Why I think it's a mistake for 4*s to sit just above 3*s.

Vhailorx

It appears to be that Demiurge wants the 4*s to sit just above the 3* power band, so that 4*s offer only a marginal advantage over 3*s and do not entirely squeeze 3*s out of high tier play.

I think this is a mistake, and will only grow into a larger mistake as the 4* space fills out.

My primary concern is that mistakes are inevitable with character design. Sometimes characters end up stronger or weaker than they are intended to be. If the 4* power band is too close to the 3* band, then the inevitable mistakes will create excessive overlap.

Consider the 2*/3* power gap. After the level shift, this gap is substantial. So much so that only the very very best 2*s (ares, obw) are competitive with the very worst 3*s (beast, doc oc). The vast majority of 3*s completely outclass the vast marjority of 2*s and even average 3*s will have a more than fighting chance against the best 2* team (e.g. in any pvp event using the loanders, something like psylocke + cap marvel @166 won't have much trouble even against ares/obw unless they get terrible board luck).

This is not true of the 3*/4* gap. At least a dozen 3*s are as good as or straight up better than almost all of the 4*s. Xforce and 4Thor were the only true exceptions as they clearly outclassed the 3*s (nerf discussions can use a different thread). And when a 3* character ends up a bit stronger than intended (e.g. Iron Fist), or a 4* character ends up a bit weaker (e.g., elektra), then result is a completely upside down incentive structure. Elektra is MUCH harder to get than Iron Fist, and much more expensive to buy/level. But if you had both at max level, you would almost never use elektra when given the choice.

Basically, demiurge is giving itself a VERY small target to hit with each 4* character design. They have to be enough better than 3*s to justify the exponentially higher price of acquisition. But they apparently can't be so good as to lock out 3* rosters from competitiveness (since both 4*thor and xforce did that were expressly stated to be "too powerful" for Demiurge's plans). I just don't think that is a sound design strategy. Errors and unforeseen consequences are bound happen, and with such a small target area, even modest errors can really upset the intended design.

I recognize that there are problems with just making 4*s the new 3*s (specifically, the game probably can't support an economy of 30+ 3*s that are just transitional characters, players would be upset at the diminution of their 3* stables, and the 4*s aren't numerous enough now to support their own separate play space). Nevertheless, that solution seems better to me than the current hybrid system where 4*s are the only endgame prize to achieve, but don't offer much of anything except a very high leveling cost and not much more utility than the top 3*s.

Alternatively, as others have suggested here, demiurge could segregate the player universe, offering 4* only tournaments and other barriers that would allow 4*s to be power and unique without unbalancing 3* pvp play.

Mikaveus

One thing that's always vexed me is how hard it is to fairly evaluate the 4* roster. Everyone has rolled with X-Force for 6 months, and later it became the X-Force and 4hor combo. It's no surprise why, as they were both powered through the roof. And of course the cycle feeds itself as new players chose them over other 4* characters.

Now we all knew that Invisible Woman was **** from the get go, but I saw promise in Elektra and enough aggravation facing Devil Dino to skip him on sight. Kingpin and Professor x are other characters who impressed me when they were released. As the other 4* roster gets face time, we might be surprised where they lie in the hierarchy of characters. I just don't think they've had enough of a fair shake given how juiced X-Force and 4hor were.

GuntherBlobel

On the other hand, think about how difficult it would be to keep making powers as strong as Surgical Strike.

SS does lots of damage, denies the enemy its best color tile, destroys all special tiles of that color, destroys enemy AP, generates friendly AP, and creates a massive board shake that generates additional AP. All for 11 AP.

Personally, I like the idea that 4* characters should have some of most unique play styles in the game. Even Elektra deserves to be a 4* by that measure. The new changes also shows that they are willing to bump up damage later, if needed.