Excellent idea Atomzed!
This was fun and very time consuming since I love talking tactics. I’m going to share my opinions and personal rankings below for anyone to read or comment on just so it doesn’t go to waste. I’ll even try to catch some of the more obvious typo’s, lol.
Note: Since submitting this list I’ve whaled Iceman and xDP.
While I don’t have much hands on experience with these characters yet (less than a week), I’ll expand on my thoughts regarding Iceman in his section.
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Babinro’s Character Rankings
** Character Ranking List
Rating Name
9 Ares
9 Black widow (original)
3 Bullseye
3 Steve rogers (cpt america)
7 Hawkeye
7 Daken
5 Human torch
8 Magneto
5 Moonstone
5 Ms marvel
1 Bagman
9 Storm
3 Thor (marvel now)
5 Wolverine (astonishing)
Top 5 ** Characters
- Black Widow (original) [spoiler]Best Build: 3/5/5
OBW is the single most useful ** because she’s amazing for a ** player and a ** transitioner. She’s top tier in PvP and PvE. Her purple is arguably the best skill in the game and you’ll only want 3 covers in it for efficiency reasons. OBW buys you the time you need to get things done and her blue shines against PvE goon nodes and the Galactus boss battle. Playing her correctly means having her tank purple tiles. If she can tank black and blue tiles that’s fine to but she has low hit points so be weary about how often you let her take the front lines. Her purple Team Up is fantastic for all tiers of play as well.
Pairs well with:
- Any non-purple spender.
- As a ** player you’ll want to pair her with characters like Ares, Storm, Human Torch, Ms Marvel.
- As a ** transitioner she works great with a ton of top damage dealers like LThor, BP, and Cyclops.[/spoiler]
- Ares [spoiler]Best Build: 4/4/5
Ares is the strongest character for a ** player to use. His health and damage abilities feel pushed for ** tier. This makes him an auto-include for PvP and tough PvE nodes. The low AP cost of his skills makes him a genuine threat in PvP defense as well. His red skill is lacking but the build is designed to make him well rounded for play since the 5th green cover adds almost nothing.
Pairs well with:
- OBW is by far his the best pairing for a 2 person team.
- Storm for her blue stun, Daken for his strike tiles work great as a trio team.
- As a ** transitioner pair with 3*'s that lack strong yellow or green’s such as Cyclops, Magneto or Deadpool.[/spoiler]
- Storm [spoiler]Best Build: 3/5/5
Wind Storm is a ridiculously powerful power worthy of being a high end 3* skill. This skill alone elevates Storm to top tier play for ** players. 5 yellow shines for a ** player because it’s powerful in pvp at that stage of the game and you’ll be pairing her with better green spenders most of the time. As you get into higher tiers of play (established *** and beyond) I’d argue that yellow becomes too weak and opens up 5/5/3 as the potential best build for situations like required PvE node battles and limited roster pve’s.
Pairs well with:
- Magneto as a duo team as his purple feeds her blue. Throw Hawkeye in as a third and it’s a fantastic trio that takes down teams quickly with Speed Shot. Arguably the best way to clear the two DDQ ** nodes.
- Ares as a duo team for a focused offense. OBW making a fantastic trio team suitable to take out the most powerful teams at that level of play.[/spoiler]
- Magneto [spoiler]Best Build: 3/5/5
Magneto is a combo character as he’s pretty lackluster on his own. His blue is flat out terrible and his red deals a ton of damage but is very costly. His purple is amazing and elevates the character to top tier status. Pair him with Storm and Hawkeye for a powerful spike damage trio team. Use him to fuel blue and red AP for *** Cap in order to win extremely tough pve nodes as well as goons.
Pairs well with:
- Hawkeye to generate crits for Speed Shot.
- Storm to fuel her blue
- Red or blue spenders for ** transitioners most notably *** Captain America.
- Mystique to fuel blue in order to generate more purple and black.[/spoiler]
- Hawkeye [spoiler]Best build: 4/4/5 or 3/5/5
Hawkeye is a personal preference choice. He’s a niche character with a single narrow power that deals more damage than ** characters should. Speed shot is fantastic and fun to try and abuse. His red is solid as well but the nature of CD tiles makes it unreliable. The blue is too slow to be used in a timely manor which is why 3/5/5 is potentially the best build. I only barely place Hawkeye above Daken because Hawkeye is more useful to players who have transitioned to higher tiers of play.
