Before Gold Thor D3 could have......

[system]

I’m hoping the “gold” designation will prove to signify that there is a Pokemon-style evolution element to the character, otherwise it seems silly to have created that category instead of sticking with “rare character.” Just 4.5 days(!) until we know…

[NorthernPolarity]

@jozier

@Vector Mangler

@BelligerentGnu

Much as I hate the concept of Lazy Thor, I think he’s going to see a lot of play - that yellow is just too useful in the current three-star pool.

Really? I think with Hood, Black Panther, and of course SpiderMan sporting some pretty dang good yellow abilities that I’ve got about zero interest in LazyThor™. I’m going to snag a cover or two from the event just to be sure I don’t get locked out of missions in future events but I don’t currently plan to level him at all. There green/red on LazyThor, unless significantly better than 2* Thor, won’t compete with Patch. The AOE aspect won’t compete with Grey Suit Black Widow. The only appeal to me is the tankiness but even a super tanky character is easily defeated with a combo of massive strike tiles + stun.

What makes you think the AOE won’t compete with BWGS? Hers currently does 3336 to all enemies at level 141.

Thor 85 curently does 2003 to main target and 1001 to the others. At 141 he could easily be doing 4000/2000/2000 for all we know. Sure, that’s 2000 less total damage than BWGS, but you can fire two of them for 28 AP versus two BWGS for 38 AP.

Sure it might not be better in all respects, but there are certainly teams where I would prefer a 141 Thor over a 141 BWGS - especially since his yellow does damage and his red ability will likely do a decent amount of damage at 141.

I think Thor is far superior to GSBW for PvP simply due to how useless GSBW is on defense: the AI can’t use purple properly, and due to the high costs of her abilities, the AI will actually hold AP in order to use them over other abilities, making your team extremely easy to kill. Thor on the other hand, has a ridiculous health pool and AI friendly abilities that will probably make him one of the best defensive characters out there.

[Katai]

@Zifna

Well, we don’t know yet. I mean, Gold Thor could be just a rehash, but calling lazy at this point is premature. He might actually be more work if they did something cool with him to allow your ** Thor resources to convert to the *** one. For example, maybe once you get all covers of a Gold character, you could use your maxed ** to get an extra cover of each color and some ISO.

13 ** covers into 2 *** covers seems pretty fair, and getting a boost into leveling the character would be cool and nice…

I am hoping there is something cool like that since they bothered to animate the stars on the character portrait, which no other card has.

If it’s not like that… You guys are kind of right, even if I would be happy to have a *** Thor.

I think it would be easier to just create a new character than try to implement some convoluted 2* → 3* upgrade path.

[system]

@NorthernPolarity

I think Thor is far superior to GSBW for PvP simply due to how useless GSBW is on defense: the AI can’t use purple properly, and due to the high costs of her abilities, the AI will actually hold AP in order to use them over other abilities, making your team extremely easy to kill. Thor on the other hand, has a ridiculous health pool and AI friendly abilities that will probably make him one of the best defensive characters out there.

Hulk is pretty AI friendly too and I’m not deterred at all by the thought of facing a Hulk. Defense is just not a consideration when building a team because at high level play it’s all about abilities and the AI won’t manage those effectively. So all characters are gimped on defense, and the advent of shielding means that defense isn’t important for placement in tournaments. GSBW has more AOE damage on green, the ability to knock out annoying enemy tiles and cause cascades with her green, and her green is cheaper than it looks on offense because her purple charges it while generating crits/cascades and also board clearing.

[system]

@Zifna

Well, we don’t know yet. I mean, Gold Thor could be just a rehash, but calling lazy at this point is premature. He might actually be more work if they did something cool with him to allow your ** Thor resources to convert to the *** one. For example, maybe once you get all covers of a Gold character, you could use your maxed ** to get an extra cover of each color and some ISO.

13 ** covers into 2 *** covers seems pretty fair, and getting a boost into leveling the character would be cool and nice…

I am hoping there is something cool like that since they bothered to animate the stars on the character portrait, which no other card has.

If it’s not like that… You guys are kind of right, even if I would be happy to have a *** Thor.

No, I don’t think it’s premature. They threw out the same old Thor, except with 3*** and with almost all the same abilities. Then they slapped “Gold” on it without giving any explanation what Gold means or how it will tie into future gaming.

Thanks for making 2* Thor obsolete so that we can sink more $$$, time and energy into the same old character. Yep, that’s lazy and appears to be another cash grab.

