Marvel Heroes Cable Comprehensive Guide

Marvel Heroes Cable Comprehensive Guide by exphryl

Anyways, I’ve been exclusively playing Cable since he was released in to Beta and wanted to give some of my knowledge back to the player base. Some of these, or most of, is a lot of opinion as builds typically go; not to mention some upcoming bug fixes could make abilities I look over slowly become useful. But we’ll have to see when that time comes.

I’ll try to update this as new information comes out or if there are suggestions and info brought about from the player base.

Current Bugs in game: (Feel Free To Post so I can add)

Character Stats Not Increasing With Level: Confirmed “Fixed” in a future patch. This has potentially to flesh out some of the biggest issues people have with Cable so we’ll see how it pans out

Vortex Grenade Throwing Out Duds: No Eta I’ve seen
Vortex Grenade Not Snaring: No Eta

Kinetic Repulsion not blocking all projectiles: Not sure if bug, or if just the definition of Projectiles are different for some mobs.

DoTs do not crit: Confirmed bug that looks like it affects all DoT Chars. This is a potentially huge Damage loss for cable.

DoTs are not affected by Eye Of Weakness.

General Tooltip issues, but I’m sure those affect every character (Attack speed and +Damage not showing very well)

Please post if there is more bugs not listed here

Very Basic Cable Summary:

Cable is a ranged character, he has zero Melee Skills and relies on his gun as well as his Psionic powers to damage the enemies. If you aren’t a fan of fully ranged characters, you will not enjoy Cable. He requires a lot of movement to stay alive and while has some impressive defensive skills, doesn’t take damage very well if you like to stand in place.

He has three skill trees you can put points in to:

Soldier – Gun based and grenade skills
Tactician – Buffs, Auras, and Movement Skills
Psion – Damage Of Time, Heal, Roots

What abilities are good for Cable? He has a lot that look great!

This is where you’ll start to see some discussion around, and I write this based on my experience and what I find works best. A lot of this might be perceived as opinion, so read with an open mind in that regards. (Thank you endless G in Beta for many many retcons). For starters, I’ll list the abilities I have put points/kept points in

Soldier Tree:

Blistering Bolt and Energy Pulse: Your basic abilities, you can really ignore searing shot, I don’t put points in to it other than the 1 required. As for the other two it depends on what you are doing, for Trash I stick to Blistering (Although even then I don’t have many points in to it). For Bosses and high HP/Armored Enemies I use Energy Pulse. This is where all my Basic points go, it greatly increases damage and firing rate of the ability making it very useful once you get Freezing/Knockback/Health % and such affixes on your weapon and other items.

Point Recommendation in Searing Shot: Keep at 1
Point Recommendation in Blistering Bolt: I have it at 5, and it’s more than enough for trash.
Point Recommendation: Keep Energy Pulse Maxed

Vortex Grenade: This is the bread and butter ability in Soldier. It throws a grenade that does a lot of damage over time to the enemy, the catch is the enemy has to stay IN it for it to damage them. Also, once you eventually build up your Power Duration (Explained later) you can start to stack these for double damage for a second or two. It is currently bugged to NOT slow the enemy, so you’ll have to mildly kite in a circle to keep them in it (Bosses are an exception since most stand in place for a good period of time).

Point Recommendation: Keep Maxed

Tactician Tree: 

Bold Aura: The +Damage, since being nerfed from Beta, is not the driving factor to this ability. The movement speed however is a life saver. To conserve my points I like to stick to 20% Movement speed. It’s more than enough to help me avoid any boss gimmick or to avoid enemy damage.

Point Recommendation: You can hold off at 5 points really…

Bodyslider: 1 point wonder right now. In PvP there is more use to having the range increased, in PvE it is enough to help you quickly get to other sides of bosses or through basic walls. If spirit cost decreased with points like original iteration as well I would value it more in PvE but it’s just overall not useful other than getting swamped by various groups.

Point Recommendation: Keep at 1 Point

Evasive Roll – Evade from putting points in to this. It’s clunky and the dodge bonus is to low.

