Advantages

Powerful “Unibeam” melee attack that becomes more powerful as it is used.

Lots of team-up bonuses.

Disadvantages

Generally weak area attacks.

Weak defensively.

Every MAA player goes through the same process. When you first get Iron Man, during the first or second mission you play, you’re thrilled. He’s been a mainstay character for Marvel for decades. He’s got three of his own movies and plays a key role in the Avengers film series. What’s not to like? But as you play for a while, you begin to see that Iron Man is, at least in the game, underperforming and underwhelming. Most players don’t take long to bench him and play other, more powerful blasters. Definitely disappointing. Tony Stark deserves better.

The problem centers on Iron Man’s low returns for high costs. All of his attacks, and his relatively feeble personal shield, cost a great deal of stamina. After putting up a shield and dishing out a couple of attacks, he needs to recharge – just when you need him to deliver a final blow.

His first attack, the Repulsor Ray, inflicts a moderate amount of damage, but not so much compared to the powerful attacks of other blasters. Neither does his Missile Barrage area attack, though it does give a Burning debuff that can cost the other side some health. His personal shield costs a good bit of stamina and doesn’t offer a lot of protection.

Iron Man’s single most effective weapon is the Unibeam. It costs a lot of stamina, but boy howdy, does it inflict damage on a single target! Even better, if he keeps using it round after round, it gains “focus,” and becomes even more powerful. If your team can keep feeding him stamina recharges, he can blast his way through a mountainside, or even better, the toughest enemy or PVP opponent. There are empowered and augmented ISO chips out there that can make this attack even stronger. But as strong as this attack is, it isn’t enough to make him a top-flight choice for your team.

PVP and Alternate Uniforms: Any serious player who puts Iron Man on his PVP team is using one of the alternate uniforms. Probably the most powerful alt, the Mark 42, isn’t available at this time. That’s too bad – the Mark 42 has some significant improvements to the attacks, and swaps the underperforming shield for a second, powerful area attack. It also upgrades the Unibeam and makes it truly fearsome. The alts currently available, the Mark V and Avengers, provide modest upgrades, but probably not enough to make either alt worth the expenditure (unless you have the gold and/or the command points to burn). I’ll be in line when and if the Mark 42 comes available again. To my mind, it is the only alt that makes Iron Man a truly useful hero for your team.

Sad, really.

Strategy Suggestions

You can play Iron Man one of two ways. You can use all of his weapons – the Repulsor Ray, the Missile Barrage, the Unibeam – for what will, essentially, give below-par performance. Or you can stick to his Unibeam and fry individual opponents to a crisp in one or two hits. The key to this is to use it every single time, as it gains focus (i.e. higher damage) every time you use it. If Iron Man is stunned during combat, he starts the whole “focus” process over.

The Mark 42 alt is far more potent in its various weaponry. If you are lucky enough to be able to get this, don’t hesitate to use his various weapons as needed – but you should still rely on the Unibeam.

Go back to the Heroes by Class page.