Character Rankings February 2016 Edition: The Results

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  • Vhailorx
    Vhailorx Posts: 6,085 Chairperson of the Boards
    TxMoose wrote:
    personally I think after the im40 redo, 4thor will be climbing the rankings if more people take her out for a spin with stark. she's still very strong, but slow on her own. but no longer slow if you add im40 in the mix. she still needs a lot of ap to get going, but there's a very effective solution to that now.


    Huh, that's a good point. I wonder if she is worth champing (she is one of my cover maxed 4*s still sitting below 200 for lack of iso), my only concern is the total color overlap. Is a red-yelow-blue pair viable in PvP? Isn't there a significant risk of purple/black/green board? And that pair doesn't have a ton of boardshake.
  • rkd80
    rkd80 Posts: 376
    XF/4thor were my first champs and I can just say that 4thor is not worth it in lieu of the other truly top 10. I would place IMHB and 4clops well above her and the colors overlap significantly. While I agree with others quite a bit that im40 now makes her viable at the end of the day, you will want to run double 4s and as soon as you can do that im40 will probably be relegated to SSIM or PVE.
  • Ebolamonkey84
    Ebolamonkey84 Posts: 509 Critical Contributor
    If anyone is interested in helping with write ups for the remaining tiers, please shoot me a PM. I'm trying to get to them in my spare time, but I seem to have less and less of that these days.
  • TxMoose
    TxMoose Posts: 4,319 Chairperson of the Boards
    Vhailorx wrote:
    my only concern is the total color overlap. Is a red-yelow-blue pair viable in PvP? Isn't there a significant risk of purple/black/green board? And that pair doesn't have a ton of boardshake.
    no, not a lot of boardshake, but against jean-types, that isn't terrible. I'm not really advocating running them exclusively. I chose cyke in the blade event to manage the red strikes out there. but I saw at least 1 guy running im40/4thor - not sure how he did. if thor is boosted, I'd definitely consider running im40/4thor depending on the featured character. I'm sure the AI plays them pretty clumsily.
    rkd80 wrote:
    at the end of the day, you will want to run double 4s and as soon as you can do that im40 will probably be relegated to SSIM or PVE.
    a featured character like kk or gsbw and I might run them. for a cmags or steve event I'd run im40 with jean/ice/rulk. for vision I ran im40 and jean/ice - worked very well - I chose im40 over imhb there and it served me well. it does depend on the featured and boosted list. you don't HAVE to run double 4s...yet. I'm sure that day is coming and this week's boosted list is kinda ****, so there is some flexibility. any week with a decent pair boosted from the t5, it'll be all those guys.
  • jimstarooney
    jimstarooney Posts: 576 Critical Contributor
    I voted thora a 9 because i believe she is still very good.i often used to run her with a 355 3*cyc to boost red,9 blue is relatively easy to get and even easier now with iron man.great against oml and great against jean too.
  • Personally I think IM40's new found love is directly related to the overrating of 4Thor. A lot of people maxed 4Thor back in the day and with IM40 getting buffed they suddenly have a use for their 4Thors again.

    If you look at the top 5, who does IM40 really help support? JG? Sorta. IMHB? Can't even use them together. Iceman? Actually yeah, I think this would work. ProfX? Not even close. Rulk? Sorta.

    I suppose he could work with 4Cyke too, but that team just seems really redundant to me. With everyone raving about him recently I was toying with the idea of going back and champing him, but without a champed 4Thor as well I just don't think it makes sense. I'll probably champ Carnage, X-23, and Nova in addition to the top 9 before I champ 4Thor.

    Carnage......now that's an interesting IM40 pair.......
  • mgallop
    mgallop Posts: 120
    Personally I think IM40's new found love is directly related to the overrating of 4Thor. A lot of people maxed 4Thor back in the day and with IM40 getting buffed they suddenly have a use for their 4Thors again.

    If you look at the top 5, who does IM40 really help support? JG? Sorta. IMHB? Can't even use them together. Iceman? Actually yeah, I think this would work. ProfX? Not even close. Rulk? Sorta.

