Shang-chi and Sersei?

ThaRoadWarrior

Srheer0 said:

ThaRoadWarrior said:

dianetics said:

P4X needs to run at 553 otherwise he will flood the board too quickly and SC will have trouble keeping his infinites going.

This build IS superior, but I was running him the opposite for quite awhile out of laziness and it really wasn't that bad in practice.

I made the change a few months ago as per allies suggestion.  

I thought "c'mon, there's a huge different in match % stacking up. Having 5 pink can't be better!"

After trying it out, it makes sense. Charged tiles give triple match damage and AP. Having more charged tiles is just better

This is talking about the build you need for Professor X - whenever an ally fires a power, he either creates a single protect tile at 5/5/3, or the more common build (I assume) of 5/3/5 which creates 1 of each SAP tile. I've had my Shang-Chi at 5/5/3 for maximum board control and health retention pretty much since I was able to re-spec him. The AP gain and additional damage from charge tiles is crucial in my opinion, I'd only consider a 3/5/5 alternative for him.

Vhailorx

dianetics said:

P4X needs to run at 553 otherwise he will flood the board too quickly and SC will have trouble keeping his infinites going.

Or you need to have a dupe 4* prof with no yellow covers from way back in the day!

As for sersi: on paper I am pretty confident she will be a solid 3rd pick on lots of teams, but that is a pretty easy role to fill in this game.  And while I think she will be a decent pick-2 option with SC, I think he will have better partners (onslaught, sighclops', maybe even big wheel, etc). 

All that said, hers is the kind of kit that can age well (board control + unique mechanics and nothing that is really bad), so I think her + big wheel is probably good enough to justify chasing for anyone who expects to get 50% or more of new 5*s (for those who play less and need to be more careful with their cp, I would suggest waiting for the next SC-tier release). I don't yet know if gamora or the as yet unnamed repeater tile specialist is the better play.

Thanos

Shang's best partners are Onslaught, 5Clops and of course Chavez. Sersei can stay in the discount bin where she belongs.

Srheer0

Thanos said:

Shang's best partners are Onslaught, 5Clops and of course Chavez. Sersei can stay in the discount bin where she belongs.

I don't see her as terrible though.  

With Halfthor, Shangchi and Sersi, you will inevitably get green AP to fire her green and you'll have enough pink ap to fire her pink before you fire the first shot of Shangchi's pink.  

By firing her green you can make random red or pink tiles,
And her pink means 50% less chance for blue / black tiles to fall.  

While it might not be as effective as onslaught or Chavez, the more turns that pass, the more valuable her pink becomes. 

Sekilicious

It is kind of ironic to use Sighclops to bash Sersi anyways. 

HoundofShadow

RPG has many different classes like warrior, barbarian, assassin, mage, bard and monk etc whose abilities can be classified into attack, defend, support, tank, heal etc. If you do a poll and ask 10 million players what the best classes are, you get a lot of different answers.

Likewise, MPQ also has similar "classes" in the game. Characters like Sersi or 5torm are strategic/puzzly type of character, whereas Colossus or Apocalypse are aggressive/defensive type of character. Then, we have support like Odin or even Abigail. In the land of 5* players whose playstyle revolves around speed, only characters like Okoye/Apocalypse/Colossus etc are relevant. 

If you like puzzly or board manipulation characters, Sersi or 5torm is for you. If you like to mow down things quickly, iHulkoye is for you. A character is only as good as in the eyes of players. I imagine the game will be boring if majority of the new releases are the likes of iHulkoye or Apocalypse.

ThaRoadWarrior

We have a lot of different character archetypes, but until Puzzle Guantlet came out speed-clearing was the only game mode we had, so make of that what you will in regards to player behavior. Characters are valued in the context of the game they are in, and this one rewards you for fast wins no matter how you slice it either by giving you a fraction of your life back on shorter grinds to progression, or in placement rewards for actually trying to maximize points. So it's all well and good to make and collect slow or puzzly characters, but it would be great to see a place where they can shine in the game as well without having to take a deliberate handicap by bringing them along.

Vhailorx

BlackBoltRocks said:

Srheer0 said:

I don't see her as terrible though.  

Agreed. I don’t know why certain posters are so quick to bash on 5* that are not up to their taste. Odin, Ultron, Sersi, Abigail, and I’m sure several others before that.

I like using the Sersi/Shang/Thor trio. I don’t bother with her pink though; just use Sersi’s Green to fuel either Red or Pink. Shang sets up match-5s, which creates Sersi’s countdowns, but Shang usually ends the match before those countdowns can proc.

Well, there is a difference between characters that aren't to a player's taste and one that is legitimately terrible (think the difference between sinister who isn't everyone's jam, and wasp, who sucks infamously).

And then I would propose a third category of characters that are difficult to judge on paper because of the uniqueness or contingenices of their kits (e.g.  Odin, sersi, Abigail, etc).

HoundofShadow

Given that majority of the players don't play for speed and play casually, I think speed applies only to top players or min-max players. Since forums, lines, or even facebook are filled with these groups of players, naturally, we see MPQ as all about speed. So, there exists a world where both speed and non-speed play exist in MPQ.

