tier list/strongest and weakest characters
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Thanks for the solid reply!
I do think Cass should be Tier B at least though!
I don't think any of the characters are too weak right now as I said previously. I do think she's a much more difficult character to play compared to others, certainly more difficult than Daemon as you suggested, however Cass is the character we've all been introduced to the latest so that may have some effect on this debate as well. Maybe, at least for me, I haven't experienced enough of her advanced gameplay when I've played as her, or even when I've played against her (or watched another play her for that matter). There's 2 main reasons why I put Cass so low:
1- The BIGGEST counter pick BY FAR in the game right now IMO is Maeve vs Cass. In fact, I don't really think there is another black & white counter pick for any character in the game at all, let alone one as strong as Maeve vs Cass. Everything hinges on Cass's mobility, and Maeve can take that all away with just her Cage. If she Siphons as soon as the Cage lands, the fact that Cass has the lowest health pool in the game means that she loses easily ~200 health - 1/3 of her health!! - before the Cage has even expired. You could make arguments for being skilled enough to dodge the Cage in the first place, or getting away from a Cage after it's expired by quickly Swooping/Hightailing away before a Siphon has finished it's full duration on you but most of the time that distance still isn't enough to break Siphon, and even if it was, Maeve can throw 20+ Cages a game with her eyes closed.
This is where the TEAMWORK trump card can work either way for this argument though. Have a healer nearby and you can be pocketed even when you're Caged so Siphon does minimal damage. On the other hand, Maeve tells her team to focus you and you're dead before the Cage even expires...from FULL HEALTH.
tl;dr Cage bad for bird
2- Daemon is a much better pick. Maybe slightly more subjective. But they play very similar roles I think. Assess from the outside, dive in and burst damage close range. Difference is, Daemon's kit is much better for both phases than Cass's kit is.
Assessing from the outside - Daemon has stealth so he can pounce completely unexpectedly whilst having 3 shurikens that slow and bleed the opponent doing pretty decent damage (especially with the mod boost, it's top 5 mods in the game IMO). Cass has a pretty minor ranged attack that is as effective as your opposing team allows it to be. The range is incredibly short, at least half Gizmo's minigun, which puts you in range of pretty much every close-quarter combat ability if they just evade once towards you.
Burst damage close range - Daemon's burst damage potential is deadly. Dash in from stealth, hit 3 out of 4 of your basic attacks, throw a shuriken to combo cancel and finish the full basic attack combo. That's HUGE damage potential, and very difficult to get out of. Cass can Swoop in dealing minor damage again and proceed to Rake. It does slightly more than her ranged damage but it feels quite easy to get out of, staggers you back per hit, launching you on the last (without a combo cancel as effective as Daemon's).
I think the play style design differs in the final phase. Cass is more fitted to using her extra Swoop to retreat whereas Daemon can take slightly more with that extra little health (and the mod to heal per basic attack hit is also very good IMO), with that difference being enough to have his Dash reset to achieve the same result as a Swoop.
Both Daemon and Cass can reach high ground with their respective passive abilities. The only thing she has over Daemon is her speed and how she doesn't need to mount up. Both characters have great Supers as well.
I'm curious about your opinion on Maeve
She's the ONE character that sticks out for me. It's a mix of how strong she is and how simple it is to maximise her strengths. Cage & Siphon is both deadly and simplistic. Only Maeve herself can ironically nullify all damage taken after being caught in a Cage by Vanishing and becoming invulnerable.
With every other character I can convincingly bring forward some sort weakness exploit. With Maeve, I seriously don't see a semi consistent approach to dealing with her? You've got to dedicate a member of your team to follow her all game in order to chase chase and chase until you catch her without her Vanish and hope you out-damage her.
I think her Vanish should ONLY be Invisibility and not Invulnerability as well. That way she can't just poof out of a close combat gangbang with 1hp. She'd have to rethink when it is or isn't suitable to just jump into a fight like pretty much every other character has to currently. Right now, as long as the cooldown is reset or nearly reset she has a free escape route. EVEN IF she can't find healing or get healing from a teammate while Vanished, she can just appear out of nowhere and start Siphoning you to heal herself lmao.
The only depth outside of the positioning/game sense/decision making (e.g. same depth every other character has), is coordinating with her team to maximise her Schadenfreude as much as physically possible.