    IM40/Ice is my current team of choice for climbing early in PvP. They are really quick, and once you get off one recharge, incredibly safe since you can freeze stuff. Is it a good scarecrow? God no. But its fast at fighting anything smaller than boosted 4s. I would, at least, say that IM40 is a better pair for Ice than SW is for Rulk/JG, or IF is for IMHB. Is IM40 better than the good 4s? God no. But in my opinion he's the best 3. Also, he's great with 4pool.
  • Pwuz_
    Pwuz_ Posts: 1,213 Chairperson of the Boards
    14. Spider-Man (Bag-Man), even

    Average: 1.4518, 965 votes
    HP: 4998

    Bag-Man is the only character that is so bad that he has been removed from tokens. The devs combined their seeming hatred of Spider-Man and the Fantatic Four to create the pinnacle of suckiness. Bag-Man should only be on your roster as a status symbol, or if you want to insult someone in PVP.

    Purple: It can swap all non TU tiles at 4 covers or better. 13/18 AP is just too damn high.
    Blue: Costs too much as you get more covers. Destruction of special tiles is almost always better than locking them.
    Yellow: Somewhat pitiful compared to OBW's blue.

    Pros
    • Can't win him in tokens
    • Is the only 2* that rewards a Legendary token for Champion rewards
    • Occasionally, the AI will have Snarky Remark and increase the CD timer on its own tiles.
    Cons
    • No offensive capabilities
    • 2 of 3 powers cost more as you add covers. No powers should cost this much, especially with no direct damage.
    Recommended build: 5/3/5
    Good partners: No one

    Oh, I so disagree!
    Bag Man is one of two fantastic pairs for Quicksilver to seriously accelerate his Passive. Besides that his Blue can be used to lock Ultron's top row to prevent bomb spawning (though that could be tweeked by next run.)

    His purple can often times be used along side Bullseye's Green to set up for his Black.

    Then of course are the growing stable of countdown abilities that actually benifit from being on the board longer.

    That said, I actually recommend a 5/5/3 build for pairing with Quicksilver and generally being more irritating on defense (seriously, who keeps losing to my Bag-Bait teams in PvP?)
  • xidragonxi
    xidragonxi Posts: 253 Mover and Shaker
    TxMoose wrote:
    Vhailorx wrote:
    my only concern is the total color overlap. Is a red-yelow-blue pair viable in PvP? Isn't there a significant risk of purple/black/green board? And that pair doesn't have a ton of boardshake.
    no, not a lot of boardshake, but against jean-types, that isn't terrible. I'm not really advocating running them exclusively. I chose cyke in the blade event to manage the red strikes out there. but I saw at least 1 guy running im40/4thor - not sure how he did. if thor is boosted, I'd definitely consider running im40/4thor depending on the featured character. I'm sure the AI plays them pretty clumsily.

    The AI actually plays it pretty well. It prioritizes IM40 Yellow over 4Thor Yellow because of the cheaper cost. Then, once it fires Recharge, since IM40 is stunned, it let's 4Thor go to work. I have no idea how it prioritizes stun over damage, but either way it's effective. I've been using this duo with Jean Grey or OML and it's great for climbing. I've even gotten defensive wins in Sim with this team. Not so much in regular PVP because of the boosted characters running around.

    Another note on 4Thor (btw I'm a huge fan, and I didn't even have her pre-nerf), she's good for situational re-speccing. There was a heroic PVE recently where Jean Grey was locked out, and i was able to re-spec 4Thor to 3/5/5 and use her Yellow as a way to clear out goon countdown tiles. Very handy!
  • jimstarooney
    jimstarooney Posts: 576 Critical Contributor
    xidragonxi wrote:
    TxMoose wrote:
    Vhailorx wrote:
    my only concern is the total color overlap. Is a red-yelow-blue pair viable in PvP? Isn't there a significant risk of purple/black/green board? And that pair doesn't have a ton of boardshake.
    no, not a lot of boardshake, but against jean-types, that isn't terrible. I'm not really advocating running them exclusively. I chose cyke in the blade event to manage the red strikes out there. but I saw at least 1 guy running im40/4thor - not sure how he did. if thor is boosted, I'd definitely consider running im40/4thor depending on the featured character. I'm sure the AI plays them pretty clumsily.

