At this point, this series really is an in-depth analysis on a character. I’m keeping the title and future titles as is, considering it’s what I’ve started with. Never thought I’d be writing a full-on guide for the Queen of Hearts, let alone a guide at all, and yet here we are lol
Here are my thoughts on the Queen of Hearts, as someone who’s been using her since she was released last year.
Introduction
BR, Before Refresh:
The Queen of Hearts was one of the few if only Tanks, before Bo Peep came around, who possessed a great Basic Damage stat.
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Indeed, she was able to hit much harder than the rest of the Tanks
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To quote myself, [quote=“Card_Brigade, post:6, topic:580180”] Compared to the other Tanks, pre-Bo Peep, she’s the only Tank to have great Basic Damage; at Orange 2 with all six stars, her base basic damage is 12,965, which is more than double the basic attack of other Tanks; Sally, Olaf, Goofy, Sulley, and Mr. Incredible all have Basic Damage ranging from 5000 to 4000 coming nowhere near The Queen’s (Btw, I’ve never used Bo Peep so I can’t say what her basic damage is like).[/quote]
- I think this was to compensate for the fact that most of her skill set was passive
- This Basic Damage stat was further complimented by a high Normal Crit stat, and, later on once promoted to Red, a high Crit Damage stat.
- Normal Crit raises the chances of your attacks becoming critical attacks
- Think Pokemon, especially Pokemon with the move Focus Energy or the held item Scope Lens.
- Crit Damage increases the damage done by critical attacks
- Again, think Pokemon, especially Pokemon with the ability Sniper.
- Normal Crit raises the chances of your attacks becoming critical attacks
- This Basic Damage stat was further complimented by a high Normal Crit stat, and, later on once promoted to Red, a high Crit Damage stat.
- I think this was to compensate for the fact that most of her skill set was passive
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The Queen may have hit hard with her heavy Basic Damage, but she attacked at a rather slow speed. Not as slow as Jack Skellington and Sally, but still slow all the same.
She had a pretty good HP pool along with great defensive stats, though there was a notable gap between her Armor and Reality
- Her Skill Power was mediocre, however
- This was probably done to compensate for that fact that, at the time, her Instant KO HP Threshold had a numerical value that was founded on Skill Power
- Less Skill Power = Lower HP Threshold = Lower chances of Instant KOing without restraint
- Unfortunately that meant that her Purple also suffered, since it provided bonus HP at the time.
- This was probably done to compensate for that fact that, at the time, her Instant KO HP Threshold had a numerical value that was founded on Skill Power
Despite these stats, admittedly she needed a lot more support to even function as a Tank
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She still easily folded to Normal Damage specialists like Jack Sparrow.
- That was one of the things that always bothered me even after I spent a lot of time and effort improving her HP and defenses - what’s the point of being a Tank if you can’t tank hits effectively?
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She also still took considerable damage from Fantastic attackers even with an HP Mod with a Reality Upgrade and a pumped up Skill Mod with Purple Upgrades, which increased her HP considerably at the time.
The Queen’s White was a good way of protecting her team
- It reversed the placements of the front and backmost enemies, while Stunning them for 5 seconds.
- If you had Rex’s Disk equipped, along with some speed boosts, the Shuffles would just stack up on each other, though admittedly they didn’t last as long as you wished for them
- Rex’s Disk extended the duration of the Queen’s Shuffle by 2.5 seconds, for a maximum of 7.5 seconds
- In addition to Shuffling THREE enemies at once, instead of 2.
- Rex’s Disk extended the duration of the Queen’s Shuffle by 2.5 seconds, for a maximum of 7.5 seconds
- If you had Rex’s Disk equipped, along with some speed boosts, the Shuffles would just stack up on each other, though admittedly they didn’t last as long as you wished for them
- Though it was hard to get any mileage out of this where it counted since the Queen wasn’t able to build up energy fast enough to take care of daunting enemies from the start of battle.
