Thor and Wolverine sig page, thoughts, and ideas

doc8998

After this update, seems like many are (rightfully,) angry... as well as myself. Wanted to attempt to do two things here:

1) Put your name here if you'd like to see these 2 "un-nerfed"

2) If you have thoughts on what you'd like to see implemented after this patch... it seems that Thor and Wolverine aren't the only problems. Here's my thoughts on it.

The Thor and Wolverine nerfing has to be one of the most disheartening things I've seen implemented in awhile. It is, in my opinion, a slap in the face to every customer who has put their time and effort or their money into earning these characters... Whether by time and effort or by cash, these things are valuable commodities to the players. In my case, I've been recovering from knee surgery, and could have gotten caught up with many another game, but I spent more time than I care to admit playing a game I recommended to everyone I could, and my wife got in on the action after all my ravings of it. The fact is, ESPECIALLY with the paying customers that maybe didn't have the time in their schedule to boost their Thor and Wolverine cards, they boosted these characters based on what they were told they were getting.

Perhaps I'm in the minority, I didn't find either character to be overpowered at all... I found them monotonous in tournaments because everyone had them, but I never once felt cheated by losing against them. However, the one thing that was a side-effect of this, (and I'm not sure which is worse, whether D3 knew it or didn't consider it, is that pve has become practically unplayable.) Today, I went in with 85 Thor & Wolvie and a 72 Ares against 3 Maggia Muscle level 79, WITH boosts... and got CRUSHED. Imagine this story line in a Marvel comic... 2 Gods and "the best at what he does" walks in against 3 schlubs and get defeated... If you're going to use the license, at least be respectful of it, D3. See, in the weekly stories, these 2 characters offer a chance against the insanely leveled characters you tend to throw in... Throw in a couple boosts, and you can pull out a win. But, even going against 3 NPC supervillains with say similar or slightly higher levels is often an enjoyable challenge; when you change that to Maggia characters who are underleveled and cannot move the board and you get hammered, you're killing the experience.

My preference would be to just "un-nerf" the characters, all these players have put so much into getting them to where they want them, that this is actually almost insulting... But, a secondary option would to, at the VERY LEAST, and since we have to play online, and you have the database, BE FAIR! When companies nerf classes in other games, they at least RESPECT their community enough to realize that they deserve the opportunity to rebuild that character... Again, the VERY LEAST you could do is send EVERYBODY that owns these cards a "blank slate card" of that character which allows us to reallocate the points we spent up to where we were at. (if say, someone has 8 tallies in a Wolvie card, they can reallocate those 8 colors in a way they see fit.) once those blank slate cards have been reallocated, they are brought up to the highest level of that tier automatically so we do not have to rebuild them up to speed with iso8.

But, ideally, these characters should be restored... The problem isn't with them being overpowered, its that they're so prevalent in the pvp tournaments because there's really no "counter" card to them... I'm going to make a few suggestions, including a few ideas for cards.

Nightcrawler

"Nick of Time": (passive skill, needs to be filled, but empties when activated): When Nightcrawler or a teammate is targeted by a super power, NC teleports them to safety but not without a nick or two. Opponent's power does half damage, and is split between NC and character he saves. If NC is the frontline character, he only receives 1/4 damage. (In other words, Wolverine gets targeted by a 2000 power... the power is halved to 1000, NC and Wolvie split that to 500 apiece, while the 3rd character then moves to the front row.)

"Stealthy Swashbuckler": When activated, NC teleports behind the enemy, placing 2 critical tiles on the board where he wishes. these 2 critical tiles may not occupy the same column, row, nor be adjacent to one another.

Dark Phoenix

"Insatiable Hunger": When activated, for the next 3 rounds, if Jean is targeted by an opponents power, she takes no damage, and instead gains half of that powers' AP. If that AP does not match a color of hers, it is allocated to "Rise from the Ashes". If "Rise from the Ashes has been used already, will allocate to her 3rd power (attack of some sort)

"Rise from the Ashes": (Passive once AP is filled, will only activate once per game) If Jean falls in combat, a 3 turn countdown begins. If, at the end of 3 turns, her team still stands, she rises like the Phoenix, restored of 1/2 (maybe a 1/3) of her hit points, and "Insatiable Hunger" activated. (tile matches still do damage in "Insatiable Hunger", just super powers would not.)