    The AI actually plays it pretty well. It prioritizes IM40 Yellow over 4Thor Yellow because of the cheaper cost. Then, once it fires Recharge, since IM40 is stunned, it let's 4Thor go to work. I have no idea how it prioritizes stun over damage, but either way it's effective. I've been using this duo with Jean Grey or OML and it's great for climbing. I've even gotten defensive wins in Sim with this team. Not so much in regular PVP because of the boosted characters running around.

    Another note on 4Thor (btw I'm a huge fan, and I didn't even have her pre-nerf), she's good for situational re-speccing. There was a heroic PVE recently where Jean Grey was locked out, and i was able to re-spec 4Thor to 3/5/5 and use her Yellow as a way to clear out goon countdown tiles. Very handy!
    Only problem is ai will cast red then blue
  • TxMoose
    TxMoose Posts: 4,319 Chairperson of the Boards
    Only problem is ai will cast red then blue
    and that brings me back to my previous point on jean's ranking. there are so many very strong 4s that need to be played by a human to get the most out of them - 4thor, cyke, ice, rulk, even xpool and xfw to a lesser extent - all have qualifiers and coherent strategy needed to be played correctly. that is the beauty of hb and jean. yes there's still an optimal way to play it = red (if you have enough when you start the sequence)/black/green/purple/red, but mostly it is gather ap, send damage. I think im40 with either (or both) 4thor and ice are the craziest strong combo I can create, but none will be played right by the AI. whereas hb/jean/hood can really only be messed up if hood uses the black or might lose some strike damage if abilities are played out of order. thinking about it, AI might handle cyke ok with jeanbuster too. will just use cyke's red, which is not horrible (and great if you have the TUs) and will most likely use hb blue, which is meh, but not losing a ton in the AI hands anyway. I might switch hood to cyke in shield sim later in the season.
  • SnowcaTT
    SnowcaTT Posts: 3,486 Chairperson of the Boards
    TxMoose wrote:
    Only problem is ai will cast red then blue
    and that brings me back to my previous point on jean's ranking. there are so many very strong 4s that need to be played by a human to get the most out of them - 4thor, cyke, ice, rulk, even xpool and xfw to a lesser extent - all have qualifiers and coherent strategy needed to be played correctly. that is the beauty of hb and jean. yes there's still an optimal way to play it = red (if you have enough when you start the sequence)/black/green/purple/red, but mostly it is gather ap, send damage. I think im40 with either (or both) 4thor and ice are the craziest strong combo I can create, but none will be played right by the AI. whereas hb/jean/hood can really only be messed up if hood uses the black or might lose some strike damage if abilities are played out of order. thinking about it, AI might handle cyke ok with jeanbuster too. will just use cyke's red, which is not horrible (and great if you have the TUs) and will most likely use hb blue, which is meh, but not losing a ton in the AI hands anyway. I might switch hood to cyke in shield sim later in the season.

    Totally agree with AI thought. I pushed for (bought last covers) Jeanbuster because AI can't mess it up like it does with many, many characters (including good ones like Ice-Man, Rulk, Cyc, and middling ones like Fury/Thor).

    FYI: Two seasons ago I moved from Jeanbuster + Hood to Jeanbuster + Cyc in Sim....I think I might have gotten -more- attacks, no one worrys about Cyc. Then again, if you aren't running 5* in Sim you already -are- the weakest link.
  • dbfclark
    dbfclark Posts: 10 Just Dropped In
    Hey there,

    I'm a long-time lurker, first time poster, and a big fan of the character rankings. I can't send a message to Ebola yet because I don't have the reputation (apparently?), but I've compiled what I think are decent writeups for all of the 2* characters, and I'd tentatively be willing to do something for the 3*s (probably depending heavily on Dauthi's guide from last summer, since little has changed in 3* territory since then), because I'm quite interested in seeing writeups of the 4* characters in some detail. Is there some way for me to communicate what I've got other than unsolicited PM?