...But we're talking about El Bastardo! ...(woozy)
I found he was harder to focus down than say Makutu
I agree. But that's only if you initiate HIM. If he has to initiate, he's putting himself in danger of being fired at by all 4 at the same time, that's where his shields feel like they're just postponing the inevitable death(stalling is good sometimes though).
All 3 tanks are disruptors really. It's best to ignore them as much as possible. You initiate them and you are falling into their strengths.
I think it's important to mention that they (ranged characters) only have 2 bars of stamina, whereas melee fighters have 3.
That's a good point in fairness. Even so, most characters have that additional traversal/disengage as well as their evades, whereas you've just used your traversal ability to engage in the first place. Gizmo bounces up to high ground and now SHE'S the aggressor and exactly where she wants to be whilst you NO LONGER HAVE your disengage ability (or evades if you've just chased her after Leap). You know what I mean? It's very chess-like.
but if you go after her knowing she can use it then I'd try to save your leap to go after her
It's beginning to get incredibly situational at that point though. Say she's super low health? You'd be silly not to Leap onto her regardless right? But you'd still not likely finish her off if she bounces above you. That's where the Leap just lacks so much significance IMO. You're better off playing El Bastardo in the Buttercup/Makutu role of being a lump, sitting on the objective or being a nuisance/disrupter and letting the opposing team initiate you if they are foolish enough. But Buttercup/Makutu fulfil the role much better...
he tanks by going around and raising his threat level such that he's too dangerous to ignore
When is he too dangerous to ignore though? If he was to continuously switch targets "just to deal damage" then I wish his damage was generally more stronger. I think again, if you wanted DPS you would just pick a character from the DPS category.
If we assume El Bastardo's role in the fight is to change the positioning of the enemy team to your team's advantage, not to just get kills, Then the correct play is to always destroy the ward (or Gizmo's turrets, as the case may be!) so long as they're trying to hug that position
This is a great comment and I agree 100%. That type of situation is certainly the best use of his Death Spiral.
HOWEVER...(and this links nicely to what I was saying earlier about being the initiator vs being initiated), it depends on the situation. If you are defending a point and the Kulev places the Sacred Ground in an aggressive manner so his team can push into it, you have great potential to be a big player here as you can death spiral in the middle of the fight and get rid of the Sacred Ground whilst earning shields hitting the enemies and sustaining the point with your team.
If it's the complete opposite and the enemy team are sitting on the objective and place the Sacred Ground defensively so YOUR TEAM has to push into it, it's going to be a lot harder to sustain yourself as in order to maximise shield potential you will have to dive straight in the middle whilst trying to get rid of the Sacred Ground
Kulev can place it surprisingly fast as well so sometimes it may not even be worth breaking. Just trying to target him instead may be the better option.
You attack Kulev, then when he shields himself you switch. If you destroy his ward and force him to shield himself, he's not doing anything to help him team stay alive. That Lucky Charm passive is a drop in the bucket (18 hp per 2s, not amazing range either).
Great comment. I know it was a separate point anyway but it just reinforces the fact El Bastardo doesn't need picking for situations like these, there are better picks.
So hovering near the point and chasing enemies until they back off may be how he controls space... easier said than done, but there's something to be said about Leaping to a target, wailing on them until the evade away, then evading away yourself back to the point. Now you're at least 2 evade distances away, pretty close to being out of ranged attacks, and you have at least a little shield atm.
Again, not super ideal, but it would hold a point well as long as you take advantage of the health orbs occasionally to top off (and you should, everyone should. Learn where the health orbs are! I'd say that's Tip #2 to add on to your list, don't just rely on healers)Definitely, and this is a solid tip again. But as you said straight after, you achieved this with Cass. I think a Tank needs to give a lot more in these situations. You probably have a much better chance of actually finishing off those enemies before they can track behind walls or far enough away from combat than an El Bastardo would. Tip #3 in our little list would be to mount up as much as possible and at every possible opportunity (for everyone but Cass lol). There have been plenty of times I've literally mounted in the middle of a team fight in order to anticipate someone moving away or to just give myself a bit more flexibility.
I think I do, you tell me.:)
It was a pleasure
I'll try and get a couple of full El Bastardo gameplays during the next Beta and do an analysis of sorts for better demonstration as I really enjoyed this conversation.
