** Hawkeye (Modern) ** [PRE 2014-09]

OnesOwnGrief

When I run Hawkeye, I place him 3rd and Hulk in 2nd. I have yet to not see him avoid and Hulk not take the hit. Even when I run Sentry, Hulk gets hit twice and activates two counters from Supernova with that setup. Hawkeye never sees the damage.

over_clocked

OnesOwnGrief wrote:

When I run Hawkeye, I place him 3rd and Hulk in 2nd. I have yet to not see him avoid and Hulk not take the hit. Even when I run Sentry, Hulk gets hit twice and activates two counters from Supernova with that setup. Hawkeye never sees the damage.

It's the same to what I said, I just assumed center is always occupied by the tank which is not always the case.

Unknown

I have my most important character - usually punisher or now patch - center, with Hawkeye on the right, and Hulk on the left. But think of the screen as
3 1 2

that's the order. If he's 3, then tank at one, if he's 1 then tank at 2, if he's 2 then tank at 3.
- Unreall

Trisul

This is speculation, but assuming that his buff will enable him to target his tiles (and nothing else changes), he becomes a solidly mid-tier 2* at the very least for a devastating (and more reliable) Red and Blue.

If he pairs with an RGY tank, they are basically tanking 5 colors. As the 3rd, OBW/Torch would tank black and MNMags would tank blue. OBW seems the best 3rd here.
If he pairs with Daken (assuming additional ability buff), then D can tank green, black, purple blue, while an RGY tanks red and yellow. Kinda sucks to not have black or purple actives though. Nice regen for longer plays.

Doesn't seem versatile enough for Hawkeye teams to de-throne the top-tier 2* team comps, but seems very playable. He'd no longer be an auto-trash, especially for 1* --> 2* transitioners.

Phaserhawk

Trisul wrote:

This is speculation, but assuming that his buff will enable him to target his tiles (and nothing else changes), he becomes a solidly mid-tier 2* at the very least for a devastating (and more reliable) Red and Blue.

If he pairs with an RGY tank, they are basically tanking 5 colors. As the 3rd, OBW/Torch would tank black and MNMags would tank blue. OBW seems the best 3rd here.
If he pairs with Daken (assuming additional ability buff), then D can tank green, black, purple blue, while an RGY tanks red and yellow. Kinda sucks to not have black or purple actives though. Nice regen for longer plays.

Doesn't seem versatile enough for Hawkeye teams to de-throne the top-tier 2* team comps, but seems very playable. He'd no longer be an auto-trash, especially for 1* --> 2* transitioners.

More than likely, if this guy gets the rework, there is going to be a gold version of him soon, because they aren't going to waste all this time and effort and not do that, and I would welcome a 3* Hawkeye if as you said he could place tiles and nothing else, but that would essential just be another version of Captain America, so I have a feeling they will do a little bit more with him. My thought is they will allow tile placement but there will be no CD tiles, but his dmg goes way down.

IceIX

Since each of these changes are a little long and the conversation for each character is relatively self contained, I'm making a thread for each character containing the changes and reasoning for that character. Yes, this'll make the stickies area a little big for a bit until they go Live. And yes, this probably should be in Character Discussion, but since it's Patch Note related, it's staying here.


** Hawkeye (Modern) **

Poor Hawkeye. All the rest of his Avenger pals are sitting up in 3 star land and he's stuck with a 2* variant as his most powerful. And until now, not even that great to boot. Sure, his Blast Arrow did decent AoE, but since he's got a Blue color strength, you may as well use Storm for her better Blue AoE. which also locks off his nicely damaging Electric Arrow because you'll use that Blue to stun and damage the whole enemy team instead of a nasty shock to one enemy instead. On top of that, the abilities drop the countdown randomly so you never know if you'll even get the attacks off. To add insult to injury, then you pop Avoid to that list. An ability that sounds great on paper but ends up an annoyance as much as it helps.

So, what to do?

Blast Arrow

Blast Arrow for the most part worked alright. It did a decent amount of damage and at Level 5 wasn't a huge risk to get off. The randomness of the placement could mean that the ability just didn't work though. And Hawkeye firing "randomly" just isn't a thing that happens. So we redesigned the ability to allow you to place the tile instead of random placement. We also pulled down the AP cost by 1 AP, making it a sure thing with 3 red AP matches instead of needing at least 1 4 of a kind or an extra match. These changes made the ability that was already decent, if a little erratic, into something far more usable. At the same time we found that at low levels the arrow did too little damage, making it inferior to just hauling off with a Mjolnir's Might or an Adamantium Slash. So the base damage was raised while the scalar was brought down. Overall, the ability does more damage at lower levels compared to before, but a little lower than before at higher levels.

Old

Blast Arrow - Red 10 AP
Hawkeye shoots an explosive arrow, placing a Red Countdown tile. After 4 turns, it deals 120 damage to all enemies.
New

Blast Arrow - Red 9 AP
Clint lines up the perfect shot. When it hits, it creates a massive explosion. Changes a chosen basic Red tile into a 4-turn Countdown tile. When it activates, deals 200 damage to all enemies.


