Character overuse vs. One of a kind character

aa25

As the devs have mentioned about certain characters that are overused and nerfing rumors that have been going around. I don't know if the points I'm going to make have been made anywhere else before, but I would like to post it here and hope that the devs will come across and look at it.

The condition of being "overused" is something I can not agree upon. There are many reasons why a character is overused. It may not be related to that character being overpowered at all. One of the reason, I believe, is that that character happens to be one of a kind. SW is probably the obvious example. The one and only reliable purple battery in the game. Nerfing SW over and over probably won't make people stop using her until her battery aspect is entirely removed. Is that something you want to do ? Why not introduce another purple battery and see how things go ?

The same argument also applicable to OML/PHX that people mentioned over and over that they use OML/PHX simply because they are the only choice they have before obtaining 5* become impossible due to token dilution.

Not to mention the power gap between 3* and 4*, between 4* and 5*, or simply between boosted and unboosted 4* which indirectly force players (myself included) to choose certain character (stun, battery) over the others which also results in some characters are used more frequently than others.

I believe there are many other reasons too. For examples, if this vaulting is continue, the 12 latest 4* will also appear to be overused due to the same reason as OML/PHX.

I truly hope that the devs will evaluate the reasons why a character is overused before any nerfing is made. An honestly, of all the names I've been hearing, I don't think any deserve a nerf because of being overused due to overpowered at all.

Edit 1: Clarify that the power gap indirectly forces you to bring stun, battery, etc.

smkspy

If the game wasnt build around speed AND repetition, then people wouldn't rely on battery characters that accelerate matches. Or true healers and peggy that save on health packs.

I would love to fiddle around with slowing moving teams, but that just isn't possible when pve is build around doing 4 clears.of each node ASAP to achieve semi decent placement or PVP is built around climbing as high one can before a deluge of hits that absolutely destroy scores.

The characters aren't broken, the system that makes us rely on them as our anchors is and will continue to be no matter how many nerfs they institute.

I hope this place riots when the nerfs are announced. I'll have my popcorn ready.

Vhailorx

I have been making these same comments for years. The game heavily rewards fast victory in as many as 50+ matches a day. And the game also punishes losses very harshly, especially in pvp. So why is demi surprised when we all gravitate towards true healers, ap suppressors, and ap-accelerators?

Use of those characters is a symptom of the game design, nothing more. Nerfing them mat wrll just make the player experience more grueling.

fun_and_gun

I was going to post something similar to this in another thread. I use oml quite a bit because I was lucky to get no unusable covers for him. he now sits at 5/4/4 with another cover on the vine because I haven't wanted to champ him yet. I have no other usable 5* so I don't have any other viable option in said tier.

for the 5* tier meta, I don't see oml as close to being as powerful as some of the others. I see him more along the lines of a 5* starter that helps transition from 4* to 5*.

please do not nerf oml or anyone else!

FokaiHI

SW can be countered in pvp with JG. IM40 and 4thor, Iceman, Peggy is just boring in pvp. That's all you see. It really is too bad that speed is such a factor for both pvp and pve because passive characters like Medusa and Mr.F can be fun to use.

ClydeFrog76

Making us slog through the same nodes FOUR **** times for full progression every single PVE is reason enough to not nerf characters that make the tedious process more bearable.

OneLastGambit

For the last 4 seasons (PVP) I have been slow climbing. I play at times when the game is quiet and people are shielded. Targets are harder to come by and you generally have to climb on 30 point matches....however....

Not climbing when busy means no attacks so no panic about speed matches. Not climbing at the end of the event means no panic about beating the timer- which means no speed matches. As a result of this I play at a very leisurely pace, I can experiment with a wide variety of teams and I still hit 900 whenever I want to.

You don't need to speed match. the fun of this game (for me) comes from trying different teams and tactics (not from winning prizes) so I actually enjoy almost all my time on this game. If people were less focused on speed they would be able to still get the prizes they want but also experiment more, like I do.

The issue of speed is one which is created in equal parts by game design but is also player psychology too. I've been doing this for 4 seasons now and have had no negative side effects from it.

Even the idea of climbing on 30 point matches doesn't suck because guess what? The amount of time it takes to climb is irrelevant. Players can help themselves here by simply moving away from the speed game. PVE...well that's a different story. If you want placement you need speed

Evilgenius_9

I use OML a lot because - Health packs. More specifically I use way less when I use him. I would rather they made more powers true healing than nerf OML. I know their pocket books may drive that decision the other way - but I hope not.

Polares

I agree that speed, true-heal and availability dictate which are the chars that are used the most, but it is also true, that if this was a balanced game chars like Iceman or Peggy would not exist in this game (and I am not asking for them to be nerfed, because this is not a balanced game!, so no need to nerf anybody).

What I mean is that those chars are extremely strong in everything that it is important in this game, Iceman in particular has the whole set of abilities! Other super strong chars like Cyclops or Rhulk are super strong because they are fast and they hit hard, but that's it, Iceman and Peggy have even more abilities (like stun, which is an amazing ability in this game, or single and AoE damage), and then, on top of that, they hit harder than anybody.