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@x-AmberPrice
Maeve
On the topic of Maeve, I played her a good bit in the alpha and some in the beta as well. I think the devs were aware of her strengths, because I can almost guarantee that the self-heal on her Siphon Life was nerfed. It's much less than the damage it deals, a little over 100 I believe maybe 150. Whereas her damage does over 400 with a full channel. Her basic attack is meh but her damage potential is already good without it. I have an insta-kill pick comp concept I want to try where you do Buttercup-Maeve-Kulev and some other damage like nidhoggr. Yank->Cage->Curse and blow all your damage on the target while you can, should be a very quick kill, probably before the enemy team can respond.
As far as her weaknesses go... well she does run out of abilities, they're just all of such high utility or threat you have to be ready for them. Dodge the Cage, though this isn't strictly required but it'll make a huge difference. Siphon Life needs to either be CC'd or you need to escape from its range immediately. Vanish has a very short duration, so it's generally possible to just figure out where she went and finish her off if she's low, but one of the DEFAULT mods increases its duration by 2s so I know it may not seem that way as people who just pick her up have a decent duration on Vanish. Not amazing like Daemon's stealth duration but definitely enough to get pressure off herself and reposition, especially with that invulnerability. Her supers are very dangerous as well, but I think they should all be in some way. Schadenfreude gunks things up though as she can really steam roll without you being able to focus her if you're not careful.
So yeah... all of her abilities are good, she can survive at least once after before focused fire, and its bad to ignore her in general because Cage and Siphon Life will really destroy someone. As for Cass vs Maeve... well I didn't really die to Maeve as Cass, but I also didn't really kill her. Cass can't interrupt the siphon, so she just has to get out of range, which she can do very easily. If you want to move back in and try to kill her you can, but unless Maeve is already somewhat low it's not a good idea to keep chasing and trying to dance around her abilities. Maeve is probably the only ranged fighter where it's a bad idea to try to melee her as Cass. So calling it a counter is accurate, but I also wouldn't say it's hopeless.
On the other hand, while it's not totally obvious, Miko counters Maeve for sure. Stasis and Kinetic Shield both counter siphon, and Maeve just can't take a point from her. Miko can save an ally who is being caged in the same way and even heal them. If Maeve gets close Miko punishes her. Miko can't chase though, so it doesn't feel like a counter when you're not killing them, but if Maeve's only choice is to back off I'd say it counts as a counter.
There's no other channeled ability outside of some supers that I would say deserve the same kind of CC attention either (like Whip Lash or Death Spiral), as channeling makes you immune to flinches (but I think they still get knocked back by the last melee attack). So it's the kind of thing you wait for if you have that. People who can interrupt channels with specials: Buttercup, Daemon, El Bastardo, Gizmo, Makutu, Miko, and Nidhoggr. AKA Yank, Sleep (Stealth will also de-target the siphon), Leap, Sucka, Barge (but NOT repellent), Stasis, Kinetic Shield (not CC but blocks beams), and Boomitar. For everyone else, the best option is to turtle up or get out of range immediately.
Maeve is a strong Carry, she's also easy to play relatively speaking, so I'm curious to see how it pans out for her as players get better at the game in general once they know all of this better.
Daemon
I classify Daemon as a Carry. In fact, the only Damage fighter I wouldn't classify as a Carry is Cass, which I'll get to in a moment. So it's not super surprising he does more than her, cause his damage feels much more normal in comparison to Nidhoggr, Gizmo, and Maeve. Stealth/Sleep also has so much versatility, and he's the only Damage besides Cass that excels in roaming and chasing, so he feels very satisfying to play as because he can wrack up kills that way. It just seems more obvious to pick him than Cass, though I will argue that his supers are not nearly as good.
For one, Shadow Strike is immobile and splits damage, so it doesn't really feel like an AOE. It IS strong though and the instant invulnerability is a huge plus for sure. However, Blade Dance has the highest aoe damage output in the game, easily. This becomes especially obvious if you know the trick for a lot of the AOE hit boxes... most of them are tall cylinders that ignore walls and floors. So you can be above or below the enemy team and hit them. This sneaky use of Blade Dance is very, very effective, as you can be on the floor above them and tracking their movements. Shadow Strike can do that to some extent, but not as well. If it's the invulnerability you're after, Dive Bomb can send Cass right out of the fight, like all they way out if she wants, and even pick on a fleeing target by stunning them and dealing decent damage.