Pairs well with:
- Magneto and Storm for ** players
- Mystique and Magneto
- Hawkeye as a 3rd for any character that generates crits (*** Thor, Iron Fist, GSBW).[/spoiler]
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*** Character Ranking List
Rating Name
7 Beast
8 Black panther
6 Black widow (Gsbw)
7 Blade
3 Bullseye
8 Steve rogers (super soldier)
3 CM
3 Colossus
9 Cyclops
6 Daken
5 Daredevil
7 Deadpool
6 Doc doom
4 Doc oct
5 Falcon
5 Gamora
5 Human torch
10 Iron fist
4 IM40
7 Kamala khan
9 Loki
8 Luke cage
8 Magneto
5 Mystique
4 Psylocke
3 Quicksilver
3 Raganork
8 Rocket and groot
9 Scarlet witch
4 Sentry
6 She hulk
3 Spider man
4 Squirrel girl
6 Storm (mohawk)
9 Hood
6 Hulk
5 Punisher
8 Thor (modern) Lthor
4 Vision
9 Wolverine (patch)
Top 5 ** Characters
- Iron Fist [spoiler]Best Build: 5/5/3
Easily the best 3* in the game because he’s useful at all stages of the game from ** transitioner to 4* established player. Iron Fists purple is borderline over powered in how fast it can fuel the many great black spenders. It’s conditional damage is extremely powerful as well. His passive deals good damage on it’s own but truly excels with strike tiles on the board since you get the benefit of them an extra time each turn. Iron Fist is all about match speed making him vital for shield hops in pvp or just taking down an enemy threats before they can build too much AP.
I’m in the minority who praises 5 green build over the 5 black build. In my opinion Fist’s green is among the best green spenders in the game at 5 covers. It’s close to 3000 damage on the turn you cast it (1000 for skill activation, 1000 for each tile match, 1000 for the passive tile trigger). Then each turn you add plenty of bonus damage even if the majority of tiles are matched in the next couple turns. I’ve run both key Fist builds and in my opinion 5 green is superior. It’s also important to note that nearly every single good pairing with Iron Fist has no green spender. That said, 3/5/5 Iron Fist is absolutely viable and considered the superior build by many.
Pairs well with:
- Hulkbuster. A true endgame team for any PvP regardless of boosted characters. Supurb for PvE Required nodes.
- Any strong boosted black spender. Cyclops, Black Panther, Luke Cage, XF, ect.
- Hulkbuster and Scarlet Witch makes for the strongest trio team in my experience. HB and Hood are great as well.
- Quicksilver and Xavier as A slower riskier variant of ‘winfinite’ build.[/spoiler]
- Cyclops [spoiler]Best Build: 5/3/5
When boosted, Cyclops becomes equivalent to one of the best 4*'s in the game right now. When not boosted his red loses some value but is still solid because of how his yellow fuels him and removes useless Tu’s. His black is the best 3* single target finisher with a kicker that’s not all that difficult to hit. He’s got an impressive health pool for such a strong set of skills to boot. Cyclops is great for ** transitionser, *** players and *** trasitioners. When boosted he becomes a viable choice for 4* players as well. One key benefit of Cyclops is how he doesn’t rely on team synergy to be useful. You can pretty much use him to fill out any team needing some of his colours and you’ll do well.
Pairs well with:
- Iron Fist to fuel his black and offer a green spender
- As a red AP generator for Hulkbuster or *** Captain America for certain situations.
- Just about any team needing 2 or more of his colours to fill out the colour pie.[/spoiler]
- Scarlet Witch [spoiler]Best Build: 5/3/5
This is admittedly a tough choice. Scarlet Witch isn’t nearly as useful to ** transitioners or even *** players as she is for the endgame. She makes this list because as a 4* established player she’s constantly being used. She’s pivotal to competitive PvE and enables a ton of secondary teams through her blue and purple AP generation. Scarlet Witch’s best build is debatable as I’m sure you could make a case for 3/5/5 as well. Especially as far as winfinite is concerned and the fact that you typically pair her with a superior purple spender. I still prefer 5 purple because every so often the 5 turn stun become more important than your other purple spender.