The Queen possessed a decent comeback factor after hitting half of her health
- She’d get a major boost in her Armor along with a 100% attack speed
- Before her Red Skill came around, however, this didn’t do much, since enemies would still be free to KO the Queen.
- You needed to have at least one healer to support the Queen
- Before her Red Skill came around, however, this didn’t do much, since enemies would still be free to KO the Queen.
In order to make one of her unique traits even usable, that being her Instant KO “Off With Their Head!,” you needed Skill Mods and Rex’s Disk for the additional Skill Power as well.
- Her Alice Disk was just a waste of time and resources, since it only gave a speed boost and healing when the Queen KOed an enemy.
Her other unique trait, that being a resistance against Charms, was unreliable, as it did not activate as often as you would have liked it to
- Her Purple provided bonus HP, which the Queen desperately needed to compensate for the fact that she fell easily to the likes of Jack Sparrow and later on, Randall
- The Queen didn’t offer any active support for her team beyond Stunning enemies and affecting their placement, in addition to soaking up damage.
She gained a Red Skill that was very useful
- It not only enhanced her basic attack, but also shared the effect with the rest of her team
- That being, that they would be healed by a certain amount whenever they did their basic attacks.
- This allowed the Queen to provide support to her team in the form of, well, team-wide healing.
- It also improved the Queen’s stats, namely the three stats she excelled at, Basic Damage, Armor and HP
- There was also a Slow and Armor Reduction, though that wasn’t necessarily one of the biggest selling points of this Red Skill.
During the time of BR, the Queen of Hearts was a character who needed a lot of support to even function as a part of your team.
- You really had to put in the time and effort to turn her into a good Tank beyond her base stats.
AR, After Refresh
Thankfully, the Queen is able to fill her role as a Tank more effectively after the Refresh.
The Queen, due to the changes made in her stats and skill set, is considerably easier to invest into than BR.
- Numerical values in her Blue and Purple have now been reallocated to her base stats and Rex’s Disk respectively
- Players now have more freedom in what Mods they can give to her, as opposed to BR, in which they were forced to invest in Blue and Purple Upgrades so as to make the Queen’s utility more useful.
- Players no longer have to spend as much time and energy into the Queen to make her a good character.
- Players now have more freedom in what Mods they can give to her, as opposed to BR, in which they were forced to invest in Blue and Purple Upgrades so as to make the Queen’s utility more useful.
One of the improvements they made to the Queen was further augmenting her basic attack
- Off With Their Head! Is now activated every 4 attacks, thus providing the Queen with a more active skill set
- It now has a fixed threshold for the Instant KO to activate, that being 20% or lower.
- It also pierces Invincibility and Berserk, something which is greatly appreciated
- It has the capacity to activate several times in a battle should the Queen be paired with other characters who can boost the team’s speed
- The Queen is now able to provide a more active role in supporting her team with this change
- It has the capacity to activate several times in a battle should the Queen be paired with other characters who can boost the team’s speed
Her White still provides support for her team, though the nature of it has changed
- No longer does she Shuffle enemies, of which has been shifted over to her Blue
- Instead, she now provides a speed boost for her allies (not herself, though) in addition to applying Fatigue to enemies
- A wonderful new ailment that blocks helpful statuses like Shields or Invincibility
- Basically the counterpart of Hardy
- The new Fatigue ensures that some Invisible users (e.g. Randall, Scar and Violet) are unable to go Invisible multiple times.
- A wonderful new ailment that blocks helpful statuses like Shields or Invincibility
- It stacks nicely with Alice’s Tantrum, a skill which provides a 35% speed boost to the entire team, herself included.
- Instead, she now provides a speed boost for her allies (not herself, though) in addition to applying Fatigue to enemies
She now has an Immunity against Slows, which is wonderful since it was one of the ways to shut her down.
She now gains access to True Damage in Rex’s Disk, while still retaining the extended Stun duration.