Electric Arrow

This ability was stuck in a weird place. It's blue, competing directly with Storm (Classic)'s AoE. It also stuns, just like Storm's ability. It also takes 10 AP, which is 4-ish matches, just like Storm's. However, it also piles all that damage into a Countdown tile that only hits one enemy instead of the entire enemy team instantly. So it doesn't measure up to another easily attainable ability. To differentiate these, we did a rethink on what the arrow should do. First of all, we got rid of the random. Hawkeye doesn't shoot randomly. Then we pulled down the AP cost so it's more attractive for general usage instead of taking most of a match to fire off one. Even still, without changing around what the ability *does*, it's still just an alternate Storm ability, so it needed more of a change. We decided to take the route of pulling off the damage portion of it and adding in AP destruction instead. The damage portion is less necessary with Speed Shot now on line, and AP destruction is something that is rare in the 2* arena. To help balance this further, we also pulled down the initial Countdown tile timer from 4 turns to 3 so that the stuns are a little easier to come by and the AP destruction happens on a quicker and more numerous basis.

Old

Electric Arrow - Blue 10 AP
Hawkeye shoots a charged arrow, placing a Blue Countdown tile on the board. It activates after 4 turns, dealing 200 to the current target and stunning them for 2 turns.
New

Electric Arrow - Blue 9 AP
Hawkeye fires an arrow that delivers a high-voltage electric shock when it hits. Changes a chosen basic Blue tile into a 3-turn Countdown tile. When it activates, stuns the target for 2 turns and reduces enemy AP in a random color by 4.


Avoid -> Speed Shot

It's got to go. It sounds great in theory, allowing Hawkeye to avoid damage and keep in the fight. It just doesn't work how you expect and can cause issues when you need it to work. However, we also want to keep Hawkeye out of the line of fire while still allowing him to shoot from the back, so we have to replace it with a Passive. Hence, Speed Shot. An ability that fires a bunch of Countdown tiles at the board whenever you match 5 of a kinds. Since 5 of a kinds are somewhat rare, the arrows themselves need to pack a decent punch. The overall effect of the ability is to add even more punch to what already is a punishing experience. You match 5, get the match damage in, generate a critical tile, AND lay down a few Countdown tiles that are going to do even more. Goes well with characters that can alter tile structures like Black Widow (Grey Suit). Since he won't be Avoiding hits, we also raised his base health to compensate for the extra incoming damage. He's not Thor strong now, but he's not going to snap like a twig either.

Old

Avoid - Purple Passive
(PASSIVE) If there are more than 8 Purple tiles on the board, Hawkeye leaps out of the way of attacks, moving to the back of the team.
New

Speed Shot - Purple Passive
(PASSIVE) Hawkeye nocks multiple arrows and lets them fly. Is on now, bro. Whenever you match 5 or more tiles, converts up to 3 Purple tiles to 3-turn Countdown tiles that deal 154 damage when activated.

Changes in full:
** Hawkeye (Modern) **

- Raised base health by 17% - Altered abilities for better balance Old

Electric Arrow - Blue 10 AP
Hawkeye shoots a charged arrow, placing a Blue Countdown tile on the board. It activates after 4 turns, dealing 200 to the current target and stunning them for 2 turns.
Level Upgrades
Level 2: Stuns enemy for 3 turns.
Level 3: Reduces countdown to 3 turns.
Level 4: Stuns enemy for 4 turns.
Level 5: Reduces countdown to 2 turns.
Max Level: 2456 damage
New

Electric Arrow - Blue 9 AP
Hawkeye fires an arrow that delivers a high-voltage electric shock when it hits. Changes a chosen basic Blue tile into a 3-turn Countdown tile. When it activates, stuns the target for 2 turns and reduces enemy AP in a random color by 4.
Level Upgrades
Level 2: Reduces enemy AP in a random color by 6.
Level 3: Reduces enemy AP in two random colors by 4 each.
Level 4: Creates a 2-turn Countdown tile.
Level 5: When it activates, stuns the target for 3 turns.

Old

Blast Arrow - Red 10 AP
Hawkeye shoots an explosive arrow, placing a Red Countdown tile. After 4 turns, it deals 120 damage to all enemies.
Level Upgrades
Level 2: +25% damage.
Level 3: Reduces countdown to 3 turns.
Level 4: +25% damage.
Level 5: Reduces countdown to 2 turns.
Max Level: 1645 damage
New

Blast Arrow - Red 9 AP
Clint lines up the perfect shot. When it hits, it creates a massive explosion. Changes a chosen basic Red tile into a 4-turn Countdown tile. When it activates, deals 200 damage to all enemies.
Level Upgrades
Level 2: 221 damage.
Level 3: Reduces countdown to 3 turns.
Level 4: 238 damage
Level 5: Reduces countdown to 2 turns.
Max Level: 1225 damage

Old

Avoid - Purple Passive
(PASSIVE) If there are more than 8 Purple tiles on the board, Hawkeye leaps out of the way of attacks, moving to the back of the team.
Level Upgrades
Level 2: Requires 7 Purple tiles.
Level 3: Requires 6 Purple tiles.
Level 4: Requires 5 Purple tiles.
Level 5: Requires 4 Purple tiles.
New

Speed Shot - Purple Passive
(PASSIVE) Hawkeye nocks multiple arrows and lets them fly. Is on now, bro. Whenever you match 5 or more tiles, converts up to 3 Purple tiles to 3-turn Countdown tiles that deal 154 damage when activated.
Level Upgrades
Level 2: Each arrow deals 169 damage.
Level 3: Each arrow deals 183 damage.
Level 4: Places 4 Countdown tiles.
Level 5: Places 2-turn Countdown tiles.
Max Level: 947 damage per arrow

***
This thread is now closed and further character discussion is here.