The Hulk (Bruce Banner) PVE = 1.4 (rank 23), PVP = 1.21 (rank 22)
The strongest Avenger… but not in MPQ. He comes in last for PVE and second last for PVP. It is not surprising, since he has always been called to be ‘trash-tier’ by forummites, and there are good reasons for this.
Pros
Theoretically, he has unlimited potential health. Once he transform into Hulk, Bruce doesn’t take any damage and he can take a huge beating without worrying about healthpacks. Need someone to tank damage in SCL9 PVE, Hulk is da man.
Cons
His blue and black abilities are seriously underpowered. Blue is activated only when the board has less than 7 green tiles, which is a very hard to trigger. Imagine if the board has 6 green tile, you finally manage get blue to trigger once and create 2 green tiles… and the board has 8 green tiles and it stops again. Compare with 3* Hulk and 4* CHulk who can generate a lot of green tiles, it is clear that Banner blue sucks.
Black costs a low 7 ap and create good attack tiles, but it also create attack tiles for the enemy. That makes it a double-edge sword… and attack tiles are generally below strength tiles in usefulness.
Finally, the coffin in the nail is that transformed Hulk auto-match does not generate ap, unlike 4* Grocket green ability. And Hulk green AOE isn’t that amazing anyway.
Good team-mates: Any team that can generate green for him to transform will be great. This include Red Hulk, 5* SL, 5* Thor.
Black Bolt PVE = 4.12 (rank 5), PVP = 4.00 (rank 4)
Like all the great characters, having a champ BB changes how you experience the game. His black passive means that you are able to deal 5k+ dmg consistently at every turn. That is a game changer, in both PVP and PVE.
Pros
BB passive generate charge tiles and deal 5+k dmg when there are 4 or more charge tiles on the board. At level 5, this translates to a fastest turn 3 dmg. 5+k dmg every turn, without using ap… that is what makes BB so freaking awesome. The charge tiles is also icing on the cake, as it allow you to gain ap on a faster rate. His green also deals good dmg and board shake at 10 ap. Occasionally you can get the max scream, which deals terrific aoe and just straight up destroy the board.
Cons
Pretend the yellow doesn’t exist. It is largely useless and peripheral for a champ BB. His charge tiles can also be a double edged sword as it also allow the enemies team to gain ap faster and increased their match dmg. Tbh, the ‘weakness’ of BB doesn’t detract him from being an excellent character.
Good team mates
One of the meta flavour in PVP is Gambolt (Gambit + BB). Black Bolt passively created charge tiles means that Gambit red will always deal max dmg, even on the first cast. Gambit red also create charge tiles, which ensure that BB passive is trigger all the time.
Black Widow PVE = 2.19 (rank 19), PVP = 1.95 (rank 18)
(i have very limited experience with BW, so i got my alliance mate, Johnnyzero to give his analysis.)
Kudos to demiurge for designing 5* Widow to be very true to the comic character: a very capable, sometimes under-estimated, character who is equipped to deal with lots of different situations. The biggest complaint I hear about widow is that she’s “too situational”, but really, these are the situations you find yourself in!
Pros
Her Purple is damage and an excellent way to deal with countdowns and other specials. Its especially useful to keep enough purple in your pocket to deal with Thanos green, BP Black, Phoenix resurrection, HE’s arrows, etc. Her red is big damage with an extra damage kicker if the enemy team has 12ap in any color. Just watch the AP bar to time this correctly. This move also destroys random AP if it downs the enemy. Her black is solid damage with a big extra kicker if a teammate is below 20% health. This move can take you from the brink of defeat to escaping with a win. Her black also steals 2-4 random ap, but that’s just a bonus. Her stun passive, if a teammate is stunned, she stuns a random enemy for a turn, is useful, but really is like a half turn stun since it happens on their turn.
When fighting Widow, she’s got three damaging moves, so three colors to deny. Plus her black hits very hard if an ally is below 20% health so you have to be mindful of that if you are going to leave her to the end.
Cons
Unfortunately (and unbelievable to me) she has been completely pushed aside by Gambit. Complete color overlap and faster and a better partner for her former best buddy Black Bolt. Its a damn shame imo. (atomzed will also add that Black Widow moves are more expensive as compared to other 5*, so you probably fire it only once in a game.)
