darkSpyro

Please say the character then explanation to back it up. And by giant I mean the actual big characters. Not all the characters from the giant series
Also if you could KEEP CO-OP in mind that would be great cause when I play it is with my kiddo.

For example if I made this post when only the original skylanders game came out I'd say

For fun game play one of my favorite characters is Sunburn on the Flame Lord (teleport path) I think he combat was fairly unique and did a lot of dmg but stayed safe by being in the process of teleprtation

Or

I enjoyed Camo, he is fast does quick dmg and I like the vine attacks to clear a swath of the screen at a time

Or

I like ZOOK a lot I find combat with him to be very balanced He can deal a lot of damage from a distance and then also has defensive tactics that help when playing in co-op

Or

My 6 yr old would say, "I like the shark guy (terrafin) because he punches guy and can go underground
or
I like Zap because I like the slimey stuff..


I just want reasons, and explanations not


DUHH HOTHEAD

and nothing else


Thanks a lot in advance

best PVE giant to me would be...tree rex probably, i have all but eyebrawl and ninjini, but tree rex has a good speed move, OK long range attack to pick off little guys, and an amazing AOE big hitter.

i find im most successful with him (over other giants) when progressing in PVE/Heroics/Arena's

I have Tree, Bouncer, Crusher, Swarm, Ninjini

but I have just been getting them occasionally and have not really played them much. Now that My kid and I have a 3 day weekend I thought I'd look into it.

Tree Rex or Swarm. High speed, nice damage up close and afar... there's really no downside. The attribute that clinches it, though, is movement speed.

I'd say Tree Rex, Swarm, or Hot Head.

Tree rex has respectable melee damage and some VERY sweet AOE, plus his ranged attack fully upgraded is nothing to sneeze at. His woodpecker buddy can help with a little breathing room too.

Swarm's melee combos are quite potent, and quick, and being able to switch to flight and ranged attacks gives him some serious mobility.

Hot Head's oil/Flamethrower combo can let you wade through enemies, and with an upgraded flamethrower he can keep on the move as he barbeques the bigger guys. I like to think of the Oil blob as a shotgun, and the flamethrower as a machine gun.

Tree Rex, on his Tree Folk Charger path. If you take him down that path his Sequoia Stampede becomes very fast, can do good damage, and you can charge fairly long. Not to mention his Elbow Slam racks up nice damage. His Regular Photosynthesis Cannon is already very strong without choosing it's path.

Thanks guys

on a side note Tash, have you put together a list of upgrade preferences? I remember highly referencing you on the old game

Strange that you should mention that, because I was actually just thinking about doing one. With only S2 Drobot to go, I'd say enough characters have been released at this point that, if anything, a list is overdue.

feel free to copy and paste whatever you want from the previous format I used in the post for the old game. I tried to look at the sticky post about upgrades and it was awful... Worse than the last forums and that's saying a lot.

My wive & I play co op. <In fact, that's the only we we play PvE, and she doesn't like playing as giants much

Tree Rex is my go to giant when I need to clear an area quickly. His laser, fully upgraded can do 100 dmg on a charge up and his AOE attack clears a large circle around him. His charge move is great not just for clearing a path but for keeping up with faster characters like Flashwing or Stealth Elf.

Hot Head is my fav to play. shooting oil and setting it on fire is quite fun. Thumpback is also a lot of fun. His anchor does good damage and the combos are cool. He's not as overwhelming as some people think though, so he's best when paired with a fast character who can take care of the smaller enemies while Thumpy deals with the larger challenges.

A tie between Thumpback and Eye Brawl. Tree rex is up there too.

"A tie between Thumpback and Eye Brawl. Tree rex is up there too."


Tell me why?
how you use them, why they are side by side contenders. I have seen a lot of post with Eye Brawler being good, and only a few post about Thumpback

I really don't know how either play, but NONE of the Giants (larger characters) melee seems to be all that different or more effective than the others... Well there are slight differences but they most seem to be high dmg slow lumbering hits

From the ones I played from the melee perspective Tree > Swarm > Crusher but only because he has a quick charge aoe melee smash. Instead of the combo you have to be on the move for with Crusher
And no idea about Ninj have not opened her yet, but from what I see in her gameplay video I am actually kinda regretting getting her... the main reason I did is so when my kid has friends over to play there is a girl character besides sprocket out of the new batch one of my friends sister can pick

Sadly I am still kind of waiting on seeing some melee that flowed as well as terrafin... not to say stealth elf wasn't able to deal as much dmg in the PVE game (they both destroyed a whole screen worth of bad guys in the first game so it was hard to compare), but terrafin played like a boxer... fast moving, agile combos that would deal a ton of dmg

Do Thumpback or Eye Brawl have combat that is more reminiscent of that?
Remember I would really like descriptions... kill me with words where if you can.

