The Tease of Things I Don't Need

No, really. She has a great personality...

Earlier this week Wizkids showed us the Carter Hall LE version of Hawkman, I'm not going to dwell on that here unless and until such time as I might happen to get one, aside from noting that the only thing that surprised me a little is that it's a JLA TA piece.

Today, though -- presumably as an update will tell us (I'll modify the post and link to it, presumably with some designer's notes, once I see it) is a Valentine's Day surprise -- we have the REV of Halo.

Not the best sculpt I've seen, but I'm going to presume she'll look better in person; that's a given in Heroclix.

Halo is one of those characters who anyone outside of comics and I'd guess a great, great many who are into comics have never heard of. A character who's been around for more than a couple decades, but was off in a niche, part of the first incarnation of a team many fans barely noticed - the Outsiders - Halo is one of those characters who'll be exciting news to a handful of fans while the relatively vast rest will just look at the piece in terms of the sculpt and/or dial & point cost angles.

Since I don't have much that's complimentary to say about the sculpt let's do that latter bit first, as I did with Hawkman last Friday.

First, the constants -- all three have the utility of being fliers, so there's the benefit of being able to ignore hindering terrain and elevation changes, along with being able to help teammates do the same. The most important constant, though, is the Outsiders TA.

The Outsiders TA is written up thusly:

Once at the beginning of your turn as a free action, a member of this team chooses a target friendly or opposing character within 10 squares; the member must have clear line of fire to the target. Until the beginning of your next turn, the target may not be the target of powers or team abilities that modify its combat values. This team ability may not be copied by wild card team abilities.

It can be a potent team ability, as not only does it prevent a target character from being the object of Perplex, it also prevents the use of In Contact With Oracle's stat changes, and any power that modifies its combat values. So, an Outsider targets someone and any power they have that would normally change one of their stats -- Ranged Combat Expert, Close Combat Expert, Energy Shield/Deflection and Combat Reflexes -- is nullified for a full turn.

The down sides of the power are that wildcards can't copy it, and it has to be used at the start of one's turn. The disadvantage of the first part's obvious - one's widcards don't get a boost from having an Outsider on the team. The second perhaps not so much. Whereas Perplex or Outwit can be used any time during a player's turn, including after one's moved a piece into position, an Outsider has to position the piece the turn before.

As you might expect, this is the equivalent of drawing a big target around a piece , or at least as a warning to get vulnerable pieces out of range or line of sight. At best one has to either depend upon an opponent forgetting about the threat or being otherwise too occupied to care. If an opponent has to spend actions on protective movements, though, that's to their detriment and your benefit, so that part's good.

Concerning the dials themselves, they're not pieces I'm inclined to get very excited about, but the REV stretch does give a broad range of point options for someone looking to put some version of her on a team.

The 43 pt. rookie, between the 6 range, single target Energy Explosion an AV that starts at a high of 8, is down to 7 by the third click, and with two closing clicks of Psychic Blast with AVs of 7 and 6 making them long shots at a fairly short range, she's likely to be out-reached and out-gunned. I suspect she'll be most likely used primarily for her Outsider TA and the ability (as a flier) to carry allies.

The 70 pt. experienced version brings more useful options in and puts more of them up front, along with upping the range to a more respectable and intimidating 8. She still has a single target, so the mid-dial Energy Explosion is less attractive than I'd like. She starts with a single click of 9 AV, with Incapacitate and Ranged Combat Expert as the options, keeping her versatile to deal with different sorts of targets. Her opening Defense is up to 16, with the ES/D boost to 18 against most ranged opponents. Since she's a flier, placing her over hindering will help. The experienced also picks up a couple clicks of Super Senses, on the second and third slots, which players react to very differently depending upon individual luck with those saving rolls -- getting those fives and sixes.

The 116 pt veteran is a distinct step up in some important directions, primarily the jump to a 10 range, a second target, three opening clicks of 9 AV and the first sign of real action as she gets an opening click of Running Shot. The opening click of Super Senses and 16 Defense will likely make him too fragile for many to be comfortable putting over 100 points into, though.

I'm not expecting any of these to become essentials on the teams of anyone but a fan of the character, but she's another interesting addition and will at the very least help some fans field the original Outsiders team of Batman, Black Lightning, Geo-Force, Halo, Katana and Metamorpho, with Halo being the last of the lot to be made into clix form.