Simplifying Character * Rankings (A Proposal)

yogi_

We’ve got power creep more in the game now with the massive influx of 4*’s creating a brand new transition, the slowing of the 3* releases and seemingly limited expansion for any future 1* and 2* who seem close to peripheral once you are well into the game.

This idea simplifies the giving out of covers, simplifies characters between rankings, extends the earlier game a little and may broaden use of earlier characters.

It largely consists of combining the 1*s and 2*s and subtracting most character’s * ranking down 1 level (in name only - not changing their stats).

It could also be a good opportunity to refresh sets of characters across the game (eg. Black Widow, Hawkeye, Spider-Man, Storm). And to get rid of the pointless glowy flashy pulsey stars on the handful of 3*'s. There also could be an opportunity (should it be taken) to move one or more of the middle ranked characters up to the highest rank or any sort of shuffle the devs would like.

New 1*
These are the current 2* who remain unchanged, just relabelled. They are also the current 1*’s who are reworked into current 2* equivalents (3 powers, level 94). It also means some changes to the main PvE story (may need some artificial limits imposed - eg. can only go up to level 47 until 1 complete play through of the Dark Reign story).

Ares (Dark Avengers)
Black Widow (Modern) - reworked into level 94 character.
Bullseye (Dark Avengers)
Captain America (Modern)
Captain Marvel (Ms. Marvel)
Daken (Dark Avengers)
Hawkeye (Classic) - reworked into level 94 character.
Human Torch (Johnny Storm)
Iron Man (Model 35) - reworked into level 94 character.
Juggernaut (Classic) - reworked into level 94 character.
Magneto (Marvel NOW!)
Moonstone (Dark Avengers)
Spider-Man (Original)
Storm (Modern) - reworked into level 94 character.
Thor (Marvel NOW!)
Venom (Dark Avengers) - reworked into level 94 character.
Wolverine (Astonishing X-Men)
Yelena Belova (Dark Avengers) - reworked into level 94 character.

New 2*
Excluding 4 characters, these are the current unchanged 3*s, just relabelled.

Beast (Modern)
Black Panther (T'Challa)
Black Widow (Original) - former current 2*, reworked into level 166 character.
Blade (Classic)
Bullseye (Classic)
Captain America (Steve Rogers)
Captain Marvel (Modern)
Colossus (Classic)
Cyclops (Uncanny X-Men)
Daken (Classic)
Daredevil (Man Without Fear)
Deadpool (It's Me, Deadpool)
Doctor Doom (Classic)
Doctor Octopus (Otto Octavius)
Falcon (Mighty Avengers)
Gamora (Guardians of the Galaxy)
Hawkeye (Modern) - former current 2*, reworked into level 166 character.
Human Torch (Classic)
Iron Fist (Immortal Weapon)
Iron Man (Model 40)
Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel)
Loki (Dark Reign)
Luke Cage (Hero For Hire)
Magneto (Classic)
Mystique (Raven Darkholme)
Psylocke (Classic)
Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff)
Ragnarok (Dark Avengers)
Rocket and Groot (Most Wanted)
Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff)
Sentry (Dark Avengers)
She-Hulk (Modern)
Spider-Man (Bag-Man) - former current 2*, reworked into level 166 character.
Squirrel Girl (Unbeatable)
Storm (Classic) - former current 2*, reworked into level 166 character.
The Hood (Classic)
The Hulk (Indestructible)
The Punisher (Dark Reign)
Thor (Modern)
Vision (Android Avenger)
Wolverine (Patch)

New 3*
Excluding 3 characters, these are the current unchanged 4*s, just relabelled.

Ant-Man (Scott Lang)
Black Widow (Grey Suit) - former current 3*, reworked into level 270 character.
4* - Forthcoming New Character Likely Sits Here
Carnage (Cletus Kasady)
Devil Dinosaur (Gigantic Reptile)
4* Deadpool
Elektra (Unkillable)
Invisible Woman (Classic)
Iron Man (Hulkbuster)
Jean Grey (All New X-Men)
Kingpin (Wilson Fisk)
Nick Fury (Director of SHIELD)
Professor X (Charles Xavier)
Spider-Man (Classic) - former current 3*, reworked into level 270 character.
Star-Lord (Legendary Outlaw)
Storm (Mohawk) - former current 3*, reworked into level 270 character.
The Thing (Classic)
Thor (Goddess of Thunder)
Wolverine (X-Force)

This change could also be combined with a better token system across the game - essentially Bronze tokens giving you new 1*’s, Silver tokens giving you new 2*’s and Gold Tokens giving you new 3*s.

Malcrof

How about this, transitioning a character. I see this in their new ATPQ, Say your Thor is a 2* maxed, a special token makes ups his * level into LThor!

