Intro:
This is PART 6 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.
Ursula
Overview
Strengths:
+Powerful anti-energy skillset
+Incredible momentum influence
+Dangerous skill denial
+Great synergy
+Has Evasion
Weaknesses:
-Very frail
-Vulnerable positioning
-Situational Friendship disks
-Medium to low damage
Gameplay:
Before there was Merlin, there was Ursula. “Poor, Unfortunate Souls” is a very technical skill that causes relatively minor Fantastic damage while applying Hex on all targets present in the battlefield. Unique only to Ursula, Hex is a special status effect that lasts for 5 seconds. Should an affected target attempt to activate their White Skill, that target will be stunned for 4 seconds and will have all their energy depleted to zero. As you can imagine, this was a particularly powerful ability that allowed Ursula to dictate the flow of the match. Stunning potentially an entire team without any energy to retaliate is a dangerous situation that Ursula can almost consistently achieve, especially with an optimal team combination. Technically speaking, this powerful skill is actually almost harmless if her targets do not activate their White Skills within that short time frame. As such, Ursula’s success largely depends on how well the timing of it all lands itself. On average, Ursula can deny 2 to 3 heroes at a time. To further emphasize her control over energy flow, she also uses “On The Hook” to deplete a target’s energy. “Something For Nothing” is a passive skill that also promotes energy denial–although fairly situational, denying energy gained from KO’ing any of Ursula’s teammates prevents enemies from snowballing. While it’s true that she was never really suffocating like Merlin was, her presence still commands a sense of wariness when facing her, and rightfully so. Her skillset is very PvP-centric, which is where she excels at the most. She can definitely prove herself useful in City Watch and Invasion, but she will especially struggle against Wards that reduce Control Heroes’ energy gain.
Friendship Disks:
Ursula’s disks can be useful, but they are relatively situational all things considered. Tia’s disk gives Ursula more starting energy at the beginning of battle for every ally that is also a Control Hero. The effect of this disk only works if she at least has one ally that is a Control Hero, as Ursula herself does not count. For the most part, one Control ally is optimal for most situations. Having one Control ally with this disk at max stars gives Ursula just enough of a head start to properly time Poor, Unfortunate Souls on auto. Anymore than that and Ursula will activate her skill too soon, letting the effects of Poor, Unfortunate Souls to harmlessly expire. Hades’ disk enhances Something For Nothing. This disk causes Ursula to redirect the energy blocked by Something For Nothing her enemies would have gained and distributes it to her remaining allies instead. When used correctly, it allows for Ursula’s team to make a huge comeback. Both disks are quite pitiful at low stars, but at least they can increase Ursula’s Skill Power to increase the damage of Poor, Unfortunate Souls and Ruler Of All The Ocean.
Team Options:
Ursula can be a strong consideration for a team slot when facing heroes that rely too heavily on their White Skills like Bogo, Joy, Beast, Hercules, etc… Regardless of whatever disk she ends up using, Ursula generally works well with other Control Heroes. Maleficent(Ur) is arguably her best partner, although Jafar and Jasmine(Al) are also great for slowing down energy gained by enemies. Of course, most of the other villains make for excellent teammates, including Gaston, Scar, and the Queen of Hearts. Be considerate of the remaining team slots though. Ursula shouldn’t be able to afford more than one Control ally. The remaining team slots should be heroes who can give her protection like Timon & Pumbaa, Joy(Ol), or Kevin. Alternatively, she may also choose allies who can immediately punish Hexed targets like Duke Caboom, Elsa, Merida(El), or Bo Peep. Generally speaking, Ursula is easy to fit in a team, but it should be for her utilities and not for raw damage.
Counters:
Elsa(Fr) is a very dangerous counter who can freeze Ursula for a long time (thanks to her Frozone disk), and she is often accompanied with other freeze heroes that help with ruining Ursula’s timing. Similarly, a Scare core of Jack Skellington and Mike can put her in a near-constant stun-lock, preventing her from ever using Poor Unfortunate Souls. She also needs to watch out for Miss Piggy, who will often gain momentum more quickly than Ursula through sheer brute force. Simba & Nala are annoying pests who can safely attack Ursula by Making Faces, slowing her down and negatively affecting her timing. Finnick is a strong counter who can put a lot of pressure on Ursula with his slows and the use of Nick’s disk. Even with Ursula depleting his energy with On The Hook, he will still get his van out soon enough to disrupt Ursula first. Huey, Dewey, and Louie can force a stun on Ursula nearly at the start of battle, completely exploiting her midline positioning. Yax, Judy, or Maui can be soft counters who can swing team momentum into their favor, potentially derailing Ursula’s successful use of Poor, Unfortunate Souls. Similarly, WALL-E minimizes momentum being stolen with Solar Power and Energy-In-A-Cup. Depending on team comps though, Ursula and WALL-E may find themselves in an energy-management war.
