Ranking the Characters

Games Sentinels of the Multiverse
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It's summer, I'm a teacher, and I feel like writing a bit about sentinels. I've played far too many games, 3-5 per day on the app, and 3-ish solo games a week, along with a weekly session of 3 or so games.  I've played everyone to excess, though some less than others.  This list, as such, changes a lot. There are no bad characters, but I think there's still, more or less, an order to their quality.  Consistency and power level when optimized are often at odds, along with very different ways of playing heroes based on both starting cards and specific villains create quite the push and pull in these rankings, but here's my attempt to order everyone, from worst to least (otherwise, where's the suspense!?).

52. Dark Watch Setback - The real problem is this Setback very often has no real use for his power phase.  If he doesn't see the right cards, he simply does not want to lose 1 unlucky token, as they power everything else he does.  That leaves him often skipping a lot early, and incredibly prone to ongoing destruction.  He's a bit of a mess without someone to really feed him cards and doesn't add anything I really want in Setback.

51. Prime Wardens Captain Cosmic - A common thread amongst my lower ranked heroes is a largely useless power phase.  Against a few villains/enviorments, you can make sure a construct is destroyed, but more often, his power phase is wasted on a potential benefit that never comes.  He badly needs his PW mates extra card plays to get anywhere, so in nearly any other team without a top tier hero, he isn't worth it.

50. Freedom Six Tempest - Tempest draws a ton of cards, so why on earth would I want to destroy his cards to draw more.  This does let him search for answer cards, particularly ongoing destruction, but at that point, he's getting most of the same benefit from just skipping his turn.

49. Prime Wardens Tempest - This is the point where the powers go from generally useless to not as good/have a big downside. In this case, three card plays can be huge, but the damage cost makes it prohibitive.  He's made to work with his team, like PW Cosmic, being fed draws and playing out cards until massive healing comes, but since he's all but useless in the power phase until he sees a new power without his specific team, or at least specific teammates, he remains lower ranked

48. KNYFE: Rogue Agent - KNYFE wants to deal damage, but this KNYFE just manages to flail about uselessly a bit too often.  She is good at tossing obnoxious villain cards that others have put at the bottom of the deck, I'm looking at you Jail Break, but otherwise, she takes too long for a glass cannon without some fairly major luck.

47.Ra: Horus of Two Horizons - This really changes the evaluation of Ra's cards, as he really likes his ongoings and extra powers far more early.  The card search is really good, but here, any ongoing destruction is a huge setback, as Ra can go turns without dealing major damage... and really, Ra doesn't do much if he isn't pumping out damage. To use this guy, one should always try and keep a back up power in hand, and, really hope for a longer game where this Ra shines.

46. The Eternal Haka - He's got the same basic issue as Horus Ra.  He draws like mad (especially if chucking Restoration and Shielding, do not chuck Battle), so he should see his powers, and his regular card plays usually have a draw rider, too.  With these, and his natural Haka hit points and healing, he ends up working pretty well unless the player has very bad luck indeed.

45. Bunker - The lowest standard hero.  I've played him as much as I have anyone, but he too often spends turn after turn waiting for something useful to do.  His draw power is nice, but he, being a core hero, has a few more mediocre or very situational cards as compared to newer heroes, and can get stuck sitting there, awaiting good cards to play.  Add in that equipment destruction can utterly destroy him, and he's just too situational for me, especially given both his alternates offer something different that his base power cannot.

44. Captain Cosmic - I really like Captain Cosmic.  He makes the game easier for all the other heroes, but he's a bit subject to the whims of chance.  Too many of his constructs are situationally useless, but his power does allow him to cycle into the needed ones far more quickly.  It frustrates me to no end that he's a support character with little to no way to handle opponents problem cards. I almost always win games where he works, but there are far too many where he feels tangental to the end result.  

43. Dark Watch Mr. Fixer - This guy deals such great damage, it's hard, like Cosmic, to see him so low.  He needs a good draw more than most though.  If you see nothing but Styles and have one you want to keep out, you have to hope someone else has an extra card they don't want destroyed.  That difficulty drops him a fair bit, but his use of Tools is second to none, and if he can keep really any tool out, he ends up doing a huge amount of work.

