How to use E and A Isos

What is this blog for? This is a compilation of suggestions on the best ways to use the various non-character-specific Augmented Isotope-8 and Empowered Isotope-8.

First I'll address the non-LE Isos. Then get to the harder to get stuff.

Store E-Iso

Non-Class specific E-iso

==Non-class== Close Empowered Iso-8  Street Fighting Pretty much any Melee fighter can use this. Exceptions include characters with auto-crit abilities, Blasters, and attacks that already crit most of the time. It helps a lot on characters with  Deadly Crits. Distant Empowered Iso-8  Sharpshooter Same as Close but for Ranged. Recovering Empowered Iso-8  Soothing Rest Only works when you use a recharge action instead of an actual ability. Not a recharge extension, but the regular recharge. Sheltered Empowered Iso-8  Solid Nap Same as Recovering, some characters get a bonus for using recharge, such as Elsa Bloodstone and Kamala Khan. It's also less of an issue for characters that get extra turns(as they might need to recharge more often), or characters with a special reason to want the effect; such as  Shield Slam Relentless Empowered Iso-8  Relentless This can work on anyone who isn't already immune. Resonant Empowered Iso-8  Sympathy works for any character who uses Magic for most or all of their powers. It provides a substantial amount of HP each time it triggers, and it works on follow/counter moves as well. Surprising Empowered Iso-8  Skullthumper Chance of stun is usually useful, but it works best on characters that have AoE attacks. It's not so good on characters who use counters, since it will trigger stun recovery if it is applied by a counter. Sympathetic Empowered Iso-8  Generosity Decent heal, but only on the use of Buffs. Not all characters have buffs, and few can use a buff action regularly. Styptic Empowered Iso-8  Apply Pressure This helps characters that attack often but are not immune to bleeding more than most others. It's not as useful if your team has debuff clearing though.

