u/Javajulien

So, I'm going to be a continuity nerd here but given all the confusion of Static not knowing Red Devil in the New Titans #38 preview thread, I'm going to tap the glass.

New History of the DC Universe retconned the Milestone heroes' continuity within the DC Universe. When Luthor was still President of the United States, he wanted to cover up that the US Government was involved in the creation of the Big Bang Gas (itself a byproduct of the Project Superman experiment.) The coverup included all the Milestone heroes being forced in retirement.

Lex only got removed from office around the time that the 2003 Geoff Johns Teen Titans run was stating. Static's membership with the team is no longer in continuity.

Maybe they might retcon Static as having familiarity with the OG Young Justice crew but I think people gotta let that 2009 team go when it comes to Static's in-universe history. They're basically restarting him with a cleanslate.

Not Miles Morales perse, but honestly big ups to Cody.

Yidhari_Timely created an infographic for the upcoming spending event.

Since I know quite a few people were asking about how much the W-Engine/Agent would cost I thought it was worth sharing.

So since the original post, it looks like Prydwen has went ahead and pulled the trigger on launching their revisions:

Updated Changelog:

>We apologise for the delay in the remaining updates! Now that we have Tier 1.5 re-added back in full, we can make the movements on all remaining characters and place them more accurately.

>Previous changelogs had talked about the big changes coming to the Tier List and this is it, with 20 updates, more than any patch before! As 3.0 introduces a new element and region, we may expect to see more frequent changes as Agents find their footing - in Anomaly especially.

>It’s worth clarifying that Pyrois’ performance is evaluated at M2. The previous M0 mark was a momentary issue as we were working on getting the Tier 1.5 changes across, so they have been updated to reflect this.

>Yixuan T0 → T0.5: Yixuan has, for a long time, been a dominant Agent that had both routinely received favourable treatment in endgame modes and was a solid pick to brute force through neutral stages. Recently, though, a large part of why she performs so well is because of both the Ether element having multiple favourable matchups, and the fact that for some reason, almost every Rupture buff is actually just a Yixuan buff in disguise. This is still factored into her rating, as a Tier List has to evaluate current performance. However, while she is still a valid brute force option for many (and given ownership rates, often the only limited Rupture for many), she is no longer the dominant force she once was. This is most true when observing the following:

>Seed-Cissia teams have outperformed against Unknown Corruption Complex and have had comparable or even higher scores against Wandering Hunter.

>Starlight Billy does better on Thrall and Defiler, as does Yidhari on Thrall and Wandering Hunter.

>Recent Ether weak releases (Vesper, Sweeper) are not only Anomaly focused, but they’re also half-DEF too!

>In Shiyu, recent enemies like Lockspring and Miasmic Terror Raptor actively counter/work against her.

>Additionally, other Shiyu matchups where Yi Xuan would gain value because of their Ether weakness often come with buffs that favour other Agents like Ye Shunguang or Nangong teams.

>As far as we’re concerned, Yixuan is still an incredibly powerful unit that is capable of brute forcing most content, but we have to be honest about whether she’s closer to Ye Shunguang or the other T0.5 units in performance. With Starlight Billy’s release - who can match or even exceed Yixuan in pure damage - it’s clear that while enemy matchups greatly favour her, she isn’t quite the top DPS she once was, and dropping her half a tier better reflects her actual power.

>Evelyn T0.5 [Expert] → T1: Evelyn has been an incredibly resilient DPS when run in her ideal team. It helped that Lighter wasn’t a particularly contested stunner and that her Signature’s RES Ignore allowed her to brute force most fights without much trouble. Unfortunately for her, only 2 Fire Weak bosses have run as of late (Notorious Pompey, Wandering Hunter), the latter of which is double-DEF and makes life harder for Evelyn. Shiyu has been a little better for Evelyn with multiple enemies (Raptor, Defector, Guardian), but with very few exceptions, buffs have always leaned towards Rupture or excessively tailored attackers, namely Seed or Ye Shunguang. Her team’s damage output - previously incredibly competitive - is now sub-standard when compared to other T0.5 characters in their best teams, and her scores simply haven’t kept up. Rather than move her down to T1 with Expert (which would place an average Evelyn at a T2 level!), we put her in T1 but remove the Expert tag, as even with highly skilled play and Hormone Punk management, she isn’t quite making it to a T0.5 level, and Puffer Electro with Dialyn teams have also greatly lowered her skill requirements.

