Heroclix Eras

I can make a (very) rough division between three eras of the game, each era lasting about five years. You can have characters from these eras compete against each other fairly well, even if there are standout figures in every set that are more powerful. When I want to build a team across eras, I had better pick the absolute best of the best from the early days, and even then I know I'm at a disadvantage.

But they are GREAT with the 2014 rules, if you stick to playing within each era, and making sure that the teams facing each other are well-balanced. See my blog post on Classic Clix for ways to achieve those two goals.

Era 1. 2002-2007: From Infinity Challenge to Justice League
First clicks of most of these pieces are roughly the same, except for generic figures who have 9 or 10 in 2007 (Blackhawks) compared to 7 for 2002's SHIELD and Skrull agents. End of the dial is where you see a bigger difference, as the trend of solid clicks of uselessness right before KO didn't really go away until Fantastic Forces.

Era 2. 2007-2012: From Mutations & Monsters to Chaos War
I think this was a definite boost in power over the sets immediately before this era. The Rampaging Hulk piece is clearly guilty of being too tough for Avengers and JL pieces to handle. This trend continued with the Crisis Chase Supermen and FF Starter Thing. You could still play any of those four figures today, seven years later, and there are plenty of other examples. These pieces don't suffer from three-four-six clicks of no colored powers at the end of their dials, and you won't see a 6 anywhere.

Era 3. 2012-20??: From JL 52 to War of Light
The dividing line between this era and the previous one isn't as firm and obvious as between Era 1 and Era 2. But the feeling I get is that apart from stand-out pieces like Fast Forces Scarlet Witch or Sentry/Void or maybe Hawkeye, the Chaos War set has aged and can't pull its weight in the age of lanterns, belts, entities and so on. There are still great pieces, but when you look at the entire set as a whole, the point costs don't match up with today, you just don't get the same bang for your buck. So that means a new era has started, with a new standard level of power.