And thanks Dragon Dreams... Using Tree like that is exactly what I have been doing since my kiddo likes the fast zippy characters like zap, the train guy, and ect

Ninjini

Because she is the only female Giant And Because she Soooo Awesome & Strong And she's very tall , too !

Quote: ryum

"A tie between Thumpback and Eye Brawl. Tree rex is up there too."


Tell me why?
how you use them, why they are side by side contenders. I have seen a lot of post with Eye Brawler being good, and only a few post about Thumpback

I really don't know how either play, but NONE of the Giants (larger characters) melee seems to be all that different or more effective than the others... Well there are slight differences but they most seem to be high dmg slow lumbering hits

From the ones I played from the melee perspective Tree > Swarm > Crusher but only because he has a quick charge aoe melee smash. Instead of the combo you have to be on the move for with Crusher
And no idea about Ninj have not opened her yet, but from what I see in her gameplay video I am actually kinda regretting getting her... the main reason I did is so when my kid has friends over to play there is a girl character besides sprocket out of the new batch one of my friends sister can pick

Sadly I am still kind of waiting on seeing some melee that flowed as well as terrafin... not to say stealth elf wasn't able to deal as much dmg in the PVE game (they both destroyed a whole screen worth of bad guys in the first game so it was hard to compare), but terrafin played like a boxer... fast moving, agile combos that would deal a ton of dmg

Do Thumpback or Eye Brawl have combat that is more reminiscent of that?
Remember I would really like descriptions... kill me with words where if you can.

And thanks Dragon Dreams... Using Tree like that is exactly what I have been doing since my kiddo likes the fast zippy characters like zap, the train guy, and ect

Well, in order to make eye brawl useful is to go down eye for an eye. you can preform all 3 attacks at once!

body defending itself (melee)
eye lasers (lasers)
minions (summoning)

thumpback is usefull down anchors a-yay. each swing does 36 damage and i've seen the first combo do up to 90. (but bash will always be the real swing master)

tree rex's thron slam and lumbering laser laser is powerfull.

Well, this is hard to say all of them are good in their own way, but I think tree-rex ,eye brawl and thumpback are tied.

Thumpback is great, but travel is frustrating. The slightest hills and inclines can stop his slide cold, and you're left lumbering up them instead.

^ True, but say someone was running from thumpback he could just use his anchor because it is long ranged.

Thumpback's anchor assault attack wrecks faces in arena challenges, so I'd say he's one of the best for PVE.

I got Ninjini, never opened it cause I thought it'd be nice to have a girl one to play when my kid's friends sister comes over... but it's awful I don't get any of the appeal of this char. The ORBS and Bottle parts of it just feel very subpar

I have Tree, Bouncer, Crusher, Swarm, Ninjini

If I take Ninjini who would like to suggest what other giant I should get instead?
In theory it's the last Giant I'd get for a long time

For me in order (gathered from gameplay video and on here)
Eye-Brawl > Hot Head >>> Thumpback

Does basically everyone agree with that assessment?

I wish people on youtube would do better explaned videos. Almost all of them are lvl 1, usually don't say what upgrades if any the skylander has

I think that Tree Rex is best. is easily my choice if someone asks me who I think that the coolest Giant is. He just feels like a Giant, you know? It's so right using him! I think all the other Giants failed at the concept of actually being Giant. Treefolk Charger is incredibly fun.

Hot Head > Thumpback >> Eye-Brawl in terms of just gameplay fun, IMO, but if you're looking for most powerful it is indeed what you listed...

• Hot Head is reeeaaally fun down The Burniator(this is an example of how to properly name a path, people), throwing the oil blobs and lighting them like crazy. You can easily walk into a room, lay down blobs, light them and then just be joyful over how pyromanial it is. Oil Baron is also a nice path- it feels somewhat like an afterthought and Burniator's upgrades are too big to ignore but if you get bored of his other path, it isn't a bad option to reset and play with him for a while, and it's certainly a strong alternative if it interests you. A slight downside is that Hot Head doesn't really have a great personality, though- it's not terrible, but if the personalities ingame are a deciding factor to you then pass on Hot Head and get someone else instead.
  