 

I'll break here before my computer shuts off or something and I lose all this writing.

 

 

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You're opening a can of worms with character ranking. Just one note. With DW Setback, you can use his power even if you don't have any unlucky tokens. The two phrases aren't connected like throat jab. If you have an unlucky token, you have to spend it, but if you don't have one, you can still use the power. Still not as good as regular Setback in my opinion, but you don't have to skip your power phase if you don't have any tokens.

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42. Freedom Six Wraith - Two melee damage isn't bad, this Wraith is only so low compared to her other versions, as she is in fact very often better in the early game. Still, if the villain is dealing damage, her two of the most resisted damage type tends not to keep Wraith around as long as her great base power, so that when she finally gets going, she's actually likely to survive.  This Wraith tends to look for Smoke Bombs sooner, and that's a less optimal play, so down she goes.

41. Rook City Wraith - These two are completely interchangable, though the app has given me a new appreciation of RC Wraith.  Her power is often a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation, but in some enviornments, Rook City and so on, it can actually be a life saver. The power on Freedom Six is better, still, but the 2-hp swing pushes it in RC's corner, since I mostly just want Wraith at a few more HP for when she really gets going.

40. Setback - We're officially on heroes that are just straight up good.  This Setback, when he gets ping-ponging in health and unlucky tokens, can single handedly win games.  His problem is wait. He wants to tank or smash, but he has cards that often only support one of the two, so you need to wait for combos. Luckily, his power both draws and builds his lucky pool so that when he explodes, he really explodes.

39. Expatriette - I almost never use her power, but she's a big damager who can get rid of ongoings and enviornments.  Still, she has guns that are semi-useless in certain matchups and little is as frustrating as waiting for a gun with a ton of ammo. She can deal big damage, but she isn't as consistent as other big damage dealers, lacking one shots to really amp things up.  

38. Prime Warden Fanatic - It is absolutely worth 3 hp to get a power use for someone and a card play and, as such, this is my favorite Fanatic in the game.  She's this low because, objectively, nothing sucks worse than that accidental End of Days, and it happens too often. Make her first and make sure the rest of the team has ongoing destruction and she can be phenomenal, but that's still conditional and fairly inconsistent.

37.  Redeemer Fanatic - This is the Fanatic to set up the alpha strike.  She's a monster at getting tons of cards and staying alive, and her one shots generally draw her still more cards. Once you see Absolution, this base power loses a lot of play, but getting all those cards makes her few bomb cards and her ongoing destruction very reliable. 

36. Guise - Play cards, draw cards, play cards draw cards.  With so many draws and plays, his combos come up pretty quickly, but until they do, he can feel like he's spinning his wheels, or be rendered useless to damage reduction.

35. KNYFE - KNYFE might deal the best damage in the game in her base form, if she can find the right cards.  Her few key cards need to be constantly cycled and it really helps her to have card draw help from outside so she can really lay the damage in. It's all she does - hit extremely hard until she dies - a solid glass cannon.

34. Dark Watch Nightmist - I love playing this character, as the set up and strategy involved are stellar, but without the Amulet of Elder Gods, she often kills herself.  With it, she often runs low on cards, and Nightmist really, really needs card plays.  Heedless Lash and Oblivion are unreal good with this Nightmist, while her draw and search cards go way, way up in value.  She can single handedly win games, if you can keep her alive and her deck from shuffling.

33.Fanatic - With any kind of damage boost, this Fanatic is an absolute monster.  With a plus two, she's one of the best cards in the game.  Without either and with a damage reducing villain, she's all but useless. Still, she can be an MVP when the situation breaks right.

Time for another break.

 

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32. Freedom Six Bunker - He has the same problem as main Bunker in finding things to do, but while he waits around for usefulness, he can nuke enemy ongoings.  Against villains like Dawn, that can be huge, and when enemies don't have ongoings, he can skip to get the same basic benefit as core Bunker.  All of his other tricks really work the same, only this power gives the player something else to dig for while waiting.