Class specific E-iso

==Class-Specific== Generalist Cleansing Empowered Iso-8,  Salve Almost everyone can benefit from debuff removal. Inspiring Empowered Iso-8,  Morale Boost This is useful, but only one per team, also it does not stack with certain character abilities (such as Captain America's version) that are either identical or nearly so. Blaster Explosive Empowered Iso-8,  Collateral Damage Good for most blasters. Exceptions include: characters that have a reason to use  Chilled or other effects that are removed by burning; characters that use breakthrough or perfect shot(these get eaten by the splash); characters who use mostly AoE(it's single target only). Persisting Empowered Iso-8,  Constructive Criticals, nearly useless as it's a chance to add rad to single target attacks, but at the cost of ensuring none of your attacks crit ever. It'd require a build that had a serious need for Rads to be even worth considering. Unavoidable Empowered Iso-8,  Phased Frequencies The most general of the blaster isos since it has no downside and is useful on pretty much every blaster. Tactician Increasing Empowered Iso-8,  Energy Reserve This one has the most general utility now that the level 15 class bonus was added. Now you can get Exhausted options that way and don't need to worry about whether you will be fighting any blasters. Protective Empowered Iso-8,  Savant Probably the weakest since the shield is applied at the start of combat and never refreshes no matter what. Stalwart Force is better for most purposes. Quick Empowered Iso-8,  Snappy Service Only useful on tacticians who have actions that are buffs but not quick actions. This is not a large selection of tacticians unfortunately. Infiltrator Blurred Empowered Iso-8,  Reflections This can go on anyone, but it's not that good since it's a temporary buff. Lingering Empowered Iso-8,  Sting Adding a DoT that reduces attack can help any character. But some characters benefit more than others. Reflexive Empowered Iso-8,  Reflexive This is probably the best of this set. It's a hefty damage reduction and it applies to all counter and followup attacks. Scrapper Aggresive Empowered Iso-8,  Offensive Fighter Only works on melee, but it works on all melee. So if you use melee it's a solid choice. Bruised Empowered Iso-8,  Combination Awkward to use since it's only relevent if you use unarmed attacks and have a way to apply combo setup. But to be useful there is another catch. It also needs to be a character who cannot reapply combo setup with every attack. Purging Empowered Iso-8,  Pillager Any scrapper can use this, and it almost always comes in handy. But it's chance to trigger is not good. Bruiser Hardened Empowered Iso-8,  Hardened Defense buffs are useful, but this is only for when you use melee. Vengeful Empowered Iso-8,  Big and Fast Pretty much everyone likes free turns. The only time it isn't useful is when you can reliably give yourself free turns without it. Viscous Empowered Iso-8,  Heavy Blows Not that great unless you can exploit slowed. PVP E-Iso These are designed to be overpowered compared to ordinary E-Isos. Each has a specific immunity related to the class it goes with, along with extra abilities that are equally powerful, or more so. Any character of the associated class can make use of one in a build, but some work better than others. Rampant Empowered Iso-8 immune to impaired and disoriented, Energizing Empowered Iso-8 immune to exhausted and lockout, regains stamina when attacking. Covert Empowered Iso-8 immune to off-balance, combat reflexes now makes counters ignore defense as well as being pre-counters. Combatant Empowered Iso-8 immune to winded, gets stacking bonuses that increase attack and crit chance. Elite Empowered Iso-8 probably the scariest one. Immune to Neutralized, gains an attack/defense buff each time hit(including subtle), also drains health and stamina when hit with non-psychic melee(including counters and followups). Summer stuff Generalist: Tactician's Battle Plans (30) Blaster's Stratagem (20) Bruiser's Rules(20) Scrapper's Playbook(30) Infiltrator's Briefing(10) Pseudo class bonuses, with the potential for dual pseudo classes if you equip two different isos. Tactician Big Boss (20) Attacking when Exhausted Options does extra damage Buff actions that are not Quick Actions may be a Quick Action once per round Solid Defense (30) Starts Combat with a shield that absorbs damage Attacks & Recharge reapplies the patchwork shield that regenerates Health and Stamina Crowd Control (10) Ranged Attacks have a higher chance to critically hit All attacks have a small chance to stun Bag of Tricks (20) Buff abilities restore some health Gains Grit when attacking or attacked Non-Stop Action (30) Starts Combat with Recuperation Gains Recuperation when an enemy is knocked out Single Target Attacks gain Measured Attack Blaster Master Blaster (10) Range attacks increase Attack & Defense Stacks to 10 Destructive Means (20) Single Target attacks have a chance to do splash damage Has a chance to make your next action unable to be interrupted Plan B (20) Recharge restores some Health and adds a shield that absorbs damage and greatly increases Attack (25%?) Tough 'Nuff (30) Taking reduced damage from enemy attacks Prevents Extra Damage from Attacks that Exploit status effects Mystic Defense (30) Single Target Attacks now gain Power Draining Shield (Takes reduced damage while the shield is up) Chance to summon Elite Eyebite when attacked applies Doom Bruiser Fleet Feet (30) Chance to get an extra turn when attacked Chance for a follow-up attack after a single target attack Heavy Bulwark (30) Applies Pressure Points to enemies who attack with a melee attack Single Target Attacks gain Paragon Exploiter Hard Headed (10) Chance to resist Stun statuses Melee Attacks have a higher chance to critically hit Rapid Recovery (20) Removes one debuff every turn Recharge restores some Health and removes all debuffs Mighty Warrior (20) Begins Combat with Sacred Single Target Attacks gain Determination Attack Scrapper Master Fighter (10) Melee attacks increase Attack & Defense Stacks to 10 Close-Quarter-Champion (30) Gains Rising Up when attacked by an enemy melee attack Single Target Attacks gain Finest Hour! Flow Like Water (30) Chance to gain Exalted when attacked Uninterruptable Insult to Injury (20) Follow-Up Attacks apply Reduced Potential Removes and Prevents Lock Out effects Blood Sport (20) Bleeding increases damage dealt Takes reduced damage from Bleeding Single Target Attacks apply Open Wound Infiltrator Dim Reflection (10) Starts combat with Mirror Image Take reduced damage from counter attacks and follow-up attacks Ukemi+the mirror iso Countermeasures (30) Take reduced damage from single target and area attacks Chance to interrupt and Pre-Emptive Counter Single Target and Area attacks Ukemi+a killer new ability Shadow Walker (30) All attacks are now magical and apply Bane Applies Dark Forces to enemies who attack with a melee attack Mystical+new stuff Deadly Desperation (20) All Single Target Attacks gain Desperation Attack and All-Out Attack Starts Combat with Back For More 2 old abilities and a new one rolled together. Lethal Comeback (10) Counter-Attacks apply Near Fatal new ability, not sure how useful really.

