Khasino is often updating his Marvel Strike Force tier list, with the latest ones being 3.6 and 3.7. Here are the videos to the two:
Khasino’s Reddit only has version 3.4.2 as the latest, so perhaps his Youtube channel would be more updated, particularly for 2020.
While most of us would immediately refer to the very latest piece of information available for year 2020, i.e. version 3.7, not everyone is able to access the recently released Asgardians and the latest installment of the Inhuman characters yet.
For those who want to put aside considerations for the Asgardians (less Thor and Loki) and the Inhumans for now (less Quake and Ms Marvel), version 3.6 may be more relevant.
Version 3.6 comes on the back of the Marauders release, so new characters, like Mister Sinister and Strife, tend to take the limelight. Some of the strong-standing characters continue to be Ultron, Captain Marvel, Minn-erva, Phoenix, and a few others that some of us would agree with.
Version 3.7 includes the highly-revered immortals of Asgard, and the social outcasts, the Inhumans, two groups directly opposite in polarity. While the Asgardians shifted up in Khasino’s tiers, the Inhumans revealed themselves at higher ones.
Both Thor and Hela have been pushed up the tiers, but only one Asgardian is recognized as a God tier, while two Inhumans, Black Bolt and Yo-Yo, are immediately crowned the same upon release.
This speaks quite highly of the Inhumans, no?
Having such tiers assists us, both veteran and newer players to, on deciding whether a character is worthwhile to invest in. Much pain has been experienced by many of us who can only read the skill descriptions before investing a tidy amount of resources into it, only to find out that the character isn’t what we expected.
Of course, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. These tiers aren’t prophesy, we’d definitely have our own take on how to value these characters, and one way to do so is to run simulations on teams.
Why use a team builder instead of trying the teams inside the game itself? Well, it’s probable that not all your characters are of the same combat power – if Graviton’s “Weight of the World” is not level 4 yet, you’ll find your A.I.M. team’s debuffs fading out frustratingly quick. Just going up one more level could make a world of a difference and change your perspective!
Here’s some team builders to assist you:
Archi’s Team Builder program is well-detailed and highlights the pluses and minuses of each character’s skills within the team you build.
If you’re comfortable installing this Powershell application, this would be a good team builder to use.
MSF.gg is web-based only, and so far, has been successfully keeping up with each and every update, including those that aren’t officially announced (read: datamine).
Take a little while to select your desired characters, set their stats to what you’re interested in, and then compare them together.
Here’s an example of what information you’ll be treated to with a full Asgardians team:
And the best part?
You can save your builds!
As stated earlier, not everyone will agree wholeheartedly with Khasino. In fact, while we’re going through his tier list and forming our own opinions, Gamepleton shall present our own tier list!
While Khasino decided to ranked the characters based on mortal/immortal grading, we decided to run with a system more familiar and commonplace among games.
The Roster
All characters are sorted alphabetically and have their tiers displayed individually. Or, if you’d like to see them sorted by tiers, search this article for the Gamepleton Tier List-616!
Agent Coulson
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Behind every successful man is a lady Medic. Coulson is like an alternate version of Nick Fury, benefiting S.H.I.E.L.D. allies who are not Minions, with the exception of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Medic. Put into the same team, the Medic will ensure that Coulson never stays dead in battle, and even though Coulson’s Special skill won’t benefit her, his Passive skill will! Besides, Coulson is made for the war, that’s why he has additional effects when you put him in a S.H.I.E.L.D. team to defend your helicarrier. Add in the fact that he’s considered an Avenger, and you know any S.H.I.E.L.D. characters that are also Avengers will stand to gain extra benefits! Coulson may be a Controller, but he truly is a teamwork-kind of guy, thus, choosing his team members will be highly critical to ensure success. And, boy, does Coulson provide a good War Defense team!
A.I.M. Assaulter
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
This character is complicated. On top of already being very fast, he can become very powerful. But only if the right conditions are met, much like his non-Minion A.I.M. member, Graviton, or a scaled-down version of Vulture and Carnage. The more debuffs the target has, the more the Assaulter’s damage output gets multiplied. And in consideration of an A.I.M. team’s ability to pile on the debuffs, we’re easily looking at 50,000 damage in one attack! More, when you train up the A.I.M. Assaulter and create an even more conducive environment for him! The main drawback is that he himself needs to be afflicted with a debuff as well in order to activate the multiplier, and seemingly, the reworked A.I.M. team will no longer manually apply debuffs on their speedy Assaulter member. You can hope for the best that the enemy debuffs him, and that’s why the A.I.M. Assaulter is 3 Stars instead of 4 Stars. Meanwhile, position him next to your choice A.I.M. member to speed them up at his every turn!
A.I.M. Infector
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
Before the rework, this guy was just a mess, behaving like just a Wuhan virus patient-turned-zombie. Now, we might even say he could well become a scaled-down version of the government’s Super Soldier! (Okay, maybe I shouldn’t be that exaggerated) The A.I.M. Infector’s passive skill flips Offense Down, Defense Down and Speed Down every turn, boosting his stats, while his basic attacks inflicts whatever debuffs his has onto his targets. This makes the Infector a well-boosted character facing a weakened enemy with lowered offense, defense and speed. Plus, his skill applies Counterattack to himself and adjacent A.I.M. allies while healing a good approximate 50% of his health. This guy can be a soloist!
A.I.M. Monstrosity
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
We would have given this hideous-looking monster 2 Stars due to his high damage output, but he has synergies with his A.I.M. team, allowing him to become a monster in stats as well, not just in appearance. That is why he should be given 3 Stars, where he dishes out massive damage every. single. turn. Of course, debuff him and buff the enemy, and the battle’s not in your favor, but buff him and apply Defense Down on his target, while using the A.I.M. Monstrosity’s skill, and you’ll easily witness damage values exceeding 20,000, maybe even 30,000! Without crit! And even though he starts the battle with Defense Down, you can protect him with Scientist Supreme and A.I.M. Security on the game team, or if you help him survive til Scientist Supreme’s second turn, Scientist Supreme can use her special skill to flip A.I.M. Monstrosity’s Defense Down to Up!
A.I.M. Researcher
1 Star ⭐
A pity this character’s skill set are lackluster as compared to her A.I.M. team members. She is dulled even more so when you have an alternative in the form of Scientist Supreme. Her healing only targets adjacent members, so your healing is minimized, and even though she gets speed boosts against an enemy debuffer team, her healing skill requires the standard three energy.
A.I.M. Security
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
Similar to A.I.M. Monstrosity, if not for the presence of Scientist Supreme, she might have dropped down to 2 Stars. As long as her HP stays at 75% and above, your team will be debuff-free for a good majority of the time. Plus, she transfers the team’s debuffs onto her attacker. Even if her attacker is killed off by someone’s counterattack, A.I.M. Security’s passive skill will still clear the debuffs. This is the reason why A.I.M. teams are known to decimate Brotherhood teams. Magneto’s Ultimate skill applies Blind on all enemies, while A.I.M. Security retaliates by reflecting it back to him! And because that skill pulls the A.I.M. team closer together, every time A.I.M. Security uses her skills, her members will likely be close enough to heal too! Of course, the difficulty is in keeping her HP above the 75% mark and sustaining it there. Once it drops below, A.I.M. Security becomes just a regular tank.
America Chavez
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
One of the key members of the Hero Brawler team, her Special skill benefits the most when all four members of her team are also Hero Brawlers. Plus, she applies Defense Down with her basic attack and clears the enemy’s buffs with her Ultimate skill. America Chavez is the one who paves the way for the team! Her skill set is almost basic, unfortunately, without the typical fancy and complicated passive effects, but as stated just now, whoever you target using America Chavez’s basic attack should be your target for the rest of the team!
Ant-Man
2 Stars ⭐⭐
While this character is an Avenger, his skills as a Controller aren’t anything special, apart from sharing what buffs he receives with Wasp. Unfortunately, only Wasp gets to eat this cake, and she’s not an Avenger, making it hard to justify putting her in an Avenger team with Ant-Man. But Black Widow has been known to play a more crucial role as the Controller of an Avenger team, so, again, Ant-Man gets shadowed even further. His other smaller plus point is his ability to steal a buff. This can help and benefit your Ant-Man and Wasp combo, particularly if the target has Defense Up or Deathproof. One buff at a time, by the way.
Black Bolt
5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The King of the Inhumans is indeed an incredible character, within the game and in the comics! He clears enemy buffs while flipping his own debuff, his Special and Ultimate attacks are highly damaging, and he is the first character to prevent Revivals. No more annoying, irritating, frustrating and hair-pulling stresses when facing enemies like Ultron, Groot, the Hand and Wolverine! Most of all, when the enemy drops below 25% HP, making you cringe with frustration at how you came so close to finishing off that character, Black Bolt un-frustrates you by dealing an extra attack, courtesy of the King of Attilan. This character is pure power! Is he a glass cannon? Perhaps. but choose the right members for his team, and you won’t need to worry about it – Black Bolt is still durable in his own right!
Black Panther
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The stuff of Raid dreams and nightmare of summoners! the King of Wakanda earns a huge boost in speed upon every kill. Let me highlight: every kill. His passive skill may be costly to level up to 7, but if you do, each one kill boosts his speed by 100%, giving him one extra turn immediately, and these boosts stack. Imagine entering a Raid battle against Nobu, Yondu, Ultron, etc., and they summon minions that are easy one-hit kills for the Black Panther. How many turns will the Black Panther get? At the same time, Okoye has a chance to Assist him to deal additional for a higher chance to gain a kill! If the Black Panther himself provides the Assist, such as from Star-Lord’s Ultimate skill and Kingpin’s Passive skill, he also gets his speed boost! As long as he is involved in a kill, regardless during his turn or as an Assist, he gets his speed boost! Most would want to avoid letting his HP drop below 50%, even though he will gain a charge to do AOE damage with his Ultimate skill. The Black Panther can easily take a lot of damage, so it’s highly important to keep enemy attacks away from him.
Black Widow
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
An old favorite of players and a favorite in the movies, the Black Widow is a well-loved Controller that can provide the much needed support in battle. Support, as in, help the team. Her Special skill gets you the speed boost you need on a frequent basis, and while in Stealth, she can steal all of her target’s buffs. Then, when her Ultimate skill is ready, she can Stun a target at key moments. Want more? There’s a 60% chance for her to attack the adjacent targets and apply Bleed. Unfortunately, she truly is lacking in the strength department and really relies heavily on her team to deal the necessary damage.
Blob
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The other half of the Protector force for the Brotherhood, Blob is one of the up-and-coming members of the evil mutants. And he’s got one really ugly mug! Not saying that the artist who drew his 3D model did a sloppy job, but that Marvel’s design for this character is really… ugh… If you’re like me and prefer the pretty graphics of Mystique or cool designs of Juggernaut, you might blanch at Blob too. Kudos to the artist who made him look deservedly repulsive! But you might also be surprised that some people are looking forward to getting this sack of fat! Try not to be! Blob applies Taunt only when an ally drops below 50% HP, just like Ms. Marvel, but at the same time, he can gain Taunt through Toad’s Ultimate skill. This makes Blob and Toad the Rocket and Groot of the Brotherhood, and essentially, Blob can compete with the other Protectors for providing the most amount of protection to his team. Plus, with the departure of Mystique from the Brotherhood (for those who believe she’s more suited as a Marauder), Blob takes on the role of copying positive effects from his team. Not the enemy team, but his own team. In essence, this would mean copying Juggernaut, after he uses his Special skill. Quite the opposite of Mystique and Mister Sinister, but if you can manually plan and time your team buffs, you can create an optimal environment to bring out the best of Blob. He is a Brotherhood kind of guy, anyway, having lots of synergies with them. His basic skill can deplete his target’s speed bar if the target is inflict with Disrupted, and you can inflict Disrupted via Pyro’s Ultimate skill. Plus, his Passive skill boosts the Brotherhood team’s resistance, and gives up more chances to counterattack per Brotherhood ally. Perhaps what’s interesting is that he applies Deflect to his adjacent applies on every enemy turn. Now, this is something new again, where you gain Deflect easier than Sif, and Blob applies it to his allies, so it makes sense that you’ll want to put Blob in-between two allies. Remember, though, that when Blob taunts, his adjacent allies can become collateral damage! Blob can really be a key member of the new Brotherhood team formation to ensure their survivability and letting them concentrate on dishing out as much damage as possible.
Bullseye
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
A pure damage-dealer that can really knock enemies out of battle, but until there is a rework of the Mercenaries, or more Mercenary characters are introduced to form a self-supporting team, Bullseye is really like a mercenary character to be added to teams lacking in offense. Really, though, his Ultimate attack can take out tanks with the right conditions. But, don’t get me wrong, Bullseye is still valuable for his great damage output, matched only by few characters, like Black Bolt, The Thing, and Iron Man.
Cable
2 Stars ⭐⭐
A mutant time-traveler that doesn’t give much in terms of speed boosts. Sure, he boosts the entire team by 5% at the start of the battle, and his Ultimate attack boosts his and Deadpool’s speed by 50% or more upon kill, but those aren’t all that effective in the heat of battle. His Special skill can drop the enemy team’s speed by 25% on the main target and 10% on the rest, but that requires gaining one charge first, and that requires one turn. Cable’s skill set has much to improve on, even with Deadpool on the same team. They really aren’t that much of a team, anyway.
Captain America
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
The Protector that behaves quite a lot like a Brawler. Capt. feels like a Yo-Yo that can taunt, whereby his basic attack has a chance to target adjacent enemies, like a multi-targeting Brawler. You would want to use his basic attack often in order to benefit from a defense boost, although it wouldn’t be that worthwhile if he’s not drawing enemy fire like what we need of a Protector. Still, while he is taunting, he has a good Block rate, making him an almost hardy tank. Almost, because he can’t take too much damage and truly needs the heightened Block rate that comes with having Avengers members in his team.
Carnage
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This madhouse was nearly dropped to 3 Stars or even 2 Stars if not for his Special skill that rivals even Iron Man’s Ultimate skill. Apply as few as 3 debuffs, and Carnage will do 10,000+ damage; apply as many as five debuffs and double them with Miles Morales’ special skill or Scarlet Witch’s Ultimate skill, and Carnage will easily hit 60,000+ damage! Most debuffer characters tend to have low damage output. Carnage complements such a team by spreading the debuffs to adjacent targets, and absolutely takes advantage of a mercilessly-debuffed enemy. If all else fails, Carnage’s Ultimate skill does plenty of damage in its own right and applies three – three incredible number – of Bleeds, early in a battle too! After his rework, he can boost speeds for his Symbiote members too! No worries about Venom lagging behind everyone (unless you’ve been failing to drop enemies in the red zone)!
Captain Marvel
5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Before you can even check the speed bars of the characters in battle, Captain Marvel is already using her Ultimate skill on a target of her choice. And if her target if your healer or blaster… And with her Passive skill, begin in Binary mode has her dealing AOE damage to your entire team at the end of the turn. While her Ultimate skill is charging up and as she gains Charge, Captain Marvel’s basic and Special skills will keep you busy trying plug holes in your team or scrambling for healing skills. If your healer isn’t dead yet. Now, turn this whole situation around and put Captain Marvel in your team. Can you see the light? Isn’t it a marvel?
Colossus
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Lots of male players are probably interested in this guy’s wrestling moves! Colossus really is a defensive character with taunts, buffs, a buffed taunt if Phoenix is in the party, and counterattacks his attackers. Similar to The Thing’s Passive skill’s ability to counterattack, note that the damage he counters with is based on Colossus’ attack level, and anything that targets Colossus specifically will trigger this counterattack, even if you don’t deal any damage to him. If you’re worried about having only Colossus and one other damage-dealer in your team, don’t be! Colossus is beyond hardy and well-worth the investment, especially if you team him up with Phoenix and other X-Men!