Death Mark is good but it's also slightly clunky as it is. I talked about it in my suggestions post, but I think it should insta-cast and be usable in stealth. It forces you to commit to a target, and if they're not already low, which means you're not getting the bang for your buck, you probably won't land the kill in its time frame. While Daemon is good at chasing, its not so good that you'll kill a fleeing target before the time runs out. Unless you're getting multiple uses of Death Mark off in some kind of ultra-stellar play, you're unlikely to actually get more than a 300-400 damage out of it (I believe it's a 50% damage boost, so a third of the target's health assume you 100 to 0 them). If someone is helping you or they're already low, it'll be even less, so even if that lets you get off multiple casts the total damage doesn't increase that much or at all. Considering that it forces you to play hyper-aggressive and locks you into a target, the damage output by itself isn't that impressive. Shadow Strike can easily do that much damage or more and has more defensive and zoning utility as well.
So I would say Cass has better supers... but Daemon just feels like a better pick if your goal is to get kills. Which brings me back to...
Cass and El Bastardo
Since we mostly agree on EB I'll skip to where I say, yeah, it DOES feel like other fighters do his job better. Buttercup tanks and controls better, Nidhoggr damages and dives better... but whereas they are more specialized, he has a unique blend of those attributes that allows him to be played differently. Which is why I put him in the same boat as Cass. I have a (tentative) classification system I've been working on for characters that puts them into buckets. This is just my creative attempt at rethinking team composition, so it's by no means perfect.
There's the positional class: Frontline, Backline, Diving, and Roaming.
And the strategic class: Carry, Buddy, Zoner, and Disruptor.To me... Cass is a Roaming Disruptor and El Bastardo is a Diving Disruptor. Now, my use of the term "disruptor" is a bit vauge as it's not how its been used before when discussing this game, so there may be a better word for it. To define it the best I can... their job is to break up the enemy team by picking apart its edges and weak points. Their goal is not to land the kill (Carry), to hold the objective (Zoner), or to protect their team (Buddy), though they CAN do all of those things to some degree. Their goal is to merely disrupt and create an advantageous situation for their team to work by being hard to kill, hard to distract, and hard to ignore. Since others do damage and tank roles better, it's best to think that isn't their sole purpose to begin with.
Mix up your targets, pay attention to weaknesses and those who get out of position, never chase unnecessarily, and be ready to back up or cover for an ally as needed.
To elaborate, here's my strategy for trying to play these two once the beta is back and I can test my hypothesis.
Hard to Kill: El Bastardo IS hard to kill, it's just a little too tempting to dive in head first before your team is ready to back you up. But if you DO jump in 1v4, a Leap and Empower will net enough shield for you to immediately evade back out of there without getting hurt. EB has more survivability when his CDs are up, so when the whole team turns to you just blow your CDs and back off. Cass is impossible to catch, so just don't put yourself in reach of too many targets.
Hard to Distract: They run? Whatever, unless it's an easy kill back off, and if they're playing cat and mouse you can just stay back until CDs are up. Do multiple people decide to come at you? Back off, don't wait until you're already low to do so. The moment someone turns their back on you again you can strike back.
Hard to Ignore: Become the master of hit and run, be a coward, play cat and mouse. You DO deal damage so go for whatever is easiest by finding the weak points.
This is a bit different from what I said about EB before, but the same principle applies. Don't commit to a target, and so long as only 1 or 2 are looking at you you can be brazen, then just back off and use your team as cover if its gets dangerous, then run back in once they've turned away.
Is this going to work? Is this better than just having better damage or zoning? Honestly, I don't know. It's a hybrid role that requires flexibility and an eye for the battlefield. Their unique blend of abilities makes them pretty great for that. Buttercup just can't jump and dash around like he can. Nidhoggr just can't turn his back on the fight as easily. Cass also has the benefit of being able to do things like be an impossible to catch power cell carrier, so she feels a little better as a niche pick than him, but El Bastardo also has his virtues in this area.
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On the topic of Cass, how do you see her ranged attack effecting her role in a fight?
A few people here in the office have her as a main, and what I notice when they play her is how she never leaves a fight. Daemon, in my opinion, is a more effective assassin for similar reasons you’ve mentioned here. By contrast though once daemon is done with his target players mostly find an escape, whereas Cass I never see leave the frontline!
