Astonishing X-Men
Introduction
Astonishing X-Men were among the first teams to have Raid callouts in their kits and they were performing well in that game mode thanks to their Speed Bar generation thanks to Jubilee, the Legendary and the leader of the team.
They were also fairly decent in all other game modes at that time, but nowadays there is little to no use for them.
Team Members
(left to right)
Utility
- Alliance War (Secret Strike Event)
- Ultimus/Doom Raids
Astonishing will cover all your Ultimus needs and perform very well there, they can also perform decently in Doom raids but if you don’t have them built up at this point there’s no reason to work on them.
Jubilee is also used to unlock another Legendary – Adam Warlock. Bishop is an auto-Taunt character and can also be used as a plug-and-play character in some cases.
Team Placement & Turn Order
Bishop will Spawn with Taunt and serve as a Protector temporarily, so it is prudent to place him in a corner, next to him will be Iceman since he gets Revive Once on Spawn. Beast needs to survive for as long as possible so he will be in the opposite corner.
Turn Order :
- Bishop
- Beast
- Iceman
- Kitty Pryde
- Jubilee
Iso-8 Classes
- Jubilee – Skirmisher
- Beast – Healer
- Iceman – Striker
- Bishop – Striker
- Kitty – Skirmisher
Jubilee needs to have more focus to be able to apply her debuffs, her Stun on turn one can be very useful and we cannot allow it to be resisted, so Skirmisher is a natural pick for her. She can also be a Striker since her follow-up attack will also apply Blind.
Beast can be a Healer, increasing the sustain of the team even more. Striker can also be an option, that will help him clear more Positive effects from the enemies.
Iceman can be a good Skirmisher since he does apply Slow and Stun with his abilities and his Focus isn’t that great. He could also be a great Striker if Jubilee is a Skirmisher. His follow-up attacks can apply Slow and because of the increased Focus those will often land, The only issue would be landing the Stun with his Special.
If your Jubilee is Skirmisher try Iceman as a Striker, and if Iceman is Skirmisher, use Striker on Jubilee.
Kitty needs Focus to be able to flip Taunt, hence Skirmisher. And Bishop can deal great Damage and will be a good Striker.
Team T4’s
Essential
- Jubilee – Passive, Special
- Iceman – Passive
- Bishop – Passive, Ultimate
- Kitty Pryde – Passive
Jubilee’s Passive slightly increases the bonus Max Health and Damage she provides for the team (by +10%) and will fill Beast’s Speer Bar by +30%(instead of 20%) when an ally Astonishing drops below 50% Health.
Her Special will apply Offense up to all Astonishing allies (instead of 2 random) and will gain an Assist from all of them(instead of 3-4 random)
Iceman’s Passive will deal more damage to the enemy on their turn if they have Slow, and will further reduce the Armor and Damage for enemies with Slow.
Bishop’s Passive will allow him to always counterattack when he has Taunt (instead of a 50% Chance). And his Ultimate will substantially increase the damage, especially if he’s Charged.
Kitty Pryde’s Passive will always apply Evade on enemy turn to the most injured Astonishing(only in Raids)
Recommended
- Kitty Pryde – Special, Basic
- Beast – Ultimate, Special, Passive
- Bishop – Basic
- Iceman – Ultimate
- Jubilee – Ultimate
Kitty’s Special will slightly fill her Speed Bar if an enemy has Taunt. And her Basic will flip 2 Positive effects (instead of 1)
Beast’s Ultimate will add Regeneration to all X-Men allies, his Special will remove 2 Negative effects from Astonishing (instead of 1-2). And his Passive will increase the Resistance of X-Men allies by 10%
Technically his Passive and Special can be avoided altogether, but it is a nice bonus to have them.
Bishop’s Basic will just increase the damage, but he can end up counterattacking a lot, and having his Basic maxed out can be useful.
Iceman’s Ultimate will grant him more Barrier and increase the damage. It’s an AoE attack so more damage is appreciated.
Jubilee’s Ultimate will substantially increase the damage and will slightly increase the Speed Bar reduction to the Primary Target.
Team Red Stars
All of the members of this team can be left at the standard 4 Red Stars. If you want to increase the damage output you can upgrade Bishop and Iceman to 5 or higher.
It is an old team so heavy investment is not recommended.
