Some new thoughts on Fixer

Other Games SotM Game Engine
1

I’ve been one of the more outspoken critics of Fixer, called him underpowered on more than one occasion, asked for a buff, and all that jazz. I’m officially adjusting my stance, changing it, if you prefer to call it that. I’m not doing a 180, more of a 90… maybe a nice acute 73, something like that.

Fixer can be good, but he needs help.

Particularly, he needs help from Legacy, who certainly seems to be the most synergistic for him out of the current set.

Let me back up for a moment and say a few things that prompted this switch. I started playing Fixer a lot, and always taking Legacy along for the ride (often play solo. Sometimes play with a second player where we each control 2 heroes). Last game I played with flamethrower, Fixer seriously kicked butt. Yes, curcumstances conspired to make him inordinately powerful, the sort of thing you’d see once every hundred games that just geared absolutely everything in fixer’s favor. Was it something that you can use as a measure of Fixer’s bodacity? No. Did it demonstrate his potential? Yes.

But I’d not rethink my stance based on a single game. Overall, I’ve seen him preform better in my last several games, and its largely due to ensuring that he plays with Legacy.

“But awp… everybody is better with Legacy. Duh.”

Well yes. However, fixer seems to be like Fanatic in that he benifits from Legacy being on the team even more than others do. Because Fixer tends to do attacks that hit more than one target, he can benifit more from +1 damage. This is especially true if your weapon is Jack Handle, and to a lesser extent, Dual Crowbars. Fixer also tends to need to extra +1 or +2 damage in order to get killing blows, where oftentimes a hero with a higher damage base power like Haka will overkill his target, thereby benifiting less from the +damage than Fixer does.

Legacy also is quite useful in the defense area. Lead from the Front and Heroic Interception are probably better for Fixer than they are for most heroes, because it frees him up to play Bloody Knuckles. This card is probably not worth it if Fixer is expecting to take damage, and you still have to be careful of the environment if you’re relying on LftF, but with Heroic Interception fixer can deal the extra +2 damage and not have to worry about the disasterous consequences.

A few thoughts on the tools and styles now, since I’ve changed my mind on what I consider to be good.

Pipe Wrench: I used to consider this the second-best tool, But I think it’s getting demoted. +1 armor is nice, but probably not nice enough to justify the decrease in damage. Fixer NEEDS to be hitting multiple targets or his low base damage becomes a liability.

Dual Crowbars: is still king, I think. This seems to be pretty much the best tool most of the time. Hitting 2 targets is often enough, and hitting more targets is not always beneficial. +1 damage also good too. One more thing… which crowbar is actually supposed to be in front? Left hand or right?

Jack Handle: Is actually pretty good… thanks to Legacy. This tool comes into its own with Legacy in the game.

Tire Iron: Still not that great most of the time.

Grease Monkey Fist: Still probably the best style.

Alt. Tiger Claw: A very decent replacement for GMF. Many villains have some kind of DR, making this as good as GMF when striking the villain, which if you are using Jack Handle or Dual Crowbars (and you should be) should be something fixer does every round.

Driving Mantis Style: I used to like this a lot. Its okay. Its nice against Voss, or on some environments. Unfortunately, it doesnt combo with Fixers buffs or his tools (damage source remains the same) so its pretty much only useful for tanking damage, and not dealing it. Not a bad defensive play… but the other styles are probably better.

Riviting Crane Style: Is often totally useless without Legacy because Fixer can’t get damage through. With Legacy though, this becomes pretty cool and an interesting way to pseudo-buff your allies. I havent played with this extensively because I havent gotten the card much, but it definitely has potential.

A quick note on his one-shots. Turns out one-shots are a huge part of Fixers damage. Yes, on the surface they deal patheitic damage. So don’t play them until you have everything going for you. Make sure you’re always comboing them with a tool or style for maximum effect or else you’re going to be pretty sorry. Salvage Yard is also a great way to play another Overdrive, using its primary effect as more of a side benefit.

2

I just want to point out that Riveting Crane is great against Spite. His DR isn’t very powerful, but it applies once per round, so it’s annoying. If you can break it (which you can with a one-shot) then you can hit him, which will break it for everyone else.

3

I haven’t played Spite in a while, and I don’t have the cards with me right now to verify, but I thought the card you are refering to first applied once per turn, not once per round, and also that you didn’t exactly have to break through the DR to get rid of it, but rather just had to deal some damage (even if it was entirely prevented) causing any further damage dealt that round to not have said damage reduction. (Though, I guess it could also be worded such that damage is reduced from each target, meaning it comes back if a second target attempts to attack that same turn.)

4

Spite’s DR does indeed apply once per turn not round or target.
But Mr Fixer can neatly avoid the problem if he has his Riveting Crane style out which makes all damage to the target Mr Fixer hits irreducible until his next turn, which is what I think McBehrer was hinting at.

Also, welcome to the club awp832, you’ll find your official “Mr Fixer Fan” hat over by the door, drinks are half price if you show a valid club membership.

5

It’s good to see people FIX thier views on heroes!

6

I did mean to say turn. I’ve been playing DnD lately. It uses rounds instead of turns.

7

I could be wrong here (it happens from time to time), but I believe Riveting Crane says you have to damage a target in order to make further damage to him/her irreducible. Thus, if it’s all prevented, you didn’t damage them.

Also, what about Hoist Chain? No love for Hoist Chain?

8

I recently used Riveting Crane to punch through Voss’ DR when he was on his conquering alien warlord side, and yes it would shine against Spite too if you could push through at least 1 damage.

I forgot about Hoist Chain, but I guess I’m not too thrilled about it. I used it a bit in the above game because I had Harmony out and for a while it was the only tool that I had. I wasn’t thrilled. -damage is nice, but in general this suffers from the same problems as Pipe Wrench, namely that by only hitting one target, you reduce your damage output to half (or less) of what it could be. With that said, it can be quite good against many of the RC villains, Spite, Plague Rat, and Matriarch.

9

I’ve seen Hoist Chain used to fantastic effect against Plague Rat. Hoist Chain/Mantis. Of course, Fixer is just beast against Plague Rat in general.

10

Ah, sorry, I understand the idea now. In that case, Bloody Knuckles would be good too, as it would give him that extra boost to actually be able to deal the damage, and at the beginning of the turn you get to pick up Bloody Knuckles before Spite can deal any extra damage (though, one has to worry about the environment).

11

Yah, Mister Fixer is really fun against Spite because Hoist Chain can reduce Spite’s already low damage output, and the Bloody Knuckles/Boomerang Drug combo is really cool. You still need to get your other stuff out first (a style, a tool, and harmony), but once you do, throwing down Bloody Knuckles and volunteering to be the boomerang victim is pretty fun.

12

I’ll still be a detractor of Mr. fixer and think he needs help. If I have a hero who is only really good with another specific hero, Houston we have a problem.

This dos not say he is any good, in fact, you are effectively saying that Mr. fixer with two damage strike power is good. I find that amusing all by itself as that is what others have hinted needs to happen.

So let’s look at tempest with legacy. Native two damage Jack hande equivalent and gains a ton from legacy because most of his powers/one shots can have multiple targets. I’ll take him over fixer any day. I’m of the mind that anyone is better with legacy. He’s just that kind of guy. He buffs you and then takes damage for you.