Crossbones
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
This tank is peculiar: He draws attacks to himself with his taunt, and after taking a round or two of damage, his Ultimate attack takes away the rest of his HP, leaving one or two Deathproof buffs. Crossbones is rather hardly due to his high HP, but by the third round, he would probably be at the mercy of the enemy. His main redeeming feature is that his Ultimate skill really blows the enemy to kingdom come, making him still very useful. Or if you intend to capitalize on his Ultimate skill, don’t let Crossbones taunt to avoid taking too much damage. Then again, this leaves your team wide open, and after using your Ultimate skill, Crossbones is practically useless. You won’t want to use his taunt after the Ultimate, and with that little HP left, you won’t want to use the Ultimate again. Still, a nice team set up with other Protectors will ensure Crossbones lives to explode and send the enemy packing in body bags.
Crystal
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
A powerful blaster indeed, Crystal can really dish out the damage as much as Quake’s Ultimate skill. Add on to the fact that Crystal’s Ultimate skill can be boosted further by Slowed enemies, she can be quite the powerhouse! Plus, she is pretty much the ‘healer’ of the Inhuman team, although it’s only one-time per battle. However, Crystal is not very focused as a damage-dealer, making her rather lacking in the damage field. She seems to compensate for the fact that her other Inhuman team members also have high-damage output skills, thereby setting Crystal on a lower grade.
Cyclops
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The leader of the X-Men is truly a leader of the X-Men team in the game! Apologies if that was a bit confusing, since we’re referring to both the X-Men in the comics and the X-Men in the game. But, truly, you’ll see how often Cyclops’ skills result in additional attacks from X-Men allies, Wolverine and Phoenix, and his Special skill involves one additional random ally to assist too! Wolverine is truly required to help Cyclops truly shine in battle and allowing Wolverine himself to gain boosts. The two of them are very good buddies indeed! Cyclops’ basic and Ultimate skills are relatively powerful as well, but don’t heavily rely on him in a non-X-Men team, such as the full Blaster team needed in the newly updated Challenge tier, as he’ll be short of one Wolverine and one Phoenix to conduct a fair bit of assists. We decided to go deeper in-depth with Cyclops to see how he can best be utilized in our character guide. Ensure his mutant allies are by his side, and his leadership shall truly shine!
Daredevil
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Who says a blind guy can’t hit anything? Daredevil is surprisingly a heavy-hitter, even with just his basic attacks. You can definitely start off with his Ultimate and chain attacks across the enemy team. In fact, the first hit from his Ultimate skill does the most damage among his attacks, so expect to see one enemy HP drop to yellow right at the start of battle. Next, his basic attacks already deal an impressive amount of damage, close to a Blaster’s normal attack, but with a chance to do one bonus attack! Plus, Daredevil isn’t attacked by Blind! Don’t forget that he’s part of the Defenders, so he benefits a lot from his team members, and the Punisher was reworked to give us a good reason to put Daredevil and Punisher together. Position Daredevil next to the tank so that enemies have a higher chance to target him, and you’ll see Punisher dishing out damage like a sushi conveyor belt! Yes, you should worry some, because Daredevil is a squishy character, but with an innate stat of 5% Dodge plus another 5% per Defender ally, Daredevil avoids a respectable number of attacks.
Deadpool
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is perhaps one of the first characters that had a unique and funny (read: weirdo) skill: Deadpool’s Special skill ignores taunt and attacks the enemy with the lowest HP (not including Stealthed units). He’s a funny character, for sure, particularly his Special skill and Revive’s alternate animations. Maybe that’s why Deadpool has a strong impression on me. But perhaps the strongest impression is his Special skill that is more powerful than his Ultimate skill, and deadlier, being able to target the one enemy that matters – the one with the lowest HP (most likely the healer). Plus, his basic attack’s bonus damage will always crit, and his Ultimate skill applies Bleed, to Minions. Deadpool is a bane to Minions. Also, he clears all debuffs, except Bleed and Stun, on his turn, healing an amount according to how many debuffs he gets. Absolutely the perfect counter against debuffer teams! Bleed won’t be cleared because, experiencing this from fighting Deadpool, Bleed will take effect before Deadpool starts his turn, so he won’t be able to clear them, making Bleed (and Stun) his main weakness. Also, do note that while Deadpool can clear and heal from debuffs, it doesn’t mean he’s immune to them – the Speed Down debuff will still make you wait frustratingly long for his turn to come up again.
Doctor Strange
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
I am unsure if he’s meant to be a Controller or a Support. Officially, he’s considered a Support type, being able to heal himself with his Passive skill, and his Ultimate heals all allies and revive one dead ally. Unfortunately, his Passive heals only himself, and his Ultimate skill requires a frustrating 7 energy, making it almost unusable in battle. His main redeeming features are his ability to flip all enemy buffs, and is one of the few characters that allows you to manually revive an ally. Otherwise, Doctor Strange is not really all that useful in the game, except to add to the numbers of a Supernatural team.
Drax
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is one of the tanks that take the spotlight, particularly for Raids. Every time he spawns, which means every time he enters a battle in Raid, he gains one turn of Taunt. While your battle HP and energy carries over into the next battles in Raid, Drax’s Passive skill will persist in every battle, which means taunts every single battle, without fail! While other tanks need to accumulate three energy and use their Special skill or wait for their Passive skill to activate, you won’t have this worry with Drax. If that’s not enough, don’t worry, Drax’s Special skill is taunt, allowing you two sweet counts of Taunt without requiring a Legendary character in your team (i.e.: Juggernaut). Still want more? Drax is s l o w . You could go make a cup of coffee and finish it before Drax finally gets his first turn in battle. It’s a double-edged sword, of course, as is for typical tank characters, so beware if Drax’s Taunt buff is removed and he gets Speed Down. -insert panicking face- Thankfully, Drax is very hardly, particularly if you add Mantis into his team to give him one count of Deflect. It’s not really game-changing, but every little damage reduction makes a difference in the long run.
Elektra
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
An almost basic character, until the rework came along, Elektra is your very heavy damage dealer when her Ultimate skill comes around, and when the tanks are taunting, she clears taunts with her Special skill, which is easily available with three energy. What some may not realize after the rework is that Elektra becomes a specialist against Defenders. With one basic attack, she applies three incredible counts of Bleed! with how slow Luke Cage is, Elektra could well place six counts of Bleed on him as he awaits death. Jessica Jones might be able to clear debuffs with three energy, but Elektra easily applies Bleed every turn. Unfortunately, Elektra is mostly a regular damage-dealer against other enemies. Her Ultimate skill truly dishes out a huge amount, comparable to Iron Man, which is the reason she is given 3 Stars.
Elsa Bloodstone
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
While I wish she has a special move that tears off her bloodstone to unleash a furious and unstoppable monster, it might not be possible in the game as of yet. Besides, that would make Elsa crush the competition, even with a team of ten Legendary characters. Unfortunately, Elsa is dedicated to the Supernatural team. Fortunately, she is their main offensive member. Her Ultimate can take off a huge chunk of HP from her primary and adjacent targets, while her Special skill can easily drop any character into the red if both shots are centered on the same target. Elsa’s basic attack is interesting at first, being able to hit five times in one move… Until you realize each shot is really weak. Her basic attack seems to be specialized towards targets with multiple stacks of Deathproof and Deflect, so that she can quickly burst through them all (like Strfye’s Special skill). Having Elsa on the team is also interesting for her Passive skill’s reaction upon missing a target. So if your target has Evade or got lucky and dodged a member’s attack, Elsa comes in to do a bonus shot. Reduce your worries when facing high evasion and Evade buffing enemies! I emphasize: reduce. Because if Elsa is blinded, her reaction attack will miss, and even then, a character is innate Evade stats or multiple stacks of Evade buffs will dodge her bonus attack.
Falcon
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
The future and new Captain American, Samuel Wilson is a like the fourth duplicated character of the Power Armor team. Falcon himself isn’t as strong as Iron and War Machine, but his role is really more of a support than offense. Just like the other Power Armor members, Falcon is more effective in War, but otherwise, he just strong against a team of buffed enemies. Fortunately, he gains a lot of benefits from being in a Power Armor team, defending the helicarrier in War, so he gets 3 Stars as his bonus.
Gamora
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The deadliest woman in the universe – isn’t, in this game. That title goes to Phoenix. But this doesn’t mean Gamora can’t whoop enemies like making pancakes using a steam-roller! Her attack value is very high, after all. Her basic attack has the chance to get up to two bonus hits, so the damage really stacks up. Her Special skill is unfortunately much lower in output, but its purpose is to chain to other targets, and getting in a kill so that her speed bar gets maxed, giving Gamora another turn immediately! The same goes to her Ultimate skill, where a kill gives her one more turn. If you need to, consider using her Ultimate skill first to gain Offense Up, so that her Special skill does more damage. Yes, you read that right: Gamora’s Ultimate attack gets Offense Up, adding to her already high damage output! Did we mention that the buff lasts for two turns? Imagine a basic attack, with two bonus attacks, complemented by an Offense Up. Lethal and fatal! But Gamora’s main issue is her fragility. Attacks can easily take her down to the yellow zone, so you definitely want a tank to divert damage away from her. Nope, she has no defensive capabilities, not even a bonus HP benefit in her Passive skill, so don’t rely too much on healing to keep her alive.
Ghost Rider
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The other offensive member of the Supernatural team, the Ghost Rider dishes out the damage in indirect ways. While Elsa deals heavy damage immediately with her attacks, Ghost Rider applies Bleed on enemies, and he can apply quite a handful. Every turn, in fact, because his basic attack applies two counts. There are three interesting features about this character:
1. He speeds up all Supernatural allies when enemies get debuffed. The Supernatural team is made up of four out of five debuffer characters. Imagine the speed, whew!
2. When an ally is killed, Ghost Rider does a huge amount of damage to the killer! Tit for tat, that way, your team will have less of a disadvantage. Until Doctor Strange revives the dead member, then, you’ll effectively overwhelm your enemy team.
3. His head is a skull on fire, but the bones don’t melt. Just kidding about this point!
Ghost Rider is one necessary member of the Supernatural team that truly and fully synergies with it.
Graviton
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The master of gravity, and of debuffs! This character is another one of those that capitalizes on a target’s debuffs. His basic attack does bonus damage for every one type of debuff on his target. (Note that it calculates the number of types, rather than the number of counts.) His Ultimate attack also deals more damage when there are more debuffs on the target, plus, it Stuns. The beautiful thing is when Graviton uses his Ultimate attack, applies Stun, and drops the target’s HP below the 50% mark. Every debuff doubles its number of turns, including the Stun that Graviton just applied! That’s two beautiful turns of Stun in one well-placed move! His Passive skill is perhaps one of the more impressive skills out there, doubling the number of debuff turns at every instance of HPs’ falling below 50%. Sure, Scarlet Witch and Miles Morales can double the number of debuffs too, but they require a specific amount of energy. Graviton doesn’t. And if none of the targets have any debuffs for the team to capitalize on, Graviton can utilize his Special skill to apply Slow (plus Bleed, if Scientist Supreme is in the team), giving the team time to recover, launch attacks or any other tactical strategies you may have. Just watch for his health, as Graviton is not a hardy character.
Green Goblin
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
While the Sinister Six is known to be particularly effective for some people, but a total waste of time for others, players cannot deny that this team is particularly crucial. And the Green Goblin’s presence is crucial to make this team all the more effective. for one, the Sinister Six team are all also Spider-verse characters, so at every member’s individual turns, the Green Goblin’s Passive skill takes effect and remove two enemies’ buffs. This means one round, five buffs are removed. Even when facing an A.I.M. or Nick Fury team, having their buffs removed at every other turn really bring on the bright side of the battle, in particular if a Taunt gets removed without taking any action. You could also enjoy the Green Goblin’s Passive skill with the Spider-men and the Symbiotes, but other members of the Sinister Six will do better with a fifth member in their team. The Green Goblin’s Special skill has the interesting function of specifically targeting enemies in Stealth, plus it increases damage according to the number of buffs on that target. Many of us understand the agony of focusing so much damage on a critical target and dropping it to the red zone, only to receive the benefits of a S.H.I.E.L.D. Operative’s Stealth and Regenerative skill. The Green Goblin ends your misery as he targets that Stealthed enemy with increased damage! Indeed, the Sinister Six looks to be a countermeasure against S.H.I.E.L.D. teams, with Nick Fury, in particular. And the Green Goblin is essential for that purpose, but not really much else, since his skills are not particularly powerful or have controllable un-buffing actions.
Groot
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I am Groot, I am Groot, I am Groot… Okay, fine, I’ll switch to a language we understand better.
Despite the lack of knowledge in what he says with all three of his syllables, Groot is quite a formidable member of just about any team. He can apply Defense Up, Deathproof, Immunity, heal and remove debuffs. If he dies in battle, there’s a high chance he’ll give his team members a few buffs. He’ll get those same buffs if he revives! and he’s hardy despite being a Support type character, becoming a fitting tank when paired with Rocket in the team! Unfortunately, Groot is slow, so even if his attacks deal a moderate amount of damage, he can’t attack often enough to make too great an impact. This goes to his buffs, where he really needs the time and energy to use his supportive skills. That is where the balance is, to ensure Groot doesn’t create an overly-protected team that no others can overcome, except by being overpowered. Yes, there are a number of characters there to overcome Groot’s buffs, so that balances the battles even further. Do watch out for such enemies and time yourself well to ensure you make the most of this gentle giant’s abilities.
Hand Archer
1 Star ⭐
This character’s basic attack deals damage, while his special attack clears buffs, making him a simple un-buffer unit. I wouldn’t use the term “debuff” because there are status ailments in the game which most players term as “debuffs”, like “Offense Down” and “Blind”.
Hand Assassin
1 Star ⭐
A character that blocks healing effects on enemies, and that’s just about it. Hand minions are some of the very early characters after all.
Hand Blademaster
1 Star ⭐
A damage dealer that has a 40% chance to deal surprisingly a lot of damage. But 40% is frustratingly low, with a requirement of 3 energy.
Hand Sentry
1 Star ⭐
This character is a little bit than his above three partners. He hides his entire team in Stealth and applies Evade to some members to really protect them. Then, he protects himself by applying Deflect. All these would be great if the buffs last 2 or more rounds, but unfortunately, every buff here can be gone within the next enemy’s turn…
Hand Sorceress
1 Star ⭐
This character is rather handy to have. She heals, gives Defense Up, and has a chance to hide to avoid being targeted. Her combination of healing plus buffing would be lovely if she has a third skill to her repertoire.
Hawkeye
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Before, Hawkeye would have been given more spotlighting, but with the increased variety of characters being released, this sharpshooter is getting overshadowed update by update. For one, Hawkeye’s basic attack deal so much damage, you wouldn’t have believe that he’s a Controller. In fact, if damage output is your only requirement for Hawkeye, he absolutely fits the bill – his attack doesn’t miss, so Blind won’t affect him; his attack cannot be dodged, so Evade is bypassed. Plus, every hit is comparable to a Blaster type’s normal damage. Maybe more! And it doesn’t cost any energy to use! If you need to create Taunts or any other buffs, Hawkeye’s Special skill does the trick, plus decreases your target’s speed as an added benefit. Know that you enemy is going to use a burst-damage skill next turn? Hawkeye’s Ultimate skill take care of it! Your Blinded enemy will carry out their best attack and simply miss! Hey, don’t laugh at the A.I. – some of us mistakenly use our Ultimate skills without remembering that our character is Blinded. Hawkeye is really a tactical character to use, which is what I really like about his skill set. It’s a pity there’s other that really take most of the limelight there days, otherwise, Hawkeye might be used in more Arena, Blitz and War teams.
Heimdall
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
Heimdall is not as impressive as I hoped he would be, being the all-seer of the Asgardians. His Special skill is like an improved version of Falcon’s Special skill, flipping Stealth, removing your team’s Heal Block debuffs, and doing AOE damage to all enemies. If anything, Heimdall’s Special skill should be your trump card in battle. Most of the time, though, his more effective method of attack is using his basic skill so that he can team up with another Asgardian. Granted, the amount of damage is respectable, and you could attempt to take enemies with the Deathproof buff, but you wouldn’t want to use Heimdall in another way. By the way, despite being a Brawler, he wouldn’t be that suitable for a Hero Brawler team, since his skills benefit only Asgardian allies.