Farming Locations
- Jubilee – Legendary Event (requires 5 Pym Tech characters at 3 Yellow Stars to unlock)
- Bishop – Villains Hard Campaign 1-3, War Store, Beta Raid Orb, Milestone III Orb
- Kitty Pryde – Villains Hard Campaign 1-9, Raid Store, Beta Raid Orb, Milestone III Orb
- Beast – Nexus Campaign 5-8, Crucible Store, Beta Raid Orb, Milestone III Orb
- Iceman – Villains Campaign 7-9, Beta Raid Orb, Milestone III Orb
On Spawn Buffs
Bishop – Taunt and Defense Up
Iceman – Revive Once
Team Mechanics
The main advantage of this team in Raids is that they get a lot of Speed. Their Speed Stat is increased by +20% and they also get a bonus Speed Bar whenever an enemy dies, all thanks to Jubilee. They have a relatively decent sustain because of Beast’s low cooldowns and good damage with Iceman’s constant attacks (in Raids) and Bishop’s counters.
In Raids they can be usable even today(excluding Incursion) but other than that they are slightly below average.
Jubilee
(+30% Max Health for Astonishing. In Raids, +20% Speed and +40% Damage for Astonishing)
The best part about Jubilee is her Passive. Not only does she provide an increase to the Speed stat, although only in Raids, but she also will fill the Speed Bar for her allies by +25% on any enemy death. This makes her team very effective against teams with weak minions because once they start dying your team gets a lot of free turns, especially if the enemy have Slow on them, which Iceman is happy to apply. This also works in any game mode, which does help Astonishing X-Men a lot. Without that, they would have been a much worse team.
Jubilee will also apply Assist Now to an Astonishing ally on any Astonishing turn, this can also drastically increase the damage of the team.
Any time an Astonishing ally drops below 50% Max Health, Jubilee will fill Beast’s Speed Bar by +30% and generate 1 Ability Energy for him, which should allow him to get to his turn quicker and start healing.
Other than that, Jubilee also has some decent controlling abilities. Her Ultimate attack can Stun the primary target and reduce their Speed Bar by 25%, while also dealing a decent amount of damage to the primary and adjacent targets and applying Slow to every enemy. In Raids, it will also apply Offense Down to all enemies.
Her Special will apply Offense Up to her Astonishing allies, will attack the primary target, and get an assist from all her Astonishing allies. The assists will only deal 50% damage, but it can still add up and it will hurt. This is also unavoidable and unblockable.
Her Basic is quite Special, at least it was a the time of her release. She can apply Blind with it. In all game modes, this has only a 70% Chance of applying, but in Raids it will always apply. Although, as per usual, it can be resisted.
Iceman
(Lower Armor by 20 % for all enemies with Slow.
In Raids, Lower Damage by 30% for all enemies with Slow.)
Iceman is a straightforward damage dealer who loves to apply Slow, although he does have some tricks up his sleeve.
If he Spawns with 4 Astonishing allies, he gains Revive Once. On Enemy Turn, if they have Slow he will attack them for some Piercing Damage, if they don’t have Slow he gets a 30% Chance to attack. And whenever Slow is applied to an enemy he will Barrier himself for 5% of his Max Health.
His Ultimate attack is ready turn one and it will attack all enemies and apply Slow for 1 turn to them. It will also apply 30% Barrier to himself.
His Special attack will also be ready turn one and has a relatively slow cooldown, but it will only hit 1 target. Although, if that target has Slow the attack will always Crut and will also apply Stun. This ability can be very valuable for fine control of your enemies, especially because of the low cooldown.
His Basic will hit the primary and adjacent targets and apply Slow to them, this attack also gains +1,000% Focus, so applying Slow will be very easy. This can make Iceman a great Striker character, who will make sure that their enemies always have Slow applied to them.
While his Kit is relatively simple it can be very effective, the only thing holding Iceman back is the average stats by today’s Standards.
Bishop
(In Raids, when an Astonishing ally drops below 50% Health, gain Taunt and Defense Up.
In Raids, while this character has Offense Up, gain +20% Damage.)
Bishop is a Blaster that can spawn with Taunt and can also Taunt whenever an Astonishing ally drops below 50% Max Health, and who benefits from having Jubilee as an ally.
He has a small Charged mechanic. He gains Charged whenever he’s attacked. And he uses the Charged to double the damage of his Ultimate attack. His Ultimate attack is on an incredibly low cooldown and he can use that every second turn so if he keeps getting hit he can hit back pretty hard.
At the end of his turn, if he doesn’t have Charged and has more than 80% Max Health, he will gain Taunt and Defense Up. So even if you try to avoid him, that won’t always work.
When he has Taunt, he gains +20% Damage Reduction and a 100% Chance to Counterattack.
His Special Ability will simply deal some damage, but if Jubilee is an ally, it will apply Offense Up first, then attack the target for more damage. With Jubilee, this attack is unavoidable and will always Crit, and it will also apply Offense Up and Defense Up to Jubilee.