Store A-Iso

Generic A-iso
==generic== These are either Charged(+crit chance), Focused(+accuracy), or Powerful(+damage). There are versions that can be equipped to move types Elemental(Fire, Ice, Electric, etc), Energy, Explosion, Ground(does not have a Charged version), Gun, Kinetic, Magic, Melee, Ranged, Slashing, Sonic, Summon, Tech, and Unarmed.

Non-Class specific E-iso

==Webs== Both of these are useless unless your team has a way to gives the enemy the webbed status. Most of the Spider-Army characters do(Jessica Drew is the primary exception). Symbiote characters, and a few agent gear items also have the ability to web targts. Exploit Webbing, it's exactly what it says. It makes the attack do bonus damage vs webbed targets. Snaring, this gives guaranteed hit and crit vs webbed targets. It's probably best used on attacks that already exploit webs or have deadly crits.

gold A-iso

==Gold== Aiming adds lock on Automated gives a Tech action Tech Upgrade Cooperative makes a summon a QA Erupting makes a ground attack hit flying.... which is extremely useful as most chars with ground attacks kinda need that ability Gracious adds energize to a buff, this always energizes your entire team even if the buff is only for the user Ionizing adds radiation exposure to an energy attack Maddening adds weak mind to a psychic attack Pugilist adds exploits combo setup to unarmed Pulverizing adds wide open to melee Sniping adds guaranteed hit Sorcerous adds stealthy to a magic attack Vorpal adds ignore defense to a slashing move but reduces base damage somewhat. The ignore defense still makes it do more damage over all Pressurized adds pressure points to unarmed Bloody adds bleeding to unarmed Manifesting adds epiphany to a buff. This applies Epiphany to those allies that are affected by the buff. So AoE buffs would apply to the whole team but single target or self would not Brain Freeze adds chilled and migraine to psychic Thorned adds Thorns to a magic ability. This works the same whether it's a FA, QA, buff, debuff, or a regular attack. so it's really good on QA debuffs. Obsolescent adds down grade to a tech action, this also magnetizes some enemies so it's useful beyond just preventing them from using tech Vampiric adds vampiric strike to a slashing attack. This only works if the target is not KOed by the attack. Also not only does it require the target to be bleeding, but it removes bleeding. Suppressing - Equips to an energy attack, gives a shield that reduces damage from DoTs when used. Not recommended to be used with Stalwart Eiso since you can only have one shield and Stalwart typically activates more often. Sharpshooting adds perfect shot to ranged Rising - adds rising up to heal actions, it actually needs to be Heal type though. Bursting - adds shield breaker to ranged Knocking - adds incapacitation to melee Dependable This is a subset(Melee, Ranged, and Buff/Debuff) of the gold store A-Isos that prevents the move equipped from being locked out by lockout effects. They're only as valuable as the frequency of encountering lockout effects. They don't do ANYthing else. Not all moves can have one of these equipped. These are surprisingly expensive for their actual utility.

Spec Op 28/29

All but one of these were character specific.

• Calamitous, any AoE attack, 15% damage reduction, but the attack becomes catastrophic.

Spec Op 30

E-Iso

• Empowered Iso-8, [[|]]Blood magic, any character can use it, but it's unreliable without self inflicted bleeding.... most heroes don't do that, but some agent gear items do.
• Empowered Iso-8, [[|]]Eyebite, enh... I'd stick it on a protector for extra damage. It doesn't inflict debuffs, all it does is a little extra damage every now and then. It's apparently not a proper counter-attack, but instead similar to Illyana's eyebites, or the Human Torch's flames and Annihilation Wave.
• Empowered Iso-8, [[|]]Mystical, useful in a team to let a non-magic-user benefit from having a partner who throws around Bane. It can also be combined with Sympathetic to let the character heal after each attack.
• Empowered Iso-8, [[|]]Sacred, Any character that self heals and/or sheilds would make good use fo this.