31.  Freedom Six Absolute Zero - A damaging base changes everything, giving far more value to his various damage dealing ongoings and damage boosters.  He then only really needs one module to really get big damage going with all of his one shots, and add in the second module to use several of those one shots to heal a bit.  He sets up really fast, unlike the usual A/Z and when he does, he finds ways to bring extra pain to the villain.

30. Dark Watch Expatriette - She's way higher than her base card because her power can neuter several enemies when combined with Hairtrigger reflexes.  That and her base power have won me several games, especially when boosted by another hero or the enviornment.  The extra HP doesn't hurt, nor does amping up a mass enemy attack, or making Pride and Prejudice do 6 damage.

29. Mr. Fixer - I love Mr. Fixer.  He absolutely destroys several villains to the point where I don't mind merely skipping time and again until he's ready. Once he is, damage reduction, redirection, hitting all enemies, or clobbering two, taking away damage reducers... he just smashes faces in.  If he had more draw than toolbox, or, more specifically, a way to search tools, he'd be 20 spots higher.  As is, Grease Gun and Salvage Yard are such incredible utility, I may be underranking him.  We're officially at the really good heroes.

28. Freedom Six Unity - Playing bots until she dies for a lot of damage.  This Unity needs Stealth Bot, Swift Bot and Modular Workbench. If you don't see these early, this Unity can really kill herself.  If you do, she can eat nearly any enemy.  Don't be afraid to skip a bit early with either Unity to really get going and build steam fast.  Once she does this, Unity's damage is second to none, so long as she can survive long enough to keep it going.

27. Absolute Zero - Well, maybe Unity's damage is second to a ping-ponging Absolute Zero.  If he draws at all well and the villain and enviornment don't wreck his set up, A/Z can destroy enemies.  He damages and heals like no other.  As has been noted endlessly though, if he's disrupted, it can take ages to re-set him up, by which time the tide may have turned. Still, it takes very few turns of a fully set up A/Z to end the game.

26. Tachyon - Core Tachyon is all about the big Lightspeed Barrage, but she isn't as good at setting that up as Super Scientific Tachyon, nor is she as good at supporting a team as Team Leader Tachyon.  Still, the big Lightspeed Barrage with solid team draw, enemy damage mitigation, ongoing destruction, and extra plays is really good.  She's just way better when she sees Research Grant, while for the other Tachyon versions, that's just an extra bonus card.

25. Chrono Ranger - He has unbelievable damage potential, and unless the villain interrupts, he gets most of it off every game.  He may be the best pure damager in the game when he gets going with only a long set up time and vulnerability to either type of destruction holding him back.  He sets up fast and deals huge damage. Games with Chrono Ranger tend to be short.

24. Kvothe Six String - The negatives keep him low, so lets get him out of the way - he has a truly tiny number of hit points and he cannot use songs until he has the right instrument.  That really does make him far slower than either other Argent while his low HP demand speed.  But then you combine him with heroes that look at the top cards of villain decks or Tempest putting cards atop decks, and he destroys enemies and is essentially just giving himself free plays.  This is easy mode and keeps this version of the Argent higher than one might expect.

23. Unity - The safer Unity tends to tank damage and wait for the right cards with her massive card draw.  When she hits the right cards, she becomes a damage cannon who can do some of the coolest ongoing/enviornment destruction tricks in the game with Bee Bot and makes amazing use of out of turn plays.  Don't play her with DW Fixer and she should be an MVP against the majority of the villains.

22. Ra - A simple blaster with some longevity thanks to the staff healing.  He can't toss ongoings, but he can use them to damage all villains, which is pretty sweet, and he has some really cool immunity tricks with fire damage, along with a great team boost. He even draws pretty well. He's the simplest hero in the game, and still quite powerful.

21. Haka -  He's actually similar to Ra in damage output, with a worse damage type, but he has two huge differences.  He draws a ton, which sets up his amazing Alpha strike with Haka of Battle. He also eats minions with Savage Mana.  Those two cards, along with his massive HP and good healing, make Haka a tank who can win a game for almost any battle.

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20. Tempest - Tempest hits everything for almost nothing, then he hits for a bit more, or he focusses and does huge damage and draws cards.  He protects himself, he heals himself, he tosses ongoings and enviornments.  He even has extra draw and huge damage cards. Oh and he has recursion... and the best incap power in the game.  Tempest is a great way to kick off the top 20.

