GAMMA Team – War Horseman is revealed

The first Famine Scourge is behind us, and we are about to begin the second Pestilence Scourge. The time has come to find out who will be the third horseman after Morgan Le Fay and Rogue.

Scopely is dosing information just enough to tickle our imagination, so we come back and ask for more. The psychological aspect of their whole plan about 4 Horseman and Apocalypse is obviously patiently considered and professionally developed.

The simple mechanic of introducing new characters is covered in mystery and anticipation, making it a lot more interesting than it would be otherwise. Anyway, we finally learned that the War Horseman will be Red Hulk.

Red Hulk

Scopely has informed us that after prolonged exposure to Gamma Radiation, Red Hulk will join MSF as the third Horseman. At this moment the only thing we know about Red Hulk is that his radiation exposure will affect the game in a completely new visual effect – Gama Radiation will cause that new Battlefield effect persists even after death.

Red Hulk’s kit is still a mystery, but we know who his teammates will be. The new GAMMA Team will be assembled from:

• Red Hulk – Legendary War Horseman
• Hulk – his kit will be improved in the near future
• She-Hulk – her kit will be improved in the near future
• Abomination
• Brawn

As you can see you will control a team made of Hulks. Gamma Team will be specialized for AW, and they will harass opponents with all iconic Hulk powers – insane HP, obliterating Damage, and constant HP regeneration.

To fully understand what they will be capable of we got the first glance at Abomination and Brawn kits. As usual, the first preview of upcoming characters’ kits is prone to changes, so don’t consider it final.

Abomination

Emil Blonsky is a commander of SAS and British Royal Marines. When Thaddeus Ross (later revealed as Red Hulk himself) assembled a group for fighting Hulk, Emil was an ideal recruit. He honored every task and willingly accepted to be used as a test subject.

Obviously, testing with Super Soldier Serum and Gamma Radiation controlled by rigid military personnel never brings anything good so Emil became a frenzied monster called Abomination.

Abomination was almost four meters tall with all benefits of Super Soldiers and Hulk – regeneration, superhuman strength, speed, agility … He had everything but the most important thing – he lacked Brains; therefore, he could never be as dangerous as Hulk. Nevertheless, he was ideal as a military test subject for awkward operations.

In MSF, Abomination is a Global Brawler who increases the Focus of the GAMMA allies and lowers the Defense of enemies. He also grants a Drain ability to the team and can Stun.

Basic Ability

Basic Ability causes moderate Piercing damage and Chains to another target. It also clears Defense Up while placing Defense Down in the process.

A Basic Attack that clears Defense Up and places Defense Down on the character whose specialty is increasing Focus is something you would want to have on every character. To understand the real effectiveness of this ability is simple – just think of Kestrel’s basic ability that can remove Defense Up from enemies. Amazing, isn’t it?

Special Ability

Special Ability is an AOE that causes moderate Piercing damage against all enemies and places Offense Down and Defense Down for 2 turns on each target. Before causing the damage and placing debuffs, the special ability will clear Defense Up on each target.

In addition, it will grant certain Critical Hits against all targets that have Defense Up or Defense Down. This attack cannot be blocked.

Ok, this special ability will be a game-winner against all teams that don’t have Safeguard or Evade. The damage of the skill is mediocre indeed, but it will fully expose the entire enemy team for everything that follows.

It will be especially effective against teams that rely on Defense Up on start (the main protection for the majority of current synergies) because it will be impossible to resist effects. Honestly, Abomination’s basic attack and special attack are enough so he can be considered as a Top Tier character.

Ultimate Ability

Abomination’s ultimate costs 4 Energy and it can be used at the start of combat. It causes immense damage against a single target after it flips its all Evade and Deflect. In addition, it will place Defense Down and Stun simultaneously. This attack cannot be Blocked or Dodged and in War Defense, it will target the enemy with the highest Focus ignoring Taunt.

The ultimate is also amazing. High single-target damage is not too important but the fact that you can choose who to stun at the start of combat while exposing the same target with Defense Down is amazing. This ability cannot be blocked or dodged, so it will land always.

The only downside of this ability is that AI will open every battle with it instead of with a special ability. It will affect the target with the highest Focus but somehow, I think that opening with special is more logical. Unfortunately, AI will never (at least for now) prioritize special in front of the ultimate.

Depending on Abomination speed, this ultimate may be a counter for some META teams. Just imagine that MLF is stunned before using her ultimate at the start of combat – that would totally cripple the Darkhold. The same goes for Rogue and her special.

Passive Ability

Passive Ability will grant regeneration equal to 20% of max HP to Abomination each turn. Also, it will permanently grant Drain and additional Health and Focus to all GAMMA allies. Finally, the passive ability will shuffle positive effects on the enemy each turn – according to the Blog’s info, it will flip 1 positive effect to another positive effect on all enemies.

Aside from self-preservation, passive ability grants Drain to the entire team. The fact that a team made of characters with self-regeneration and amazing damage will Drain as well make us think when it is enough. We must experience it in practice first but in theory craft, it seems OP. We will see.

Anyway, this random flipping of positive effects into other positive effects sounds interesting. I am not sure if that is a grammar mistake in the description so I will not jump to conclusions. What I know for sure is that everyone would be pissed if their Offense Up is transformed to Deflect, for example. It can be interesting definitely but let’s wait and see for confirmation.

Abomination’s kit is definitely overpowered. This is not an overstatement, and I can be totally sure about it. Regardless of his stats, he will be the character who will have full control of enemy defensive capabilities making them open for all kinds of attacks.