Hela
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The goddess of death is truly godly, constantly ensuring at least one Undead Asgardian is present, and letting you have the unfair advantage of 6 vs 5. Sure, other characters like Ronan can summon 2-3 Minions, but you’ll have to accumulate at three energy first, after which, they get blown into the wind easily. The Undead Asgardian gets blown away just as easily too, but has the benefit of decreasing the enemy team’s Speed bars by 10%. And the enemy A.I. has a tendency to aim for the target with the lowest HP, namely, the Undead Asgardian. Should your Undead Asgardian survive to gather three energy, his Special suicide skill deals a signifcant amount of damage, applies Bleed, and drops the enemy team’s speed bar by 10%. And Hela summons another one again!
Hulk
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
The Avengers team is being underwhelmed and that’s rather expected considering they were one of the earlier metta teams. Hulk can be incredibly powerful if you’re able to control his HP level and bounce it between below and above 50%. The lovely thing about his Passive skill is that his speed bar fills up by 100% at level 7 every time he drops to the 50% HP mark, and because his Passive clears Stun as well, it’ll definitely take effect!. Dropping to the 25% mark will also take effect regardless whether he is Stunned or not. So, if you can restore him to just above 50% HP, e.g. via using his Special Taunt skill, the next enemy attack on him will likely cause his speed bar to fill up again. Worry about Hulk’s ridiculously slow speed? His Passive skill shall be your salvation! Besides, Hulk seems to have the highest attack power among the Protectors, adding to the fact that he gets a power boost when dropping below 50% and 25% HP. Power boost, as in, his Ultimate skill gets increased damage output, on top of the Offense Up you get upon dropping below 50% HP! This is why the Hulk can be a very effective tank cum offense. Unfortunately, his skills, even his Passive, are rather simplistic and easy to overcome, in particular, when you Blind him.
Human Torch
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
The hottest guy in the game, who exceeds Ghost Rider by a whole body! Johnny Storm is a great attacker who applies Bleed with every basic attack. Plus, he boosts his entire F4 team’s attack with his Special skill. By saying “F4 team”, I’m referring to the Fantastic Four members, including Namor, because it’s long-winded to write “F4 team, including Namor” every time like the in-game descriptions. The Human Torch would have been given 4 Stars if his buffs and Passive skill benefit non-F4 members as well. Without his team, the Human Torch is just a simple DPS/burst type character.
Hydra Armored Guard
2 Stars ⭐⭐
This character is a little better after the rework, being able to clear debuffs on top of healing when taunting. Having the Red Skull in his team allows him to gain Immunity as well. The Armored Guard also gives his Hydra team a boost in defense stats, but the key feature is his basic skill that applies Assist on the Hydra Rifle Trooper. Assist attacks are still only half as damaging as normal attacks, but this still provides quite a bit of strategy and damage output for the Armored Guard, like how you would want to rely more on Heimdall’s basic attack to dish out more damage or overcome an enemy that has Deathproof. He should preferably get one or two more turns of Taunt to really give him some usefulness, but maybe we’ll see something come out of teaming up with Red Skull.
Hydra Grenadier
2 Stars ⭐⭐
An AOE and un-buffer, this character finally got the much-needed rework to make him more useful. We originally gave him 1 star due to how little an impact he has in battles. The rework gives him much more value now, but still sorely lacking in overall effectiveness. His basic attack now applies Slow to the main target, which makes just one target Slowed. It could have been better if he could Slow to adjacent targets too, thereby making him a miniature version of Quake, but I guess that’s not to be. His Special attack is a lot better now, thankfully, as he can repeat the attack one time, thereby building up on the damage output. Again, another pity that he only un-buffs one effect each time, up to two effects total. Still lackluster, but much more increments still required for this little guy.
Hydra Rifle Trooper
2 Stars ⭐⭐
This is a miniature version of Punisher, with similar skill sets and was originally given only 1 star. With the rework, he becomes much more powerful and useful. True, he doesn’t have a huge burst of damage, which is the same for the Punisher, but his overall output of damage can really add up! His main change is in his Passive skill where he Assists when allies use non-attack abilities. Plus, he provides a damage boost to all Hydra Minions and the Red Skull, so everyone gets increased damage output! What is interesting is the new variation of an “on spawn” effect. This time, instead of on spawn, The Hydra Trooper will activate his Passive skill on revive, to execute an AOE attack. It would be as great as Thor’s AOE attack upon accumulation of five Charges, but what are the chances of reviving? Unless Red Skull has some skill that constantly revives Hydra Minions or such, this new effect won’t be all that useful. However, please don’t take this as a hint to check out the datamine. We explain why in our article on dataming.
Hydra Scientist
2 Stars ⭐⭐
This character is as interesting as the Hand Sorceress, since he applied Deathproof when healing. This makes his healing rather valuable when he heals in emergencies. After his rework, he almost become quite the spectacle, applying Deflect to the most injured ally, like how we would apply a cast to a broken arm to protect it after healing it. Isn’t that logical, to protect the wound after sanitizing it and applying ointment? Also, the Hydra team is very much like the Brotherhood team, having their potential fully unleashed only when Red Skull is in the same team. The Scientist can apply Heal Block with his basic skill if Red Skull is an ally, plus, his Special skill will additionally clear Stun from Red Skull. Almost effective in usage, but still very lacking in team-wide effectiveness. Again, the most interesting feature of this Hydra rework is in the Passive skill, where the Scientist applies Regeneration and random buffs every turn. Not bad! What’s better is that in War Defense, enemies that drop below 50% HP gets debuffed with Offense and Defense Down. Just like reality, where a badly-injured person logically becomes weakened in both defense and offense. This makes weakened enemies that much easier to defeat!
Hydra Sniper
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
I’ve not known Blasters that really embrace the element of surprise like the Hydra Sniper does, and this rework on him really turn him into a real-life military sniper (in a matter of speaking). On spawn, he gains Stealth just like how a sniper would look for cover to hide his position. After firing, his position will of course be given away now that the people will be aware of and be on the lookout for gun fire, so the Hydra Sniper’s Stealth only lasts a while. His Special skill still provides the Offense Up buff, but this time, he can apply it to his entire Hydra team so that he won’t really go solo. What is amazing is that he also applies Speed Up on himself plus fills his speed bar some! That way, a target you want to take down hard and fast won’t get away so easily, nor will the enemy team won’t have as much opportunity to un-buff the Sniper or finish him off before his turn comes around. If that’s not enough, he provides an increase in speed stats with his Hydra team! A Blaster that increases offense plus speed? I thought only Support types like the Mercenary Lieutenant would have that kind of good stuff!
Invisible Woman
5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
If there’s an argument on who is the best non-taunting Protector in the game, the Invisible Woman most likely wins the award! Sue Storm protects her team very nicely with a team-wide Stealth buff, and shifts enemy focus on members with the highest remaining HP, which is likely be the tanks, but hopefully not the healers. No worries, though! Because the unveiled members are protected with Deflect and Immunity, on top of the team-wide Defense Up, to help them ward off attacks. But, don’t worry (too much), because the Stealth buff only lasts a turn, so enemy fire will more likely be spread out soon. Invisible Woman’s Passive skill actually benefits her F4 team exclusively, similar to the Human Torch’s skills, but with the many benefits of Sue Storm’s Special and Ultimate skills, particularly combined, it makes her highly efficient and desirable even in a non-F4 team. If ever you build a team that includes a Protector with a Taunt skill, you’ll see how solid the team gets when Invisible Woman uses her skills to the fullest!
Iron Fist
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
“Immortal dragon” is the nickname for this character in the comics, but he’s not all that immortal at all in the game. If anything, he tends to be first or second character to be targeted when up against a Defenders team. Fortunately, his squishy degree is worth the inclusion in a Defenders team that depends on him to do the necessary healing. In fact, his Passive skill’s healing effects are what keep the Defenders alive and what makes them a suitable team for raids. Every start of battle initiates Iron Fist’s Passive skill’s healing, which actually doesn’t make sense in campaign, arena and blitz, until you begin your second Raid battle onward. Then, you’ll see the refreshing and calming green sparkles of healing at the start of the raid battle. And at every turn, Iron Fist has a chance to heal his team again, passively, without taking a turn or using his Special skill. This allows you to do healing selectively, and with this Brawler instead of switching out Punisher for a Support character. Furthermore, Iron Fist deals burst damage with his Ultimate skill, dishing out a hefty amount of damage and clearing some buffs at the same time. Still, you need to worry about the target’s Deathproof buff, as the buff removal occurs after dealing damage. And as with other early characters, Iron Fist’s skill set is also rather simplistic and easy to overcome, causing players to select other more effective options.
Iron Man
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Initially considered a Legendary character in the game, Iron Man was only available via an event campaign requiring five S.H.I.E.L.D. characters at five stars. Due to unknown reasons, his shard requirements suddenly dropped from 310 to 100, and now, many more players have access to this once-great character. Did FoxNext nerf Iron Man’s stats to ensure balance in the game? Or is it just our mentality of seeing so many others having Iron Man too that we think he’s no longer as incredible as before? Regardless, Iron Man is still a potent character, particularly with backup members like Rescue, Vision, and the soon-to-be-released Iron heart. We’ll discuss these three characters as the alphabet goes down the line. Iron Man is heavy on offense, dealing unavoidable AOE damage and his signature UniBeam that does burst damage. His latest adjustment to his Passive skill adds an additional 5% damage for each Power Armor ally in the team, so he becomes even more inclined (or maybe the right word “tilted”) to offense. He’s still a bit of a softie, so he’ll need the necessary defenses to ensure he gathers enough energy to blast off his Ultimate skill. Otherwise, the damage output Tony Stark deals in battle well-worth getting him and training him up. Of course, having Iron Man on the Power Armor team gives his members the buffs many players love.
Ironheart
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
The only reason why Ironheart is sorted below Iron Man is because her name is spelled as one word, and “H” is considered after “space”. You’ll have one minor reason and one major reason to keep the two Iron people together. Ironheart’s basic skill will be Assisted by Iron Man, thereby increasing her damage output and giving you some tactics to use against enemies with Deathproof, Evade, etc. It’s quite a powerful attack as well, looking at the damage percentage. When you look at her Special and Passive skills, you’ll suddenly be reminded of Vision and how similar their two skill sets are. Ironheart’s Special skill can also apply Ability Block, albeit to only the main target, while depleting main and adjacent targets’ speed bars. This is going to help quite a bit, if you can Slow enemies with Rescue, and then drop their speed bars too. Her Passive skill also applies Defense Up to all Power Armor allies at the start of a battle, so it really seems to replicate some of the reasons we have for making Vision part of the Power Armor team, and then some. The main things that make Ironheart different are her basic attack that doesn’t apply Offense Down and Bleed, and her Ultimate attack that also attacks all enemies, but applies Defense Down instead of clearing enemy buffs. Perhaps Vision was too key of a member for the Power Armor team that the designers at FoxNext had every reason to create a replicate of that character. Sure, clearing buffs means that your enemies won’t be as difficult to handle, but it’ll also mean that Falcon’s skills won’t be shown their full potential. Yet, there are those of us who would rather keep the enemy clean of Defense Up and Deathproof buffs, rather than only applying Defense Down. Ironheart doesn’t really have any bonuses in War, other than gaining Focus during her Ultimate skill. Overall, we might be tempted to give Ironheart a pass and to keep Vision as part of the Power Armor team. However, in view of Alliance War where we want to optimize the use of every single character we have, Vision can still be transferred to an Avengers team or share one with Scarlet Witch, while Ironheart only has efficiency in a Power Amor team, which we would likely keep her in, to optimize her synergies with the Power Armor team. Outside of War, it might turn out to be something else… We’ll try to fit Ironheart into more teams in our character guide, so stay tuned for it!
Jessica Jones
2 Stars ⭐⭐
She might have been stronger, considering ho, in the comics, she can lift an automobile without any effort. Well, technically, Jessica Jones is also pretty strong in the game for a Support type character, where her basic attacks can combo up to three times. Plus, with every basic attack, there’s a chance for her to generate energy for an ally, based on how many times she attacks. Her important skill is her Special skill that not only generates a respectable amount of energy, but also clears a lot of debuffs on her team. Her Ultimate skill might have been better appreciated if it doesn’t require five energy. Jessica Jones is still an essential member of the Defenders, considering how her Focus seems to be at the top of the line and she barely gets afflicted with debuffs, but as a standalone in a mixed team, she’ll need a lot of improvements to make her more valuable.
Juggernaut
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
Nothing can stop the Juggernaut…! Except in this game where Disrupt prevents him from gaining Taunt and the other buffs that come along with his Special skill, along with Slow and Blind that pretty much make him a dead weight in battle. Yet, we still gave him 3 Stars for several reasons. Give Juggernaut time to get his turn in, and throw in Magneto to extend his Taunt by one additional turn, and you’ll see how incredibly immovable this guy gets – Defense Up, Immunity, Deathproof, and Regeneration to top it off! If the enemy team doesn’t deal heavy damage, the rest of your team is well-protected! Plus, even though Juggernaut’s Ultimate skill is readily available by his second turn, try not to rush into using it. Accumulate four Charges, one on turn and one with basic attacks, to increase Juggernaut’s Ultimate skill by 320% damage, on top of his 380% base damage. An incredible 700% damage on the main and adjacent targets! Of course, Juggernaut isn’t all that invincible as stated earlier, but he has ways to assist him in overcoming his faults. His basic attacks will grant him one energy to try to speed up the amount required to execute his very costly skills, and with the presence of Magneto, every attack on Juggernaut fills his speed bar by 20%. Five attacks, and it’s Juggernaut’s turn again! It’s a pity that once his Taunt wears off, he requires quite a lot of effort to display as much use again. Perhaps that’s why the latest update shares the benefit from his Passive skill with other Protectors in the team by filling up Protectors’ speed bars whenever Juggernaut gets attacked. Of course, Magneto still needs to be in the same team. This will collaborate well with Blob who is a tank similar to Ms. Marvel’s style of taunting only when an ally’s HP drops below the 50% mark. It works well to bring up the turns and energy accumulations of both tanks. With the release of the Misfit team possibly to get a full team in the future, there was a bit of worry that characters like Juggernaut would stagnate and only remain in Brotherhood teams, and to a lesser degree, Mutant teams. Looks like Juggernaut will fill in the Misfit spaces for now!
Karnak
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
This character’s skill set is not at all special and would have been given only 2 Stars if not for his higher-than-normal stats. He can clear Evade, but there’s a lot of other characters that can bypass this problem; he can apply Slow, but Quake is more effective; he needs to wait for his Ultimate skill to be available before he can clear enemy buffs. Yondu and Doctor Strange are clearing debuffs every now and then; and he needs Black Bolt to be in the team to be available to apply Disrupt, while Miles Morales is hindering tanks’ taunts right in the beginning of a battle. Fortunately, his stats are high, particularly for a Controller, and his affiliate as an Inhuman makes him valuable enough to keep on the team and given 3 Stars.
Kingpin
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
While this character is hardly seen in arena, blitz, etc., we decided to give him 3 Stars instead of 2 for a variety of reasons. This Protector is another tank whose Interesting Ratings are on par with Invisible Woman and Yo-Yo. Instead of Kingpin himself taunting enemies and taking damage, he summons bodyguards to do his dirty work instead. Typical of the kingpin of crime. Plus, three of his four skills have chances to grant Assist to his team members, which, in a way, is Kingpin getting others to do his dirty work again. It’s really interesting to see that with a basic attack, Kingpin has a chance to get an Assist; with his Ultimate attack that merely buffs the team, he can also get someone to Assist with an attack, and at the start of every Villain ally’s turn, an ally also can get someone to Assist with an attack. The downside? The chances to Assist are low, else, you’d see your team attacking endlessly, even more so than having Nebula’s Passive skill activating. Of course, put Nebula in the same team with Kingpin and there’s a higher chance of Assist attacks coming from the little blue robot. And perhaps the third interesting feature is Kingpin’s Ultimate skill that buffs the entire team with Defense Up. Seems like something commonplace with the likes of Luke Cage and Captain America. But Kingpin’s Ultimate also applies Offense up to five allies too! Offensive boosts tend to be from blasters or to self, Kingpin, however, applies it to his entire team. Why? So that they can attack better, thereby compensating for his lower damage output, thereby getting his team to do more of his dirty work. Typical.