 19. Young Legacy - She has a 3 damage base which can be easily made 5 every turn  Then, you can add two cards for 4 more each turn and healing.  She can eschew that to tank, with damage immunity, make allies immune, or deny villain plays.  She's a damager on par with Ra, but with truly excellent team support.

18. The Naturalist - The ultimate swiss army knife.  The Naturalist can tank, damage or handle control, switching seamlessly between the three. He badly wants extra power uses sometimes, but short of that, he's self sufficient in each role and really benefits the veteran player who knows what the team will need.

17.Sky-Scraper - She combines the damage of Haka with the control of Parse.  Switching sizes is easy and intuitive, and when it doesn't work out immediately, the base power of normal Sky-Scraper does a ton of work in creating that set up.  Sky stops damage wonderfully as either a huge or tiny character, and deals it out in both situations far better than almost anyone.

16. Omnitron-X - Passively damaging and healing is incredibly, as are free draw and card plays.  Most opponents don't damage enough to toss his components, and he sets up ridiculously fast to smash the face in of those who do.  Knowing what damage the villain will do just makes him more powerful, and his extra shielding just allows him to do more damage.  And he can toss enviornments at will while doing damage.  Ultimately, at this high up, everyone does a lot well.  Omnitron-X shines by doing it so quickly.

15. Visionary - She plays a different game than most heroes, helping everyone get ideal set ups and removing impediments. Many don't like her damage cards, but they save me in tough spots fairly often, and Mass Levetation is fantastic in certain enviornments, especially if you know what's coming is going to ruin you with massive damage.  Her only bad card is Foresight since her power is usually better used to set up other heroes, but given that her base power allows her to toss it... she can soak damage with two different cards, toss or recur ongoings, make villains smash themselves, or boost, lower and change the type of damage from any target. Her uses and tricks are incredible and she pairs well with every hero and against every villain.

14. GI Bunker - The three Bunkers have had wildly different placements, but I'm very comfortable with the placing of this Bunker so highly.  This Bunker is the advanced mode killer.  So many villains on advanced just amp up the damage reduction - this Bunker turns that into a joke.  As always, with no damage reduction, this Bunker can skip or tank to get set up, but his utility against some of the game's most frustrating and toughest matches earn this Bunker a high spot.

13. Prime Warden Haka - Most of Haka's card plays net him an extra card, so two card plays per turn still puts him ahead.  Add in that he has great alternate damaging powers, and you have a wonderfully powerful card who can finally afford to play his healing regularly.  That healing is important because this Haka has huge HP and he likes to tank mroe than any other version.  While he's doing all this, he can also offer massive protection to another hero, heal them to full, or allow the Alpha strikiest of Alpha strikes with, say a Haka of Battle powered Wrathful Retribution or Lightspeed Barrage.

12. The Sentinels - The Sentinels are super fun and combo-y and their combos allow the massive playing of cards and extra powers.  All of these lead into insane damage and huge hands with at on of options. The healing is truly most special, though, as this group, thanks to Dr. Medico, makes the closest thing the game has to a dedicated healer.  Add in the damage reducer and despite their low health, the Sentinels stick around for a long time, dealing huge damage, and keeping other heroes safe.

11. Argent Adept - The ultimate support... he literally does everything a support character should, getting set up fast, and finding what he needs.  He then proceeds to make the enemy importent and certain heroes near omnipotent.  It's incredibly frustrating to lose ongoings with him, but even with that caveat, he's usually done enough to destroy a villain by then for it to not matter.

Next... the 10 best.

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10. Super Scientific Tachyon - The very best for setting up a huge Lightspeed Barrages.  She also manages to play 2-4 cards a turn regularly and rarely runs out of cards.  She'd be higher were it not for the occassional inadvertent ongoing destruction or Sucker Punch, but even those can be played around.  This Tachyon brings the pain and is my favorite of the group, if not the best.

9. Wraith - Core Wraith's lowish hit points are often a boon.  She can take her time getting set up, not that she always needs to given her plethora of plays, knowing she is safe behind Stealth.  Stealth thus so overshadows her other potential powers as to make this Wratih a top play and leave me wondering why  I'd bother with the other two.

