Character Rotations For Season X (Dr. Doom Returns!)

FaustianDeal

If the established pattern holds; we will likely see Ragnarok come back next season with a spankin' new 3rd power... (and tweaks to his power set so that 'gets cheaper by 1AP' goes away - since that mechanic is no longer 'approved'.)

I can totally see them bringing Thor and Rags back together; its a cute thematic option that they could explore (but will probably wind up as yet another 'missed opportunity' instead).

SnowcaTT

FaustianDeal wrote:

If the established pattern holds; we will likely see Ragnarok come back next season with a spankin' new 3rd power... (and tweaks to his power set so that 'gets cheaper by 1AP' goes away - since that mechanic is no longer 'approved'.)

I can totally see them bringing Thor and Rags back together; its a cute thematic option that they could explore (but will probably wind up as yet another 'missed opportunity' instead).

When they rotated folks out first time saying it would "give time to improve", I asked - does this mean 3rd abilities? At the time, everyone with two abilities rotated out.

Here they come back, one by one. Everyone was rotated out - except poor bullseye. I hope he isn't forgotten about, he needs his 3rd (and a big improvement on his black).

Unknown

SnowcaTT wrote:

Here they come back, one by one. Everyone was rotated out - except poor bullseye. I hope he isn't forgotten about, he needs his 3rd (and a big improvement on his black).

Unless you count Bag-Man, though, thy haven't rotated out any 2*s. I"m guessing we'll see Bullseye get one after Ragnarok. The big question is: do the 1*s get third powers next (I'm guessing no).

Vhailorx

stephen43084 wrote:

So you prefer they don't vault? They would still have the same cover rewards during that time period (ask veterans, Hood used to rarely be reward covers for on example), so they only change would be tokens. You don't have to redeem your tokens until they have characters available that you want. If anything, this works out in players' favor. Because the odds of getting the cover you want would be further diminished if there was no vaulting.

TL;DR: The system has changed. If you would learn to adapt to it (By the way, this is what veterans do. They do not redeem tokens until they have the best chance of getting the covers they want the most. One has 1000+ standard tokens currently), you would have a greater advantage than previously.

Yes, I would prefer they hadn't vaulted. I think they should have increased the 3* drop rate, given that it is almost absurdly low as is. But if they really think that ~16% is some sort of magic number, then they should have created multiple tokens with different pools of characters.

You seem to be missing my point. Yes you can hold on to tokens for indefinitely, but that doesn't solve the problem I was highlighting: vaulting results in 3* transition taking much much longer. And it is especially bad when the vaulted characters are the pvp tentpoles and great transition characters like punisher and psylocke.

your suggestion of "The vets deal with it, why can't you" is profoundly unhelpful given that the veterans solution is (1) to already have the vaulted characters, and (2) wait until they get the rewards they want. Neither of those address the issue of the interminable length of 2* --> 3* transition.

Edited to remove unnecessary snark!

FierceKiwi

Ben Grimm wrote:

SnowcaTT wrote:

Here they come back, one by one. Everyone was rotated out - except poor bullseye. I hope he isn't forgotten about, he needs his 3rd (and a big improvement on his black).

Unless you count Bag-Man, though, thy haven't rotated out any 2*s. I"m guessing we'll see Bullseye get one after Ragnarok. The big question is: do the 1*s get third powers next (I'm guessing no).

Presumably they'll just give Bullseye the Daken treatment release a Lazy version and then backport the new ability at some point in the future. I have the unpopular opinion 1*s should get 3rd powers since a.) 2 powers are stupid b.) it would make my live easier to remove all the stupid if (covers == 2) {//do special stuff} I find myself doing.

Unknown

FierceKiwi wrote:

Presumably they'll just give Bullseye the Daken treatment release a Lazy version and then backport the new ability at some point in the future. I have the unpopular opinion 1*s should get 3rd powers since a.) 2 powers are stupid b.) it would make my live easier to remove all the stupid if (covers == 2) {//do special stuff} I find myself doing.

