Character tiers

[odinsgrandson]

Ok, although the game balance is not terrible, I have definitely noticed that not all heroes are equal. Many of them have their advantages and disadvantages, but sometime the one outweighs the other.

Among my group, we've decided that there are three tiers. We haven't tried out all of the heroes yet, so there are a lot of them that aren't on my list:

Tier 1- Heroes that are fantastic
The Heartless
Seth
Chooloo
The Monkey Queen
Nibbles
Smiley Faceless
Wisp
Hobspawn
Spike
Sonja


Tier 2 - Heroes that can be pretty great, but maybe they need some good gear before they're much good
Lord Fang
Maya
Kanga
Prince Aaron
Diva
Queen of Beggars
Viktor
Montoya
Lilith
Lydia
Elysia
King of Theives
Bob
Koba
Monkey King
Pluck
Frowny Faceless
Greensleeves
Grom

Tier 3- Heroes who underperform
Hitch
Bowie
Morgan
Black Newt
Pigsy
The Nameless
Sting
Serious Faceless
Surprised Facless

What are everyone's thoughts?

Edit- I've been updating my lists to include others' input here.

 

[Fatewalker]

I think hobsbawn is a Tier 1, anything that allows you potentially two attacks every turn in nice. I have a Hitch team going on, where pigsy carries all the weapons and hitch has all the boosts and I just use hitch to spam really powerful spells over and over again. Nothing like constant nova bolt spam early game to really clear the board.

I think the Tiers will fluctuate as the game goes on, and you have better early Campaign characters ( Chaz) and crazy awesome late Campaign characters (Spike).

 

[rrrrupp]

Hobs is between tier 1 and 2 imo. He's good but hard to use and a bit squishy.

My current guild (4-1 record) is Hobs, Nibbles and Chooloo. It's a freaking all star team.

Here are a few additions:
I'd add Prince Aaron as tier 2 (early on he's tier 1).
I'd also add any hero that dazes on wound to tier 3.
Sonja is a clear tier 1 hero.
Pigsy is tier 3
Queen of beggers tier 2
Diva tier 2 (but with the right equipment, tier 1... mostly because ammy of retribution is broken)

 

[rrrrupp]

The only of your assignments that I have issue with is monkey queen. She's tier 2 imo just becasue she can't always make good use of her power and it's hard to gear a person when you never know what their power will be.

 

[kryzen13]

Sonja is absolutely Tier 1, and I'd argue Monkey Queen is quite possibly the strongest character in the game through sheer flexibility. It's not hard to plan line of sight moves with her, especially if you pair with another very strong ability character (like Sonja) so you can set up the line of sight whenever you need to.

Adding on to some of the characters you haven't yet included, I'd say the Surprised Faceless is definitely 3, Pluck would be 2, Pigsy somewhere between 1 and 2 along with the Monkey King. Those are the ones from my campaign that I wanted to add.

I feel like a tier list would be very fluid as well here, since just about every hero can do quite well.

 

[rrrrupp]

Sonja is absolutely Tier 1, and I'd argue Monkey Queen is quite possibly the strongest character in the game through sheer flexibility. It's not hard to plan line of sight moves with her, especially if you pair with another very strong ability character (like Sonja) so you can set up the line of sight whenever you need to.

Adding on to some of the characters you haven't yet included, I'd say the Surprised Faceless is definitely 3, Pluck would be 2, Pigsy somewhere between 1 and 2 along with the Monkey King. Those are the ones from my campaign that I wanted to add.

I feel like a tier list would be very fluid as well here, since just about every hero can do quite well.

Maybe player count matters. In a 4 player game (in my group), we'd just kill Sonja and that would weaken Monkey Queen. A character that is that situational is not tier 1 in my book. Not to mention, if you plan on stealing a friendly power, a lot of the powers require certain gear so it's hard to double up (for example on spells).

Pigsy is one of the worst heroes in the game though... tier 1? no way. It's very rare in my group to get wounded and not killed. We're blood thirsty. That's not even accounting to the fact that the stars must align in that Pigsy is wounded when you actually want to rest. Resting just to heal, is a complete waste.

 

[Arydis]

I follow the general consensus that the tier list is not rigid as each character has certain potential, but there are those who clearly outpower others.

