Guide to Heimdall in Marvel: Avengers Alliance
Overview – When it comes to bruiser heroes in Marvel: Avengers Alliance, Heimdall breaks the mold. His stats are nearly identical to most other bruisers, with low accuracy and evasion and high attack, health, defense, and stamina, but his powers look much more like the average tactician. He is the only character in the game that can put four buffs on the entire team in a single action, and honestly, this ability is the primary reason to use him in combat. He is good in just about any team, but absolutely shines when paired with a hero that has an attack with the finest hour special ability. He also has some minor additional synergy with Asgardians, but this synergy is less than helpful because most are bruisers like him. However you choose to use him, though, he is basically a top tier character.
How to Obtain – To obtain Heimdall you need to complete all 25 tasks in Special Operation 14. Alternately, he will probably go on sale for 200 command points sometime in late 2014.
Special Abilities – Asgardian / Far Sight – Asgardian is a purely defensive ability that makes this character immune to burning, chilled, poison, and radiation. With the exception of bleeding, these are the most common types of ongoing damage, which makes this ability helpful in many fights. Far Sight is a unique ability that turns most enemy stealthy attacks into non-stealthy attacks and can potentially prevent pre-emptive counterattacks. The latter is quite rare, so won’t come up much, but the former makes this character particularly powerful in PvP.
Hofund (Level 1) – Hofund is a very high damage single target melee attack that has a moderately high stamina cost. The accuracy on it is pretty abysmal, but the already high damage is boosted by the finest hour ability, which increases damage for while this character is affected by the most common buffs in the game. You can give him four of these buffs just by using Gjallarhorn, and you generally shouldn’t use this attack unless he is currently buffed by that or you have no other options.
Vigilance (Level 2) – Vigilance is technically an attack, but is primarily a defensive action. As a quick action you have a 50% chance of placing either or both of off-balance and winded on all enemies. More importantly, for the next round this character has a chance to prevent every attack used by your enemies. This is one of the rare powers that can prevent catastrophic attacks and it should be used basically any time it is available.
Uru Blade (Level 6) – If Gjallarhorn wasn’t so amazing, you would start every fight with Uru Blade. When you use this incredibly high stamina cost attack, all enemies take moderately low melee damage and are affected by wide-open, tenderized, and staggered. Since both Hofund and Uru Blade are slashing melee attacks, this significantly increases the damage you deal in later rounds and also works well if your team includes characters like Sif, Magik, Wolverine, or Valkyrie.
Gjallarhorn (Level 9) – Gjallarhorn has an unbelievably high stamina cost, but is totally worth it. When use, all allies gain strengthened, fortified, focused, and agile. Additionally, Asgardian allies heal some. This benefit is so good that you should start every fight with this power.
Unlocks – This character is not currently required to unlock any Marvel: Avengers Alliance game content, but will likely be required to unlock special operation in late 2014 or beyond.
PvP – Heimdall is an excellent PvP choice. He neutralizes stealthy attacks, making a protector character on your team significantly more effective. Also, Vigilance can potentially prevent catastrophic attacks, which are otherwise nearly impossible to prevent. His role on your PvP team will be part buffer and part striker, which means you will almost certainly want to team him with a sturdy protector and possibly a healer. Unfortunately, most of the best characters to team him with are also bruisers which means your agents will basically have to be a tactician. The best non-Asgardian teammates for him are Wolverine, Omega Sentinent, or Black Knight. Unlike in PvE, you do need to change up your strategy slightly in PvP. Avoid using Gjallarhorn until after your opponent uses the Scroll of Angolob, or else you will have basically wasted the main reason you included him on your team.
Variant Uniforms – No variant uniforms currently exist for this character in Marvel: Avengers Alliance, but it is possible that one will be released in the future.