It's possible, but the fact that they haven't released a lazy character since Storm (unless you count the two babies) means I'm less sure it's coming than I used to be. But given Elektra just came out, a Classic Bullseye makes a certain amount of sense. And we do need more villains. As long as they space the (probably 6) remaining lazies out, I could probably live with them.

Unknown

Vhailorx wrote:

With Elektra being added to the 4* pool, are the 4* rates being diluted? Dare I hope that 4* drop rates will be slightly increased to account for the fact that with 5 4*s out now, and more on the way, a %.6 drop rate from the "best" tokens means that 4*s are basically unattainable for those who don't have top tier rosters (or money).

At some point I think the rewards structure of this game needs a major overhaul to mitigate the user-base fragmentation that has been growing worse and worse in the past 6 months. It's great that the game has lots of new players, and it's great that 4*s are being rolled out as the new end game to keep the vets playing. but it's not great that getting keeping the game interesting for veterans has made it substantially harder for new players to become veterans.

Any updates on this? What happened when they added 4* Thor?

IamTheDanger

Should 1* characters with 2 powers get a 3rd one?

Uuhhhh, .... no. Oh kitty, I hope not.

Please do not give 1* characters a 3rd ability. Facing a level 395 Juggernaut and 395 Venom is hard as kitty now. Imagine if they had another power they could use . Yes, on our end, it would be nice for them to have a 3rd, but remember one thing. If they make the characters more powerful for us, then they are also more powerful for the Ai. Just look at Loki. He was easy to beat before. No problem. I often ignored him and took him out last. But not now . Now he dies first because now Loki really gets on my nerves . And let's not forget old Doomy. Not as easy to beat as Loki used to be, but not hard either. But with his third power he is much more dangerous.

Now, for Ragnarok, I'm on the fence here. He can be pretty useful at times, and has a good amount of power. Giving him a 3rd ability would make him more dangerous as well. It might even make him into a character that gets used a lot in PvP. Only problem is that Rags will be using that 3rd power against me in PvE matches where he too can get up to level 395. Not exactly something I want to go up against.

Vhailorx

DRodZero wrote:

Vhailorx wrote:

With Elektra being added to the 4* pool, are the 4* rates being diluted? Dare I hope that 4* drop rates will be slightly increased to account for the fact that with 5 4*s out now, and more on the way, a %.6 drop rate from the "best" tokens means that 4*s are basically unattainable for those who don't have top tier rosters (or money).
.

Any updates on this? What happened when they added 4* Thor?

When 4* Thor was added I think the reported reported drop rates of all 4* went down. So I think it went from something like .9% for 3 4*s (xforce, IW, Fury) to .6% for 4 4*s (4* thor, xforce, IW, fury), but don't quote me on the numbers. That looks like the total rate went down a tiny (.3%) amount, but there might be hidden decimal points in there that even things out. In any event, some transparency on this issue would be nice, especially since 4*s now dominate the metagame and are apparently the new arena for high level play (and are going to be released with increasing frequency).

Unknown

Vhailorx wrote:

DRodZero wrote:

Vhailorx wrote:

With Elektra being added to the 4* pool, are the 4* rates being diluted? Dare I hope that 4* drop rates will be slightly increased to account for the fact that with 5 4*s out now, and more on the way, a %.6 drop rate from the "best" tokens means that 4*s are basically unattainable for those who don't have top tier rosters (or money).
.

Any updates on this? What happened when they added 4* Thor?

When 4* Thor was added I think the reported reported drop rates of all 4* went down. So I think it went from something like .9% for 3 4*s (xforce, IW, Fury) to .6% for 4 4*s (4* thor, xforce, IW, fury), but don't quote me on the numbers. That looks like the total rate went down a tiny (.3%) amount, but there might be hidden decimal points in there that even things out. In any event, some transparency on this issue would be nice, especially since 4*s now dominate the metagame and are apparently the new arena for high level play (and are going to be released with increasing frequency).

