Characters, Efficiency, and YOU! (A guide towards understanding and managing heroes)

#Introduction

So you downloaded Avengers Academy, got into the game pretty well, and you're just starting out - wanting to take advantage of the system even though you might not have many characters to play with. You want to manage your heroes efficiently and earn the most reward as possible, while making sure you don't accidentally assign a hero to an 8 Hour task before a 1 Minute task comes up? Well then, I hope this guide will help you make some decisions!

The real trick to this game is understanding three things - The Missions Board, your Heroes, and their Actions.

The Missions Board is pretty self explanatory, but the big thing is this - Missions require heroes to perform actions, and these requirements are NOT randomly generated! That's right, some missions will only pop up if you have the respective hero at the respective level and the respective facility allow the respective hero's respective action to execute respectively! In other words...

...Tony can't relax in the hot tub if there ain't no hot tub.

With that in mind, understand that between levels 1-10, you will only get certain missions repetitively if you aren't gung ho on upgrading facilities and characters. The smart thing to do is to compare your current game with the ever-growing mission compilation effort going on over in this thread; Marvel Avengers Academy Quest List, and then organize characters and missions accordingly!

Now let's talk about Heroes and their Actions!

#Explanation

In most online MMOs, you have your Tanks, Healers, and your Damage Dealers. In Avengers Academy you should view each of your characters in one of three categories - Slugs, Nimbles, and Jacks.

Slugs are characters who execute actions within a Medium-to-High window of time. Actions which take more than an hour or so, or whose quests ask for more high-time-based actions (like Heroic Quests) fall in this category.
Nimbles are your students who can get their actions done super fast - within around minute or ten. Additionally, their quests often ask of them to perform their low-time actions, and fall within the Easy difficulty on the board.
Jacks are... Tony Stark - or characters like him. In other words, a Jack Of All Trades. These heroes have a wide array of actions in both the short and long execution times and are generally used in Easy, Heroic, and Normal missions often. Sometimes you'll have difficulty figuring out which mission to execute with a Jack as they appear in more than 1 mission at a time on the board.

It should be mentioned that these categories are volatile! Nimbles and Slugs may become Jacks over time as you upgrade your facilities and characters. It all depends on what TinyCo has in store for Missions and how often they show up! But until then, these explanations and categorizations of characters are for your fast involvement between levels 1-15, as after 15 you start to get comfortable enough with what you have.

#Characters

Iron Man - Type: Jack - Your first hero and often used in both Quest Missions and Board Missions, the game will ask for actions varying between 1 Minute to 4 Hours on average. Most asked for Actions include [Get Some Fresh Air - 1m], [Fire Repulsors - 15m], and [Tinker With Tech - 1h].
Wasp - Type: Nimble - Jack - It's debatable whether Wasp is a Nimble or a Jack as even early on you will get quests involving [Plan Some Parties - 4h], but for a time between around levels 5-10, Wasp will really be utilized for her [Take Selfies - 1m], [Have A Blast - 3m], and [Create A Buzz - 5m] quite often! She becomes a Jack as soon as you upgrade the Timeless Archives to Stage 2 as quests will then often ask her to [Try To Study - 30m], [Study Fashion - 1h], and [Post Everywhere - 2h], so be wary!
Loki - Type: Slug - Crazy, isn't it - that the God of Mischief cares nothing more but to dance for two hours straight this early in the game... Even though he has the mighty ability to [Wield Sorcery - 1m] and Missions will often ask him of that, on the other side Missions will ONLY ask Loki to [Master The Dance Floor - 2h] practically whenever he's needed for a mission between Academy Level 1-10. If you want more variety, level up facilities and he'll soon become a Jack.
Black Widow - Type: Slug - Honestly, for someone who has the fastest Blasting Range animation, her actions take far too long to make the reward worth it half the time. #1 tip if you want Widow to get better: Construct Van Dyne's as fast as possible and purchase her Super Spy Widow costume. It's value is incredible, as VERY often you will be asked to [Test Widow's Bite - 1h].
Falcon - Type: Nimble - He's pretty fast for a guy with no powers! Even up to Academy Level 15, his longest action on his list could still only take 1 Hour! Quests will often ask for [Blast Off - 1m], [Test Hovercrafts - 3m], and our favorite [Falcon Punch - 30m].
Vision - Type: Slug - A very nice Credit machine with his Boosted Missions, Vision is still a slow-action character and his quests often ask him to DJ or to morph into the floor. This is actually a good thing to understand - knowing that vision's quests will often ask for long-term actions, you can have him perform such actions without worrying of a Mission asking for something faster!
Spider-Woman - Type: Slug - As much as I wish she wasn't a Slug, this girl takes her time! Much of her quests involve ONLY her, which can be a benefit or a fault depending on how you see it. She also earns Boosted Missions, so there's that! For a long time you will have her only able to execute 2-4 actions between earning her to Academy Level 15, and quests will often ask for [Spider Glide - 30m] and [Fire Venom Blasts - 45m], so you can pretty much depend on her to be your "Half Hour Girl".
Enchantress - Type: Nimble - Jack - Even though the Mission Board doesn't ask for her often, when she does get a quest it's usually asking for only one thing - [Cast Spells - 1m]. Upon upgrading Stark Tower to Rank 3, the Mission Board will ask for her [Mesmerize The Mortals - 2h]. Upgrading her to Rank 2 will prompt [Refine Attacks - 30m] very often from the Mission Board as well!
War Machine - Type: Nimble - Sidekick? He'll show you! War Machine's actions boarder just within Nimble since his beginning actions are [Get Some Air - 30m] and [Polish Pilot Skills - 45m]. Quests involving these actions pay out decent enough, and when his Boost kicks in for the mission, you can expect a more-than-fair payout! Upgrade him to Rank 2 and you'll get [Bring Out The Big Gun - 3m] which practically cements his Nimble title without needing to upgrade past Rank 3.

More Characters to Come, feedback and input appreciated and wanted!

#Updates

2/18/16 - Formatted page a bit to be more visually appealing. Added brackets to actions.
2/18/16 - Detailed Enchantress a bit and updated formatting again - removed italicization from actions.
2/18/16 - More visual formatting. Learning how reddit works! Excuse the mess...
2/18/16 - War Machine added. MOAR visual formatting.

Posted Feb 18, 2016, 6:00 AM UTC · edited

114