Character rankings 6/14 edition: the results!

OnesOwnGrief

Ronfar wrote:

I actually think 4/4/5 is probably the best Spider-Man build.

3 blue: First stun is one turn, second stun is one turn, third stun is two turns
4 blue: First stun is one turn, second stun is two turns, third stun is two turns
5 blue: First stun is one turn, second stun is two turns, third stun is three turns

Collecting 10 blue AP to stun twice is something that will probably happen, but collecting 15 AP to stun three times is much rarer. You might as well get the extra healing from the 4th yellow cover.

Spider-Man also makes a great partner for Classic Magneto. Magneto has a great purple skill but has purple as a weak match damage color. Spider-Man loves matching purple tiles but doesn't actually have a use for purple AP. They're like best friends!
Yes, they both have skills that take blue AP, but Magneto's blue only appears to cost AP, so they don't actually conflict.

Spiderman is still useful for new players entering 3* land to lock down Hulk and Thor. My current 4/4/5 build has allowed my sorry team of level 100 heroes to still compete against those heavy hitters in PvP. Until I get a solid group without him, that's what I'll be using.

Unknown

Ronfar wrote:

Spider-Man also makes a great partner for Classic Magneto. Magneto has a great purple skill but has purple as a weak match damage color. Spider-Man loves matching purple tiles but doesn't actually have a use for purple AP. They're like best friends!
Yes, they both have skills that take blue AP, but Magneto's blue only appears to cost AP, so they don't actually conflict.

Yeah, I've actually been quite happy with my Spidey/CMags combo in we slinger PvP. Protect tiles are a welcome bonus for matching purple and negate any damage I take while building up AP to start one of CMags never ending turns. Yellow heal is usually enough to get me back to 100% health at the end so I can keep grinding for a few hours. Spider-Man's blue is pretty worthless now, but I use blue for Magneto's self sustaining power anyway.

Not horrible pairing with Hulk out front either to take damage and mix the board up with his green power when I need. CMags has red too, so I don't have to worry about counting green tiles or using all my green AP for Hulk's stupid red power either. Getting max damage out of each color and an active power for all but black is nice too.

Hoping they don't totally neuter Cmags like they did Spidey when they inevitably nerd him. Maybe just adjust his red to take 5 AP? My CMags is only at 5/3/3, but quite playable. Would be especially nice if red was made a bit stronger (damage, generate AP) for costing what seems like the new minimum of 5 AP, but even if not it would be okay.

Unknown

The Webslinger tournament altered my view of Spidey a bit. As a 3rd banana to C.Mags and Punisher he made purple and yellow matches into actual damage, cut down on the damage they received and every now and then got a heal off. With two "hitters" you can afford to have a pure support like Spidey as the 3rd, his powers aren't very good but they fill a space. However, to use him without the boost I'd have to stick another 30 or so levels on him and I've just got better places to put that iso.

When these rankings were done, were some of the votes submitted pre-nerf? If Spidey votes were pre-nerf I could understand a bit more people who voted him highly.

ETA: If the healing nerf goes through, forget anything I said about Spidey still being useful even if you do happen to have the levels on him.

Unknown

Don't forget he was buffed in that PvP. That can skew perceptions.

Spoit

Toxicadam wrote:

Don't forget he was buffed in that PvP. That can skew perceptions.

Which gives bigger numbers, sure, But 2 purple tiles should give you enough to make match damage not matter to much regardless. If anything skewed it, it was the presence of an enemy spidey putting down webs for you

Unknown

Seeing Spider Man drop to 18 is like the moment when Angelina Jolie dropped out of the FHM Magazine top 100 after funbalancing her ****.

Unknown

Spidey was great in the PVP, though I'm speaking as someone who never had a usable one pre-nerf. I used him with Lazy Thor and Magneto, and he allowed me to come out of almost every battle at full health, with Magneto rarely taking any damage.

The thing is, I don't see putting him on a 2-person team, but I may use him when I can have an actual 3-person team. I tend to use a random assortment of 3*s in the simulator anyway, so that may become a useful home for him. He's not what he used to have been, but he still serves a support role as a healer and a damage mitigator - even without the boost a couple of purple matches should essentially eliminate match damage.

mischiefmaker

After a weekend break, we're back! #12-17 are up today.

Unknown

I think a lot of the Psylocke underrating comes from her blue being useless and so many people having maxed Punishers but not a maxed Psylocke.


I liked her when I used her during the Brotherhood PVE but I have a half@ssed version of her (2/3/3) which is only in the 60s.

Pairing her with 2* Wolverine, though, paid off well because using green to make the strike tiles meant that, by the time I was firing off her red, I was doing about 2 hits of direct damage with it then using her black.

vudu3

Psylocke's biggest problem is she's not a true support character in the same way that Daken and Hood are. Two of her three moves are direct damage dealers (and as discussed her third is mostly useless). People in 3* territory are more likely to be ISO-starved and it's just not worth it to pump a lot of ISO into a mid-tier character like Psylocke.

Punisher is a better character due to his green-then-black combo and his red is useful for taking out Thor, Hulk, etc.

HairyDave

Teke184 wrote:

I think a lot of the Psylocke underrating comes from her blue being useless and so many people having maxed Punishers but not a maxed Psylocke.

All of this.

My Betsy is sitting on 5/4/2 @L115 and I'm honesty not disappointed with the blue - stripping up to 19AP (particularly goon teams) is a huge bonus even if you can't use what you swipe. I'm seriously considering trying to get her to 4/5/4 just so I can reduce the countdown to two. I don't think it's going to be much of compromise because there's a lot of better red powers out there.

