***** Vulture (Armor Wars) *****

thedarkphoenix

He looks to be just as good and annoying as his four counterpart!

ThaRoadWarrior

Personal trivia - this is the first time I have a dupe high enough to give out a retro cover.

bbigler

At a bare minimum, he’s an active battery for Red-Yellow-Black that uses either purple or blue. His blue is basically a 2-turn stun with 7K to 14K dmg, assuming the CD tile survives. His purple steals Blue or Green, which is nice. His 1 turn invisibility after airborne is actually very defensive and could be either problematic or beneficial to you.

His green AOE seems big but it takes a lot of AP, which is technically low dmg per AP in the tier. Of course, he generates that AP too, but it would probably be better used by someone else, like Apocalypse or Gamora. So, his green could simply be a 16K single hit.

KGB

I like that 1 turn invisible power from his Purple when you return from airborne. That gives you 1 turns worth of matching after he returns to get enough Blue or Purple to go airborne again. So if you are trying to use him solo to defeat some enemies you might be able to perpetually stay out of their grasp with a bit of luck.

Clearly the Blue ability to grab an opponent and take them airborne is meant for FosThor so she won't be wrecking his CD with her passive.

KGB

entrailbucket

He seems like the kind of guy you've got to actually play to figure out. I look forward to trying him out!

I'm also really, really glad they didn't bolt on some kind of anti revive or anti web tile gimmick. Before anybody asks, and just to kill that whole discussion, sending either immortal guy airborne is likely a bad idea, and most certainly is not a "counter."

ThaRoadWarrior

If you pair him with Archangel, a 2-turn airborne should be enough turns to trigger the anti-air passive

liminal_lad

Are nay changes happening to 4-star Vulture powers? Or is he still "away" while airborne?

Vhailorx

Definitely seems like a character who is sufficiently complicated that predicting his value will be hard.

That said, batteries are very useful and relatively scarce in the 5* tier. So I predict that his floor his pretty high. Not sure if his ceiling is all that high; it doesn't seem like he does enough damage, but maybe things will play up?

WhiteBomber

Deathlok's stock (Deathstok) just keeps goin up! I quite enjoy the idea of him shooting Vulture out of the sky, while also giving AP to my techno Vulture. I reckon a 5 star who is able to hit airborne targets might also be in our future.

Seems like he might be the most fun to play 5star since Evo.

Also, thank you for giving me enough time to put my 4 Vulture high enough to get my Peter Pooper before this change happened!

BurntOutGamer

I want to try him out with Heimdall & Kang. Heimdall’s yellow is admittedly too expensive though

entrailbucket

Re-reading this, it's unclear whether his green power is draining friendly or enemy red, yellow, and black to do extra damage.

IrisRyu

@entrailbucket said:
Re-reading this, it's unclear whether his green power is draining friendly or enemy red, yellow, and black to do extra damage.

I’ve had my fill with losing AP to enemy teams the last year, so I really hope it drains friendly AP. Besides the word choice seems very intentional and I think they would have used “steal” if it was enemy AP. If it’s enemy AP, then Vulture would be on the verge of being OP.

entrailbucket

@IrisRyu said:

@entrailbucket said:
Re-reading this, it's unclear whether his green power is draining friendly or enemy red, yellow, and black to do extra damage.

I’ve had my fill with losing AP to enemy teams the last year, so I really hope it drains friendly AP. Besides the word choice seems very intentional and I think they would have used “steal” if it was enemy AP. If it’s enemy AP, then Vulture would be on the verge of being OP.

"Steal" always means that the enemy loses the AP and you get it. "Drain" usually means the AP disappears and nobody gets it, although sometimes that's called "destroy" (and maybe other things?)

IrisRyu

I’m guessing it functions the same as the 4*’s blue, which “drains” friendly AP when he goes airborne.

raber18

@KGB said:
Yeah I was thinking same thing about him being airborne. Looks like he will be able to fire abilities while airborne.

I guess now that we have an official 'away' state via Kang/Mordo it makes more sense that Airborne characters can fire powers.

I also note via the feeder updates that we are getting YET ANOTHER 4* Spiderman character to feed 5* Peter Parker. As if having like 10 Spiderman/Spiderwoman/SpiderAnimal characters at the 4* level isn't enough

KGB

Do you mean Wong? Or does mordo do something very different than what I remember

Punisher5784

@entrailbucket said:
Re-reading this, it's unclear whether his green power is draining friendly or enemy red, yellow, and black to do extra damage.

I'm thinking since his passive gains those colors that it only makes sense that his power drains it too. It's like 3* Ironman's powers draining his noncolor AP

Pantera236

So he can fire powers while airborne but can he make matches?

entrailbucket

@Punisher5784 said:

@entrailbucket said:
Re-reading this, it's unclear whether his green power is draining friendly or enemy red, yellow, and black to do extra damage.