- Her Alice Disk is now much more useful than before, providing the Queen with stacks of Hardy, and an Armor boost to allies with a speed boost.
Stats
Here are my Queen’s stats pre-Refresh:
Stats
Base Basic Damage - 88,048
Base HP - 848,577
Base Skill Power - 30,790
Base Armor - 87,332
Stats with Mods + Red Skill
Total Power - 241,281
Total Basic Damage - 118,105
Total Skill Power - 80,468
Total HP - 1,273,707
Total Armor - 128,166
And here are my Queen’s stats after the Refresh:
Stats
Base Basic Damage - 94,144, an increase of 6,096
Base Skill Power - 44,721, an increase of 13,481
Base HP - 1,174,309, an increase of 325,752
Base Armor - 90,534, an increase of 3,202
Stats with Mods + Red Skill
Total Power - 242,599, an increase of 1,318
Total Basic Damage - 125,803, an increase of 7,698
Total Skill Power - 97, 284, an increase of 16,816
Total HP - 1,355,817, an increase of 82,110
Total Armor - 134,570, an increase of 6404
What a dramatic increase! Not just with her Armor, Basic Attack and Skill Power — my Queen’s HP did indeed hit the million mark (well, that is to say, the base HP shows the million)!
Also I’m glad they finally had the word Majesty somewhere in her skillset, considering how they had highness but not majesty, and even then it wasn’t the right title. Lol I know I’m just nitpicking and it’s really not that big of a deal; just thought I should bring that up since I’m a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland.
- Interestingly, the Icons for the-now-defunct-Shuffle and Off With Their Heads have been swapped; the pictures still work and fit either way.
Skills
Shuffle:
A unique skill that sent away one of the enemies at the frontline in exchange for bringing one of the enemies from the backline to the front, Shuffle was very useful with sniping Back characters like Maleficent or Megara, in addition to pushing away dangerous or annoying Front characters like Jack Sparrow or Gonzo.
Not really much else to say here, other than the Stun didn’t last that long without Rex’s Disk.
- Despite the Queen being able to build up energy fairly quickly, she wasn’t able to build energy up quickly enough to take care of dangerous characters right from the get-go - this meant that more often than not, she wouldn’t be able to protect herself and her team at crucial times, possibly due to being KOed before she had a chance to use Shuffle.
This skill would later be revamped and turned into Majesty’s Orders after the Refresh.
Majesty’s Orders:
When I first tried out the Queen after the Update, I must admit I was a little disappointed that it didn’t quite have an impact, that kind of OOMPH I had come to associate with her Shuffle.
- I mean, I do love having another way to boost my team’s speed, it’s just when you get used to something for a long time, it’s a little hard to adjust right away to something new, you know? I’m sure I’ll get used to it in time.
Since the Queen is a character who gains Energy fairly quickly you can expect her to shoot off two speed boosts relatively quickly into battle, which can possibly swing the momentum in your favor. It’s a very good idea to pair the Queen up with allies who can speed up the team as well like Anger, Animal, and Alice, as the speed boost from Majesty’s Orders will not affect her, unfortunately.
- Alice makes an especially noteworthy companion with her Tantrum, which boosts the speed of her entire team, herself included, by 35%, and Red Skill, Curious Change, which boosts the potency of Speed Boosts while she’s not Enormous by 40%; this means that the Queen’s Speed Boost, that being 50%, gets boosted to 90%.
- Gerald Marlin and Nemo are one character who works especially well with the Wonderland trio, (though they can work in just about any team comp). His Bark Bark Bark! gives allies a 40% speed boost. Pair that up with Alice without her Red skill and you get a collective speed boost of 75%. With her Red skill, the collective speed boost becomes 155%, due to Bark’s 40% turning into 80%, Tantrum’s 35% turning into 75%, thus 80 + 75 = 155
- Majesty’s Orders is great to use in Invasion Breaker Quests, especially if you have Alice, the Mad Hatter and Animal (Go) on your team.
