A Mostly Accurate 4* Ranking (Final Update 8/11/18)

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Comments

  • Straycat
    Straycat Posts: 963 Critical Contributor
    Rogue and Mockingbird feel like they could overtake Iceman and Rhulk to fill out the top 5. Been loving boosted Bobbi, and unboosted Rogue is an awesome mix of offense and defense thats truly unique. Use her with powers that make matches like 2* Magneto or Coulson and you can go over the 14 ap limit, just as long as you spend it before next turn. Makes her power siphon more manageable than I previously thought.
    Mockingbird is still a little too unpredictable to be super high, but I feel she's top tier
  • Jarvind
    Jarvind Posts: 1,684 Chairperson of the Boards
    Updort:

    - Added Nightcrawler and Main Event Hulk to Not Yet Rated.

    As a PSA, new characters will probably be lingering in the NYR category for a significant length of time from here on out. I've recently re-entered the 5* fray with 4 champions and Peter Parker currently covered and absorbing all my ISO. That means my usage of 4* characters has declined sharply. As an example, I champed Rogue almost immediately after her release and she's already at 280ish, but I've never used her once outside of essential nodes. And I was hyped for her to be added.

    I'll need to rely on community feedback more than I have previously, since unless a character is just utterly godlike i.e. Peggy or Carol levels of awesome, I just realistically won't be using them very much, if at all.
  • Milk Jugz
    Milk Jugz Posts: 1,122 Chairperson of the Boards
    Jarvind said:
    Updort:

    - Added Nightcrawler and Main Event Hulk to Not Yet Rated.

    As a PSA, new characters will probably be lingering in the NYR category for a significant length of time from here on out. I've recently re-entered the 5* fray with 4 champions and Peter Parker currently covered and absorbing all my ISO. That means my usage of 4* characters has declined sharply. As an example, I champed Rogue almost immediately after her release and she's already at 280ish, but I've never used her once outside of essential nodes. And I was hyped for her to be added.

    I'll need to rely on community feedback more than I have previously, since unless a character is just utterly godlike i.e. Peggy or Carol levels of awesome, I just realistically won't be using them very much, if at all.
    Time to make a 5* ranking.....
  • Jarvind
    Jarvind Posts: 1,684 Chairperson of the Boards
    Milk Jugz said:
    Jarvind said:
    Updort:

    - Added Nightcrawler and Main Event Hulk to Not Yet Rated.

    As a PSA, new characters will probably be lingering in the NYR category for a significant length of time from here on out. I've recently re-entered the 5* fray with 4 champions and Peter Parker currently covered and absorbing all my ISO. That means my usage of 4* characters has declined sharply. As an example, I champed Rogue almost immediately after her release and she's already at 280ish, but I've never used her once outside of essential nodes. And I was hyped for her to be added.

    I'll need to rely on community feedback more than I have previously, since unless a character is just utterly godlike i.e. Peggy or Carol levels of awesome, I just realistically won't be using them very much, if at all.
    Time to make a 5* ranking.....
    I'm toying with the idea. The homogeneity of 5* matches makes it hard - it's pretty much a marathon of Gambit-plus-whatever and the old Panthos teams that haven't been traded in for new shinies yet. I think I've fought everyone at least a handful of times, though, so I could probably bang out something that is Mostly Accurate.
  • DarthDeVo
    DarthDeVo Posts: 2,176 Chairperson of the Boards
    Jarvind said:
    Milk Jugz said:
    Jarvind said:
    Updort:

    - Added Nightcrawler and Main Event Hulk to Not Yet Rated.

    As a PSA, new characters will probably be lingering in the NYR category for a significant length of time from here on out. I've recently re-entered the 5* fray with 4 champions and Peter Parker currently covered and absorbing all my ISO. That means my usage of 4* characters has declined sharply. As an example, I champed Rogue almost immediately after her release and she's already at 280ish, but I've never used her once outside of essential nodes. And I was hyped for her to be added.

    I'll need to rely on community feedback more than I have previously, since unless a character is just utterly godlike i.e. Peggy or Carol levels of awesome, I just realistically won't be using them very much, if at all.
    Time to make a 5* ranking.....
    I'm toying with the idea. The homogeneity of 5* matches makes it hard - it's pretty much a marathon of Gambit-plus-whatever and the old Panthos teams that haven't been traded in for new shinies yet. I think I've fought everyone at least a handful of times, though, so I could probably bang out something that is Mostly Accurate.
    I wait with great anticipation to see where Banner and Doc Ock end up. 
  • Milk Jugz
    Milk Jugz Posts: 1,122 Chairperson of the Boards
    DarthDeVo said:
    Jarvind said:
    Milk Jugz said:
    Jarvind said:
    Updort:

    - Added Nightcrawler and Main Event Hulk to Not Yet Rated.