WALL-E
Overview
Strengths:
+Incredible energy boosting
+Has Tenacity
+Excellent utilities
+Very good Friendship Disks
+Good synergy
Weaknesses:
-Very low Reality growth
-Low damage
-Vulnerable positioning
Gameplay:
Before Genie came in to blur the line between roles, WALL-E was the first Control hero to have off-support qualities. His freeze and the blinding he causes both only last a modest 5 seconds, and even the damage of “Compactor” still leaves a lot to be desired. Despite the weak damage and only decent crowd control, WALL-E really shines for the overall usefulness of his utilities. “Solar Power” is one of the few skills in the game that can provide energy, and is the only such skill that can do so for the entire team. This move plays a huge part into swinging momentum favorably. To add to this, “Energy-In-A-Cup” gives everyone a small head start in the beginning of battle with the 140 energy it grants while also protecting his teammates from up to 5 instances of sap debuffs. Combined with Solar Power’s 260 energy, that’s a whopping 400 energy for the whole team. Even if his Disables are not particularly overwhelming, they are enough to be supplementary in all cases. WALL-E’s energy-enhancing skillset provides a lot of value in any competitive environment, especially anywhere Captain Hook might be lurking. He’s a very good off-support hero for City Watch and Invasion Breaker Quests as a powerful Energy supplier, although he is mostly too weak to take on Bots.
Friendship Disks:
WALL-E’s disks can either enhance his energy-boosting or his disables. Dash’s disks increase the length of Disables for both WALL-E and his allies while also giving them small bursts of Energy every time they apply disables. Almost any teammate with access to a disabling skill greatly appreciate the effects of this disk. This is especially true for heroes who also have disks or skills that improve their disables, as the effects will stack. As for Kevin’s disk, WALL-E’s team will be able to gain energy that exceeds the maximum threshold, giving the team more opportunities to fire off White Skills while also taking advantage of subsequent uses of Solar Power, ensuring no extra energy is being wasted. Kevin’s disk also bestows more Basic Damage to allies for every 400 Energy they have. Both disks are very, very good and both disks increase Skill Power as well.
Team Options:
Due to the nature of WALL-E’s skills, he is very easy to fit in a variety of teams. To highlight, he makes for an exceptional addition to a freeze team that is led by Elsa and Olaf. Elsa especially appreciates Dash’s disk here, giving her more opportunities to boost her damage. She will very rapidly gain Energy if she also has a well-invested Red Skill. Kristoff’s Ice Harvest also stacks with the effects of Dash’s disk. Together, they make freeze feel like they could last forever while WALL-E himself will have a much better Extinguish thanks to Kristoff. WALL-E can be paired with at least one other hero that can also grant energy, taking full advantage of Kevin’s disk. Mickey and Miguel are amazing choices for this, but so is Jasmine(Al) for a more aggressive approach. Generally speaking, he’s just great to have around for heroes that otherwise struggle to build their own energy like Yax, Elastigirl, Alice, etc. Just as impotantly, he is a welcome presence to protect the team from the sap debuffs of Captain Hook, Flynn, and Eeyore.
Counters:
WALL-E has very low Reality and unfortunately, he struggles to stand up against Ducky & Bunny, Anger, and Jafar(Sc). This also means he will have poor match-ups against Jack Skellington, Mike, Simba & Nala and other similar heroes. Elsa gets a special mention because she can freeze him for even longer periods with Frozone’s disk and can easily dispatch of him. He also has to watch out for heroes that can deplete his energy such as Ursula and Maleficent(Ur). If Maleficent has a max star Ursula disk, she can nearly match the energy boost of Solar Power and will essentially neutralize its utility. Magica is a similar threat who can remove a very large amount of energy from one of WALL-E’s allies. Huey, Dewey, & Louie are yet another Control unit that exploits WALL-E’s midline positioning, stunning him and causing serious damage. Even with WALL-E’s high Tenacity growth, the stun can delay him long enough to be unable to provide energy in a timely manner.