This skill does indeed give her much more synergy with her fellow Wonderland allies, especially with the Mad Hatter who greatly appreciates the added speed boost since he attacks at a slower rate.
Because of her ability to gain Energy quickly, the Queen is capable of applying multiple stacks of Fatigue to the enemy team which can shut down any strategies that revolve around positive effects like Shields or going Invisible/Invincible.
- Gotta say, it’s so satisfying seeing Hercules attempting to go Invincible only for the Fatigue to block him, the same with Moana and Violet trying to Shield their team and failing.
- With Fatigue, you won’t have to worry about being stalled by Chief Bogo, or, if your Queen builds energy quick enough, being overwhelmed by Goofy’s massive Speed Boost.
Fatigue will not trigger Miss Piggy’s Hands Off!, however, it will block the effects of Hands Off!
Strangely, Fatigue does not block Mr. Incredible’s Super Duper. (Btw, this is from Chapter 24, The Market, where enemy levels are 140.)
Weird.
The Fatigue does not block Revives, as Sally’s revive still kicked in despite being KOed with a Fatigue, in case anyone was curious.
Temper, Temper v.1:
Not really much else to say with Temper, Temper other than it pairing nicely with the Queen’s Red Skill, since it allows her to heal her and her team faster. Also it turns her into more of a Normal Damage sponge, but that’s pretty obvious.
Temper, Temper v.2:
Seeing those high numerical values makes me incredibly happy
This improved comeback factor turns the Queen into an even deadlier tank after her Refresh, as she’s able to utilize Temper, Temper more effectively especially with allies who can boost her speed—more speed means she attacks quicker which means Off With Their Head! activates more often - in this state, especially when paired with other speed boosts, it is possible to Stun the entire enemy team rather quickly.
- The Queen can take full advantage of Temper, Temper should she go against characters who deal heavy damage right off the bat (e.g. Randall) - since her HP has increased after the Refresh, giving her an even more massive HP pool, she is now able to survive on a sliver of HP and activate Temper, Temper, before restoring herself quickly to full HP with her Red Skill, My Way.
- This wasn’t quite the case pre-Refresh, since the Queen was a bit on the frailer side and as such was not able to utilize Temper, Temper effectively (mainly due to being KOed 75% of the time).
I had hoped that she would gain a Reality boost in Temper, Temper, but she didn’t get one. It’s fine though, because what are Mods for, right? At least, now that they’re finally in Invasion after a long long long time.
One thing to keep in mind with this skill, is that the Queen briefly becomes Invincible.
- During this state, enemies can walk past her and damage whoever is behind her. Keep this in mind if you have any frail characters standing behind the Queen.
Off With Their Head! v.1:
Without Mods and Rex’s Disk to boost the numerical value, the HP at which the Queen could have KOed enemies was abysmally low. The Instant KO was really more of an afterthought to help finish off enemies who were close to being KOed anyway quicker.
- Think of it as using Quick Attack to finish off an opponent in Pokemon.
You couldn’t really get any mileage out of this Skill unless you pumped it up - which I did
- What was wonderful about this skill was that I could instantly KO any Creep right off the bat, especially Brutes and Skeletons. This came in handy during Heists, since it meant that even at Ridiculous Difficulty (or was it Shocking?) the Queen wouldn’t have to worry about being stalled to death by Brutes.
- Unfortunately, despite it activating multiple times, it always failed against the Beast, who more often than not would stall my team into losing.
Off with Their Head! v.2:
Pros:
- More reliable Instant KO
- Can pierce Berserk/Invincibility
- Activates more often
- No cooldown
- Fixed HP threshold
- Cards appear and Stun enemies more often
- Don’t have to build up Energy to access this
Cons:
- Numerical value is removed, thus rendering Blue Skill Upgrades useless
- Can no longer time appearance and Stun of Cards
Now, one of the biggest things that I love about this Refresh, is that it gives her the ability to Insta-KO Berserk and Invincible enemies!
