Which Promo Heroes would you pick over the Base Hero

While the usefuless of any individual promo hero would always depend on the specific situation, which promo versions are ones that you generally pick over the base hero? Or are there known situations when you'd always pick a promo over the base?

SS Tachyon and TL Tachyon seem obviously better than base Tachyon most of the time

F6 Absolute Zero's Elemental Wrath helps get past the slow starts he can often have

F6 Tempest's Sacrifice is pretty good as his base power isn't generally relevant once he gets the hailstorm

I find Young Legacy works better than Legacy in fights with only three heroes

Most of the other promos I either haven't played with enough to get a feel for when or why they might be better or I find that their variant power isn't notably more useful than their base power (e.g. the GI Bunker & RC Wraith powers can be useful in some situations, but I generally find I'm using other powers for those heroes anyway)

I happen to really love base Tachyon. She fits my play style very well, as I am happy to be useless for an entire game until I can nuke things.

By and large, I tend to prefer base heroes in general. I'm not sure why, but they tend to just "feel right."

I wonder if we can come up with an "-ism" term for prefering the original verions.

GI Bunker is hugely useful for any fight involving extensive DR.  Definitely Voss, especially Advanced.

I scoffed at RC Wraith for quite a while, but if she goes first in the turn order, she actually rocks pretty hard.  There are lots of mixed-bag environment cards that become pure win for the heroes if played just *after* the Villain turn.

Off the top of my head, I've grown a liking to DW Nightmist, TL/SS Tachyon, and occasionally Young Legacy.

DW Nightmist lets you plan her spell plays out better, and saves you from burning yourself. So you onlt take self-damage when you're using spells, and not her base power.

Team Leader Tachyon for obvious ridiculous draw power reasons. SS Tachyon because I feel it's a good way to mill Bursts while occasionally getting lucky enough to play them. A bit of a luck factor, but it suits my play style more than base Tachyon.

I usually prefer base Legacy because bolstering all instances of damage helps tremendously against DR. Young Legacy switches your playstyle a lot, thus making cards like Surge of Strength more useful, since you're doing more damage than you are buffing. Plus, 3 damage for a base power is nothing to sneeze at. Unless you're allergic to being awesome.

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mumpsimus or sumpsimus, depending on who you ask

I almost always will use Team Leader Tachyon over the base version.

If I'm playing on Advanced mode, I'll often use GI Bunker to eliminate DR or Engine of War Bunker for extra Ongoing destruction.

For more of my thoughts, you could always check out my (now slightly outdated) Guide to Promo Characters.

Redeemer Fanatic over base Fanatic any day of the week folks.

I prefer whichever one the randomiser tells me to play. ;)

I like the base version equally with their promo counter part.

Yes, the randomiser is a great tool for us indecisive folk.

And we all get to see the incredible wrongness that is Foote's thoughts on Fanatic.  Seriously.  He's so very nice and seems like a smart person, I just don't get it.

Anyways, here are my thoughts:

AZ:   Elemental Wraith,  Healing is overrated.

Bunker:  EOW Bunker, Having a situaltional "OMG get rid of that card now" power is great.

Fanatic:  Original.  Foote is wrong, healing is overrated, do some freaking damage.

Haka:  Prime Warden.  It's not ridiculously powerful, it's just insanely cool.  (and when LSB hits 50 damage you know you are doing it right)

Legacy:   Young Legacy, feels like it fits the deck better than Galvanize, and it isn't like her being ridiculously strong is a change from her Dad.

Ra:  Original.  What are you going to do with all those cards?  He doesn't need them.

Tachyon:  Original:  I love SST, but I think the deck is more dynamic with that base power.  It just feels right.  SST your hand feels irrelevant, and TLT is just sick.  She's in the Dark Visionary category of revenge games and special shallenges only.

Tempest:  Original, you have better ways to draw cards, although I need to play PW Tempest more, that one might be good.

Visionary:  Original, Dark is just too dominant.

Wraith:   RC Wraith , to parrot earlier commentor,   is really cool.  Some environments not as much, but there are those that are well worth it.

Fixer:  Original, I really don't liek DW Fixer.  My playstyle loves regular Fixer, and DW is like trying to fix something that was awesome.

Expat:  Push.  I like original for Unload and DW for gunless moments.  Otherwise I never use her base power.

Nightmist:   DW Nightmist, huge props for breaking a really cool character out of being a high school economics lesson.

Argent:  Original, the new one is really fun, but also insanely powerful, the PW one I need to play more, but I'm not the biggest fan of all the new card play shenanigans.

Omnitron-X:  Fan Made Omnitron XI:  select a component, that component acts at the end of the turn as well.  I find it a lot more fun.

Unity:  Golem Unity, who needs health anyway?

KNYFE:  Rogue Agent, I know I said I don't like all this new fangled card play, but KNYFE it really works, makes you use her cool powers with the costs more.  I really like this card.

Setback:  Regular, he isn't so powerful that he needs a nerfed version, and losing tokens is just harsh for a base power.

Healing? The healing is a bonus cherry. That card draw! 

That's what your draw phase is for.  Power phase is for Smiting.

I'm pretty sure Fanatic's power phase if for Exorcising. Play phase is for Smiting that Transgressor.