>Orphie T0.5 → T1: When she released, Orphie was set to be the prime “support” for Aftershock, packing both decent personal damage and buff value. Unfortunately, there have been no more Aftershock damage dealer releases since. While she’s still the top pick for Soldier 0 Anby teams, that’s about all there is to it. That said, Orphie is such an easy character to use that her scores tend to be on the higher end of the average (as casual players can get good value out of her with little effort). However, though this Tier List is meant to evaluate a character’s ability to get max rewards, weight has to be placed on their full potential, leading to Orphie’s placement. As it stands with her current teams, she underperforms compared to Seed-Cissia, and her mostly being tied to Soldier 0 Anby while having a different element limits how strong she can be. As a result, she drops down to T1.

>Soldier 0 Anby T0.5 → T1: Soldier 0 Anby’s potential went a long way to revitalising her, and even after Seed’s release, she remained as a highly competitive main damage dealer when being run alongside Orphie. The duo packs good damage both out of, and in stun. Unfortunately though, while Dialyn’s release did help Soldier 0 Anby, it wasn’t as great of a combo for her as it was for other characters. Once Cissia was released, Seed also firmly planted herself as the benchmark for a T0.5 Electric CRIT DPS. While she remains a good unit, it’s clear that her performance has been lagging behind that of her competitors, and being tied at the hip to Orphie for the highest scores means inheriting the drawbacks that come with her too (mismatched weakness). For a Season 1 DPS, Soldier 0 Anby held onto a top spot for a very long time, but it’s time to move her down to T0.5.

>Ellen T1 → T1.5: Ellen is another Season 1 CRIT DPS that has had a very long run owing to her potential unlock. Just as she was looking to be faltering, Dialyn’s arrival managed to sustain her scores, and although she was a step behind other limited units, could still hold her own. As time has gone on, though, it’s clear that without the help of vertical investment in her partners, Ellen is not doing as well as she once did. With so many recent enemies being either Ice resistant (e.g. Covenant Guardian, Heavy Striker), Anomaly focused (e.g. Primordial Nightmare, Scorched Horizon) or both (e.g. Vesper), there are fewer and fewer opportunities to use Ellen. With the return of T1.5, it’s a more fitting label for her current performance.

>Hugo T1 → T1.5: Hugo has really struggled. There have been no good Deadly Assault bosses for him, and Shiyu’s new scoring system punishing later bursts means that getting a Totalize after a score multiplier down really hurts his performance. Truly, where do you even run him? Hugo does more damage to neutral enemies than to Wandering Hunter because of the double-DEF; HP inflation has made killing Sobek on Thrall a near-impossible wall, and for some reason Shiyu Ice Weak has been comprised solely of low Stun duration enemies (Miasmic Manato) or double-DEF (Haytor). Pray for Marionettes (which he still isn’t great at, owing to the clone stun extension mechanic) or brute force him in Notorious Pompey? Hugo does get a significant strength boost at M2, but at M0, there aren’t many redeeming characteristics to him. In the places he can be used, Hugo can do fine(ish), but overall he’s lacking compared to his peers, so he drops into the restored T1.5 tier instead.

>Manato T1 → T1.5: There isn’t much to say about Manato: he’s a decent accessible filler Rupture option, but one who’s rather clunky. He can do fine in Fire weak content and is a great pick into Wandering Hunter, but he’s not particularly exceptional at anything. As far as A-Ranks go, he’s one of the better DPS generally, but his damage and performance do not justify a T1 level. As a result, he moves down to a comfortable T1.5 placement, as a versatile but subpar option when compared to other limited CRIT DPS.

>Zhu Yuan T1 → T1.5: Zhu Yuan managed to hold out for a very long time considering she’s a 1.0 character who hasn’t received any Potential unlocks. The trusty Astra-Nicole duo kept her alive at first and Dialyn gave her a much-needed boost, but her age is starting to show. Bosses for a very long time have demanded Defensive Assists, and this limited her performance when being run with Astra (e.g. Miasma Priest). Additionally, for all of the Ether weak content that has come out lately, very little is fitting for stun-focused CRIT DPS, being either Anomaly bosses or clear character shills like Primordial Nightmare. Considering that we evaluate characters at M0, without her M1 to allow for more consistent on-fielding and easier resource management, she isn’t really at a T1 level. Even then, her performance hasn’t kept up, so with the reintroduction of T1.5, we’re moving her down to it so as to reflect Zhu Yuan’s slow but steady drop.