You have no idea how happy I am for this change, as I no longer have to worry about Hercules or the Beast stalling my team to death anymore due to the Insta-KO being made more reliable. I’m glad that they came up with a fixed percentage for the Insta-KO to occur at.
- I’m especially happy that instead of having a cooldown, it’s guaranteed to activate every time once enemies are at 20% of their HP.
- Though I am sad that after waiting for a long time for Blue Upgrades to drop, and finally applying one on my Queen, it’s been rendered mostly useless.
Er, though I just realized that’s a double edged sword since it means you yourself may run into trouble if you’re on the receiving end of Off With Their Head! — if your team’s HP is at or below 20% and the Queen has Speed Boosts, she’ll be gaining 300 Energy left and right which’ll be more than enough for her fire off her White consecutively.
- Be sure to keep one or more healers protected and healthy to ensure that your party’s HP stays above 20% to avoid this scenario, if you’re going up against an enemy Queen.
The Instant KO no longer happens when the Queen swings her fan, rather, it happens when the Cards touch the enemy in question.
Strangely, despite gaining the ability to KO Invincible enemies, it still fails for whatever reason against the Ghoul Creeps who briefly go Invincible. Like, what gives? (Btw, this picture is from Chapter 23, Rooftop 2M, where the enemy levels are 138.)
The Speed Boosts from other allies definitely speeds up the rate at which the Card March occurs, which means that you have the potential to Stun enemies for 11 seconds pretty quickly if you have Rex’s Disk equipped.
- With this, it’s only a matter of the Queen brandishing her fan like crazy before the Cards come out,
- You no longer have to rely on building up Energy to access the Shuffle and Stun.
- It makes Off With Their Head a little more useful/powerful, since the Queen can Shuffle enemies away without needing to activate her White Skill, something that’s greatly appreciated for taking care of frontline enemies who gain a lot of energy quickly or otherwise are dangerous and annoying like Bo Peep.
- Unfortunately, the Cards now only march in one direction; they never come out from the other side unless one of the enemies is on your side of the field (case in point, Randall).
- So while it is more reliable since it activates more often, it does lose a little bit of what made it useful, since it could snipe backline enemies by bringing them to the front like the ever annoying Megara or Joy.
- Because you don’t have any direct control over the Cards anymore, you can no longer time your Shuffle to get rid of certain enemies, like the Raptor bots (Shuffling them at a precise moment was my way of keeping my team safe by Shuffling it to a far distance right off the bat before KOing it) or any Bo Peeps using Deflection Spin without Joy’s Disk.
- Another example, at least in Invasion, was to activate your Shuffle to push away any enemies that dived into the enemy frontline like Aladdin or Gonzo after they landed.
- Because you don’t have any direct control over the Cards anymore, you can no longer time your Shuffle to get rid of certain enemies, like the Raptor bots (Shuffling them at a precise moment was my way of keeping my team safe by Shuffling it to a far distance right off the bat before KOing it) or any Bo Peeps using Deflection Spin without Joy’s Disk.
- It makes Off With Their Head a little more useful/powerful, since the Queen can Shuffle enemies away without needing to activate her White Skill, something that’s greatly appreciated for taking care of frontline enemies who gain a lot of energy quickly or otherwise are dangerous and annoying like Bo Peep.
- You no longer have to rely on building up Energy to access the Shuffle and Stun.
Skeletons and Brutes, which would normally fall instantly to Off With Their Head!, now no longer get instantly KOed, due to the HP threshold being changed to a solid 20%.
- A bit of a shame, really, but it’s a small price to pay. That being said, the Queen no longer has a way to damage Brutes due to this change.
- The workaround to this problem is Rex’s Disk.
- If you intend to use the Queen in Heists, make sure to equip Rex’s Disk on her, as she will not have any way to damage Brutes otherwise.
- The workaround to this problem is Rex’s Disk.
