darkSpyro

First I'd like to say I very much would like to see rebuttals, disagreements, and suggestions for better alternatives.

Second I don't have all the skylanders so I might be missing since obvious favorites. Please make a rational review for a character I didn't list if it's one of your favorites. All I ask is not make cosmetic, lore, sentimental reasons the primary reasons for the skylander. This is for pve combat. I say pve because PvP is so stylized many good or bad things on a character that don't translate from vs players and vs npcs.

And lastly this is sans swappers, as they can be changed it adds to many variables to be well reviewed in my opinion. So that's little guys and giants I use.
By use I mean if I'm going to do some arena fights, or a couple of levels these are the guys I'd keep near the portal. Basically the guys I take off the shelf

ToIn approximate order of overall most favorite to lesser favorites.
All characters are reviewed for 3 basic categories
Movement, offensive and defensive capabilities, and I personally tend to favorite a good defense because so many characters are carbon copies in their melee and ranged attacks

Zook
I tend to make movement and the ability of a skylander to keep a good flow of combat my primary category to decide if I like the skylander or not, but I just can't deny zook's ability to so uniquely control a whole screen of combat and multiple waves of enemies with his defenses.
His movement is mediocre, his projectile is nothing to get excited over but no one is better protected and uses their defenses so well offensively. If I had to pick a single character for a whole arena marathon he'd be it.

Pop thorn
One of use only skylanders with true versatility.
He meets the movement requirements to be in the top tier of the other movement skylanders, and then can change forms for what I consider to have one of the attacks in the game. Homing spikes... I'd say "nuff said" but I feel it deserves a few words. He attacks on the run, and facing any direction with a strength that some skylanders can never do in their best conditions and very importantly without a charge up time, and also without a movement speed hindrance that is what is the cost almost all the skylanders pay to do their best attacks. In my opinion I really like him but it makes me question the need other characters have to charge up so long or move so slow in a post pop thorn skylanders world. Lastly he has one of the best knock backs I've seen. His versatility is paramount.

And that's it. I was looking through others and ones like hot dog are my favorite but I don't have compelling reasons like for the above ones. Same for stealth elf which I think everyone knows why they use her and terrafin, and drobot. Those 3 are best at their respective fields so where as I use them I imagine it's fairly common amongst most players.

When I started to write this thread I thought I'd list 5+ so maybe I'll edit in another if something comes to mind

Chop Chop

Although defense is one of the more useless stats, according to most players, Chop Chop (S2, not S1 or S3), executes this well. His Shield Bash Wow Pow allows him to attack while defending, making him hard to hit. I have won so many fights with the S2 version. He has decent damage output, nothing special, but he is good around weak enemies. His Vampiric Aura allows him to heal after every killed enemy. He has decent speed, nothing worth noting.

Zoo Lou

Birds are essential in his attacking since it is his only ranged attack method, and it can reloop and deal extra damage. His wolf is pathetic since it is killed easily, but his boar is great in crowd control. He is not good against high health characters, though. His defense is decent on the Bucking Boar path, and his movement is slow and clunky. I love Zoo Lou to death, but he just isn't the best Skylander, PvE or PvP wise.

Camo- His range and speed of his sun blast's are FAST and he also has melons you can hide in as a shield or a area blast. He can heal 40 hp to. His vines are gimmicke but they do work if used right. I NEVER lose a Camo who is lv20 and all HC done. Thanks to that my Camo is bulkier and faster than a normal one and now that I have Thorn Horn Camo I can see how good he is. I will take him on all the HC in SSA and SG and I will do all special missions in SSF to make mine the ultimate skylander on my team.

This is a swap but I like this unconventional use - stink/zone in full DoT pathes. Gives a very good over the board look, decent movement speed, but has rocket travel to help alot in time challanges. Fast ranged atk speed with shurikens, charged shuriken atk even travels through most objects in 4 directions, but range is actually just some bonus dmg until I can dash into melee mode dealing charge dmg followed by a triple DoT skills and shuriken making even thougher mobs like golems die in a instant. Low on defense skills again my dash and triple DoT gives me covarage if things look grim. Really enjoy this game play.