>Soldier 11 T1 → T1.5: As far as Potential unlocks go, Soldier 11 may just be one of the biggest winners, being a massive increase to her damage from baseline. Unfortunately, the restrictive nature of her Additional Ability limits her team comps, and while she does certainly have the ability to get good numbers, there aren’t many places where she can do so, given the relative lack of Fire-weak content for her to be used in. At higher Mindscapes (notably M6), she’s a powerhouse that can match or even exceed other CRIT DPS, but at M0, it's difficult to do so. Given T1.5 has returned, we find it to be a safe place to put her in.

>Anton T2 [Partner (Astra)] → T3: Anton’s Quick Assist multiplier was great fun for a short while. Fun memories of “1-button” Anton Astra duos where he could 3-star by doing nothing other than spamming the swap button for 3 minutes straight come to mind. Unfortunately though, we’ve now had multiple patches failing to come up with many successful clear scores for him. While he can follow a standard Dialyn Astra team of looping Chains and Ultimates in stuns (with Quick Assists for filler), other characters can do Stun combos far better. The T2 Physical Attackers at least have decent W-Engine options with Cloudcleave Radiance, Steel Cushion or even Brimstone, but Anton gets none of that. He can make do with Cordis Germina, but with so much of his damage being Quick Assists and Chain Attacks, he doesn’t get as much value out of it. The other T2 Agents’ Physical element also gives them better synergy with Dialyn, both due to matching elements and activated Additionals that can pump up their damage, but Anton has nothing. He can’t even be used in Seed teams, as his EX doesn’t allow for rapid draining of Energy to sustain her Steel Charge. We still occasionally see “full 0 cost” clears, and yet Anton is notably absent from most. Anton may have the markings of a shonen protagonist, but his drill no longer pierces the heavens, so he drops down to T3. As Astra alone is not sufficient to make him shine in comparison to others, he loses the Partner tag.

>Promeia T0.5 → T0: As time has gone on, it’s become clear that Promeia is not just strong; she’s very strong. She has managed to outscore Miyabi in neutral (Miasmic Fiend) as well as her own fights (Notorious Butcher) with Nangong and performs far better when other teams are considered, as traditional Yuzu Ice and Mono Ice setups have faltered when compared to even Promeia Vivian teams. She’s also very well placed to excel with Wind, having high personal Decibel generation to make up for the lack of Disorder bonuses owing to how Vortex’s attribution mechanics work, as well as packing some of the highest Anomaly Build-up in the game. Given that she is able to perform similarly to Aria, is doing at least as well as Miyabi, and is better placed to capitalise on current and future shill, Promeia moves up to T0.

>Miyabi T0 [Expert] → T0.5: To dare to move Miyabi down again is a walk to the gallows, but there is a reason for it. For a while, anti-shill had come on strong for her, and the last time she was moved, things quickly changed around with good enemies and buffs to favour her. Shortly after we returned her to T0, Nangong came out and firmly entrenched her position there, being a significant improvement over the previous Mono/Yuzu Ice teams that didn’t need enemies to be freezable to work. Now though, after Promeia’s release and with Wind’s existence, it’s difficult to say that Miyabi is still at T0. Promeia has managed to outscore Miyabi in neutral encounters (Miasmic Fiend), in the fights originally made for her (Notorious Butcher), and, unsurprisingly, does so comfortably as well with Scorched Horizon. The 3.0 boss is no different, and as Wind shill begins in full, Miyabi is in a uniquely bad position for it, as a sizable portion of her kit does not work with it. As an Anomaly “carry”, she’d still rank in the top 3, but with Velina’s presence being such a value add to others and with Aria and Promeia pulling out ahead in the recent endgame, we’re moving Miyabi down to T0.5 once again. Additionally, as the old Mono/Yuzu Ice Anomaly balancing for the best combos is no longer needed given that Miyabi has Nangong, we’re removing the Expert tag, as it’d be unfair to imply that she’d be T1 otherwise.

