Intro:
This is PART 3 of the complete guide to all the Control Heroes in the game. As the “Control” category would suggest, these characters specialize in influencing the flow of combat through disruption and causing chaos. Each of them has a place in the game, so this guide will provide insight to each Control hero’s value.
Disclaimer: This Guide will always be under construction, either through updating information or adding more content as more new heroes are released in the game. I will be doing updates accordingly for as long as I continue to play the game.
Hank & Dory
Overview
COMING SOON
Hiro Hamada
Overview
Stengths:
+Amazing damage redirection
+Diverse CC
+Rising Power levels
+Mixed attacker
Weaknesses:
-Slow attacker (both Hiro and Megabot)
-Relatively weak without Megabot
-Helpless against negative status effects
Gameplay:
Hiro is a very interesting Control hero whose specialty is to give the enemy team an annoying distraction to deal with. “Megabot Call” is Hiro’s key skill that summons a Megabot with high HP, even rivaling the likes of Bo Peep and Sulley. The Megabot tends to land in the midline of the enemy team to stun as many targets as possible. Because of the preferred positioning of the Megabot, it can effectively redirect most incoming damage to itself. This very high aggro gives Hiro’s team much safer opportunities to do damage without fear of retaliation. As long as the Megabot is present, it will attempt to cause slows while doing respectable Normal damage. Without the Megabot, Hiro is a somewhat weak backline unit, although he can threaten to disrupt the enemy backline with “Microbot Stun”. Hiro’s unique methods of manipulating the enemy can be fun and effective in PvP. For team Red’s Invasion week, Hiro is one of the very best Control types available because he is not particularly crippled by disable wards. The Megabot is an amazing extra ally that can temporarily absorb the onslaught of attacks from Mama Bots.
Friendship Disks:
Hiro’s disks improve more of his ability to control the battlefield, but these disks tend to be vary in usefulness depending on the circumstances at hand. Baymax’s disk gives both Hiro and the Megabot special bonuses to help them get a hold of momentum as soon as possible. Hiro starts the battle with more energy, allowing him to call the Megabot much sooner. The Megabot will enter the battlefield with a weak shield, and it also gets an attack speed bonus whenever it is shielded from any source. Darkwing Duck’s disk on the other hand allows for Hiro’s Microbot Stun to affect multiple enemies within range. This disk makes Hiro an even bigger backline threat, and the Skill Power bonus will increase Megabot’s HP and the strength of their skills. Both are good disks, but Baymax’s disk is at its best when Hiro has teammates that can provide shields and that there are no threatening shield breakers to oppose him. On the other hand, while it’s true that Darkwing’s disk is a little more flexible, it is less useful when facing against a front-heavy team or if Hiro needs his Megabot sooner than later.
Team Options:
Should you choose to utilize Baymax’s disk, then shield heroes such as Violet, Goofy(Mi), and (obviously) Baymax are the ideal partners. Baymax is the most consistent out of all of them because his skills tend to coincide with Hiro’s a little more easily. Should you go with Darkwing’s disk, heroes that can provide more energy make for great choices. Obviously WALL-E is ideal, but Mickey or Miguel are quite good too. Because of the diverse nature of Hiro’s skillset, he is a good fit for teams that abuse slows or stuns. Hiro is also a great character to have with Meg. Not as a link partner, but as extra protection. The Megabot can redirect aggro away from Meg’s linked partner so that she isn’t taking as much damage as she normally would. Hiro can be interesting partners with Nick in a City Watch run as well. The Megabot counts as an extra ally that further adds to Nick’s Proper Reinforcements.
Counters:
Hiro’s Megabot becomes far less effective when it gets pushed out of the middle of the enemy team because then the Megabot will have less targets it can hit. Timon & Pumbaa, Animal(WA), and Finnick are very good for this. Backline divers like Darkwing Duck, Mr. Incredible, and Moana(Me) are huge threats. Peter Pan is perhaps the worst of them if Hiro is the farthest one positioned at the back. Elsa(Fr) and Jack Skellington(MH) can seriously hurt Hiro with their AOE backline attacks, but they do have to watch out for the Microbot Stun. Hiro and his Megabot are generally helpless from all forms of CC, but they are especially vulnerable to the Queen of Hearts, who can potentially pull Hiro out of position. And course, be very wary of Ursula, as she may deny Hiro from using Megabot Call. This is where using Baymax’s disk for the starting bonus energy can overcome Ursula.