    As a PSA, new characters will probably be lingering in the NYR category for a significant length of time from here on out. I've recently re-entered the 5* fray with 4 champions and Peter Parker currently covered and absorbing all my ISO. That means my usage of 4* characters has declined sharply. As an example, I champed Rogue almost immediately after her release and she's already at 280ish, but I've never used her once outside of essential nodes. And I was hyped for her to be added.

    I'll need to rely on community feedback more than I have previously, since unless a character is just utterly godlike i.e. Peggy or Carol levels of awesome, I just realistically won't be using them very much, if at all.
    Time to make a 5* ranking.....
    I'm toying with the idea. The homogeneity of 5* matches makes it hard - it's pretty much a marathon of Gambit-plus-whatever and the old Panthos teams that haven't been traded in for new shinies yet. I think I've fought everyone at least a handful of times, though, so I could probably bang out something that is Mostly Accurate.
    I wait with great anticipation to see where Banner and Doc Ock end up. 
    As one of the 10 people that actually champed Doc Ock I can say he isn't horrible. Definitely not top tier, but I think peoples dislike of him is unjustified.

    With Vulture as a feeder I use him 3/5/5. Doc's black doesn't lose turns on his stun from 5-3, just damage and strikes tile strength. Vulture can supply enough green and blue that you can get to final phase with NR and have 4 tentacle tiles on the board. It's hard to protect a 10 turn CD tile, but I've provoked insta-win 3 times with this set up. NR also burst heals your team and damages the enemy team each turn. Phase 2 is the burst heal and phase 3 is the AoE damage. Once you get 3 tentacles on the board Doc's blue hits for around 26k for 8 blue (it adds a 4th tentacle but no more after that), it gets pretty beastly! Though it does take some ap to get it there.

    By himself a 5/5/3 build is better. It's hard to get the all the green ap for NR for it to do much without Vulture. And the same is true for his blue, the most tentacles I've had in the board without Vulture is 3.

    In either set up his black has an interesting stun mechanism, in that it places a 3 turn CD tile that stuns the target once per turn for one turn, I find it useful with all the damage DD5 can dish out to a stunned enemy. Take out the stunned target, next turn the new target gets stunned. Don't waste a 3 turn stun on one enemy that way. When the tile resolves it places 2 somewhat to very powerful strike tiles (depending on 3 or 5 covers).

    All in all, he isn't the dumpster fire people seem to think he is. Top tier? Absolutely not. Good support with interesting powers? Definitely.

    I usually run him, DD, and Spidey in shield sim.
  • DarthDeVo
    DarthDeVo Posts: 2,176 Chairperson of the Boards
    @Milk Jugz I was being (mostly) silly. I haven't had the occasion to play either one, so that's cool you've found a way to get use from Ock. On the other hand, it does sound like Banner really is mostly useless.
  • Milk Jugz
    Milk Jugz Posts: 1,122 Chairperson of the Boards
    @DarthDeVo

    I recognized you were being silly, but not many people can actually comment on Ock that have used him, so I had to.....

    And, I actually have a fully covered 330 Banner also. But the only time I've really used him was in Sakaar Arena: Hulk because he was boosted to 440. From my limited use he's not horrible either, but definitely worse than Ock. My biggest gripe with him is when he changes to Hulk form and makes a match for you, it DOES NOT generate ap. That is horrible!!! 4* R4G generates ap when they make AI matches, why can't a 5* character at least do the same!?! I could get over the matches made for you, if they generated ap for you.... Oh, and I paired him with DD, so it was nice flipping the enemy attacks he makes into friendly strikes
  • Jarvind
    Jarvind Posts: 1,684 Chairperson of the Boards
    I don't hate Ock. His blue really needs help - without someone feeding him tons of AP it's basically useless. Other than that I think he's OK -a bit gimmicky, but not everyone can be an utter godmode wrecking machine.
  • Jarvind
    Jarvind Posts: 1,684 Chairperson of the Boards
    Upderp:

    - Moved a few characters out of NYR. Yondu at #27, Sandman at #44, and Lockjaw at #49.
  • Yepyep
    Yepyep Posts: 952 Critical Contributor
    Jarvind said:
    Upderp:

    - Moved a few characters out of NYR. Yondu at #27, Sandman at #44, and Lockjaw at #49.
    Thanks very much for keeping at it, Jarvind. Much appreciated!
  • Péco
    Péco Posts: 9 Just Dropped In
    edited December 2017
    Jarvind said:
    Upderp:

    - Moved a few characters out of NYR. Yondu at #27, Sandman at #44, and Lockjaw at #49.
    Thank you very much @Jarvind for an incredible and amazing ranking, tutorial, textbook, guide, manual, bible :p, etc…
    Keep on doing a great job…we surely appreciate it. :smiley:

    Péco®️
  • clarey89
    clarey89 Posts: 4 Just Dropped In
    edited December 2017

    Thank a lot for the post! The info is very detail and I think it helps a lot of newer players:) However, I think the game changed a lot to the 4* land since 4RG arrives...

    Firstly, I think it actually makes more sense to write this article from a "3*>4*" transition POV than "which 4* will go well with/against 5*", since those in 5* land probably don't need this article... In contrast those 3*>4* need help to decide which 4* to favour and put iso into first...

    Secondly, if the article is "mostly" accurate, when ur in 4* land, and u get to let say 1.5k+ in sim, most team u see will consist of 4* combination that's on the top 5, esp. when top 2 in fact even sync not bad with each other...

    But sadly all you see is Gamora+ 4RG+ Medusa (GRM), and occasionally Medusa+Carnage+ Bl4de/ Carol/ Iceman... these 2 teams deal most damage without ap, and facing GRM within 2~4 turns "Top 1 Peggy" loses her yellow already, and when u get to 11 blue most likely 2 characters already dead, and even if not there's almost no chance the blue count down would live til doing damage... and this is talking abt if you are the one controlling Peggy and mostly only gather blue... let alone when AI is doing it when defence...

    P.S. Since I insist it should be a post abt helping 3*-4*, pre-3* Gambit-nerf at least I see some Gambit+ Red/Purple ap user, now we don't even see that... lol

    Thirdly, speed is unfortunately important in this game, as in PVE points are determined by how quick u open/close, and for PVP the less time u take to climb, the less times u can get hit in the middle of hitting progression (esp true when a 3*>4* is trying to get to 900 for the 4* cover), So Peggy sadly do not speed up any fights...

    Fourthly, in PVP when you pick fight, generally you can win anything because AI is not that smart, its a matter of how much health it will cost (limited health pack) and how long will it take... Those GRM team while likely wont win the match as after a few strike tiles is down the team is pretty average, the first few turns it generates enough damage to push players pick another "easier" team... While Peggy does drag the fight a bit longer (not even the case when she's facing GRM team), a 20 extra turns of match damage (200+ *20=4k) is required to compete with one hit of the GRM team (2k on match+2k with Medusa passive), its not even considering the fact if AI is smart/lucky enough to match the CD/ Gamora Blue strike, it goes to around 6k/turn at least, and U are crossing ur fingers theres no cascade...

    Fifthly, in PVE, while I do believe the high level fights on CL9 or even CL8, Vulture/ IM40/ boosted character will actually do quicker than GRM team, as I think its abt the initial stage of 4* land that these players wont be doing CL8/9 anyway... @CL7 GRM on most node surely is way quicker than any other team, with the exception of the really high level node with all 3 tiles mover, then maybe CD/ Carol/ Bl4de/ Vulture would have speed up the fight, again though Peggy doesn't speed up the fight...

    Btw, CD purple/AV Black/ Riri Blue+Red when boosted esp. combine with 4RG (again!) is Godly quick too... Boosted Iceman+ Vulture/IM40 is insanely quick too...While Carnage can be quick as well, esp. when boosted waste way too much health pack so not quite advised here for PVE...

    So for new players to set favourite and put ISO in:

    4RG> Medusa> any guardian of galaxy member> Vulture> Bl4de/ Carol/ CD> Peggy/ Iceman/ Riri/ AV...

    P.S. 4RG Passive works even with a 3* GG member so Gamora can wait...

    By the time u get there u should know what u need/ not and u probably would be more likely to be writing an article than reading one anyway lol

  • Straycat
    Straycat Posts: 963 Critical Contributor
    clarey89 said:

    By the time u get there u should know what u need/ not and u probably would be more likely to be writing an article than reading one anyway lol

    Wow you made an account just to say this thread is unnecessary? Not to speak for the OP, but I would like to defend this list.
    First of all, the stated criteria was "order of awesomeness" or general usefulness. Its up to the reader to decide if it works for where they are in the game.
    Second, the SIM meta is not the end all for how good a character is. PVP is all about AI proof teams, not individual characters. Grocket is good, but without a GOTG partner he is not that special.
    Third, while speed is important for placement, its not the only indicator of usefulness.
    Fourth, sure everything is easier with a battery, but this list is about characters, not teams. Certain character pair better with others, they also counter better against others. This list ranks them mostly in a vacuum.

