Don't Stop Me Now

Feel like everyone around you has a leg up in tactics? Experience may be the best teacher, but we want to help you shape up your strategy. Heroclix has a lot of rules, which also means a lot of loopholes, synergies, and restrictions. Knowing what those are and more tactically practical ways to exploit them can help you see the game in new ways and come up with your own variations. It’s not quite meta, but it’s still Practically Tactical!

This week I wanted to take some time to talk about Stop Clicks, what they are, what they do, and why they're so awesome. If you've played for any length of time, you've probably run in to them at one point or another, but if you're unfamiliar with them, I hope this helps you sort things out.

Stop Click Rules:

So, to begin, let's start with the rules for a Stop Click.

This quote is from a WK article posted last year:
http://wizkids.com/heroclix/2016/03/...ht-stop-click/

That said, the mechanic itself of characters being able to stop the turning of their own dial has been around for years. It doesn't always work the same way because it wasn't always worded the same way, but it's mostly the same kind of thing. For example Devil Dinosaur has a Stop Click AND 3 other clicks where he simply can't take more than 1 damage at a time. While those technically aren't Stop clicks, they fulfill the same function.

This is another good point that while the WK article gave us the definition for the new STOP mechanic, it doesn't change the wording on pre-existing characters who already had a similar mechanic. For example, aou008 Hulk has a power that stops the turning of his dial, and while it says it can't be ignored, there's nothing stopping you from countering it. That won't help, obviously, until after you've revealed the first stop click, but it will prevent it from popping back up if you wanted to follow up with another strong attack. Conversely, m10a021 Dark Phoenix has a stop click, but nothing in the power says it can't be countered or ignored, so you can Pulse Wave through it or even counter it (if you found a way past her Power Cosmic TA). There are plenty of other examples that occasionally neglect to include countermeasures for countering and ignoring powers.


Dial Design:

In basic dial design, a character often has their best powers and stats up front, and generally works their way to weaker stats and powers as they take more damage. That said, there are plenty of exceptions, such as characters who get stronger near the middle of the dial and characters who get stronger the more damage they take.

For example, I give you Superman II:



Superman II's stats start off terrible with a 9 attack, a 16 defense, no move and attack, no Willpower, the need to be adjacent to do any damage, and a terrible damage reducer. Now, if you hit him once or twice, he becomes a fairly mediocre figure that still isn't worth his 120 points, but is capable of landing the occasional attack and making the damage stick. However, it's not really until the end of his dial that he becomes an insane powerhouse. On his last click, he becomes capable of dealing 8 damage with a 12 attack from 12 squares away, and that's well worth his 120 points.

Now, in dial design, his powers are supposed to represent a character who doesn't even believe he has powers in the beginning, but gradually becomes stronger and more willing to use them as he progresses through his story. This is a fun dial to represent that with, but it still runs in to a couple of problems. The first is that when you field him, you have to be worried that your opponents will ignore him and go for someone who's a larger threat while keeping him around as a weakling. At that point, he's really just a speedbump that they'll try to ignore while dismantling the rest of your forces. The second problem is that even if they don't ignore him, and lay in to him once or twice, the varying amounts of damage they could deal means that he might not ever land on those last 1-3 clicks, and that's where he really needs to be. If he doesn't see those clicks, he's unlikely to score the 120 points it cost to field him, meaning that it's up in the air whether he's a resource or a liability in a fight. This is a problem with a lot of characters who have a second wind designed in to their dial, since they might not ever see it, and you had to pay for it regardless.

Alpha Strike:

This is one of the reasons that Alpha Strikes are so important to the meta game. When people build their team, the only click they're ever guaranteed to see in most cases will be the starting click. After that, it's a head game of trying to plan for contingencies based on your opponent's damage values, who lands hits, and whether the attack was penetrating or not. This means that in a lot of cases, it's important to be the person to attack first, because it not only means you're closer to winning, but that your opponent is off balance. This goes back to a quote I mentioned in an earlier article:

-Mike Tyson

See, the guy who takes damage won't know how much damage they're taking until they get hit, so they won't have a polished and spot on plan for hitting back until they get hit, and the guy who laid out the damage is still on course for his plan because he hit first, and so far he's managed to keep himself on his most planned for click of health. It doesn't mean that the person who hits first will win (it's his turn to get hit next), but it does tip the scales in his favor for the moment. Dial memorization helps here, but there's all kinds of variables that can come in to play such as knockback, critical damage, or even just dealing damage to multiple targets and balancing it differently than expected.