Huey, Dewey, & Louie
Overview
Strengths:
+High damage potential
+Rising power levels
+Has Tenacity
+Strong early game
+Great synergy
+Mixed attackers
Weaknesses:
-Slow attackers
-Below average Armor and Reality
-Susceptible to AOE damage
Gameplay:
The triplets are potent hazard setters in the battlefield, laying bear traps among enemy lines to vastly restrict mobility. “Woodchuck Trap Badge” is a key skill that can steal early-game momentum by stunning enemies that set them off. As they ride across at the start of battle, they also briefly force the enemy to turn their backs, which baits them into facing forward again, which may set off the traps in the process. The triplets may periodically set more traps with “Woodchuck Travel Badge” while also pushing enemies back. Once again, this baits enemies to try to move forward so that they may set off the new traps. Each time enemies are trapped, they gain more and more Skill Power, making them do more and more damage. “Dematerializer” is one of the only skills in the game that forces the farthest target into the frontline, somewhat similar to Woody’s lasso. While it does cause great damage and even a decent stun length, it only targets one enemy at a time and is consequently difficult to use again. Their shenanigans are more than welcome in any game mode. For Invasion, they are amazing for Breaker quests even when they lose their stuns thanks to their high damage, but they are very inconsistent against Mama Bots.
Spring The Trap:
The triplets’ Red Skill further enhances the utilities of their signature traps. The gain a small boost to their HP and a modest boost to their Skill Power and the damage of their Woodchuck Trap Badge. Every time enemies set off their traps, they will lose a certain amount of Basic Damage and Armor for 12 seconds and these effects can stack up to 3 times! It’s not technically a game-changing Skill by any means, but it’s one of the few Red Skills that don’t have any level restrictions. It’s easy to invest in it just to unlock it at the very least, but leveling up this skill can be safely left to discretion.
Friendship Disks:
Huey, Dewey, and Louie have a Friendship with Joy, and this disk specifically makes the triplets more effective against Tanks. Their traps can shred Armor and deal extra damage, but these bonuses are exclusive against Tanks. It is currently the only disk available to them at the time of this writing.
Team Options:
The triplets work very well with just about anyone. Because of the nature of their skills, they are very good against teams that rely on more than one Tank hero. Their very frequent stuns and push back for grouping enemies together make them terrific teammates for Gaston. They are generally very good in a team that abuses stuns to begin with. Even with low defensive stats, they do have a moderately high HP growth, so heroes that can help protect them are welcome additions. Joy(Ol) and Timon & Pumbaa are powerful allies that can give the three some much needed bulk. Sally(Ya), Shank(Va), and Kevin are all decent choices as well. Since they are slow attackers, they do benefit greatly from speed boosters such as Goofy, Woody, Alice, Animal, and Duke Caboom. Woody is arguably the best choice as his Lasso works well with those traps, both heroes can greatly threaten backline targets together. Similarly, The Queen of Hearts(Re), who can shuffle enemies around is great for helping them activate more traps. Charmers, especially Meg and Mad Hatter are great for forcing frontline targets to turn around and walk right into more traps!
Counters:
Joy is one of their more important counters because her healing and Reality bonuses can greatly diminish the damage they can do. Kevin is a powerful support specialist who can cleanse the stuns from his teammates, making it much harder to take control over the battlefield. Anger and the Mad Hatter are excellent counters who can remain functional even when stepping on the triplets’ traps. Mad Hatter in particular may charm them if they close enough. Miss Piggy is a dangerous threat who can ignore being stunned a few times while also becoming stronger and more threatening each time she was supposed to be stunned. Elsa(Fr) can be somewhat of a soft counter, as she can freeze them from a safe range and stays in place long enough to avoid getting trapped. She must be wary of them using their Dematerializer on her though.
Jafar
Overview
Strengths:
+Very high stats
+Insane damage potential
+Very good synergy
+Useful Friendship Disks
+Versatile utilities
Weaknesses:
-Slow attacker
-No Tenacity or Evasion
-High backline aggro
Gameplay:
There’s really no other way to put it—Jafar is an incredibly powerful character. He is an offensively focused hero who can potentially wipe entire enemy teams off the map. Should anything survive the overwhelming force of his “Whirling Dervish”, they would have to deal with Jafar’s excellent skillset. He can delay characters by stealing up to 300 energy while also slowing them down, and he has the most powerful single-target charm in the game. “Snake Charmer” channels Jafar’s energy to charm a target and he will continue to take control until he runs out of energy or is interrupted. The charmed target is granted more Basic Damage while also gaining more attack speed and an immunity to disables because of “Sultan Vile Betrayer”. The charm itself completely ignores the target’s Tenacity, but a target’s Evasion will cause it to fail to connect until the target fails evading. Everything Jafar does is useful in any game mode. Take advantage of game modes that allow him to be controlled manually. Guild Wars and Invasion allow you to manually select a target for Jafar to charm, making it possible for him to take control of a key midline or backline target that may just be strategically more important than the nearest target.