Korath the Pursuer
2 Stars ⭐⭐
Korath is the only character to be given an epithet, and why is that so? We’re wondering ourselves… Korath isn’t too effective a blaster considering how he’s rather low-spec’d, and while he might be useful in a Kree team, there seem to be better members to use. Surprisingly, he’s able to apply Taunt to a target so that you won’t be distracted by a Protector. It’s the only buff that you can apply onto your enemies, and thankfully, you can decide when to apply it. Unfortunately, just like any buff, once the target’s turn ends, the taunt buff ends too, so it’s not all that useful, unless you have the battle well-timed to have sufficient energy at the right moment before a Protector taunts. He’s one of the few non-Minion Mercenary characters that you might consider using in a Mercenary team, but it’s not well-balanced at all, even though we gave Kingpin 3 Stars. Most can do well without Korath, but he’s still strong since he’s a Blaster type, after all.
Kree Cyborg
2 Stars ⭐⭐
It is fortunate that this Kree Minion has quite a number of passive skills (called Synergy in the game) that he can benefit from, otherwise, he would only be 1 Star. The Kree Cyborg can easily dish out large amounts of damage, and if he kills a target, he gets to do extra damage to an adjacent target. Plus, he benefits from Ronan’s energy boost (which will give him more opportunities to use his skill) and can copy buffs from Ultimus.
Kree Reaper
2 Stars ⭐⭐
Similar to the Kree Cyborg, this Minion benefits from a number of Synergies, plus, her damage output is pretty much similar to firing a canon. She’s not that much of a glass canon, thankfully! Her normal attacks already apply Bleed while her Special skill blocks healing effects, perfect to avoid enemies from recovering their member in the red.
Kree Noble
1 Star ⭐
She is actually a weak character, weaker than even the Kree’s healer. Fortunately, her skills dishes out a sizeable amount of damage, plus gets another character to Assist. Put her next to a high-damage member and her one skill can drop a tank into the red zone. Plus, there’s a chance she’ll clear one debuff on her turn. If she’s able to use her skill more often, or has a third skill to compliment her battle-worthiness, she might have gone up to 2 Stars.
Kree Oracle
1 Star ⭐
What kind of healer only heals on a character’s turn!? Is the Oracle some slow-response or delayed-reaction character? He only applies Regeneration, which gives the enemy a chance to un-buff your team, or to outright kill them off before they can heal. His main redeeming factors are his ability to generate energy with basic attacks, and his ability to heal an ally that gains energy, whether through him or another ally. But gaining energy is typically randomized, and the actual efficient energy generators in the game aren’t among the Kree.
Kree Royal Guard
1 Star ⭐
Oh, this character is quite the pity. His skills are rather beneficial but severely fall short of usefulness. Gaining counter would only be useful if he has better attack power, or he gains more than one Counter to last into his taunting phases. Even then, his damage is medium to low, making his halved-damage counterattack even less significant. Plus, his taunt skill requires five energy. That’s 5 turns for your enemies to pummel your team! On the bright side, the Royal Guard surprisingly has great speed, allowing him to get a turn in before Captain Marvel uses her powerful move! Plus, while taunting, the Royal Guard has a 75% chance to generate 1 energy. This guy is what you need to pair with Ronan and the Kree Oracle!
Killmonger
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This guy is a soloist (we hope you didn’t misread this as ‘sadist’!), and if you don’t have Black Panther in your team – perhaps he was killed off – then the Wakandan team can easily rely on Killmonger to carry on the fight. On crit, he gets to attack three times instead of once, and all his skills drain HP. His Ultimate skill might be one of the best for Raids if you select the optimal target to begin from, so that he can strike every single enemy in a Raid battle or against summonses, plus throw in an extra AOE attack if he lands a critical hit along the way. A whole ton of damage? That’s the Killmonger! Oh, did we mention that he drains HP? Did we also mention that on kill, he drains again? Plus, his passive skill, upon receiving Defense Up, lets Killmonger deal damage to the enemy with the lowest HP. This guy is attacking so often! By the way, has anyone noticed that he can lose his mask and reveal his looks underneath it? Killmonger is one of the few characters that have deteriorating costumes, so it’s quite interesting to see that even the characters’ costumes are interactive!
Loki
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Loki is another the reason why an Asgardian team can survive so well in any battle. His Passive skill will apply Stealth to any character that drops below 50% HP, which really can divert enemy fire elsewhere. This also applies to characters in Taunt, in situations where your tank has taken too much damage is going to fly off the board, and you really need his turn to come soon so that his buff will be removed. Instead of waiting till his snail speed bar to fill up, Loki applies Stealth on your tank and immediately cancels out Taunt! This is also especially useful when other characters are forcibly applied a Taunt buff, such as War Machine’s Passive skill that applies Taunt to enemies that drop below 50% HP. It’s rare, but it happens, and Loki is there to save the day! Loki, the God of Mischief, saving the day. Hah! Loki himself is of rather low damage output, so I wouldn’t rely on him to decimate the enemy team and their rigid tank(s), but his Special skill will do the job for you! Not only does it apply Defense Down, it controls one or two enemy members and have them attack your target. Imagine you target the healer and you happen to take control of two blasters! This can really turn the tide of battle if you’re punching up against a team that’s stronger than you!
Luke Cage
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Not comparing to ad-hoc taunters like Ms Marvel and S.H.I.E.L.D. Security, Luke Cage technically has the longest duration of protection for his team. Protectors like Ms Marvel will have her taunt wear off upon her turn, so it’ll prove useless if her ally drops below 50% HP and her turn comes up immediately after. Drax can taunt at the start of every turn, so he basically taunts more in multiple battles, but within the same battle, he can only taunt for two turns before requiring you to gather more energy. Luke Cage, however, can taunt for two turns first, followed by two turns of defense boost for his Defenders team (one turn, if they’re not). This makes his team protected for a good three turns. On the fourth turn, Luke Cage’s energy would fill up to three by then and allow him to taunt again! For another two turns! Plus, his taunt grants his Defenders team one count of Regeneration, to add on to Iron Fist’s healing ability every turn. To top everything off, Luke Cage’s punches are hard and have chances to gain an Assist from Hero allies! Power man!
M’Baku
2 Stars ⭐⭐
Without his synergy with the Wakandan team, M’Baku wouldn’t be that great in battle. His taunt skill includes one count of Counter, but consider how he doesn’t do much damage, his counterattack will be even weaker. His basic attack gives one more chance to attack in the even that he misses, but only one, and his attack is still weak. His Ultimate attack can be really cool, seeing how he can launch another round of attacks upon killing one enemy. This means he can attack as many as six different times against a five-man enemy team, while in raid, where enemy clusters can involve as many as six targets, M’Baku could well dish out twelve attacks! Unfortunately, each attack is terribly low in damage output, and you’re better off using M’Baku to use trigger Counter buffs or Deflects. Again, if not for his synergy with his Wakandan team, it might be better to switch M’Baku out for some other Protector that heals or buffs the team too.
Magneto
5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The great leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants lead the way for the villain mutant team! If anything, the entire Brotherhood team is rather dependent on Magneto in order to fully utilize their skills. They can still function without him, but you’ll be a lot less efficient without him to give the crucial morale his men require. For starters, his Passive skill fills his speed bar by as much as 75%, pushing him ahead of everyone else. That lets Magneto unleash his Ultimate skill, which is also energized at the start of battle, to pull the entire enemy team together to damage them and apply Blind. A number of characters in the game thus far do not have any abilities to counter against this, thus making the enemy helpless for a good one full turn. by the time they clear the debuff and enter their second turn, Juggernaut would have executed his Special skill at their dismay. Or if you feel that the enemy’s Protector is a greater threat, diverting your own fire away from a critical target, Magneto’s Special skill applies the much-needed Disruption and slow to give you the leeway you need to cripple the enemy team. If you’re not of much mind to the enemy’s attacks, use Magneto’s Special skill to remove their Protector’s buffs instead! Magneto is like an all-in-one character! Speaking of mind, did you know that Magneto is one of the few characters with deteriorating costumes? Not so much like a Dragonball battle, but Magneto’s helmet can be knocked off with an attack aimed at his head. Imagine Professor X being brought into the game, and his damage output increases by 1000% when Magneto’s helmet is removed. Wow! With the latest update to include the Misfits, Magneto’s Passive skill now is the first character to provide resistance against the Taunt buff. Perhaps, it’s the first situation where you don’t want to receive a buff, although it makes perfect sense, considering you don’t want Magneto and Pyro to attract attention. This is very much the counter-plan against War Machine’s Passive skill and Korath’s Special skill. Will we see even more resistances against Taunt, the one buff that acts as a double-edge sword?
Mantis
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The cute little bug-alien that looks less like the namesake insect and more of a little girl. Mantis is one healer that you’d love to have, even in teams that aren’t the Guardians of the Galaxy. She may have a synergy with Drax that applies Deflect on him, and a max HP boost for each Guardian ally, but you can easily do well without them. Her Special skill heals a goodly amount immediately, while applying a count of Regeneration to her adjacent allies. That easily adds up to a full HP bar restoration in one skill! Maybe that’s why it costs four energy to ensure the balance in battles. Mantis’ Ultimate skill has caused some controversy among players, with some saying it’s absolutely useless, while others loving it immensely, but in the hands of the A.I., you might tremble in fear (if she’s in your team) or delight (if she’s in the enemy team) to know that Mantis will execute her Ultimate skill regardless whether it’s beneficial or not. If her HP is at 25% and the lowest HP ally is also at 25%, then it’s truly pointless to use it. It may both characters for an additional amount of HP, but that amount is insignificant to help against DPS and burst-damage enemies. Use it at the right timing, however, and you could save an ally’s life, such as the tank, or even Mantis’ own life. What some enjoy from using Mantis is her one-time application of Stun via her basic attack. It’s very tactical indeed, since it’s only available once per battle, and also has a chance of not being available. That’s why this particular effect is more suited to be used in raids, where Mantis has a chance to gain a charge every battle and can Stun more enemies in successive battles. Beware with Mantis, though! Once she uses up all three special abilities and you need to wait for her to accumulate energy, she’s pretty much useless. Her attacks rival Nebula’s in lowest damage output, so be prepared to be vulnerable until she gathers enough energy, while ensuring she stays protected!
Mercenary Lieutenant
1 Star ⭐
He feels quite a lot like a miniature version of Nick Fury, with the ability to heal as well! Sounds great? Nope, not if he is really toned down such that his effects become almost insignificant. His main redeeming factor is that he boosts the team’s offense and speed with two energy instead of the typical three.
Mercenary Riot Guard
2 Stars ⭐⭐
While his skill set is very simplistic, I believe he protects his team rather well. His taunt skill only requires two energy, so he gets to draw fire every two turns, and because his defense boost on himself is three turns, he is pretty much covered always. Also, his members benefit by getting a defense boost every two turns as well! How often do you get a defensive boost like that, even with the ‘better’ characters?
Mercenary Sniper
1 Star ⭐
Many of us have crossed this character in campaign, raids, etc., and experienced great pain when he uses his Special skill. But we also know that high damage output is the only stat about him that’s worth a dime or two. His health, speed, defense, etc., tend to create a vacuum in his team very easily.
Mercenary Soldier
1 Star ⭐
Another basic character that’s a scaled-down version of the Punisher with single and adjacent targeting skills. That’s all he has to offer, really.
Minn-Erva
5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Touted as the best healer in the game, the good doctor (or rather, evil doctor) heals, regenerates, and even revives. Plus, she can revive early on in battle, making her more effective than Doctor Strange. Add to the fact that she’s a Kree, so having Kree members, like Kree Royal Guard, can help boost her energy accumulation. What many of us like are, well, every skill she has! With every basic attack, she applies Bleed to the target and Regeneration to your most injured ally and; with her Special skill, she revives a dead ally and applies Deathproof so that he doesn’t die again so quickly, while also healing the most injured ally and generating energy, all for the low low cost of five energy; with her Ultimate skill, she deducts HP from the entire enemy team to heal her team evenly, bypassing Hela Block to boot! What more could you want from a healer like Minn-Erva? In fact, her skill set is so highly demanded that she can easily appear in just about every team needing a healer, including the all-famous Best Kree Team!
Mister Fantastic
2 Stars ⭐⭐
The genius of the team and of the world, Mister Fantastic deserves to be the Controller that he is, but with rather lackluster skills to speak of. While he may be essential as part of the F4 team, Mister Fantastic himself isn’t all that fantastic to use in battle. Every turn, he gets to clear buffs from three enemies, similar to the Green Goblin, but Mister Fantastic himself does not have great speed to speak of. His Ultimate skill does reasonable damage and clears Defense Up, but that’s not a strong enough reason to keep Mister Fantastic on a non-F4 team.
Mister Sinister
5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sinister is one of the two characters in the game thus far with the word “Mister” officially in their codenames. Trivia, I know, but you tend to notice these things when you typically go off the polite ethics path. Despite the comics depicting Sinister as a superhuman with abilities that go beyond what humans and some mutants can do, the game decides to focus on his genius-level of scientific research and capitalize on creating a very powerful support character. Yes, he may not be placed on the same level as Minn-Erva, but Sinister’s healing skill set cannot be undermined when in a Marauders team! Sinister heals every turn, which makes him suitable for raids, and he generates energy upon spawning, which will let him power up his allies at every battle! Next, he distributes excess HP at every turn, thereby ensuring no HP amount goes to waste until everyone is at 100%, and there’s no energy required to execute this Passive skill! But, of course, you can’t rely on only his Passive skill, so that’s why Sinister’s Special skill heals a respectable amount of HP after clearing Heal Block! But perhaps one of the most lovely feature about his Special skill is the ability to take whatever buffs Mystique has (and Mystique can really steal a lot of buffs!) and transfer them to every Mutant and Clone in his team! Who says Fury is the only ‘true buffer’ in this game? Admittedly, you need Mystique and it benefits only Mutants and Clones, but if you build a Marauders or Brotherhood team around Mister Sinister, you know you’ve got a winning team! Perhaps the most unique feature of Sinister is his Ultimate skill that clones his desired target. Thus far, he is the only character with this feature, and while the Clone may not be as powerful as the original target, its stats scale to Mister Sinister’s stats. In raids where the enemy team tends to be weaker, that means your Clone is bound to be overpowered in comparison! But if the enemy team is stronger… Still, imagine facing a Legendary character, like Phoenix or Ultron – you’ll have a copy of that incredible character on your side!
Mordo
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
A Supernatural Villain that is really the definition of ‘control’, Mordo is primarily about dishing out debuffs than doing any significant damage. All three of his offensive skills apply some debuffs, of note will be his Special skill that has a chance to apply Stun, Blind and Slow – the three debuffs that can really turn the tide of battle or save your skin at the most critical moment when you know the Hulk is going to make landfall. With his rework to incorporate the Supernaturals, he can conduct some minor healing for himself and the most injured Supernatural ally. however, that’s upon death of a character. Prayfully, it’ll be the enemy, not your team. But if the enemy is going to die in order for you to heal… Well, then there’s no need to heal, isn’t it? That’s true, until you realize Mordo is more efficient in raids, where you’ll want to heal up as much as possible before the next battle. Don’t be too reliant on it, though, as the amount restored is small, considering that Mordo’s HP is low. Plus, if you’re in critical status, desperately needing healing, just say your prayers while trying to take down that stronger foe.