Emma Frost

"Confusion": When activated, for the next 3 rounds, if an opponent attempts to use a damage based super power, the damage is spread among all 3 opponents, (maybe even all 6 players on the board,) as the attacker cannot tell friend from foe. Switching to "Diamond Form" or being hit with a super power ends "Confusion".

"Diamond Form": When activated, Emma switches to Diamond Form for the next 3 rounds. Any damage based power is reflected back at the opponent at half strength, and Emma cannot use "Confusion" (nor any other mental based attacks if there was a 3rd power) while in "Diamond Form". However, Emma causes 20% more damage on blue matches.

(Keep in mind, I didn't put much thought into balancing, these are all off the top of my head.) I'm willing to bet that cards that can counter some of the more powerful cards out there would become popular in the pvp tournaments, while still keeping the previous "restored" versions of Thor and Wolverine viable for the pve stuff when you have to go against overleveled bad guys.)

I would also suggest allowing the players themselves to select the 3 cards they want representing themselves in pvp tournaments when the AI controls their characters... Also, I would HIDE the characters you'd be facing when selecting who to play next in a pvp tournament, with only a descriptor available against them based on the opponents' characters levels; ie: "easy, normal, deadly." BUT bring back the 3 attempt rule of diminishing returns... you go in blind for first fight other than an idea of how difficult it may be... if you lose, you now know who you'll be facing if you return, and can adjust your team accordingly, but don't get as many points as you would have at the outset. You're betting on yourself going into the match the first time with no perception of odds other than the small indication of how you may fare.

As far as counter cards are concerned, they wouldn't be rewards and only given out to top 100 finishers in tournaments, make them reward cards with the 1 in 4 success rate of some of the cards from the Dark Reign story. Make them part of a weekly story, and get them into the community so that they WOULD start getting played in tournies. Don't alienate players that don't have the cash to fork over to keep up with the best of the best. I've dropped $50 or so, maybe, but mostly for character slots, with the occasional attempt at a rare card in pack... Having a competitive community that doesn't alienate players who cant always afford to pay up IS POSSIBLE. (the game Guild Wars 2 is a prime example.) The way MPQ was, I was HAPPY to pay up here and there and give to D3 for the hours of enjoyment I was getting, but I never felt pressured to... and when you start applying pressure, most turn away... And judging by responses, that's what's happening, along with a LOT of anger. It feels like an giant middle finger to the players who bragged about this wonderful game to their friends and family, who put aside other enjoyments to play THIS game.

With all this said, I do, however agree with an entry fee tournament... D3 is a company, and they do need to bring in some money. However, these entry fee tournaments shouldn't end up making the game Pay to Win, either. Make the rewards something people WANT, but don't HAVE to have in order to keep playing against others... Unique characters that dont necessarily have astronomical level caps, but people will WANT to add to their roster.... Even the higher iso8 and coins seem fair enough to give out in those entry fee tournies, there should be some extra incentive, but not enough to make players feel like they'll be excluded from events if they cant afford to enter and win those particular characters.

All of these ideas are just me thinking out loud... Beyond just saying if you'd like to see them un-nerf Wolvie and Thor, throw some things into the pot, or even give your opinions or suggestions of any fine-tuning you may see that I've posted... Just trying to bounce some constructive ideas out there.

If you'd like to see them "un-nerf" Thor and Wolvie, say something... Maybe they'll take notice. (Hopefully, but I'm not holding my breath.) If you have any thoughts or suggestions on how to "make it right," after what seems like the most unpopular update I've seen, express it.

Really is a shame, because I absolutely enjoyed this game and it helped keep me sane over the past 4 months after my surgery... As is, I can't see myself playing much more of it. I played a few games today, but easily only 1/4 of the time I normally spend with it...