Also hitpoint pools are a big problem. In the past chars with extremely high damage abilities had fewer hitpoints than other chars (not always, but at least in general). A good example of this is 5 Strange, really strong char, but with a very small hitpoints pool, which is what it makes him balanced (if he had 45k hitpoints he would be the best or second best char in the game). SW and IM are really strong as batteries, but that's it, they serve one purpose (even though IM yellow would be better and more balanced at 8AP).

So, what I mean is, having chars with strong abilities is alright if they are balanced with the rest of their abilities, hitpoints, colors, etc. And this should be the goal from the design team.

PS: And as I said, I would not nerf asnybody (one other reason is that Devs tend to overnerf). Well, see next point...
PS: I am not going to defend OML anymore, I think at this point anybody that asks for a nerf, just shows that he doesn't understand the game. In fact I am going to go even further and I am going to ask for the nerf myself!, so I can easily beat all those teams that started the transition from 4 to 5 land with OML as main char with my other champed 5s

SummerGlau

My only 4 Star Champion (X-23) was selected by me for reasons both game related and not

My favorite Character from the comics now
aesthetics (if I'm gonna have to see something over and over again let it be something nice to look at)

and game related...true healing and utilty (plus most used 4 and I had been max leveling as she gained covers)

my second (soon to be, that is) 4 Star Champion (Spider Woman) happens to work well with my first and is my favorite comic character from my youth

look like Peggy or Wasp might be the third..pattern developing

as my scaling changes to reflect my roster I feel that my top 4's should work well together

I have good results with X-23, Spider Woman and Peggy/Wasp

are these heroes OP, or is my use of them related to aesthetics and synergy?

mpqr7

They should allow us to always have 10 health packs available at all times. If we use more than 10, THEN we should pull into our pool of stored health packs.

The current way where you immediately grab from your stored health packs isn't right. It punishes you for using health packs except in cases of emergencies. That's why people are forced to use true-healing characters in pve, because they don't want to waste their health packs unless they are doing a pvp hop.

For me if they nerf OML, I still won't use health packs in PVE, I'll just start rotating in different characters each time one of them dies. So PVE will take a lot longer to finish because I only have a few good 5*s, and the rest are championed 4*s, which take forever to finish the hard pve matches, due to their tiny match damage.

For instance, I absolutely love using Medusa for PVE. But she takes a very long time to get rolling.

GurlBYE

smkspy wrote:

If the game wasnt build around speed AND repetition, then people wouldn't rely on battery characters that accelerate matches. Or true healers and peggy that save on health packs.

I would love to fiddle around with slowing moving teams, but that just isn't possible when pve is build around doing 4 clears.of each node ASAP to achieve semi decent placement or PVP is built around climbing as high one can before a deluge of hits that absolutely destroy scores.

The characters aren't broken, the system that makes us rely on them as our anchors is and will continue to be no matter how many nerfs they institute.

I hope this place riots when the nerfs are announced. I'll have my popcorn ready.

ClydeFrog76 wrote:

Making us slog through the same nodes FOUR tinykitty times for full progression every single PVE is reason enough to not nerf characters that make the tedious process more bearable.

Just highlighting the sentiment.

Straycat

3* Hawkguy is a pretty good purple battery. Needs black if the enemy team doesn't create tiles, but he is a decent battery and a fun new character that I like to use.

I don't think anyone really needs nerfing, but there is one that I could defend. IM40. Even in a vacuum he is op. Huge nuke, huge AOE with some board shake, and a cheap battery that fuels both. But when he is used only as a battery he kinda becomes a problem. The only thing that balances himself out is his high ap cost and self stun, but when he is only used for recharge that is gone.

That alone doesn't mean he should be nerfed, but he is so good at it that any new red, blue, or green character is judged on how well they pair with IM40. I don't like how became a litmus test for all new characters. With +2 r/y and +2 all ap its a guaranteed win better than deadpool whales.

But I am mostly ok with a hypothetical nerf because I personally don't use him a lot. He changes how I think about the game. I hate losing my tiles anyways, but when his recharge tiles get matched away I get so frustrated.

GurlBYE

Straycat wrote:

3* Hawkguy is a pretty good purple battery. Needs black if the enemy team doesn't create tiles, but he is a decent battery and a fun new character that I like to use.

I don't think anyone really needs nerfing, but there is one that I could defend. IM40. Even in a vacuum he is op. Huge nuke, huge AOE with some board shake, and a cheap battery that fuels both. But when he is used only as a battery he kinda becomes a problem. The only thing that balances himself out is his high ap cost and self stun, but when he is only used for recharge that is gone.

That alone doesn't mean he should be nerfed, but he is so good at it that any new red, blue, or green character is judged on how well they pair with IM40. I don't like how became a litmus test for all new characters. With +2 r/y and +2 all ap its a guaranteed win better than deadpool whales.

But I am mostly ok with a hypothetical nerf because I personally don't use him a lot. He changes how I think about the game. I hate losing my tiles anyways, but when his recharge tiles get matched away I get so frustrated.

Instead of him nerfed I'd rather like mystique or psylocke or even spiderman become somewhat similar to him in different colors.

He should be an example for 3's. Instead of seeing how good IM3 is, I see how horrible punisher psylocke squirrel spider hood(he's become really bad post health nerf) hulk gamora ragnarok are.

Buret0

Poor guy, he was only one day away from retirement and that sweet Xmen pension. RIP OML.