8. Parse - Parse is the best at villain control if she wants to be.  She's also, if she wants to be, the second best at boosting damage, and among the best at getting rid of irreducible damage.  That combination of Legacy and Visionary, with a bit of GI Bunker thrown in, is simply unmatched.  She handles whatever the villain throws at the hero better than anyone and has no bad matches.

7. Prime Warden Argent Adept - The free bottom card play is his real boon.  Performs are generally better than accompanies, but his almost accidental huge set ups make for a truly monsterous character.  Add in Arcane Cadence allowing you to choose that bottom card and these plays can get out of hand quickly.  He's far faster to set up than the normal Adept and far quicker to recover from enemy tampering and get back to making everyone else a superstar.

6. Dark Visionary - Controlling the opponent's deck from T1 is absurd.  She has all the regular Visionary's tricks, although she doesn't help allies set up as well, but she annihilates villains best cards and plays.  Combine her with Kvothe for real amusement, but in general, unless the villain plays a lot of cards per turn, Dark Visionary just wins games, slowing opponents to a crawl when they usually do most damage as heroes get set up.

5. The Scholar - He's either the best tank in the game, utterly neutering the villain and letting the heroes take their time to do what they want, or he's a healing dynamo of damage, completely crushing any damage recieved and turning it into massive damage for all enemies.  He takes a bit and a lot of cards to set up, but when he is, unless the opponent packs ongoing destruction, he rolls over enemies.

4. Legacy - Legacy is all but impossible to stop.  He tanks damage like the best in the game, and he boosts allies to the point where even little pings can take out opponents.  Add in his villain control and extra draw, and his occasional huge damage and touches of healing... Legacy is the single character who in the most straightforward manner makes the game easy.

3. America's Greatest Legacy - All that stuff about Legacy, yeah? Add in a free power for whoever on your team has the best one.  And a hit point. Thanks.

2. Nightmist- This Nightmist is my favorite and pick for best character in the game, but she absolutely, 100% needs Amulet of the Elder Gods.  With it, she's nearly immortal, especially as allies die and give her bonuses.  She just rarey takes damage, can heal it all away when she does, draws for herself or others, does mass damage, gets extra plays, and gets rid of opponents ongoings or enviornment problems.  And she just doesn't die. That's pretty big.

1. Team Leader Tachyon - She makes it so no one dies. Extra card draw for everyone every turn gets out of hand quicky, as suddenly all heroes are flush with options and fully set up. Since everyone is good, TLT makes sure they reach their uber set up almost every game.  She isn't immortal like Nightmist, but she makes villains die.

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i get get that, but losing 1 is an issue when you're trying to build a pool of tokens.

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I say this every time someone posts another ranking/tiers thread, but I think it's pointless to rate heroes on anything other than a scale of how much you enjoy playing them.

There are just too many variables to take into consideration to be able to categorically say that this hero is better than that one.

  • number of heroes
  • who the other heroes are
  • villain
  • environment
  • your own personal play style
  • your experience level
  • play styles and experience levels of other players
  • luck of card draw
  • regular vs advanced
  • etc

Examples: Tempest's better against Voss than he is against the Dreamer, I'm not as effective with Argent Adept as I am with Absolute Zero, Legacy isn't always Nightmist's best friend, Unity performs worse against anyone who hits the lowest HP target a lot, Wraith can recover from heavy equipment destruction villains/environments better than many of her fellow heroes.

Which hero us the best? The correct answer is always "it depends".

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I find this type of threads interesting, it's gives a framework (ranking) and a justification on the choices in that ranking.

In the end, valueing game aspects is another way of appreciating and enjoying the game, outside of actually playing it.

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I would disagree, there are characters who work better against certain types of opponents, but then there are characters who are good against more than not, which is why you could rank them higher. For example, Wraith can be used in just about every possible situation without losing too much of her usefulness. The likelihood of her pulling a dead card in an encounter is pretty rare, and between her card fetch and all around usefulness, she is one who I would have ranked higher (but that is neither here nor there). I think the same can be said about Visionary as well, there are few situations she is going to be in where you go "Well, I wish I would have brought X instead". 