>Alice T0.5 → T0.5 [Watchlist DOWN]: Alice is still a very strong Agent, and her core gameplay hasn’t really changed since her release. Nangong did help buff her and also added a solid synergy with Polarity Disorders to sustain Alice’s Blade Etiquette, making for some decently accelerated rotations. Despite this, for some reason, the developers seem to be giving her a bit of the Burnice treatment with resistances: Scorched Horizon is Physical resistant and there’s some weird obsession with putting Miasmic Manato in every single Anomaly-oriented Shiyu Defence room, breaking up for only 1 or 2 phases before he’s rotated back in again. Her power budget is solid, but with the relatively high performance that many other Anomaly Agents get with Wind, the anti-synergy it has with her own mechanics is limiting. With how well Yanagi has done into Sweeper (or even Unknown Corruption Complex), or Vivian with Promeia, Alice currently seems to be a bit of a one-trick pick for Miasmic Fiend and as a filler option on Physical weak content in Shiyu despite the mismatched buffs. It’d be too hasty to bump her down immediately, especially with the potential for new enemies in Season 3 to add value to her, but she gets a Watchlist DOWN as we monitor how she does.

>Vivian T0.5 → T1 [Partner (Promeia)]: For the better part of a year, Vivian was the de facto secondary Anomaly pick. Miyabi aside and unless Mindscapes were considered, there was no better partner for a general Anomaly team than Vivian, especially once Yuzuha came into the picture to support her Anomaly Build-up. Nangong’s release, however, changed this very quickly: the difference in power between them made it so that any team Vivian was run in, Nangong was better, and her actual value-add to Anomaly faltered. This didn’t last long though, as Promeia’s release was about the best upscale she could have asked for. While Nangong was still doing better, it wasn’t by much, with top Vivian scores in Notorious Butcher and Scorched Horizon being very close. Unfortunately, she is both entirely dependent on Promeia for this and is ill-placed to work with Wind. When considering that now many other older Anomaly Agents with Velina should be able to match her scores with Promeia in many bosses and far exceed her if Vivian is run on other teams, we are taking her down to T1 and adding a Promeia Partner tag to highlight her dependence on said Agent.

>Piper T1 [Partner (Vivian)] → T1: Piper's performance previously was very much dependent on her ability to trigger Vivian's Ablooms quickly, and with Velina's arrival, it seemed at first as if Jane's CRIT Vortexes would bury Piper's competitiveness as a Physical Anomaly Agent. Sometimes, though, quantity is better than quality, and with how high Piper's Anomaly build-up is, she can sustain so many Vortexes that she is able to at least match Jane in performance. Given how well she works with Velina and how she is no longer dependent on Vivian, we're removing her Partner tag and keeping her in T1.

>Grace T2 → T1.5 [Watchlist UP]: To be frank, Grace - especially at an M0 level - is not a very good Agent. There was some promise that this would change with Nangong, and while she could do fine at higher Mindscapes, at a base level her damage is too lacking to justify a move up, especially when compared to the T1 Agents. As it turns out though, Wind is the perfect opportunity for her to be better, as looping Shocks over and over finally has benefits. This is exactly the kind of buff that Grace has long demanded and yet never been granted with other Anomaly Agents and Supports. One would think she’d struggle as Vortex takes the Anomaly damage stats of the primary unit but the Anomaly DMG % of the Wind unit. Thankfully, her Additional is applied to the enemy, not to Grace herself, so her ridiculous Shock DMG increases translate in full to Vortex procs. To imply that Grace at M0 is comparable to many of the other Anomaly powerhouses is questionable, but with the rise of Wind shill lessening the value of Disorder, Grace is perfectly placed to capitalise on new mechanics to the point we find her deserving of a bump up. As a result, we’ve moved her into the T1.5 tier, with a Watchlist UP to see whether she can keep up with the other T1 Agents.