• Thumpback is very awesome in theory, but unfortunately in practice has a few issues preventing him from being as great as he deserves. Firstly, his anchor's range is just barking mad. It's almost as bad as Crusher's hammer, which is to say, not very good as there's a huge area it misses(I guess that's what the chomp is for, though that isn't a true workaround due to tight AoE). Secondly, the belly slide is incredibly disappointing, since as Tashiji mentioned it spazzes into problems with gliding up hills and will leave you at a trudge, and is pretty difficult to aim as an attack. Otherwise, Thumpback is an incredibly fun character, and if you're willing to have patience you can master his anchor which is really the biggest thing getting in his way. But I cannot understate how you will need an insane, willing, horrible TONPILE of patience to get used to it. Up Close and Personal is just a worse version of Treefolk Charger, sadly.
  
• Eye-Brawl is the last on my list and my least favorite Giant(considering that I don't have Ninjini since I live in Oz). While incredibly powerful in PVP down Eye For An Eye he really isn't that fun in Story. Short version: he's a bulkier but even more vulnerable, and slightly slower damaging, version of Soul of the Flame in PVE. If you already have Ignitor in your army and he is down Soul of The Flame there is no real reason to rush out for Eye-Brawl. Eye-Brawler is just an average meleeist with a bit more bulk(essentially an altered version of Smash n' Bash), but if you want that, Slam Bam is a better choice since he can also dash.

All in my opinion of course, and my opinion is very different from others', so...

Thank you, this is exactly the kind of post I want to see. I am going to try and make a post a week that's a comprehensive review of the skylanders by their respective elements. I really hope you and Tash and others will drop in and leave feedback like this

Quote: GamingMaster_76

I think that Tree Rex is best. is easily my choice if someone asks me who I think that the coolest Giant is. He just feels like a Giant, you know? It's so right using him! I think all the other Giants failed at the concept of actually being Giant. Treefolk Charger is incredibly fun.

My gameplay is playing a skylander that still needs coins for upgrades. While my kiddo plays his current couple of favorites (terrafin and hot dog at the moment)
What I have been doing is just saving Tree Rex for the big fight moments. Pop him on and lay waste to the screen. It's probably the most satisfying combat out of all the characters I've tried. The photo canon charge is quick and you can use it strategically between the quick shots while characters are coming. Depending on their speeds and distances. Not just a trigger happy/drobot one button character. The punching is good, and again his charged punch is not too long that it is not effective, and enogh dmg to be worth trying to tie it in when you can. Though it's probably the least used combat skill of his the Charge does have it's place and time. He is the quintessential giant


Quote: GamingMaster_76

Hot Head is reeeaaally fun down The Burniator(this is an example of how to properly name a path, people), throwing the oil blobs and lighting them like crazy. You can easily walk into a room, lay down blobs, light them and then just be joyful over how pyromanial it is. Oil Baron is also a nice path- it feels somewhat like an afterthought and Burniator's upgrades are too big to ignore but if you get bored of his other path, it isn't a bad option to reset and play with him for a while, and it's certainly a strong alternative if it interests you. A slight downside is that Hot Head doesn't really have a great personality, though- it's not terrible, but if the personalities ingame are a deciding factor to you then pass on Hot Head and get someone else instead.

I wanted to hear that about him... the videos I have seen of his gameplay are not great. People keep taking the AOE "Oil Baron" path... and it just feels lackluster and the summon meteor looks good, but in practice it's just a slow thrown aoe... again looks good but other characters have done it better, and faster
I will probably get him because I like the oil and flame combo it reminds me of a Zap that you don't have to make the trails for, and as far as unique gameplay goes Zap is one of the standalone characters


Quote: GamingMaster_76

Thumpback is very awesome in theory, but unfortunately in practice has a few issues preventing him from being as great as he deserves. Firstly, his anchor's range is just barking mad. It's almost as bad as Crusher's hammer, which is to say, not very good as there's a huge area it misses(I guess that's what the chomp is for, though that isn't a true workaround due to tight AoE). Secondly, the belly slide is incredibly disappointing, since as Tashiji mentioned it spazzes into problems with gliding up hills and will leave you at a trudge, and is pretty difficult to aim as an attack. Otherwise, Thumpback is an incredibly fun character, and if you're willing to have patience you can master his anchor which is really the biggest thing getting in his way. But I cannot understate how you will need an insane, willing, horrible TONPILE of patience to get used to it. Up Close and Personal is just a worse version of Treefolk Charger, sadly.

