**** Ikaris (Eternals) ****

Ikaris in WTS has level 530: no 4* character is allowed to be beyond level 370.
So obviously any ikaris anyone will face in pvp will deal less damage. 
On his strike tiles application he won't be limited. However that will be the product of the sinergy on partners.
I think he is probably the best 4* release this year and he has a lot of sinergy with 5* characters. 

Srheer0 said:

5star Archangel. Stuns airborne enemies passively

If c5lossus is tanking, he will take minimal damage. 

Yes there are counters like archangel and Elsa.
both are liabilities in pick 2 though.

** edit   Ikaris airborne damage is not match damage so even with col5 the rear is getting hit pretty heavy

I only have a 255 sighclops. So I pushed purple hard and sent the other 2 to the wolves. The two got knocked out but ikaris ended it with 100% hp.

I once had him as my last active character (my other two chars I think were Polaris and Dusa. They were knocked down). The tile matches Ikaris does while alone and airborne are passive and automatic, you have no control over what tiles are matched. This means he might not be able to "keep himself airborne forever" if he fails to complete the AP cost for his purple and/or yellow abilities.

I still think he can be a huge annoyance with those two skills maxed. I really hoped to cross paths with someone having him beyond than 1/1/1 but I couldn't find anyone. 1/1/1 keeps him too weak to even make me waste a team slot for Archangel...

HoundofShadow said:

Bring on Balance of Power during the next off-season. I can't wait to try out 550 Ikaris.

Anyway, counters can be divided into two categories: preventive and reactive.

Reactive would be using direct counters like Archangel or Elsa.

Preventive would be ap denial, ap steal and stun etc

There's another one strategy where you play the airborne game. It's like using rock against a rock. Bring Hellcat, Throg, Vulture etc and time your airborne. I think some players would have adequate training for airborne vs airborne match. With the right timing, Ikaris would be downed.

What do you mean by "the right timing"? As far as I realize, when an enemy is airborne, it is unable to act (so long as it's not a hero coded to act while airborne as Ikaris is) but also immune to damage. So what you can do in this situation is gather AP for your skills and then unleash them when the enemy lands. But you can't always count on being able to gather enough AP for anything (even a stun) by the time that enemy lands.

I also found him overpowered in the Welcome To… event as he alone KO’ed both Day 2 and 3 teams . I am thankful for this however as it was a huge time and strategy saver as it seems both Apoc and Okoye put his damage off the charts beyond my calculations . This was the closest thing I’ve seen to Polaris in 4*.

In his 5e in Unstable ISO-8 he is far less reliable than in his Welcome event. Mine is only 3/2/2 but I have been having a tough time finding the Red/Purple to keep him in flight in some matches. Spiderman 2099 and Polaris are still better partners for Apoc/Okoye in 4* land as they have fewer contingencies. But good to know that Ikarus can fill that void if you’ve missed those two somehow.

Yeah I've been using him with Okoye in the PVP.

I've been using PX boosted purple and never sent ikaris flying.
I thought his match damage wouldn't be boosted as many characters usually act.
Ikaris needs 6 purple but after that he is free. If apoc and okoye can boost him he is better than spider or polaris who need other conditions, plus he can revive if taking an AoE. 
Now okoye can run polaris and ikaris for a total carnage. It should be called the okoyis team, i.e.

He needs more than 6 purple. He needs 6 every time he lands unless he has 8 red.  Without either of those he sits on the ground and tanks. Dying and then five rounds of flight if you have 9 yellow seems good but by the time you find 3 yellow matches your team will likely be dead as well. Or Okoye and Apocalypse will want to use that yellow for other purposes. 

Ikaris is good.  His free matches has been proven to be effective with Carbage and Grocket. Free damage that can be boosted has been proven effective with iHulk, Spiderman 2099, Medusa and others. The extra match damage is good with Juggernaut, Karnak, Colossus, and Shang-Chi (and apparently Adam Warlock but I don't have him). Keeping him airborne is pretty easy, though no where near as easy as Vulture. None of these characters do as much as Ikaris but they also do not have the same contingencies. 

I have my doubts that he will replace Juggernaut or Medusa with Polaris and Grocket in Pick-3 since they do his extra damage with fewer contingencies and no ap cost. I certainly wouldn't run him before Polaris or Grocket or their proven counters in Pick-2. There are more effective Apocalypse and Okoye pairings in PvE if you have them and any 4* partner will paint a target on your back in PvP if you have either of those champed. We will see how he plays when I get him champed as these are my initial impressions.