Yzma
Overview
Strengths:
+Very high damage potential
+Great utilities
+Useful Friendship Disks
+Diverse negative status effects
+Has Evasion
Weaknesses:
-Very restricted on auto
-High aggro
-Risky White skill
Gameplay:
Yzma really challenges the status quo with her extremely technical yet equally unpredictable nature. She brings a form of “controlled chaos” into the battlefield, with some of her skills being completely dependent on sheer luck, while some of it are always standard and predictable at the same time. “Scary Beyond All Reason” is a scare-inducing move, thus making her a candidate for Scare teams. But honestly, the luck-based nature of her skills is the most intriguing thing about her. “Alchemy” adds negative status effects to her basic attacks and her White skill; she may potentially cause targets to be blinded, cursed, or stunned for 9 seconds at a time for every second attack. This skill bears the bulk of where Yzma’s CC is actually coming from. “Llama Drama” further adds to this madness by having her transform a random target into a Llama. This is somewhat similar to the way Genie’s Makeover works, and it even causes transformed units to become untargetable. The main difference is that the damage is applied immediately, rather than after the transformation. Lastly, let’s talk about Yzma’s “Push Your Luck”–there’s a lot going on with this skill. At a glance, this move looks like a simple damage-dealing skill, but it is one of the most technical skills presently. Yzma becomes invincible as she mixes her potions. This is not true invincibility-- it is completely possible to interrupt her with disables, especially with stuns and silence. The invincibility only lasts for as long as she continues to mix her potions, but once she’s done, she’s completely vulnerable and can be interrupted before throwing her final concoction. Assuming she remains uninterrupted as she mixes, the player can choose to stop her mixing anytime so that she may throw the final potion at the middle-most target of the enemy line (contrary to what the description says). The final potion’s damage level is determined by how long she was mixing, and can be visually indicated by the color of the potion. There are 3 damage levels: Green (level 1), Yellow (level 2), and Pink (level 3). Pay attention to the cycling animation of her vials; <3 cycles for green, <11 cycles for yellow, >11 cycles for pink. When the mixing goes beyond 4 cycles, she will begin to run the risk of causing it to explode on her, dealing damage to herself (and enemies that are near her). The more cycles the mixture goes through, the higher the risk, and the higher the damage this might do to Yzma. Should she succeed on getting the pink potion, the damage this can do to enemies is immense. Even if there are survivors, they may still be plagued by the effects of Alchemy. The potential risk-reward mechanic of Push Your Luck is only available when playing manually. On auto, Yzma will always end with a green potion, doing the lowest damage possible (still strong, all things considered). Yzma’s chaotic skillset can be useful on any game mode, even with the limitations of PvP. Playing her on manual is a blast if you’re looking for a fun gamble now and again.
Wardrobe Change:
Yzma’s Red Skill is one of the easiest ones to invest in. With it, her regular attacks gain an AOE, causing her projectiles to do Fantastic Splash damage. This, along with the stat bonuses she gains, are effects that she gets to keep, making her a true AOE damage specialist. The splash may also apply the effects of Alchemy, but this is the part of the skill that may fail against high-level targets. In other words, should you be unable to keep up with skill levels, the negative status effects may fail to apply. Even still, the fact that Yzma gains AOE allows her to get a ton of value even with poor investment. Of course, do your best to max out this skill if you choose to invest in it. But even leaving this skill underleveled, it remains useful just for the splash damage alone.
Friendship Disks:
Yzma’s disks puts a great emphasis on either side of her dual-natured playstyle. Ursula’s disk adds a consistent element to her playstyle. With it, Yzma begins each wave by cursing her targets. Cursed targets will also lose Armor, in addition to halving healing strength. With a maximum of 15 seconds at 5 stars, this disk makes Yzma an almost explicit counter to the effects of Hakuna Matata. The curses applied by Yzma’s Alchemy or her teammates will also gain the armor-reducing properties of this disk. Miss Piggy’s disk adds a chaotic element to her playstyle. Overall, Yzma will do more damage, and she gains an attack speed bonus if her HP dips below 50%. The most interesting thing about this disk is that during this crazed state of increased attack speed, Yzma will always target random enemies now with regular attacks, and ALL her regular attacks will also apply the Alchemy effect. This makes Yzma a lot more fun and unpredictable. These disks are vastly different from one another, but carefully think about how you intend to use her before investing in either of these disks.
Team Options:
For whatever reason, heroes with skills that choose “random” targets, including Yzma, have a tendency to choose the exact same target. This means that she will have trouble working together with Genie, Dash, and other similar heroes as a result. Other than that, Yzma herself is relatively easy to fit into a team. She can fit into a Scare team, as she can help perpetuate scares, but she often has to compete against Mike as a partner for Jack Skellington. She can work together with any Wonderland hero, as she easily forms a “chaos core” with any of them, especially the Mad Hatter. Generally speaking, she partners well with any villain, especially Maleficent and Ursula. Yzma loves attacking grouped enemies, especially when she has her Red Skill. Timon & Pumbaa are arguably the best for this purpose, but Hercules and Maui are also excellent choices. With Ursula’s disk, Yzma can replace Barbossa’s Study initiative with the curse’s Armor reduction. This allows for classic teammates like Aladdin to swoop down and do a lot of damage, even without the critical hits! Of course, heroes that deal immense Normal Damage like Beast, Bo Peep, and Miss Piggy with benefit greatly from Yzma’s curse.
Counters:
Yzma stands the farthest back most of the time, so Woody can easily yank her out of position and put her in a much more vulnerable spot. Although Huey, Dewey and Louie may not be able to pull her out of the backline as soon as Woody can, they are still capable of doing it. Their Dematerializer will also cause her a lot of damage in the process too. Elsa(Fr) can be a soft counter who can freeze her for long periods of time, delaying many of her actions. Her invincibility means she’s not too susceptible against other heroes who should be able to snipe her from back there. However, she is particularly annoyed by Darkwing Duck. He can dive in to reach her, and his stun can even potentially interrupt her mixing, wasting so much of her value in the process.