***** Abigail Brand (Commander of S.W.O.R.D.) *****

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Comments

  • Sekilicious
    Sekilicious Posts: 1,766 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2022
    Of course, one should always consider when to use their powers optimally. For example, when using Kitty, BRB, and Polaris against Wanda I never fire BRB's green before stunning Wanda. Similarly, if trying to go winfinite with Shang-Chi I like to make sure I can get rid of her repeater because life will suck when I can't quite kill her because she and Colossus have been reducing 96% of the damage Shang-Chi deals. 
  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 5,965 Chairperson of the Boards
    Ultimately, again, there's only one way to win a match: downing the enemy team before they down you.  When we rate characters we're rating them based on how quickly/reliably they can do that, and a character who gets you closer to the win for free is just better than one who has to gather AP and cast powers to get there.

    That's the reason people are down on Abigail, to bring things back around.  She does a whole bunch of things that might indirectly sorta kinda get you closer to a win, but why would you want to go out of your way to do those things when you can just bring somebody else who will kill the enemies?
  • skittledaddy
    skittledaddy Posts: 1,001 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2022
    Thanos said:
    Sorry folks, no videos this time. Her yellow was her one chance at greatness and it's total ****. I don't understand why Demiurge insists on releasing characters that are D.O.A.
    Disappointing, but not surprising, at all.
    Who did you try her with @Thanos ?

  • Anon
    Anon Posts: 1,455 Chairperson of the Boards
    I was brainstorming potential partners for her and got a headache. At least her art is cool.
  • Vhailorx
    Vhailorx Posts: 6,085 Chairperson of the Boards
    skittledaddy said:
    Thanos said:
    Sorry folks, no videos this time. Her yellow was her one chance at greatness and it's total ****. I don't understand why Demiurge insists on releasing characters that are D.O.A.
    Disappointing, but not surprising, at all.
    Who did you try her with @Thanos ?


    At first was thinking apoc since he produces a decent number of repeaters that you want to proc often, and is also a very strong character. But Abigail doesn't produce damage ticks (even small ticks would be great with a boost), which seems like it caps the usefulness.
    As for the perceived usefulness of Colossus and sighclops on release, I always felt like Colossus was underrated because free match damage is really good. But sighclops didn't really do much of anything useful until the value of spinning the board + a mediocre red battery went up wildly with SC.
  • Bad
    Bad Posts: 3,146 Chairperson of the Boards
    Colossus is always useful as he shelters from heavy match damage, CNs and dangerous Shangs. Take colossus and magneto and kaecilius LIT pve won't make a single scratch.
    He is a health pack saver like Shang, only that he doesn't need to do a thing, just to be standing there.

    Cyclops has been revalued, however for me he didn't move from my rank: a 5* for to design a funny team. Imo actually shang doesn't need him: he doesn't need a guy rising his match damage, nor a guy with a minor shuffle, nor a guy stunning foes.
    I think half health thor is better partner, as a battery and because destroys 2 colors Shang doesn't need, increasing cascades.
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    Colossus, at release, was boring to me because he's too straightforward, unlike other characters with more interesting abilities, like Storm or Mr Sinister. There wasn't much to think about his abilities. Even Adam Warlock was more interesting. I remember him getting a lot of flakes too. But now, he's part of the scl 10 speed teams.

    As it stands, Abigail fits right into the kind of "bite size damage every turn" strategy. I can't wait to test her out against meta teams this February.
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    Her bite size damage comes from her attack tiles, and I'm teaming her up with Wanda and Odin as well. So, Odin will boost damage with his strike tiles. Then, two of them provide ap control against Polaris, BRB, Apocalypse or Colossus.  

    It would be great to pair her with someone who can trigger her healing ability on turn 1, like Wanda. 
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    As long as it can get one attack tiles out, it'll hit harder over time, due to Odin's strike tiles and he fortifies tiles randomly when the condition is right. In a team of Odin/Wanda, only Wanda uses blue. Since Abigail's tiles are fortified, she actually helps Odin to hit team heal faster.

    Anyway, we can give it a run in her pvp since Odin can turn allies' builds to 5/5/5.
  • Bad
    Bad Posts: 3,146 Chairperson of the Boards
    If you want fortifying, remember sersei. She fortifies all special tiles in a choosen color, and being abigail there can be a lot. Also if by any chance a match 5 is made she will add extra nuisance to the team. Sersei is a character who is tougher than one can think.
    Being the third odin or wanda possibly it would be an annoying team.
    Not sure if I would like to try it. Not sure if I will chase abigail or not.
  • TheRiddler
    TheRiddler Posts: 291 Mover and Shaker
    Thanos said:
    Sorry folks, no videos this time. Her yellow was her one chance at greatness and it's total ****. I don't understand why Demiurge insists on releasing characters that are D.O.A.