OzarkBoatswain

Regarding Human Torch. Red can also destroy special tiles which is good when the enemies have them on red (that is, Daken). The bad part about him is how he does on defense. Black requires special care (which the AI doesn't have) to be effective, and the AI keep casting green whenever it has 5 AP.

wymtime

HairyDave wrote:

Teke184 wrote:

I think a lot of the Psylocke underrating comes from her blue being useless and so many people having maxed Punishers but not a maxed Psylocke.

All of this.

My Betsy is sitting on 5/4/2 @L115 and I'm honesty not disappointed with the blue - stripping up to 19AP (particularly goon teams) is a huge bonus even if you can't use what you swipe. I'm seriously considering trying to get her to 4/5/4 just so I can reduce the countdown to two. I don't think it's going to be much of compromise because there's a lot of better red powers out there.

She can also be extremly usefull with Daken. With a couple of green matches her red cost gets down to 5 preety quickly and her black is extremly fast. She really needs to be paired with the right people and she can be devistating. Punisher can fit with just about any roster and on Defense is fairly AI proof.

Unknown

Been trying to like him, but Torch's green tile always seems to get destroyed so easily. I always seem lucky to get it off once or twice at the most. Always annoys me to save up to not only cast it, but have enough green AP left over to power it, then have it get matched on my opponent's next turn or two. Leaves me wishing I would have just used one of the other many green's I might have had available (Pun, Hulk, obviously Thor).

With his black needing to be managed carefully too, it too often leaves him as a one power pony for me (red). Just can't seem to find a good team combo that makes it worth having him. And of course he is awful on defense.

Unknown

As a long time Punisher player (I'm a fanboy, after all) and current Psylocke abuser (back when in my early teens the X-Men comics were published in Poland. I remember plenty of quality time spend with this picture:

)
let me say this:

Frank is a perfect all-rounder. He has ability to make cascades, boosts Your damage, deals with high hp enemies efficiently. None of his powers is weak. None of his powers is what I consider "a bonus power", e.g. rarely used and situational. It's important to mention he's got the coolest animation in the game, which is his Retribution power.

Betsy has Bewilder. True bonus power. Something You never rely on, but launch it if there are no Blue users in Your team. Can be game-winning (stealing 15 Red or Black). But most of the time You place this countdown and just forget about it. So that leaves us with only 2 good powers - Red is amazing, creates very powerful Strike Tiles, deals decent dmg, is cheap with 3 Strike Tiles on the board (pairing her with Laken is a good option). Black needs two matches to deal 1k dmg and create strong Attack Tile. Combined with her Red, 1 Attack Tile deals more than 500dmg - nothing to sneeze at. As Der_Lex said: she's "Death by a thousand paper cuts" kind of character.

Punisher is a perfect character for the 3* transition, as he comboes perfectly with OBW. Psylocke? Not that much.
Punisher' covers were given like candy. A lot of people have him maxed. Psylocke? Only recently she got 2 tourneys and she's buffed in recent PvEs.

If I had to choose 1 of them - it would be Psylocke.
If I was still playing with 2* chars and transitioning - Punisher all the way.

Unknown

I'm gonna take a crack at guessing the last 11.

1-2
CMags Lazy Thor
CMags for being able to go on crazy rolls from cheap AP earning powers and Lazy Thor for his "surprise! game over!" ability
3-5
Patch Sentry Panther
Crazy strike damage, crazy global damage, crazy AoE damage
6-8
Daken+ Super Cap Punisher
Daken+ double dips on the hands down strongest color green, the other two are solid damage dealers that fit in well with most other teams
9-11
oBW Hulk Hood
The most used healer (we only have two after all, hope She Hulk can be a third), the biggest meat shield, and the best speed bump (he'll always steal something, AI oBW only a fraction of the time, even though it's very bad when it happens)

They certainly pushed out new powerful characters before fixing old duds like Hawkeye or Loki. God I hated the idea of Daken+ when I heard it, even considered quitting the game when he came out. Thankfully he hasn't had too outrageous an impact, yet. Still I prefer skipping him. Super Cap I love, he's an excellent Hulk killer, and him returning AP means he doesn't hurt other red/blue heavy characters. I just wish they would back off green some. I've had to spread my ISO out instead of maxing two 3* because neither of them where green users. My best green user is a lv115 Patch, who's good, but I don't like his play style as is (only tanks for green and throws out enemy strike tiles so he's end game only for me).

I wonder if each color is supposed to represent something. I see themes but nothing clear cut. Red seams to be direct damage, blue is generally stun, yellow defense, and green is mess your day up.

over_clocked

Mostly correct, but Panther/LC are lower, Hood and oBW are higher. I guarantee it

Unknown

well OBW needs to drop like 10 slots with this crazy healing nerf

Unknown

Punisher v Psylocke- I suspect most of us haven't played much with or against level 141 Psylocke strike tiles. Nonetheless, the whole point of Punisher is basically 3 good strike tiles for 8 AP (and the occasional cascade started with it) which then ramp up everything else. With 3, it's harder to take them all out quick. The strike tiles are more important than the upfront damage of Psylocke's red. His red is definitely useful and not just a bonus- for 8 AP you can knock off well over the last 3k health off a LazyThor or a Hulk, and even better off a character boosted to level 212 (or off some of the gigantic health totals you see in PvE). Her black is better than his black, though.

Neither Punisher or Psylocke worries me too much in PvP, but I would generally be a little more concerned about Punisher just because his strike tiles plus a lucky cascade gets really painful really fast whereas Psylocke doesn't produce that kind of damage. Psylocke is superior to any Punisher who doesn't have 5 covers in green, though.

Unknown

...Who was the spazz in the ratings who put Bagman at #2? Or am I reading that chart wrong?