    Edit: I'm on day 605 with two maxed 4*s (Jeanbuster), in case you need to know I know how to play.
  • bbf2
    bbf2 Posts: 109 Tile Toppler
    dbfclark wrote:
    Hey there,

    I'm a long-time lurker, first time poster, and a big fan of the character rankings. I can't send a message to Ebola yet because I don't have the reputation (apparently?), but I've compiled what I think are decent writeups for all of the 2* characters, and I'd tentatively be willing to do something for the 3*s (probably depending heavily on Dauthi's guide from last summer, since little has changed in 3* territory since then), because I'm quite interested in seeing writeups of the 4* characters in some detail. Is there some way for me to communicate what I've got other than unsolicited PM?

    Edit: I'm on day 605 with two maxed 4*s (Jeanbuster), in case you need to know I know how to play.

    I say just post them here as a reply to this thread, if they like 'em they'll get added to the OP later.
  • Xidex
    Xidex Posts: 12 Just Dropped In
    Thora +IM40 + JG is the best team for all PVE. No matter who against you - this team extremely versatile. The main thing - after 3x "Recharge" you can stun the strongest, kill the weakest and clear the board from all bad tiles (if you made couple of purple matches). And if you use boosts - it can be made on turn 4. Another main thing - after first wave you get pack of charged tiles and it means that second wave is close.
  • TxMoose
    TxMoose Posts: 4,319 Chairperson of the Boards
    Xidex wrote:
    Thora +IM40 + JG is the best team for all PVE. No matter who against you - this team extremely versatile. The main thing - after 3x "Recharge" you can stun the strongest, kill the weakest and clear the board from all bad tiles (if you made couple of purple matches). And if you use boosts - it can be made on turn 4. Another main thing - after first wave you get pack of charged tiles and it means that second wave is close.
    I prefer ice, but any of jean/ice/rulk makes a great third to im40 and 4thor.
  • dbfclark
    dbfclark Posts: 10 Just Dropped In
    edited April 2016
    It's probably right to just post what I have as a reply here, then. Here goes; I'll try to clean them up a bit in terms of formatting eventually.

    Moonstone

    Moonstone suffers from the usual Dark Avengers problem: you don’t get enough covers from the prologue to intro you to the character and her power level isn’t high enough to justify keeping. Her makeover means Control Shift is now comprehensible and cheap enough to cast, but is a special tile manipulator at a tier where special tiles are still rare in PVP. At the end of the day, she doesn’t do enough damage to compete.

    Pros: Can handle special tiles
    Cons: There aren’t enough special tiles to matter

    Purple: Moving a special tile is OK, but not at 8. Destroying a tile and doing 125/ap is also at best ok.
    Red: Average damage at max level is ok, but getting the AP to cast it means matching the red that would increase its damage to ok levels.
    Black: Stealing special tiles is great, but too specialized to be interesting most of the time.

    Recommended build: 3/5/5
    Good partners: None

    Steve Rogers

    Lazy Cap is a top 10 3* this time around, so what’s wrong with the 2* version? Red. 60 damage per AP is just not enough, even with the refund. Add a decent-but-expensive stun and a too-defensive-and-expensive yellow and you get… well, not quite nowhere, but almost nowhere.

    Pros: Overwriting countdowns is worthwhile
    Cons: No damage to speak of

    Yellow: 600+ worth of protect tiles at max level isn’t bad, but at 19 AP you’ll never cast it.
    Red: Literally any other red power does more damage.
    Blue: Basically 3* Cap’s power without the protect tile, so it’s still goodish.

    Recommended build: 3/5/5
    Good partners: Any of the good 2*s. But they’re still better together.

    2* Bullseye

    Bullseye got a rework since last time, but like most Dark Avengers is a bit unpopular anyhow. His protect tiles don’t scale with covers, instead just increasing the cap on the number of tiles created, so overscaled versions can be a pain without making it a good idea to put too many covers on purple or making the power actually good. The new green can destroy 5 tiles, which is a great puzzle-y power but still isn’t reliable enough that people like it.

    Pros: Some people like puzzling.
    Cons: Some people don’t.