Ms. Marvel
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
An enigmatic Brawler whom you will either love or roll your eyes at. She is an improved version of S.H.I.E.L.D. Security where any ally dropping below 50% HP will have Ms. Marvel taunting her enemies. Plus, on the turn of an ally who is a Hero Brawler, she has a high chance to Assisting with an attack of her own. Her Passive skill is aptly named “Fangirl” indeed! She is also one of the two key figures in the Hero Brawler team. Despite being a Brawler herself, Ms. Marvel acts as a partial tank who can draw enemy fire rather frequently. Throw in Iron Fist to be the sub-healer, and your Hero Brawler team is ready to go! Well, not exactly as effective as some other team, but that’s a discussion for our Raid Guide on Gamepleton! There’s no need for too many worries, though, as Ms. Marvel gets Deflect on a frequent basis as well – whenever she Assists an ally, which is often, and whenever she taunts, which is potentially often too. Plus, when the going gets tough, you can get the tough going with her Special skill that restores a goodly amount of her HP! That’s assuming, of course, she doesn’t draw on Stun attacks… Fortunately, she’s still a hardy character, and now, with the arrival of the Inhuman team, her role as a sub-tank is all the more required due to their Inhuman Protector, Yo-Yo, who doesn’t have any active taunts. Ms. Marvel is the perfect compliment to Yo-Yo and the Inhuman team overall! She’s a compliment to any team that you want to be defensive in – put her together with a Protector in the team, and whenever the Protector drops below 50% HP or the Protector is too slow or has insufficient energy to taunt, Ms. Marvel comes to save the day!
Mysterio
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
He’s just a phony, don’t you think, using mere illusions to toy with the minds of the people when nothing that happens around him is real? It’s good that his skills aren’t all smoke and mirrors, as he can create quite a bit of headache for the enemy. Similar to Mordo, Mysterio is more of a controlling type of character, Blinding enemies and applying Heal Block. His Passive skill is interesting, applying Deflect every time he spawns, but it gives your team quite the start with halved damage. The skill that is more interesting is his basic skill that clears as many as three buffs before he launches his attack. This includes Evade, by the way, which is the buff of bane for many players. This is definitely more effective than Yondu’s basic attack which can be evaded, and more efficient than skills like Captain America’s Ultimate, which require energy. If you find yourself using his basic attack more than his other skills, don’t be surprised! Of course, as a Controller, he’s very weak and doesn’t have any particularly damaging skills to contribute to the damage count, otherwise, he might have been given 4 Stars.
Mystique
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The mystical members of the Brotherhood team… Hmm… I seem to be reiterating the meaning of characters’ names too many times. Mystique, mystical. Mysterio, mysterious. By the way, the two M’s aren’t related, plus, Mystique is a lot more useful than when you place her in a Brotherhood and/or Marauders team. Against teams that apply lots of buffs on themselves, rejoice as you watch Mystique copy those buffs (with the help of Magneto’s presence), which subsequently gets spread across the entire team by Mister Sinister’s Special skill. We highly recommend using her basic attack more frequently while the enemy has buffs being distributed around. It’s easier to copy enemy buffs than Black Widow considering you don’t need Mystique to be in Stealth. Of course, Mystique doesn’t clear the enemy’s buff like Black Widow, but you can leave it to Pyro to do that for her. See? Teamwork! And she has a skill similar to Loki’s manipulation skill too! It may require more energy to execute, but receiving Evade from using it gives it a nice trade off. By the way, when Magneto and Mister Sinister get their turns, Mystique will prolong all buffs on Magneto and herself. How awesome is that free buff? Perhaps FoxNext will later include Sinister in Mystique’s list of beneficiaries.
Namor
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
The Prince of Atlanta should have been given more spotlight, considering how his skill set in War Offense is rather impressive. His Ultimate skill is rather powerful, always crit-ing, clears all enemy buffs, empties their speed bar by 50%, and cannot be avoided. This is probably the Ultimate skill that we all love, being boosted by other effects too! Namor’s Passive skill is also desirable, applying Offense Up and Deflect at the start of battle so that his F4 team is protected for at least two hits, and they can all blast off their skills within these first two turns of battle! Note, however, that these are only for War, and in Offense, not Defense. Outside of War, Namor’s skills are lackluster and are simply medium-to-high damage output skills. Also, you can only use each character once per battle in War Offense, so right after using Namor in battle, your F4 team won’t get to benefit from his Passive skills again. And if you place the F4 team in Defense, his Passive skills won’t activate. War Offense only! That’s why Namor is quite the let-down, considering how his character shards are moderately difficult to obtain.
Nebula
1 Star ⭐
No idea why anyone would want to consider investing in this character, other than the fact that she’s played by Karen Gillan in the movies. Nebula is truly low in her stats, except for Speed, but dealing 1,000 damage twice within an enemy’s turn isn’t worthwhile in the least. It’s not like she has Offense Up or bonus attacks to hit multiple times in one turn. She gets some nifty buffs, Speed Up, Counter and Evade, but she doesn’t share them and they don’t last long enough to be of value. In fact, there’s not much value in having Nebula launch counterattacks or Assist attacks when her every attack is like sand in the wind. We’ll try to be fair here and present her positive points. Her basic attacks grant her Speed Up at a high chance, so she’s basically attack at higher speed than every other character in the battle. Plus, with her Passive skill that grants her a chance to Assist whenever an ally attacks, she can potentially be attacking at every turn. hope your favorite color is blue, ’cause this blue robot is likely going to fill up the majority of your screen time! But, even with Speed Up, she wouldn’t outstrip the entire enemy team, unless they’re all Protectors inflicted with Slow, and her Passive skill only grants 15% chance at its maximum level, so you won’t really see much blue on your screen. You will be blue instead.
Nick Fury
5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The man with the plan! If you all haven’t fought against Nick Fury, whether in arena, campaign, or anywhere else, you probably haven’t experienced Marvel Strike Force at its best! Before Mister Sinister came along and became the team buffer for Brotherhood and Marauders teams, Nick Fury was stealing the limelight for a good long time. And, surprisingly, he synergies very well with an outdated team of S.H.I.E.L.D. minions. Typically, it’s difficult to plan for the lowest tier of characters to be of great value without doing any rework, like A.I.M., but this team takes the cake when supporting Nick Fury. His shining skill is the Special one, and special, it truly is! Use his Ultimate skill to summon some additional S.H.I.E.L.D. Minions and gain some buffs. Try to apply more buffs on the man before his next turn, whereby you execute his Special skill to spread all buffs to the entire team, including his summoned Minions! Plus, he heals the team a rather huge amount as well! A huge, beefed up team is what Nick Fury stands for, seeing the charismatic man drawing countless allies and turning enemies to his side. This skill set in the game perfectly compliments Nick Fury’s character indeed!
Night Nurse
2 Stars ⭐⭐
She was lauded as the best healer during the game’s early release. She was the only healer than wasn’t a Minion, and had a healing skill that covers the entire team. Plus, she has a chance to heal the more injured ally every turn, low, though that chance may be. Now, though, the enemies are getting stronger, and her healed amount is comparatively minor. If Night Nurse is to keep up with the competition, she’ll need to be reworked, but otherwise, she is 99% dedicated to healing. The remaining 1% is her ability to debuff enemies with Slow, which would be more helpful if she has higher Speed and Focus to apply more often.
Nobu
2 Stars ⭐⭐
The ninja grandmaster isn’t as grand as we might expect. But I guess that’s still fine, considering how the entire Hand team is outdated. Don’t expect Nobu to the Nick Fury of the Hand, despite being able to summon Hand Minions. He can only apply Counter buffs and give him a small increase in chances to revive, but that’s about it. Some would cringe upon knowing you need to boost him up to 6 stars in order to unlock Phoenix, but that’s the cost, I guess.
Okoye
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
The general of Wakanda is very impressive in the movies, but not so much in the game. She is a very tactical character which can affect the effectiveness of your team if you use her right. Her basic attack takes off at least one buff, so when she Assists, she’ll take off a buff as well. Okoye has a chance to Assist every Wakandan ally that is attacking, so that allows you more chances to remove even more enemy buffs! Plus additional damage. It’s perfect, not just to simply flick off a target in critical condition, but to also help the Black Panther to gain his kill and fill up his Speed Bar. This frequent Assist is one of the best features of Okoye, and it’s not as low-powered as Nebula or Kingpin. You still could consider adding Kingpin into the Wakandan team to provide additional chances to Assist, but that’s for a discussion on our Raid Guide! If you can, hold off on using Okoye’s Special and Ultimate skills until important moments. She is faster than the Black Panther, so applying Defense Down on a target just before Black Panther uses his Ultimate skill will better help him to get at least a kill. Or two. Finally, before an enemy launches his dangerous or irritating skill, execute Okoye’s Ultimate skill to cut the target’s speed bar by 50%! This is particularly useful against a Protector that’s about to taunt, or a blaster that’s gathered enough energy to unleash a killer blast on your team. Play your cards right, and Okoye can be a key supporter for the Wakandan team. It’s fair that her attack level is only moderate, although her HP or Defenses could be better to allow her greater survivability. Or M’Baku could be more effective with his team protection…
Phoenix
6 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Jean Grey, considered an Omega-level mutant, is also a most powerful character in the game, and thus, the requirements to unlock were elevated to ensure only the most dedicated (or higher paying) players can gain access to her. And for good reason as well! She may be a Controller type, but she she also provides healing and HP distribution, plus she does a ton of damage with her Ultimate. And this is only her first form that is meant to die off early at the start of battle! Her second form, which can only be accessed when her first form dies, steals HP, applies Regeneration to her team, and deals heavy damage with her Ultimate. Before she even appears on stage, she deals heavy damage to all enemies! If there is a star character in the game, Phoenix is one of them! Of course, if you can build an X-Men team around her, Phoenix and the individual members of the team will have improvements to their skill set, making them all the more powerful. This is, in particular, to her synergy with Cyclops. Even without synergy with any other member in the team, she still becomes highly formidable!
Psylocke
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
The anti-debuff character of the X-Men team, any enemy heavily reliant on debuffs will know woe with Psylocke on the opposing side! Well, when she has sufficient energy, that is. Psylocke’s Ultimate skill will remove two debuffs from non-X-Men allies and all debuffs from yes-X-Men allies to your target, but as it requires the use of her Ultimate, don’t expect debuff-removal services to be available often. It’s also great that her Special skill un-buffs enemies, so that Protectors will be taunt-less during the enemy’s critical moments, or during your more effective turns. But the problem is that her skills require a significant amount of energy before they can used, which restrict her activities to really only pivotal moments in your battle. Perhaps this is one of the balancing acts in the game to ensure Psylocke doesn’t immunize her team unfairly. Fortunately, her Passive skill is very interesting as well, applying Evade X-Men allies to try to protect them during their dangerous moments, and allowing them some form of revenge. Plus, it’s not a one-time only activation, so as long as you keep your X-Men characters healed, Psylocke will help you help them!
Punisher
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
The Defender-wannabe who fills in as the perfect 5th member of the team, but is not an actual Defender himself. Punisher is one of the characters that have no specific team to belong to, like Kingpin and Nebula. However, with a bit of rework on him and the Defenders team, Punisher has become an essential member that provide support to allies who use non-attack skills and counterattacks anyone that targets Daredevil, even if it’s a non-attack ability like Scientist Supreme’s Ultimate skill. But after experiencing the use of this weapons specialist, we could feel that the Punisher actually deserves to be officiated as a Defender, considering how he gains extra chances to Assist on non-attack skills according to the number of Defender allies he has in his team, plus, he supports the Daredevil, who is a Defender. It’s a pity the Punisher was never initiated as one. His skill set is indeed heavy-handed, like the comic book personality he has, and has a large damage output with every attack. He is a blaster type, thus enjoying a high attack stat, and they shine the most in his two key skills – Ultimate and Passive. His Ultimate skill hits all enemies and includes some piercing, ensuring you cover all the non-evasive targets, so the Defenders team can spread out their attacks and leverage on the Punisher to lower the curtains on the enemy team. His Passive skill has two key parts: One, he has a chance to attack an enemy whenever his City Hero ally uses a non-attack skill (at this point, we should mention to always be aware of which target your cursor is on). This is considered a reactive action, which means the Punisher won’t trigger the enemy’s Counter buff, which is great for lowering a target with HP that is too high to drop within one attack. He can miss and can be dodged, though, so do watch where you’re aiming his thing! Two, whenever Daredevil gets targeted, Punisher will deal a counterattack. This is the reason why you should place Daredevil next to a tank so that Daredevil will take secondary damage, which can happen often, and Punisher will counterattack for one time. This type of Passive skill truly helps the Defenders a lot especially since Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, etc., tend to have more non-attack skills. Unfortunately, the Punisher is still a rather outdated character and is outshone by others, like Rocket Raccoon who deals heavier damage via his Ultimate skill. the Punisher is still great for a Defenders or City Heroes team, but most are likely to replace him as newer characters are made available.
Pyro
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
FoxNext seems to view fire as a long-lasting painful element, similar to being poisoned and suffering ill effects for a period of time. Two of Pyro’s three skills apply Bleed, so your enemy team is pretty much bleeding every turn. His Special skill even clears the enemy’s buffs, particularly if Magneto is in the same team. His Ultimate skill may not apply any Bleed onto the enemy, but it increases the duration of Bleed counters by 1, again, if Magneto is on the same team. How many times have I stated Magneto in this paragraph? One of the best aspects of Pyro’s Ultimate skill is the application of Disrupted, which is still rather uncommon to find among the characters. Pyro’s Passive skill is also very interesting, considering how it rubs salt into the enemy’s wounds. Upon being attacked, Pyro fills up his speed bar, similar to Juggernaut. A blaster with increased speed means more damage being dealt, and a happier you as you see the enemy team bleeding out. When Magneto is his ally, Pyro does something even better: he applies Heal Block to enemies that drop below 50% HP! Not only are they inflicted with Bleed, they can’t heal too!
Quake
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
One of the many characters that was released early in the game, and surprisingly, Quake underwent few changes, even after becoming part of the Inhuman team. If anything, the change she underwent was a nerf to soften her attacks and dilute the speed reduction she inflicts on enemies. Yet, her main adjustment to incorporate into the Inhuman team was to include Yo-Yo into her Special skill. It applies Slow if Yo-Yo is in her team, which is a small adjustment, but really makes a difference in battle, because Quake’s main method of offense is her AOE basic attack that applies Slow to her main and adjacent targets. This is already enough to unbalance the battle in favor of Quake’s team. Now, her Special skill can also apply Slow! And despite being a Controller with low attack (don’t expect to get any kills with her basic attack), her Ultimate is one to be feared! Have any enemy below 50% HP and afflicted with Defense Down, and her Ultimate will very likely send the enemy flying! Oh, this we overlooked, but surprisingly, Quake’s Special skill deals significant damage, on par with Hawkeye’s basic attack (which is medium to high damage, by the way). Considering that Yo-Yo’s basic attack has a chance to grant Assist to her Inhuman allies, Quake’s Assist attack can hurt single targets quite well! Just note, though, that Quake herself is pretty slow, thus, leveling the playing field by slowing down enemies, and she can’t take too many hits, else she’ll take a dirt nap!
Ravager Boomer
2 Stars ⭐⭐
The Ravagers are a very neglected group, just like Hydra and Hand. The Boomer is typically just canon fodder too, if not for the fact that his attack stat is respectably high. Each individual attack can knock out a good portion of the enemy’s HP, and when using his Special skill that deals AOE damage, you can quite a significant impact. He has a small chance to assist his attacks, so that’s quite a lot of damage to lavish on your enemies! But that’s the extent of the Ravager Boomer, and until some rework is done to Yondu and his men, the Ravagers won’t be seen in many teams.
Ravager Bruiser
1 Star ⭐
I have no idea why anyone would want to rely on this tank that can hardly be relied upon to taunt. I’d strike the lottery before he could taunt! His Special skill provides a very long Defense Up buff duration which goes well into his two two or three turns, but the probability of taunting with every basic attack is just too low and too inconsistent, he would probably not taunt at critical moments, and only do taunt when the rest of his team is dead.