Rebirth/God Clicks:

This is why Stop Clicks are so important. A stop click is another click that you're probably guaranteed to see. It's another click you can depend on, because regardless of what else happens, you'll stop on that click at least momentarily, and stopping there means that you'll have a better chance of using whatever powers were there (unless your opponent follows up with another successful attack on their turn). Moreover, in a lot of instances, Stop Clicks are used to represent some huge game changing moment in the comic. For example, Spider-Man 2099 has a stop click to represent the time he found out he was worthy to hold Mjolnir. His powerset changes, his stats skyrocket, and his role goes from secondary attacker to tentpole instantly, and the Stop click he has is there to make sure it happens. You also see similar things with uxm Rogue or AoU Wonder Man. This is commonly referred to as a "God-Click" because it combines a Stop Click with a significant increase in capabilities. Generally, this occurs near the end of the character's dial, and represents a turning point when a character would normally be on their last legs. That said, it can also occur near the beginning of the dial, and can take a pretty good character, and bump them up to a really good character. One of the best examples of this in recent meta is Kyle Rayner.



Now, Perplex, Two Targets, Energy Explosion, Willpower, and a 14 square reach aren't anything to sneeze at, but they're unlikely to single-handedly win you the game, and they're certainly not worth a 180 point character. However, as pretty much anyone who's played a ROC more than a year ago can tell you, that God Click on Click 3 is the real reason for the points. He gets a spike to all of his stats, Invincible, Outwit, Quintessence, the ability to teleport through whatever he wants, and the ability to attack twice per turn, moving immediately before each one. Even worse is that this occurs on Click 3. You can't sneeze on a dog without dealing at least 2 or 3 damage in Heroclix, and regardless of whether it's 3 or 8 damage, Kyle Rayner effective is only taking 1 or 2 damage before he hits that Stop Click and ignores the rest.

Have you ever seen that moment in an anime where one character wants to show off how much of a badass he is by letting another character take a free shot on him, take a hit to the face, smile back at the other guy, monologue, and then tear him to pieces?


This is that guy. Stop Clicks make him that guy. (Not literally because WK won't listen to lycanthropos) Stop Clicks mean that he will never sail past that click, and you'll have to deal with those two attacks that will most likely both land, that Invincible you probably can't get rid of, and that 19 defense that you're probably not going to hit on your first or second try.

How to Stop Stopping:

Now, if you haven't played against a lot of Stop Clicks, you might be asking how to beat them. In this guy's case, my buddy [url="http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?&t=554611"pupulesurfer[/url] has you covered, though it won't always help against just anyone. First off, Stop Clicks are weak against multiple people making smaller attacks, so if you know that one is coming up (which requires a little dial memorization ahead of time), don't lay in to a character with Stop Clicks with your strongest attacks. If you have multiple targets, go after them and someone else and spread the damage around. If you have multiple characters on your team, knock them to the stop click with your secondary attackers, and then land the KO with the lead attacker. If you have Mystics, you can pressure them to hit you, and knock themselves onto the stop click (alternatively, if they don't have Willpower, sometimes you can trick them in to pushing themselves onto a Stop click). If you have nothing else, just wait until they have two action tokens so that at the very least you knock them on their Stop Click while they have to clear. If you have Poison, hit them with the Poison, and then follow up with something else.

So, there's a few ways around Stop Clicks, though oftentimes you'll need to know that they're coming up in the first place, which means Dial Memorization is key. There's even characters who explicitly target Stop Clicks like Blue Devil or Hades, though you probably won't have access to them unless you knew you were facing Stop Clicks in the beginning (or you just really wanted to play Greek Deities this week.

