I have half the available 4 stars champed and starting to consider investing in my five stars. I have all of them except for Doc Ock and BP.
Which 5 star should i heart?
The following characters have the most covers:
Silver Surfer - 6
Green Goblin - 5
Spider Mna - 5
OML - 6
The others have 4 or less.
I would really like to see a ranked list of 5*s, even though I can come to my own conclusions. I really like Green Goblin though, he hits really hard and auto-fortifies tiles too.
If you’re pulling from Classics, I still think OML is the most useful from that bunch.
If you’re planning to pull from Latest tokens, it’s better to favorite one of the three 5-stars that are in those tokens.
I’m no expert, but out of those I’d probably pick Goblin or Surfer.
Spider-Man’s usefulness is limited - in order to get the full damage on his blue, you need to either double-fire it or use his green first for an absurd 14 AP. His passive used to make him great for thwarting the ever-present Old Man Logan, but since his nerf he’s not nearly as much of a threat.
That brings us to Logan. He’s still handy as a health pack saver, but most of his damage output requires a huge amount of setup, which is much harder to pull off now that he’s no longer nearly-invincible when his allies are alive. Without transforming, all he can do is put down strikes, which is not terrible but not great either.
I think Surfer is underrated since his rework, personally - he’s no Thanos, but his red actually does decent damage now, his survivability via blue is quite high, and he generates a decent number of charged tiles. Black is pretty costly but the payoff is commensurate - board shake, loads of damage, and the tile is very hard to destroy and will persist even if he dies.
And, finally, Goblin. His black hits like a train, and his own countdown protection makes it fairly unlikely that you’ll lose his glider. Purple can be used for a wide variety of effects, though personally I can’t see using anything other than straight damage or the monster AP steal very often. The active component of yellow is kinda so-so given that he already fortifies countdowns, but it’s nice to have if you don’t have another active yellow power on the team.
All of that said, do remember that leveling a single 5* will put you into 5* scaling, which means you’ll basically be locked into using that character in every. single. match. Personally I wouldn’t rush it.
Lots of different factors to consider with this question.
It’s very hard to cover classic 5*s now. So much dilution in the tokens and only a 5% bonus chance. It’s conceivable to get a few covers over a few months with this method, but it’s pretty hard to get more than that.
If you really want to cover 5s, then the best way is probably to save up 2k in cp and and a hundred+ LTs and then going crazy on a good set of 3. Unless you earn a few hundred LT pulls every 6 weeks that is just about the only way to really champ a 5 from scratch now.
As for overall utility. There are a few considerations too. Some 5s excel at transition play with 4s, others are good with some 5* partners.
For all-around play i would offer this list (based on a mix of my own experience with undercovered 5s, fighting different 5s in the game, and discussing the game with alliance mates on Line).
(1) Thanos (eats healthpacks like nothing else, but current fastest)
(2) BB (with 5 black he gets to pretty substantial passive damage very fast)
–small gap (next group is all sort bunched up as usable and very solid with the right partners)–
(3) hawkeye (not enough instand damage to be a #1 tank, but a great secondary damage character. Almost impossible to deny)
(4) BP (plays up with thanos, a bit hard go use otherwise)
(5) BW (hits very hard, could use a battery)
(6) strange (great stun, owns goons, very squishy)
(7) GG (good all around, especially with the new CD-based characters)
(8) im46 (excellent 4* teammates, pretty self reliant)
(9) phoenix (5* cascades are still good, and so are cheap strike tiles)
(10) cap (so much better after the fix, but still not great)
(11) BSS (not bax per se, but less useful in the current 5* meta which doesn not care about strike tiles)
(12) SS (immune to stun is awesome, itherwise outclassed by newer characrers)
(13) OML (still great way to save health on trivial nodes. But noticebly underpowered against real opponents)
–gap (this is the current 5* trash tier)–
(14) star lord (not enough offense or self accel)
(15) banner (fun to play, but noticeably worse than the rest of 5* land)
(Note: doc oc will likely fit into the botton of the list. Question is proabably: “is he lower middle class, or trash tier?” his blue takes too much time/ap/board luck to he really good, and his green is way too complex for its own good. Black seems like a slight worse version of strange’s stun)
And i second everything jarvind says below about scaling. Champing 1 5* will take your maximum level pve opponents from about level 330 to about level 375. Adding more 5* champs pushes you up over level 400 opponents.
Thanks for the advice. I will stick with SS or GG. Thanks for the tip on scaling, I was wondering about that as well.
I’d probably go with Goblin too. Seems like every other release there is another solid CD character entering the meta.
I know these are always so subjective, but…
HE is too high. He’s a ton of fun but to me he’s in the Strange range, great for PvE, not really a PvP threat unless you let him get out of hand (which is the same caveat as a lot of the tier).
OML is too low. OML is still fine against real opponents, you should have to health pack him more, as you do with others. PHX is also too low. I don’t think the recent focus on CDs has suddenly made GG better than her.
I’d group them something like this, with the actually ranking interchangeable in each group:
Tier 1: Thanos, Bolt
Tier 2: Panther, BW, PHX,
Tier 3: HE, Strange, OML, Goblin
Tier 4: Surfer, IM46, Cap, BSS, SL
Tier 17: Banner.