Ravager Stitcher
1 Star ⭐
Another hapless member of the Ravagers who can only await a rework that nobody seems to ask for. Hmm… The Ravagers don’t seem to be all that popular even in the comics, so this old man might likely stay this way for a while. His main role is to just heal the most injured ally, and repeats it once more, and that’s most of the use he has.
Rescue
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
Pepper Pots could be given some recognition for her efforts for joining the front lines, but I guess FoxNext has some other plans for her person, separately from her armor. Rescue is the first character to introduce the Barrier effect, adding an additional layer of HP over a character’s own HP. It gets irritating when you think you’ve finally brought a target down to the red zone, when the enemy’s Rescue suddenly applies Barrier, and technically back to square one. This is why Rescue is quite a sensation when she was first released. She’s definitely not your offensive type, so don’t rely on her to deal damage, except in desperate situations. Rescue is better used as the team’s support, slowing enemies with her basic attacks, clearing debuffs and applying Offense Up to her Power Armor team. She might have been a lot more useful if her skill set cater to battles outside War, or to non-Power Armor allies, but it seems like she’s designed for War (like saying she’s a war machine) and won’t be as incredible for other purposes. Inside the helicarriers, though, her skills shine with Regeneration, Immunity, and extra Barrier upon HPs dropping to 50%. And best of all? She’s flexible, able to benefit from those War bonuses for Offense and Defense! Although Falcon, part of her Power Armor team, has some extra benefits in War Offense, it’s not as worthwhile to use them only once. Better to sacrifice Falcon’s War Offense extra effects and have Rescue protect her team more regularly as they provide the helicarrier.
Rhino
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
The seemingly brainless, bulldozing beast of a villain makes his entrance into the game as part of the Sinister Six team! And, yes, expect a lot of charging going on with him around! Comparatively, though, he’s like another version of Juggernaut in the animation department. Rhino’s Passive skill immediately clears his entire team of Blind debuffs, thereby rendering Mordo and Magneto’s Blind skill useless. Plus, his speed bar gets filled up! You don’t want to make Rhino mad by trying to Blind him! Truly, there’s no point to cast any form of Blind debuffs on the Rhino to make him miss his Special and ultimate skills. However! Casting Blind on his team members, without Blinding Rhino himself, will not trigger this Passive skill into clearing the debuff! Do take note of this when you feel the need to Blind someone in his Sinister Six team, like Shocker. And on top of all the taunting, this Protector is categorized as a heavy-hitter type, similar to the Hulk. Up against the Defenders or Spider-Men, you can see his damage output surge upward and the enemy team growing holes in their ranks. We’re giving the Rhino only 3 stars, however, because he is more effective against City Hero enemy teams, and is more effective only with members of the Sinister Six. He doesn’t have any other really unique features that make him stand out further than his horn.
Rocket Raccoon
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The man of the galaxy, who isn’t a human, but a raccoon! That cusses and swears and flirts with other animal-type females! Nope, nothing weird there, just your everyday commodity of intrigue in the galaxy! Rocket is a character that you’d love to have, not just for his personality, but also for his high damage output. This basic attack does reasonable damage, but is AOE, so it can be useful for dealing more damage overall. But, beware that he’s susceptible to Counters, as he’s quite low in the defense and HP departments. What can we say? All he cares is about is building the fastest spacecraft and the most destructive weapons ever! Of course, this makes Rocket quite the double-barreled gun, just like how his AOE basic attacks invite plenty of counterattacks. His Special skill isn’t AOE, but it’ll apply Taunt onto Groot if he is in the same team. That can be good and that can also be bad. If Drax, or whichever tank is in the team, wears off his Taunt, Rocket can chip in by having Groot Taunt, thereby protecting the team longer. Also, Rocket’s damage output is a huge burst of damage, easily bringing down a Protector to 50% HP! That’s not the end! Groot will provide an Assist, and one more ally also has a chance to Assist too! Add up the score of a best case scenario (an random ally successfully gains Assist, and it’s a Blaster type), and it’s comparable to other burst skills like Iron Man’s UniBeam! This is against single targets. Now for his Ultimate attack that deals just only a little bit less damage compared to his Special skill, multiplied by all the targets in the enemy team! If Groot is in the team, Rocket’s Ultimate does more damage than his Special skill. Hmm… We haven’t touched on Rocket’s Passive skill yet, because it really adds up to a truly powerful glass cannon. Tech allies gain an additional 5% damage, and on turn, Rocket has a chance to apply Offense Up to some of his allies! As if Rocket’s three skills aren’t already very damaging!
Ronan the Accuser
2 Stars ⭐⭐
Ah… Perhaps I missed out Ronan when I mentioned that Korath is the only character with an epithet in his name. According to the comics surrounding the Inhumans, some of them address this character as “Accuser” rather than Ronan. Even his wife. While he’s the all-powerful leader of the Kree, he’s not all-powerful in the game. Adding him to a Kree does make him even more efficient, but not enough to provide a full-on assault against newer characters, like Asgardians or Inhumans. Maybe he’s lacking one of the Infinity Stones? But, if he’s physically and psychologically powerful enough to hold such an overwhelming artifact in his bare hands and even wield it via his hammer, shouldn’t he be much more powerful in the game? Well, maybe the Kree isn’t as popular as other characters. But if you are one of those who love the blue alien race, note that he’s rather efficient in supporting his team by clearing buffs, applying Ability Blocks, and summoning more Kree Minions to bolster their team numbers. And of the minions he summons, the Kree Reaper and Kree Noble are included, which can really add to your arsenal! What most would like most about Ronan – or should I say, Accuser – is his Passive skill that fills the speed bars of characters that gain an energy, plus heal. Similar to the Kree Healer, this provides the healing the Kree team needs, but is very unreliable. Accuser might become a really strong character, but will need to be reworked, perhaps with another more effective Kree character, other than Minn-Erva.
Sabretooth
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This Brawler is one frenzied fighter! He might not have much in the way of burst damage compared to others like Rocket or Bullseye, but because his Special and Ultimate skills chain to multiple targets, the overall damage adds up to an incredible amount, much like a stronger version of Punisher who specializes in area damage. Sabretooth’s Ultimate skill deals extra damage if Magneto or Mister Sinister is in the same team! You may want to leverage more on Mister Sinister, as Sabretooth benefits from a boost in Crit chance, and more Marauders allies to increase Sabretooth’s chance of Assisting on allies’ non-attack skills. While other characters tend to specialize as anti-tanks by removing or flipping taunt buffs, Sabretooth doesn’t handle tanks the same way. His Special skill gets a nice boost in damage when his main target taunts, before going on to sunder the adjacent targets, regardless whether they are in Stealth or not! Perhaps his Ultimate skill is one to delight at, as he deals a huge amount of damage per hit, chains to as many as 5 targets (which can easily reach all targets in raids), and applies Bleed on top of it all! Don’t worry about be counterattacked if Magneto or Mister Sinister is an ally. See? The benefits of putting Sabretooth in a Brotherhood or Marauders team!
Scarlet Witch
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
This character is affiliated with quite a number of teams that it can be hard to decide where to best place her. Of course, it’s easier to just put her in the Supernatural team, considering it’s the most recent team to be designed involving Scarlet Witch. If anything, her skill set was adjusted to benefit the Supernatural team best, as of this point in time. Initially, some of us would consider placing her in an Avenger team to add to the team’s repertoire of control skills and a dash of healing. Plus, with she pairs up with Vision to provide him with a damage boost. Scarlet Witch is one who applies lots of debuffs, and her Special and Ultimate skills were perhaps the first ones with HP distribution, Deflect, and extension of debuffs. Her Special skill simply levels everyone’s HP equally, which differs from the typical healing abilities in the game, targeting always the ally with the lowest HP. This can be a boon to transfer HP from an ally that heals every turn, or uses drain abilities, so that HP is not wasted. This can also be a bane, particularly when automatically triggered by the A.I., to reduce the HP of the Protector when you need his HP kept high during Taunt! Fortunately, this skill applies Deflect as well, perhaps the first time we’re seeing it, as it provides a one-time guaranteed Block to any attack received. Of course, the attack must be blockable. However, the Deflect buff will trigger even if the attack deals no damage, such as Groot’s counterattack that does no damage. The more interesting effect Scarlet Witch has is in her Ultimate skill which does low damage, but prolongs all debuffs by 1 turn. This is great for any character that leverages on debuffs on their targets, such as Carnage and Graviton. However, Scarlet Witch is not very effective in combat and mostly relies on her allies to deal the most damage.
Scientist Supreme
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Those who are unfamiliar with Scientist Supreme’s skills will feel that they are quite the contradiction to what most players want in a support or healer type – to buff and heal. Sure, she heals with her Ultimate, but she applies debuffs on her team as well. Why heal your team only to give them weaknesses too? Execute her Special Skill, and you’ll realize you’ve flipped all debuffs to buffs in just one turn! Plus, the team gains Regeneration to boot! There are conditions, of course, and her skills behave differently. Her Ultimate skill only debuffs non-A.I.M. allies, while A.I.M. allies are let off the hook. Her Special skill flips debuffs into buffs for all allies, but only A.I.M. allies can gain Regeneration. These differing situations have both positive and negative points. Because A.I.M. allies don’t gain any debuffs from her Ultimate skills, they also won’t have any debuffs to flip during her Special skill. However, we rationalize that numerous enemy skills already apply some debuffs, even a Protector like Yo-Yo, so there’s a high possibility your team will have some debuffs by the time Scientist Supreme’s next turn comes around. The contradiction now is the inclusion of A.I.M. Security, who can clears A.I.M. allies’ debuffs, thereby making Scientist Supreme’s Special skill moot. The one count of Regeneration doesn’t count for much, when you can enjoy at least two turns of Offense Up, Defense Up, Deathproof, etc. Fortunately, both of her skills only require three energy each, which sets up a nice rhythm to follow in battle – heal the team, buff the team, shoot an enemy.
Shocker
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
For a guy who wears bed quilts into battle, he’s not that bad to use as a Support type character of the team. Wait, what? He’s a Blaster type? Shocker’s damage output is rather low such that you rather use him more for his Special skill to buff his team’s offenses. He doesn’t deal much damage with his basic attack, and although he has some contingency in the event he misses, we thought he would at least apply Offense Up on his Assisting ally. Perhaps not. His interesting feature is his Ultimate skill that actually does a reasonable amount of damage on the account that his damage can, in a way, be distributed. It’s not in the same way as Scarlet Witch’s HP distribution, unfortunately, which would have been incredible. It’s the same style as M’Baku’s Ultimate skill that attacks the main and all adjacent target, then moves on to another batch of targets. M’Baku’s skill seems a little buggy, because if his last attack does the killing, he won’t proceed to his second wave. Shocker’s skill, however, moves on to the next available adjacent target to launch his second wave. Shocker only forfeits his second wave if all adjacent targets are killed, such that there is no secondary target to initiate from. Otherwise, one target easily gets hits twice. Unfortunately, though, Shocker is rather low in the damage department and could have more boosts synergies with his Sinister Six team. True, he gains additional damage per City Hero enemy, but other than the Sinister Six event that deliberately planted City Hero enemies, where else could you best leverage Shocker’s Passive skill on a constant basis?
S.H.I.E.L.D. Assault
1 Star ⭐
Similar to the Hydra Grenadier, she does constant AOE damage, but her extreme low attack power makes her not very worthwhile, even in a team with Nick Fury. Her probability of clearing buffs isn’t that worth the effort either.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Medic
2 Stars ⭐⭐
Just to clarify: this in-game Medic is considered a different character from the Medic who is male in the Strike Time videos. The Medic is a Minion, therefore a generic class, therefore, there is more than one S.H.I.E.L.D. Medic out there in the storyline, that’s why the Strike Time video Medic is a male, and not because this in-game Medic is a she-male.
That aside, this character would have been 1 Star initially, until she was reworked to increase the amount of healing, have a chance to revive dead allies, and also to synergize with Coulson in and out of War. This character is becoming invaluable to S.H.I.E.L.D. teams, but perhaps not so with non-S.H.I.E.L.D. characters.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Operative
2 Stars ⭐⭐
Without her fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. members, she might have dropped to 1 Star as well, but when you combine her with S.H.I.E.L.D. Security, her Invisibility buff can seriously thwart the enemy’s plans and divert attacks to other characters. Also, she applies Counter to Nick Fury, who can easily spread it around like a hot potato!
S.H.I.E.L.D. Security
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
The pain in everyone’s behinds, regardless who his team members are, the S.H.I.E.L.D. Security will draw any enemy fire away from his team, like a scaled-down Ms Marvel. Of course, he’s not the same level as Ms Marvel, but he’s a lot better and more useful than the other Minions, especially if you put him in a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. members. He will draw fire every time your essential character reaches critical HP, saving you from much agony and failure. He may not be able to taunt at will, but he’s already taunting a lot more often than in this way! Stunned, anyone? Because his Special skill stuns a target that is already Slowed!
S.H.I.E.L.D. Trooper
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
Prior to a minor rework, this Trooper wouldn’t have been given 3 Stars, but due to his passive skill that counterattacks every time his adjacent allies is targeted, he can easily wear down the enemy. Those who ignore his passive skill eventually find themselves reaching the yellow zone and becoming easy targets for burst attacks. This is the S.H.I.E.L.D. Trooper’s main beneficial factor, but it’s really worth a lot to put him in this grade.
Shuri
5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is what we would call a 5-star Support service! Granted, Shuri is designed to shine in a Wakandan team in raid, but even in other teams, her ability to boost the team’s defenses and heal regularly heals just about any team out there! Her Special skill applies Defense Up to all allies while generating energy, and her Ultimate skill is like a Ravager Stitcher that heals the most injured ally as many as four times! If her team is Wakandan, they enjoy a free Charge during Shuri’s Special skill, which does a lot a lot of good for them. This manual application of Charge isn’t available anywhere else, and it’s exclusive to Wakandans only! (Pity, though, because characters like Juggernaut and Storm would benefit greatly!) What adds on to Shuri’s incredible skill set is her Passive, where she buffs her team’s speed upon the start of every battle. Perfect for raids! Plus, on her turn, she heals the most injured ally without using any turns or energy, which creates the sustainability you need for raiding. Plus, every time a Wakandan member drops below 50% HP, Shuri will apply Deflect to provide greater survivability, until Shuri gets her turn again and/or uses her Ultimate skill. To top it all off, obtaining Defense Up grants Shuri one ability energy, which goes a long way to help her accumulate all the necessary energy to execute her Special and Ultimate skills again and again.
Sif
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
The protector of Asgard and Protector of the Asgardian team is pretty hardly and has high survivability, but she feels more dedicated to herself rather than her team. Her Taunt skill generates Counter buffs which are honestly quite pointless, considering how her attack is low, and her Ultimate skill can potentially be lethal, bouncing between two targets and dealing reasonable amounts of damage to them. However, again, her attack power is low and you wouldn’t want to use her for Offense tactics. You would hope that when Heimdall attacks, Sif won’t be the assistant. Sif’s main saving graces are her basic attack and Passive skill. Every use of her basic attack grants Deflect, which is great for helping Sif survive better as a tank. It’ll be better if she has a longer Taunt duration, but, oh well… Time her Special skill to be after using at least one time of Basic skill so that Sif taunts with as many counts of Deflect as possible. If you got kind of fortunate and use up all her Deflect buffs, don’t worry too much, because her Passive skill grants her Block chances which increase further with more Asgardians in the team. Plus, like the other Asgardians, she heals on turn. Rather survivable, but not effective enough to properly protect the team. By the way, “Shield Slam” is a truly inappropriate name for her Special skill – her animation doesn’t use her shield at all, absolutely unlike how Captain America does it in Avengers: Infinity War.
