First, I wanted to thank awp832 for starting this conversation. I don’t want to give anyone the wrong idea in my earlier post - in no way do I think this is a bad thing! (I mean, I’m the one pushing playing both Legacies. ) I just hope folks will give the original AZ a chance. :-\ (I’m actually a fan of his… ;D )
I’m also interested in hearing what folks discover as they try it out. I don’t personally believe we can just casually say “I think this is OP”, as things don’t always work out as we expect (my experiment in playing two Legacies is a good example of that : ).
Having said that, I do agree with McBehrer that this doesn’t feel (thematically) like AZ. :-\ Doesn’t mean folks shouldn’t do it, just that I’m probably not going to join you on it.
Give it a try! It would be interesting to see how it works.
Because it’s innately more powerful than his printed base power, I think it’d be even more interesting to try it as just 1 Cold damage to any target - so he doesn’t have a choice as to which he’s doing, it’s just Cold. If something’s immune to Cold, he’s stuck unless he gets something else out, but - unlike Ra - he has lots of things to get around that. Unfortunately, that stops him from being able to do his very-entertaining Fire/Cold/Fire/Explode chain of actions, but he could still have some other ways to do interesting stuff, and it does allow him to do direct damage while still being able to hit himself, as he should.
Doing 1 cold or fire damage to anyone will make his base card obsolete though, it would have to be “deal 1 cold or 1 fire damage to any non-hero target”.
That is true. My thoughts were more a general musing rather than a future official alternate Zero Hero card. Comparatively speaking, it’s kind of a bummer that he can only deal one cold damage to himself rather than the average two damage that other heroes can deal to anyone. I understand that his innate power has some thematic weight, but I still find it to be a bit underpowered. I would certainly love an official alternate Zero card in the near future, though!
I find it interesting to note that all of Absolute Zero’s damage to other things is cold, except for some of the damage on Hoarfire. Coolant Blast, Thermal Shockwave, Isothermic Transducer, Impale, Cold Snap, and Frost-Bound Drain all output cold damage.
Also, a neat thing is that Thermal Shockwave deals damage to himself equal to ALL the cold damage he did that turn, not just from the shockwave. So Cold Snap, Impale, and his one-shots make it more powerful.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a complicated hero to play. Absolute Zero is tough and he has a more shallow ramp than many other heroes, but he is very good once you get him going. Someone I play with regularly loves AZ and will pick him every time and rarely has any problems. His HP is always the highest (using Pre-IR characters) and he outputs a pretty fantastic amount of damage.
I don’t think Absolute Zero needs a ‘fix’. While not my favorite hero by a long shot (in fact, by far my least favorite hero), I enjoy the fact that he exists and like watching people that are good at him play him. I think it’s good for the game to have heroes who aren’t as straight forward as, say, Tachyon, Ra, or the Wraith.
I’d love to see more ideas for alternate promo cards. I’m not necessarily attached to the rule I suggested, but I would like to see something.
Let me put it this way. While we love SotM, neither my wife nor I play Zero. Never, not ever. When we play the game together we never choose him, if we play a random hero we re-select if we get Zero. When I play on my own I’ve stopped taking Zero as well. Without a promo card or house rule, I don’t see myself playing him ever again. I mean that. Which is a shame because we have nothing against the hero from a flavor/story perspective, and I even think he’s kinda cool (pun intended). Playing him is always an exercise in frustration, I feel he definetely needs a fix.
Earlier, I suggested . This is in keeping with his theme (activating his suits) but relies on the Isothermic Transducer instead of the Null Point Calibration Unit.
I think that might be too good as it will amount to “hit 1 target for 2 cold and 1 target for 1 cold” and it could be the same target if you wanted to. Yeah, you need to suffer 1HP of damage too but I don’t know if 2&1 damage (which can be boosted multiple times) from a base power is balanced, the only other base power like that is Young Legacy, and that’s against a single target.
I was wondering if reducing it to “1 cold damage to a non-hero target and 1 fire damage to himself” would be ‘better’ but that just seems like swapping out the ability to chose which type of damage you deal yourself for 1 to the enemy, I think I’d prefer a complete different power to one that is only a slight modification of his base power. No, I have no ideas what that could be just now.
On the other hand, my friend (and myself, sometimes) makes an effort to always play as him, and whenever I do he completely dominates. I usually avoid Mars like the plague, though.
My house rule for Absolute Zero's power is in my signature. It lets you take a fire damage and return a card from your hand to your deck for a module. Basically you pretend you drew a module instead of that card. Compared to the normal one he's still weak in the same situations (Equipment destruction, damage type changes, damage reduction, takes time to setup) and still strong in the same situations (Taking fire or cold damage, damage increases). You'll note that my version can't do cold to himself. So my version won't heal as well, but you will always be able to contribute to the team.
Hey, now we don't really need to house rule AZ, due to the reveal of his Freedom Six Alternate Character card. I mean, even if you don't have him yet, you can now just play him with his new power to deal 2 cold damage to a non hero target and give him 2 less HP. Problem Solved! Sort of. I've played him and what I liked best was that the first turns you could actually contrubute with powers instead of feeling like dead wieght. Still needs support in a damage and card-drawing capacity. Any other thoughts on Freedom Six Absolute Zero?
(I mean, I’m the one pushing playing both Legacies. 
) I just hope folks will give the original AZ a chance. :-\ (I’m actually a fan of his… ;D )