>Astra T0 → T0.5: When she released, Astra was the Support. Mono Ice aside, every team in the game demanded her presence. Then came Rupture, lessening the value of ATK buffs; then came Yuzuha, being a dedicated Anomaly Support; then came Seed, whose support was merely another Attacker, and Orphie, who could function as a Support. Lastly was Sunna, who outperforms Astra in most teams, owing to her higher Daze application, Ether Veil triggers being more accommodating of endgame buff trigger requirements, and greater team flexibility. As it stands, it’s hard to come up with any top-performing team that even makes use of Astra…Ye Shunguang demands Ether Veils or Ultimates, meaning Dialyn, Zhao or Sunna are far better picks; Soldier 0 Anby prefers Orphie, Seed and Cissia are partnered, Ellen and Harumasa can do better with Sunna, even Zhu Yuan gets more mileage out of Brimstone and Nicole with Dialyn. Other than Evelyn and Soldier 11, who value the extra Chain Attack, Astra doesn’t fill a priority slot, often being little more than a filler option. That’s not to say that she’s bad and on the contrary, she’s incredibly strong, but whether that’s strong enough for T0 is a different story. Had this Tier List allowed for cost-rebalancing, like with M1P0 Astra, we find that she’d be deserving of the T0 placement, but as we consider M0 performance strictly, she gets no such leeway here. As a result, Astra is dropping to T0.5 after a year and a half of being one of the game’s top picks.

>Zhao T0.5 → T0.5 [Watchlist DOWN]: Since her release, Zhao has been a decent filler option for many players to make up for lacking on other more competitive Supports. It's not as if her performance is lacking, but her status as a Defence Agent can restrict her team building, and this is going to be felt even more with Velina's arrival. Zhao is still a core member of any budget Ye Shunguang team, but outside of that she lacks the flexibility of the other T0.5 Agents. Rather than moving her to T1 straight away though, we're marking her with a "Watchlist DOWN" instead to see how she holds up in 3.0 and beyond. Note that while we've labelled her as such, it's likely that if we find a move is warranted, she may remain in T0.5 but with a Partner tag instead.

>Lighter T0.5 → T1: What’s the point of having a niche when Lighter underperforms even in said niche? His previous guaranteed slot on Evelyn and Ellen teams was taken over by Dialyn; Orphie main DPS never materialised outside of Chasing Blade shill, and Season 2 has not had a single Ice Attacker release, with Lighter’s own Signature Engine being more valuable than pulling for Lighter himself (like on a Yidhari Lycaon team). Soldier 11’s Potential Awakening did increase his value somewhat, but outside of M6 Soldier 11 runs, she really doesn’t have the damage to make him a competitive pick. It doesn’t help that for Deadly Assault there are only 2 Fire Weak bosses (Notorious Pompey, Wandering Hunter), the latter of which Lighter isn’t even run against much since he doesn’t have a place with Rupture teams. He’s still good for Hugo teams, but Hugo is also struggling at the moment, limiting Lighter’s appeal too. He was once the most specialised limited Stunner in the game, and he had the numbers to justify the restriction, but with more than a year of no units that’d need him and the arrival of a generalist Stunner that also increases Stun Duration, it’s a struggle to even find a place to run Lighter in. As a result, despite his unquestionably high buff value, we’re dropping him to T1 so as to reflect his faltering performance and limited use.

>Soukaku T1 [Partner (Miyabi)] → T1.5 [Partner (Miyabi)]: Soukaku can at times feel like a bit of an oversight. A Support who can build as much Anomaly as Anomaly Agents, and whose Daze on EX cast is comparable to that of Stunners? Even after Yuzuha’s release, Soukaku was core to Miyabi teams, with the only other A-Rank Agent that could hold a candle to her scores being Nicole. As time has gone on, however, Mono Ice has faltered, with high Anomaly build-up requirements limiting its performance and even Yuzu Ice can’t compete with Nangong teams for Miyabi. Despite Soukaku’s competitive performance for much of the game’s history, it was entirely conditional on her being tied to Miyabi, who no longer needs the blue Oni for her best scores. To be clear: It’s not as if she can’t be used anymore, and in such cases she’s still decent, but with so many bosses being unfreezable, the gap between her and other Agents is all the more apparent. The remaining T1 units are somewhat niche themselves, but have broader use cases than “unit whose Tier Rating is conditional on being used with Miyabi and Yuzuha on an Ice weak boss that is also freezeable”. Soukaku isn’t quite T2 material just yet, so we’re dropping her to the restored T1.5 band instead.