Survey: The most useless hero

[CryptoCrash]

Im interested in who people think is the most useless hero. No specifics because they are all good in certian circumstances but the most all round useless hero. For me its Absolute Zero, he takes so long to get going and once he is going he is not that effective, also anything that destroys hero gear puts him out of action for several turns.

Additional: I am also interested in who people think is the most booring hero to play, for me thats Bunker. Best strategy is to get some form of card draw and sit in turret mode with a few basic weapons. Effective but not exactly stimulating.

[Puppy Cat Underfoot]

It really depends on the fight. Unity is absolutely useless against some villains an environments, but rocks when she gets enough bots out against others.

[Nidrog]

I dont feel that any hero is useless in a vacum that I dont think I can awnser that question. As for the most boring hero. Well for me thats got to be legacy. Dont get me wrong. I do like him. But unless you get a legacy ring out and you can use other powers. All he does for me is tank and buff damage. Not exactly the most fun game play.

[ClydeStrife]

If you're talking about the base Absolute Zero, yes, he sucks compared to Freedom Six AZ. Probably the only best thing about him is self sustenance when he already have his modules. Although he's not as bad as the one that I will mention and the worst hero that I ever played in the digital game because I don't have access to the physical. And that is..

Dark Watch Nightmist - her power Attunement is way worse than the regular Nightmist's Investigation, it's like saying you only want 1 card when you can get 3. The 2 damage is easily mitigated by either a Necklace or Amulet or even Might of Magic which you get more access to on the regular Nightmist. And the 2 damage from drawing can be handy sometimes if you want easy damage. I don't think I can be talked to on picking this hero unless I want a challege. You can also see on these list who are the worst heroes and she's one of the worst decided by the community. http://x.gray.org/sentinels-of-the-multiverse-difficulty-scores.html

As for the most boring hero, I also find Bunker boring. You mostly draw and get your setup going just like AZ but doesn't have the power level AZ brings to the table. Omni-cannon can be decent but compared to how much damage also other hero does, it's not really that good especially when destroyed. America's Finest Legacy is strong but can be really boring to play and not really that exciting. I prefer Young Legacy with her base power.

[ClydeStrife]

Originally posted by Nidrog:

As for the most boring hero. Well for me thats got to be legacy. Dont get me wrong. I do like him. But unless you get a legacy ring out and you can use other powers. All he does for me is tank and buff damage. Not exactly the most fun game play.

I agree with this guy, I'd rather pick Scholar than Legacy.

[Stoibs]

In the physical card game, most of our group tends to stay away from Absolute Zero also.
Yeah, once in a blue moon you get the required cards out to convert fire/cold and channel it into damage output and can start to unleash the killer stacking combos, but that's all it is - once in a blue moon.
Too much reliance of specific gear and randomization as a whole coupled with the fact that most environments/villains have those oh-so-awesome 'lulz remove all equipment' cards that screws him over too often.
Indeed in my brief period with the digital game here also I've only used him twice, and both times he wasn't able to do anything a good 80% of the time. When he was pumping out the damage and sustaining himself with the survivability of self heals it was too little too late and he had been outperformed by the others easily by that point.
I'd much prefer a hero with consistency rather than gamble on hoping that the stars align and praying that things fall exactly in his favour to be outfitted exactly the way he needs to be in order to be useful.

Can't really remember much about the Scholar either since he's another our group typically avoids and passes over, but apart from 'Healing' and 'Tanky' I seem to recall him being pretty boring and unappealing.

[Setback]

I find Dark Watch Nightmist to be better than regular Nightmist solely for the ability to stack your deck as you go...got a Heedless Lash and want to set it up? Attunement. Got an Oblivion but want to avoid a 4/4 so you don't accidentally party wipe? Attunement. Want Enlightenment to give you the maximum card draw potential? Attunement. Heck, you get to pick which card you draw, which can let you score key cards a couple of turns in advance while planning ahead for future turns.

Honestly I have no most useless hero because every hero has bad games, and every hero has godly games. I love all the heroes equally because I never know what kind of way I may end up playing them.

[hh2news]

I've played as Dark Watch Setback 2-3 times. I did nothing the entire game each of those times.

[katewalker]

Every hero has their use, though I find some variants are less useful than others (F6 Wraith comes to mind; why deal melee damage when you can get the targeting computer out?)

Bunker's pretty boring to play these days, though, and I've never liked Nightmist. (I'd rather play AZ.) I actually prefer DW Nightmist becase she's better at setting up. Of course, I haven't played all the heroes yet, but I recall not being able to do anything useful as KNYFE once upon a time.

[NikDanger]

Sticking solely to what's available in the digital game:

Most useless: Expatriette.

I want to get it out of the way that excepting specific unfavorable match-ups, no hero is useless. They're not all perfectly balanced, but I've felt very satisfied with how every character in the game plays when they're set up.

The problem with Expatriette is that her deck isn't well optimized. I love Expatriette as a character, and I play her a lot, and yeah, most of the time she works and she's a consistent damage dealer. But sometimes she just doesn't draw guns, and when she doesn't have guns, you can't play ammo, and when you can't play guns or ammo, you really can't do anything, and then you really do feel useless.