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@TwangyGuitar193 said in tier list/strongest and weakest characters:
On the topic of Cass, how do you see her ranged attack effecting her role in a fight?
A few people here in the office have her as a main, and what I notice when they play her is how she never leaves a fight. Daemon, in my opinion, is a more effective assassin for similar reasons you’ve mentioned here. By contrast though once daemon is done with his target players mostly find an escape, whereas Cass I never see leave the frontline!
Uh... I'll try to understand what you're asking, but I'm not totally sure.
I wouldn't say Cass is a frontliner though. She skirts the fight and picks on targets. Hovering near your teammates is a good idea, but you can't do too much to protect them and you really should be going after the enemy support on the other side. If you're claiming she never leaves the fight, then its because she plays it so safe she never gets hurt.
Her ranged attack is what you'll usually use, because getting close poses a lot of risks to her kit. But against some ranged characters it certainly helps to get into melee and hound them down so they can't fire back at you, or to flinch an enemy hounding your support since that's the only CC you can offer. Her Rake puts you in some interesting situations, but she is through and through a ranged attacker at base.
Daemon also plays the roaming, go after the healer role, but he's not one to harass and kite like Cass, he wants to get in and get the kill or get out. So yeah he definitely doesn't have the same staying power, but he does more damage and generally doesn't need to leave a fight for long. I guess you could say it's because he's melee and not ranged, but his entire kit is designed around him being melee so it works. Cass would be viable in melee too with Stealth, Sleep, Shift, and Shuriken. In the same way, while Cass being ranged does affect her role, her kit is designed to accommodate that and lets her excel at roaming. There's no way she could do that without the absurd mobility of Swoop and Hightail on top of her evade.
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Dodge the Cage, though this isn't strictly required but it'll make a huge difference
I just think it's such a difficult ability to dodge, at least consistently. Of course it's possible to dodge it, but the reaction time it requires is incredibly minimal. You have to evade right on the audio cue otherwise you still wont evade far out enough for it to miss you. In a big team fight with a lot going on that can be extremely difficult. Given the fact it's so deadly and provides so much value every time it lands, I don't think there's enough ways of getting out of it or avoiding it entirely. Like I said, the only non-Super ability that can nullify damage given once caught inside the Cage is Maeve's Vanish.
I think it's more of a lack of alternatives to counter it rather than it being OP.
So calling it (Maeve vs Cass) a counter is accurate, but I also wouldn't say it's hopeless.
It was probably just more from my experience then. Both playing as Cass against Maeve, and vice versa. It's the first time I've played the game where I regularly noticed complete swap-offs because the match-up was landsliding so much in one direction. I think more than anything it's because Cass relies so heavily on mobility, paired with the shortest ttk of any character. Land an ability like Cage which is borderline uncounter-able as discussed above and that's why I think the match-up is as strong as it is and part of the reason why Cass is so low and Maeve is so high in a tier list.
On the other hand, while it's not totally obvious, Miko counters Maeve for sure.
You raise good points again but I think it's more of the Cage & Siphon combo rather than Siphon on its own. You Cage a Miko and, sure, she can put down her barrier but it doesn't nullify melee attacks from other characters. Likewise with Stasis, it might nullify Maeve's Siphon but again, if she's Caged you, she's still susceptible to all other incoming attacks from your team with a giant visual target even if you're not communicating
Even solely in a 1v1, Maeve has the added mobility with Vanish to get away if needed. They both need supporting characters to take each other out in this match up. Again that's where Cage gets massive value.
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On Cass, I would have to agree that her Supers are slightly superior in theory but I think Daemon's aren't bad either. I posted this elsewhere but in my experience, the majority of the time, Supers have been more of a "get myself out of trouble" card. It's why I use Dive Bomb on Cass and Shadow Strike on Daemon personally. Both Supers save me momentarily if I am being hounded. On the other hand, Blade Dance on Cass and Death Mark on Daemon (even Shadow Strike on occasion) can be that extra tick of damage that allows me to finish a kill. Rather than some giant game-changing team wipe, I think there's a lot of value in deciding what Supers you use based off play style, and even as a counter to a method you've died to multiple times. That's why I ultimately switched from Blade Dance to Dive Bomb with Cass because I felt like I needed that extra mobility option to get out of fights alive more consistently!