    Thanks. I always look forward to your comments/videos they end up being on the money more often than not.
  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 5,965 Chairperson of the Boards
    I think she's basically handcuffed to Hawkeye.  She can use some of the approximately 1 million blue Hawkeye generates on her attack tile power, and her yellow will always hit something useful if it's one of his CDs.  I'd probably stick to 4* Carol as the 3rd (at 5/5/3, ignoring her active yellow) to create another decent CD and buff strikes/attacks.

    I'm not sure Abigail really works with Odin because you don't necessarily want his CDs going off early.  Same with Iceman.

    Pairing her with SW seems unfair somehow.  Like, if you're going to bring Scarlet Witch, she's doing all the work anyway.  Wasp technically "combos" with SW because she can stand around while Wanda prevents all incoming damage and kills the whole enemy team.
  • Anon
    Anon Posts: 1,455 Chairperson of the Boards
    Wouldn't pairing her with SW be useless? If you do choose to use Wanda's blue, you want it up as long as possible. And after her repeater procs once it does no damage until the next turn right? 
  • Vhailorx
    Vhailorx Posts: 6,085 Chairperson of the Boards
    Seems like this character really needed a "small damage proc on CD or repeater hitting 0" passive.
  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 5,965 Chairperson of the Boards
    Anon said:
    Wouldn't pairing her with SW be useless? If you do choose to use Wanda's blue, you want it up as long as possible. And after her repeater procs once it does no damage until the next turn right? 
    I think the idea was that Abigail would destroy AP and burst heal every time the repeater ticked down, but honestly I'm not sure why you'd bother...that's such a small bonus compared to whatever damage the repeater is doing.
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    The ability is there, but you don't have to fire her yellow power. It's like you don't have to use Thor's red over Apocalypse red when you pair them together. The concept is to generate consistent healing with the right partner. It's a waste of yellow ap but her yellow power is random anyway.
  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 5,965 Chairperson of the Boards
    Is the 2000 burst heal per turn really worth dragging Abigail along?  Wouldnt you be better off bringing, like, any other character?
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    It will be up to 12000 per turn with the right team. It's just another way of having fun with characters. The concept is to have fun, and it is subjective. I'm already playing speed in most pvps and pves. Shield sim is where I have fun with different teams. 
  • tonypq
    tonypq Posts: 557 Critical Contributor
    Thanos said:
    Sorry folks, no videos this time. Her yellow was her one chance at greatness and it's total ****. I don't understand why Demiurge insists on releasing characters that are D.O.A.
    I don't understand either. Why release characters that anyone working on their team should clearly be able to see the glaring flaws in a lot of the 5s they release. Whether it's severe under tuning on ability damage, ability costs, or sometimes both. Or not allowing a repeater or countdown for some characters have a fortification component, even if it require X amount of covers. 

    I'm not upset Brand or a lot of the other duds aren't meta. Just aggravated waiting for all these 5s to come out and bring littlle to the party, or lack teeth because they're abilities weren't tuned correctly.  There are quite a few characters that just drain the enthusiasm out of many players, before they even rotate into the LL store which is really sad. Especially when LLs is occupied by a couple meh characters at the same time as it often is.

    New characters that are fun, functional, and pack an appropriate punch I feel are what keeps many of us playing. This is especially painful for a game with little to no new and meaningful  fun content being released. It's just wait for new characters and hope they aren't terrible. At the 5 tier it really hurts when they miss the mark by a mile. It's great they have taken rebalancing more seriously these days, hopefully. However brand new 5s that haven't even hit LLs yet, shouldn't immediately have to get in behind a long line of duds that desperately need rebalancing to be functional or fun.
  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 5,965 Chairperson of the Boards
    The only explanation that makes any sense is that they don't know what makes characters good (or bad). 

    People make the argument that they release "meta" characters very rarely, on purpose, so that people don't have to constantly chase new overpowered characters.

    If all the non-meta characters were average/mediocre that might make sense, but what would be their incentive to release terrible/underpowered/completely useless characters on purpose?

    The power level of new characters is random.  It's the only way this adds up.

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