Whom to R3? The Recurring Question
DrZola
Member Posts: 8,926 ★★★★★
First things: this is meant to be an PSA post, not a flex. Just throwing in my thought process on R3 progressions. I play relaxed AQ/AW and concentrate on quests and BGs.
Above are my R3’s as of today. I see a lot of posts asking about this champ or that, so I thought I would start a thread with an attempt to explain my own choices in sequential order.
I currently have materials for 4 more (one will be mutant and one cosmic), but I’m currently waiting to see where content goes. Others are welcome to join in—explanations please if you do.
1. Wong (L40): My first R3, and a champ I play not as often as I should. I got a mystic gem from Necro completion, and at the time, he was my only awakened mystic and I figured I’d use him for explore. Quest king, not much for BGs other than an occasional defender.
2. America (L40): My second R3, and I wound up having materials for her and became enamored of her ability to dominate so many modes. She’s been amazing in BGs, great for high-end content and wrecks quests. At the time, I didn’t have any other class I could R3. Great in every mode.
3. Black Cat (L60): Perhaps my favorite R3 of all. Just incredible AAR and DOT, plus the fluid play style fits how I like to play the game. Monster attacker in BGs, Quests, anywhere. Closest next choice for me was Mantis or Elsa, but in the end it was no contest—and I have zero regrets. My cats were ready and waiting for the Cat—best attacker in game in my opinion.
4. OGIM (L45): A tougher call—Shuri was R2 and does a tremendous amount of work for me. Two-way threat in BGs, counter for annoying defenders, huge crescendo DOT damage. I chose OGIM because he’s also a monster—ability to take a lot of blocked hits and dish out a ton of damage. I needed a Tech at R3 and struggled with this one. Dark horse candidate was Shocker, who sat at R2 and L20. Ultimately, the combination of OGIM abilities (Invalidate, Regen, block Unblockable, Power Lock) won him a spot over Shuri. Great quester, solid BGs.
5. Quicksilver (unawakened): This was purely an Omega Events decision, and I may have missed the mark with this one. I wound up with awakened Mole Man, OS, Corvus as competition, and I probably should have picked Mole Man. I was in a fog from not pulling Longshot, and I spent a lot of time deliberating. I eliminated Corvus first, simply because I felt like the game was a little past him. I already had a large Skill roster and figured I could still use Mole at R2. It came down to OS and QS, and realistically I feel like I might have picked better if I chose OS. I like QS a ton, but he’s a bit of work for things like BGs. Ah well…
6. Silk (L40): Silk got passed for Cat and others a couple of times—not because I don’t love her (she’s a close second for favorite attacker behind Cat), but simply because I felt like she didn’t need R3 to wreck stuff. I again stared down Elsa, Mantis, Shuri, Bishop and picked Silk—mainly because of her silly damage and auto evade. No regrets—she rocks everything as attacker.
7. Ham (L60): Why Ham? He’s a beast—lots of use two-way, ability to stretch BG fights with poppers and the ability to crush annoying mystics via poppers/taunts. Add his evade and unblockable and use as a current Saga champ and it was a pretty easy call. He’s a phenomenal attacker and sneaky defender.
R2 Short List: Bishop (L80), Domino (L50), Vox (unawakened), Serpent (unawakened), Guardian (L100), OS (L20), Venom (L20). My next 2-3 are among these, and I’m really just biding my time to see what’s next. If I think I need one at R3, I can do it—but I’d honestly have to push an Onslaught, an awakened Serpent, or a few other Titan pulls to top of list.
Hope this helps players facing tough decisions. Feel free to add any of your own insights to this thread.
Dr. Zola
Above are my R3’s as of today. I see a lot of posts asking about this champ or that, so I thought I would start a thread with an attempt to explain my own choices in sequential order.
I currently have materials for 4 more (one will be mutant and one cosmic), but I’m currently waiting to see where content goes. Others are welcome to join in—explanations please if you do.
1. Wong (L40): My first R3, and a champ I play not as often as I should. I got a mystic gem from Necro completion, and at the time, he was my only awakened mystic and I figured I’d use him for explore. Quest king, not much for BGs other than an occasional defender.
2. America (L40): My second R3, and I wound up having materials for her and became enamored of her ability to dominate so many modes. She’s been amazing in BGs, great for high-end content and wrecks quests. At the time, I didn’t have any other class I could R3. Great in every mode.
3. Black Cat (L60): Perhaps my favorite R3 of all. Just incredible AAR and DOT, plus the fluid play style fits how I like to play the game. Monster attacker in BGs, Quests, anywhere. Closest next choice for me was Mantis or Elsa, but in the end it was no contest—and I have zero regrets. My cats were ready and waiting for the Cat—best attacker in game in my opinion.
