**** The Hulk (Totally Awesome) ****

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Comments

  • notamutant
    notamutant Posts: 855 Critical Contributor
    I really don't know what to make out of his black. I just can't see it going off in most situations. It really has a huge bump in healing from 3-5, so for the one time a match you do use it, is it worth the weaker blue? It is true healing, which is great for a 4 star. The countdown might not go off with only 3 in blue though. Still, 2k healing is not that much. X-23 does that in a couple turns without needing any AP or conditions. And his green damage isn't comparable to other 4 stars really (besides X-23). It is like a stronger version of X-Force. I think I will call him a middle-range support character, deadly or useless depending on teammates.
  • CrookedKnight
    CrookedKnight Posts: 2,579 Chairperson of the Boards
    Afte rplaying around with the loaner I'm definitely looking for a 5/5/3 build. Hot Dog Stand is cheap, but it's a burst of health rather than true healing and it can be very tough to get to 6 or fewer blue tiles. And while the gains at 5 covers aren't amazing, See The Math Of It can get self-sustaining after even one cast if two charged tiles land where you can match them.
  • Blahahah
    Blahahah Posts: 738 Critical Contributor
    I rather like TA Hulk and a Daken combo.

    Daken can eat the blues on the cheap to give TA hulk a way to throw out his black.
    Likewise, TA Hulk can feed some hot dogs to Daken via his blue making more blue tiles, and benefits from blowing up the green tiles Daken makes.
    All you'd need to find is a good Red/Yellow user, and theres tons of them to go around.
  • Pylgrim
    Pylgrim Posts: 2,296 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited December 2015
    Is Mastermind Excello the second weakest ability in 4* land after X-Force? 4k+ for 12 green is pathetic even for a 3* and since you want to use his blue to power up green, to begin with, you are not going to have that much spare to increase green's damage, especially since the only reliable blue battery in the game is a 2*. The tile destruction is nice, but compared to Twin Pistols, a 3* power, is not particularly good? Twin Pistols costs 3 more but destroys a second block of tiles and deals the same damage as M. Excello with 6-7 blue in the pool, which I expect to be the average. For the same cost, Embiggened Bash (another 3* power) deals so much more damage, that you'd almost have to have 30 blue in the pool to match it with M. Excello.

    Even the healing ability is inefficient! It may be cheap, but it doesn't compare favourably with Beast's (which is pretty **** already)! Medical Marvel costs 6 AP more but heals almost the same amount to ALL your characters, in addition to placing protect tiles. And it doesn't stun him! And he doesn't need to wait until the perfect conditions! (by the way, some people seem to believe that TAH's is true healing but it is actually not).

    After playing with him, I'd say that his best ability is by FAR, his blue, though it's not phenomenal (they really should have allowed us to place the CD tile, instead of it being placed randomly). So X/5/X for me. 5 green seems the better option but realistically, I'll be bringing along someone with a better green ability (almost anyone) to take advantage of the green production.

    I'm surprised that in a world that now includes 5*s they release 4*s this weak.
  • Blahahah
    Blahahah Posts: 738 Critical Contributor
    Pylgrim wrote:
    Is Mastermind Excello the second weakest ability in 4* land after X-Force? 4k+ for 12 green is pathetic even for a 3* and since you want to use his blue to power up green, to begin with, you are not going to have that much spare to increase green's damage, especially since the only reliable blue battery in the game is a 2*. The tile destruction is nice, but compared to Twin Pistols, a 3* power, is not particularly good? Twin Pistols costs 3 more but destroys a second block of tiles and deals the same damage as M. Excello with 6-7 blue in the pool, which I expect to be the average. For the same cost, Embiggened Bash (another 3* power) deals so much more damage, that you'd almost have to have 30 blue in the pool to match it with M. Excello.

    Even the healing ability is inefficient! It may be cheap, but when it doesn't compare favourably with Beast's (which is pretty **** already)! Medical Marvel costs 6 AP more but heals almost the same amount to ALL your characters, in addition to placing protect tiles. And it doesn't stun him! And he doesn't need to wait until the perfect conditions! (by the way, some people seem to believe that TAH's is true healing but it is actually not).

    After playing with him, I'd say that his best ability is by FAR, his blue, though it's not phenomenal (they really should have allowed us to place the CD tile, instead of it being placed randomly). So X/5/X for me. 5 green seems the better option but realistically, I'll be bringing along someone with a better green ability (almost anyone) to take advantage of the green production.

    I'm surprised that in a world that now includes 5*s they release 4*s this weak.
    Is Ice Man not a blue battery?
  • Pylgrim
    Pylgrim Posts: 2,296 Chairperson of the Boards
    Blahahah wrote:
    Is Ice Man not a blue battery?

    Duh, you are right, my bad. However, if you are bringing Iceman, wouldn't you use his much superior Blue and Green abilities? Why would you lug TAH along?
  • TheWerebison
    TheWerebison Posts: 431 Mover and Shaker
    As a recent World of Warcraft retiree, it is difficult for me to not associate the name "Cho" with the word "panda".
  • babinro
    babinro Posts: 771 Critical Contributor
    Initial impressions from on paper stats:

    Green:
    Decent. The skill has lower damage than you'd expect and a higher cost but then again the character is intended to be a green+blue battery. Overall I prefer the consistency of The Thing's green more than this. Obviously pure damage dealers like Jean, Iceman or Red Hulk are vastly superior in the current meta. The fact that this skill allows you to select the part of the board you want to destroy elevates it from being flat out awful.