Pairs well with:
- GSBW and Xavier to enable ‘winfinite’ in PvE. Easily the best team to handle tough nodes.- Iron Fist and Kingpin
- Jean Grey
- 3* Deadpool
- Iron Fist and any boosted black character such as Cyclops, BP, or XF
- Nick Fury to generate blue and purple[/spoiler]
- Loki [spoiler]Best Build: 5/3/5
Managing your opponents AP gain is an important part of *** tier play especially when trying to minimize health pack spending. Comparing Loki vs Hood for this is a very tough decision. I’ll freely admit that I prefer Hood over Loki but that’s personal taste. The reason I give this spot to Loki is because his secondary functions as a character help out FAR more than Hood’s black and yellow. Loki has more health making him a lot more viable in PvP play. Loki’s black can be used to counter certain enemy teams and works wonderfully with Patch. His purple is very cheap and can lead to cascades or just potentially improve your board choice for a given turn. If the AI is never triggering his passive then it likely means you’re in a good position regardless.
Pairs well with:
- Patch
- As a 3rd for just about any duo team[/spoiler]
- Patch [spoiler]Best build: 5/3/5
Patch makes the list because of his importance for the earlier stages of 3* play. His ongoing true healing will save a LOT of health packs for ** transitioners and *** players. He’s perfect to clear out easier nodes in Lightning Rounds, PvE or just climbing in PvP saving the green to finish off battles. Loki pairs perfectly with him to take out tough battles while only using a single AP boost which is always nice to save on ISO spending. Most importantly Patch is used with Hulk as part of the hulkbomb team in PvP. Hulkbombing is fast and has enabled players to shield hop their way to 1000 (a few have even used it to break 1300 regularly). What keeps Patch from topping this list is the fact that he quickly becomes obsolete in the late game and will likely collect dust once you have a couple usable 4*s.
Pairs well with:
- Hulk
- Loki
- Daken for sustained true healing duo
- Elektra, Ant-Man, Daredevil, She-Hulk (all inferior to Loki but gives you diversity in options)[/spoiler]
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**** Character Ranking List
Rating Name
4 Antman
5 Carnage
7 Deadpool
1 Devil dinosaur
2 Elektra
8 Ice man
3 Invisible woman
10 IMHB
10 Jean grey
7 Kingpin
3 Mr fantastic
6 Nick fury
8 Prof X
4 Sam Wilson (cpt America) falcap
4 Starlord
7 The thing
7 Thor (Goddess of thunder)
7 Wolverines (Xforce)
Note: I have little to no personal experience with the following 4*'s.
- Antman
- Mr Fantastic
- Sam Wilson - Faptain
- The Thing
Top 5 ** Characters
- Hulkbuster [spoiler]Best Build: 5/5/3
Hulkbuster is easily the best character in this game and in my opinion he accomplishes this without feeling overpowered or unfair. His skills are well designed and provides him with some natural synergies that are balanced out by drawbacks. MPQ is currently all about taking down key threats quickly and that’s where HB excels trading his own health for flat out damage. You can use HB with speed in mind at the cost of using a frail team. HB can also be paired with other huge spenders to slowly gather Ap and unleash hell. HB excels at PvE required nodes, Lightning rounds, PvP climbing, hovering and shield hopping. He forms plenty of great trio teams for events like Shield Sim and The Gauntlet and his health ensures that you can frequently endure a few battles before having to heal.
Pairs well with:
- Iron Fist for PvE required nodes and quick PvP matches
- Iron Fist and Scarlet Witch for quick battles vs tough PvE nodes, Shield Sim, The Gauntlet, etc
- Jean for hovering and shield hopping at endgame pvp
- Hood often as a 3rd or to counter opposing Hood in pvp
- Loki often as a 3rd
- 3* Cyclops to feed red
- Iceman for a strong set of damage skills and stun
- Carnage to deter hits on weeks where he’s buffed
- The Thing as a third with Fist to let the team achieve their goals.[/spoiler]
- Jean Grey [spoiler]Best Build: 5/3/5
Jean took me by surprise. I didn’t think she was going to be so great initially but hands on play has absolutely changed my mind. Her blue isn’t only good defensively but it’s GREAT when using her. Being able to stun the enemy team and get those precious added AP to hopefully respond to their cascade can save you. Her green is a solid well designed skill that shines when it generates an attack tile to take advantage of strikes on the board. Finally her purple is flat out pushed and genuinely overpowered. Not only does it deal fantastic damage for the low AP cost but the kicker is incredible. Most 4* characters have special tile kickers and she maintains the big damage you want while answering those problems for only 10 purple AP. What keeps Jean out of top spot is the fact that she’s only able to do team damage. This makes her weaker in a game where taking down the immediate threat is often more important to avoid damage. Jean is a very party friendly to boot. The AI cannot misplay her and she’ll fill in gaps for just about any team you want to form since green and purple are less common damage colours especially in 4* tier.
