There have been seven more new 4* characters released since May of 2016 so time for Part Deux of The Irrelevant 7. Before I dig in I want to confirm what I mean with the title. It is not that the characters are irrelevant because I think they are bad. On the contrary I would say taken as a whole the last 14 four star characters have shown the developers trying different things and arguably might be the best run of design in the entire history of the game. Why I think they are irrelevant is since the advent of 5* characters and their overpowering match damage they have faded the new 4* into the background. Unless you started playing in January of this year the number of covers you have for any of these characters is minimal. Making it more likely you will put your precious resources in to the previously released 4* which you have more covers for. For those players they will sit around level 100-ish with however many covers you have; maybe getting some iso when they come up in Battle of the Titans DDQ. Now, to this edition of The Irrelevant 7.
War Machine continues the trend of having characters who have their powers feed into each other making them good as a stand-alone. Using the green countdowns to then drop a bunch of tiles from red being active can be a pretty powerful move. As a partner War Machine brings a decent amount of board shake and damage with green and direct blue damage. So when looking for a blue green partner War Machine can fit the bill. I have used him often in PvE because the board shake can remove CD’s while the blue can one-shot many of the dark avengers and goons.
Moon Knight is another case of the devs showing a spirit of fun. Moonie is not a reliable damage producer but he sure is fun to play. I call him my Dungeons and Dragons character because I feel like I am rolling a d6 to see what his purple power is before each match. Then the same d6 tells me which character his random green hits. There is nothing random about the black, as it hits for decent damage and true heals. The randomness can be frustrating but if you partner him with characters with good purple and green then no matter what the purple power becomes there will be benefit for gathering that AP. I play him as much as I can because I enjoy the randomness it makes it fun to vary strategy depending on what that d6 tells me is in play for this match.
Kate Bishop is an underrated powerhouse. She has two huge damage dealers in black especially and purple secondarily. The black’s supposed drawback about taking damage if the cd resolves is minimal. I think in all of the times I have used her it has gone off for damage once or twice. It is truly irrelevant for doing huge damage for 8 black. The purple is a real problem once it is cast either match the cd and leave five big strike tiles on the board or let it resolve and have one character suck up a bunch of damage while still probably have one of the strikes still there. Really great design. The blue is situational but using it against the life gaining goons in PvE is awesome set it up right and three morale boosts can go off and do nothing. Because she is champed I’ll max her blue over the purple when facing life gaining goons and finish those matches much more quickly.
Peggy Carter is in no way irrelevant. Since January she has become the chase 4*. If any of the 4* since then is highly leveled on rosters it is Peggy. It is for one reason her yellow. At five covers it means the opponent has to spend 4AP more to use a power. Even if you have a 0/3/0 Peggy she can be used because of this power. It is the single best power in 4* land because it slows down every single enemy you face. If that was all she had it would be enough. Except she also has a game finishing blue to go with it. If you set it up right you use it to stun two undamaged opponents while finishing off the one who has taken all the match damage until it now. Once the stun wears off three cds worth of damage should kill one or both of the stunned characters. Her red is also good but anytime I use her there are better red powers on my roster. Peggy is a top tier 4* on the same level as HB, Iceman, Cyke, Rhulk, and Jean Grey. There is a reason to chase after her.
Wasp is the almost character in this group of seven. Her powers are all pretty interesting but none of them are strong enough to see much use. The best is the blue passive and once it gets going the ever resolving cd and ap steal is certainly annoying but it needs to do more damage when matched because even with the stupid ai it rarely gets matched and so when it does it should hit harder. The same also applies to the black I’d rather do more damage and get rid of the strike tile generation. The stun once you have 7-blue is good. I get that the strike tile is then supposed to be buffed by iterations of yellow but it is a gimmick which doesn’t work well. I used it with Kate’s purple to turn the strikes to protects so when the purple cd goes off there are no strikes to be removed then bring them back afterward. Again it is too gimmicky and it works rarely. Wasp is the worst of this group.
Spider-Woman has the best damage reduction power so far. Once you cast the black almost any damage done for the next four turns is neutered including match damage to any one on your team. It is very powerful as it can give you up to a 4-turn chance to gain advantage. The flexibility of the purple is good if you are facing an opponent which is producing tiles which will overwrite traps then you should have targets for the remove special tiles part. If there are no possibilities to overwrite then those four traps can do good damage. The red is just too expensive even though it is undeniably powerful. If it was just two or three AP cheaper it would be a top red power.
Luke Cage is going to be another PvE star along the lines of Quake. The reason is the black passive which goes off every time a cd is placed by a goon. Also now the fast Dark Avenger powers hurt much less. The protect tiles become so numerous that you will take one damage even when the muscle goons get threaten tiles out. To go along with all of the protect tiles his yellow can build up over multiple casts to being a huge amount of damage after there are five or six fortified tiles out. The red is another in a line of too expensive for the effect which seems common for this group. Pair C4ge and Daisy when facing overpowered goons and the cds almost become irrelevant, too. In PvP there just aren’t enough things cast to make the passive come in to play. Although buffed in his featured PvP once there were three on the board the 5* match damage was shut down. I don’t think he will be a PvP player because of this.
I’ve had a few discussions since my first The Irrelevant 7 about what I see as the current top tier of 4*. I think there are eight essential 4*’s now: Hulkbuster, Iceman, Red Hulk, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Nova, Punisher Max, and Peggy. The last three are the ones you should be chasing if you have the first five.
I assume they will not stop producing 4* any time soon so once there are seven more I’ll do The Irrelevant 7 III.