Backstory:
My situation is odd, I played some heroclix way back in the day with some friends from DnD and fell in love with the war of light set. I enjoyed the colors, the strategies, the constructs, the accessories, the batteries, the Larfleeze, etc.

Fast forward almost 10 years and now I'm finishing college, my mother found my old box of heroclix in the attic and I've been sifting through it, reminiscing on those old games where I barely knew the rules and was having a blast.

The part that matters:
I want to get back into the hobby, and have been looking at newer pieces and their values. There are really powerful 30 point pieces now that have 5 clicks and great abilities, and everything that I thought was compelling to play in WoL was usually over 100points (besides the recruits) and had some had significant weaknesses.

Are WoL pieces still playable? Is powercreep actually a significant problem in this game or is that just what I've incorrectly observed from like 3 or 4 aberrant new pieces? Is old Larfleeze still the tyrant king I knew him as? I'd love to hear more about all of your personal experiences with WoL, your stories of past games, groups, fun interactions, and your opinions on if there's anything still playable in that set.

The Batteries are still quite useful; I broke out the Green Battery just last week, actually, on a Gotham Underworld squad. Otherwise, power creep has hit many keywords hard. I yearn for a new wave of great Blue Lanterns, personally.

You are mainly correct in your observations. To most, the old figures are unplayable against the latest greatest.
Can depend on your group. Whether they only play ubermeta or delve into past clix occasionally.
My group has majority meta players. And in that group there are 3 players that have placed in the top 50 in worlds. Tough crowd!
But nonetheless I show up each week, playing the stuff I like and shunning that which I don’t.
I recently played a green lantern 500 point team consisting of figs from UNLEASHED, DC 75th, WAR OF LIGHT, and ELSEWORLDS.
I mostly got destroyed. But occasionally through luck, lucky dice, focus on my tactics. and sheer WILLPOWER, I trounce a meta team.
I would rather play what I like and lose than play meta pieces I don’t care for and maybe win.
I’ve only ever seen one player KO another’s POWER BATTERY. Have you ever seen this?

As much as I loved playing it WAY back when, it's definitely over costed in the modern environment. The good news is: DON'T THROW IT AWAY!
A fairly modern invention called a "legacy card" is currently placed on most, if not all, of the new releases (taped to the top of the bricks of product). They allow you to play older figures with new point costs and new powers. The Hall Jordan/Sinestro figure from War of Light is one of the figures that has a new legacy card for use. If you can get one, it isn't a bad way to enjoy an older figure in modern play. Gook Luck!!

I once frickaseed my own Blue Battery. Jim Hammond with three constructs burned it out trying to get that +3 combat values. :-)

Ooooops.

Lyssa Drak also just got a legacy card in DC Notorious. Also, if you like the War of Light figures, Wonder Woman 80th Anniversary and Batman Team-Up both had Lantern subthemes in the higher rarities. I just pulled the new version of Larfleeze from Batman Team-Up last night and he’s pretty solid, although he really wants the ring and constructs from the same set to reach his full potential.

Ohhh forgot about Lyssa Drak!!! Thanks!!

For the War of Light pieces, I'd recommend mixing old and new. I've run Rond Vidar a few times in recent years, and his Time Cube trick is still pretty useful.


War of Light appears to be a high mark for a lot of us, playwise, and for venue attendance.

The biggest worry for a few weeks there was what to do about Weaponer of Qward, as far as how to beat him. Tough figure, but I think we figured it out, not an insta-win if pulled.

You'll still see some bricks floating around for sale, so we did a battle royale for it at the first Championclix in Orlando (first known as the clixcup) 2021. Old figures, new rules, and it was a blast.

Gods...

WoL still has my absolute favorite thing that has ever happened in Clix to me.

Great set between the two booster set ups, and I loved the set ups for the different characters with their keywords and all.

And our last War of Light tournament before Worlds that year. Everyone was hyped on basically: You needed Sinestro Corp's Parallax entity to be competitive.

While playing the tournament we were doing random prizes for people with names drawn outta a hat. Myself, and one of my close friends at the time. It became a roll off between us for the very last booster. No one had pulled a chase at this point so everyone thought: if we are getting a chase its gonna be in there.

He and I roll off; he rolls an 11, and suddenly my Sinestro Corps dice roll the 12. We are all in a group (like 20 people there) watching me open this final booster.

As it slides out, we all scream as we see Parallax coming outta the package -- I am literally shaking. The piece was going for $350 for Worlds. I was at worlds and sold it to play multiple other things after losing in the main event.

Anyway -- can't help but love this game with memories like that.

Power creep has been replaced with power leap & it's a HUGE problem. This game does not have good consistency over time. I absolutely hate it but it is what it is.

Most pieces are best played with sets withing 2-3 years of one another.

There is power creep. But the problem with the WoL figures is they were basically designed to be played with the power battery’s to get +1 to their stats. So a lot of the WoL figures are really over costed now if you don’t play them with the PB. You’re playing a 150 point figure with 9 attack 3 clicks in.

Power creep has been very strange for the past 3-4 years. In 2019 there was an ultra chase thanos that came out, and when I first saw the dial, I was like… this has to be a fan dial, it is so powerful for so cheap a figure. It was legitimate.

From there things just went crazy. I thought Captain America and the avengers was so good, everything was powerful for its point cost (immortal hulk and punisher warmachine wow), and it synergizes so well within its set (spy especially). Then we saw JLU with 10 point chases that bring out powers for insanely cheap (brainiac brings outwit, lex has the greatest cake, and enhancement). Then in fantastic four we got god emperor doom. Now we are redefining what a one many army can do, even by todays standards he is very strong!

After that things just went faster and harder and cheaper. Around the time rise and fall came out, I saw a generic that was a horrible threat and could be brought into the game with extreme ease and activated by a cheap and effective Blackheart. Since then, I can’t even keep up. The meta pieces are so expensive, I am completely priced out. I wanted a carnage silver surfer before we even knew what his dial was. It was surfer, I just wanted surfer. Avengers 60… I mean it was so top heavy, I just didn’t get excited about any of it, if you didn’t have masters of evil chases, you basically had nothing.

I feel like notorious is rolling back the creep a bit, point costs are a little higher, ranges are a little shorter, it is a set that I feel can be outclassed by sets from last year. But it is very well designed from the top down. I won the pre-release with jervis tech and black adam. Just really fun.

War of light, I will say this, there hasn’t been a chase theme that was nearly as cool or as beautiful since.