Good team mates
Pair her with Black Bolt and his charged tiles make her somewhat expensive moves charge up quite a bit faster. In shield sim or PVE Dr. Strange makes a perfect 3rd to cover up the blue/yellow needs of that team.
(guest analysis by JohnnyZero, #1 5* Black Widow fan)
Dr Strange PVE = 4.25 (rank 4), PVP = 3.18 (rank 7)
Dr Strange is awesome in PVE, which is reflected in his ranking as top 5 in PVE, as he changes your PVE experience. After I champ him, PVE became a breeze. I was especially looking forward to nodes with goons, as they melt in front of Strange. He is also good in PVP in the current Gambit meta, because gambit will cast a lot of abilities, and suffer the wrath of Strange’s yellow passive.
Pros
Strange has 2 excellent abilities (blue and yellow). His blue is an all rounder, combining stun with DOT and ap denial, for a very cheap 9 ap cost. However, it is his yellow passive that makes Strange an asset in PVE. Each time the enemy cast an ability, they will take 5+k dmg. Against goons, this can be triggered multiple times in a turn. In PVP, Strange can slow down the game as the players try not to cast abilities before he is taken out or stun.
Cons
His purple is useless. It is too slow and too unreliable to removing enemy special tiles. Strange also has one of the lowest health points in th 5* tier, which means he can be taken out fairly quickly. His yellow takes 14 ap to nuke an enemy and hence is very slow.
Good team mates
Strange is largely independent. You can pair him up with DD to tap on DD purple passive. You can also pair him up with BB for max effectiveness in PVE, melting goon nodes in double quick time, with 5k+ bolt damage and 5k+ strange damage.
Thanos PVE = 4.55 (rank 2), PVP = 4.06 (rank 3)
The Mad Titan takes the 2nd spot because of his usefulness in both PVP and PVE. Some people have argued that to be competitive in PVE, you need a Thanos as you just need to kill 1 character to Court Death the rest to death. This is especially true for lower SCL, where your hardest node can be cleared quickly with a champ Thanos. In PVP, Thanos has the advantage of having the highest health points, which means that it takes longer time for your opponent to chew through. Also, Panthos is the fastest team in eating grills for PVP. However, his PVP ranking dropped slightly because of how fast Gambit + Thor is.
Pros
His black passive, Court Death, makes short work of the enemy team. This is especially true when the enemy team has a weak link, say a loaner character. 15+k dmg and 2 free turns due to stun. His green deals massive AOE dmg for his cost, dealing around 20+k dmg. Finally, his purple is often overlooked by less experienced players. His purple can be used to negate many character abilities. Want to prevent Phoenix from resurrecting? Cast purple before killing her. Want to stop those pesky DD strike tiles; cast purple and you also stop him from healing? See that enemy OML has 9 black ap? Cast purple and you see OML ending his turn with no strike tiles generated. And not forgetting the increase match dmg it does, which can increase it to 2k-3k per match for his strongest colors.
Cons
His green, while being an extremely good nuke, relies on a 3-turn CD resolving. I have countless situations which my CD gets matched away in a cascades, even though i took care to cast it when there is little green on the board. The inherent unreliability of the green has made some players adjusting his green to 3 cover and maxing purple at 5 cover. Thanos black also requires the enemy to be killed first for activation, and against very high health enemies, it is much less effective.
Good team mates
Thanos and BP are a match made in heaven. Kill an enemy, Thanos black trigger (15+k dmg) and stun BP. BP red passive trigger for 10+k dmg on one enemy. So as long as you kill the first enemy, you will deal 25+k dmg to the next enemy, which allows you to trigger Thanos black again. Thanos also pairs well with 5* Hawkeye and Green Goblin, as their passive will fortify Thanos green CD ensuring it will go off.
Black Panther PVE = 3.08 (rank 9), PVP = 3.28 (rank 6)
When BP was first released, he was widely derided as he looks weak. He only has 1 active, which doesn’t deal straight up dmg. However he plays better than on paper, as his 3 abilities are all very useful. While i don’t think he deserves such high ranking, it is clear that people love him as part of the Panthos (Panther + Thanos) team which combines with perfect synergy. Panthos is the fastest team to eat grills, which explains why BP is rank higher in PVP than in PVE.
Pros
BP black seems meh on paper, but it’s actually really strong. You get a 5-turn CD to trigger 5+k additional damage. Assuming you only do match dmg to trigger,that’s 25k dmg for 9 ap. If you add in cascades, or attack tiles or special tiles (like 4* Gamora red or 5* DD green), you can deal a lot of damage.