    Purple: Fine as a passive, but underpowered.
    Black: 2 AP cheaper than the original version! You’ll still never cast it because of the expense.
    Green: The good reason to play this character, but still not that great.

    Recommended build: 3/5/5
    Good partners: Suggestions include 2* Hawkeye, 2* Mags, and 2* Thor

    2* Ms. Marvel

    Unchanged and unexceptional since introduction, she’s still not worth keeping a roster slot for. Red’s damage is only unacceptable rather than terrible, her black is ok damage and only takes three matches, and her yellow is still the only power in the game to generate team-up tiles. That makes her fully marginal.

    Pros: Isn’t a Dark Avenger, so generally usable in PVE. Higher health, so can survive farther into the transition with championing.
    Cons: This used to say that covers aren’t handed to you in the prologue. Thanks to OJSP for the correction: you can now get at least three covers in the prologue, from the first Venom fight which used to give out Bag-Man. This is better, but not a lot better. Damage is still too low.

    Red: Can only destroy 3 protect tiles, which you barely see at the 2* level, and does low damage.
    Black: Pretty good; can get to acceptable damage/ap levels if the countdown survives, plus is one of the only black actives at 2*.
    Yellow: Generates team-up AP, which is mostly not good enough either. There is combo potential here with cMags, who blows up the team-ups generated (thanks to Jaedenkaal for the suggestion)

    Recommended build: 3/5/5
    Good partners: 2* Hawkeye to take advantage of her match-5 potential; cMags in the transition.

    2* Human Torch

    Mini-Torch still does the best single-target damage on red at the 2* level; this just isn’t that useful relative to his very squishy HP. With three superior choices for red and green in the tier, his black would have to be differentiating. It *is* probably the best in the tier; it’s simply not good enough to lift him higher.

    It’s also worth noting that he generates the only attack tiles at this level and with his green you can even triple-dip on strike tiles, making Daken a good partner, but this combo lacks the strength to really contend.

    Pros: A good black ability in the tier is good news.
    Cons: Very squishy. Draining off-colors is not cool. Being a less-good r/g character in the 2* tier isn’t great.

    Red: After the refund, you’re doing 276/ap, which is the most of any single-target power in the tier.
    Black: The attack tiles can be good, but the AP penalty boxes in your colors somewhat; also, since it doesn’t overwrite special tiles or team-ups, you need to be careful about when to fire to get maximum output.
    Green: Slower than it looks, but can do a ton of damage if you get it going.

    Recommended build: 5/*/* — max the red, the rest is a choice
    Good partners: Daken for strike tile synergy

    2* Hawkeye

    Hawkeye is the first character with a decent passive that can see use at higher levels — generating match-5’s can be a strategy, though the best synergy at the 2* level was nerfed since the last time he was written up. He’s still a treat for goon nodes and PVE, and of course strike tile synergy is a thing. The only problem is his other powers.

    Pros: A nifty passive is hard to replicate
    Cons: His other two powers are pretty useless.

    Blue: AP reduction and a stun, but you have to wait for the countdown. Not worth it.
    Red: 149 area damage per AP isn’t terrible, but again, you have to wait for the countdown. Not better than other choices.
    Purple: Can passively deal 3788 damage if you wait for the countdowns (and multiple means you’re less vulnerable to getting matched away). Pretty decent, and the reason you’re playing the character.

    Recommended build: 3/5/5
    Good partners: Strike tile generators, 2* mags

    2* Daken

    Daken’s been dropping as the 2* transition gets shorter — as the only true healer who can regenerate to full health, he’s excellent for a long climb, but if you have a 3* roster and your 2*’s are mostly limited to essential matches and two DDQ nodes per day, sustainability becomes less of a thing. He’s still a great compliment to the r/y/g heavy hitters, still the best strike tile generator at the level and still has one of two damaging blue powers. If you’re still working on the 3* transition, he probably deserves a higher ranking.

    Pros: Great for sustainable climbs. Generates strikes for combos. Blue is fast.
    Cons: Low health doesn’t quite let him be easily one-shot at the 2* level, but it’s close.