Royal Highness v.1:
This was the go-to skill when it came to Mods. This added considerably to her survivability, which is why @Aurora_Veil and I gave her Purple Mods with Purple Upgrades in the first place.
- The Charm resistance, as good as it sounds, unfortunately isn’t very good as it doesn’t activate as often as you would like it to. Before Donald Duck was refreshed a second time, I was very salty that his Purple activated almost every time, despite only having a 50% chance of activating.
- What sucks more is that if you go against enemy Queens, mostly in Invasion, their Charm resistances will almost always activate immediately.
- Let that s̶a̶l̶t̶ sink in.
- What sucks more is that if you go against enemy Queens, mostly in Invasion, their Charm resistances will almost always activate immediately.
Royal Highness v.2:
Pros:
- Immunity to Slows, thus patching up one of her weaknesses
Cons:
- Numerical value is removed, thus rendering Purple Skill Upgrades useless
- Charm resistance still unreliable
Unfortunately, due to the extra HP being reallocated to her base HP stat, that rendered the Purple Mods useless, since it now only affects the level cap.
- Oh well, at least with the added level cap, I don’t have to worry about going up against enemies with a higher level than me trying to Slow me down lol.
In any event, I do love the fact that the Queen gains an amazing new immunity; this one is greatly appreciated as Slows were one of the surefire ways to go when it came to shutting down the Queen prior to her Refresh, especially if you had a Stitch with Maui’s Disk equipped! I think that besides Donald, the Queen may be the only character in the game at this point of writing that is immune to Slows without the need for Hardies.
- What’s great about this is that the Queen is no longer affected by Yax’s Chill Vibes, which means she’s free to march to the other side and begin attacking while her other allies catch-up, so to speak.
It is a shame though that her % chance to convert Charms didn’t get boosted like I had hoped. I remember reading a comment on the update thread announcing the Queen’s refresh saying it was because there’s 52 cards in a deck, “52 Pick Up” and whatnot.
- Thematically, yes, it fits, though gameplay-wise, not so much.
Sigh, if you are going to run the Queen, just keep this in mind, as it still applied to her before the Refresh:
Be very careful when going against enemies who can Charm your team. Should the Queen be Charmed, be prepared to lose at least one of your characters due to her monstrous Basic Attack which has increased to even bigger levels after the Refresh.
My Way v.1:
Stats
Base Healing - 97,596
Total Healing - 112,494
Armor Reduction - 27,222
Added Basic Damage - 24,820
Added HP - 113,053
Added Armor - 40,834
Okay, I don’t know who came up with this idea for the Queen’s Red Skill, but whoever you are,
This was a great way to improve the Queen, since the Queen is only ever able to Basic Attack.
- My Way improves her comeback factor, Temper, Temper, as she’ll be able to quickly regain the HP she lost with the added Speed Boost.
One of the things that I love about this Red Skill is that you don’t have to keep leveling it up in order for it to still be useful.
- Even if you keep this skill underleveled, the Queen and her allies can still reap the benefits of healing themselves whenever they Basic Attack.
- The Slow and Armor reductions are there too lol they’re honestly whatever, but still appreciated either way.
And as for the stat boosts, they increase the three stats the Queen excels at - Basic Damage, Armor and HP. Talk about improving upon perfection
If there’s any Red Skill, you should invest into, it should definitely be the Queen’s.
My Way v.2:
Stats
Base Healing - 171,619, an increase of 74,023
Total Healing - 193,966, an increase of 81,472
Armor Reduction - 27,383, an increase of 161
Added Basic Damage - 26,422, an increase of 1,602
Added HP - 129,067, an increase of 16,014
Added Armor - 44,036, an increase of 3,202
Not really much to say other than the fact that I deeply love the boosted stats! She was already doing a great job with healing before the Refresh, but now she’s going to do an even better job at it!
- Not to mention that she hits harder and has even more HP and Armor than before.