darkSpyro

Here is a topic where you can post all your favourite combinations for the Swap Force Skylanders!
Mine is Fireloop. Fire Kraken's top half and Hoot Loop's bottom half

I don't have that many of them but of the ones I have I like the Blast Shift combo.

I like either Boom Buckler and Boom Shake, plus the nicknames I gave them kinda work well too

There are characters that are not out so it is hard to say which is "best" (for your individual playstyle) with any real accuracy. That disclaimer aside

Bottom first
Shift has got to be one of the best overall bottom swappers. The extra lives is useful for any playstyle or if you NEVER die then you can of course add more utility to this figure part with the other path.
The best thing about this is the movement. It's fast, useful...

My second favorite would have to be Ranger because the grabbing bad guys and spinning them takes out shields, and interrupts enemy charge up attacks In PVE being about to take out a shield is just great... no waiting, and uniquely lets you control the field of combat unlike any other character

As far as fun, Ranger is my actual favorite. But from an overall analytical view for the game as a whole Shift is just a bit more useful, and waiting for a shield isn't so bad. Taking it out is a convenience not a deal maker or breaker. I like that... I HATE WAITING so that is why he takes the lead for me, but again I don't know if others would value that aspect that makes up such a small percentage of the combat in this game.

I could outline the reason I find fault with several of the bottoms, but that would make for a very long post.


For the tops

It's hard to beat Spy. He floods the screen with 5 projectiles, the "stream" attack slows, and stops enemies and takes little time to do so. He can focus fire with the scan for higher dmg on single targets... I mean that's it. High dmg, high utility, screen wide projectiles... AND on top of everything else he can heal himself while killing, and it happens automatically when in range... It's a strong combo of skills to beat. He is almost mindlessly the best

That said, for fun I seem to be gravitating to Free. The melee combos are strong, they keep him in motion and end with a very high dmg attack that can hit multiple targets. He is fun, and it's just my kind of combat. I like to stay busy and it's hard for me to not think of Free without the ranger part that makes anyone in melee vulnerable to his hard hitting (and most important) very fast style of combat.

There are other fun guys like Night, and Rattle, and even lesser ones (IMHO) they do some good things but I just find they all fall short (the ones I have played again, and have idea vs ones that are not even released yet) I would like to like others more, and maybe some of them will grow on me more later on... but I feel like those would be sentimentally better, or cosmetically better. As far as the mechanics stand I think the top 2s I have mentioned above stand on their merits, and skills in ways that are not so opinion based.


I do look forward to trying freeze blade though... if he plays as fast as the few things I have seen in videos indicate he could rival those top 2s easily.

Free Kracken, Legendary Free Rise, Fire Shift, Magna Buckler, Magna Rise, Stink Shift, and Hoot Shift

Nitro Magna Rise and anything with Fire and Jade Fire

Wash Ranger is my current favorite, Wash Bucklers top half becomes alot more fun when you can do that whirlwind thing to a group of enemys while shooting them and slashing away

Full dot build - Stink Zone is still my favorite swapper. Very good overall.

Looking forward to try - Free Loop.

Out of the 96-or-so combos I've tried so far I'd say Fire Jet down Magnificent Parade/Ace Gunner is my favourite to play. It's not exceptionally powerful and the melee/ranged combo doesn't work as well as a couple of other combos, but it is extremely fun, looks cool and is still strong.

Here's the little write-up I did for that combo... It's actually one of the first combos I played in my quest to play and write a little paragraph about all 1024 combos, and I wrote this nearly a month ago. I kind of think I should rewrite it, because I think I could make it a little more detailed.

Magnificent Parade/Ace Gunner: Amazing. Both paths perform well, and they have good chemistry. Fire is great at melee fighting and Jet provides nice ranged coverage, as well as some good speed. Fire down this path is always awesome too. This combo covers everything nicely, and is very fun to use.

By the way, the reason it says "Amazing" at the start of that writeup is actually because I use a kind of grading scale... Amazing > Great > Good > Decent > Meh. Yes, I gave this combo a 5/5. I just judge them by how enjoyable I think they are and wether I think the halves add to eachother. Fire loves the extra speed Jet gives him, the turrets are good for hitting enemies that are a little further away and Fire is just a reaaaally fun and effective meleeist in pretty much any combo. I think this combo can handle pretty much any situation and it's just so dang fun.

Another example, I gave every combo of Rattle Drilla a "Meh", because Drilla just doesn't add anything new to Rattle (besides Mines, which aren't that cool) and there are much better, more fun halves to combine with him. Rattle ALREADY has Deputy Snakes for dealing residual damage, combining him with Drilla is a waste since both pretty much do the same thing. This combo isn't particularly useful or strong or anything and is very forgettable.

It's hard to deny Fire as another great top. I wonder though the speed you mention you're getting from jet, how do you compare it to shift?
I ask because like me you seen to like to give explanations rather than the "I like turtles" response

I haven't had a chance to buy fire kraken, I don't think he's rare but never see it at Toysrus that's near me. That aside, and I will revisit the issue I never was impressed with boom jet, and purposely skipped him. As I figured zone had a comparable dash, and shift was ultimately faster, and blade might be the fastest of any of the bottoms when it comes out.

I will say though the biggest fault of free ranger is the lack of longer range attacks, but I tend to find I don't miss it, and there are so many "shooters" with spy the personal favorite atm

And with shift, any range from something that can fit on the screen is a couple bottom pushes away from almost instantly being on top of it

Spy Shift for battles, and Nitro Magna Shift for speed running. Omg. Shift is OP, Spy is OP, and Magna is a bit OP.

I and really liking Free Shift.

I don't think Jet is at fast as Shift but he is still a fast bottom, pretty much the same pace as Zone- with a dash that's easier to activate. Another great thing about him is Mach 2 which does 150 damage, although it works like another melee attack, still. I haven't tried Fire Zone Yet but I think Magnificent Parade/Temperatures Rising could end up pretty fun. I prefer to judge these combos off or fun over viability while trying to not get too biased with it, because honestly, once you've played through a level and know what's coming up most of it isn't very difficult even with the weaker Skylanders.

Also, I really wanna try some Blast/Ignition combos because I love his fire wall but the random generator I use to decide these hasn't given me any yet. I've rolled more "Doom" combos, which of course I can't even play because he's not out yet. (I set it to generate two numbers from 1-16, the first one is the top I use and the second is the bottom, if I roll 8, 14 or 12 I need to reroll until I get another number...)

Why use a random generator? Not sure I am following this part of what you're saying

Quote: ryum

Why use a random generator? Not sure I am following this part of what you're saying

I think they mean its fun and makes it interesting for what combination they can get next.

I really like Wash Charge and Blast Shake.
Wash Charge: I have a great attack combo which is having Charge on the shock path and Wash can be on any path. I grab an enemy with Charge's magnet-wheel attack and shock them. I then hit them once or twice with Wash's sword and shoot a bubble, damaging them over time allowing me to take out a few other enemies while that one slowly dies.
Blast Shake: I like to have Blast on the bomb path. I put down a ring of fire and just shoot bombs everywhere (the bombs path makes it so that if a bomb passes a ring of fire, it does more damage), but if someone gets too close, I use shake's tail whip attack and then summon some giant bone snakes if I feel like I need to finish them...or continue spamming bombs.

@ryum I just think Fire Jet is my favourite swap, since that was the subject of this topic, but I dunno if I'd say he's objectively best.

@LegendaryFlames is correct, I use a randomiser because it makes it more exciting to see which SWAP I'll be using. Sometimes I end up with ones I know will be crummy before even playing with them but other times I get surprised by them and end up finding new favourites!

fire bomb