    It appears you really resent Peggy being rated number 1, but Rocket and Gamora can't share a number 1 spot. 
  • Jarvind
    Jarvind Posts: 1,684 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited December 2017
    clarey89 said:

    Thank a lot for the post! The info is very detail and I think it helps a lot of newer players:) However, I think the game changed a lot to the 4* land since 4RG arrives...

    Firstly, I think it actually makes more sense to write this article from a "3*>4*" transition POV than "which 4* will go well with/against 5*", since those in 5* land probably don't need this article... In contrast those 3*>4* need help to decide which 4* to favour and put iso into first...

    Secondly, if the article is "mostly" accurate, when ur in 4* land, and u get to let say 1.5k+ in sim, most team u see will consist of 4* combination that's on the top 5, esp. when top 2 in fact even sync not bad with each other...

    But sadly all you see is Gamora+ 4RG+ Medusa (GRM), and occasionally Medusa+Carnage+ Bl4de/ Carol/ Iceman... these 2 teams deal most damage without ap, and facing GRM within 2~4 turns "Top 1 Peggy" loses her yellow already, and when u get to 11 blue most likely 2 characters already dead, and even if not there's almost no chance the blue count down would live til doing damage... and this is talking abt if you are the one controlling Peggy and mostly only gather blue... let alone when AI is doing it when defence...

    P.S. Since I insist it should be a post abt helping 3*-4*, pre-3* Gambit-nerf at least I see some Gambit+ Red/Purple ap user, now we don't even see that... lol

    Thirdly, speed is unfortunately important in this game, as in PVE points are determined by how quick u open/close, and for PVP the less time u take to climb, the less times u can get hit in the middle of hitting progression (esp true when a 3*>4* is trying to get to 900 for the 4* cover), So Peggy sadly do not speed up any fights...

    Fourthly, in PVP when you pick fight, generally you can win anything because AI is not that smart, its a matter of how much health it will cost (limited health pack) and how long will it take... Those GRM team while likely wont win the match as after a few strike tiles is down the team is pretty average, the first few turns it generates enough damage to push players pick another "easier" team... While Peggy does drag the fight a bit longer (not even the case when she's facing GRM team), a 20 extra turns of match damage (200+ *20=4k) is required to compete with one hit of the GRM team (2k on match+2k with Medusa passive), its not even considering the fact if AI is smart/lucky enough to match the CD/ Gamora Blue strike, it goes to around 6k/turn at least, and U are crossing ur fingers theres no cascade...

    Fifthly, in PVE, while I do believe the high level fights on CL9 or even CL8, Vulture/ IM40/ boosted character will actually do quicker than GRM team, as I think its abt the initial stage of 4* land that these players wont be doing CL8/9 anyway... @CL7 GRM on most node surely is way quicker than any other team, with the exception of the really high level node with all 3 tiles mover, then maybe CD/ Carol/ Bl4de/ Vulture would have speed up the fight, again though Peggy doesn't speed up the fight...

    Btw, CD purple/AV Black/ Riri Blue+Red when boosted esp. combine with 4RG (again!) is Godly quick too... Boosted Iceman+ Vulture/IM40 is insanely quick too...While Carnage can be quick as well, esp. when boosted waste way too much health pack so not quite advised here for PVE...

    So for new players to set favourite and put ISO in:

    4RG> Medusa> any guardian of galaxy member> Vulture> Bl4de/ Carol/ CD> Peggy/ Iceman/ Riri/ AV...

    P.S. 4RG Passive works even with a 3* GG member so Gamora can wait...

    By the time u get there u should know what u need/ not and u probably would be more likely to be writing an article than reading one anyway lol

    As I've said a number of times throughout the thread, not everyone is going to agree with the ranking. I don't work for Demi or D3, it's not official. It's just my personal thoughts on the tier. I've been a boosted-fourstars player for about a year, and recently made the jump to "pretty decent 5* team." So that's where my perspective is from. If I were to write the guide for players of every tier I'd have to rewrite the thing like four times, and yeah I'm just not going to do that.