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Not much to say on the last bit, I like the characterisations you've given and agree mostly! I'm looking forward to playing El Bastardo again in the next Beta for sure.
On the topic of Cass, how do you see her ranged attack effecting her role in a fight?
A few people here in the office have her as a main, and what I notice when they play her is how she never leaves a fight. Daemon, in my opinion, is a more effective assassin for similar reasons you’ve mentioned here. By contrast though once daemon is done with his target players mostly find an escape, whereas Cass I never see leave the frontline!For me personally, I like to sit on the outskirts of the battle and support fire with my Ranged. It's not massive damage but it chips away nicely. If the enemy team is preoccupied or doesn't focus you, you can get some nice damage off. When I spot someone with less than half HP remaining, that's where I'll Swoop in and Rake from close range. If they use some sort of traversal ability to get away, I'll use the second Swoop to stay close, keep up the pressure and continue to land as many Rakes as possible. Once I'm low, I'll use Hightail to get away, or even the Dive Bomb Super (that I have paired with the heal 60 per second while in the air which is very effective imo). I'll then make the most of her speed to disengage entirely where they would have to board up to chase me. It's important to know the health locations on each map so you can circle around them as efficiently as possible too.
So I think when you say you never see her leave the frontline in your experience, it's because she can keep disengaging from the fight due to her high mobility, and then heal herself up from the pickups. She's constantly in and out if not dealt with
I think a lot of it comes down to her not really being a priority in a lot of fights, especially if she's just doing chip damage with her Ranged attack on the outskirts. But when she dives in she can be a really menace.
Maeve is a super strong pick as discussed above. She negates her mobility essentially. As well as that, I think a lot of people don't make the most of the fact that you don't need to have lost any health to set the health packs on their respawn timers, so whenever you're near one it's always a good idea to pluck it so it might be unavailable to a disengaging Cass. How many times have you seen an enemy crawl onto a health pack with 1HP remaining...I know I have plenty of times
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Cass should easily be an s rated character she's way to versatile to be seen as only a A rank, she excels at both long and close range has great abilities to escape, pretty much counters all tanks since she can hammer at tanks from a range and most people that are ranged end up just getting torn apart since she can then turn to close range and stun with her melee attacks, best all rounder imo
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@AmazingVector As a Gizmo main. She has some of the most diverse utility, some of the best escapability and maybe the highest sustained DPS in the game if you use her correctly. Using her jump pad to get to the high ground and placing her turrets on spots difficult to reach is very important and can change the tide in a fight. Using her Sucka grenade is both good for sucking people into a ult combination right into Nid or Daemon ult and for catching them trying to run away. Using it manually is definitely better than locking on as well because you can suck multiple people in at once, or try and read on where a character will go. Don't even get me started on her mech. Her flamethrower melts people fast and her chaingun is just a stronger version of her basic attack.Very good for crowd control and initiating team fights with. In fact, multiple times I have initiated with her mech at the end of games and stalled and survived long enough around point for the team to catch up from respawn and I have singlehandedly won games like that.
Her long range also makes her good at picking off enemies at low health in the most crucial parts of battle, including enemies trying to run away.
As for escape options. She has some of the best in the game when using her Sucka grenade to stall enemies chasing you, putting down turrets to also stall and using the jump pad to get to places that only Zero Cool, Daemon, Cass etc can get to. By the time they catch back up, the Sucka and Turret cooldowns will be back and you rinse and repeat. Putting all of these in conjunction, she can escape nearly every character. If not escape completely, at least back to her team for support.
Her 3 dashes also make her escapability that much better.
I've played Gizmo since beta 1. She is high A-tier at LEAST. I have no idea why you have her as the worst character in the game.
But yeah, just my two cents on Gizmo.
GIZMO SLANDER ISN'T ALLOWED.
Will anybody else defend her? Am I lone wolfing this?
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Though I agree with most of the standings in your rank system, I strongly disagree with your slights against Baron/Kulev. He is an absolute beast with a ton of potential as most of his abilities can be self, friendly, or enemy cast. His damage potential is quite astounding for a support character as well.
Maybe I am too invested in the character. I see you mentioned baseline stats. I'm assuming that means you didn't dabble too much into the rune/power possibilities? Even without, but quite more powerful with one or two new runes. I'm routinely able to 2v1 or 3v1 depending on the build I'm running and the comp of the attackers.