Thanks Vhailorx. If I had to guess, there is .25% allocated for all the current 4* characters, so with 4 characters, they would each have a .0625% chance. With 4*Elly, that would go down to .5%, which would effectively be a 20% decrease of getting any of the older 4* characters, assuming we do open a 4*.

As for your other point, they can either make overall 4* % higher, or make them easier to get as rewards. I am not sure how the change in shields will effect hitting the 1300 mark. If they make the shards smaller, then the points should be a little easier, since there will be less "in fighting" over the points, as in lower players knocking higher players down while unshielded.

Vhailorx

Thanks Vhailorx. If I had to guess, there is .25% allocated for all the current 4* characters, so with 4 characters, they would each have a .0625% chance. With 4*Elly, that would go down to .5%, which would effectively be a 20% decrease of getting any of the older 4* characters, assuming we do open a 4*.

As for your other point, they can either make overall 4* % higher, or make them easier to get as rewards. I am not sure how the change in shields will effect hitting the 1300 mark. If they make the shards smaller, then the points should be a little easier, since there will be less "in fighting" over the points, as in lower players knocking higher players down while unshielded.

At least with respect to PvP prog rewards, d3p has already said that they are prepared to change point requirements in response to the shield cool down changes. They are just waiting to see what effect the shield cooldowns have.

So I would expect 1300 to be unattainable for a little while, and then for that threshold to come down a little, but still be well out of reach for most players.

Also, the shield changes will make it much more difficult/expensive for 2* players to shield hop into PvP top 100. So another change that sort of accomplishes it's stated goal and also makes life harder for transition players (add it to vaulting, accelerated new character releases, introducing shields in the first place, lightning round token changes, etc)

Unknown

Thanks again Vhailorx. Now if I can only decide if I should spend the 2500 HP on my 5th Black xforce (stuck at 3/4/3) or try to get lucky with my cashe of heroic tokens before Elly hits.

Vhailorx

DRodZero

:I don't have a max force, so it's hard for me to be certain, but the general consensus seems to be that a 5th black force cover pays for itself pretty quickly. So while I might go through the cache of tokens first just to see if you get lucky, I would not wait much longer before getting the best cover for the best character in the game.

V1rusHunter

Is there any word what hour the rotation changes?

Unknown

V1rusHunter wrote:

Is there any word what hour the rotation changes?

In the past, we got a forced update right when the Friday-Monday PVP started. With the time slices in effect, not sure if it'll get forced when the first one goes up, slice 4, slice 5, or some other random time.

Quebbster

V1rusHunter wrote:

Is there any word what hour the rotation changes?

It's usually when the first PvP of the new season launches. You can always check the drop info though, and they usually change the graphics for Heoric tokens too.

V1rusHunter

Agreed. Usually when the new season PvP comes out but I thought that was tomorrow.
Maybe it comes out at 3PM EST today.
The original note said today so that's why I'm looking.

GrimSkald

Vhailorx wrote:

DRodZero

:I don't have a max force, so it's hard for me to be certain, but the general consensus seems to be that a 5th black force cover pays for itself pretty quickly. So while I might go through the cache of tokens first just to see if you get lucky, I would not wait much longer before getting the best cover for the best character in the game.

I have a 5/4/4 X-Force - I actually paid for the 4rth black cover and am considering paying for the 5th. I can definitely tell you that I use his green like mad at 5. At 4 I use his black sometimes - it doesn't do that much damage and the fact that I don't get the AP makes it more limited in use.

I believe the difference between 4 and 5 in both colors is considerable and probably worth it.

Zen808

Looks like the Season X rotation has gone live.

yogi_

808SpicyToro wrote:

Looks like the Season X rotation has gone live.

0.5% for a single 4* - multipack 0.1% better.
0.7% for a single 3* - multipack 0.2% better.
6.6% for a single 2* - multipack 0.3% better down.

Single random draw, approximately:
2.5% chance for a 4*
14% chance for a 3*
the remainder % for is what you will get

A plug for Common, Uncommon and Rare Tokens.