The 3 star balance project: Community Input Requested

Billigoat

Want Buffed:
1) Quicksilver I think most agree it can cause more harm than good.
2) Mystique Come on... shapeshifting could be so cool. Ideas below.
3) Vision This is so situational and it doesn't really make sense anyway. Ideas below.
4) Colossus Add a few protect tiles or something. Luke cage blows this guy out of the water.
5) Spider-Man Give him a red ability? Why is 3* spider-man such a pacifist?

some ideas...

strike twice: 3* land is missing a character who does damage twice with each match (procs strike tiles twice). Quicksilver is someone who should be able to do something fast, like this thing.
Steal with each match Mystique's is lucky if you steal 2-3 AP before someone matches it away. Compare that with other AP-steal characters and she's the bottom of the barrel. Just have her shapeshift give her AP steal on both sides and she's good to go.
Damage whole team with each match. I'm surprised no one does this yet. It'd be a fun replacement for Vision's and it'd make things like enemy protect tiles more valuable for the enemy team, which Vision would conveniently get rid of with his while is active

vinnygecko

Needs a buff:
Spiderman
Psylocke
Punisher
Hulk
Colossus

Great as is (please don't change!)
Iron Fist
Luke Cage
Kamala Khan
Cyclops
Blade (I almost put Scarlet Witch here, but I think her green could still use a minor buff, and her purple would be better with a targeted stun).

GMadMan040

Great thread...probably meaningless as people have been begging for this for a LONG time now, but you never know what the devs will pay attention to.

Need Adjustments
1. IM40
2. Spider-Man
3. Hulk
4. Punisher
5. Black Widow

I see Ragnarok here quite a bit, but honestly every tier by default will have weak and strong characters. It's ok for the game to be that way. Not every character needs to be balanced with all the others. Quicksilver? Lousy on his own, but team him up with Classic Magneto and Scarlet Witch and he's very useable. In fact, I love that team. There is a lot of variety available in the upper half of the 3* range. A lot of different teams that people can use to be successful in all aspects of the game. And in the lower half, there are still some characters that have usefulness when used in the right circumstances. Doc Ock & Squirrel Girl, I'm looking at you because every once in awhile you are totally badass. (Challenge that all you want, but trust me, covered right and in the right moment they totally shine.)

The 3* that I chose, and see on a number of these posts, are all victims of power creep. They are all older, and while they all still have some usefulness, they are just not able to compete with the upper tier characters because their designs are archaic (in the life of this game). In the case of IM40, his design was NEVER good. But IM, Hulk & Spider-Man are premier Marvel characters. Their abilities and design should be such that everyone wants to use them regularly. I love the variety of the game and the less known characters (especially how IF is the king of 3*, he was always one of my favorites!), but the well-known and obviously powerful characters should be represented as such. Just my take.

Top Tier Character Designs
1. Iron Fist
2. Scarlet Witch
3. Captain America
4. Magneto
5. Thor

All these characters have, more or less, perfect representations of their power and power level. Despite having no black active power, you could take these five as your only characters if you had to. And you would win a LOT. Side Note - Cyclops is awesome in game, but he is totally overpowered within the context of his character. He would likely not even make a top 100 list of most powerful Marvel characters.

rdevil32

Thanks for initiating this! May be slightly biased here, but here goes:

WANT BUFF
> Spider-Man
> Iron Man 40
> Hulk
> Psylocke
> Punisher

TOP 5
> Iron Fist
> Cyclops
> Scarlet Witch
> Luke Cage
> CMags

STOPTHIS

Needs a buff:
IM40 - If there's any character that needs some love it's 3* Iron Man. Other newer characters show just how weak he is. When Cyke's red cost less and does more damage with no draw backs, why would ever go with IM40? I'm of the opinion he should be a gold character of 1* IM. It did wonders for Thor and Cap, why not IM?
Quicksilver - This poor dude came about between the heavy hitting likes of KK, Cyke, and SW. I don't think he was ever destined to be a heavy hitter himself, but a good supporting player. Problem is his blue is such a hindrance. I feel like if his blue could steal from the other team's ap, he'd be used a lot more.
Spider-Man - Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can. Which apparently is nothing well. He's the quintessential Marvel character, yet he's the redheaded step child of the game. Another character I think could benefit from being a gold character. New 1* Spidey is pretty damn cool.
Daredevil - Daredevil is a lot of fun to use, but he's just left in the middle of the road. I think if they tweak his to take out trap titles (how does a dude with radar not pick those up?) and give his red a little love (possible placeable), he'd be in higher demand.
Doc Ock - He's got some cool powers. A simple tweak of making them cost less and uping the damage would do him a world of good.

Above average:
Cyclops
Luke Cage
Kamila Khan
Steve Rogers
Scarlet Witch

Unknown

Needs a Buff

I have gone in with the thinking that truly iconic and powerful characters within the universe should be amongst the best characters in game so for definite

Spiderman
Hulk
Beast
IM40

Should all be majorly buffed to match their status. I also think that Rags and She-hulk defintely need a buff but my final vote is for

Squirrel Girl

She is just such a unique and quirky character that i would personally love to use her more.

Does not need a buff

Iron Fist
Luke Cage
Cyclops
Patch
Thor

Unknown

Buff needed: Psylocke, IM40, Quicksilver, Ragnarok, Octopus.

Good 3*s: Iron Fist, Cyclops, Blade, Kamala, Luke.