This is what I took away from the videos I saw... it looks like a mid ranged melee (like kratos) but I never saw any good implementation of it... the anchors on chains look fun, but all I see in the videos is people struggling to make the hits land.
Again (like Hot Head's aoe and summon meteor) the slide looks good, but again... other characters have done it and better
And the Chomp... it is what it is... I don't think what is suppose to be strong melee character with a charge attack should need the point blank aoe... that was one of the indicators that made me want to pass right from the get go

Quote: GamingMaster_76

Eye-Brawl is the last on my list and my least favorite Giant(considering that I don't have Ninjini since I live in Oz). While incredibly powerful in PVP down Eye For An Eye he really isn't that fun in Story. Short version: he's a bulkier but even more vulnerable, and slightly slower damaging, version of Soul of the Flame in PVE. If you already have Ignitor in your army and he is down Soul of The Flame there is no real reason to rush out for Eye-Brawl. Eye-Brawler is just an average meleeist with a bit more bulk(essentially an altered version of Smash n' Bash), but if you want that, Slam Bam is a better choice since he can also dash.

I hadn't thought of the eye basically being the flame form of Ignitor... that completely changes my mind on this guy... I only saw a couple of videos on this, but by the description I thought this guy would be engaging in combat
I'd summon the eyes, set him in motion for the attacks, pop the eye off and attack whatever else with the disembodied eye. I like the idea of micromanaging that since very few other characters have "minions" powers. Just Sonic Boom really and after MANY times of going back and forth I liked her Siren Griffin path better because again several times of trying I could never really discern much of a difference in 3 vs 4 babies, or that they were actually better with the "Terrible Twos" upgrade, but that's a topic for another thread


Thanks for the feedback Gamingmaster, and everyone who took the time to explain why they think whatever it is that they think on this subject

Eye-Brawl is close to being able to work that way. But in the end the minions, unfortunately, just need to keep being summoned to stay up, and it can really set you back from your main attacks. They are very close to a viable attack on their own but are just too fragile against a lot of enemies to last long enough and don't do a great deal of damage unless you can get breaks between your attacks to summon quite a few.

I play on Nightmare, so your experience will vary if you play on Normal or Hard. All of the Giants murder Easy, of course. If you DO play Normal or Easy, then all of the characters have attacks that are all viable to set up, and I would guess Eye-Brawls minions are better there(they're doable decently in Hard). I haven't played anything besides Nightmare in such a long time that I can't give experience-based feedback, however. I just didn't consider the other difficulties, so I apologize, but Eye-Brawl is definetly more fun when you play a difficulty below Nightmare so he's worth a shot.

If it helps, I'd recommend just buying them, then use them through the packaging, still sealed, and see how they play then reset and return the ones you don't like. If that option is available or morally viable to you.

i'm gonna say hot head down burnator, bacause you can shoot oil out of one hand for massive damage, them ignite the oil fror the best damage.

Thumpback is a lot of fun and GM is making him sound far worse than he actually is. He's strong and while he does have some weaknesses, GM overstates them tremendously. On his anchor path, you can basically just spam anchors, hit the occasional combo and take care of most things around you.

Eye Brawl can be fun and his summons isn't a big issue since the things you kill with eye lasers turn into eyeballs, so just summon once at the start of a battle and zap with lasers to keep them coming. His main drawback is the lack of a speed move. so once the eyeball snaps back to the body you are well behind your teammate.

The main problem I find with hot head is in pvp, he has a hard time getting the other player covered in oil, but when he does light you up, he's scary good, just bad at close range in my opinion, idk why if the enemy is hit with a oil blob that just got shot out of his hand, why aren't they covered with it? Really craps out the path for me, I like oil baron better, more versatility

Quote: flashwingftw

The main problem I find with hot head is in pvp, he has a hard time getting the other player covered in oil, but when he does light you up, he's scary good, just bad at close range in my opinion, idk why if the enemy is hit with a oil blob that just got shot out of his hand, why aren't they covered with it? Really craps out the path for me, I like oil baron better, more versatility

Hot Head seems to have a glitch in PVP where the oil doesn't stick like it should, but the OP specifically asked about story mode (and co-op at that)

I'll probably take back ninjini today, get hothead keep that then do what you recommended with thumpback and eye


The game is still very easy on hard. Understandably so given the target audience.

