Season XXXII: Character Rebalances

GrumpySmurf1002

Taking arguably the worst characters in the strongest tiers (sorry, Hi 5Cap!) is a good place to start.

I'm not sure Surfer's moves the needle a ton, but Cho's looks interesting. I think in both cases, like in nerfs past, the value of charged tiles is being overrated, but this is still a step in the right direction.

notamutant

GrumpySmurf1002 wrote:

Taking arguably the worst characters in the strongest tiers (sorry, Hi 5Cap!) is a good place to start.

I'm not sure Surfer's moves the needle a ton, but Cho's looks interesting. I think in both cases, like in nerfs past, the value of charged tiles is being overrated, but this is still a step in the right direction.

In this case, with Black Bolt existing in the 5 star world now, charged tiles actually ARE much more worthwhile. You can get BB's 5k auto-damage a turn activated much easier now, and full rainbow coverage with SS and BB.

Vhailorx

I have read cho more thoroughly.

I think he might now be a solid support character at the 4* tier. He is switch for green ap with more health and true healing. Plus if he can be leveled high enough, won't he tank green and blue for iceman? And paired with Rulk, blue, black, purple, and green ap will all fuel hammer & anvil. He could also fuel both of quake's active powers, and her board shuffle might help exploit charged tiles. He can also pair with 4* thor to fuel her red nuke.

All of that should make up for the fact that his green still looks pretty meh.

babinro

VERY happy to see character balance changes in effect for starters. THANK YOU!

Silver Surfer Blue: Great change!
I was hoping for a more drastic AP drop but when combined with all the other changes to the character I've got no complaints. I'm guessing this will be my default dump skill unless the ability to choose charged tile colour is actually a huge deal in game.

Silver Surfer Red: Good change!
I honestly would have preferred more charge tiles to a combination of damage and a charge tile. It just better suits the goals of this support character. That said, his red is a low cost skill and it's already doing a lot. I'm happy with the changes.

Silver Surfer Black: Great change!
This skill needed very little attention in my opinion. At 5 covers it was slow but still a powerhouse. This is honestly more of an improvement than the skill needed and I'll take it. I doubt it'll make Surfer overpowered either so good stuff.

Overall: 3 blue build seems like the way to go. I'm not sure if I'd call surfer 'pvp viable' yet but I think his appeal as a support 3rd in PvP and shield Sim is huge. This character seems like he perfectly fulfills his role in the game. Very happy with the changes!

********************************************

Cho Green: Needlessly Confusing.
This skill was unquestionably buffed and it actually looks quite powerful but you guys went overboard with the conditions! Mastermind Excello indeed! Do the following series of things that would be suitably complex for a skill on it's own. THEN, if the stars align you'll either add damage or do more of the same sort of thing you started with. This skill seems pretty awesome but I'm a fan of keeping it simple.

Cho Blue: Great!
Who doesn't love AP ramp? I think this is a smart change to the skill that in no feels OP. The damage is decent but I'm seeing this as the clear dump skill since the AP gained won't change from 3 to 5 covers. Great stuff.

Cho Black: Great!
Heals for 703th? 920th? Whatever you say Mastermind
Low levels of healing aside the fact that you don't have to jump through hoops anymore is amazing. The amount of charged tiles being created is genuinely impressive! This skill revitalizes Cho in the 4 star tier. Fantastic work.

Overall: 3 blue build no. Cho is officially not in trash tier folks. Lets celebrate! What tier is he? On paper that's really tough to say. He seems like a pve powerhouse for sure and if get 4* pvp's in the future he could find a strong support role there as well. As a duo team I'm not sure he has what it takes to be in pvp but I could be wrong. Gut reaction says he's upper mid tier and possibly top 10 material in 4* land now. In PvE only play he's potentially in the top 5. Love the changes!

Dragon_Nexus

I like to think announcing some planned rebalances in advance was deliberately done to stir up debate on the forum. Pretty clever if so. There were plenty of topics explaining exactly how people hoped these changes would go and even better the devs listened to those threads.

This game is just getting better and better now. 2015 was an okay year for the game but this year has seen some real leaps and bounds not just in terms of gameplay and quality of life but also in the attitudes and communication coming from the devs. We've gone from a fairly standoffish team who seemed to want to play a very different game to the one the players wanted to a team that listens and seems to really want to keep its players happy now, not just work out new ways to wring some cash from the audience by force.

Funny old thing that if you make something fun and engaging people will *choose* to spend money. If you make them feel there's no option but to spend, people will be less inclined to do so.

2016 has been a pretty damn good year for this game. A couple of missteps like the first run of the Howard event, but things have massively improved over the last few months. I think the devs realised that people got passionate in their vitriol for certain changes not because the forum goers are a bunch of trolls who hate everything, but because they genuinely like the game and want to see it improve.

TL;DR - Yay to the devs for making this game much better and working alongside the community instead of against it.

(Not enough sleep makes me ramble too much).

Punisher5784

I wish they showed the Before & After like they've done with previous rebalances.

Anyways, great changes. I might use TAH as a Green battery like SW. Although it produces 1 less tile and it only places on a blue tile, he could pair decent with RH.

I hope they buff some 3*s next!

ClydeFrog76

Punisher5784 wrote:

I hope they buff some 3*s next!