Point Recommendation: Potentially ONLY 1, if you can’t find gear that adds a point to it.captainzolzonzubrings up a good point of it being useful UNTIL you get BodySlide to get out of some bosses that have attacks that are annoying to just walk away from. So it’s up to you if you wish to do that and retcon out of it later, or just keep a point in to it

Eye Of Weakness – I don’t have any points in this, but I sometimes throw on some gear that ends up granting me Rank 8. It’s slow to cast and I personally find it only useful on boss fights. Although it does have a very long range. However, there might be added value IF you do a lot of grouping with high damage characters such as Hulk or Thor and the sort. Solo trash your abilities do enough damage as is. You really shouldn’t ever need it on trash though….

Point Recommendation: Most people are recommending at least 4 in here. I keep it at 0 and supplement it with gear, since a lot of EoW gear even early on goes up to 6 or 7. If you are hurting for extra points go the gear route, if not feel free to throw a few in there.

Psion Tree:

Psychic Haze: Is there a better low level ability in the game? Nope. I’ll say not. This you’ll be using nonstop, it does respectable damage, temporarily slows the enemy, AND causes knockdown (When it hits on bosses it will break heals on injured and any channeling ability of theirs etc.

Point Recommendation: Keep Maxed

Kinetic Repulsion: This is your MAIN defensive abiity, it blocks most projectiles and when they bounce off they can hit enemies. You have to be careful though, if an enemy walks in to the bubble you can get hit with any of their attacks. Also, enemies with high speed machine guns (Taskmaster’s Institute for example) will still get through the shield for some reason. It also won’t block ground effects obviously. However, it will keep you alive through SO VERY MUCH. Also makes a lot of boss fights a lot more manageable (Think Phase 3 Doom).

Point Recommendation: Keep Maxed

Telekinetic Shield: 1 Point wonder right now for me with the power Duration boost. It’s a situational ability unlike Repulsion and there is only a FEW cases where it really comes in handy (Such as later version of Magneto with his metal cage). It’s good to use in conjunction with Repulsion if you are trying to just run through a level avoiding mobs.

Point Recommendation: Keep at 1 point.

Psychokinetic Barrier: This is a powerful DoT. The catch is the enemy has to run through it, it’s easy to place on bosses, but best used as a kite tool in the rest of the zones. Lay it down and run back so the enemies give chase. They’ll take the DoT damage and as long as you keep it maxed (And potentially have a few + Skills) it alone will kill Green/Yellow and a few Red tiered enemies.

Point Recommendation: Keep Maxed

Techno-Organic Reconstruction: I have one point in this, it’s a clunky overall useless ability. But it does help lower downtime between fights. If you have gear that adds to it you want to switch in and out ou can, but I felt like being mildly lazy and just keeping a single point in it.

Point Recommendation: 1 Point.

Psychic Trap: This is a LARGE AoE ability that does a lot of damage and roots the target. If you want to use it on trash in conjunction with Vortex Grenade go ahead. My biggest gripe about it is it DOES have a “long” cast time which can open you up to machine gun fire. Although even with a piece of gear at just Rank 3 it makes clearing Green Trash mobs very easy as it will kill or nearly kill most of them.

Point Recommendation: This is up to you. I have zero, but substitute gear as I see fit for it. If you can do without points in some other abilities feel free to throw them in here, otherwise stick to how I use the gear. As posters stated, most substitute the points in Barrier (To the point of having none in it) for Psychic Trap instead. The damage is nice and synergizes well with Psyhic Haze.

Why do you ignore so many other abilities?

TLDR Version: The other abilities are terribly designed and need work and aren’t worth the points.

Soldier Tree Abilities to Potentially Avoid

Concussion Blast – You mean an ability that targets random enemies or objects isn’t worth putting points in to? You don’t say!