From my play, I would add Viktor as a Tier 1 character. Circumstances could bump him down to a Tier 2. He has to be armed to the teeth to take full advantage of his ability, but the armor and rerolls available through swords can keep this from being a disadvantage.

 

[rrrrupp]

Viktor is good, but he's not a tier 1 imo. He can do a bunch of damage quickly but only if he can one shot things and his ability doesn't help him do that so it's less useful. He may be tier 1 in early quests but once monsters start lasting through an attack (and heroes) then Viktor is a lot more situational.

 

[odinsgrandson]

I think that Viktor, like Spike, belongs on my tier 2 list. That's where a character belongs if they can be on level with tier 1 characters, but can fall behind if their equipment isn't perfect, or as the monsters level up.

The only of your assignments that I have issue with is monkey queen. She's tier 2 imo just becasue she can't always make good use of her power and it's hard to gear a person when you never know what their power will be.

I could see that- but in our campaign, the player who grabbed her also grabbed Chooloo- so she just dazes people most of the time, and has been stupid effective.

But she'd be aweful if you paired her up with a couple tier 3 folks..

 

[rrrrupp]

I could see that- but in our campaign, the player who grabbed her also grabbed Chooloo- so she just dazes people most of the time, and has been stupid effective.

But she'd be aweful if you paired her up with a couple tier 3 folks.

Yeah, in our campaign she copied my chooloo to daze someone. It was annoying She's tier 1 in the right circumstance... I just don't think she belongs with the rest you have as tier 1 because they're amazing in pretty much every case. Maybe Wisp is an exception because he's bad at winning the actual game (the final mission). It's all subjective though.

 

[Trigoras]

Spike is very gear dependent.

Spike with amulet of retribution is almost unstoppable. He's basically just running around the map making monsters kill themselves since guard reactions are not optional. (and yes there are still counters, looking at you seth).
Spike with lots of defense is still probably tier 1. (double shield spike, late game, seems legit).

 

[Fatewalker]

I am going through my first campaign now, I was not given the option to get the retribution amulet as someone had kept it form me when we did lootz. I am starting to see my spike get nasty.. though another counter for you all that I have to deal with on my 4th mission.. is curse amnesia.. ..... .... .. *cry*

 

[Trigoras]

I did notice that most of spikes power comes from his ability. The amulet of retribution only has potential to the strength of the attack.

For example, if the attack only does 2 hits then the amulet of retribution can only deal 2 wounds.

However if spike has his ability active then crits now count as 2 wounds each assuming the same scenario. so 4 wounds if he rolled 2 crits and the additional dice did not roll crits.

Which is actually a scenario for an attacker to reroll a hit against someone with the amulet of retribution.

 

[VileMcNasty]

I prefer speed to offense so Koba and Zahra are in my tier 1. I would put Montoya, Lilith and Lydia into tier 2.

 

[odinsgrandson]

Just finished a game in which I handed the Moon Shield to my guy with the Amulet of Retribution- it was sick and wrong.

So, we got rid of the Amulet card (forever). On a similar note, I decided that Spike might just be Tier 1- even if he doesn't get the amulet, you can hand him enough armor that can get essentially free attacks against monsters everywhere he goes.

Early on, he's not top notch, though. That makes me a little less sure about where he goes.

I've also included a lot more heroes on the list. If anyone has thoughts on this, please let us know.

 

[shank1025]

Notice a couple missing names so here's my thoughts:

Grom - I'd probably call him a high end tier 2 since he can very strong but needs a little gear to really shine. Crushing Gauntlets and a good weapon are pretty easily attained and then you're throwing 7-8 dice at things.

Greensleeves - Tough call, he's so lame until he gets a better bow than the slingshot but he does become competent later. I'd probably call him tier 2, but wouldn't argue a tier 3

 

[odinsgrandson]

I'm thinking about this in context of a campaign, so Greensleeves is probably tier 2. I don't think he's on par with the tier ones, but I also don't think he's as poor as the threes.

 

[Kjelstad]

I don't see Johan. I have only played twice and filled in for another player but Johan was absolutely terrible until I picked up a pair of the frost swords. a 66% ranged attack is pretty sweet. Now I am looking forward to playing him. I would guess tier two since he really needs the right equipment.

 

[Dallaen]

For a character with such a simple ability Sting is great at clearing out monsters quickly. I would put him mid tier not lower tier because his ability does have use and if you are using the Monkey Queen it's even better.