Simple question: what's so great about Pulse Wave? I see some people talk about how good it is, but I am just not seeing it. What are the advantages and/or ideal situations to use Pulse Wave?

The beauty of pulse wave is that it ignores (mostly) everything.

The power ignores stealth, defensive reducers, super senses, ESD, TAs.. Basically, it's raw numbers.

The real beauty comes in when you get the chance to pull off a single-target pulse wave. The recipient of the damage will take the attackers FULL printed damage value.

See the Above Post

Okay that makes sense now. I had always assumed the point was to hit multiple targets, but now I see it is really powerful on a single target. Thanks.

It is also really good against a lot of targets. There are a lot of figures that really lose a lot by taking a single damage. There are also some pulsewave equipped characters that are really resilient. Also if you get attacked by 300 Lian Harper Bystanders you will make quick work of them.

One target is fantastic, but it's a little hard to pull off. It creates an AoE, so anyone within gets hit. Pulse wave cares not for friendlies, either, so be careful not to hit your own peeps.

That being said, knocking someone's whole team down a click is not to dismissed. You can kill someone's whole support staff & weaken their attackers with a well-timed PW, all for 1 action. And it works with Running Shot, and while based!

PW offers loads of fun

With few exceptions, it means targets have to accept your roll (targets cannot use PC)
Nailing a whole team for a click can add up - especially if an opponent has pushed someone to a sweet spot and now they are past it

Pulse Wave is the duct tape of HeroClix. It's the penicillin, the club soda, the folded-up fifty-dollar bill. I use it to solve a lot of common problems. Stealth? Impervious + Super Senses on the same click? Mystics? No worries!

It's rare that I find an opposing team that can't be knocked around a bit by Johnny Storm or V Blizzard. It can still happen (Cyborg!! ) but on the whole it's a great addition to any team, as long as you can TK or Running Shot away from your own teammates.

Bug with UB got you down? Pulse Wave!!

Bat-family stealthily pelting you with Batarangs? Pulse Wave!!

Superman's impervious ignoring your feeble Damage?? Pulse Wave!!

For these and any other frustrating Heroclix situations... Pulse Wave!!

So you don't take Mystics damage from PW either? That is awesome. I could have used that knowledge a couple weeks ago when my friend took me down with a Mystics team.

PULSE WAVE
Give this character a ranged combat action even if it is adjacent to an opposing character; the area of effect for this attack is half the character’s range. Draw lines of fire to all other characters within the area of effect, including at least one opposing character; these lines of fire ignore all game effects except for walls, blocking and elevated terrain. Game effects possessed or used by characters with a line of fire drawn to them are ignored until the action has been resolved. If a line of fire is drawn to more than 1 character, this character’s damage value becomes 1 and is locked. Each character hit is dealt damage.

I can see where new players might be unsure of everything this power does, because of the vague language used (which they have to use, to cover every situation). So here "game effects" means EVERYTHING - traits, powers, team abilities, feats. Anything that happens or takes effect "until the action is resolved".

That's why tournament play is so useful. You really learn the game more quickly and easily when you're playing strangers with a judge present. At home with friends, you just don't have that same pool of experience to draw upon.