Devastating Beam – When you first get this ability it is awesome, it kills things quickly and the charge does a lot of damage. Takes around 2 secs for a full charge that you stand still on and again, at first it’s no problem. However, the issue is as you get higher it doesn’t scale well at all and Energy Pulse out damages it around 200+% . It’s just not worth it for an ability that ROOTS YOU IN PLACE, which I might add is the worst type of ability in the later terminals.

Plasma Barrage – Conceptually a fun ability, entry level damage is decent, however it scales terribly as well and just like Beam, you have to stay rooted in place, also, it eats your spirit faster than having to sit through a Twilight Marathon.

Tactician Tree Abilities to POtentially Avoid:

In general, this is a poorly designed tree. I’m not sure what the developers were thinking…anyways.

Veteran Warrior – Ok, this is one of those abilities I’ll reconsider once they fix a major bug. That bug being Dots don’t crit right now like they used to, so you end up having just your basics affected by this. Even with it scaling well having points for 5-8% more crit might end up being a damage increase on your Psion abilities. For now, ignore this.

Dynamic Aura – Bring back the original! NO seriously, it was awesome and worth the points, now, the spirit reduction is useless and NOT worth the points.

Vigilant Aura – This is another ability that just doesn’t add up to the points you put in. There would be SO much more value in this if it increased the sub defenses as well, but since it’s just flat +Defense it doesn’t add much.

Ultimate Ability: 

There is a lot I’m not sure if it’s working incorrectly, or how things scale in later difficulty. States it will remove 25% of the HP from targets and stun them. It seems to be on a range though between 10-25% damage and rarely stuns (other than simple mobs). For a twenty minute starting cool-down I use it maybe twice a day tops, and really only when I’m on Doom Phase 2. It’s not like you have to put points in to it so it’s a good F key ability.

How should I level him?!?!? HELP!!!!

Ok, you just managed to read through all the abilities where I talk about point recommendations. Just follow that and you’ll be fine. The abilities gain new ranks at various levels so you can keep them maxed (The ones you need maxed) and as you initially level you’ll have points left over. Once you get past level 30 you’ll have too many abilities to keep maxed so then it’s just deciding what you use most and put points in to that first, and the other on the next level.

What main gear stat should I look for when Building my character?

Power Duration, it will be your best friend, you should buy it drinks because it will be there for you when you need it.

Naturally people will gravitate to the +Damage or +Mental Damage items in an attempt to increase cables Psionic abilities. However, currently at least, this is the most inefficient way of increasing his damage. The main stat you wish to look for is Power Duration (Unless your focus is on Energy Pulse than +Damage away).

Let me explain why. In the Training room three simple tests, I used all gear without +Damage or Duration, than one with each to get different damage amounts. This will apply to all our duration abilities such as Vortex Grenade, Psychic Haze, Psychokinetic Barrier (And the defensive ones such as Repulsion and Telekinetic Shield)

Do note however, you won’t be able to really pump this stat until you get to Doom. The medals he drops range from around 27-50% for Duration so I recommend killing him as much as you can to get the highest amount possible.

Psychic Haze Tool-Tip Base: 685 Damage over 6.6 Seconds.

On Target Dummy: 14 Ticks of 51 Damage. Total Done: 714 Damage

On Target Dummy with +81 Damage: 14 Ticks of 56 Damage. Total Done: 784 (9.8% Increase in Damage)

On Target Dummy with 48% Power Duration (Doom Medal): 20 Ticks of 52 Damage. Total Done: 1040 (45% Increase in Damage!)

Vortex Grenade Tool-Tip Base: 214-440 Damage per Second

Base on Target Dummy: 12 Ticks of 147 Damage. Total Done: 1764

On Target Dummy with +81 Damage: 12 Ticks of 158 Damage. Total Done: 1896 (7.4% Increase)

On Target Dummy with 48% Power Duration: 17 Ticks of 148 Damage. Total Done: 2516 (42% Increase in Damage)

As you can see there is a huge increase with power duration. But also as stated earlier, why it’s great with defensive abilities. Tooltip for my Kinetic Repulsion for example says it will last for 5.5 Seconds. When I hit it, it lasts for 8.6 Seconds. That is roughly equivalent to adding around 14 points in to that ability. That is HUGE and helps with management of defenses during bosses and trash (Which start to hurt really really bad later on).