Spider-Man
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The beloved character of many a Marvel fan, Spider-Man is one of the first characters available to new players. In fact, his avatar is the default for all new accounts. If anything, this character can be highly versatile in dishing out damage to enemies, having the advantage of innate evasion to take on secondary attacks next to the team’s tank. He gets a chance to gain the Evade buff with every basic attack, so you would feel like Spider-Man is untouchable! But perhaps most players would love his Special and Ultimate skills. His Special skill applies Defense Down and cannot be counterattacked, and considering Spider-Man’s high speed, it means your enemies will likely be served up on a silver platter for the rest of your team! Raise his Special skill high enough, and the Defense Down debuffs last two turns, which is likely going to be more than enough to sink a tank into the red zone! (Unless the team is made up of all controllers and supporters) Most of all is Spider-Man’s Ultimate skill that deals a heavy amount of damage, essentially wiping off enemies with less than half HP, and if they survive, he’ll apply Slow and Stun on his target, leaving him wide open to more attacks! This character is all about teamwork! Spidey’s Passive skill could use a rework, though. The adjustment to include Miles Morales would be more justifiable if it didn’t require the consumption of Orange ability materials. Spidey’s a strong, along with useful, character to have, particularly in Brawler, City Hero and Symbiote teams, but you do have to watch out for when he does take on damages – it can be quite a lot to bear! Did we mention that he’s particularly useful in a Defenders team? He may not have any synergy with Darevil, but he benefits from Iron Fist’s healing ability, plus, applies Defense Down to his enemies for Daredevil and Iron First to mow down the competition. Go, Spidey, go!
Spider-Man
(Miles Morales)
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The second spider totem to join the game, we shall refer to him as Miles Morales in order to avoid the confusion between all the Spider-Men available (this is Marvel Spiderverse Force, after all). Miles seems to be weirdly designed, as he is quite a soloist, having skills independent of other Spiderverse characters. True, his skills have debuffs that can benefit any other character, and his Special skill prolongs debuffs, but it would be better at the very least his Passive skill’s Defense Down application is better-directed, perhaps at the highest HP enemy, instead of being random, for example. Still, Miles is greatly useful, perhaps more useful than powerful despite being a Brawler. His basic attack can un-buff a target, but only if the target has Defense Down. This, you would likely leave to Spider-Man to apply the Defense Down, rather than hope Miles’ Passive skill applies it onto your desired target. His Special skill amazing cuts off 50% of your enemy’s speed bar, well-above what Hawkeye deducts, which becomes very appropriate to keep tanks from getting their turns, or any other dangerous character which has garner sufficient energy. Equally incredible is Miles’ Ultimate skill that applies Disrupt to his target, and hopefully additional targets too. Perhaps Miles is designed to be the bane of tanks! However, he is quite the squishy character and doesn’t have any innate evasion stat like Spider-Man does. Miles needs to be in Stealth first, which only happens upon start of battle and after executing his Special skill, both of which will take time and leave him highly vulnerable to attacks. With the healing support provided by Spider-Man (Symbiote), he becomes more dependable in raids, but still vulnerable outside it. Still, looking at the pose the artist drew him in, it’s hard not to like Miles in this game, or even in the comics and movie!
Spider-Man
(Symbiote)
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Oh boy, how do we address this version of Spider-Man, when it’s essentially the same as the original? There isn’t an official name Peter gave himself when he dons the symbiote, so perhaps in this segment, we should name him Symbiote. If you do see “Symbiote” elsewhere, we’ll be referring to the Symbiote team of Venom, Carnage and Spider-Man (Symbiote), and we’ll spell out the full name in other segments. Hope this won’t confuse our readers! As the newest addition to the web-slingers, Symbiote seems to be on par with Carnage in terms of power and usability. He is essentially more powerful than the original Spider-Man, being able to apply Defense Down using just his basic attack, cannot be countered, and considering that it’s a rebound chain, Symbiote will could get an additional chance to apply Defense Down to his original target if it was resist initially. It’s something small, but having one turn of Defense Down can make a lot of difference. His Special skill is like a double whammy to Miles’ Special, having whatever debuffs are already on the target increased by one more turn. At the same time, it applies Bleed, plus affects adjacent targets too! It’s may not be like Scarlet Witch’s Ultimate skill, but it’s more frequent and more damaging. Symbiote’s Ultimate skill is quite the shocker – more than Shocker – as he deals heavy damage to an area, stunning the main target and slowing the adjacent targets. Best of all? It cannot miss, cannot be dodged, and cannot be blocked, which has been the bane of the original’s Ultimate skill. What most would love about Symbiote (if they do love having a third Spider-Man) is his Passive skill that shines brightly in the darkness of raids and Dark Dimension. This, in a way, makes Symbiote the healer of the Symbiote team, providing healing for every debuff applied to the enemy, and allowing Venom and Carnage to drain and optimize their Passive skills further. Let’s look further into utilizing Symbiote to the best of his abilities in our Spider-Man (Symbiote) Guide! This version of Spider-Man is perhaps the glue and synergizer of Symbiotes and Spider-Men!
Star-Lord
5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
*moves hips*
Forgive me. Every time I look at a Star-Lord character, regardless whether it’s my own or the enemy’s, I feel my hips automatically moving to his thrusts. This character is one that can really makes things move for his team. His Special skill provides a fair amount of energy to his adjacent allies. Combine it with his Passive skill that generates more energy at every of Star-Lord’s turn (even more, if his allies are Guardians), Star-Lord’s team is often energized to fire off skills after skills! Plus, his Special skill applies Blind to multiple targets, which can really turn the tide of battle – Drax couldn’t possibly take every single attack and Mantis can’t always be healing endlessly, now could they? Could they…? If you place Star-Lord in-between Mantis and Drax… Hmm… While Star-Lord’s basic skill is rather commonplace, dealing simple damage to chained targets, his Ultimate attack is quite a surprise for a Controller, dealing a hefty amount of damage before being assisted by one Guardian ally and one other ally. Three attacks in one move! Protectors better beware, squishy Supporters better run! Few other characters can provide this much energy to the team as Star-Lord can, and this makes him all the more valuable to any team!
Storm
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This character has the potential to be very powerful. Very, very powerful. Her Passive skill has a chance to apply Speed Up on herself, X-Men and X-Force allies, so it quickens the frequency of her turns. Plus, she has a relatively high chance of Assisting the same X-allies, so you can expect frequent damage going around an X-Men team. X-Force only comprise of two characters thus far, so let’s see what FoxNext has in store for more X-Force members, if they choose to do so. Ororo is like a storm, her basic attack first does single target damage only as she wouldn’t have any Charge at the beginning of battle. Once she has at least one Charge, her basic attacks will hit adjacent targets too. Her Special and Ultimate skills are dependent on the number of Charges Storm has. Her Special skill does light damage, but has chances to apply Sow and Stun. each Charge Storm has increases those chances! But perhaps you would want to save those Charges for her Ultimate skill, which hit lightly without any Charge. It increases by 100% per Charge. So, how do you gain more Charges to increase her chances of applying Slow and Stun, and to boost the damage of her Ultimate skill? Through her basic attack. And she can accumulating a shockingly huge number of 20! 20 multiplied by 100% damage, plus the base 110% damage means Storm has the potential to deal 2110% damage! This accounts for the huge amount of energy required for both her skills, seeing how damaging and disruptive they can be. Keep Storm alive and you should well blast the entire enemy team out the window!
Stryfe
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Stryfe has the potential to gain the longest amount of taunt, thereby protecting his team longer than Luke Cage can. I stress again that Stryfe potentially can taunt longer, because his basic attacks steal Taunt buffs, compared to other characters like Ant-Man and Black Widow who steal all buffs except Taunt. In this way, Stryfe can simply continue striking at Taunting targets to renew his Taunt buff, and the enemy won’t be seeing the pained reactions of the rest of your team! Also, since Stryfe basically steals the enemy’s Taunt buff, the target will no longer be taunting, leaving the enemy team open. If you have Mister Sinister in his team – and he should be! – Stryfe transfers his target’s other buffs to Mister Sinister, who can then spread them among the entire team! More ways to buff your team through the one and only Mister Sinister! Going back to Stryfe, his Special skill is the one where he gains his own Taunt buff, and it’s where he also gains Deflect and a bit of Barrier to protect him from all the attacks you can expect him to receive. Don’t forget, he generates energy too! Hi Ultimate skill is a little underwhelming. Like Ronan’s Ultimate, Stryfe can prevent his enemies from using their skills for a turn, which can be critical when timed correctly. We would have preferred the Disrupt debuff to make this Protector more protective of his team and disruptive of his enemies. It seems the Marauders team is designed for War Defense as well, as Stryfe gains more benefits, particularly with Mutant Villains. That’s what the Marauders are, after all. What is interesting about Stryfe’s Passive skill is that at the start of battle, his speed bar fills up depending on how many Mutant Villains are in his team. This gives him the boost he needs to initiate a Taunt early, and prevent speedy characters, like Captain Marvel, Daredevil and Spider-Man, from inflicting damaging attacks before you can even get your turn in.
Toad
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
One of the two newest additions to the evil Brotherhood of Mutants. While his skills don’t have any synergies with Brotherhood characters at this point, Toad and his buddy, Blob, will fill in the ‘missing’ ranks of the Brotherhood left by Marauders, Sabretooth and Mystique. Toad is a mix of numerous characters, like Miles Morales and Rocket Raccoon. His Special skill is one to look out for, helping you prolong whatever debuffs your team inflicts. Most particularly Magneto’s Ultimate skill that Blinds the entire enemy team. Toad’s Special skill affects adjacent targets as well, and since Magneto’s skill pulls all targets together, Toad can essentially prolong debuffs for the entire enemy team! That’s not the only good thing. Toad’s Passive skill fills up his speed bar upon spawning, and the amount is based on the number of Brotherhood allies, just like Magneto! This means, right after Magneto unleashes his Ultimate attack on the first round, Toad can almost be guaranteed to follow up with his debuff-prolonging Special skill! His Ultimate skill will see to the clearing of enemy buffs, like Jessica Jones and Iron Fist, but with a little more efficiency, as Toad chains to as many as five targets, clearing as many as two buffs. He does quite a respectable amount of damage overall, though, which gets boosted if Blob is in the same team. His Passive skill can further boost this amount of damage, or rather, Toad’s damage output in general, by applying Offense Up on himself whenever a Brotherhood ally taunts. That is sure to happen often if we have Blob taunting every time some enemy drops to his knees, so we’re gonna get one pretty beefed up frog here!
Thanos
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
Thanos was released around the same time as the Avengers: Infinity War movie, and advertised as the great, invincible villain that couldn’t be defeated. In the game, he was really hyped up and could only be obtained via events. Anyone who successfully recruited Thanos were envied and their Arena teams avoided like the plague (unless they themselves had Thanos). With the many releases after the movie period, Thanos (in the game) slowly lost his appeal as many player find more attractive, efficient and affordable alternatives. He is a Protector character, but his attack stat is rather high. His three skills are rather plain, actually. His Special skill applies Offense Down to his target, but not Defense Up, which leaves Thanos kind of vulnerable to taking heavy, concentrated damage. His main protection is his high defense and extreme health, plus his Passive skill which grants him an extra 1000% Resistance while taunting. This means he can resist just about any and all debuffs thrown at him, and prevent his Taunt buff from being removed! Super hardly tank? That’s very apt, if I do say so myself! Plus, after his Taunt, his Ultimate skill will come in with two more energy. The damage is high, it hits all targets, and he drains up to 100% of the damage dealt! Whatever HP he lose during his taunt, don’t worry, Thanos will likely gain it all back from his unmissable Ultimate skill! Perhaps his next best notable feature is his Passive skill’s ability to generate energy for himself or adjacent Cosmic allies every turn. However, they need to be adjacent, and they need to be Cosmic. Thanos’ skill set is still very restricted and will require rather independent team members who can survive without much protection.
The Thing
2 Stars ⭐⭐
The Thing is one of the two characters in the game you don’t want to hit, due to his innate counterattack ability. For every one time an enemy targets him, Thing will counterattack with damage based on his power stat. So for those trying to defeat an enemy Thing, You would want to reserve your most powerful 1hko attacks for him, or at least Stun him before unleashing your attacks. However, the Thing is truly just a cannon and doesn’t have much else to offer. It’s a pity he can’t taunt, otherwise he could be dealing plenty of damage over time, so he’s not really that effective in damage. Admittedly, he’s got great damage output, but they’re very easily overcome by Blind, Evade, etc.
Thor
5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Prior to the addition of Hela and the rest of the Asgardians, Thor was dedicated to the Avengers team, and had a skill set that’s sub-par, suitable for just 3 stars at best. Now, with the reworks, Thor has become quite the powerhouse! If anything, you may be tempted to rely on Thor for dishing out all the damage on behalf of the team! Just put all the Asgardians into the same team as Thor, so that the enemy has an 80% chance of attacking an Asgardian, minus Thor, then have Sif Taunt or let Hela’s Undead Warrior attract some undue attention (poor guy, really, for some reason, the A.I. tends to target him more often), and Thor will start gaining Charges. Accumulate your fifth Charge, and Thor unleashes an AOE attack that’s equivalent in damage to his Ultimate skill! True, he doesn’t Stun any enemy, but when you blast an AOE damage for free, I wouldn’t complain! There is either a bug or the skill description needs to be adjusted, but when Loki’s summoned units are attacked, Thor doesn’t gain a Charge. The Undead Warrior is considered a summoned unit as well, but thor gains Charges when it is attacked. Do take note of this feature, and let your Undead Warrior handle Counter-buffed enemies. Plus, now Thor will heal himself every turn, just like the other Asgardians, thereby increasing his survival rate in battle. He is quite the hardy character for a Blaster type, with a respectable amount of HP with which to withstand attacks. His Ultimate skill can really knock enemies off the board and Stun his main target to prevent him from executing any dangerous skills. If you’re lucky, the skill will also Stun a few other targets as well! Thor’s Special skill is also rather impressive, dealing less damage, but chaining to multiple targets. Its chain is broken when it misses, but this is one great way to bypass Counter buffs while still dealing a great amount of damage combined. But if you want to conserve your energy, you can safely rely on just his basic attacks. Thor is very slow, as is typical for a Blaster, but when he does attack, the swing of his hammer can really knock HP bars down several notches! Thor is as powerful as they come!
Ultimus
5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is a killing machine! To think that this is the final boss we’ll all be going up against when FoxNext ends the campaign (if they end the campaign). We get to experience fighting him in the middle of a campaign, but the conditions for victory are a simple “survive for four S.H.I.E.L.D. Operative turns”. He makes great target practice, particularly for new characters for team combinations you’d like to try out. Ultimus in that campaign can be defeated, but do note that the Ultimus that you can recruit is not the same Ultimus that is about to take over the entire universe. Prior to his character design rework, his skill set was actually very lackluster for the 616 version of the ultimate villain. Now, though, he synergizes better with the Kree, and has become a tank-killer. When the enemy taunts, he gets a 30% fill of his speed bar, and his Ultimate skill grants him Offense up to deal heavy damage on the taunter. Plus, each buff on the target will further boost Ultimus’ Ultimate attack by as much as 290%! Should the taunter be alive after such an overwhelming attack, all buffs get flipped! Don’t allow your tanks to face this monster alone! Ultimus’ Special skill will also steal all of a target’s buffs, which makes him more effective than Black Widow, albeit more expensive, and will apply Regeneration to himself and adjacent allies too! While waiting for his energy to accumulate, Ultimus’ basic attack will cripple his targets with Ability Block and Defense Down, and Mind Control an enemy to attack the same target. This is like Loki’s Special skill, except better! Did we mention as well that he has an innate Block chance? It increases according to the number of Kree allies in your team as well, thus making Ultimus truly a solid character to use anywhere in the game! Players who originally recruited Ultimus and were disappointed by his skill set, we hope you’re much much more satisfied with building a greater Kree team with him! He is incredibly difficult to get, requiring a lot, a lot of RNG, but those lucky ones who managed to collect enough shards at last, they pretty much own one of the best, truly the greatest, characters in the game!