 

I'm a big NBA fan, so you could take LeBron James and Chris Paul, both are good players (both are perennial All-Stars, Olympic Teams, Playoffs, shoe deals, etc) but despite that most people would say LeBron James is better. They're not on the same team, don't play in the same conference, don't have the same coach, and play different positions, but there is still the comparison. Maybe not the best analogy there, but I think the principal is still the same.

 

 

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I think the important thing is that Pulsegazer is just issuing his own personal taste. He also hasn't actually insulted any heroes or said that any heroes were objectively bad. This is just their general usefulness according to him. Anyone is free to make their own list that is similar or different. This isn't a Mr. Fixer needs fixing or Chrono Ranger is underpowered thrread.

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Nightmist does not need Amulet of the Elder Gods.   As long as Nightmist gets out Master of Magic, Starshield Necklace, or Amulet of the Elder Gods before she is too low on health she is fine.  Amulet of the Elder Gods allows her to be more damaging but it's not essential to play her effectively.

Heroes can still die with TLT out.   What she brings to the table with her base power is huge certainly as it means the other heroes will get the cards they need for combos or to have a more effective turn with what they can play.  However, having those cards mitigates bad draws but does not help you get anything into play quicker.  It also makes Tachyon less effective individually as she can't accelerate the number of burst cards in her trash like SST or normal Tachyon can with their base powers.  TLT has to be able to play each card from hand to get those bursts and so you have to depend on your card draw for those HUD Googles, Pushing the Limits, Lightning Reflexes to play those burst cards.  

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It's my biggest reason why I enjoy SST over TLT, the play advantage over TLT is huge, granted you may not get what you what, but milling for burst cards are pretty big in my opinion. Not only that, she can mill any deck, so if you use someone like Visionary to put stuff on the bottom of a deck (Villain or Hero) you can mill those to kill or put out something you know wont be that bad.

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X-Treeeeeeeeeme!!! lets Guise ignore DR and is the only card I'm aware of that lets you ignore redirection as well   Guise the Barbarian also ups his damage enough to bypass DR

Amulet of the Elder Gods is not a necessity. This version of Nightmist is a bigger fan of Master of Magic since she stacks her deck with her base power and can mitigate what damage she receives without needing to discard cards.  This version of Nightmist doesn't have the card draw of the base version and this discarding to the Amulet or Starshield Necklace can deplete your hand real quick if your don't have an Enlightenment coming up.

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I like Parse a lot but her biggest issue is that she need someone to tank damage for her.  If the villain/environment target everyone or low health heroes a lot she can be taken out quickly. However, if she can get Extrasensory Awareness out she should be able to prevent a lot of damage that could come her way. Extrasensory Awareness is easily the best card in her deck.

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I'm not much of a fan of Freedom Six Wraith either as she has the lowest HP of the versions at 25 and her base power becomes useless quickly.   It doesn't get buffs from Micro Targeting Computer and even without that in play throwing knives gives you one more option on targets.   The main benefit of the that power is that it does give Wraith an initial damaging power in case you somehow don't draw any of her damaging equipment.  

Rook City Wraith I'm a little higher on as that version has the highest health at 27 and if playing this version the base power is worth using at times.   It does really well in the two city environments of Rook City and Megalopolis allowing you to dodge some of the worse cards in them and get to the more beneficial ones quicker.  

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I'm with the OP on TLT. It may be just my playstyle, but when thinking of best character or best team, it always starts with TLT, no matter the villain, environment, or other heroes.

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I would agree.  However, I expect Tachyon's turn to be lackluster compared to normal or SST beyond giving everyone a card.  

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The card advantage that SST has is nuts. TLT certainly has her place and is quite good, but the versititlity of SST is quite nice to have. Although I think I've made it clear in my limited post I would put her in my top 3 ;).

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I honestly don't get much use out of SST's power, because most of the time I use it, I end up discarding two cards I'd really rather have played individually (or, on a villain, playing two cards I'd much rather have discarded). It's happened maybe once or twice that I've actually been able to use it to put out cards I wanted. Just too unpredictable for my tastes.