Obviously this cannot work for all, or all tokens lose the excitement, but i can see for players starting out who cannot yet afford roster slots, doing this for lazy characters would be fun.

yogi_

Added new Spider-Man and shuffled the other 2 variants up.

Probably time for Bag-Man to be genuinely retired.

Unknown

It seems like more work than return. What's the benefit in lowering the stars? It seems like all you are really doing is boxing 1 & 2 stars together (which I'm actually good with, 1 stars are so useless, even when starting out, you transition to 2 star before you have a maxed 1*). As well, a good number of powers are tuned to that specific 'star', so turning certain characters to 3* specifically would still throw them at the upper echelon.
- Unreall

yogi_

An extension of this idea is to do it over two phases.

The first phase is to combine the overall rankings (essentially combine the current 1*/2* and lower the others *) and to do temporary / permanent reworks to the current 1*. There will be a bunch of similar characters together, but it happens now anyway (Ms. Marvel, Cap. America, Falcon).

From there, the second phase shuffles whatever character the devs want to shuffle anywhere else.

First Phase is below. A possible second phase at the top of the topic.

New 1*
These are the current 2* who remain unchanged, just relabelled. They are also the current 3 power 1*’s who are reworked into current 2* equivalents (3 powers, level 94) and the 2 powered ones into an interim max level 78 (with only minor damage balances needed).

Ares (Dark Avengers)
Black Widow (Modern) - initially reworked into level 78 character.
Black Widow (Original)
Bullseye (Dark Avengers)
Captain Marvel (Ms. Marvel)
Daken (Dark Avengers)
Hawkeye (Classic) - initially reworked into level 78 character.
Hawkeye (Modern)
Human Torch (Johnny Storm)
Iron Man (Model 35) - reworked into level 94 character.
Juggernaut (Classic) - initially reworked into level 78 character.
Magneto (Marvel NOW!)
Moonstone (Dark Avengers)
Spider-Man (Bag-Man)
Spider-Man (Original) - reworked into level 94 character.
Steve Rogers (Captain America)
Storm (Classic)
Storm (Modern) - reworked into level 94 character.
Thor (Marvel NOW!)
Venom (Dark Avengers) - initially reworked into level 78 character.
Wolverine (Astonishing X-Men)
Yelena Belova (Dark Avengers) - initially reworked into level 78 character.

New 2*
These are the current unchanged 3*s, just relabelled.

Beast (Modern)
Black Panther (T'Challa)
Black Widow (Grey Suit)
Blade (Classic)
Bullseye (Classic)
Captain Marvel (Modern)
Colossus (Classic)
Cyclops (Uncanny X-Men)
Daken (Classic)
Daredevil (Man Without Fear)
Deadpool (It's Me, Deadpool)
Doctor Doom (Classic)
Doctor Octopus (Otto Octavius)
Gamora (Guardians of the Galaxy)
Human Torch (Classic)
Iron Fist (Immortal Weapon)
Iron Man (Model 40)
Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel)
Loki (Dark Reign)
Luke Cage (Hero For Hire)
Magneto (Classic)
Mystique (Raven Darkholme)
Psylocke (Classic)
Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff)
Ragnarok (Dark Avengers)
Rocket and Groot (Most Wanted)
Sam Wilson (Falcon)
Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff)
Sentry (Dark Avengers)
She-Hulk (Modern)
Spider-Man (Classic)
Squirrel Girl (Unbeatable)
Steve Rogers (Captain America)
Storm (Mohawk)
The Hood (Classic)
The Hulk (Indestructible)
The Punisher (Dark Reign)
Thor (Modern)
Vision (Android Avenger)
Wolverine (Patch)

New 3*
These are the current unchanged 4*s, just relabelled.

Ant-Man (Scott Lang)
Carnage (Cletus Kasady)
Devil Dinosaur (Gigantic Reptile)
Deadpool (Uncanny X-Force)
Elektra (Unkillable)
Invisible Woman (Classic)
Iron Man (Hulkbuster)
Jean Grey (All New X-Men)
Kingpin (Wilson Fisk)
Nick Fury (Director of SHIELD)
Professor X (Charles Xavier)
Sam Wilson (Captain America)
Star-Lord (Legendary Outlaw)
The Thing (Classic)
Thor (Goddess of Thunder)
Wolverine (X-Force)

yogi_

As an addendum to the idea in the post one above, a good additional step might be to move the current 1*'s with 2 powers to new level 78 1*'s - Black Widow (Modern), Hawkeye (Classic), Juggernaut (Classic), Venom (Dark Avengers) and Yelena Belova (Dark Avengers). Some of these characters need no changes, some only a minor balance to damage output.

Essentially, this would be like the earlier current 2* Bullseye and Daken, who initially had two powers at max level 78.

This makes the initial character move easier and gives more time for them to be reworked into 3 powered characters.