His Basic attack will Clear the Counter from the Primary Target, apply Counter to himself, and deal some damage.
Beast
(+20% Resistance for X-Men allies)
Beast is a straightforward support character. On turn, he can apply Regen to the most injured X-Men ally. If that ally is Astonishing, he will also heal them for +35% of his own Max Health.
He also has a unique mechanic that is only useful if you use him with Phoenix, that way if he Spawns with 3 Uncanny X-Men allies the first ally Death won’t count towards the loss of the Medal(or Star) for Campaign Nodes or Challenges, so even if Phoenix dies and summons Dark Phoenix you will still get the 3 Stars for that mission.
His Ultimate ability is meant to buff allies according to their traits. He will:
Apply Offense Up to – self and all Blaster, Brawler, Uncanny, or Astonishing allies.
Apply Defense Up to – self and all Protector, Controller, Uncanny, or Astonishing allies.
Apply Speed Up and generate Ability Energy for self and all Support, Uncanny, or Astonishing allies
Apply Regeneration to self and all Mutant allies.
This can be great even if you use him as a plug-and-play character, but you need to consider who you use him with very well.
His Special attack will clear 2 Negative Effects from all Astonishing and will heal 2 Most Injured allies for 20% of his Max Health. After, it will deal some damage to all enemies.
His Basic can chain and hit 2 targets, it will also flip 1 Positive Effect into a Negative on both targets. On Assists or Counterattacks, it will flip 2 positives instead.
Kitty Pryde
(+30% Dodge Chance for self)
Weirdly enough, Kitty is a Protector. She doesn’t have any classic Protector abilities, instead, she will apply Defense Up to 2 most injured Astonishing allies on her turn, on any enemy turn she will apply Evade to the most injured Astonishing allies. Both things can happen only in Raids.
Other than that, she will also gain Stealth for 2 turns when she drops below 50% Max Health, and every time her Astonishing ally dodges, or an enemy misses, she will heal the most injured Astonishing ally for 10% of her Max Health. With all the Blinds that Jubilee can apply and the Evades, Kitty provides she may end up healing more than Beast, although it is rare.
Her Ultimate attack will deal damage to the primary and adjacent targets and apply Disrupted to them. If the target is Tech Disrupted will be applied for 2 turns instead. This attack is unavoidable and unblockable. This ability is ready turn one and her Disrupted can end up being pretty useful.
Her Special will attack all enemies, apply Offense Down for 2 turns to all enemies that are not Taunting, and will flip all Taunt on them to Defense Down. If any enemy had Taunt, she will gain +30% Speed Bar. This ability is good to be used first if there are any Taunting enemies, because it will speed you up and allow you to apply Disrupted to the Protector enemies, preventing them from regaining Taunt.
Her Basic can deal some damage and Flip 2 Positive Effects.
Combat Tips & Tricks
Bishop will start the fight and most often it’s best to use his Special attack first because it will deal a good amount of damage and buff Jubilee at the same time. Beast will take the next turn, alas you can’t use his Ultimate yet so you’ll have to resort to Special or Basic. His Special is on a low cooldown so you could use it even if no one is hurt or has any Negative effects because it will deal damage to all enemies, although Basic often might be a better option since it will flip Positive Effects. Iceman will be next to take a turn and most often, you should be using his Ultimate to apply Slow to everyone. After that will be Kitty’s turn, if there are enemies with Taunt, use her Special to clear it. If not, use her Ultimate to apply Disrupted to a Protector who may Taunt soon. All of the above should prep your enemies enough for Jubilee. Her Ultimate attack will Stun one target and deal a decent amount of Damage to all others.
After that try to eliminate weak targets as fast as you can, that will Speed your team up and allow you to finish the fight. In Raids, this team will be decent since they will get a boost to their Speed stat, outside of raids they end up being pretty average.
You may face them in War on Defense. But you could usually take them down fairly easily with Bionic Avengers or any other team that can deal a lot of damage and fast.
Avoid using teams with minions against them. On Offense, they may even end up winning against Masters of Evil because of that. As soon as Ultron summons his minions try eliminating them quickly, and after that focus on Kang, because he’s the only one who can cause you problems. If you manage to Stun him you will almost certainly win. Teams like Uncanny will also fall easily to Astonishing, all because of Phoenix who will die and trigger Jubilee’s Passive that way.
That said, those use cases are mostly for punch-across scenarios. If you don’t have strong Astonishing X-Men at this point there is no reason for you to spend resources on them.
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