I do agree, and based on some events, changing the contexts or conditions of events shake things up. However, shaking things up too often might be a negative for some. One occurence is that top alliances don't like such "unusual" events to occur during pvp season. So, we have resistance from the top and it's hard shake things up in pvp frequently. As for scl 10 PvEs, the difference in rewards for top 20 to top 100 is pretty negligible. 

As for time, everyone has 24 hours a day. How one spends one time depends on each individual. If getting top placements is important, then speed is important. If it's not, it's possible to play pves sporadically within 24 hour. 

bbigler

How do you know the majority of players don’t play for speed? That sounds like a guess based on the small sample of players you know. It would be hard to survey a representative sample of the player base, so let’s not make assumptions 

entrailbucket

There's a pretty wide gap between playing for speed at the highest competitive levels and purposely using characters that are 100x worse/slower than the good characters. 

Plenty of players who aren't competitive at all still prefer to use characters that are good/fast because they don't want to lose fights on offense or spend 5 hours playing PvE.

bbigler

I would say it’s a spectrum between fast and slow play, where people do the best they can within the constraints of their life. I would say that few players have both the top characters and time to dedicate to playing very competitively. So if you’re not playing at the level of the top 1%, that doesn’t mean you’re playing slow. It’s a spectrum.  I see some players with average rosters who play hard, while other players with top rosters who play average. 

entrailbucket

I have access to the fastest characters and plenty of time to compete, but I generally choose not to play super fast/competitively and often use suboptimal teams, because it's more fun.

At the same time, I never purposely use underpowered, bad or extremely slow characters, because that wouldn't be fun.  The problem isn't that the slow characters are slow, it's that they're slow *and also* weak.  Aside from puzzle gauntlet, there's only one way to win a fight, and that is by downing all your enemies.  

ThaRoadWarrior

I think people prefer characters that give them agency, and can make their own luck on a dry board as a general rule.

HoundofShadow

The dev did mention way way back that majority of players don't play for speed. 

Of course, those spectrum of players are real. Also, it depends on how we classify what it means to play for speed for non-competitive players.

Anyway, each characters have their own advantages in different conditions. I think it's really a personal preference on how things in MPQ should be. 

atomzed

Srheer0 said:

Thanos said:

Shang's best partners are Onslaught, 5Clops and of course Chavez. Sersei can stay in the discount bin where she belongs.

I don't see her as terrible though.  

With Halfthor, Shangchi and Sersi, you will inevitably get green AP to fire her green and you'll have enough pink ap to fire her pink before you fire the first shot of Shangchi's pink.  

By firing her green you can make random red or pink tiles,
And her pink means 50% less chance for blue / black tiles to fall.  

While it might not be as effective as onslaught or Chavez, the more turns that pass, the more valuable her pink becomes. 

I am a big fan of Thor-SC-Sighclops, but after playing with Thor-SC-Sersi these few days, I think the latter combi is also quite good. 

I would use Sersi purple to target black, so less black would drop. With Thor passive board shake, every turn Sersi passive is being useful. I also noted that Sersi is faster than Sighclops,  because of the board shake animation. Sighclops yellow and green cause board shake but takes time. Sersi purple passive just silently works behind the scene. So it feels a bit faster. 

Srheer0

atomzed said:

Srheer0 said:

Thanos said:

Shang's best partners are Onslaught, 5Clops and of course Chavez. Sersei can stay in the discount bin where she belongs.

I don't see her as terrible though.  

With Halfthor, Shangchi and Sersi, you will inevitably get green AP to fire her green and you'll have enough pink ap to fire her pink before you fire the first shot of Shangchi's pink.  

By firing her green you can make random red or pink tiles,
And her pink means 50% less chance for blue / black tiles to fall.  

While it might not be as effective as onslaught or Chavez, the more turns that pass, the more valuable her pink becomes. 

I am a big fan of Thor-SC-Sighclops, but after playing with Thor-SC-Sersi these few days, I think the latter combi is also quite good. 

I would use Sersi purple to target black, so less black would drop. With Thor passive board shake, every turn Sersi passive is being useful. I also noted that Sersi is faster than Sighclops,  because of the board shake animation. Sighclops yellow and green cause board shake but takes time. Sersi purple passive just silently works behind the scene. So it feels a bit faster. 

Glad you found some enjoyment out of it

One day I will look into getting the most % chance for black tiles to fall. Team would be Domino, Sersei and IDK who else yet.

Bubba3210

I would think Onslaught or Hydra Stomper’s green power would create the most black.

ThaRoadWarrior

I'd go with Nightcrawler, unless you need them to actually fall from the top. In that scenario then I think your best options are 4* Thanos or 2* Magneto, or if you're feeling like waiting, Black Bolt + all the AP in the world.

Omegased

5clops is the best partner for Shang Chi in 5 star (in my opinion). his green floods the board with Red, and yellow makes Shangy even stronger. 3/5/5 and he's good to go.