Fanatic is diverse enough that I wouldn't mind the extra draw power to cycle through to some awesome stuff like Wrathful Retribution and Divine Focus. Maybe it's just my playstyle, but I almost always choose to have a handful of options and setting up big plays over time, rather than quick big hits now. Haka can do both!

Interesting. Like what?

Close Quarters Combat. The heroes get the damage buff, and it destroys itself before the villains can benefit from it.

Atlantean Throne Room

Basicially anything that gives the heroes extra plays/damage buffs and can be destroyed at the start of the environment turn before it benefits the villain.

Megalopolis:  Rooftop Combat/Cramped Quarters Combat

Insula Primalis:  Obsidian Fields/any dinosaur you can set the field up for.

Wagner Mars Base:  Pervasive Red Dust!! and Maintenance Level.

Ruins of Atlantis:  Phosphorescent Chamber!!, Pillar of Hercules

Rook City:  Toxic Sludge!

Pike Industrial:  Irradiated Cyclohexane Vat

Tomb:  none.

Realm of Discord:  Any improvement in distortion cards/Time Flies!/Imbued Frailty

Time Cataclysm:  Fixed point, Rift in Time, Mars Quake

Silver Gulch:  Explosives wagon

The Final Wasteland:  none

The Block:  none

MDP:  none

Freedom Tower:  none

It is disheartening that the more recent environments gain less from RC Wraith, despite seeming like places her sleuthing would be valuable.

Phosphorescent Chamber and Pervasive Red Dust are the big winners, Pervasive Red Dust is insanely good for RC Wraith to find, you get to essentially put an equipment card from your hand into play, or discard to put one in your trash into play.  It rules.

Appreciate the feedback.

I'll admit that improves my impression of the utility of this power, but only from nearly useless to rarely useful.

Which compared to Wraith's base power can be an improvement.  I also like just messing with the environment.

Im curious as to what you mean by this? 

Regular Nightmist's most effective card is Amulet.

Her base power gves you the exact cost of amulet for 2 damage.  So you get a basic 2 damage now to redirect 3 or more damage later is a win, otherwise you redirect the 2 damage Nightmist deals herself.

Running Amulet Nightmist is all about knowing what amounts of damage are going to come your way in the fight, and saving enough cards to cover big hits, and using the rest to take care of the biggest hits you can, accounting for her own cards as well.

I love DW Nightmist because is removes the repeatable stable cost of cards and makes her a much more interesting character.

Currently when I play base NightMist, I activiely avoid playing the Amulet, unless it is needed. With DW NightMist I actively try to get the Amulet and use it constantly. 

Why do I do these things? Because my play style revolves around doings the things other people do not do.

And killing off said character is part of that strategy?

So when/if you play Mistbound you try and make yourself unable to discard two cards, and if you do play it you select the next hero in the line up so that they can’t play cards?

Fiendishly clever.

Not at all, i'm not a fan of NightMist incap powers, so there is no need to actually kill her. She is also insanely easy to keep alive, thanks to Master of Magic and Starshield Necklace. Her healing is based on doing things that will not impede your play or powers. Besides the every now and again when Mist-fueled Recovery is needed, but that's not too often. NightMist is probably the hero I end the game with max HP the most.

Lol!  

I agree with this.

I THINK that I will like the newest Haka more than any previous Haka.

I THINK that I will like the new KNIFE over the original.

I THINK that I will like the Tempest over any previous Tempest.

I stopped using Team Leader Tachyon because although way better, she is actually too good. Now I player her an pretend only one person gets to draw a card.  I take that over her base form.

I'm a big, big fan of Darkwatch Nightmist. It's really satisfying to be able to set up big spells, and changes her gameplay completely. And her incap art is probably my favorite art in the game, period.

I haven't tried any of the Prime Warden promos yet, but Eternal Haka's been quite good to me. He's got plenty of other sources of damage powers that are more effective than that base power, and Eternal Haka's extra draw rate means you're quite likely to get them out sooner rather than later. And of course, helps set up big Haka plays.

I absolutely love DW Expat, and actually I think she's one of the few promos that I use with any regularity

With Wrath of the Cosmos in my clutches--and all those lovely promos with it--I just updated The Warlock's Guide to Promo Characters!  

Take a look!

I feel like Super Scientific Tachyon basically fires regular Tachyon from play. Either you're going to end up flipping two cards into the discard instead of one with a mismatch or a pair of one-shots, or you'll get the setup cards that Tachyon wants in play ASAP anyway. The chances of a disaster happening because of the card plays seem pretty remote.

I think normal Bunker's base power is seriously underwhelming, so I don't see any reason to use him instead of one of the promos. But Bunker is my least favorite hero in the base set by far, and maybe my least favorite in the whole game, so I would never pick him without a randomizer anyway.

Does unintentionally having to ditch your Lightspeed Barages directly into the trash count as a disaster? What about having them go off and do small amounts of damage?

I wouldn't agree that SS Tachyon obsoletes the original. But it is a pretty potent ability, and losing a Lightspeed Barrage from the bottom of the deck (that you were likely not going to get to anyway) isn't that big of a deal. I did have a game on the app where SS Tachyon managed to Sucker Punch herself, though. So that was rough.

As a beta tester on the App, I find Rook City Wraith invaluable for trying to repro (or create!) rare edge-case situations :-)