Celerity wrote: Her black is her best skill, so it doesn't make much sense to me to leave it at 3. The incidental damage really adds up, even without strike tiles, and it costs nothing. The only reason I could see to not level black is if you only plan on letting her tank 1 color.
Celerity wrote: Overall, this led me to choose 3/5/5, which I guess is what most people here also arrived at.
KholdStare88 wrote: The main reason though is I love the extra damage. I know 112 max extra damage may not sound enticing, but if you manage to chain together a lot (which I do with Lightning Storm and Thor), Espionage will start feeling pretty useful.
mechgouki wrote: Celerity wrote: Her black is her best skill, so it doesn't make much sense to me to leave it at 3. The incidental damage really adds up, even without strike tiles, and it costs nothing. The only reason I could see to not level black is if you only plan on letting her tank 1 color. I have nothing to disagree on with what you said on purple. But Black? How exactly is it her best skill? While I don't deny it's usefulness, I dare say there is very little difference between Rank 3 and Rank 5.
Celerity wrote: mechgouki wrote: Celerity wrote: Her black is her best skill, so it doesn't make much sense to me to leave it at 3. The incidental damage really adds up, even without strike tiles, and it costs nothing. The only reason I could see to not level black is if you only plan on letting her tank 1 color. I have nothing to disagree on with what you said on purple. But Black? How exactly is it her best skill? While I don't deny it's usefulness, I dare say there is very little difference between Rank 3 and Rank 5. When you compare the differences between each of her ranks 3 and 5 (at max level), you've got blue which is ~300 extra healing and some countdown control, purple which is arguably or at least situationally worse the more you level it, and black which is 1-2k damage for no AP cost, plus the ability to synergize with things like strike tiles or Magneto blue. Ok, none of these upgrades are game-changing, but it seems like a no-brainer to me that black is the most efficient, except for a few PVE cases where the blue upgrade really shines. OBW is best played on teams that want to match her colors often, so it's only natural to increase the effectiveness of that.
mechgouki wrote: Celerity wrote: mechgouki wrote: Celerity wrote: Her black is her best skill, so it doesn't make much sense to me to leave it at 3. The incidental damage really adds up, even without strike tiles, and it costs nothing. The only reason I could see to not level black is if you only plan on letting her tank 1 color. I have nothing to disagree on with what you said on purple. But Black? How exactly is it her best skill? While I don't deny it's usefulness, I dare say there is very little difference between Rank 3 and Rank 5. When you compare the differences between each of her ranks 3 and 5 (at max level), you've got blue which is ~300 extra healing and some countdown control, purple which is arguably or at least situationally worse the more you level it, and black which is 1-2k damage for no AP cost, plus the ability to synergize with things like strike tiles or Magneto blue. Ok, none of these upgrades are game-changing, but it seems like a no-brainer to me that black is the most efficient, except for a few PVE cases where the blue upgrade really shines. OBW is best played on teams that want to match her colors often, so it's only natural to increase the effectiveness of that. Healing, like Passive regens, their purpose more or less works towards long term. They will help save you health packs. But yeah, they are usually not critical towards the single match itself. Except Spidey's which can heal for extreme amounts. 1-2k damage for no AP cost? I think you are overestimating the damage. And Classic Storm's passive will probably also do that over a long battle. Doesn't make it any more useful. Just because it is free, doesn't mean it is the best. Synergise with strike tiles, hm, yes, I haven't considered that fact before. With Strike tiles, I believe the strike tiles may activate twice. Once from the match damage, another from the passive damage. Of course, I can't prove that, since I don't have at least Rank 4. Maybe it just adds to the tile damage, so the Strike Tiles only activate once? Is anyone able to test this? How exactly does it Synergize with Magneto? 0_o
entropic01 wrote: If you don't even know how the black works with strike tiles, maybe you should stop condemning it for being useless?
entropic01 wrote: As for the black ability, it triggers separately from the tile match and the strike tiles do add to the separate hit as well as the original hit. So effectively you double the # of strike tiles when making a match with Espionage.
mechgouki wrote: Synergise with strike tiles, hm, yes, I haven't considered that fact before. With Strike tiles, I believe the strike tiles may activate twice. Once from the match damage, another from the passive damage. Of course, I can't prove that, since I don't have at least Rank 4. Maybe it just adds to the tile damage, so the Strike Tiles only activate once? Is anyone able to test this?
DayvBang wrote: gnilow wrote: is it only me or is my black widow having problems? my espionage is at level 2 and I should be able to steal purple and blue. At this point, it only takes purple but doesn't steal blue. Does another character on your team do better blue damage? If Black Widow doesn't make the match herself, her Espionage won't trigger. In other words, the blue gems need to have her symbol on them.
gnilow wrote: is it only me or is my black widow having problems? my espionage is at level 2 and I should be able to steal purple and blue. At this point, it only takes purple but doesn't steal blue.
unentschieden wrote: If you look at her in isolation then yeah, 3/5/5 is propably the best overall. However in practice she is in a team and there she propably won´t serve as damage dealer. Looking at what she can do for the Team there are several points against 5 black: Notably she is squishy and popular characterchoices don´t use purple or black - so in practice you don´t want to match them over other colours. It was mentioned before that OBW benefits from teams that match her colours. I suggest looking at it the other way around: How would she best benefit teammates that avoid her colours? 5/5/3 is usefull since her abilities aren´t better the earlier you get them going so you don´t have to prioritize black, blue or purple. Also keep in mind that even IF you have Teammates that want black, blue or purple it is possible that they have priority and disable her passive completely. I´d like to see who people (want to) run her with.
xinyucao wrote: I run mine as 5/4/4 for the tournament. It's equally viable if not better than 3/5/5 in my opinion.