I will say, my true love still lies with Maeve though. She's a powerhouse once you power up her 'Schadenfreude.' With that being said, there are quite a few games where I end up switching to Kulev from Maeve for the clutch wins. From what I've seen, a lot, of the few people who play support players, aren't that great. A lot of horrible positioning and, even worse, diving!
Hope to see you all in game soon!!
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After putting even more hours into Beta 2 I think I'd change 2 things to my previous list. So now it looks like:
S - Maeve
A - Miko, Zerocool, Daemon, Nidhoggr, Buttercup
B - Gizmo, Kulev, Makutu
C - El Bastardo, CassMakutu is the first change I made, moving him from C to B. I think despite some lack of impact in his speed boost, he is incredibly effective at one thing and that is holding an objective. He is the perfect substitute to a double healer comp in my opinion and he has great potential to put in similar healing numbers. He is extremely versatile with his charge and repellent. On maps like Aqueducts and Jersey Sinks, I think his ability to kill high target enemies with one move into a map environmental is underrated too.
Buttercup is my second change, moving her from B to A. She is just as good at not dying, whilst also having a deadly kit. Hooking an enemy into an Oil Slick around your team is about as good as Maeve's Cage to Siphon in how effective it is IMO. You are singling out an enemy, bringing him/her within range of your team and melee proximity, whilst not allowing them to escape with Oil Slick. Deadly!
I think Cass's Rake damage being buffed has improved her a lot more than I was expecting. As well as a mod for extra health. I still think she dies way too easily to Maeve and does very little in protecting her healers which is why, for me, she's still one of the weaker characters overall.
There's so little difference between A-C tiers though. Even perhaps contradictory at some points. So I'd go even further and broaden it more to this which I'm much more confident with, although pretty boring lol:
S - Maeve
A - Every other characterI've discussed Maeve to death across multiple threads including higher up on this one so it's not just a "I died a lot to Maeve in my games so I think she's OP". She remains the one character that really sticks out for me. It remains to be seen whether that consensus reflects the majority of the community after release which is when I'd feel a right time is for buffs/nerfs/changes. After all, these tier lists are all opinion based!
Again it's difficult to single out characters and base their effectiveness solely on their own kit rather than their potential with other characters in a team and certain situational team plays. For example, Kulev as a solo healer is the weakest healer for me because of his low passive healing, yet pair Kulev with a Miko or Makutu or Zerocool and he's incredibly powerful again.
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Gizmo deserves to be A minimum. She’s the only true sustained ranged dps which constant consistent damage puts a huge strain on the healers, especially Zerocool because his beam weakens over time.
She has zoning potential with turrets, displacement and minor interruption with sucka, verticality with bouncer, and an ult that puts out AoE % damage.
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She is definitely THE BEST at outputting damage IMO. But I think it's down to how much you let her.
Examples just to show sheer difference in output:
In Example 3 you can see how key Makutu was to my success (despite the fact we lost though haha). He made himself a target, disrupted their team and absorbed the majority of their damage whilst I was able to damage with free reign essentially.
Again I think it comes down to how much impact characters can have situationally. If you have a Makutu doing that job for you, then you're going to be doing lots of good work. If the enemy team focuses you and stops you from getting into positions to attack freely, then you are pretty much a burden to your team because you offer very little else.
In fact, it felt like playing Gizmo for an extended period helped me learn which characters were easier to focus and take down quicker than other. Gizmo was definitely one of the easiest to take down. Likewise if I was facing a competent El Bastardo or Daemon jumping on me, I quickly realised how little I was contributing to my team. I think, for me, that's why she is just under A Tier but marginally.
Her mod for getting a speed boost after using the Bouncer is a must for sure and helps her re-position and get out of sticky situations more consistently. I like using it aggressively as well so it has variation.
Strong point RE reducing the impact on Zerocool's healing beam though. It does have a noticeable effect. Again that's only if you let her for a considerable period I guess.
