We all know them. We all hate them, mostly. They're the also-rans, the wasted potentials.
They're the characters that NM, power creep, and time forgot. They take up space in the roster, and return very little for the investment in them. They are the bottom of the bottom tier.
But, can they be used? Are there niche modes, or specific teams where they can become more than useless? They'll never be meta, and they'll never score big in anything.
But maybe they can still be fun.
Thus, we have: The Crappy Character Cavalcade, Blade edition.
Wanting to make your game time suck) less?
Maybe you just want to play after midnight, son? Or it could be that you just hate vampires as much as this guy that Brooks no vampiric shenanigans.
If any of that is true, Blade) is your daywalker.
- What uniforms are available/best.
He only has one, the amazing afro assassin look. Visually, it's actually almost as cool as disco. Play wise, not even that cool. I mean, this uni needs a stake in its heart in the worst way.
When uniforms didn't come with skill changes or abilities, there was a canned response to the question "is this uniform better?" The answer was "it's ten percent better".
That's the only good thing to say about this uni. I dig the look, but I'm older than grave dirt. Even when it was new, it didn't make Blade great. It does bring a defense down on his 1 skill, and it was the first in the game iirc. Other than that, it doesn't offer any utility.
If you don't already have it, or need it to boost another uni, it really isn't worth getting despite the ten percent boost.
- How useful is the Tier-2 Advancement/Passive?
About as useful as Norman Reedus was in the movie. On paper, it looks good. Damage boost and a fairly decent ignore dodge amount. If you could actually survive long enough to hit anything, it might be great. You can't though.
I'm torn. Back before I t2'd him, I ran DDE for a while. And at that time, it helped. With the shield and his own lead, he could clear most pve content of the era. He was tough to kill in story mode chapter 9 and below. But he still lacked DPS. Later on, during one of the cost discounts, I switched him to POAH. He really benefits from the DPS boost more than the shield in the few things he can do now.
But if I was trying to get him going as a new player, I'm not sure what I'd put on him. He seriously needs an update or a good uni, so he's not worth doing a bunch of rerolls on, so go with whatever you get first; one of the damage proc, IIAG (I am also Groot), or DDE
- What stats would you prioritise for 4th Gear Option, Uru, or Uniform Upgrade Options?
This is another tough one. Without the standard SCD,ignore defense, crit rate, crit damage run, he's going to suffer.
But his kit really needs HP and recovery on paper. His lead is really good when he's got both high enough.
With enough DPS, it could balance out though. It doesn't, but it could. So it's better to stick with the standard and hope for the best in the future.
- What Custom Gear (Obelisk or CTP) do you recommend?
Fill in his stats. I'm running an ignore def with web resist and a shield. The web resist helps him in the only SL levels he's truly useful for; the speed relays.
- What teams or team bonuses do you use them in?
I so badly want to say he's incredible with the midnight sons. Him and ghost rider should be a team up. But they wasted midnight sons as a group. GR, Strange, and Blade. The only useful boost from it once you have decent cards is the recovery rate. That team does great with blade as lead. But really, just make Strange lead and use him.
Instead, he gets used without a team up most of the time. He's bottom tier, so he's mostly a leader for when your main needs the extra heal. In that regard, he turns any of the regenerator heroes scary hard to kill. And, two of them have minor bonuses with him. Gwenpool and Wolvie are both great mains anyway. Under his lead, they can solo past floor 40 no problem.
- How viable are they in various gamemodes, and with what skill rotations?
Oh boy. You know, there's a testing scale I use for evaluations. The final chapter of the agents of shield levels, hard villain siege, and the first floor of SL. In general, those were pretty hard at one point, but should be able to be soloed with decent cards.
Most characters can solo each of those. If they can't, they're essentially useless. Guess what blade can't do.
He can solo chapter 9 story. And medium villain siege too! So he's got that going for him.
I've taken him into regular AB trying to do this edition. Even with him as lead, baby Groot, and Angel, he can't finish it because he dies. His best result was with Elsa lead, and Warwolf transferring his buff. Still couldn't finish. He either died, or just couldn't clear it.
For a vampire, he really sucks.
- How good are they against various World Bosses, in what teams and what stage (if World Boss Ultimate)?
He's awesome! He aces Thanos in five seconds!
