OK, here's something that I think should exist in some official capacity, but doesn't. When you look at the characters in the Multiverse page, you can (usually) get plenty of backstory for the heroes, but not a word on how they function in the game. My brother wanted to know which characters are supposed to be good at what, and how they operate, mechanically. Well, I tried to give him a quick summary of each hero's M.O., but I haven't played every character yet, so I was just going off of my vague memory of the characters that I've seen and played, and what I could gather from the (very helpful) hero strategy threads.
But I thought it might be a good idea to try to assemble a list of short, simple descriptions of each hero, and what they do in the game. Bear in mind that I HAVE NOT played all these characters, so on some of them, I'm just guessing. Any corrections from more experienced players would be appreciated.
Absolute Zero - Absorbs and Reflects cold and fire damage Bunker - Equipment-based, draws cards and uses them to charge up big attacks Fanatic - Damage, destruction, healing and protection (think archetypical white deck in MtG) Haka - Aggressive damage, toughest hero Legacy - Team support, tanking, healing Ra - Damage, Fire, Damage, Fire Tachyon - Multi-attack specialist, benefits most from damage-buffs Tempest - Multi-target damage, can potentially deal with anything The Visionary - Battlefield control, redirects damage Wraith - Equipment-based, has lots of options
Expatriate - Uses guns to damage, uses ammo to modify guns Mr. Fixer - Damage-dealer with single-target or multi-target versatility
Fanatic - Deals quite a bit of damage and is pretty good at destroying stuff. Something like that, anyway. Haven't actually played her yet personally but I've been in games with her.
Also...
Expatriette - Guns. Lots of guns.
Mr Fixer - Martial artist who's also a mechanic, uses martial art styles and mechanical tools to deal damage.
Argent Adept - A Bard, basically. Complex setups of instruments and "songs" to provide various utilities to other players.
Nightmist - Basically uses her hp as a resource to deal herself damage and heal from it in the process of doing a whole load of different stuff.
Expatriette and Mister Fixer are similar in that they have a lot of things to equip themselves for different situations, which I like. This makes them both good for essentially any game type; it all just depends on whether or not you can get the cards that you need for the situation. Guns and tools dominate what kind of attack you're going for, ammo and styles choose the secondary effect.
And yeah, I'm sure it's no coincidence that Richard Launius made Nightmist play like a character who casts spells in Arkham Horror: if you want to get anything done, you're going to have to hurt yourself. But it's all good--you can heal yourself pretty easily.
Argent Adept is all about planning ahead and hoping you get what you need to meet the situation. Yeah, he is pretty complicated.
We haven't mentioned Unity: She's all about minions - you need to find equipment to bring those golems out, so a lot of her cards just have to be scrap, but those scrap cards still have their own useful functions if you'd rather have just a few powered-up bots than an army. However, dominant strategy dictates that having an army of bots turns Unity into an incredibly destructive force. But that's all about whether or not you can get your bots out and keep them alive.
But see, none of these tell you anything about how the characters operate in the game. The idea of the list is to inform new players of which heroes they might enjoy playing, based on their individual strengths and mechanics.
Mr. Fixer - While he is primarily focused on dealing damage, he has tools that let him deal with single enemies, crowds of enemies, or EVERY enemy on the field. His styles allow him to augment his damage dealing with potent abilities like making his damage irreducible or allowing him to redirect damage that comes at him.
Most of my friends play Magic, but the way I explain Nightmist to people is "Want to play a Black deck? Here ya go." Although, in nuance she's probably closer to a Black/White deck.
I had someone do the same thing for me in my first game of Sentinels. I used to be a magic player myself and preferred blue when I played, so I was all like "Nah, I got this."
I rocked AZ the first time I played him, he's my favorite hero now :).
I don't think Nightmist is that complicated, especially for someone who plays Magic. If you're comfortable with the idea that "You life is a resource", then she's pretty straight forward.
Well, I played a lot of Black in MtG, so I had no problem with "my life is a resource", but the random element to her spells took me a bit to get used to, and if someone was a new player, I wouldn't want them thinking that's how all heroes work. (Yes, I know, any observant player would probably watch the other heroes take their turn and notice their distinct lack of randomness in their abilities, but I have played games with people that mostly ignore what other people do, especially when learning a game).
I had trouble with Nightmist first because I didn't realize that she had effective ways to heal herself, so I saw all of her HP sacrificing as something relatively permanent. My friends still think she's mostly useless, but that's just because it's hard to get Nightmist to do consistent helping things without at least one turn in between each for healing.
I still cannot see how AZ can be played well. I have played with him maybe twice. But I certainly have that reaction when someone asks about AZ: "Just, no. Don't do it. You'll regret it."
See, I have the opinion that she's among the more powerful (and maybe a little broken) heroes in the game. Between Master of Magic and Starshield Necklace and the Amulet, she doesn't have to be skipping turns to do cool stuff, and even if she is... There's no better tank than Nightmist. It's not uncommon for me to end games with her at full health while everyone else is in single digits.
As for Absolute Zero, he's among my SO's favorite heroes in the entire game, and will gleefully jump at a chance to play him. And he gets him up and doing silly amounts of damage with Thermal Shockwave.
That's how I feel about Absolute Zero. Nightmist and AZ are very similar in that you have to realize that his purpose is to use his life to his advantage and play a mixture of tank/burst damage. You can't be afraid of taking damage as either of them. Once you get around that, they're both a blast to play.
Yeah, I have not had a proper sitdown game with nightmist but I REALLY like her... I was disapointed when she was revealed because she did not seem very "superh hero" but mechanically she makes a good Dr. Strange analogue, only with wilder swinging powers.
Well, that's valid. I suppose I haven't played a game where she gets those things quickly though. In most of the games NM has been in, she's had to take so many turns hurting herself to draw cards in order to find those healing cards that by the time she has them, she's dangerously low on health, and has to spend a fair time healing, then do a few things, then heal again. And by that point, the hand has come down to 2-3 cards, so she has almost no options to discard for healing.
It has taken a while, but I am now enjoying Nightmist as much as the other heroes. Like a few of the others (AZ, Tachyon, Haka, Bunker, Argent Adept) it has taken some focused learning about the deck to get good enough to employ it effectively, but I now feel like I can do quite a lot with Nightmist.
I agree that she can have a slow build aspect if she hasn't gotten her healing cards out, but there's also a lot she can do in the meantime and I have a lot of faith that she'll get her HP back eventually so have been pretty brazen about letting her take damage.
The next hero I want to concentrate on, I think, is Legacy. I've gotten so used to using him during demos primarily to boost new players, that I haven't every properly dug into all the things he can do with Next Evolution, Lead from the Front, etc.
On another thread there's talk of promo versions of heroes. Even though Legacy already has a promo, I think he's a good candidate for another one -- something like Redeemer Fanatic that allows him to get through his deck faster.
I like Nightmist. Once you have Master of Magic out, you get to heal every time you cast a spell. So just cast stuff that has a high value (three or four) and doesn't deal yourself damage :D.