    Blue:
    Below Average. This is admittedly very tough to call. Players know by now that generating a 3 charged tiles is pretty much meaningless. Any player is likely to collect them. Destroying green tiles and generating AP while possibly getting a cascade is great. The CD aspect of this ability means it could easily whiff. Put this all together and I think the cost of the skill is just too high to justify the risks.

    Black:
    Terrible. The healing is underwhelming when you consider the skill cannot be spammed. There are tons of great black active skills out there. Adding only 3 blue tiles to the board is weak. Lazy Thor's red should tell you how good this skill will be. It might generate a free match on occasion but most of the time it will just help setup a blue match if even that. This skill feels like they played it safe so there wouldn't be any game breaking situations with Iron Fist. In it's current state it really needs to do more.

    Initial Build:
    5/5/3 - MPQ is an offense focused game so it makes sense to put 3 into black. 2151 health isn't all that much to begin with so it's not a big drop from the 1223 that 3 black gives. You still get all the battery benefits which is all you really want out of this skill.

    Overall:
    Low 4* tier. It's admittedly challenging to judge characters who are internal batteries. I'm confident the AI will be able to fire off skills repeatedly like it does with Rags...but in the hands of a player on offense I doubt we'll see him shine. His battery abilities are not reliable enough to make him useful in PvP and there are much better options to run in PvE. I think the character is designed well enough but D3 really seems to have played it safe with the numbers here.
  • Blahahah
    Blahahah Posts: 738 Critical Contributor
    Pylgrim wrote:
    Blahahah wrote:
    Is Ice Man not a blue battery?

    Duh, you are right, my bad. However, if you are bringing Iceman, wouldn't you use his much superior Blue and Green abilities? Why would you lug TAH along?

    I like Ice Man's purple personally and use his blue more for utility. Thats just me though.
  • BlackSheep101
    BlackSheep101 Posts: 2,025 Chairperson of the Boards
    IceIX wrote:
    Typo in the green description, BTW! (applies)
    Fixed, thanks!
    Should the green description say that destroyed tiles don't deal damage or generate AP?
  • Bishop
    Bishop Posts: 130 Tile Toppler
    edited December 2015
    I'm looking at a hulk that has a potential of doing up to 9514 damage if you have 30 blue ap. He is generating charge tiles not basic blue tiles. Getting 15+ blue ap with this guy won't be hard. I'd go 544 with him. Use Doom with him if you really want to use his heal, Use SW if you want a cheap wonky (stupid) blue cd placement match. I don't think he's that bad. I think he would make a good pair with PX also he will make 5 matches.

    Question: does his blue CDs stack for multiple blue charge tile generations? I'm guessing yes.
  • Sm0keyJ0e
    Sm0keyJ0e Posts: 730 Critical Contributor
    Am I the only who thinks this might be the worst 4* out there? He's absolutely terrible and beyond a couple of niche uses or being an essential character I cannot fathom using him at all.

    There, I said it.
  • GrumpySmurf1002
    GrumpySmurf1002 Posts: 3,511 Chairperson of the Boards
    Sm0keyJ0e wrote:
    Am I the only who thinks this might be the worst 4* out there? He's absolutely terrible and beyond a couple of niche uses or being an essential character I cannot fathom using him at all.

    There, I said it.

    He can do 4000+ damage with his green . That alone makes him way more useful than Mr. Fantastic.
  • BlackSheep101
    BlackSheep101 Posts: 2,025 Chairperson of the Boards
    Targeted removal is also useful, and relatively rare in 4* land.
  • Gari
    Gari Posts: 92 Match Maker
    Can anyone tell me if the green tiles destroyed are random, basic or what? I'm thinking of charged tiles, countdown for what etc
  • moogles85
    moogles85 Posts: 183 Tile Toppler
    Totally Awesome? I think they meant Totally Awful...
  • simonsez
    simonsez Posts: 4,663 Chairperson of the Boards
    Do we know yet if you can have more than one cd tile out at the same time?
  • Marc_Spector
    Marc_Spector Posts: 622 Critical Contributor
    Anyone else read Totally Awesome Hulk #1 which hit the stands yesterday? Aside from being totally awesome, a flashback within it shed a bit of light on the possible reason why Cho's Hulk can't be in the same group as Banner:
    HE DEAD.
    Possibly. It doesn't look good for him, though.
  • Marc_Spector
    Marc_Spector Posts: 622 Critical Contributor
    simonsez wrote:
    Do we know yet if you can have more than one cd tile out at the same time?

    He can -- I put two out with the loaner.
  • simonsez
    simonsez Posts: 4,663 Chairperson of the Boards
    simonsez wrote:
    Do we know yet if you can have more than one cd tile out at the same time?

    He can -- I put two out with the loaner.
    Thanks for confirming.

    I'm not getting all the hate then... if you can charge tiles, collect green and create cascades on every turn, this guy sounds like the most annoying AP generator they've ever built.