#4

FORCE BLAST

There were fewer powers less useful than Force Blast, before. Though occasionally good for stopping a tie-up threat or dealing easy knockback — and knockback damage — to a properly positioned high-DV, unarmored target, for the most part the purple Speed power was just so much wasted points in the slot. Usually, your power action was better spent doing something else — ANYTHING else.

But in 2013, Force Blast now has a passive effect — its user’s hits can always generate knockback, if they like. So that enemy shooter you just hit can get shoved out of retaliation range. Or that fig that had your buddy tied up gets pushed away.

Such a simple, elegant upgrade to a power that needed one makes Force Blast a welcome #4 Winner in Summer 2013.

It’s not alone in the slot, though.

(tie)

RANGED COMBAT EXPERT / CLOSE COMBAT EXPERT

Hardly useless, the pair still get an upgrade from merely dealing +2 damage to getting the option to modify AV +2 instead, or granting +1 to both stats. Putting the “expert” in these powers rates a shared spot in the #4 Winner’s spot.

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The #4 Losers also tie.

PROBABILITY CONTROL.

One of the three “free-range” supporting powers, Prob Control now finds its effect hacked from the old default 10 squares to six, or whatever its user’s range is, whichever is higher. Whoops, it just got a lot harder for the likes of John Constantine or Destiny to affect the game from the safety of the back field. And with PC’s outsized effect on HeroClix games, these characters will be taking more fire than before.

There’s no rerolling this result: Probability Control will be the #4 Loser in HeroClix this summer.

(tie)

PERPLEX

Another of the three “free-range” powers, Perplex also finds its effect hacked from the old default 10 squares to six, or whatever its user’s range is, whichever is higher. That’s actually sort of good news, as a fellow Perplexer might be able to buff your range to get to ‘Plex a target — or use one of the other powers affected by this new rule.

But this is still a heck of a blow to this most versatile of supporting powers. No amount of modifiers keeps Perplex from sharing the #4 Loser slot in 2013.

MIND CONTROL

This power has needed an upgrade for a while, appearing among the ten powers/abilities/rules needing a change about this time last year. My suggestions went a bit too far (3-die roll and ignore hindering terrain for LOF). I didn’t even consider the worst aspect of Mind Control: that after all those die rolls the power needs to be effective, you’re still taking automatic damage for controlling anything more than a peon. If you’re dealing with a tentpole, or worse, a colossal, you could very well hurt yourself badly for very little return.

(Case in point: I once tried to use Mouth of Sauron to MC colossal Thanos in a last-ditch effort to turn the game for my cause. Mouth succeeded; Thanos did not. Mouth was instantly KO’d by the unavoidable damage.)

Well, Mind Control has improved in a big way. First: it’s more flexible, being a combat action instead of a power action and thus making it compatible with Running Shot or Charge (in those cases where game effects allow these Speed Powers to coexist). Second: up to 150 points can be MC’d safely, and Third: only one click of damage is dealt for higher costs.

Mind Control is still an iffy power for its expense (you still have to land the attack, then possibly have to break away the target from its erstwhile allies, or land an attack on same, then take your feedback damage at worst and your action token at the very least). But it’s a darn sight better than it was and so is the #3 Winner in 2013.

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The Loser is also mental.

OUTWIT

One of the three “free-range” powers like Probability Control and Perplex, Outwit also finds its effect hacked from the old default 10 squares to six, or whatever its user’s range is, whichever is higher. And it’s worse for Outwit than for the others because while they can sit in relative safety in the rear guard rerolling allies’ attacks and boosting their stats, the Outwitter has to get the enemy in range, leaving the Outwitter itself far more vulnerable to attack.

Outwit is so much more dangerous to use now that it’s the biggest loser of the “OPP” triptych, and the #3 Loser of all.

SMOKE CLOUD

Like a number of other powers, Smoke Cloud paled next to more aggressive ones because burning a power action and getting a token was so not worth it, even if the cost of the actual power was low. Increasingly, the only time the purple attack power was really useful was when it was a free action.

Now, though, its versatility is greatly increased with a minimum 4 range, 6 tokens available instead of 4 and, most importantly, its ability to -1 the attack value of anyone occupying it. Nice!

More squares of smoke at greater range enables greater flexibility to block Charging lanes against grounded foes, and it’s a way to nerf a bunch of enemies at once.

Smoke Cloud still isn’t going to be a marquee power, but it is definitely improved enough to be the #6 Winner in 2013, along with…

(tie)

QUAKE

Similarly, Quake got a simplifying boost across the board: it always knocks back 2 squares, regardless of damage taken by the target. So where this power was once completely useless against targets Invulnerable or better, it now can knock those types away on any successful hit. Very nice way of thwarting  potential melee attacks or Poisonings next turn.

The new situationally defensive uses of this 100% positive change make the light green attack power shares the #6 spot among 2013’s Winners.

MULTIATTACK

While powerful, the rarely-given-out Multiattack was held back by A) only appearing on colossals costing well beyond the 300-point standard build total, B) not being paired with the best powers like Hypersonic Speed and, to wit, C) colossals being generally too big to effectively use the dreaded hit-and-run speed power to do the “run” half.

Then came Sentry & Void — a 300-point, single-based character with the Multiattack ability and, top-dial, Hypersonic Speed. With this tentpole able to strike first at the opposing starting area FROM his starting area, it revealed that perhaps Multiattack needed to be reined in a little bit.

Consequently, in 2013 Multiattack loses the ability to use the same action twice.

Multiattack: a colossal Loser in 2013 at #6.

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On to the top five!