratch the surface of Chasm’s potential. He’s the ultimate team player!

fight4thedream

IrisRyu said:

Jane deserves a Top 10 placement just for shaking up (terrible pun, intended) the defensive meta. This Simulator Season has been the most diverse in terms of team compositions that I’ve personally seen and I think we can thank Jane for that. She’s great strictly as a support or the primary damage dealer, but she can be slow to start up and that lag time (plus the double-edged sword of charged tile creation) makes her pretty easy to beat. Still, I could see her taking Half-Thor’s spot at no. 5 given that she’s better at what he does + plus she’s tank-ish.

Chasm deserves rank No. 1++++++. The match damage and stun are fun, but he really shines in being a meat shield to provide cover for the other two characters that you actually care about. With Chasm’s cover, I’ve been able to explore team synergies that I never would’ve approached before his arrival. It’s still early days and I could be wildly wrong, but I don’t think players have even begun to scratch the surface of Chasm’s potential. He’s the ultimate team player!

While I don't disagree that Mighty Thor is awesome and a powerhouse, I think it's worth pointing out that Half-Thor's value is primarily in his synergy with two of the best boosters in the game, Apocalypse and Okoye. He is still the most reliable in terms of AP generation.  

While there is certainly talk and testing of Jane and Shang-Chi as a comparable alternative, as far as I am aware, that combo is still not quite top tier speed. 

I think ultimately Half-Thor is still the better choice for competitive PvE. That could potentially change, especially if we ever get CL11 but as things are now, I don't see Jane eclipsing him there.

But yes, she is significantly better defensively for PvP. Although PvP right now is pretty wild so I don't know if that means much with a growing and thriving revive meta. 

IrisRyu

fight4thedream said:

IrisRyu said:

While I don't disagree that Mighty Thor is awesome and a powerhouse, I think it's worth pointing out that Half-Thor's value is primarily in his synergy with two of the best boosters in the game, Apocalypse and Okoye. He is still the most reliable in terms of AP generation.  

Totally fair observation and a great counterpoint. I’m pretty PVP-focused where Half-Thor is a non-factor, but I shouldn’t dismiss his contributions to PVE. I don’t envy DD217 having to recalibrate this list, because so many of these characters have value in differing venues. 

Daniel2121

Jane + Morbius is such a strong anti Polaris + BRB meta it's not even fun lol

Is Chasm better than Shang Chi? I don't think so

Djbob101

where would you guys place Chasm and JThor and IShulk. I personally dont like Ishulk that much. She is quite straight forward but lacks something imo. Chasm may slow down the match but he is loads of fun to play. I cant stand fighting him but playing him is a blast. JThor is one of the most annyoing forces out rn. You cant leave her last but she is always paired up wit polaris so u are forced to. Also i think Frost is very lack luster. She feels way too much copy and paste to her 3* counterpart. Blue is the same move as the 3 star. Red is different doe. I might warm to her idk yet. Imo it should be chasm and Jthor top 10 max top 20 minium. Emma Idk yet. Ishulk in the top 30 max

Tiger_Wong

JMO……

chasm is meta af. Top 10. He slows you and the opponent down but you will have a strange sort of precision. The more he tanks, the better he is and as a tank, he might be better than colossus. You can actually use chasm against colossus with really good results on the first 2 turns of the match. He neuters BRB and Grocket teams, and he faints most lvl 370 4s on the first turn. He’s even good on defense as nobody wants to battle Hulkoye/Chasm or FosThor/Crystal/Chasm or just about any Chasm team because his AP mitigation and revival ability is so good. And I’m PvE, his first turn stun invaluable vs the monsters that start the match placing tiles on the field (can’t remember their names right now)

I think FosThor is top 5, if for no other reason than she doesn’t allow Wanda to breathe. She’s a really good defense-breaker and strangely goes very well with Shang chi, despite SC being about precision and FosThor being about chaos. She’s really tough to face because of RNG. 

My Ph5 Emma is at 4/4/2 and the more I use her, the more I feel like there’s something there waiting to be exploited. Her blue has great potential with a good pairing (I like how she goes with chasm). I also dig the passive element to her red, although I can’t calculate how much damage it should add on the fly…… yet. 

slidecage

so waste pulls trying to get jane

slidecage

pulled 19 got 1 ben 1 she hulk 1 thor

thor 223 with 900 shards
she hulk 222 with 480 shards
ben 112 with 1049 shards

Sekilicious

@Sekilicious said:
Where would you guys put Chasm and Dr.Thor? Jane looks like a lot of fun if you like board shake and charged tiles. 

Since I have both champed now I figured I’d add my opinion. Chasm and Jane are both top-5 characters in both PvE and PvP. I would put Chasm ahead of Apocalypse and maybe Jane just behind. I think SC is an excellent choice at #1 and Okoye #2 because if you have either you can handle pretty much any node in PvE or PvP (if willing to shield or chasing 50 wins). Maybe my opinion would change if I had a functional Wanda.
Chasm and iHulk are meta to the point that boosted characters often don’t matter in PvP, or less important anyways. Some complain about Chasm draining ap but I don’t find him much different to play than Kitty and Grocket, especially against goons. After all, you don’t really want to fire either Kitty’s yellow or Grocket’s green when boosting tiles. Chasm + Gritty is now my go to for most Mindless One nodes.
My favourite team in the simulator is Chasm, Jane, and Silk because of the massive board shake every turn. It helps they can beat any team outside the Chasm/iHulk meta. As an aside, I would place Kamala in the top ten. My fastest PvE team right now is Apocalypse, Kamala Khan, and Polaris with Atlantis, Sanctum Santorum, and Korg.

What does everyone think about iShulk, Emma, and Arcade? I am kind of partial to Emma’s potential. I can think of a place for both iShulk and Arcade (not in the bin if that’s what you’re wondering).

dramatist

The one thing that I have noticed about Jane Thor is how easily she replaces 1/2 Thor for me now. I used to end up using 1/2 Thor more than any other 5* and he is on a he bench now. I don’t play very competitively so I usually use some of the boosted characters in both PvE and PvP.

I haven’t used Chasm much because I don’t like his gameplay much.

Omegased

@dramatist said:
The one thing that I have noticed about Jane Thor is how easily she replaces 1/2 Thor for me now. I used to end up using 1/2 Thor more than any other 5* and he is on a he bench now. I don’t play very competitively so I usually use some of the boosted characters in both PvE and PvP.

I haven’t used Chasm much because I don’t like his gameplay much.

Only problem with Jane is she'll break apocalypse, or any character using special tiles. For that reason alone, gladiator Thor still has his uses