Camo is one of my favorites too. The following is a little thing I wrote in regards to the new camo with the wow pow

If you don't have Camo this is the version I would get, but I am watching the video again and it just doesn't seem to make enough of a difference to warrant getting a repeat.
I prefer the Vine path for SSA and Giants, but the Swap Force levels are so long that the defensive skills really shine. I think both paths are pretty even for story mode, but one thing you might want to try is the Vine Path with the new wow pow. It's already more offensive and deals more wide spread dmg, and now if you notice the Vines also make the pumpkins... So the Vine path is potentially a ton more pumkins because you can spam the vines faster than you can grow the melons.
With his heal, he can stand to take more dmg than ANY other skylander which is the only thing that makes the melon defensive aspect a little redundant

My conclusion is for pve Vines are the way to go cept when you're going for a "no skylander defeated" achievement, then Melon. I can't say PVP because as you guys knows what is best is varied on tons of conditions. There is rarely a categorically BEST anything in pvp

Slobber Tooth

He is slow, but powerful in PvE. The same can not be said in PvP. But, he can eat enemies, slam his tail, or whack with his mouth. For PvP, his only good path is the tail one, but for PvE SOLELY, then choose the eating path. You can eat, heal, shoot out snot rockets, etc., on that path. He isn't the best Earth, not even close, but for PvE he is somewhat decent.

Quote: Tigerbear222

Slobber Tooth

He is slow, but powerful in PvE. The same can not be said in PvP. But, he can eat enemies, slam his tail, or whack with his mouth. For PvP, his only good path is the tail one, but for PvE SOLELY, then choose the eating path. You can eat, heal, shoot out snot rockets, etc., on that path. He isn't the best Earth, not even close, but for PvE he is somewhat decent.

he is a powerhouse in story mode. he can just hit enemies and spit them in the void, making them fall and dies instantly.
(also i'll try the food fighter path in PvP. the feast ability seems good)

New Entry

Smolderdash is AMAZING
Her melee attacks have a hidden stun element that make it so that ANY shielded and spin enemy if you get to them right when they pop they will never even get started, or once it drops they won't get it back up again. Some characters have this hidden short stun on their attacks and others don't. I don't know what determines it, but it really make a HUGE difference and in a way you can't tell til you play the character.

Her melee combos ... it's just one button but it's strong, very strong. Maybe more strong than any other melee with the speed, and area that it makes contact with. With the whip she seems to have a 6 ft circle around her that when anything gets inside of, it'll be hit.

I really like the charge up for more dmg skill, as oppose to a hover, or flying, or a lot of the other tertiary abilities skylanders have. The duration is very long, and cooldown hasn't really been a deterrent in combat. It doesn't change how she does combat like a flying skill does. It just enhances her already strong skills, and add more.

She has a ton of crowd control with Sun Forger and the blackhole that sucks in about the whole screen to a single point. It's not really the whole screen, but it seems that way. Sometimes it is a kinda small radius and other times it pulls things to the blackhole that I thought were way way to far away to be affected. This attack is a VERY strong, very fast charge time AoE, it is good without the blackhole aspect, with it it is just bananas lol

She has a dash, and I tested it with my kid and it is JUST as fast as Shift's teleport, which is in my opinion one of the strongest swapper bottoms. As a melee centric skylander being able to travel the span of a screen in no time is really powerful
Lastly for a melee centric skylander she has a really strong projectile attack that homes in on bad guys, and does more dmg than your average low grade, faster projectile. It's really just something to do while closing in on your enemies. Because up close there isn't much that really last all that long.

So in review
STRONG MELEE DMG
Hidden stun aspect to the melee attacks
fun, fast kinda like God of War type melee attacks (which I like)
Strong AOE
VERY fast dash/teleport
decent projectile that goes through walls and obstacles, and can be split into 3 that go fast and home in on enemies
Crowd Control
I really like pop thorn for the homing thorns, but Smolderdash clears the screen of enemies much much faster, and in a far less repetitive manner.
I will have to compare her to some older characters that are strong, but she is the most versatile strongest melee character, and might be the overall best offensive skylander I've played.