Much as the title explains, I am curious what is the most powerful or useful or both Outlier ability/power? Here is a list of known Outliers:

• Carnivac, whose sonic powers can debilitate other Cybertronians.
• Damus, better known by his alias Tarn, with the ability to render sentient machinery non-functional, can tune his voice with the spark of a victim to cause it to give up or explode, previously able to touch non-sentient machinery to disable it.
• Hubcap, who possesses a mastery of electromagnetic signals.
• Mindwipe, who has telepathic powers.
• Ragnarok, who can bud identical copies of himself.
• Skids, who can quickly perfect any new skill he wants to. Later underwent a stress-induced secondary mutation, the effect of which is unknown.
• Skywarp, who can teleport.
• Soundwave, who has hearing so strong he can pick up thoughts.
• Tailgate, who suffered a stress related mutation and developed enhanced strength, speed, and durability.
• Thundercracker, who can create super-loud sonic booms.
• Trailbreaker, who can generate forcefields.
• Windcharger, whose arms act as magnets.

 

Kaon from the DJD is a possible outlier too according to his wiki page.

Most useful I'd probably say Skids, since it's such a versatile power, but for most powerful probably Damus/Tarn because he can kill quite quickly and easily.

 

Yeah I always thought Kaon had a unique ability I didn't see other Cybertronians using. I actually agree with your choices, the ability to learn any new skill is really useful, skywarps teleportation would be handy as well though if I could pick a runner up to Skids. Tarn I think also has the most powerful ability (though my opinion might not matter to most when it comes to Tarn due him being my favorite character lol) seeing as how it even works through the phone and can penetrate the armor of a phase sixer and works even after he is dead through recording.

 

Windcharger

 

Good pick, while I tend to agree with you that he is extremely powerful and maybe more powerful in some regards( especially versatility) to Tarn's ability, there is just one thing Damus can do that he cannot with his ability and that is kill a phase sixer with Ununtrium upgrades, while Windcharger can royally mess up any normal decepticon, Ununtrium would be unaffected by his power, where as Damus ability can get through Ununtrium.

 

Not trying to be funny but Rung's ability to heal wasn't shared by Mortilus, Adaptus or Tyrest, he could be a outlier too. I know they're meant to be gods but that series shown the magical can be mundane and vica versa so maybe the guiding hand were Outliers who could combine.

 

They certainly could be!

 

Wasn't Sunder's ability super OP?

 

I know it's really useful and powerful. Though it's not stated he is an outlier, I would assume since he is the only one that can use Remote mnemosurgery that he is one. I know his ability allows him to perform mnemosurgery from a distance and alter memories I don't know of the extent beyond that, he may be able to kill with it, (I'm also not sure the extent of it's ability to affect, can a phase sixer be affected by his power? Can Sunder's ability get through an Ununtrium bonded skull? I don't know, if it can then that's legit) , it actually says more likely than not mnemosurgions themselves are more likely to die than the patients. Also he is incapacitated during the time he is using his power where as Tarn is not(in fact I just read an answer on a james roberts Q&A that roberts states that Tarn is not even affected by his power anymore like he used to be when he would be in pain after using it), so I still would consider Tarn's ever so slightly more OP.

 

I feel like Windcharger might actually be able to. Given that most fiction treats magnetism abilities as just being able to manipulate metal, which ununtrium is, Windcharger should be able to manipulate it just as easily. But in fairness, there's no real way to know for sure since he's never run into a phase sixer, so I admit I could be wrong on this.

 

Hey true, you never know. It's possible.

 

They all seem pretty scary. Skywarp's teleportation doesn't seem that impressive compared to Tarn or Windcharger, but if he teleports behind either he can quikly kill them with a well-aimed shot.
And who's to say Skids can't learn how to use the abilities of other outliers?

 

I think some of the meta appeal of Skywarp in concept is the fact that his abilities are so overpowered. Teleportation without limits is dangerous in the extreme, but Skywarp's stupidity is what makes him about as effective as any other Decepticon.

As for Skids, I think he can only really learn skills as far as his physical capacity would allow him. It's not like he can learn how to fly just by watching Starscream, he'd still need booster rockets and wings to do that.

 

Yeah, he basically does the same thing Taskmaster does. He can't absorb powers.

 

I would say Windcharger could easily be (duh) the Magneto of Transformers.

I mean...

What's to stop windcharger from ripping out enemy sparks with little more than a wave of the hand?

 

Tarn, Windcharger or Sunder. That last one can used to turn the tide of a war or battle without firing a shot.

 

Indeed. Imagine a Skywarp whom can focus enough to be able to teleport just a piece of an enemy with him? Like their arm...or spark as I had him do in a one-shot fic of mine....

Edit: Surprised no mention of Starscream's immortality (not Animated version, but more G1/BW). Though I suppose that would be more 'annoying' than powerful considering....

 

Most Decepticons are a bunch of duds when it comes down to it, aren't they?
I have always wondered about that with Skids. His powers are limited by his physique, yes? But wouldn't it be possible for him to learn outlier abilities like Tarn's?

 

I don't think so. He definitely couldn't copy Glitch's initial power, and according to Tarn himself, the way his "talk people to death" trick works is by lining his voice up with the listener's spark pulse. I don't feel like Skids would be able to just learn how to detect the pulse.

 

Never let Windcharger get his hands on you. Starscream learned that hard way (but he died, so the lesson wasn't much use to him).