Who to rank up? (long post, sorry)

Wubbie075

I am getting pretty close to a third t4cc for cosmic and mystical so I'll be able to bring someone up to rank 5.
I'm not in and don't plan on joining an alliance right now so ignore any of those considerations.

I currently have the following 4* Champs in those two classes:

MYSTICAL
Doctor Strange (4/40 duped-58)
Loki (4/40 duped-40)
Dormammu (3/30 unduped)
Magik 1/10 (unduped)

Leaning toward Dr. Strange, but I only got Dormammu very recently, so I don't really have a good sense of his power yet. I also love Loki's buff steal.

COSMIC
Gamora (4/40 duped-47)
Sup Iron Man (3/30 duped-30)
Sym Spiderman (3/30 unduped)
Black Bolt (1/10 unduped)

I am a big fan of Gamora, but I know a lot of people don't like her. I could probably be convinced to go with Spiderman. The others are not really in consideration.

Other relevant info: I am creeping up on 100% in Act 4 so I will soon have three tier 4 class crystals, one 4* awakening gem, one 4* hero crystal, and the 3k 5* crystal shards are enough to get me the crystal. I am also sitting on 21 generic 4* sigh stones that I've been holding for my next duped champ.

I also have two t4cc in other classes but I am not close in shards. But with the crystals I may have the opportunity to rank them up. I won't list everyone else, but here are a few of the better options.

Black Widow (4/40 duped-45)
Crossbones (4/40 unduped)
Hulk (4/40 duped-34)
Electro (3/30 unduped)
Punisher (1/10 duped-20)

FINALLY, I have two unduped 5* at 2/35:

Star Lord
Iron Man

I only have one tech t4cc, but I'm at 33k shards so if I pull one from the crystals I'd be close. I also have a couple of good 4* tech champs but I think ranking the 5* Star Lord is probably the best move if I rank a tech champ.

DNA3000

If you are not in an alliance T4CC crystals are probably relatively slow to acquire. That's an important consideration.

Here's what I would do:

First, rank up Dormammu to rank 3 immediately and start playing him. Get a feel for him, particularly his ability to power lock. This is an important step because no matter what someone tells you about how good a champ is, what matters is how good the champ is in your hands. If you suck at building combos, for example, then Star Lord is mediocre.

Next, rank up either Dormammu or Magik, whichever you are better at. Both can permanently power lock with special two. Both are pretty strong attackers. Both are also very good defenders when ranked up, but that won't matter to you if you are not in an alliance. I personally think Magik is slightly better on offense. But rank up the one that you think you are stronger with.

I think Dr. Strange is still pretty good, even though many vocally disagree. But I think both Magik and Dormammu are better. I think Loki is interesting, and the buff steal is an interesting power (in fact you can steal buffs you can't nullify if I recall correctly) but I don't think he's nearly as good as the other three.

In terms of Cosmic, I would just wait. I would not rank any of those to rank 5. I would hold out for Hyperion, on the assumption that both cosmic t4cc and the t4 basics are slow in coming, and you will be out of t4b anyway once you decide on which mystic to upgrade. I wouldn't upgrade any of those cosmics unless you had excess cosmic and t4b to burn. My list of cosmics to take to rank 5 are Hyperion, Thor (awakened), and maybe Drax, and Marvel.

When you get around to ranking up a skill, I would recommend Crossbones. If you aren't going to ever face a mystic dispersion defender in AW, Crossbones is one of the best skill attackers out there. Gwenpool and Elektra are a bit better in my opinion, but Crossbones is a bird in the hand and you won't go wrong with him.

Until he is awakened the 5* Star Lord is not all that good really. But I would still consider focusing on him, and hope that the next time dimensional rifts come along you can win the lottery and pull a 5* awakening tech or generic.

If you are not going to join an alliance, your focus should be on building attack teams that can take on the hardest single player content out there. That's RoL, RttL, LoL, Master mode monthly, and Act 4 and Act 5. Think about what makes that content hard for you, what you wish you could have to get past certain hard nodes or enemies, and look for ways to rank up those kinds of champions. And if you don't have them, I would save the resources until you get them.