Friendship Disks:
Jafar has very useful Friendship Disks at his disposal, giving him new utilities that grants him even more advantages. To get straight to the point, Scar’s disk is the obvious choice in most cases. The disk gives bonuses to Tank and Support allies while Whirling Dervish will do more damage against Damage and Control enemies. But even more importantly, Whirling Dervish will be Jafar’s first attack. This comes out even faster than Woody’s lasso, so Jafar should be able to use it almost immediately after the start of battle. This disk alone is the reason why Jafar is such a coveted hero. With the help of Skill Power Mods, the overwhelming power of Whirling Dervish may be enough to almost straight up delete entire teams at the start of any match. Gaston’s disk is not anywhere nearly as exciting, but it is still useful in its own right. This disk improves the effects of Snake Charmer, as it allows Jafar to redirect any meter gained by the charmed target and distributes it to his allies instead. It also causes damage over time to the target.
Team Options:
Jafar fits well into most teams, but he absolutely excels in a hyper-offensive team that attempts to do as much damage as early and as quickly as possible. Together with Ducky & Bunny, the three of them can easily eliminate large chunks of enemy groups, especially those within the backline. He works well with fellow villains, especially Ursula and Maleficent(Ur), as they can steal a lot of energy together and delay attempts of retaliation. Of course, he makes a great team with Aladdin, Genie, and Jasmine. Jafar’s skillset synergizes well with the rest of theirs, especially because their attack patterns really complement one another. For instance, Jafar, Aladdin, and Jasmine are all capable draining energy and misdirecting attacks, while Genie keeps everyone topped up with his supportive utilities. One of his very best partners is Goofy(Je), as his disk with Jessie improves damage done against blinded targets. This makes Whirling Dervish almost too ridiculously difficult to survive at all.
Counters:
Jafar’s main counters are high Reality heroes that help cushion their team from being blown away by Whirling Dervish. Joy(Ol), Kevin, Sally(Ya), and Rapunzel(Bo) excel against him, but they each do it in their own way. With Olaf’s disk, Joy provides incredible amounts of protection for her team, and her healing can keep up with the raw damage being thrown at her. Kevin offers a slight improvement to the team’s Reality, but it’s his cleanse that’s very important here. With it, he can remove the blinding effect of Whirling Dervish and also cut off Jafar’s connection with Snake Charmer. Sally provides lots of Reality for her team and can even somewhat pressure Jafar with her Frog’s Breath. However, her utilities are more supplementary and she can’t actually shut him down by herself. Rapunzel can also offer powerful healing and Reality like Joy, but is much more difficult to shut down like Kevin. Most importantly, she can pull Jafar from the back and make him significantly more vulnerable. With a smart combination at play, heroes that won’t normally survive Whirling Dervish can be used to retaliate, especially when these heroes can actually hit the backline where Jafar is. Ducky & Bunny can easily snipe him out of the backline and can often do so rather effortlessly. Other combinations like Elsa(Fr)/Merida(El), Jack Skellington/Mike(Su), or Hercules(Ma)/Bo Peep can be made viable to shut down Jafar as long as these heroes are being given sufficient protection.
Jasmine
Overview
Strengths:
+Very solid stats
+Double damage sources
+Mixed attacker
+Useful Friendship Disks
+Good burst damage
Weaknesses:
-No Tenacity or Evasion
-Very restricted on auto
-Susceptible to AOE attacks
Gameplay:
Jasmine’s introduction to the game contradicts the delicate flower that her name is based on. She’s literally more than a princess–she enters battle with her ever faithful tiger, Rajah. Jasmine and Rajah come as a unique package deal, with both of them completely capable of acting independently. Rajah is somewhat similar to Hiro’s Megabot, although with the benefit of being immediately present right from the beginning but lacking the ability to affect multiple targets at a time. With proper investment on the “Tiger Boost” skill, Rajah’s HP growth is immense, even surpassing that of Alice’s Enormous form! Using “Tiger Strike”, Jasmine can command Rajah to pounce on a specific target, doing heavy Fantastic Damage to a single target while also stunning them. Jasmine herself is also capable doing incredible burst (Normal) damage to a single target with “Fast Learner” and “Energy Vortex” allows her to steal 350 energy to further add to her utility. Jasmine and Rajah are very good at doing immense damage to one target at a time, but that surprisingly leaves gaps in their offense. With no way to affect multiple enemies at once, Rajah often gets KO’d too early and will only return to battle once Jasmine uses Tiger Strike again. It is very important to note that Rajah will always pounce on the closest target if the battle is played on auto, which is generally restricting. Otherwise, playing manually will allow for the player to choose exactly which target Rajah will attack when activating Tiger Strike, making this skill significantly more versatile. While Jasmine is a great pick for PvP, she will absolutely shine in Guild Wars, where Rajah can be manually directed for maximum value.