Treerex is the way to go he is very well rounded as a character and very strong. His moves don't slow him down and with his charge it actually improves his speed. His aoe slam is ridiculously strong and can take out most enemies very easily especially when charged. Lastly he is not solely a melee character his ranged move is surprisingly strong and that is without even going down that path. So you can use him in any situation and he will easily come out on top, he is my go to Giant whenever I am in a bad situation where my characters are getting beat up and I need a quick kill.

because he is the strongest!

I don't take any figure design, pose, "personality" or other cosmetic traits into consideration.

I did get Hot Head, will check him out later.

Well, if you want a really fun to play Giant i'd choose Thumpback he has fun moves like his ancor and he can even chomp at enemys

Maybe because I'm TOO PRO, but I think Ninjini is amazing on Nightmare Mode. I've played as her a lot, and she hasn't died once.

... I didn't think she was "bad" by any means, but she absolutely is the worst skylander for how I prefer to play.

I like a defensive skylander like Zook
or an offensive skylander like Ghost Roaster, or Drobot

More than anything I like efficiency. It's rare for ANY of the skylanders to fully utilize all 3 attacks, but even when they don't as long as the 2 main ones serve their purpose I like it.

With Ninjini I didn't like being in the bottle one bit... and the orbs didn't feel strong vs the time it takes (see Tree Rex for well balanced charge up attacks) and then it's just left to the swords. If her sword combat flowed better than lets say swarm then that'd be at least something.


I will say this though... If I was into it, it would be cool to have the bottle daze spray cloud in co-op if the game was ever so hard that you needed to enlist those kind of tactics. Even if it was like that... I'd feel kind cheap by using it though. And for balance reasons that alone is probably the rational on her otherwise being so... mundane. If she has the big aoe daze, AND along side others with a comparably good AOE or other dmg tool... It'd be the most unbalanced skylander ever.


It's the same reason I don't like to play whirlwind, but I do give that character a pass because it has the unique property you won't find anywhere else.

This is from the perspective of a guy that has played games with a Tank, DPS, Crowd Control, and Healer set up for decades. I see what they are trying to do, but it doesn't even seem to be a secondary thought more like... a long time ago in early development they wanted the game to have more than 2 on screen and have this kind of group dynamic. That got scrapped and what made it though is the random couple of powers like a defensive one, a debuff, a heal, and ect sporadically given out to characters when it works with the rest of their concept

I have Bouncer, Tree Rex, Hot Head, Swarm, Thumpback and Eye Brawl. Crusher doesn’t look cool to me (I’m talking pure aesthetics here) and Ninjini isn’t out in New Zealand yet.
Over all I’d rank them: Thumpback > Eye Brawl > Swarm = Tree Rex = Bouncer > Hot Head

Honestly don’t understand the love for Tree-Rex here. I can only assume that, because he came in the starter pack, he’s the one most people ‘bonded’ with first. To me he seems strictly mid-level in every category – a solid choice as ‘starter’ character, but not one I’d ever have brought if he wasn’t packed in with the game.
Don’t get me wrong, he’s pretty solid – but there’s nothing standout that puts him above the other giants.

Hot Head is another one where the love confuses me. Hot Head’s damage is joke compared to Thumpback, and the fact that HH’s oil just bounces off of shielded peeps makes him a liability in later levels, especially because he’s too slow to flank them reliably.
The bike transformation is fun, but too slow to contribute significantly to battlefield mobility – by the time you’ve transformed, flanked and changed back, the shielded mobs have had time to reorient themselves.

Thumpback is just a great general purpose character, the anchor is devastating, and I’m not sure how it’s even possible to miss anything with it – it’s aoe is enough to clear out any room in seconds. Plus the belly-flop is both great for mobility and does good damage.

Eye Brawl is a close second, but suffers from lack of mobility when moving from area to area (battlefield mobility is not an issue). Other than that, he has all bases covered when using the eyeball path – the eye-ball minions spawning from laser kills (including just breaking barrels and such) cover crowd control, lasers cover anything that requires speed and normal eyeball-in-armour punching takes down any heavy hitter.

I do think that Swarm is really under-rated here on the forums. His battlefield mobility and ability to circle-strafe makes him unique amongst the giants and makes even the most irritating enemies a breeze – although his standard attacks do seem a little underpowered compared to the others and Swarm mode is sadly a waste of everyone’s time.