Punisher5784

Below Average/Need Buffs:
1: Iron Man 40
2: Spider-Man
3: Punisher
4: Quicksilver
5: Psylocke

Above Average/Doesn't Need Buffs
1: Iron Fist
2: Luke Cage
3: Cyclops
4: Patch
5: Thor

Marc_Spector

NEED BUFFS:
Iron Man (Model 40)
Psylocke
Ragnarok
Sentry
Spider-Man (Classic)

DON'T NEED BUFFS:
Cyclops
Iron Fist
Kamala Khan
Magneto (Classic)
Thor (Modern)

Unknown

-need re-worked/buffed:
1. iron man (if ironman 40 red became 3star version of hulkbuster red that would be great, yellow no need to produce ap that ironman doesn't use maybe because of that his 5 yellow too expensive, no idea about blue though maybe become a passive or became AoE sentry bombing like ability)
2. punisher(every time i used punisher, every time i want to cry(look at 5 cover black damage while boosted. . .laughable), save for red and i think people think punny good because of his red)
(often added their own pvp and weekly boosted, those two are meh character just vaulted them like bagman already. lol)
3. psylocue (blue definitely, how about a passive!)
4. vision (if his purpose just for triggering yellow KK. . . . .so sad)
5. gamora(too reliance on tanking color and saving some yellow tile, need some refinement on green and red area, i mean current gamora ain't dangerous )
6. doc ock(supposed had good utility but too expensive, fine with passive black)
7. spiderman (spidey that not deal damage ain't spidey at all, how about call it spidey-nurse?)

-no need buff: (actually they all need buff lol)
1. SW
2. LC
3. IF

extras: well theres QS and then there's the hulk and then patch/daken (and many other character which i forgot to mention lol)
. thats it and my apologize if there's some wrong grammar or miss spelling english not my native tongue, have a nice day

blinktag

Needs Significant buff:
Spider-man (needs something for offense)
IM40 (too slow, and drains too many other pools)
Psylocke (increase damage, raise limits of special tiles)
Colossus (colors match Cage, and Cage is better in pretty much every respect. Why ever use Colossus?)
Daredevil (too niche, expand purple to address all enemy specials, and/or add an additional red trap tile)

Needs minor buff:
Punisher (his red is significant, but the other abilities could use a slight bump)
The Hulk (black doesn't proc often enough at high levels; red is a super that isn't terribly super because 5/3/5 seems obvious)
Vision (doesn't tank colors often enough)
EDIT: How could I forget Quicksilver? Maybe he should swap with IM40, above.

Strongest 3*:
Iron Fist
Luke Cage
Deadpool
KK
Blade

Strong Honorable Mentions
Mags3 (mostly for his color spread, IMHO, which makes him useful with IF/Cage)
Thor
Cap (niche use, but useful niche use)
Doom
SW (only after getting 4 or more blue covers)

Unknown

For the record, i'm against "balancing" in general for a variety of reasons. I am for tweaking the relative power of characters for the sake of continuity within the Marvel universe however.

Too weak
1) Spider-Man
2) Iron Man
3) Doctor Octopus
4) Sentry
5) Quicksilver

Too strong
1) Iron Fist
2) Luke Cage
3) The Hood
4) Blade
5) Kamala Khan

MaskedMan

Odd that anyone would rate Hood as too strong. His hit points make him way too squishy for me. If he had more HPs he would be usable but it is hard to keep him in game long enough to get 18 yellow for his good attack.

Kolence

Buff Needed:
1. Spider-Man
2. IM 40
3. Colossus
4. Hulk
5. Dr. Octopus

---

6. Quicksilver
7. Psylocke
8. Sentry
and a few more ...

Top 5:
1. Iron Fist
2. Cyclops
3. Kamala
4. Luke Cage
5. Scarlet Witch

CNash

Needs Buff Love
Psylocke
Iron Man (Model 40)
Punisher
Mystique
Spider-Man

There are undoubtedly more, but my picks are based more on a desire to elevate older characters who just need a little bit of care and attention, rather than the ones who need more substantial attention.

3* Examplars
Kamala Khan
Iron Fist
Luke Cage
Magneto
Cyclops

Unknown

Need a buff: IM40

Above Average: Cyclops

Heartburn

Needs buff:
1) Ironman
2)Spiderman
3)Doc oct
4)gamora
5)Colossus
Top Tier
1) luke cage
2) IF
3)SW
4)cylcops
5)kk

tiomono

Needs love

Iron man
Spidey
Hulk

Fine
Kamala
Hood
Cage
Fist


Im honestly suprised at all the psylocke votes. She was a heavy contributor to me hitting the simulator 2000 points for ant man last season. I had so many defensive wins too. She is a key part of a strong combo for me.

Lemminkäinen

Needs love:

IM40: his design is weird and having an ability get actively worse as covers are added is simply wrong.
Doc Ock: He doesn't need much and offers interesting things - on the cusp of being nice.
Psylocke: Got left in the dust. Needs some tweaking to make her bloom again.
Spider-man: A very iconic character. Not useless but he is very iconic and therefore I believe should be fine-tuned.
Vision: his mechanic is very interesting but too fragile.

Characters that are fine:

Beast: He is, I think, a perfect example of a nice character that is at the lower end of the power spectrum. Usable and fun - this is how the lowest rung of the ladder should look like.
Thor: He is, I think, the other end of the spectrum. A perfectly balanced high-end. I think that Cyclops, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist could be looked into (I hope they won't be, but they could) and brought down just a bit but I think that Thor and anything below him should be the left alone from nerfs.
Magneto: See Thor above.
Patch: Has a solid role. Isn't over powerful but has a clear niche and fun mechanics.
Black Panther: Very solid.

Unknown

Thanks to everyone above who already pitched in, this will end tomorrow when I finish calculating results, so please feel free to direct others to this thread!