I’m an OML booster. He’s obviously not as good as he was pre-rework, but to say he’s one of the worst 5*s now is underrating him. It’s important to remember that they actually made him better after he transforms/pops claws. So while he’s not the healing tank he used to be, once the claws come out it’s basically game over. And there are so many ways to boost black that popping the claws isn’t that difficult.
I think those are a lot of valid criticisms smurf and dragon.
I may he biased on HE, as i have been using him a lot recently. My comment was meant suggest that he isnt quite strong to be a main damage dealerin pvp. He cant do anything right away unless he has a partner that can proc cd’s. So that is a detriment to him. But he is pretty useful on defense. With 5ap powers and passive fortification he is nasically impossible to deny. So as a background character he is a great way to prpvide a steady churn of damage and special effects. And he also has some great 4* partners now for mixed play, and will be around in LTs for a while yet.
Overall i meant to suggest that the whole middle class of 5*s is pretty closely bunched now. BB and thanos definitdly stand out up top, and SL banner seem like the bottom. But i dont think there is a very big gap between #3 and #8.
OML has always been able to put out tons of damage after transform. But it is quite a bit harder to keep him alive long enough to transform now. He remains good for streamrolling weak opponents with no healthpack usage. But if you really want to do a lot of damage it seems to me that there are much better ways to do it now. Hence OML gets put at the bottom of the middle tier. He is not useless. But he was already weak relative to the best 5*s before his nerf.
I LOVE using Hawkeye because he’s just fun to play with. There are a ton of stupid combos to use that just mow enemies down. My major criticism of him though is that he’s SLOW. And not that his abilities are slow, because they’re obviously cheap and self-boosting, but just having to watch animation after animation takes forever. For this reason alone he’s hard to use in PVP because he drags you down. He’s good for early climbing, but on that last run to 1200 or on a hop, you can’t use him.
I still think you’re underrating OML, but it’s fine. Don’t forget that now when he transforms you can immediately double-cast yellow. That’s a huge improvement from his old build. Most teams can’t survive that.
It’s not that you need to collect black, it’s collecting 9 black and 12 yellow that makes it a pain. Personally it was always the yellow that made it difficult for me - the only yellow generator in the game until recently was Kingpin, who is otherwise subpar, and bringing him along solely for yellow generation was a questionable solution.
Now that Cloak & Dagger are available, it’s much easier, which I assume was part of the reason for his nerf.
100% this is accurate. I kinda wish the devs would just own up to it instead of peddling this “OML was used in 10% of all matches” nonsense.
Gathering yellow is definitely hard, but the payoff is worth it.
off to roster and level help
I have Thano5 champed and HE fully covered at lvl 375 , gotta say out of all the champed 5* that I face in pvp OML is the easiest to take down especially after the nerf.
and Hawkeye is awesome but matches can be longer, my stategy with him so far has been to fire all the arrows as quick as possible the just keep spamming out of arrows.
Champed hawkeye is also one of the matches I will usually skip, once he gets going he’s really hard to stop
Based on both personal use and playing against them, OML was never scary on defense even prenerf unless he cascades into a bunch of yellow and black and turns into Tinykitty Cranky OML and postnerf the same applies.
Neither Thanos nor HE are troublesome on defense either. Defensively I respect only Bolt and the cascade fiends Phx and IM46.
When people say 12 yellow and 9 black are hard to collect… 5*s have so much health that being able to fire a single faster power won’t do you much good anyway. Still need to collect a bunch of ap overall.
Dr. Tiny: i think you are overlooking one aspect of thanos’ defensive value. He isnt especially hard to fight, though green can be irritating if he gets it out and you can’t target someone else. But the biggest problem with fighting him is the increased risk of entering the fight at less than full health (or with a loaner). When that is the case any stray aoe or randomly targeted attack can accidentally drop an injured support character, and then things get ugly. So he is a worthwhile skip when climbing.
So thanos really forces extra healthpack usage on offense and defense.
I agree with all of this, I’m going to nit-pick one thing. OML is scary on defense under two circumstances - he pops his claws, or he gets those tinykitty black strikes out and the AI lucks into a cascade. That will take down a character wicked fast.
Bolt is annoying on defense, but you can take him down with good planning, particularly if you use Bolt against Bolt. You try to match the charged tiles so there are 3 on their turn and it actually makes things easier to a degree. Trouble is this isn’t always possible, of course. Phoenix is always a dice game with her purple. IMHO there is no character for whom the game cannot go terrifyingly south as fast as Phoenix. Other than that chance, though, she’s not awful.
I just plain don’t see IM46 enough to have a real opinion on him, which says something. I tend to take him out first when I do since I don’t like unknown quantities, and both blue and red can be real nasty…
Honestly, there’s some great information on the 5*s here. I’d only quibble with a subjective point or two.
I think poor IM46 and cap have the misfortune of being early 5*s coming before people knew/were able to hoard, so only whales and really lucky people have them to play with.
On a full team IM Tony is pretty fearsome - he’ll hit for 24k+ on 9 red even if his teammates are downed, and I’ve encountered bad matches where he fires that crazy blue 3 or more times due to cascades, not to mention if the original cast gives him enough for his red. Yellow doesn’t fire often but can be annoying - have to match them away to avoid huge damage, because they’ll block you from taking him down quickly. He’s also an early target when I encounter him in the wild. 
I’m rather partial to 5* Hawkeye, but that’s because he works well with my current set of 4* characters.