I didn't think anyone would buy that. He couldn't even do anything useful before WBU was a thing. His lead gives a nice survivability boost, but then you lose DPS.
Sorry, he's just not up for it.
- What floors can they clear (or assist clearing) in Shadowland?
Ahhh, as usual with this crappy character thing, this is where the bottom tier can occasionally shine.
Now, Blade can't solo a damn thing. Not even the first floor for me. But he can be a really great support. I'll give the more detailed how to at the end, but with enough careful play, he can be valuable even at high floors.
He's great in any of the speed relays. He can't solo, but if you equip him with either stun or web resist, he can throw enough burst to be handy.
And, he's surprisingly nice in rumbles because of his defense down. It's only physical damage, but since all the floors he's eligible for can be run with all physical attack characters, it's better than you'd think.
- How viable are they in PvP, in general?
This marks the fourth CCC post. Let's face it, none of the characters I'll be doing are of any use at all in PvP unless you're a masochist.
If you're a masochist, he is incredible! Really, there aren't many characters in the game that melt as fast as Blade in PvP. Not much dodge natively, zero iframes, no damage mitigation. Just messing around this last week, I saw him die so fast I thought it was a glitch and he didn't spawn. That's how sad he is.
- What ideas do you have for more uniforms?
Oh man, tons of looks. My first pick would be the midnight sons era. That's Blade at his most bad-ass. Which is saying a lot because comic Blade is sort of like Snake-eyes from GI Joe. He's so patently over powered and given plot armor so many times in his history that it's silly. And c'mon, who wouldn't love a Snipes Blade in game?
Either way, keep his 5 skill as is, but add an iframe to it. Have the uni double the heal from his lead and half the cooldown on it. Give the minor crit buff on his 3 a boost and add a crit damage as well.
But for his 4, make him grotesquely awesome. A full ten second accumulate damage buff. Make it his damage. He's a freaking half vampire, how does he not get more power from feeding on his enemies? It's like, central to his trope for crying out loud! He gets beat down and has to feed on his foes to rise up. That's his thing. Make it part of his kit.
Oh, and wtf? One bleed on one skill? Home slice should be throwing bleeds like Nightcrawler does.
Hell, change his passive to do extra damage against bleeding targets since I'm wishing in one hand here. You know what I'm doing with the other, and which one will fill up first, right?
You got it, I'm pumping out some lotion to fix how chapped my ass is that Blade sucks, and not even in the good way.
- What are your overall thoughts on the character?
Man, Blade should be so cool in game. I want to love him. I'd settle for just being able to use him fully. But here comes that word again, he sucks.
Seriously people, when I cooked up this idea I thought the characters would get better as I went along. I mean, I started with hulkling!
How is it that Blade, one of the coolest characters in Marvel, that had his own movie trilogy before the MCU, is so bad? I mean, MODOK is better as lead. Hulkling has more survivability. Hawkeye does better DPS.
- Trying to make use of him for fun
Where blade tends to shine most is in relays. Alas, really only the lower level speed relays. As mentioned before, you'll want a stun or web resist for those. Otherwise he falls apart like a vampire in the sun.
That being said, he does really solid burst damage. When he's up, pop his 1, then 3 for the crit boost, and the 5 for damage. You probably won't get a second rotation before he dies. Even on floor 1, he just can't take the hits. Now, if you've got stun resist, you can kite him until spidey comes out. It's usually more trouble than it's worth since any of the other low tier combat toons can do okay damage as well.
If you went web resist, save him for spidey. Just tag him in for his burst, then tag out immediately. His native ignore dodge does give him the ability to lay down some hurt on the web head and ant man.
Now, one of the great things about Blade isn't really fun. But his leadership can be really effective. I had some serious success with his lead in post 30 SL. It does require someone with either a lot of damage mitigation or heals of their own, and significant DPS.
Wolverine is unstoppable with Blade as lead. He's already pretty close as it is, but just for fun I took them into an entry floor against the X-Men. Blade died in like three seconds. But Wolvie just face tanked the first stage, then laughed at Magneto and Storm. Finished with a few seconds to spare at full health.
Gwenpool, Deadpool, Hulk, and Groot can be used in a similar fashion if they can clear the floor.
This one got really long. But there's more to add, so I'll have to leave it as a comment since I'm out of room
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