First is Attack Speed. While not reflected on Tooltips, it makes Energy Pulse even more amazing than before, as well as slightly lowers cast time on your other abilities.

The second one after that to look for is items that allow you to bypass a portion of the enemies Defense. While there seems to be a bit of confusion how they all add up; people do notice a generous increase in their damage on basic attacks and such once they build this number up high enough.

+Damage/Energy Effects all of your Soldier Skills
+Mental effects most Psion skills.

While Power Duration (in my opinion is the best overall stat to look for when it comes to gear, although it’s not one you can seem to find on every piece) I would relatively prioritize these afterwards (Contingent on upcoming changes to cable)

– Defense Penetration %
– Attack Speed %
– Crit %
– +Damage
– +Mental Damage
– +Energy Damage

This is a purely OFFENSIVE stat list. There is a general rule of thumb you should make sure your gear also has (if you can find)

+Spirit
+Spirit Reduction on a Tree (Psion or Soldier if that’s your main)
+Skill of your choice.

Even with massive amounts in Defense/Physical/Mental etc I can still get hit like a truck in later terminals (Even green tiered mobs) so I’m starting to believe it’s buggy or not adding correctly so if you have a piece of gear that lowers your defense but ups your offense I’d go with that for now. But i”ll have something up shortly with how defense potentially works

Basic Principle: If something is dead, it can’t hurt you.

General Mob Strategy

Melee/Basic Mobs

Ok, so you need to grind experience, solo a group challenge, or just attack through to a boss. I write this based upon the later terminals where avoiding damage is of most importance.

The basic concept is you’ll be kiting the targets to death, especially if you start getting enemies with “Deal Extra Damage”. They hurt very very bad and you need to do all you can to avoid them.

Anyways, the basic strategy I have, which works for anything is this (It’s not rocket science, but might put things in perspective)

Throw down a Psychokinetic barrier, on top of that throw a vortex grenade and attack a group a mobs. They’ll pick up the dot of the Barrier and 3-4 ticks of the grenade (Once snare is fixed they’ll take even more damage). If they are predominately melee mobs you can keep close and add in a Psychic Haze or kite around the Grenade. If they are ranged you just need to run off screen and lay barriers as you see fit until they die. LIke i stated earlier my Barrier kills most Red tiered mobs so it’s incredibly strong even if you do have to have it last the full duration.

The later terminals are not really “Super-Heroy”. You can’t go in guns blazing and survive, in fact, you’ll die a lot.

Ranged Mobs

Ranged mobs are a bit trickier and the Barrier trick works well. Howver, their bullets have a VERY long range, and will go through repulsion at times. (The first two-three bullets never do, the rest probably will). There is something important to remember though, when they start firing they stay firing in that same spot until they finish their cast. Quickly bodyslide away and throw a dot or two and run back out of range. Rinse and repeat.

Range mobs that use “Pulse/Energy” based projecticles are the easiest, Repulsion will block all their abilities and you can basically stand in place and damage them down. “Ignore Negative Effects” doesn’t go to their abilities, just themselves so you won’t have to worry about them shooting through your bubble.

I need Boss Help!

This area is a work in progress and will be updated later. I’ll type of short tips on them, or do videos with links, haven’t decided.

Questions or Comments or Concerns?

Post away. If I have wrong information or if you have information you wish to add I’ll update this page. Nobody is perfect so mistakes may get through. I’ll try to answer as many questions as I can if none of the other fans of Cable have answered for you.

Cable Tips and Tricks

Have a tip players should know? Post below and I’ll add

Hilding – And last but not least its not Cable specific but you can lock your basic attacks on a boss and can move you mouse anywhere on the screen for Quick Bodyslide while shoting. Its a huge gamechanger and can also be found in the Pro Tip thread just in case someone missed that.