JHawkInc

babinro wrote:

Cho Green: Needlessly Confusing.
This skill was unquestionably buffed and it actually looks quite powerful but you guys went overboard with the conditions! Mastermind Excello indeed! Do the following series of things that would be suitably complex for a skill on it's own. THEN, if the stars align you'll either add damage or do more of the same sort of thing you started with. This skill seems pretty awesome but I'm a fan of keeping it simple.

It's worded weird, but it makes sense. Basically, the blue threshold determines if his attack is reckless or not.

Low blue AP = reckless attack, hits, does the 3x3, destroys some extra random tiles (could destroy your own countdowns or special tiles or charged tiles, wanton destruction)

Enough blue AP = focused attack, hits, does the 3x3, does extra damage.

I figure if Cho were a new character, they'd just set it up like Nova's red, or 4* Punisher's black, where it's less cluttered, and the power changes when the conditions are met. But instead they just tweaked the existing character, so it's all squished onto one power description.

SnowcaTT

Nice to see re-works for characters that were way underused. I don't think this raises them to the top, but they are probably no longer on the bottom.

Actually a little sad to see characters that -ARE- overused (ahem, OML, ahem) not getting the nerfs they deserve. When any character of any rarity level is used by the vast majority of users, it is not the worst thing in the world to change that "arrangement"....by force, if necessary. There is often a -reason- those characters are used by so many - they give a benefit (PVE climbs, PVP climbs, PVP D, continual climbs without health packs....) that other characters can't compete with, and those benefits should probably be scaled back.

boostedseo

Excited by the buffs, and the current direction of the game. Thanks D3/Demi!!!

CrookedKnight

Cho looks like he'll be pretty darn beefy when boosted. With his free blue acceleration I think they've finally got the targeted tile destruction for his green priced correctly. And as the owner of an eight-cover SS I'm very happy about that change...

Marc_Spector

Color me impressed -- very impressed -- with these great redesigns, with the devs paying attention to fan concerns/suggestions, and with the great advance-communication on these and many other issues lately.

Thanks, devs! I can't wait to take these two for a spin come the new season, and look forward to the upcoming revamps.

IDEA:
How about a re-run of "Amadeus' Inferno" PVE? Aside from its great art and dialogue (I loved Mephisto's scenery-chewing soliloquies! ), it would give everyone who's been selling off Cho covers a chance to start rebuilding him.

Jaedenkaal

Pylgrim wrote:

As for the Chulk, I'm not sure he's quite there yet. His blue is much better now and black might be useful if it's true heal. However, his green is way too expensive. It compares negatively (though not that much) to 4*clops Red, which is another power with an "upgraded version". For only 10 red, he deals similar "base damage" but by fulfilling its condition (which is easier than Chulk's), he gets almost 2k more damage. Moreover, Cyclops' accelerates to red with his yellow and blue, more reliably/less randomly than Chulk accelerates to green with his blue and black. I know Chulk additionally destroys tiles, but that doesn't seem worth 3 AP and 2k damage.

It does compare pretty well against Yancy Street Special. About the same damage and tile destruction, with the choice to definitely destroy the tile cluster you wanted (or avoid the tile cluster you wanted).

Sure, it's no Combined Forces, but they don't all have to be. (Combined Forces might, soon enough, not be as good as Combined Forces either )

Tromb2ch2

I'm curious if ss black will sink to the bottom. It doesn't say anything about being fixed location anymore.

Edit: also how much does black heal for? Is it 700ish or 7000ish? I'm thrown off by the th at the end.

an1979

It is me or did SS's "Perfect Being" got a nerf to numbers?
Was:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=32590

Level 5: Heals for 16519 and creates 4 Charged tiles.

And now:

cyineedsn

an1979 wrote:

It is me or did SS's "Perfect Being" got a nerf to numbers?
Was:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=32590

Level 5: Heals for 16519 and creates 4 Charged tiles.

And now:

Its 3 ap cheaper and lets you pick the color of the charged tiles

Oldboy

"... we’ve heard your concerns about nerfing existing characters. So with this release and for the time being, we’ll focus only on releasing updates to existing characters that increase that character’s power. We’ll be keeping an eye on how the competitive experience develops with these changes."

The collective sighs of relief from your playerbase is enough to trigger a hurricane

an1979

cyineedsn wrote:

an1979 wrote:

It is me or did SS's "Perfect Being" got a nerf to numbers?

Its 3 ap cheaper and lets you pick the color of the charged tiles

Yes but that's not what I'm asking.

I don't see any info here:

Silver Surfer (Skyrider)
We decreased the cost of Silver Surfer’s expensive powers, added the ability to choose a color for charged tiles created in Perfect Being, increased damage numbers for Cosmic Beam, and added massive damage upon Silver Singularity’s completion.

that says:
"but we made it weaker in exchange"

Sandwichboy

Cannot believe I'm saying this, but I think Chulk may fully replace IM40 as my battery for Iceman.

cyineedsn

an1979 wrote:

cyineedsn wrote:

an1979 wrote:

It is me or did SS's "Perfect Being" got a nerf to numbers?

Its 3 ap cheaper and lets you pick the color of the charged tiles

Yes but that's not what I'm asking.

I don't see any info here:

Silver Surfer (Skyrider)
We decreased the cost of Silver Surfer’s expensive powers, added the ability to choose a color for charged tiles created in Perfect Being, increased damage numbers for Cosmic Beam, and added massive damage upon Silver Singularity’s completion.

that says:
"but we made it weaker in exchange"

Ah yes, it looks like they should reword it to add that they reduced the healing amount. Seems like a decent tradeoff, but thats a subjective opinion