A-Iso

• Blessed, only works on buffs, makes the buff apply blessing. It's hard to use. It works on BUFF actions not HEAL actions. So the character who uses it needs to either use a buff/heal or a buff and a heal, possible a heal passive. Rescue, Sabretooth, Wanda, Shanna, Omega Sentinel, Rulk, Nico, Molly, Karolina, Victor Mancha, Wonder Man, Nerkkod, Spiral, Squirrel Girl, Taskmaster, Thane, Valkyrie, and Strange can make use of this.
• Dark Elements, elemental attacks, sometimes adds soulfire and deathfrost. The best candidates are probably electric. Fire and Ice actions benefit too, but to a lesser extent since they often already give out a DoT. Storm seems good. Bill too. kinda low chance though.
• Dark Energy, works on energy, this would be good for Tech based heroes such as War Machine who toss around DoTs, but not Dark Void. also low odds.
• Hallowed Rounds, works on gun and explosion, utterly pointless in most fights, especially PvP since it only affects characters with Hallowed Vulnerability.
• Hexing, adds Hexed to Magic attacks, AoE Magic seems best since that lets you apply it to the entire enemy team. Mordo, Daimon, Doom, Voodoo, Strange, Amora, Loki, Magik, Nico, Satana, and Spiral seem like decent candidates.

Spec Op 31

E-Iso

• Empowered Iso-8, [[|]]Ablative: reduced damage from Gun attacks. This isn't very useful since it only works on attacks that are tagged Gun. That makes it useless in most fights. Only worth using if you know you're going to fight an enemy that uses Gun attacks.
• Empowered Iso-8, [[|]]Dodgy: chance to dodge Melee. This seems to work on most Melee. Melee users are rather common, both in PvE and PvP.
• Empowered Iso-8, [[|]]Triggered: followup when using single target Gun attacks. Only for Gun users, which limits the selection of characters greatly.
• Empowered Iso-8, [[|]]Sandy: Gun attacks generate Grit. Also only for Gun users

A-Iso

• Aware: adds Combat Awareness to buffs, but only for the user of the buff.
• Hemorrhaging: adds that to any slashing move(Or so it claims, it actually works on any single target)
• Pyrophoric: adds it to any single target gun/explosion move. It doesn't say single target but that's how it works. Also only one works per character for some (probably buggy) reason.
• Suterusu: makes unarmed attacks stealthy. This can be used on a lot of things,

Spec Op 32

E-Iso

• Empowered Iso-8, [[|]]Radiation Charge, makes Energy attacks also Radiation. It's pretty situational, since it doesn't give you any benefit on it's own.
• Empowered Iso-8, [[|]]Radiation Resistant, reduces damage taken from Radiation attacks as well as damage taken from Radiation DoTs. Not as situational as you might think since Radiation exposure is popular in PvP, and many hero attacks were changed to be Radiation when this Spec Op was released.
• Empowered Iso-8, [[|]]Strong Will, reduces damage taken from Psychic attacks as well as damage taken from Mental Anguish. Highly situational as it only works on Psychic and doesn't prevent Psychic debuffs.

A-Iso

• Gamma Blade, adds radiation exposure to any slashing move, best used on a character that can exploit attrition, but lacks the ability to give Radiation exposure.
• Gamma Charged, Energy only, adds Raidation Fatigue
• Irradiated, unremovable radiation exposure for gun attacks, probably best used on gun/energy.
• Isotope Focused, adds Exploit Radiation, needless to say you need to give the target Radiation debuffs first.
• Radiologic Knowledge - Powerful, but for Radiation, and a little better.

Fourth Anniversary

E-Iso

Foil

These give immunities to the character that uses them. But, all they do is protect the user from what their opponents do, or self inflicted damage, rather than making the user more powerful.

• Blood Foil Empowered Iso-8,
  
   Blood Foil Bleed/Hemorrhage teams are somewhat common in PvP, and this negates that.
• Flame Foil Empowered Iso-8,
  
   Flame Foil This one seems to stop
  
   Soulfire which is one of the more popular ways to clear buffs.
• Frost Foil Empowered Iso-8,
  
   Frost Foil Regular frost is meh,
  
   Deathfrost is only slightly more dangerous. But there are now other effects to consider, such as
  
   Frigid or
  
   Frostbound.
• Shock Foil Empowered Iso-8,
  
   Shock Foil Static charge teams can be severely annoying. This blocks them.
• Pox Foil Empowered Iso-8,
  
   Pox Foil Bio makes this interesting since there are a variety of esoteric effects.

Inceptive

These add an effect to the character when the fight starts. Some are temporary, others permanent.