Unstoppable!:

I've talked a lot about Synergy over the last few months, so it'd feel missing if I didn't mention some things that synergize with stop clicks. Regen, Support, and Steal Energy all work really well because in most cases, if you can heal above the stop click, you can force it to be a recurring problem for your opponent. For example, aaou008 Hulk has 2 Stop Clicks, and each of them is combined with a power that allows him to both clear action tokens and use an improved form of Regen. This makes him a monster in 1 on 1 fights, because it becomes extremely difficult to deal any form of lasting damage to him.


As a little bit of a treat, I also wanted to talk about the unreleased figure Hellcow from the upcoming Deadpool set. She's not gamebreaking, but pay attention to the fact that she's only 50 points. She's got one of the traditional vampire dials, where she starts past click 1, but has Steal Energy during the entire dial. Overall, she has 3 stop clicks, including the click he starts on AND the click after that. That means that even though her stats are pathetic, and she's 50 points, it will require 2 dedicated attacks to KO him, and if she starts actually landing hits, she can keep fighting indefinitely. Again, not broken, but if you give her a boost to her attack, manage to pair her with Flurry or Quake, or even just plop her down next to a really weak target, she heals about as fast as anyone can deal damage to her, for 50 points. Ordinarily with other vampiric dials, once you start paying attention to them, they generally go down quick, but in this case, this cow requires your full attention for 2 dedicated attacks if she never lands a hit, and an indefinite number once she gets going. Stop Clicks can be insane paired with healing abilities. This isn't ALWAYS the case, as, for example, the Dr. Doom/Kang duo has a stop click BUT it only occurs the first time it's revealed. Still, a lot of figures with the mechanic benefit from a dedicated healer more than most other figures since, in this instance, you can almost always heal about as fast as your opponent can deal damage.

At any rate, I hope you learned something, or at least saw something in a different light than you normally would. That's all for this time. Until next time, Stay Tactical!

That Superman II is dynamite, especially if you can Mastermind damage to him.

R82, it is worth reinforcing for newer players that the "Can't be countered or ignored" applies only to all-caps "STOP." Older "stop clicks" are not grandfathered in.

Also, Poison is not an attack, so is an excellent way to deal with stoppage. Major Force is the master of the coup de grace:

Oh, I still love that Superman, I was just using him to make a point that it can be difficult to get those characters on to the desired clicks ordinarily. My first thought was IIM Juggernaut or WatX Black King, and I love both of them too. I also considered House of M Hulk, though he's a little easier since you can Alter Ego him onto it.

Those are all really good points. I should have also included some info on Mystics damage being another good, semi-common way to bypass stop clicks.

Not even a mention for Dead Girl?

...I wanna make a supersonic man out of you!

I stuck you in the article for people who don't want to scroll down.

I thought I was being hip and trendy by including ONE figure from an unreleased set.

I love me some Queen. Though I'd rather be a Hypersonic man. :D

Noooo! "Can't use" is here to stay! Worst HC news of the week.

May be relevant to link a thread from a while back about characters that can stop stop clicks. Of course, we're going to have to resurrect that thread to put Dead Girl on it...

That's more than a little ironic.

Good read from a Great article...!

I'm not sure if there are many Colossal's with STOP CLICKS, but I went up against Trigon (Mystics & Quintessential) a few weeks ago and boy was he a hard one to put down... mainly ALL due to his annoying STOP CLICK:

JUST WHEN YOU THINK HE'S GONE... If this click is revealed when taking damage from an opponent's attack, stop turning the dial. Trigon can use Regeneration and Super Senses.

If that doesn't epitomize the strategy/hassle of a STOP CLiCK, I don't know what does.

If Trigon hadn't rolled double ones, I don't know what would've happened.

I gotta say that I really enjoy reading the PT articles - another fine read this time out!

But stop clicks? No problem!

Beast me to Blue Devil (who is just great in general).




Wait, no love for Jenny Sparks? About to rotate out of Modern, but still a great way to deal with STOP at range without being pigeonholed into only preventing that one trick. Doesn't do you any good if you can't use it! I had included her for points, but Jenny was MVP on an Authority team facing down an array of STOP figures in two out of three matches, shocking them right through. Nothing quite like the look on your opponent's face when they find out their power wasn't countered OR ignored, they just "chose" not to use it.