Oops, already covered by Raven.

OK, I see now. Then how about this:

'When this character is hit with a successful attack, Damage dealt is reduced by 1, and all Damage dealt that is greater than 1, is instead reduced to 1'

Does that make more sense? Basically, it gives them 'Toughness', so that a POG (barring Crtitcal hits etc can't hurt them) but also retains the other portions of the power. It would them make them less susceptible to being 'pinged' off of the power.

Ah the "if you don't agree with my opinion you must obviously suck at this game" argument. A great no-win situation. Either you have to agree or admit you're an inferior player. Of course I'd argue that such great "competitors" and people who know "how to play the game" would realize that Ulik's special power is susceptible to EW and PB without any argument given the wording of his power and the definition of penetrating damage.

How about:

'Ulik is only damaged by attacks that do more than 1 damage. When this character is hit with a successful attack, if the Damage dealt is greater than 1, reduce Damage dealt to 1'

That any better?

This thread is filled with much rage, so I shall simply wade in a bit, cast my opinion about and then steer clear. I do not agree with the first post made. I still think Ulik is an amazing figure for his points. I played against him in a game recently where he unfortunately ran into my 248 point Wonder Woman, yeah, that fight did not work out so well for her.

The point that he can be murdered by a 4 damage Psychic Blast seems moot, as 4 damage Psychic Blast will murder almost anyone. Also, even after said Psychic Blast he is capable of doing 5 damage straight to the dome with Super Strength and Exploit Weakness, so I would say he is not a bad character, quite the opposite.

I think much of the frustration comes from the fact that this debate over Ulik's power was already pretty much beat like a dead horse in another thread where someone was basically arguing just for the sake of argument, for days on end, even after everyone in the thread disagreed with his argument that Ulik should reduce everything (including PB and EW damage) to 1.

As for the original poster, I don't know why he's so upset (probably just because people have been attacking his position or him), but he's certainly entitled to his opinion.

Are we to assume that your competitors have Psychic Blast or Exploit Weakness on every team they build? Because that's the only way your statement makes any sense. If that is indeed the case, you can print your own Repulsor Shield and Fortitude cards to play on him or so I'm told.

Then you admit to having a limited opinion? No arguement here.

So every person you play with always plays Psychic Blast with every team. And you haven't figured out to to work around that. You sure you want to discuss comparative skill levels?

It's not that we don't get your point. Yes, there is a pretty big pair of scissors against this rock. However, this is not a new situation. Bricks have always been vulnerable to ranged attacks, including Psychic Blast. Skilled players know how to work around that if they choose to use the character.

You also make a mistake a lot of players do when discussing how "worthless" a figure is. Yes, if you *know* you're going to face a specific figure, then it's usually easy to build a team to counter it. But that's not a guarantee you're going to face that specific situation every time. A gamble, sure, but not a guarantee. Take a serious look at what people are playing in the next couple weeks. It may be that you local metagame is inhospitable to Ulik, but you may also find that it's not as bad as all that.

Now, it was asked to provide some specific advice on how to use Ulik effectively. So here's a stunt for you: Drop a few points on some Moloids.

27 points gives you a v-formation in front of Ulik as he advances (One SI Moloid carrying two R CM Moloids), 32 if you want to speed them up with Double Time. Your opponent is going to have to spend attacks picking off the Moloids before he can touch Ulik.

That also gives you three extra figures toward your Keyword PC and, even more important, to map choice. Select a map which will hinder your opponent's blasters while allowing Ulik to make the most of his powers. The Armor Wars Lab is great for this, as is the Origin JSA Museum.

Choose your BFC well. Deep Shadows, Darkness and Shrunk will all cut their ranged advantage.

Find a good taxi. Monster gives you access to cheap high-speed taxis like HT V Man-Bat. You may feel more at home with the multi-purpose XP U Green Goblin or Zombie Iron Man offering Perplex assistance. Look at Tornado Tyrant for TK and some ranged firepower of your own. Yellow Lantern is a taxi with Defend and an 18 Defense.

Or, y'know, drop 25 points on Repulsor Shield and remove the threat of Psychic Blast entirely.

If nothing else... consider this a challenge. If you think you're such a skilled player, then find a way to make Ulik work. It's one thing to come on here and talk smack about how much a figure sucks. It's another thing entirely to hit the game board and smack people around with a figure they'd considered unplayable.

-J

QFT

I'd also add that if the environment really was filled with such fantastic players, not only would they know how the rules work*, but they should also have the skills to play it effectively.




*Face it, this one did not need a ruling from Norm to make it so. The rules are straight forward on this one.
"do damage" is not a game term.

Just piping in that rock actually beats scissors, unless there has been some errata I'm not aware of.

Well, the SP would have to explicitly say that to accomplish that. There are more than two dozen pogs with either 2 damage or some close combat ability to increase damage (CCE on Oberon, etc).

But the pog discussion is all theoretics, right? Ulik will never face a pog in sealed. There won't be any pogs made in the future. In restricted play, he'll see very few pogs. And the most used pogs are played for wild card abuse and meat shield/mastermind purposes. Even with PnP, Ulik will KO four or five Lian Harpers before he's attacked by a Colleen Wing. I think I've ever fielded two pogs (Matter-Eater Lad, Sarge Steel) with the hope that they would hit someone.

Scissors cuts paper, paper covers rock, rock crushes lizard, lizard poisons Spock, Spock smashes scissors, scissors decapitates lizard, lizard eats paper, paper disproves Spock, Spock vaporizes rock, and—as it always has—rock crushes scissors.

Just to clarify.....FCBD Iron man and Superman Prime have similar defensive powers, however without the extra wording which forces you to fortitude a 317 point figure where as this figure for 118 points doesn't have to. The question is....is it the same ruling?

Well, it's the same ruling, but I don't see the confusion.

EW & PB deal penetrating damage.

Penetrating damage is damage which cannot be reduced by powers which reduce damage.

FCBD IM and Supes Prime have powers which reduce damage (to 1). Ulik has a power which reduces damage (to 1).

The only difference is that Ulik's power cannot be countered or ignored.
Penetrating damage does not ignore or counter anything.

When dealing with penetrating damage, all three powers work in the same way.


Apparently this ruins Ulik.

Rock = Ulik
Paper = Exploit Weakness/Psychic Blast
Scissors = Outwit