    I've also stated within this thread that R&G are ranked as such because they are shackled to another Guardians member, which limits them somewhat. Without one, their strikes are significantly weaker and they go from a wrecking ball to a pretty mediocre addition with two expensive actives. Even with that limitation, they are ranked pretty high overall.

    To your point about Peggy, I would argue that she is actually more useful to a 3* player than a 5* player. Fivestars can take her down enough to negate her passive pretty easily via match damage. Doing that in lower tiers takes a while - even R&G can't always pull it off if your strikes get matched early. So 3* players are going to be reliant on overcosted powers or a stun teamup to get her out of the way, making her a much bigger threat in that situation.

    And if you think Peggy isn't quick, you clearly haven't paired her with IM40. It leaves you open to hits, but matches are basically over as soon as you get Recharge off, so it's fine if you're hopping.
  • Pants1000
    Pants1000 Posts: 484 Mover and Shaker
    Hey Jarvind, thanks again for your work maintaining this!  

    It looks like the TOC needs an update after you added the last round of characters.

    I’ll also add that I like how the list is general usefulness, not aimed at primarily 3*, 4*, or 5* players.  Some characters have better uses at different stages of the game, and all of that should play a part in the ranking.  

    FWIW, I’m slowly moving into 5* land, and my go-to Sim team for the last couple seasons has been OML/Peggy/Vulture. 
  • sinnerjfl
    sinnerjfl Posts: 1,260 Chairperson of the Boards
    Gamora in the 35th spot? really?

    You need to re-evaluate her, she belongs much higher than that.

    3rd best stun in the game, an ability that puts a lot of strong specials for 9 AP (and passively too). Her red is her weakest skill but she's a lot better than no. 35 overall.

    The instant KO is not reliable but I can manage to trigger it often enough that its viable to try for it.
  • clarey89
    clarey89 Posts: 4 Just Dropped In
    Straycat said:
    clarey89 said:

    By the time u get there u should know what u need/ not and u probably would be more likely to be writing an article than reading one anyway lol

    Wow you made an account just to say this thread is unnecessary? Not to speak for the OP, but I would like to defend this list.
    First of all, the stated criteria was "order of awesomeness" or general usefulness. Its up to the reader to decide if it works for where they are in the game.
    Second, the SIM meta is not the end all for how good a character is. PVP is all about AI proof teams, not individual characters. Grocket is good, but without a GOTG partner he is not that special.
    Third, while speed is important for placement, its not the only indicator of usefulness.
    Fourth, sure everything is easier with a battery, but this list is about characters, not teams. Certain character pair better with others, they also counter better against others. This list ranks them mostly in a vacuum.

    It appears you really resent Peggy being rated number 1, but Rocket and Gamora can't share a number 1 spot. 
    No, i used to have an account and somehow I came back after a while I come back to, reset my password, this is showed as first post!?

    Well I revisit because a mate who I introduced to the game followed the list the champed Peggy as first 4* with the next 3* less than 190...  n then vulture, but with 2 champ 4* instead- of able to climb to 575 like he used to do, he can't get the cp nor on top10 in any cl5 PvP anymore...

    And then the 5* thingy in PVE killed the placement 3* from cl7 or give up the 4* from progression...

    And then the game forced him to go on cl6 for pvp... 

    And then he quit the game...

    As I said I think the info from the list is brilliant, I said to newer ally after I discovered the list "like 2days ago" that they should check it out... just dont champ Peggy...

    I think another problem comes with the "favourite" system, in the old days when we get close to first 4* full covered, a few would have been very closed by, so it will only be wks before next 4* hit that too, but back then after vulture his next one is 8 covers...
  • clarey89
    clarey89 Posts: 4 Just Dropped In
    And sadly it seems the newest 4* AC seems to be a direct blow to Peggy too!? Not just Peggy can't stop her at all, Peggy yellow postponing active skills makes AC even stronger =( 
    I can't believe right after the whole saga with gambit free ap, they created another character so strong but this time not even consuming the ap... when will they learn... (but of course she will be on favourite as soon as she can be lol)
  • Anon
    Anon Posts: 1,455 Chairperson of the Boards
    sinnerjfl said:
    Gamora in the 35th spot? really?

    You need to re-evaluate her, she belongs much higher than that.

    3rd best stun in the game, an ability that puts a lot of strong specials for 9 AP (and passively too). Her red is her weakest skill but she's a lot better than no. 35 overall.

    The instant KO is not reliable but I can manage to trigger it often enough that its viable to try for it.
    Rogue should be in the top 10, but she's still in the "Not Yet Rated" category.

    Give it time bro.