4. OGIM (L45): A tougher call—Shuri was R2 and does a tremendous amount of work for me. Two-way threat in BGs, counter for annoying defenders, huge crescendo DOT damage. I chose OGIM because he’s also a monster—ability to take a lot of blocked hits and dish out a ton of damage. I needed a Tech at R3 and struggled with this one. Dark horse candidate was Shocker, who sat at R2 and L20. Ultimately, the combination of OGIM abilities (Invalidate, Regen, block Unblockable, Power Lock) won him a spot over Shuri. Great quester, solid BGs.
5. Quicksilver (unawakened): This was purely an Omega Events decision, and I may have missed the mark with this one. I wound up with awakened Mole Man, OS, Corvus as competition, and I probably should have picked Mole Man. I was in a fog from not pulling Longshot, and I spent a lot of time deliberating. I eliminated Corvus first, simply because I felt like the game was a little past him. I already had a large Skill roster and figured I could still use Mole at R2. It came down to OS and QS, and realistically I feel like I might have picked better if I chose OS. I like QS a ton, but he’s a bit of work for things like BGs. Ah well…
6. Silk (L40): Silk got passed for Cat and others a couple of times—not because I don’t love her (she’s a close second for favorite attacker behind Cat), but simply because I felt like she didn’t need R3 to wreck stuff. I again stared down Elsa, Mantis, Shuri, Bishop and picked Silk—mainly because of her silly damage and auto evade. No regrets—she rocks everything as attacker.
7. Ham (L60): Why Ham? He’s a beast—lots of use two-way, ability to stretch BG fights with poppers and the ability to crush annoying mystics via poppers/taunts. Add his evade and unblockable and use as a current Saga champ and it was a pretty easy call. He’s a phenomenal attacker and sneaky defender.
R2 Short List: Bishop (L80), Domino (L50), Vox (unawakened), Serpent (unawakened), Guardian (L100), OS (L20), Venom (L20). My next 2-3 are among these, and I’m really just biding my time to see what’s next. If I think I need one at R3, I can do it—but I’d honestly have to push an Onslaught, an awakened Serpent, or a few other Titan pulls to top of list.
Hope this helps players facing tough decisions. Feel free to add any of your own insights to this thread.
Dr. Zola
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Comments
Wiccan: My second r3 that made me Valiant, and honestly probably my most-used r3 champion (tied with another). I feel like he's a very overlooked champion. He can take down so many annoying champions, including some that you don't think he'd work for. He's great for Things. He shreds Korgs. He shuts down Dust really well. He's just a workhorse.
Shuri: I think most people know what Shuri can do by now. I'm not as in love with her as others are, but she's undoubtably a great champion. You can just stack and stack and stack up damage with her.
Bullseye: My second most-used champion alongside Wiccan. Yes, he lands on defense most of the time in AW and BG, but that just means that I miss using him there. I really like this champion. I almost always bring him whenever I don't place him on defense.
Photon: Another always-on-defense champion, but I find her to be a great quester since the persistent charge, well, persist. She also has some neat utility, such as being able to parry projectiles, that I love. It makes Ebony Maw easy peasy in BG. As long as you can avoid everything else that makes him annoying.
Hulk: Probably the attacker I use the most in BG, tied with the next champion I'm going to talk about. Hulk just smashes. Really, really much and really, really hard.
Adam Warlock: My latest r3 but one I've wanted to r3 for a very long time. I fell in love the moment I started playing with him. He's just so much fun. Also, spoiler, I might do a post about how y'all are sleeping on his awakened ability (especially if you run recoils). I have his sig at 100 right now and, based on some initial testing, I'm very excited to take him up further.
But that's a post for another day.
8. Domino (L50): Just a nasty champ on both sides. Can dominate a BG or quest as attacker, also a perennial pain as defender. If I can ever pull a Longshot, she makes a nice vector for team building with Black Cat. I’ve always been a fan of Domino and her ability to make hard fights easy just by chance.
Dr. Zola
Yeah but domino is great as well. Her synergy with black cat is huge imo. On the rare ocassions when I have to run path 9, I use domino + black cat always (especially this meta).
1. Parry (or with opponents like Photon, bait heavy)
2. Four-hit combo, backdraft+intercept
3. Either parry+heavy or use striker (BW) and heavy off striker to get calling card on opponent
4. Keep calling card on opponent until able to drop Sp2, which places sabotage debuff
5. Win
Dr. Zola
So I'm curious: which do you use? Following your guide, i get the vicious passive. Is that what you use to win? Or do you steal back the card in order to convert the sp2 into a sabotage?
And I should have clarified above that I tend to do a pair of 3 or 4-hit plus intercept combos in step 2, which should end up with the card on the defender.
Dr. Zola
Depending on what you want, you can activate sabotage or vicious by sp2. Remember, if you want vicious via sp2, you have to place the card on opponent. If you want sabotage via sp2, keep the card.