    Purple: Strike tiles for green matches, and there are lots of good greens at this level. Good.
    Black: True healing. ‘nuff said.
    Blue: Actually does damage! Very cheap! Can take out goons in DDQ!

    Recommended build: */*/* — his powers have low-value upgrades going to max level, so build how you’d like. If you have him on your roster, he’s probably championed anyhow, so feel free to experiment.
    Good partners: mHawkeye, r/g/y characters

    2* Wolverine

    Wolverine stays a mainstay of the 2* level, suffering the same problem as always: being outclassed on his colors by Thor and Ares. Red is notable for doing a ton of damage and green is notable for being very fast and one of two strike tile generators in the tier, but neither quite manages the trick of making him better than his key competitors. He’s on my regular DDQ goon node team: you save up for his red, then fire his green to maximum effect, wiping some goons to get to the second wave. You then fire red to kill the hero, leaving you with a ton of strikes and a few weak goons. Easy!

    Pros: The best red at 2* and one of the fastest powers anywhere.
    Cons: Being r/g/y. True healing only takes him up to 50% of max health, which is well inside one-shot range.

    Green: Can kill weak goons very quickly. Decent.
    Red: Does a ton of damage. Good.
    Yellow: Keeps him from dying but doesn’t actually heal much. Meh.

    Recommended build: 5/5/3. The cap on healing from yellow makes it ok at best.
    Good partners: OBW or mHawkeye to combo with strikes, Daken for the true healing grind team.

    2* Magneto

    The victim of a fairly major nerf since his last writeup, he’s still useful as a blue and red generator so can still see higher level play with the right teams, but the old Stormneto combo took a major hit. Purple is the key power, and placing tiles means he fits with the match-5 passive crew beyond just being a battery. The problem is just what he has to power: at the 2* level, fueling Storm is substantially less valuable with 3 tiles than 5, and his red is fine rather than great; at the 3* level the best offensive blue powers are on Lazy Cap, who can use acceleration but only once in the match, and cMags, who obviously can’t be played with his 2* cousin; and at the 4* level or above he’s far too squishy to compete.

    Pros: has a surprising amount of HP for a 2* since the boost. one of the first combo pieces you get. If championed, gives cMags covers.
    Cons: you need to bring a real blue user, as his blue is useless.

    Blue: Useless. Low damage and you can’t place the countdown tile so you can’t choose what you blow up. Even if you max it and get to clear the whole board, it can be easily matched away.
    Purple: One of the only abilities which can convert a tile of your choosing to a color. Nerfed but still ok.
    Red: Does good damage if it doesn’t get matched and keeping the 18 expected AP is a great bonus. The only problem is that it costs 14 and generates a countdown tile, meaning that you’ll rarely fire it and only sometimes see the effect if you do.

    Recommended build: 3/5/5
    Good partners: The old classic is cStorm/mHawkeye, for the battery outlet and match-5 potential

    Ares

    Ares’ fall may not seem like much, but it actually reflects a fairly major change in the meta: the health adjustment from last spring. Onslaught is no longer the killer it once was, with its damage at level 94 only 230/ap, which increases the relevance of the higher-total-damage AOE abilities in the tier. As such, Storm and Thor take precedence. Ares is still one of the characters to focus on when transitioning to 2* and 3*, but is a little short of luster.

    Pros: Still a premier damage dealer.
    Cons: Does self damage as a penalty, which can be a small problem for a 2* player. Matches colors with Thor, whose AOE does more total damage per AP.

    Green: Uncapped damage, even with a penalty, is potentially great. Just make sure to use it to finish off the other team’s green user.
    Red: Too weak unless Ares is low on life, which isn’t something you want to encourage.
    Yellow: One of his more interesting powers for transitioned players in the DDQ era, the self-damage is easy to accept if you only play him once per day. The recovery on this power can turn fake healing into true healing, which is cute.

    Recommended build: 4/4/5 — neither red nor green actually deal extra damage for the 5th cover (you want to fire green when it can down a character, not ASAP), but reducing the length of the countdown on Sunder is a real benefit.
    Good partners: OBW for the healing. Daken for the rainbow. cStorm just because.