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@x-AmberPrice
i kinda disagree with your elbastardo placement. he is probs the character i played the most during the beta, and i found him to be quite strong.
he was the only character i was able to 1v4 with, (dont have the clip). i went in, used empower wich hit all 4 of them, then used death spiral wich they all were standing and letting me farm them with, then i used overlaod ult. and yea basically destroyed all 4 of them. at least thats how i remember it going. i may have had a zero cool come in and heal me around the end of that fight though.
anyways yea i think hes pretty powerfull. earlier you mentioned him mobility issue, wich i dont think is an issue. i find him more mobile than most, leap of faith can allow him to chase down enemies up above things aswell as in distance. you mentioned gizmo vs el bastardo earlier and said
"You Leap onto a Gizmo and all she has to do is evade backwards and you've got to either waste your evades to chase her or just sponge damage without producing shields whilst walking in treacle to get back into melee range."
i believe when gizmo starts shooting she slows down so it becomes easy to catch up to her. either way though, to kill someone like gizmo or anyone (this is how i do it) rather than diving in on them, i will run in on them or hoverboard in on them, combo them once, knock them back then use leap of faith, (or you could just dash and combo again then use it next. sometimes its better to save it for when she uses bounce pad), combo them again, and if they get away dash them and death spiral them then combo them again. that should fuck them up. i dont think i ever had an issue 1v1ing gizmo as elbastardo. person i had the most issues with as elbastardo was probs cass, but cass is not so good against everyone else.
this is usually how i would initiate fights as elbastardo so i wouldnt waste the leap of faith. i would only use leap of faith to guarentee peoples deaths. unless theres like 3 of us and 1 of them, cause we are most likely gonna kill them on initiation.
i feel like el bastardo deserves at least B teir, i think he is better than makutu, even though makutu could probs 1v1 him.
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Not enough Cass love IMO. A really good Cass player will dominate both fights and the map
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The prob with Makutu is he's the least threatening/most easily ignored character in the game. Sure, he's survivable (as all the tanks are), but that just means you save him for last. His hits are too slow/weak, so he never taxes your team's healing. His charge, while fun, is mostly just a nuisance, and Buttercup gets it for free without using up an ability. Repel could easily be the worst ability in the game, it does nothing, outside of extremely specific out-of-bounds kills. Heal's nice for himself, but is counter-intuitive as a team ability, since it has a tiny range on a melee character. Ball ULT is funny, but barely does damage. His Shoryuken is tons of fun though -- only it doesn't work on other tanks.
-Buttercup is just as survivable, while putting out an insane amount of pressure and area control. She's vastly superior at peeling, initiating, and killing runners. Pull makes her extremely dangerous in team fights.
-Bastardo has far more pressure/damage and can stick to targets like a fly on poop.
IMO Makutu would be a better pick if his heal had a larger default radius, and repel became attract (AOE vortex pull). Also imagine if his uppercut could lift other tanks into the air (but not stun/stagger them).
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I would like to notice that Makutu's Leg It is broken.
The ability is supposed to give allies and him, when activated by Y button, a bonus speed that is being applied only to allies at the moment, and not to him.
You can try it in the Dojo by yourself, removing the cooldown in the options and trying to apply it while running.
I love the character, would like to see it fixed, but I don't see the devs saying anything about it, and it's already reported. Although, the ability never worked as expected.
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In my opinion they need to nerf maeve, or at very least her cage ability. A suggestion that I think would be a good balance is to have the cage spawn an emblem on the player it is going to effect and wait 1 second to drop so the player can evade if they act quickly. There is currently a way to evade in game if you happen to luckily use an evade at the same exact time maeve is dropping her cage. I think a bigger window for evading the cage would be a good balance to the character.
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@AmazingVector I like it! I think I've learned that different characters ranks change depending on game mode and map. Gonna post about it a little later!
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I read all the posts, I play Makutu only, he is a easy target, once enemy focus on him, he die in 1s...he is too big and too slow, tiny punch from the huge body, how come!!! Never get away from fight.
Other characters all special and good, if you learn to play, but I really hate Maeves, seem to be the OP character in the game....I also thought there are too many shooting characters in this game...
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Maeve is the most overpowered character ever in a game like this. Buttercup is only slightly behind. They make every single other character absolutely trivial with how someone with even a passing knowledge of the dynamics of a game can absolutely dominate with them. It's funny, there are probably people who only main these two characters and have no idea that they are doing so much more damage than anyone else, for trivial effort, while having every manner to escape or elude combat if they're targeted. No other character has it even 10% as easy.
The rest of the tiers? Who cares? As long as your team has Buttercup and Maeve unless you royally screw things up you're going to win 99% of the time.