• Inceptive intangibility, this actually grants you the ethereal status so you may or may not permenantly remove the effect the first time you attack.
• Inceptive Protection, This protect ability is temporary and removable.
• Inceptive Warding, this is a permanent effect that adds Magic Warding to the character.
• Inceptive Resurrection, this actually gets removed if the character is affected by any ability that would block it, even if the character is at full health. Also, even if that doesn't happen, it only works once.
• Inceptive Survival, this permanently gives the character Survival training.

Force

These add some sort of effect whenever you use single target attacks.

• Calculated Force, adds Measured Attack, on most characters this will drastically increase the damage they do.
• Intrepid Force, adds Grit, potentially useful... if you want grit.
• Risen Force, adds Rising Up, very useful for any character that uses Finest Hour.
• Stalwart Force, adds a weak shield, neat because the shield can be reapplied repeatedly on some characters. Not recommended to be used with Suppressing Aiso since you can only have one shield and Stalwart typically activates more often.
• Wild Force, adds Desperation attack, also a pretty good damage boost

Fatal

These do something when the character is KOed.

• Fatal Quickening, tactician, your team gets a turn.
• Fatal Finish, blaster, the enemy team takes damage.
• Fatal Cleanse, bruiser, removes debuffs from your team.
• Fatal Instigation, scrapper, gives your team breakthrough and true strike.
• Fatal Purge, infiltrator, clears buffs from enemies.

Reaper's

These give a pseudo class bonus to the team when the equipped character is KOed. This is the same as the class of the character.

• Reaper's Bias gives Blast Bias and can only be equipped to a blaster.
• Reaper's Bias gives Bruised Benefit and can only be equipped to a bruiser.
• Reaper's Bias gives Infiltration Impulse and can only be equipped to a infiltrator.
• Reaper's Bias gives and can only be equipped to a scrapper.
• Reaper's Bias gives Tactical Tendency and can only be equipped to a tactician.

SO 33 Additions

Store Eiso

• Complex Maneuver, This one gives a chance at avoiding interrupts. Very few enemies in PvE CAN interrupt, so this is mostly for PvP.

Store Aiso

• Ailing, temporarily prevents removal of Debuffs. Good for any situation where you don't want enemies to clear debuffs.
• Lethal, adds despair, only useful for anti-healing. So mostly a PvP thing.
• Mauling, adds flanked, might be useful if your team doesn't have a way to apply that already.
• Mending, only works on protect, and gives a heal when attacked. Depending on who your protector is, you might have other better options, or not. There's actually not a lot of characters these protect isos work on. They only work on unconditional protect abilities, and they don't work on characters with a multi-function that includes protect. This includes: Black Knight, Most Captain America alts, Colossus(his personal is better), Hercules(but he has two personals to choose between), Luke Cage(not Nul, also has a personal), Phoenix, Red Hulk, Rescue, Thing, Volstagg(but it's redundant)

Boss roulette aiso

• Bolstering Fortitude, another Protect iso. This one gives a heal/buff cleanse when using the protect action.
• Burdening, adds straining to the action. Only really useful on characters that exploit straining or in PvP, since enemies in PvE don't really have stamina.
• Collapsing, any ground action, adds fumbling and hobbled. Kinda awkward because flyers are common and you need Grounded to use this well.
• Steely, works on any protect action, adds covered. Like mending it can be very useful depending on your team setup.
• Volatile, also for protect, gives a stat bonus when attacked.

SO35

E-iso

• Lucid: any character; removes one psychic debuff each round. Only useful as a counter-meta thing.

A-iso

• Dwindling; Psychic; adds
  
   Psychic Suppression; only useful for fighting enemies that have abilities that reduce Psychic damage.
• Enticing; Psychic; adds
  
   Mind Control
• Succubus; Psychic; adds
  
   Psychic Vampire

Who can use these? Not many people. Currently only true Psychic users: Cable, Doctor Voodoo, Emma Frost, Ghost Rider, Mantis, Moondragon, Morbius, Nico Minoru In theory it should work on Dagger, Phoenix and Psylocke, who use attacks that are

 Psychic Energy Attack, but currently doesn't.

• Psychic Focus: Energy; makes an Energy attack into a
  
   Psychic Energy Attack. This is useful for bypassing counter/intangible/dodge/protect/shield effects. It's actually better than
  
   Ethereal Strike. It might trigger defenses like
  
   Mental Resilience though.