    2* Thor

    The classic combo — red fuels yellow fuels green, which is a massive AOE with its damage tilted to do extra damage to one character you need to eliminate — is a mainstay on the tier. Three big damage abilities is also great. DDQ means he probably gets regular use even after transitioning to 3*s.

    Pros: Doesn’t need a perfect partner. Does lots of damage. Has lots of health.
    Cons: Red is underpowered.

    Red: Only converts three tiles even at level 5 and does low damage/ap. Gives you something to do with red, though.
    Yellow: Generating 9 green tiles is more or less the premier green generator in the game, and you still get to do damage. Good.
    Green: 315 damage/ap of AOE is the second best power level on the tier and gives you the ability to kill a selected enemy.

    Recommended build: 3/5/5. Red is bad.
    Good partners: Thor’s self-sufficiency is a big part of the appeal — just use good characters with good powers on colors other than yellow and green.

    2* Storm

    Storm has three more than ok powers, but let’s not kid around: you’re here for the blue, Wind Storm, which does a massive 501 damage/AP across the team and stuns a chosen enemy for four turns to boot. Fueling Wind Storm is worth bringing a battery for, and while firing it may not win the game against a similar level team, it’ll definitely be a major help. If you can stay alive long enough to fire it, that is — Storm has a tiny HP pool and even match damage can take a ton of it.

    Pros: Blue!
    Cons: very very squishy

    Green: Good if expensive board shake, failing only in that green is a competitive color and you’ll often prefer damage. Note: in the somewhat unlikely event that you end up with a large amount of green, you can get very large shakes. This is more important for combos than anything else.
    Blue: Excellent. Why you’re here.
    Yellow: The passive AOE is the weak link here — usually it’s simply not going to do enough damage to matter. However, if you can engage the bonus damage from your team being weak (or, worse, accidentally do that on an enemy cStorm) it can be very deadly indeed.

    Recommended build: 5/5/3, to maximize shake. 3/5/5 is mentioned sometimes if you’re matching Storm with a better green user.
    Good partners: 2* Magneto is still a good pair to accelerate blue.

    2* Black Widow

    AKA OBW or Fishnet, she’s one of the 2*s who’ll keep you well into 3* range. Her AP steal on purple is fantastic for delaying the opponent, healing and extending opposing countdowns are both great for PVE, and she even double dips on strike tiles with her passive black. Since her powers are mostly support, she can fit well into higher level teams, too (though Espionage only hits if she tanks the color). However, like cStorm, her health is a primary weakness — kill her first, before she takes your AP!

    Pros: Three great powers on underserved colors.
    Cons: Not quite as squishy as cStorm, but still squishy.

    Purple: The only AP steal on the tier. Arguably a power that you’d be happy to have, unchanged, on a 4*.
    Blue: Two powers in one — the fake heal is good for sustainability at the 2* level, but being able to extend enemy countdowns is very powerful in PVE even if you have access to higher level characters.
    Black: Good and bad — passive AP steal is great, but she’ll take damage after matching a color that can activate black, and of course if she’s not tanking the color the power doesn’t work. Still useful, though.

    Recommended build: 3/5/5. Why only 3 on her best ability? Because if the enemy has purple AP and she’s tanking purple, a cost of 8 makes this a two-match power, while putting it to 4 makes it a three-match power. Not stealing quite as much is a small price to pay.
    Good partners: Strike tile generators at the 3* level (not Daken because of matching colors). Her blue combos nicely with Ares’ Sunder, too, since he can spend the fake health from it and true heal from the tile. Mostly, however, she’s just the best character on the tier and plays well with most others.
  • dbfclark
    dbfclark Posts: 10 Just Dropped In
    OJSP: Thanks, updated!
  • Jaedenkaal
    Jaedenkaal Posts: 3,357 Chairperson of the Boards
    I think the combo potential between Ms Marvel and cMags is at least worth mentioning, especially for the 2-3 transition where a championed Ms Marvel will actually keep pace (in levels) for a while.

    2*Mags is also decent (read: cute) with quicksilver
  • dbfclark
    dbfclark Posts: 10 Just Dropped In
    Jaedenkaal: thanks, updated!