BP red is useful to tank a major attack, as you straight up avoid 60% of the dmg. And you get a nifty benefit of BP coming back from stun to deal 10+k dmg. His red is the reason why BP pairs so well with Thanos. Finally, his yellow is often overlooked, but when it triggers it hits like a truck (20+k dmg). As it is a passive, you can use it to kill Dr Strange without triggering Strange yellow ability.
Cons
BP has only 1 active ability that rely on CD. Your CD can be matched on turn 1 or it can be blocked by moves such as Thanos purple or Gambit purple. You also can’t rely on his yellow when you in a pinch; i have games which i had the required TU ap, but there was just no yellow matches for me to trigger it.
Good team mates
Thanos and BP are a match made in heaven. Kill an enemy, Thanos black trigger (15+k dmg) and stun BP. BP red passive trigger for 10+k dmg on one enemy. So as long as you kill the first enemy, you will deal 25+k dmg to the next enemy, which allows you to trigger Thanos black again. Panthos is the fastest grill eating team, though against an A team, Panthos will be very slow.
Hawkeye PVE = 3.17 (rank 8), PVP = 3.05 (rank 8)
CD, CD, CD galore! HE is a CD machine, as his purple passive generates blue and red ap when a CD resolves. This allows him to generate more CD, which gives him more blue and red to… endless cycle! The great synergy is what gives him such high ranking in PVE and PVP.
Pros
HE has great internal synergy. You just need 5 blue to get the ball rolling, and that’s not difficult to do. His purple also helps to protect the CDs by fortifying them. With the right team mates, HE can beat any team. I heard of level 550 teams being beaten by HE teams.
Cons
HE arrows are a mishmash of effects, in a specific sequence. You can’t choose the right arrows according to your situation, which means that sometimes you will waste an arrow. HE also need the right team mates to shine, which means that you are limited by choices.
Good team mates
Coulson-HE are the ultimate SHIELD pair. Every time you use HE arrow, coulson blue passive generate a 1-turn CD. When this resolves, it gives HE more blue and red ap. This is the pair that can beat any team. To complete the trinity, you can add in 4* Carol, who will buff special tiles upon the resolving of CD. Gambit also works well with HE, as gambit purple will generate CD that feeds on HE passive, and giving more red for Gambit to throw cards.
Starlord (A.Mix 2) PVE = 2,57 (rank 13), PVP = 1.90 (rank 20)
Starlord is a good support character. He plays better than he looks on paper, and his yellow and green can shake up the board a lot. While he may not be a centre piece of a 5* team, he is a very good third wheel. I have a champ SL and i often use him as a green-purple user (because thanos just sucks up healthpacks). This also explains why he has a higher rating in PVE than in PVP, because in PVE you can usually choose 3 characters.
Pros
His yellow creates 5 charged tiles in place of the enemy strongest color, and if you timed it well it can create good cascades. And not forgetting that charge tiles multiple the match dmg by 3, which in 5* land is a non trivial dmg source.
SL purple can steal tiles or ap, and in 5* tier, only DD can steal tiles.
SL green is a wonderful board shake, as it destroy basic tiles & enemy special tiles but leaving friendly special tiles intact. Strangely, the game considered the charge tiles as friendly, so the charge tiles you created will remain on the board. SL green is great in a team which relies on special tiles, such as OML,Phx and HE.
Cons
SL purple is a weak link, as it either steals ap or enemy tiles, meaning that if there is a protect tile on board, it will default to stealing it. In addition, if the ap it steals is random and from only 1 colour. which means you can easily steal just 1 ap in a useless color or steal 8 ap in your strongest color.
While his green is an excellent board shake, it’s dmg is very low at 8k. Compared to similar 12 ap move, Thanos green does 20k (with a CD) and Thor green does 13k, it’s clear that SL is inferior.
Good team-mates
SL plays a supporting role, so you usually don’t build the team around him. You can use him as a green ap generator, so he’s useful for Thanos or Thor. You can use him as a charge tile generator so he’s useful for 4* Thora and Gambit. I usually use him with Gambit, because Gambit red allows me to collect the green ap, which fuel SL green board shake. SL-Gambit have a lot of way to handle enemy special tiles that you are well covered in PVE.
