Advantages

Hugely powerful energy attack, but can effectively be used only once per battle.

Inflicts heavy debuffs on opponents.

Outstanding stamina.

Disadvantages

His best attack costs him a turn.

Weak defensively except with energy attacks.

Most Marvel fans know Cyclops, but his brother Alex is not as famous. Alex, or Havok, had a secondary role in the recent movie X-Men: First Class (you may remember him incinerating mannequins with energy bolts blasting from his chest). Ironically, in the game he is, in some ways, far stronger than his brother, absorbing energy – which he does very quickly – and releasing it in devastating blasts.

He has some nice passives, including Cosmic Absorption, which lets him absorb energy without taking action as well as reduces damage he takes from energy attacks, and Uncanny Coordination, which gives him the chance to attack an opponent that one of his teammates just attacked.

His first attack is a more straightforward punch, but it removes buffs from the opponent, always a nice effect. His area attack, Plasma Spheres, not only inflicts serious damage, but hangs some ugly debuffs on the entire gang of opponents. But it is his second and fourth attacks that make him a devastating attacker. Alex can use his fourth ability, Channel Energy, to absorb a ton of ambient energy. Since that is a Quick Action, he can immediately follow with his second attack, Plasma Wave, which not only uses that energy to inflict horrendous damage on a single opponent, but uses Paragon Exploiter to inflict even more damage on opponents with any of a number of debuffs, including some he can inflict. The downside to his Plasma Wave is its relative inaccuracy. If it hits, it can and often does obliterate the opponent with up to ten times the amount of health the opponent has. It is probably the single most devastating attack in the game. Another serious detriment is that Plasma Wave takes so much out of him that he loses his next turn. Recently, Playdom added near-crippling “cooldowns” to both the Plasma Wave and Channel Energy: the Plasma Wave takes two rounds to cool down once used, and the Channel Energy ability does not become available to Havok until the second round of battle, meaning he cannot use the Plasma Wave to its full effect until the second round. Between the cooldowns and the loss of a turn, he won’t be able to use the Plasma Wave/Channel Energy combination again until the fifth round; most battles don’t go that long.

Defensively, Havok is not very strong; in PVP especially, he won’t be around very long. Before Playdom added new limitations to his offensive abilities, he could earn his keep merely by blasting one, maybe two opponents out of his shoes in the time he has on the field. With the new limitations, his offense capabilities are much reduced.

PVP: Havok is a popular hero in PVP because of his Plasma Wave attack, which pretty much takes out anyone in his way if he can unleash it before getting taken down himself, though the new limitations are probably going to reduce his popularity. The many Tacticians found in PVP stand a good chance of neutralizing him before he can obliterate an opponent. Pair him with a tough defender such as Captain America, a strong Infiltrator to counter the Tacticians gunning for him, or a tank such as Hercules, to keep him around longer.

“As one who has used Havok extensively, imo, I find his nerf does little to change my core strategy. Yes, he might not be able to insta-KO a character on his first turn, but I adapt to that by having him use Plasma Spheres (augmented with applying Radiation Exposure.) When it’s his turn again, he should be all set to one-shot ANY of the opposing team, as has been the case with me thus far. … The only thing I'll miss is doing absurd amounts of overkill.” – Comment by “SeekerofD” from the Havok page on the MAA wiki

Alternate Uniforms: Havok has no alternates at this time. Since he is a member of the X-Men, and the X-Men movie franchise is not owned by Disney, it is unlikely that Playdom will include him in a Special Operation any time soon, so that decreases the chance of an alt for him.

Strategy Suggestions

To maximize Havok’s effectiveness, you play to his strength: the Cosmic Energy-reinforced Plasma Beam. Basically, you do something else during the first round, then use Channel Energy to give the Plasma Beam some oomph, unleash it the second round, and hopefully take out one opponent entirely. You’re then forced to do without him entirely during the third round, and you won’t get the Plasma Wave/Channel Energy combo again until the fifth round. Most PVP battles don’t last that long.

If you’d rather not have him sitting out during the third round, you can rely on his punch and his area attack to inflict much lower damage, but add some nasty debuffs. However, this doesn’t take advantage of his single most effective weapon. Think Iron Man’s Unibeam, just more powerful and only able to be used every other turn. Without this attack, Havok becomes almost ordinary.

Dan Cool contributed to this strategy guide for Havok.

Go back to the Heroes by Class page.