Roughly a third of her deck is a gun (or gets you a gun. hopefully). But in practice, games where you go several turns without a gun and are forced to draw two are more common than they ought to be. Seriously, maybe I just shuffle badly, but I'm not the first to make this complaint, so I'm going to stick by it.

Now, there are several characters who can suffer these kinds of starts. Unity and Absolute Zero are chief among them, but they actually have stronger search cards, and in Ab0's case, he can still play his one-shots to pretty good effect. Also, and perhaps most importantly, when they're set-up, they are ridiculously powerful, and so their struggle to get going seems balancing. (Heck, once Unity has five or six bots out, she practically wins the game for you) Expat's ceiling is not nearly so high, and so her deck should be much more consistent to make up for it.

I really don't know why they didn't just give Expat the base power to search for Pride. Bam, problem solved, and I really don't think it breaks her. Or, I don't know, give her a 1 damage base power that you can play ammo on. The point is, you should never, ever be stuck with a hand full of ammo and nothing use it on.

[LD3 [Sideous Sin]]

For me (digital game wise), the most useless character for me would be either regular or Dark Watch Mr. Fixer. Sure, he has an interesting gameplay of having different tools and styles that he can have out in the field for different situtations, but he does not seem to do a lot of damage unless having the right set-up in play, which can be pretty difficult.

Not sure if I have a most boring at all. Might have to get back to that.

[ScrapMettle]

Originally posted by njjevans:

Sticking solely to what's available in the digital game:

Most useless: Expatriette.
<snip>

I can agree with what you say here. While I do know that Expat can be very useful (The biggest case would be the card that does damage as enemies come out) I find at most of her kit is.. Lacking. I think a few small changes could make her deck substantially better.

I believe speed loading should move the ammo card from the trash to your hand, not the top of the deck. Expat has a lot of trouble... getting cards I feel. So pretty much locking her deck so she can "Use an ammo card every turn" Is kind of sad.

I'd also prefer a lot of powers to the ones she has now.

[Nunleft]

There is no worst hero, like there is no worst hero. Some heroes, however, excell under certain circumstances and others can get screwed over. Legacy for instance, can make the Chairman literally do nothing. 2x Next Evolution (Melee and Projectile), Legacy Ring and Lead Front the front stops ALL damage the chairman can do. That is a one off scenario where a hero excels. Scenarios like Spite, #@$& $@#$%^, can destroy set up or powers based heroes like wraith and give heroes like: Bunker who can just build up a burst combo with minimal power use an advantage.

Tachyon excels against multiple targets and one-off shields, but struggles when she cannot play cards or damage reductions. Bunker can bunker down, fun intended, to become an unmovable rock who can deal respectable damage or heal up and unleash the canon. Wraith is highly adaptable and can focus on control or damage, but if her set-up or powers are mitigated she struggles to do much. Unity can deal the highest sustained damage of pretty much any hero, however she can lose it all due to AoE damage. I could go through every hero and all I would do is point out thier strengths and weaknesses.

That being said, do I think some heroes need quality of life buff or some tweaks? Sure I do. Bunker could use some help setting up and retaining his set up. Visionary could use some consistancy, hello Dark Visionary. I personally have an idea to change Visionary with a focus on consistancy and trade-off, but its not going to happen. Maybe give Expat some card draw so she can actually use speed loading, that is about it.

[Findanniin]

Agree'ing on Expatriette. 100%.

I love her concept (huge Punisher fan) and I love the more grounded 'human with gadgets & guns' type heroes.
I /so/ want to like and play more X-pat, but ... I just can't justify it.

I agree that other heroes are just as hard or even harder to set up, but like njjevans above mentions; their ceiling is so muh higher than Xpats. Even then, her one big trick to set her apart is unloading all the guns you've hopefully played in one turn.. but this is still just roughly what an easier to setup unity can do with 5+ bots out ... *every* turn.

If I could nominate one hero for rebalancing (or modding!) it'd be her.


Most boring to play .... god, hard to say. Legacy in my 5-man dream team I guess.
Once he's set up, all he really does is play take down every turn and activate a power to soak up damage for the whole team.

[ClydeStrife]

The thing is why play Expatriette when she has a better and cooler alternative, Chrono Ranger and he does it better. The only thing Expat is bonkers would be Unload. If she doesn't have that, I won't even play her.

[tolshortte]

it really depends on group makeup and how you feed each other. legacy/scholar/tempest/fanatic group can be pretty intersting. omnitron is another one who can make or break another hero. once he is semi set up he can feed others and make them way more effective. in online play this is harder to come by and can make some hero feel underpowered, when in reality its a lack of chemistry making them feel lackluster.

im new to the game myself and didnt know it existed until i saw it on steam so my experiences may differ from others, but ive feel chemistry between heros is more important than how the heros stand on their own. to me thats where i find the fun, experimenting with differnt setups trying to overcome challenges in different ways.

as far as how heros stand on their own i find visionary far more boring than any other hero. but i like legacy and bunker.