I'm thinking since his passive gains those colors that it only makes sense that his power drains it too. It's like 3* Ironman's powers draining his noncolor AP

Oh, that's what I think too -- and it's what would make the most sense power level-wise. I'm just saying that it's not clear from the power description, and...well, given where we're at today, who knows?

Daredevil217

@Bad said:
By the way, full throttle at max drain deals 525% of 5355 to the enemy team, more or less 30k damage. Not bad.

Isn’t it 125%? 7 X 125? That’s less than 10k.

Daredevil217

Fastest I’ve ever done a writeup for my rankings guide (I also have HEvo, Omega, Venom, and Gwen done, just need to post it). But here are my initial thoughts.

Vulture (Armor Wars)
🔵1003 🟣891 🟢780 🔘496
⚫️127 🔴118 🟡108 🏥67,660

Affiliations: Villains, Sinister Six, Technologists
Feeders: Vulture (Adrian Toomes)

Recommended Build: 5/5/3
Alternative Build: 3/5/5

Up until Polaris blew up the 4* scene, I had Vulture down as the best 4* in the game. Now, years later we have a 5* version that is very much a spiritual successor, capitalizing on the things the OG version did so well (AP generation, hard to catch, great self-synergy).

Vulture’s Blue (Absolute Altitude) costs 7 AP, sends him and his target airborne, and creates a 2-turn “Hostile Skies” countdown tile. When this tile leaves the board, the airborne characters land, and Vulture deals 3562-7124 damage to the target for each turn they were Airborne. If you fire this power while the countdown is still out, Vulture deals 2 hits of 2848-6764 damage to the airborne enemy and adds a turn to the tile (which adds to the overall damage dealt when landing). This power is great because 1) it takes a threat off the board 2) allows Vulture the chance to deal damage while being protected from taking damage 3) allows Vulture to generate 8 AP and go invisible upon landing thanks to this next ability…

At 5 covers, Vulture’s Purple (Stealth Hunter) costs just 6 AP and sees Vulture steal 3 AP from the enemy (prioritizing blue/green) and go airborne for 2 turns. Vulture also has a killer passive that sees him go invisible for a turn and generate 3 red, 3 yellow, and 2 black AP whenever he returns from airborne status. There is a lot going on with this power. The active fuels Adrian’s other two abilities, while the passive can be used as a great battery for an ally, or to fuel his next ability…

Adrian’s Green (Full Throttle Blast) costs 7 AP and drains 4-7 AP in Vulture’s weak colors. Vulture then deals 3561-5342 AOE damage that is boosted 20-25% for each AP drained. If Vulture is airborne, this power changes to a different 7 AP ability (Plummet) that grounds Vulture (and any target sent airborne by Vulture’s blue). He then deals 9784-16016 damage to the front character. Both versions of Vulture’s green also do a little boardshake, destroying 4-5 tiles (that do not generate AP, unlike the 4*). I like the versatility of this power in theory, but in practice, you’d always want to fire this when Vulture is airborne. He always does more damage and does not siphon any AP. At 5 covers with 7 AP drained he’s still only doing 9.3k damage with Full Throttle Blast, which is a terrible trade off for 14 AP.

As I said before, Vulture has a lot in common with his 4* counterpart. Vulture is an AP factory… only better because he generates AP for himself and others! He’s also hard to hit… only better because he has two powers that send him airborne and he goes invisible upon landing! He also has great self-synergy with each ability feeding the next. Like the OG version, you ideally want to send Vulture (and a target) airborne, smack the enemy around, and send them crashing down. Only for Vulture to collect copious amounts of AP, fly up, and do it all over again. Overall, Vulture is a great self-sustaining character, who also plays well with others. Another stellar release from BCS!

Pairings:
There are two types of characters that I like with Vulture. First are those who can send him airborne (Heimdall, Captain Marvel) as they are another source of free AP, triggering the purple passive. I also like people who can tank/heal while Vulture flies the friendly skies. Characters like Doctor Doom, Okoye, Silver Surfer, Omega Red, and the aforementioned Heimdall can not only heal, but they all benefit from at least 2 of their active powers being fed by Vulture’s purple passive. Other non-healers who benefit from Vulture feeding two excellent abilities are Deadpool, Mighty Thor, Jessica Jones, Ghost Rider, First Avenger Cap, Elektra, Wong, Spider-Gwen, and Magik (who will tank everything for extra damage while Vulture flies around). As good as these combos are, Gamora or Apocalypse actually up the ante, as either combine to make a crazy good full rainbow team! And as good as those combos are, Vulture’s hard to tackle status makes him an excellent second or third partner for iHulk/Chasm.

What to expect when boosted
Because the bird pairs so well with most of the very best in the game, he will for sure be the dominant option boosted. The likelihood of his hard counter being boosted with him is extremely low. This means that if someone tries to run Angel as a counter, you can easily pick Warren apart with your 100+ level boost advantage before taking flight. This makes boosted Toomes almost unstoppable!