Pairs well with:
- Hulkbuster
- Scarlet Witch
- Just about any 3 person team[/spoiler]
- Professor X [spoiler]Best Build: 5/5/3
Xavier’s placement on this list is a tricky one. He’s really not competitive in PvP anymore and that’s the key focus of the game for a lot of players. Xavier gets this spot because he is king when it comes to those health pack draining matches in PvE, Galactus and The Gauntlet. While the winfinite build doesn’t necessarily mean infinite turns it is amazingly effective and pretty quick to boot. It’s important to note that winfinte requires Xavier to not tank primary colours and so his level should remain low. Something like level 158 will ensure others tank even when he’s featured and Powered Up. This is my recommended way to build the character and he runs perfectly fine with just 5 blue and no other covers.
Plenty of people would rather level Xavier (or have already done so) which makes winfinite a lot riskier or relies on purple characters being boosted. For max level Xavier players you can now take advantage of his 5 purple covers. The goal here being to run less used characters as special tile generators and then make Xavier go invisible. Protect the invisible tile and gradually ramp up to 1000’s of damage per tile match. This isn’t nearly as reliable as winfinite but it does work and can save health packs.
Low level winfinite Xavier pairs well with:
- Scarlet Witch and GSBW for ideal winfinite
- Iron Fist and Quicksilver for slower riskier winfinte
- Mystique and ** Mags for the least reliable winfinite
Max level 5/5/3 Xavier pairs well with:
- Beast, Daken, Blade, Psylocke, Gamora, Punisher all make solid duo teams for required nodes. Some are better than others as Beast will tank yellow over Xavier while Punisher will tank nothing. It all works as long as you can protect your invis tile and Xavier tanks 2 or more colours.[/spoiler]
- Iceman [spoiler]Best Build: 5/5/3
Note: I do NOT have hands on experience with this character yet.
My impressions are based on fighting against him in high end PvP and general word of mouth from other players. Honestly I’m concerned he might be overrated since the AI cannot play the character well and there are better duo teams. That aside Iceman deserves consideration for having the best stun in the game hands down. 4 turn stun is incredible and at 6 blue you can reliable disrupt the enemy team from firing off a serious damage skill while you build up your AP. 4* tier has also released quite a few characters that make stuns more important. Being able to stall Jean to match 5 or stun X-Force Deadpool/The Thing to target a greater threat is great. The fact that Iceman is also a BIG late game AoE and single target damage dealer gives him all tools to be top tier viable. I’m not conviced he’s superior to rank 5 and below but the feedback I’ve received on him would put him here or higher.
Pairs well with:
- Hulkbuster
- Jean
- As a third for any team that could benefit from stun[/spoiler]
Update : Having whaled out the character for only a few days I can give my initial impressions of the character offensively. IMO Iceman is currently overhyped. He’s a slower character to build up and you often need all three of his colours to make him shine. That said his stun is legit and I still consider him worthy of rank 4 overall because when he’s ready to fire it’s going to hurt. I don’t feel that Ice/Jean is worthy duo team but Ice/HB is excellent. Ice/KP works great as well but I still think KP pairs better with 4thor. Iceman shines when he can be used as 3rd team member. He’s a great character but when it comes down to choosing Iceman or Jean, I’d personally rather have Jean for her ability to remove enemy special tiles.
- Kingpin [spoiler]Best build: 5/3/5
This is another tricky 4* to rank as I feel that X-Force Deadpool, The Thing and 4Thor all deserve consideration. Among them I only have hands on with Kingpin and 4Thor with quite a bit of experience playing against xDP in PvP. Since Iceman takes stun away from 4thor I feel that Kingpin deserves the spot.
Kingpin shines in the fact that he’s got all the synergy he needs built right into the character. Purple feeds yellow and black adds great spike damage. He can be used for speed with a rather frail team or placed with other 4*'s to fill out a rainbow and offer a sustained threat over a longer match. His internal synergy makes him a surprisingly annoying character to fight against in pvp as well despite his inability to use black properly.
Pairs well with:
- 4Thor is great with boosts as she charges yellow and blue to fuel threats
- Iceman
- 4thor and Hood
- Scarlet Witch and Iron Fist for speed
- As a third to any team that could benefit from 2 or more of his colours.[/spoiler]