Ultron
6 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The only character made as the reward for clearing the most difficult dungeon in the game! Dark Dimension II, previously named Fear the Darkness, is only for characters with Tier 13 gear and Level 70, and even then, it will likely take days for you to complete it! That’s probably why Ultron is a truly devastating character. For one, his basic attack clears Taunt so easily, we feel ashamed at how much effort we take with other characters. Plus, it steals the target’s buffs, more efficiently than Ant-Man! Next, Ultron’s Special skill summon his mass-produced minions, randomly between his Ultron Incinerator (this gives Offense Up), Ultron Accelerator (this speeds everyone), and Ultron Fabricator (he’s the healer, or repair bot), and when these little guys buff, they buff the entire team in one shot, so you’re seeing a whole bunch of green icons above your characters, giving you a whole pile of awesomeness! At the same time, Ultron himself applies Defense Up to himself and all his minions so that they can survive to buff everyone! Better than Yondu and Nobu, hands down! We’re not done yet! Ultron’s Passive skill will prolong the duration of all buffs on Villain Tech allies when he gets a kill! Thankfully, Ultron doesn’t have any AOE skills, otherwise his buffs will never end! Ultron’s Ultimate skill is perhaps the most overpowered skill in the entire game. It deals up to an enormous 700% damage, and doubles if the target has Defense Up. that makes it a ridiculous 1400% compared to the target’s mere 50% increase in defense! This is truly the gold reward for mastering this game!
Venom
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Similar to Carnage, this symbiote should be given only 3 Stars. However, now that he has more symbiote-based members, and a rework on symbiotes’ passive skills to benefit other symbiotes (i.e. Carnage’s speed boost), Venom can bring the battle to another level. Venom has a power damage output, which is actually consistent for a Controller, but overlooking this downside, all three of his skills are unique and valuable. His basic skill is undodgeable (but if Venom is Blinded, he can still miss, please note this!) and flips the enemy’s buffs. What is special is that it bypasses an enemy’s Evasion, and flips it too! Most other characters’ skills can bypass Evade, but the buff stays there to frustrate you. Unless there’s more than two buffs on the target, Venom doesn’t let that happen! Venom’s Special skill not only applies three incredible counts of Bleed, but also Ability Block. That’s four whopping debuffs in one attack, making the target a juicer duck for Carnage to devour! Venom’s Ultimate skill was the most impressive until Hela was released, but imagine a heavily-debuffed character being targeted by Venom: every single one of those debuffs, every count of Bleed, every Downs, are spread to adjacent enemies! It’s a pity he has low HP and Defenses, so Venom might not last long in battle. True, he can gain Defense Up every round, but only if he heals to at least 95%, which is typically the challenge we have in any battle. By the way, did we mention he applies the Defense Up to every other Symbiote as well?
Vision
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
Many love having this character as part of the Power Armor, providing them the two-turn Defense boost and his ability to clear up to two buffs from the entire enemy team. Vision was created through Tony Stark’s technology, so it makes sense that he has great affinity to Tech-based effects. That is why all Tech allies gain Defense Up at the start of battles, making him very important in War, particularly War Defense, where he will reapply Defense buffs at every attempt. Two turns will take a long, painful time to wear off, so your enemies will likely have to waste some valuable turns clearing away his buffs, or making do with reduced damage against your team. Plus, Vision has innate evasion, which makes hitting him difficult and annoying. Perfect in war, where you get a mere five minutes to settle the match and every one attempt is so valuable! Vision’s Ultimate skill earns him a place in the Power Armor team as well so that Iron Man, War Machine and the others can deal as much damage as possible. And buffs go around aplenty in War! For those who face Tech enemies, Vision’s basic attack will be their bane, applying Bleed on top of Offense Down. And it chains to adjacent targets! Regrettably, Vision’s Special skill just applies Ability Block, which is only useful for one turn, unless that one turn is most crucial for you to kill off a target. Vision could have better synergy with either the Avengers team, or be dedicated to the Power Armor team, but until FoxNext creates the fifth Power Armor character, perhaps the Hulkbuster to act as the tank, Vision will fill in the fifth slot as a truly valuable member.
Vulture
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
The old coot needs some improvements to his stats to make his skill set more powerful. While his skills are interesting, growing strong with every count of debuffs on his target, his low stats don’t really add up to be significant enough. Because a 100% increase of 1 is merely 2. Vulture’s basic attack is has successfully reached 30,000 damage once in our experience, when the last standing Protector took on the majority of debuffs from Carnage, Venom and the Spider-Men duo. However, this situation won’t occur often, or even again, so there’s a real need to ensure Vulture can contribute to the team’s damage output, if his Special and Ultimate skills aren’t as reliable or useful as we might hope. His Special skill is best applied to City Hero enemies, where he’ll apply Offense Down, on top of the Speed Down which is of a very low success rate. Makes us wonder why we bother to use his Special skill when its attack power can’t be boosted by debuffs. His Ultimate skill would be a lot sweeter if the damage is also higher, or if his speed bar reduction is more than 25%. This drop is easily caught up by enemies with high speed, and if we’re talking about facing City Hero teams, we’re looking at Daredevil, Spider-Man, Miles Morales, high-speed characters that will quickly catch up with the Vulture and punch his guts out. Vulture is useful for his application of debuffs and speed bar reductions, but they need to have greater values to be more effective in battle. Just a pet-peeve: Vulture’s Passive skill has an animation that will likely occur often, especially in raids, and takes a long, long time to animate. It may be a mere three seconds, but it adds up when you only have five minutes in Raids and Arena.
War Machine
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Better to be called War Machine than Iron Patriot! #warmachinerox! His damage output is low for his basic and Special skills, but his Ultimate skill is the one we work towards gettings, as he really can blast his way to victory. The damage increases a bit per Hero ally, but the total adds up to one major amount when executed, so expect a badly weakened foe when he’s done (unless they’re all ninjas), or an outright victory. Hold your guns for Rescue to execute her attack boost, and watch the damage soar! By the way, his name has “war” in it, so you know he gains extra damage in War! Plus, his Passive skill is not restricted to Offense or Defense, so his damage boost can flexibly be used both ways! Another interesting factor is that both he and Iron Man both gain Deathproof when they’re in the same team, so this gives you the added advantage of not dying so quickly. However, be aware that War Machine’s Passive skill is a mirror to Ms. Marvel’s Taunt application – he applies it to enemies that drop below 50% HP, rather than himself or another ally. This is great for ensuring a weakened enemy doesn’t get sidelined by an enemy Protector or Ms. Marvel. However, this also means you cannot target someone else, and you might have to waste one Blaster’s turn to attack a 1 HP target instead of focusing on another healthier target.
Wasp
2 Stars ⭐⭐
Wasp was released during the time of the MCU’s Ant-Man 2 movie, so we can safely assume this version of Wasp is Hope van Dyne, daughter of the original Ant-Man, Hank Pym. However, her skill set and stats leave much to be desired. Being a Brawler type, Wasp is pretty soft-hitting, with only a small chance to chain to adjacent targets with her basic attacks. Her Special skill’s speciality is in Stunning her target, but only if she has Charge. The only way for her to gain Charge is to dodge an attack, which we all know is pretty difficult. Plus, when getting hit, expect the pain to really hit home. Wasp doesn’t have much HP or defenses to speak of. Her main interesting feature is in her Ultimate skill that targets every single enemy, including Stealthed ones, which is best used against a critically hurt target being protected by Stealth. That happens often with the S.H.I.E.L.D. Operative and Loki, but considering her low stats, it wouldn’t make much difference in turning the tide of the battle. Wasp helps Ant-Man increase the damage output of his Ultimate skill, and can share whatever buffs he gets, but that’s just about all that’s worthwhile about the Ant-Man and Wasp team-up. Hopefully, this won’t affect your review of the upcoming “Ant-Man and Wasp” movie! The game and the movie are different, after all!
Winter Soldier
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
Bucky was quite the star in the early days of the game. He was a high-damage Blaster and a burst single target attack that can still get close to knocking out an enemy in one hit. What most players used to like about him, back then, was his Special skill’s chances to apply up to three counts of Bleed. It seemed to the in-thing to use against Protectors and their heavily fortified taunting skills. But his skills need some upgrading to be able to better counter against tanks that now have Counter buffs or extreme high resistances against Bleed. As a member of Hydra, which is still sorely needing a rework or new character to bolster their forces, Winter Soldier is currently rather lacking. Should the release of Red Skull (if ever) come to pass, we believe Bucky Barnes will see the spotlight again in this game!
Wolverine
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
As some previously commented, “Wolverine hits like a girl”. Sure enough, you’ll realize that Wolverine’s damage output is really low, particularly before his adjustments for the addition of new X-Men characters. Now, with Phoenix, Cyclops, Colossus and a few others, Wolverine becomes a lot more powerful, more useful, and more needed for the members of the X-Men team. Notably, Wolverine has a few interesting features that we would enjoy better, if he had higher stats, other than Speed. Every time his attack lands a crit, he’ll apply Bleed, which can be often now that having Cyclops as an ally ensures 100% chances with his Special skill. Also, if Phoenix is an ally, the main target does about double the normal amount! Perhaps what is more interesting is that his Ultimate skill deals a hefty amount of damage that sees 50,000 in output without any crit! Add Colossus to the team, and his Ultimate skill does even more! Hits like a girl? Nope, not with the X-Men team! Perhaps all those shards we get from completing daily quests finally pay off! Or if we’ve already maxed out Wolverine’s star level, we can earn a steady supply of Ultimus Orb shards. Not bad for a free character!
Yo-Yo
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A protector that doesn’t taunt. This character is for real. The Inhumans are known to be rather… unique… characters with unique abilities, so having Yo-Yo, the speedster of the Inhumans, designed as a Protector, is a bit of surprise. Yet, the skill set for her makes her a tank worth getting! Why? By applying Offense Down on every enemy’s turn, they’re basically attacking with a disadvantage. Plus, they need to deal with the possibility that Inhuman and S.H.I.E.L.D. characters get to benefit from Yo-Yo’s Evade buffs. So, even if the enemy does land a hit, the blow is softened, and since there is no taunting character drawing a concentration of fire, attacks are spread out, further reducing losses on your team. But if you feel the need to include a Protector in the team, putting Captain America would be the perfect option, because as a S.H.I.E.L.D. character, he benefits from Yo-Yo Evade buffs too! Not S.H.I.E.L.D. Security, though. Non-Minions only! Yo-Yo is also the first character that clears Counter buffs specifically. Not particularly special, since Yondu, Elektra and others easily clear any buffs, but if Yo-Yo fails to clear the Counter buff, she doesn’t trigger it!
Yondu
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
Mary Poppins, y’all! Took me a long, long while to write about Yondu, since his name starts with the second last alphabet. I wonder when will Professor X come into the game and allow me to sign off this article with an ingenious flourish? Hmm, wait… If his name starts with Professor, wouldn’t that sort him among the P’s? Oh well. ‘Mary Poppins’ was quite the hit in the early days, where he summons Minions with his Special skill, and his Ultimate skill was like the Black Bolt Ultimate of today. Those of us choosing an opponent would rather skip past the Ravager leader, but now, recent characters find less difficulties settling his needle attacks. But don’t let your guard down around him, though! His Ultimate attacks can still do hefty damage, and if he summons Ravager Boomers, the battlefield will be alight with Poppin’ Power! That’s… not really a Yondu-term, is it…? Even if you prefer to rely on other characters to hand out the damage, Yondu is still highly useful for clearing enemy buffs with his basic attack, summoning extra fire power or some healing via his minions, or dealing AOE if the team only specializes in single targets. Just a spoonful of sugar makes the enemy go down ~♪
Gamepleton Tier List-616
1 Star ⭐
These are the basic grade of characters typically expected to be cannon-fodder and would likely be just fused to other, better characters. In this game, there’s no fusing of characters, but there are some whose skill sets are really, truly, basic. Like, mere starter characters to be replaced as you progress through the game.
A.I.M. Researcher
Hand Archer
Hand Assassin
Hand Blademaster
Hand Sentry
Hand Sorceress
Kree Noble
Kree Oracle
Kree Royal Guard
Mercenary Lieutenant
Mercenary Sniper
Mercenary Soldier
Nebula
Ravager Bruiser
Ravager Stitcher
S.H.I.E.L.D. Assault
2 Stars ⭐⭐
These characters here are better for various reasons, but aren’t here simply because they’re not Minions. Don’t overestimate main characters – some are simply lacking at this point in time, and those of us who love them are waiting for reworks.
Ant-Man
Cable
Hydra Armored Guard
Hydra Grenadier
Hydra Rifle Trooper
Hydra Scientist
Jessica Jones
Korath the Pursuer
Kree Cyborg
Kree Reaper
Mercenary Riot Guard
M’Baku
Mister Fantastic
Night Nurse
Nobu
S.H.I.E.L.D. Medic
S.H.I.E.L.D. Operative
Ravager Boomer
Ronan the Accuser
The Thing
Wasp
3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
These are characters that sparkle among the masses, proving themselves valuable when least expected. They’ve got a lot more to improve on to become the hot topic, but if there’s a Marvel character you personally love here, then we’d safely say it’s worthwhile to invest in it.
A.I.M. Assaulter
A.I.M. Infector
A.I.M. Monstrosity
A.I.M. Security
America Chavez
Black Widow
Bullseye
Captain America
Crossbones
Crystal
Doctor Strange
Elektra
Falcon
Green Goblin
Heimdall
Hulk
Human Torch
Hydra Sniper
Iron Fist
Ironheart
Juggernaut
Karnak
Kingpin
Mordo
Mysterio
Namor
Okoye
Psylocke
Punisher
Rescue
Rhino
S.H.I.E.L.D. Security
S.H.I.E.L.D. Trooper
Scarlet Witch
Shocker
Sif
Thanos
Vision
Vulture
Winter Soldier
Wolverine
Yondu
4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
These are the best characters the majority of us typically get, particularly F2P players. In fact, these are the majority of characters used when up against other players, such as in Arena and War. Once you train them up, you’ll see that every penny invested in them is well-spent.
Agent Coulson
Black Panther
Blob
Carnage
Colossus
Cyclops
Daredevil
Deadpool
Drax
Elsa Bloodstone
Gamora
Ghost Rider
Graviton
Groot
Hawkeye
Hela
Iron Man
Killmonger
Loki
Luke Cage
Mantis
Ms. Marvel
Mystique
Quake
Rocket Raccoon
Sabretooth
Scientist Supreme
Spider-Man
Spider-Man (Miles Morales)
Spider-Man (Symbiote)
Storm
Stryfe
Toad
Thor
Venom
War Machine
Yo-Yo
5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
You know how Marvel and Disney try to market the brand new characters by giving them the spotlight? Behold the ones who steal every limelight!
Legendary/SSR/SR+/What-Have-You. Any grade that’s better than Super Rare has many variations in different games, we get the point, but we’ll use Legendary in our article as it’s the officially-used term for characters FoxNext earmarked as premium. Premium, not as in the pricing, but as in the quality.
Black Bolt
Captain Marvel
Invisible Woman
Magneto
Minn-Erva
Mister Sinister
Nick Fury
Shuri
Star-Lord
Ultimus
6 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
When you have so many characters, especially top-tier ones, you absolutely need to have a special few to really hard-sell to the people and glorify beyond all rationale. These two characters are those incredibly difficult to get, but marvelously wonderful to use (and terrifying to go up against), that’s why we’ve elevated them to an even higher grade than all the others. Who knows, maybe FoxNext will design new characters to exceed even these honorary characters, or add to their numbers, some time in the future, such that 6 Stars will be considered the norm or the minimum, and even Ultron will need a rework. But that’s probably a long time into the future, although by that time, the game would be teeming with so many characters and teams, even Phoenix and the X-Men might become obsolete. For now, let’s simply enjoy what the game has to offer us (if we can)!
Phoenix
Ultron
Well then, what do you think should be the tiering for the characters? How far do you agree or disagree with Khasino, and far do you agree or support or concur with Gamepleton?
And now, since you’re finally able to preview character tiers and build teams, do you think you’re ready to take on Raids? We’ve got more information in our Raid Guide to help you help your team!
Good luck, commander! May we succeed in our fight against Ultimus!
If you’re also into other strategy games, in particular, Arknights, we have an Operator Tier List which we’re sure sheds a light on which are the best characters to use!
