Marvel Super Hero Squad Online Tier and Difficulty List

Difficulty List

Easy (even when not played perfectly, you're good) : American Dream, Angel, Captain America, Captain America (SS),  Classic Daredevil, Daredevil, Giant Man, Hulk, Punisher, Thing, Tuxedo Thing, Wasp, Wolverine

Medium Easy (easy to play appropriately): Avengers Captain America, Black Widow, Bucky Cap, Classic Thor, Elektra, Gambit, Gladiator Hulk, Luke Cage, MK1 Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Monkey King, Pure Elektra, Reptil, Rogue, Shadowcat

Medium (has an optimal strategy, but can work without it): Avengers Hawkeye, Avengers Iron Man, Avengers Nick Fury, Avengers Thor, Black Cat, Blade, Captain Marvel, Classic Wolverine, Dark Surfer, Emma Frost, Falcon, Firestar, Future Foundation Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, Human Torch, Iceman, Iron Man, Iron Patriot, Jean Grey, Ms. Marvel, Nova, Red Hulk, Red She-Hulk, Sentry, She-Hulk, Stealth Iron Man, Spider-Girl, Spider-Man 2099, Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Thor, Valkyrie

Medium Hard (requires a consistent strategy to play well): Ant-Man, Arctic Iron Man, Armored Spider-Man, Avengers Hulk, Avengers Black Widow, Beast, Black-Suit Spider-Man, Black Panther, Colossus, Cyclops, Dr. Strange, Hulkbuster Iron Man, Invisible Woman, Mohawk Storm, Nick Fury, Nightcrawler, Phoenix, Samurai Wolverine, Scarlet Spider, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Spider-Man Ben Reilly, Spider-Woman, Street Clothes Wolverine, Thor, Vision

Hard (relatively developed strategy needed to get this one right): Deadpool, Hawkeye, Psylocke, Scarlet Witch, Storm, War Machine

Tier List

S (Can define a team): Phoenix

A (Has at least one very highly potent ability or an outstanding arsenal): American Dream, Angel, Arctic Iron Man, Armored Spider-Man Avengers Hulk, Black Cat, Black Widow, Captain America, Captain America (SS), Cyclops, Classic Daredevil, Classic Wolverine,Daredevil, Giant Man, Gladiator Hulk, Hulk, Iron Man, Jean Grey, Ms. Marvel, Mohawk Storm, Monkey King, Punisher, Red She-Hulk, Scarlet-Witch, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Valkyrie, Wolverine 

B (Has either one serious tool or a well-rounded arsenal): Avengers Iron Man, Avengers Thor, Black Panther, Blade, Bucky Cap, Dr. Strange, Firestar, Future Foundation Spider-Man, Gambit, Ghost Rider, Invisible Woman, Psylocke, Pure Elektra, Red Hulk, Reptil, Rogue, Samurai Wolverine, Scarlet Spider, Shadowcat, She-Hulk, Spider-Girl, Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Man Ben Reilly, Street Clothes Wolverine, Storm, Thing, Thor, Tuxedo Thing, Ultimate Spider-Man, Vision, Wasp,

C (Has at most one potent situational tool or a modest arsenal): Ant-Man, Avengers Black Widow, Avengers Captain America, Avengers Nick Fury, Black-Suit Spider-Man, Classic Thor, Dark Surfer, Deadpool, Emma Frost, Falcon, Hulkbuster Iron Man, Human Torch, Luke Cage, MK1 Iron Man, Nightcrawler, Sentry, Silver Surfer, Stealth Iron Man, Ultimate Thor, War Machine,

D (Has at most one relatively functional tool or a weak arsenal): Avengers Hawkeye, Beast, Captain Marvel, Colossus, Hawkeye, Iceman, Iron Patriot, Mr. Fantastic, Nick Fury, Nova

Alright, that's the meat. Now, for some notes.

I was given the task to create a tier list for this game a couple months ago. It was a casual thing; I chatted a lot of with Quirky, who made the first serious one (that I know of) over on the Comic Book Resources forums, which can be found here. He asked me to do it; people asked about the list quite a bit. I eventually got around to making it.

Honestly, my experience with these things is limited; I'm a casual fighting game addict and a long-time MMO player who has played SHSO since February. I don't really touch the RTS scene, which probably would be more relevant. Nonetheless, I really took the time to play each character in the game up to this point and try and evaluate them as fairly as possible.

The reason for the two different lists is that there is because people with limited experience have continually asked me about tier placement as a means to figure out who they should purchase next. That's a really bad idea unless you actually have a sense of how the game works. The average player who runs in the daily mission queue clicks intently on every enemy and only knows how to use the hero up, or maybe doesn't know how to switch between the powers. The ease of use list, then, is self-explanatory, and is better to use for novices making informed initial character decisions.

The tier list itself is based on more-or-less optimal use. When I say "more-or-less" optimal, I mean that I'm not taking each power to its logical extreme if, in practice, even highly experienced players tend to screw up whatever exploit that would make it more effective. Still, it assumes an ability to shift between all of the powers in a list, an ability to effectively use combo, and an ability to do basic strategy.

I'll write a full article explaining my thoughts on in-game strategy later, but if you've read Quirky's list and want to know the difference, it's important to know we have a few philosophical differences. I'm not as convinced of the importance of heavy damage-per-second (DPS), and I tend to favor secondary qualities on powers a little higher on average. It's why the heaviest hitters mostly got clumped in with A, and why low-damage characters with notable secondary qualities can place far higher than on his.