Striking Out:
Jasmine’s Red Skill makes her more proficient at being able able to use her excellent utilities with more confidence. Rajah will gain a small boost to his HP and Jasmine will gain a modest boost to her Skill Power and a damage boost for Tiger Strike. This Skill improves both Jasmine and Rajah, giving them a stronger presence in the battle field. For Jasmine, she is now immune to the first 3 Disables that affect her. This gives her a much stronger early-game momentum, as she is almost guaranteed to use Fast Learner and Energy Vortex without interruption. As for Rajah, he gains a unique damage reduction threshold. Rajah will no longer take damage that exceeds 20% of his HP; it stops at 20% and that’s it. This is amazing because assist characters like Rajah does not actually have any Armor or Reality stats to fortify their HP. Unfortunately, the full extent of Rajah’s newfound defensive strength is out of reach if the skill level is any less than maxed. If the skill is under-leveled, Rajah’s Damage reduction will be less effective, but is at least stopping some damage. At the very least, Jasmine’s Disable immunity is still fully functional, so that’s pretty awesome value all things considered.
Friendship Disks:
Jasmine’s disks grants new utilities that changes her overall approach in battle. Shank’s disk specifically increases the damage of Rajah’s regular attacks (but not Jasmine’s). This is will not improve the damage done by Tiger Strike. However, when Tiger Strike is used, both Jasmine and Rajah get increased attack speed for 11 seconds! On the other hand, Aladdin’s disk increases the max HP and Skill Power to all allies as well as increasing Rajah’s HP. Most importantly though, Jasmine’s Energy Vortex will also give energy for all her allies. Shank’s disk is very easy to use, even at low stars. Aladdin’s disk is very weak at low stars, but with max stars, it tends to be more useful in more situations. The energy gained by the entire team allows Jasmine to heavily swing the momentum of her team more favorably, similarly to WALL-E!
Team Options:
Jasmine is relatively easy to fit in a variety of teams. Rajah’s immense HP combined with Jasmine’s high stats means that Rajah ends up being very high aggro, greatly relieving pressure off of Jasmine’s frontline allies. Rajah will be treated like an actual party member, which means Rajah will benefit from any boosting skill being granted by allies. Jasmine definitely works well with Aladdin and the rest of the movie’s cast including Genie and Jafar. Rajah’s presence often helps with directing attention away from Aladdin, allowing him to more freely attack with less fear of retaliation. Together with Aladdin and Jafar, Jasmine can steal a lot energy at an alarming rate. Similarly, she can team up with Ursula and Maleficent(Ur) to deplete energy while taking more control over the flow of battle. She can also make for an interesting partner for Hiro. With both Rajah and the Megabot present in the field, the two can help perpetuate chaos and disruptions. To a similar extent, she can also team up with Kristoff; her ability to give him a burst of energy allows him to heal Rajah and Sven more promptly. This also means Jasmine is a good partner for Nick, as Rajah further adds to Nick’s Proper Reinforcements.
Counters:
Maleficent(Ur) can reliably put a stop on Rajah’s advance with her Forest of Thorns, and her Fog Of Doom can easily neutralize Jasmine’s Energy Vortex. The Mad Hatter will also have no trouble turning Rajah against Jasmine. Any form of stun or freeze will definitely make things hard for Jasmine. Jack Skellington and Mike shouldn’t have too much trouble keeping Jasmine stun-locked, and Elsa is even effective at doing that by herself most of the time by freezing her and/or Rajah. Duke Caboom is a particularly difficult hero to deal with as he can escape Rajah by using his Stunt Spectacular and do tons of free damage on Jasmine in the process. Hercules is yet another key threat. His invincibility makes it impossible for Rajah to stun or for Jasmine to kick him back while he can easily stun and push them back in return.
More in Part 4 (CLICK HERE)