According to his kit, he is the character whose debuffs will land regardless of his ISO-8 class, so it is definitely insane in theory craft, Obviously, Immunity and Safeguard will counter him but still…

Brawn

Amadeus Cho aka Brawn got his name after Mozart. His parents had a passion for history and art, and they decided to name their son after a famous musical genius. Amadeus Cho showed signs of his own genius at a youthful age just like his famous counterpart.

Unfortunately, that has drawn the attention of a villain, Pythagoras Dupree, who wanted to kill all people who could challenge his own intellect. That unfortunate event led to the death of Cho’s parents and his union with Bruce Banner aka Hulk.

Amadeus was practically raised by Bruce who offered him education and a chance to study Gamma Radiation. During the years Cho became Hulk’s assistant who himself became exposed to Gamma Radiation. His exposure led to the birth of a totally awesome Hulk who could control his rage. At least, Amadeus was in the belief that he could control it until he couldn’t anymore.

Once he embraced the rage in its nature, Amadeus became a superhero known as Brawn.

In MSF, Brawn is a Global Support, who further increases the unbelievable Health pool of the Gamma team. He is the cleanser, buffer, and healer of the team who makes Gamma members significantly more dangerous and harder to kill.

Basic Ability

Basic Ability causes heavy damage and places Offense Down on a single target. Additionally, it places Regeneration on the most injured Gamma ally.

Unlike Abomination, Brawn has a usual Basic ability. It is nothing out of the ordinary even though it grants a minor sustain to the most injured ally. Most importantly, it is fully effective only in the Gamma team.

Special Ability

Special Ability costs 5 energy and can be used in the first turn. It causes minor damage against primary and adjacent targets, but it clears and copies all positive buffs before spreading it on all Gamma allies. In War, this ability cannot be blocked.

Brawn Special Ability is amazing! It is ineffective against Safeguard, but against everything else, it is simply overpowered. In practice, that means that Brawn will steal all buffs from targeted enemies and spread them to all allies.

The damage is not important at all because the ability will literally transform the enemy’s advantage into their disadvantage. It will be of utmost importance that Brawn Focus can beat the enemy’s resistance so giving him Skirmisher Class instead of the Healer class may be mandatory.

Ultimate Ability

Brawn’s Ultimate Ability also costs 5 Energy and can be used in the first turn. It causes minimal damage to the target but steals 35% of their Maximum Health. 500% of the stolen HP is redistributed as healing among GAMMA allies, bypassing Heal Block in the process.

At the same time, Brawn will place Immunity on all GAMMA allies and remove all negative effects from the entire GAMMA team. It is important to know that Health Steal ignores Deathproof when a target drops below a critical HP amount.

Stealing a percentage of enemy HP is always an important ability, especially in PVE where you fight enemies with significantly increased HP. Stealing 35% of HP … well that is a lot. For example, Ebony Maw steals 12% of maximum HP, while Dark Phoenix steals 20% of maximum HP. Only this ability alone would make Brawn a META for Dark Dimension Global Nodes, except it is single-based and affect only GAMMA members.

In short, this ability is insane and will grant immediate full healing to the entire GAMMA team. I just hope that AI will not prioritize ultimate in AW Defense’s first turn because that would be stupid … on most occasions but not all.

Passive Ability

Passive Ability grants a Regeneration equal to 20% of Max HP each turn as well as a permanent HP increase to all GAMMA allies. In addition, when any GAMMA ally drops below 50% HP, their Speed Bar will be increased by 15% and they will get Offense Up and 3 Deathproofs.

Also, all GAMMA members who have Regeneration and Heal Block will be cleared from Heal Bloc each turn. 

In AW, Brawn will start fights with Safeguard and Immunity if Hulk is on the team. He will also place Speed Up and 3 Deflects (only on Offense) to all Gamma allies on spawn.

Finally, Brawn will permanently increase the Resistance of all GAMMA members by 200%.

This passive is deadly even outside AW. HP of the GAMMA team will be further improved in addition to Abomination passive. When they drop below 50% their damage will be almost doubled while their regeneration will remain the same boosted with 3 Deathproofs !!??!! I don’t know how to explain to you the potential of it, but just imagine how hard is to kill ordinary Hulk and She-Hulk when they are below 50%.

Now consider that both Hulk and She-Hulk will be boosted and that they will passively be buffed with Offense Up once they drop below 50%. It’s simply insane …

The effect of Brawn’s passive ability in AW is sufficient to explain. Compared to them, Weapon X will look like an ordinary synergy – trust my words … And this presumption is given only after learning kits of two characters without their Leader.

Overall, to have final judging we must know the stats of Brawn. Knowing that all Horseman members so far have increased base stats, it is only logical to assume that Brawn will also be boosted compared to the rest of the roster.

I don’t know when he will be available for farming but if it is soon, I strongly suggest that you leave at least 2 Global spots in DD5 for him and Abomination. You will not make a mistake if you didn’t finish DD5 so far. That will be the smartest decision for two reasons – because of their kit and because they are Bio.

Conclusion

Honestly speaking no member of MLF’s and Rogue’s teams does not have a kit even near Abomination and Brawn. Those 2 GAMMA Giants don’t have Safeguard or Trauma, that is true, but still, they are just an addition to War Horseman we all expect.

I am really curious about Red Hulk. I can think of many options for how to make GAMMA team META in general. Somehow, I am sure that Scopely will successfully surprise me again. No matter how awkward their economic policy is and unpopular, those guys know how to make the game interesting and balanced, I give them that.

Without a doubt, having GAMMA at full strength will be mandatory so I suggest starting improving them immediately. It will be hard, I know, especially since you will have to improve Bionic Avengers as well but hey … at least it will not be boring. 😉