Never mind that they hinted that they were done making new, multiple versions of the same hero/villian.

[NorthernPolarity]

@Vector Mangler

@NorthernPolarity

I think Thor is far superior to GSBW for PvP simply due to how useless GSBW is on defense: the AI can’t use purple properly, and due to the high costs of her abilities, the AI will actually hold AP in order to use them over other abilities, making your team extremely easy to kill. Thor on the other hand, has a ridiculous health pool and AI friendly abilities that will probably make him one of the best defensive characters out there.

Hulk is pretty AI friendly too and I’m not deterred at all by the thought of facing a Hulk. Defense is just not a consideration when building a team because at high level play it’s all about abilities and the AI won’t manage those effectively. So all characters are gimped on defense, and the advent of shielding means that defense isn’t important for placement in tournaments. GSBW has more AOE damage on green, the ability to knock out annoying enemy tiles and cause cascades with her green, and her green is cheaper than it looks on offense because her purple charges it while generating crits/cascades and also board clearing.

Defense matters less right now with the prevalence of Spidey/Mags trivializing offense, but it will become more important when these characters get nerfed. I also find that defense is important if you are trying to minimize your HP usage during tournaments, which means that you would ideally spend a single 3 hour shield just before the end. Playing this way means that not getting attacked is far more important as you grind up the ladder, in which case having as many deterrents as possible on your team can be extremely useful.

[system]

@NorthernPolarity

Defense matters less right now with the prevalence of Spidey/Mags trivializing offense, but it will become more important when these characters get nerfed. I also find that defense is important if you are trying to minimize your HP usage during tournaments, which means that you would ideally spend a single 3 hour shield just before the end. Playing this way means that not getting attacked is far more important as you grind up the ladder, in which case having as many deterrents as possible on your team can be extremely useful.

I’ve played tournaments where I’ve focused on putting in tanky teams for my off periods to save on shields and I’ve played tournaments where I’ve just left in my more fragile heavy hitting team. Hasn’t seemed to make a lick of difference. There’s certainly arguments to be made about defense for the people vying for top 10 in an elite event as every second unshielded counts in that environment but for a regular player just trying to take top 10 in a routine event it’s a total nonissue. I’m certainly not going to devote the ISO-8 to leveling LazyThor™ until I’m completely out of better 3* characters I can level. Which is pretty much all of them except DareDevil. Forget that guy.

You do make a very valid point on Spidey/Mags nerfs possibly changing up the metagame, but that’s still so indeterminate in scope and date that I’m not going to let it factor into any analysis of the game.

[system]

@Katai

I think it would be easier to just create a new character than try to implement some convoluted 2* → 3* upgrade path.

Not if the upgrade path is: collect covers for new Thor, level with iso.

[OnesOwnGrief]

Am I the only one here thinking how neutered Hulk and XF Wolvie will be from 3* Thor? Pretty sure I’d bet all my HP on 5 Green Thor will drop anyone to less than leaving them open to be picked off by Punisher. Currently those two have massive health and could prolong a fight at cap.

[system]

I am terrified of the day I will enter a tournament only to find multiple teams that include a powered up 3* Thor. I can see him being a new level of OP-ness in the game. So far we had the ridiculously cheap and untested abilities, in the future we will have the incredibly powerful gold characters who will trample all other underdeveloped characters with overcosted abilities.

[system]

@Zifna

Well, we don’t know yet. I mean, Gold Thor could be just a rehash, but calling lazy at this point is premature.

I’m calling him Lazy Thor because he’s fat

[Phaserhawk]

I’ll say it again, if you wanted a 3* Thor, give Rags a 3rd ability, boom, 3* Thor

[system]

@NorthernPolarity

Thor on the other hand, has a ridiculous health pool and AI friendly abilities that will probably make him one of the best defensive characters out there.

The “nerfing” improved him massively there. previously he was mostly sitting duck. The new one has pretty good chance to shell out a yellow and if so you likely look at 2-3 criticals and him picking at least 6 green just from the cascades – then might make another 4-match, so the green is on you quite immediately.

Anyone recall green hits from old thor?

[system]

No one used old Thor’s green because Wolverine made much better use of the color. It whacked for about 2000at lvl 85 for 13 AP, with 1000 damage to the rest of the enemy team.

I would still choose Punisher or Patch strike tiles or GSBW one-shot if available.