Atomic Mass Games has spoiled Hawkeye’s card on Twitter. I have some thoughts on him.

Attack

Huh. Just one attack. It’s pretty good though. Compare it to Winter Soldier’s Assault Rifle, or Rocket Racoon’s Plasma Rifle:

As strong as Rocket’s, better statuses infliction than Winter Soldier, and a choice of attack types! It’s a really really good 0 power attack. But he’s limited by not having a good way to use all the power he will gain from it. And not having access to a bigger attack means he can’t accelerate through the gears as the game goes on.

Trick Shot

Trick shot can make up for a lower power attack. Ignoring cover is a significant bump in power, making the attack more equivalent to 7 dice that don’t ignore cover.

Add in that a lot of characters don’t have the same physical and energy defense and it can push it up even higher in terms of ability to do damage.

Of course, that is dependent on there being a lot of terrain, making cover more likely. Otherwise your just better off with more dice.

Fast Draw

My initial reaction was that this looks better on the card than it will play on the table. If two ranged blaster start trading shots, that might allow Hawkeye an edge, but that’s not a great look for Hawkeye: most longer ranged attacks are energy or mystic – targeting that lower defense. It will also be common to send a quick melee character if you really want to take out Hawkeye.

Where I do see some use is as soft anti-Shuri tech. If Shuri wants to push Hawkeye off a point, she risks taking damage or being hit with bleed, slow or poison – shock doesn’t seem that great against her.

Hook Arrow

Mobility is great. This seems especially good in Avengers. Turn one, Hawkeye can place himself to shoot twice on to even a deep secure objective so long as you deploy opposite it. Each shot has as 53% chance to inflict a status, so with two shots you have a 78% chance to get off a status. Poison seems like a great choice, but slow or shock could be really impactful. The issue would be not having any power to pay for Trick Shot, so terrain may prevent drawing a bead.

Even outside of Avengers, this seems like a great use of Advanced R&D.

Durability

Hmm. Yeah. Not a strong suit. Low stamina and two defenses at 2. You might want to protect him. Bodyguard has some fun interactions with Fast Draw. You choose which order to activate them, so you can Fast Draw, completely resolve it and then trigger Bodyguard. This is covered in the FAQ:

Unlike with Martial Prowess, because Quick Draw completely resolves, they do work together.

Low stamina and defenses – apart from Physical – could make him easy to take out.